As they are on the road most of their lives, winter and summer, they would not get much sleep if they tried to keep awake all night; and they drink a good deal, partly because wine is really a protection against the dangerous fever, and partly because their drink costs them nothing.

Some of them drank their employers' wine at supper, others exchanged what they brought for Paoluccio's, which they liked better.
They usually got away about midnight, and Mommo was often the last to go.

It was a part of Regina's work to go down to the cellar and draw the wine that was wanted from the hogsheads when the host was too lazy to go down himself, and being quite unwatched she could draw a measure from the oldest and strongest if she chose.

Mommo could easily be made a little sleepier than usual, after being tempted to outstay the others.
And so it turned out that night.

After the necessary operation of tapping one of his casks and filling it up with water, he lingered on before a measure of the best, while Nanna and Paoluccio dozed in their chairs; and at last all three were asleep.
Then Regina went out softly into the dark summer night, and climbed the stairs to the attic.
"I am going to take you to Rome to-night," she whispered in Marcello's ear.
"Rome ?" he repeated vaguely, half asleep.
She wrapped him in the tattered blanket as he was, and lifted him lightly in her arms.