The young Italian boy, who was making his first journey into the heart of his native land, felt his own heart expand with joy as he looked across the beautiful valleys to the distant blue mountains for inspiration.
"It was many hundred years before the birth of Christ that people first came into Italy," he said. "My mother told me that they wandered over here from Central Asia in search of good pastures for their flocks, but it was so many centuries ago that very little is known about them."
Edith pointed to a roughly thatched hut in a distant field, and asked, "Do you suppose they lived in huts like that?"
"Not at first," the boy answered. "It was a long time before they built even such good huts as that one. It was only little by little that they learned to clear the ground and cultivate it with rude tools; to make dishes out of clay and cook their food; to spin and weave the wool from their sheep, and to live under shelter.
"At first each family lived by itself, but after a time they began to form tribes and choose the strongest and bravest of their number for a chief. This chief governed them in times of peace and led them in their wars with other tribes, becoming their leader or king.
"There were many such tribes in Italy, and for centuries they lived here, waging constant warfare with each other and with other tribes and nations."
Gateway of San Sebastian, Rome
There are many gates in the walls which now surround the city.
"Were there no civilized people in those days?" asked Edith.