- [first lines]
- Simon Templar: [narrating] There are places in these mountains where time seems to have stopped in the 16th century. Remote valleys where you feel the Medicis and the Borgias still rule.
- Simon Templar: [the Saint walks into a bar] A beer.
- Moreno: We're closed, signore.
- Simon Templar: [glances around, there are several other customers enjoying their drinks] I'll have it in a glass.
- [Moreno complies]
- Simon Templar: I'll need a room, too.
- Moreno: Unfortunately, all the rooms are occupied.
- Simon Templar: Oh, really?
- Moreno: American tourists. A coach party.
- Simon Templar: A coach party. Well, well. I'll, eh, I'll drink this outside.
- [moves to the door]
- Simon Templar: Have my bags taken upstairs, would you?
- Prince Lorenzo: I have been speaking with Boldini on the telephone. He tells me that an attempt was made on your own life.
- Simon Templar: Well, it was a warning, really, rather a crude one at that.
- Prince Lorenzo: Ah, heh heh, these people are crude. Crude and violent pea...
- Boldini: [the Saint is in jail] You know, Signor Templar, you will live forever in the memory of our simple people as a mass murderer.
- [laughs]
- Boldini: Doesn't that thought comfort you?
- Simon Templar: Listen, I'd take a lot more comfort if I could have a drink.
- Boldini: [looks at his own filled glass] Ah, against regulations.
- [laughs]
- Simon Templar: Yes, but, eh, I'm prepared to pay over bar prices.
- [holds up a wad of money]
- Boldini: You seem to forget, that money will be mine anyway when you're dead.
- Simon Templar: Yeah, I suppose that's true. But, eh... travelers checks. Now they have to be counter signed.
- Boldini: [leans forward] How much have you got there?
- Father Vincenzo: You can't kill me, Moreno, every man and woman in Santa Maria will know it was you.
- Moreno: My friend Boldini will tell them it was Templar.
- Father Vincenzo: Boldini is involved?
- Moreno: Everyone is involved, directly or indirectly.
- Father Vincenzo: What are you saying?
- Moreno: I'm saying that nobody in Santa Maria will be asking any questions.
- Father Vincenzo: But why?
- Moreno: Because of fear. Because of money.
- [last lines]
- Simon Templar: It's not as picturesque as this, I know, but on the whole I think I prefer the 20th century to the 16th.