More Italian Yesterdays

A warm recollection of a pilgrimage through Rome frames this gentle historical vignette, where an Irish scholar named Mary Grace and her daughter Lilium drift into the narrator’s life under the rose‑laden arches of the Odescalchi palace. Their shared enthusiasm for the city’s hidden corners brings them to the quiet Aventine hill, a place that seems untouched by the centuries of turmoil that have scarred the rest of Rome. In that tranquil spot the narrator begins to unfold a tale of two very different loves, rooted in the ancient streets and whispered by the wind from the sea.

The story reaches back to the waning years of the third century, when the Aventine was a modest enclave of noble villas overlooking the city. It introduces Aglaë, a graceful Roman matron of possible Greek origin, and Boniface, a handsome pagan whose carefree life is shattered by a sudden, mysterious conversion. Their passionate bond is tested as they confront a new, spiritual path that will reshape their destiny, offering listeners a glimpse of love caught between earthly desire and the emerging promise of faith.