Beneath a Scarlet Sky

Michele takes Pino to the central train station and puts a roll of lire in his hands. He tells Pino he can come back to Milan when it’s safe. Pino is angry that he’s being treated like a little boy, but he reluctantly gets on the train. Pino sees a group of prisoners guarded by German soldiers as the train pulls out of the station.

Pino gets off the train at the town of Chiavenna and is greeted by another boy around Pino’s age who has been sent to pick him up from the station. This boy’s name is Ascari: “He wore canvas work pants and a grease-stained white T-shirt. A cigarette smoldered between his lips” (50). Ascari works in his uncle’s auto shop and wants to be a racecar driver when he’s older. As Ascari drives Pino toward Casa Alpina, Pino is highly impressed with the way Ascari handles the car. Ascari agrees to teach Pino how to drive if Pino will teach Ascari how to ski in return.

Pino makes the rest of the way to Casa Alpina, built on the Motta plateau. Father Re, “a burly priest in his fifties” (54), welcomes Pino at the front door and leads him inside to where Mimo and the other boys are having dinner, prepared by Father Re’s assistant, Brother Bormio.