The narrative perspective shifts to Giuseppe’s experience in San Lorenzo. After he attempts to run away, his captors place him in solitary confinement for a month in the Vault, a small cellar with no light or way of measuring the passage of time. The last person to spend time in the Vault, Michele from Genoa, threw himself off the Ponte Zupi bridge and drowned. After his release, Giuseppe spends time on the bridge every day.

He notices a visitor to the bridge, a young boy who always rows out in his boat and then jumps into the river. One day, the boy fails to resurface, and Giuseppe dives in after him. He retrieves and revives the boy, who is clasping a golden Roman coin in his hand.

Giuseppe accompanies the boy, Nino, to his mother’s house. When she learns that he is a lawyer, she offers him free board in return for tutoring her son. Giuseppe grows fond of Nino and instructs him in literature and philosophy.

When Nino is 12, his mother dies of malaria, and he is sent to live with Concetta Cortese. Concetta lives with her only son, Vincenzo.