Thus we came to the tall barred gate of San Gaudenzio, on which was the
usual little fire-insurance tablet, and then the advertisements for
beer, 'Birra, Verona', which is becoming a more and more popular drink.
Through the gate, inside the high wall, is the little Garden of Eden, a
property of three or four acres fairly level upon a headland over the
lake. The high wall girds it on the land side, and makes it perfectly
secluded. On the lake-side it is bounded by the sudden drops of the
land, in sharp banks and terraces, overgrown with ilex and with laurel
bushes, down to the brink of the cliff, so that the thicket of the first
declivities seems to safeguard the property.
The pink farm-house stands almost in the centre of the little territory,
among the olive trees. It is a solid, six-roomed place, about fifty
years old, having been rebuilt by Paolo's uncle. Here we came to live
for a time with the Fiori, Maria and Paolo, and their three children,
Giovanni and Marco and Felicina.
Paolo had inherited, or partly inherited, San Gaudenzio, which had been
in his family for generations.
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