Shortly after I moved to Italy in early January 1980, someone assassinated the governor of Sicily. It was eventually found to be a Mafia killing, but at the time everyone I met wondered whether the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades), the country’s main left-wing terrorist group, had begun operating in Sicily. The next day I went to visit a friend of my father’s, an old journalist recovering from throat cancer. While we sat talking, there was a knock at the door, followed by several seconds of panicked silence, since the journalist’s name had turned up on a Red Brigades list of potential targets. It turned out to be a young woman to whom my hosts had wanted to introduce me.…