Right- and left-wing political extremists were trying to transform the country according to their own utopian vision, and assassinations and bombings hit the headlines. The gentle people of the pensione were quietly shaken, Ulysses especially. Evelyn said, We’re still living in the footprints of the French Revolution, of Hitler and Mussolini. Scratch the surface of the varnish and it raises its head again. Evil was defeated but it never went away.
