San Giovanni is the home of the wealthy Anselmo in the embedded tale of his marriage to Camilla and his friendship with Lothario. The place gives a concrete setting to the sudden public report that both Camilla and Anselmo had disappeared, while the story leaves the fugitives’ whereabouts unresolved.

Setting and Association

The narrative identifies Anselmo as a resident of San Giovanni, linking the location to his household and the intimate friendship he shared with Lothario. San Giovanni is not described independently; its significance comes through its association with Anselmo and the domestic world disrupted by the reported disappearance.

The Report from Florence

As Anselmo travels toward his friend’s village, he asks a passing citizen for news from Florence. The citizen reports that Lothario has carried off Camilla, Anselmo’s wife, and that Anselmo himself has also vanished. The report traces its information to Camilla’s maid, whom the governor found descending from a window of Anselmo’s house by a sheet. The city is said to be astonished because Lothario and Anselmo had been known for their close friendship and called “The Two Friends.”

The citizen cannot say which road Lothario and Camilla took, despite the governor’s active search. San Giovanni therefore marks Anselmo’s home, not a confirmed destination or the site of a narrated departure: the location’s role is to ground the household scandal whose details reach Anselmo indirectly, as public news from Florence.