Every room in the Palazzo was filled with magnificent pieces of furniture that had been handed down through the ages.
But it was not until they reached the rooms, which Lord Mere learned were seldom used by the family, that he came upon the collection of pictures.
They were wonderfully impressive hanging on walls that seemed to have been designed precisely as a background for them and they were lit by the long oval-topped windows that let in the lucid light that was so particularly Italian.
Lord Mere enthused over a painting by Leonardo da Vinci and was spellbound by a masterpiece by Giorgione.
Then, as the Prince would have drawn his attention to a picture on the other side of the room, he saw one by Raphael.
It was a picture that he had always wanted to see of the Madonna and Child,
