An audience with the Pope

At 7.30 on the morning of 19 September I had an assignation with seven men and one woman under the obelisk in the middle of St Peter’s Square in Rome. I had been looking forward to it since 8 August when I received an invitation to join the Commissio de Fructu Vineae, or Commission of the Fruit of the Vine, whose job is to advise on a papal vineyard project.

It had been sent by Enrico Peterlunger, Professor of Viticulture at the University of Udine in the far north-east of Italy...