Abstract

Art. Letter From Rome

In a few weeks, it will be exactly four years since the body of a girl Wilma Montesi was found on a lonely beach below Ostia, Italy. Meanwhile the trial, to which the dead girl has given her name, drags on in rainy, deserted Venice, a stream of witnesses testify, twenty-four lawyers object and harangue and cross-question, the newspapers give almost word-for-word accounts with interpretations that vary according to political hue. And yet the Italian public is generally apathetic. When the case broke three years ago, it was a different story, then it was impossible to go to somebody's house without getting involved in discussions, which usually started out on the level of simple gossip, but often ended in heated rows and slammed doors. A friend of the author had a cook who