noon
The Menotti strolled down to the Lizza nearly every day after the _ siesta _ , and Carmela often persuaded her cousin to accompany them . The gardens were set on an outlying spur of the hill on which the wolf 's foster son , Remus , built the city that was to be fairer than Rome . The winter winds , coming swiftly from the sea , whipped the laurels into strange shapes , shook the brown seed pods from the bare boughs of the acacias , and froze the water that dripped from the Medicean balls on the old wall of the Fortezza . Even in summer a little breeze would spring up towards sunset , and the leaves that had hung heavy and flaccid on the trees in the blazing heat of noon would be stirred by it to some semblance of life , while the shadows lengthened , and the incessant maddening scream of the locusts died down into silence . The gardens were a favourite resort . As the church bells rang the Ave Maria the people came to them by Camollia and San Domenico , to see each other and to talk over the news of the day . Smart be-ribboned nurses carrying babies on white silk cushions tied with pink or blue rosettes , young married women with their children , stout mothers chaperoning the elaborate vivacity of their daughters , occupied seats near the bandstand , or lingered about the paths as they chattered and fanned themselves incessantly to the strains of the Intermezzo from _ Cavalleria Rusticana _ or some march of Verdi 's .