I entered a first room, immediately a suave, languorous perfume assailed me. I felt like a rich Florentine merchant, who had come to rest in his villa in the Tuscan countryside. It must have been the beginning of spring, as the richly frescoed walls of the room sang. One could see Venus rising from the waves, accompanied by the three graces, celebrating the rebirth of nature with a dance.

As I entered the adjoining antechamber, I thought I was entering another world, transported to the last days of the marvelous city of Pompeii, I perceived in the distance the breathing of the sleeping titan. A slight noise startled me and for a moment I thought I saw Flora, the beautiful Roman woman, going to the baths... The snows of yesteryear had disappeared, I remembered those happy days... days of opulence, days of serenity...