From Capodimonte to Capodichino

On the hills overlooking the Gulf of Naples, there are still places where Renato lived. Villa Caccioppoli in Capodimonte has the melancholy and desolate air of abandoned homes, which however hold a dark enchantment in the few traces of former beauty. The peeling plaster, eaten away by the damp, reveals the tuff stones of the wall covered in ivy. Bushes and weeds grow all around and hinder access. I look at an old photograph. The house appears to me in its ancient splendour, as when it was when my grandfather Lorenzo lived there while very young, surrounded by a garden full of flowers over which tower the crowns of palm trees. The columns of the portico frame the entrance. Upstairs, from a large terrace overlooking the sea, a woman is looking out, perhaps Sofia, perhaps Sara. Who knows?