Barbarossa, and Other Tales

A weary traveler seeks a break from the bustle of city life, venturing into a remote mountain refuge perched on the edge of the Albano‑Sabine range. The spring air is fragrant with chestnut blossoms, birdsong fills the ravines, and the recent quiet after a band of brigands has been driven away makes the crags feel almost safe. What begins as a single day stretches into two weeks of contemplative wandering, giving the narrator ample time to lose himself in the landscape’s slow, soothing rhythm.

In the solitary village he lodges with an apothecary named Signor Angelo, affectionately called Fra Angelico for his bald, halo‑like head. Though his Italian is halting, the apothecary compensates with a torrent of verses, reciting sonnets to anyone willing to listen—priests, teachers, surgeons, and local landowners gather nightly in his shop. Their conversations swirl between poetry, philosophy, and the simple pleasures of mountain life, offering the narrator a gentle, unexpected companionship amid his quest for solitude.