I had gladly accepted my friend Giorgio’s invitation to come and visit him. After hours of boring and tiring work (as usual and perhaps even more than usual), the mere idea of seeing him had lifted my spirits, and I saw the possibility of somehow making sense of that flat day.
Giorgio had this beneficial effect on me: to know how to light up and, to a large extent, dissipate the oppressive grayness that was usually clouding my mood lately. It was his vitality, his energy, his desire to do things and explore new worlds, and his enthusiasm for science and the future. He had a touch of madness that was basically also his brilliance, that inevitably rubbed off on me, cheered me up and calmed me.
He had invited me to come by because he wanted to tell me about a new, important project that he
