Adelino Canepe

Adelino Canepa, also called Adeline Canepa, is the tenant farmer on Carlo Covasso’s inherited property and an ardent anti-Fascist in Jacopo Belbo’s childhood recollection. His hostility toward Covasso grows out of an unequal tenancy and Covasso’s service to successive governments, but the partisan arrest he fears becomes an unexpected encounter between two decorated veterans: Canepa is implicated by his political talk, yet the arrest does not originate in a betrayal by him, and Covasso returns home alive after recognizing a shared history with the partisan commander.

Identity and Background

Canepa farms the land inherited by Covasso’s uncle, Carlo, and lives on the same property as the owner. He plants and harvests the grain, makes the wine, and gives half the produce to Covasso. The arrangement leaves both men feeling wronged: Canepa regards the share owed to the landowner as exploitation, while Covasso considers half of what his own land yields an inadequate return. Their proximity makes this more than an abstract class conflict. They occupy separate floors of the same house and meet repeatedly, while the tenancy keeps them bound to one another materially.

During the Second World War, Canepa is openly and ardently anti-Fascist. Covasso, a decorated veteran and local tax official, is moderately Fascist and serves the government in power. Their opposing political positions sharpen the existing landlord-tenant grievance, but neither man’s conduct fits neatly into the accusations each might make against the other.

Conflict with Carlo Covasso

Canepa must visit Covasso’s tax office each year to declare his income. He comes with what the recollection describes as a bold, conspiratorial expression, having tried to win over Aunt Caterina with a few dozen eggs. Covasso refuses the attempted bribe and knows how much produce Canepa has taken from the property; he will not forgive him a cent. For Canepa, these encounters confirm that the landlord and tax official is aligned with the dictatorship. For Covasso, they are occasions to enforce what he believes is owed from his land.

The antagonism becomes a routine of deliberate non-recognition. Canepa spreads slanderous rumors about Covasso, and the two men stop greeting each other, though they continue to live side by side, meeting morning and night. Communication passes through Aunt Caterina and, after Belbo’s family arrives, through Belbo’s mother. Canepa shows sympathy to her because she is the sister-in-law of a man he considers a monster. Covasso, meanwhile, returns home each evening in a gray double-breasted suit and bowler, carrying an unread copy of La Stampa; he passes Canepa on the garden bench as if he cannot see him, then courteously removes his hat to Canepa’s wife at the downstairs door. The contrast between his formal courtesy and his silence toward Canepa keeps their conflict present without open confrontation.

Partisan Arrest and Canepa’s Role

After the Fascists’ Social Republic takes control of the area, Covasso continues collecting taxes for its government. Canepa boasts of his links with the partisan groups gathering in the mountains and promises vengeance and exemplary punishment. When the partisans descend into town, however, the children and adults do not yet know what kind of men they are. Canepa’s supposed closeness to them leads Aunt Caterina to hope that they will spare Covasso. Instead, an armed squad enters the tax office and carries him away.

Canepa did not report Covasso to the partisans. After the arrest, he arrives at the house with his wife and children and swears that he had no part in it. He nevertheless feels responsible, because he has talked too freely in town. Aunt Caterina calls him a Judas and sends him away; Canepa weeps and appeals to Belbo’s mother, recalling that he has sold her rabbits and chickens at absurdly low prices. Her dignified silence leaves his plea unanswered. The scene distinguishes political boasting and indirect responsibility from an actual act of betrayal: Canepa’s talk may have helped make Covasso conspicuous, but the partisan decision to seize him is made by others.

Reconciliation and Significance

The partisans take Covasso to their commander, Mongo, to make an example of a local representative of the regime. Instead, the two men introduce themselves through their military ranks, units, and decorations. Covasso identifies himself as a disabled Alpine veteran; Mongo, a former Carabinieri sergeant major who lost a leg fighting the Fascists and the SS, names his own service and medal. Their exchange over nearby First World War positions establishes that they fought on the same front, at Hill 328 and Hill 327, and they recall the battle together. The one-armed Covasso and one-legged Mongo then step forward and embrace.

Their recognition changes the outcome. Mongo explains the partisan suspicion that Covasso collects taxes for a Fascist government serving the invaders. Covasso answers that he has a family, draws a government salary, and did not choose the government; Mongo concedes that he would have acted similarly in Covasso’s place, while asking him to collect taxes slowly. Covasso replies that he has nothing against the partisans and that they, too, are sons of Italy and valiant fighters. They understand one another through a shared conception of the Fatherland, rather than through agreement over Fascism. Mongo orders his men to give Covasso a bicycle, and Covasso rides home; Canepa does not show his face for several months afterward.

Belbo frames the episode as evidence that bonds can endure above factions and parties, though he hesitates to call them spiritual knighthood. Canepa’s place in that story is deliberately complicated: his class resentment and anti-Fascism help explain the political atmosphere around the arrest, and his talk leaves him feeling responsible, but he neither betrays Covasso nor participates in the reconciliation that saves him. The resolution comes instead through a shared military past that momentarily interrupts the divisions of land, party, and wartime allegiance.