Paolino De Martino was often found reminiscing about the past, and the times when he used to sit in the gentle sea breeze, in the bright Capri moonlight, a light so bright that it lit up the island’s Palazzo a Mare district, as if were day.
It is unlikely that Paolino knew much of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and so when a somewhat more learned friend recited the opening stanza of the great 18th century poet’s Mignon’s Song – “Know’st thou the land where the pale citrons grow… thither with thee, O, thither would I wend!” – quite understandably his thoughts went not to Goethe’s allusion to Italy, but rather straight to his own beloved lemon trees.
