“On a trip to Tehran to meet the Shah of Persia [Rockefeller] stopped off in Milan and, to seal the alliance with the Italian partners, he went with his wife Mary to visit them. The initial programme included a cocktail party at Brunelli’s and dinner at the Crespi’s but, later, an additional dinner was added at Grandma Marianne’s in Via del Lauro.
Years later, when I was a boy by then, they would still be talking about it at our house. Uncle Claudio, who at the time of the dinner is not yet twenty, has a friend called Guido Vergani who will become a famous journalist and is a very likeable person. The night before the dinner, Vergani goes to visit Claudio and his brothers and, in the excitement of those moments, no one notices that he has opened the refrigerator and eaten all the rolls his grandmother had cooked for the important reception the next day. Years later, when we laugh about it in the house, Marianne will still be angry.” (p. 61).
