“La Mensola” is a real house. It doesn’t exist in the exact spot that I’ve placed it in the story, an area I know very well, having spent many summers holidaying and working in the region around Montepulciano. It’s situated elsewhere in Tuscany and unless things have changed in recent years, it’s still abandoned and in need of renovation.
The author wishes to stress that this book is historical fiction. Events, names, places, dates, and the activities of real people may have occasionally been tweaked to advance the narrative.
This book is dedicated to the memory of my first close friends in Italy,
Peter Locke and Pierluigi Meneghetti,
both still deeply missed.