«I don't understand why you dont turn on the television instead of ruining your view on that small screen. Theres news on certain channels all the time and...»
«Its not the same», Andrea interrupted her. «Some particular news on TV doesnt pass it on. Im following closely the events of the archaeological sites destroyed by the Jihadists, the Islamic extremists. The official news are making us believe that the situation is much more serious than it is in reality. But in any case, for me, the loss of finds thousands of years old remains a fact of extreme gravity. When some of these areas are freed, I think I might be ready to leave immediately to assess the damage and bring help to the historical reconstruction of the ancient cities. We saw last year with Nineveh that much of what the ISIS militants had shown as destroyed could be salvaged.»
«And would you leave me here alone for millennia-old ruins?» she turned to him, grabbing his hand and holding it in hers.
«If you wouldnt follow me, yes. Work is work, and I find mine very exciting. Of course, not that Id stop loving you, but I wouldnt give up my commitments anyway.»
Pretending to be a little offended, Lucia took her hands out, looked for the pack of cigarettes and lit one.
«Without perhaps disdaining some exotic love affair, eh? Never trust men. Theyre traitors by nature.»
Lucia drew long from the cigarette and puffed the smoke at him, who took it out of his hands and pulled it back.
«Oh, not me. I'm a faithful man!»
«That statement is all to be considered. Youre 30 years old and you make love like a matter expert. I know nothing about your previous life. Who knows how many women you had before me!»
As if not to get involved in a speech he didnt want to face for any reason in the world, Andrea changed the subject.
«But let's come to your work, rather. What did you find so interesting in the humble library of this dwelling, that youre up until two in the morning and find yourself here at seven in the morning already reading again?»
Waiting for an answer, Andrea crushed the cigarette half consumed in the ashtray. Lucia, unsatisfied with the dose of nicotine she had taken, pulled the electronic cigarette out of the case and pressed the ignition button. The steam puffed out by the young woman vanished into the kitchen air.
«These documents refer to the history of this city in the first decades of the 16th century, and are interesting, because they describe the events that followed the death of Cardinal Baldeschi, in a different way from how I knew them and how they are described in the official texts of the history of Jesi. It is very strange how the copy of The History of Jesi preserved in this building, which should be twin to the other two found in the Baldeschi-Balleani Palace and the Petrucciana Library, does not have the pages torn out, but is intact. But what is more interesting is that some details are reported in a different way compared to the other texts that I had the chance to have in my hands.»
«For example?» asked Andrea, intrigued.
«For example, I was convinced that a high prelate of the Ghislieri family had succeeded the Cardinal my ancestor to the office of Bishop. Instead it seems that things had gone quite differently and Ghislieri came to hold this office only after a certain period of time. I thought that my ancestor Lucia Baldeschi would never have taken the position of Captain of the People and instead it is reported here that in 1522, for a certain period of time, the government of the city was carried out, even if in collaboration with the noble caste of Jesi, by a woman, who had even averted a popular rebellion, appeasing inflamed souls with her feminine sensibility. Very strange for those times!»
«I believe that certain news must be assessed for its truthfulness. Its not uncommon for documents from ancient times to contain sensational historical forgeries. And then often those who wrote these chronicles tended to mix realities and legends in a very easy way. Come on, lets get dressed and go out for a walk through the old town, before the air out there gets too hot. Sometimes stones reveal much more than books, if one can interpret them. Let an archaeologist guide you, and you wont regret it!»
Convinced that Andrea knew many more things than he had revealed to her in a few months, she ran to the bathroom, gave her hair a blow-dryer to finish drying it, put on makeup, put on a T-shirt and a pair of jeans and went back to the kitchen ready to go out. She felt Andreas smug look on her, realizing that, not having bothered to wear a bra at all, the shape of her nipples was distinctly printed on the t-shirt. But who cares. If even Andrea had been jealous of her graces, better this way: jealous man, man in love!
As they went up, hand in hand, the steps of Baldassinis Coast, enjoying the still fresh air of the early morning hours, Lucia let the stones of the ancient buildings whisper centuries-old stories, brooding in her head what she had read the night before.
MISERY
The raids of the invading armies were not over and between 1520 and 1521 Giovanni De Medicis men first and then Leo Xs men stayed in our area. The latter were Swiss hired by the Pope, who had stayed for twenty-six days, causing endless damage to the city and the countryside.
In addition to the damage and the harassment, the plague had returned as a nightmare to terrorize the population. At a General Council meeting on December 6, 1522, when a threatened passage of 2,500 militant Spaniards in the pay of the Pope had to be dealt with, it was decided to make the possible to drive them away, even with some gift, and if they wanted to come in any way, to receive them outside the city, it being known that they were carrying the contagion with them. All of Italy, after all, in those years was reduced to the most miserable conditions. To the ruins and carnage caused by the battles and raids of foreign armies, were added the floods and the plague, which continued everywhere to make its victims.
Despite the preventive work of the citizens, the terrible disease, according to some, in particular according to the historian Anthony Gianandrea, arrived in Jesi by way of Ancona, in certain bales of ropes. It was also said that this plague came by Gods just judgment, because the year before some young people, finding a dead body of a stranger in Caldoras house, all in one piece, as a joke, brought it in the days of Carnival in disguise for the city and, not having been punished for it, but rather by all the people helped, in a dream appeared to them the image of a black man who warned them that shortly afterwards they would die of the plague. It is a fact that the plague threw the population into the blackest misery.
Already the year before a multitude of locusts had almost eaten all the fodder, bringing a great hunger and many other miseries, which was the universal opinion that, if the Magistrate had not helped many with public money and ordered that those who killed a certain amount of locusts be rewarded, the following year a good part of the population would have starved to death. Such was the misery that the poorest people, not having enough to feed themselves, were forced to eat grasses, such as beasts, and some quantity of semolina.
In the meantime the two young people, almost breathless, had reached the top of the climb, they had walked a short stretch of Via Roccabella and had come to Piazza Colocci, illuminated by the sun on a beautiful July day, stopping to admire the facade of the Government Palace, better known as Palazzo della Signoria.