Lake Lugano

Lake Lugano is both a landscape of refuge and the route of a decisive funeral procession. In Massimo Alberti’s account of his withdrawal to Dasio, its waters and surrounding mountains promise a silence he cannot attain inwardly; later, the lake carries Benedetto’s coffin toward burial, turning the same terrain into a public scene of grief, memory, and Massimo’s spiritual return.

Setting and the Search for Solitude

After leaving Milan, Massimo travels to Valsolda, initially intending to take part in a competition for the post of local doctor. A boat on Lake Lugano brings him to the village indicated as the valley’s centre. He quickly decides that it is not secluded enough for the retreat he seeks, hears of a more remote settlement higher in the valley, and goes on to Dasio. The lake is therefore not just a boundary around his chosen refuge: it is the first stage of a journey in which he tries to find distance from ordinary life.

From Dasio, Massimo describes an inn called the Pension Restaurant du Jardin and a view descending through green toward the deep surface of the lake. The scene appears to offer the quiet he has come to find. Mountains loom over the valley, while the old churches seem to him like enduring witnesses to a Catholic inheritance. Yet the landscape’s calm exposes rather than resolves his unrest. He confesses that his soul cannot enter into conversation with the mountains, valleys, or churches. He moves between deadening torpor, bitterness, and terror, and the silence makes the voices of the world he has left seem more painful. Lake Lugano thus gives his withdrawal a vivid physical setting while marking the failure of scenery alone to bring him peace.

Shoreline and Waiting

The novel returns to the lake during Benedetto’s funeral. At Porto Ceresio station, Massimo waits for Don Aurelio and friends from Rome, who are expected to arrive with the coffin. Their train is delayed, and at first Massimo feels relief that he has not missed them; that relief gives way to regret that he left Lelia Camin and Donna Fedele so early. He waits for news at the station café, which faces the lake across an open space bordered by a railing.

Looking toward the water, Massimo’s thoughts gather around three figures: Lelia, Donna Fedele, and Benedetto. The calm surface and the reflected green mountains provide an image of stillness, but what occupies him is an unresolved inner struggle. He remembers Benedetto’s final religious injunctions and realizes that he had neglected Sunday Mass. For Massimo, breaking with the Church intellectually has proved easier than breaking with its outward practices and the habits bound up with the memory of the dead. The lakeside vigil therefore becomes an occasion of self-recognition as well as logistical waiting.

The delay extends the scene. Massimo looks toward Melide for the special steamer, but the water is empty apart from two small boats between Morcote and Brusino Arsizio. After further inquiries, he sees a white point approaching across the lake. Wind briefly wrinkles the blue water and disturbs the mountains’ green reflections; when the wind falls, the reflections return. The shifting surface seems to echo the agitation of waiting without turning the landscape into a simple picture of tranquillity.

The Funeral Voyage

The special steamer arrives crowded with people from Albogasio. They have paid for it themselves and travelled to Oria to meet the body of Piero Maironi, whom they regard as a benefactor. More than a hundred people have joined the parish priest on the boat. When they learn that the coffin has not arrived, they face a wait of nearly six hours. Some have brought neither food nor money, but the parish priest and Massimo arrange bread, and those who have provisions share them. Their presence gives the lake crossing a communal meaning: the journey is an act of gratitude toward the dead, sustained by practical care among the living.

The coffin reaches Porto Ceresio at night, beneath dense storm clouds and a moonless sky. The people of Albogasio fill the station with torches and candles. Don Aurelio, the Roman friends, and Massimo help carry the coffin from the baggage carriage. A veiled woman, accompanied by a maid, follows the procession onto the steamer, but no one recognizes her or sees her face. The coffin is placed at the bow beneath a black cloth edged with silver fringe; people carrying lights line the deck, while the priest stands opposite the coffin and the crowd gathers behind them.

Without a spoken command, the gangplanks are drawn in and the boat is pushed away from the landing. As it turns toward the upper lake, the parish priest of Albogasio begins the rosary and the crowd answers. The engine, wheels, and water make a steady accompaniment to the prayer. Two lines of funeral candles break the darkness as the steamer moves through the still lake, making the vessel resemble a ghost ship. The contrast between mechanical motion, ritual words, and the dark, sleeping shores gives the crossing its solemn force.

Memory, Conflict, and Significance

During the voyage, Massimo keeps his eyes on the coffin’s black cloth. His affection for Benedetto, his awareness of the injuries and slanders directed at the dead man, and his shame at having deserted the memory that the Roman friends have kept faithfully combine into a grief he cannot master. He withdraws to the stern and weeps below deck, amid the continuing noise of the steamer and the water. There he resolves inwardly that he will not abandon Benedetto and will return to him.

The prayers continue after the steamer passes Melide. At the middle of the De profundis, the boat stops abruptly as a large, dark vessel studded with lights crosses its course at close range. Few passengers notice the danger; those who do fall silent. Then the engine starts again and the psalm resumes. As the steamer enters the basin between Campione and Lugano, the darkness grows less complete around the funeral lights. Lights appear at Lugano, Castagnola, and Gandria; the ridges and distant waters of Valsolda come into view, with a torpedo boat’s flashes further across the lake. The movement from the darkness of the crossing toward these visible shores gives the procession a changing geography, while Massimo’s grief carries the more consequential change: the funeral journey turns his crisis of faith toward renewed allegiance to Benedetto’s religious example.