Chapter 18
On the Train to GenoaMorning came early in farm country, especially on this particular day for Paolo who was eager to head to the train station and board for Genoa. The late-September air was cool and fresh, let in liberally by bedroom windows that were left open at this time of year. There were fewer human sounds – no pickers or vineyard equipment humming in the distance – but the music of farm creatures and birds still wafted in through his window. Paolo finished packing almost mechanically, with one ear tuned to the sounds of his farming life, but his mind fixed on the trip ahead.
Most of his clothes and other things he had arranged the night before in anticipation of questo gran gita, “this grand trip,” so Paolo could take time to enjoy la prima colazione, the brief first
