After two summer months of his exile in Peschiera del Garda, professor Gianmartino D’Auria
had finally begun to miss a few aspects of living in Milano. To be completely honest
with himself, D’Auria admitted that he had been completely preoccupied with the training
of his new “friend,” the German-bred shepherd dog (canelupo), Fritz. He had been
almost religious in the attention he had paid to having an expert German trainer teach
the dog how to obey sharply spoken commands in German. Four days a week, Gianmartino
took Fritz to meet the trainer. The other three days Gianmartino took command in leading
the training ritual. There would be no doubt the brain of the rapidly growing puppy, that
D’Auria was the pack leader.

As the course of instruction of Fritz was coming to a close, Gianmartino began to reflect
on those things that he had left behind in moving away from Milano. Always, he came back
to the same item; he missed his conversations with Fabio Cremonesi.
Yet he was paralyzed with inaction.