Roma is a place of formation and unsettled memory in the novel: Massimo Alberti’s student years there are bound to the religious convictions he later loses, and the city’s Campo Verano becomes the starting point for a dispute over how Benedetto should be commemorated. Roma is not simply a backdrop to these events. It links Massimo’s intellectual past to the funeral journey that forces him to confront what remains of his faith and his loyalty to his dead teacher.

A City of Formation and Religious Conflict

Massimo’s connection with Roma reaches back to his student years. In a letter to Donna Fedele, he describes himself at that time as vulnerable to recurring doubts. His encounter with the man who became his teacher, Benedetto, took place not in the city itself but in a small town in Lazio. There, Massimo says, his devotion to Benedetto quieted his doubts for as long as the teacher lived. Roma thus marks the setting of his studies, while the formative meeting that changed his religious life occurred beyond the city. The distinction matters: his account presents belief not as an abstract conclusion reached in the capital, but as a conviction sustained through personal attachment.

That attachment shaped Massimo’s understanding of the Roman Catholic Church and of his own public identity. He recalls that, while Benedetto was alive, he would have given his life for his faith and the Church, and that although he might wish Church authorities had chosen differently in particular matters, rebellion against their authority did not occur to him. After Benedetto’s death, however, the accusations directed at his teacher and the hostility Massimo experienced as a disciple began to erode his beliefs. His later crisis is therefore connected to a past formed around Roma, but it is also a break with that past: he fears that the doubts which had once been held at bay will carry him beyond the Church and eventually beyond belief in God.

Campo Verano and the Dispute over Remembrance

Roma enters the plot again through Campo Verano, where some of Benedetto’s disciples had proposed to erect a modest memorial. They intended to raise subscriptions for it, but other disciples considered the plan unsuitable. They doubted that the collection would produce much and believed a public monument might conflict with Benedetto’s spirit. The proposal led to a sharp disagreement among his followers, turning the question of a memorial into a test of how they understood the teacher’s wishes.

Massimo opposed the proposed memorial but sought a peaceful resolution rather than prolonging the quarrel. His position drew on a conversation during an earlier visit to Campo Verano: Benedetto had said that he expected to end there but would have preferred to be taken to the cemetery at Oria, adding that this preference might be vanity. Massimo took that expressed wish as a reason to abandon the memorial and honor Benedetto through a modest burial place in Oria, away from the world’s disputes. He connected that choice to the cemetery where Piero Maironi’s parents lay and where Benedetto’s wife had also wished to rest. What Campo Verano had made contentious, a private recollection made possible to settle: Massimo’s proposal replaced a public monument with a burial aligned, as he understood it, with Benedetto’s own preference.

From the Roman Tomb to Oria

The decision to bury Benedetto in Oria makes Roma the point of departure for the funeral’s movement through the novel. Massimo’s friends eventually accept his proposal and ask him, because he is near Oria, to help carry it out. The account of the arrangement preserves the contrast at the heart of the decision: a memorial raised by subscription would have marked Benedetto in a prominent way, whereas a small place in Oria would honor his wish for a quieter resting place. Roma is significant here not because the burial occurs there, but because Campo Verano is where the competing forms of remembrance first take shape.

As the transfer approaches, the distance between the city and Oria becomes emotionally charged for Massimo. He can honor Benedetto privately as a beloved friend and teacher, yet he fears that speaking publicly at the burial would imply agreement with beliefs he no longer holds. In his letter to Donna Fedele, he explains that Benedetto had embodied an unwavering Catholic faith and obedience to Church authority; Massimo doubts that he could speak over the grave without hypocrisy. The body’s departure from its Roman tomb therefore carries more than a change of resting place. It brings Massimo face to face with the difference between his teacher’s convictions and his own increasingly uncertain beliefs.

Roma as a Place Left Behind

The funeral arrangements also reveal how far Massimo has become separated from his former life. When news about Benedetto reaches Don Aurelio, people in Roma do not know where Massimo is; they assume Don Aurelio may know, and a rumor even places Massimo at Praglia. The report makes his absence from the city concrete. Roma remains a point of reference for his friends and for the community that remembers Benedetto, while Massimo is elsewhere, drawn back into its concerns through correspondence and the approaching funeral.

In a later letter, Massimo describes Benedetto as having come out of his tomb in Roma and approaching him, as though the encounter would demand an account of his faith. The image gives the city a continuing presence in his inner conflict: the tomb is physically left behind, but the teacher’s memory travels with him. Roma thus links the beginning of Massimo’s religious formation, the burial dispute at Campo Verano, and the painful reckoning that accompanies Benedetto’s transfer to Oria. Its significance lies in this chain of connections between place, memory, and belief.