1 - Spring 1340

Marco da Pitigliano, Rocco del Mare and Fra.Giovanni encounter each other on the Via Nomentana winding its way from the North East, down from the Umbrian hills, across the plains of Lazio to the city of Rome.

Approaching Rome they encounter another medicant friar, a Brother Michele, who on receipt of alms offers to show them a way into Rome that will avoid what he describes as a shakedown at the Porta Nomentana. He leads them through the fields to one of the many ruins dotting the countryside around here.

Pushing his way through the bushes he reveals the entrance to an ancient tunnel. They follow the friar through a long straight passage that pops up in another set of more substantial ruins that they can see is within the city walls.

Michele leads them to a main road which he says is the Via Nomentana and shows them where a group of armed men is indeed waylaying travellers in and out of the city and levying "tolls" upon them. He advises them to tread warily in the city and recommends they seek employment at the Sign of the Black Cat (Il Gatto Nero) in the south of the city. He tells them to ask for Cola and say that Brother Michele sent them.

Michele gives them directions but they soon become lost. It is the following day, after a number of adventures, including a conversation in which they reject the offer of a small boy to show them a new hole in the ground that has opened up, and a street brawl with a gang of ruffians, before they arrive at Il Gatto Nero.

There they witness the notary Cola di Rienzo hold court to a long queue of clients, all seeking his advice and favour. When they finally get to speak to him, he gives them a sealed box and asks them to deliver it to his father in law in Trastevere, the district across the Tiber. This they do - not without incident - and take a return message back to Cola at the Black Cat.

It seems that this was all a test of their honesty and competence, which they are deemed to have successfully passed. Cola offers to enter their names into his Book of Clients and they agree.