The first of the "our ancestors" trilogy.
"It was on June 15, 1767 that Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, my brother, sat among us for the last time".
Thus begins the novel: the boy, at the age of twelve, after arguing with his parents who wanted to force him to eat a plate of snails, climbs a tree and decides never to go down there again for the rest of his life.
The novel is set in Bohemia and Liguria, in a town called Ombrosa.