"La! dunque! cerrea! chow! stia bene."

"La" is a very common close to an Italian conversation. I used to
be a little afraid of it at first. It sounds rather like saying,
"There, that's that. Please to bear in mind that I talked to you
very nicely, and let you bore me for a long time; I think I have
now done the thing handsomely, so you'll be good enough to score me
one and let me go." But I soon found out that it was quite a
friendly and civil way of saying good-bye.

The "dunque" is softer; it seems to say, "I cannot bring myself to
say so sad a word as 'farewell,' but we must both of us know that
the time has come for us to part, and so" -

"Cerrea" is an abbreviation and corruption of "di sua Signoria,"--
"by your highness's leave." "Chow" I have explained already.
"Stia bene" is simply "farewell."

The principal piazza of Lanzo is nice. In the upper part of the
town there is a large school or college. One can see into the
school through a grating from the road. I looked down, and saw
that the boys had cut their names all over the desks, just as
English boys would do. They were very merry and noisy, and though
there was a priest standing at one end of the room, he let them do
much as they liked, and they seemed quite happy. I heard one boy
shout out to another, "Non c' e pericolo," in answer to something
the other had said. This is exactly the "no fear" of America and
the colonies. Near the school there is a field on the slope of the
hill which commands a view over the plain. A woman was mowing
there, and, by way of making myself agreeable, I remarked that the