San Mamette

San Mamette is the lakeside village where Lelia’s solitary flight from Velo d’Astico brings her face to face with the practical dangers of escape. She arrives seeking Massimo Alberti, finds him, and is briefly sheltered there; Donna Fedele then joins them and tries to arrange Lelia’s departure. The village’s landing and small hotel become the confined setting for a reunion, a contested plan, and Donna Fedele’s death.

The Lakeside Arrival

Lelia reaches San Mamette by steamer after travelling through Lugano and continuing along the lake in rain and fog. She has chosen the destination as part of her attempt to reach Massimo, but the journey does not leave her with a settled sense of purpose. For much of the crossing she is numb, listening to the measured thud of the engines and her own heartbeat. Asked where she is going, she gives San Mamette’s name almost as if compelled by fate; learning that the boat will first call at Lugano briefly eases her anxiety by postponing the arrival.

The weather and the boat’s route shape her approach to the village. At first the mountains are obscured, and the wet shore appears only dimly through the mist. As the steamer passes Lugano and pulls away, Lelia’s emotional state changes: the lake darkens under a strong wind, and the mountains of Valsolda emerge from the cloud. She moves from the stern to the bow and stands in the rain, newly resolute. The landscape is not merely scenery along the route; its gradual appearance accompanies her movement from anxious anticipation toward a fierce confidence in the act of giving herself to Massimo.

San Mamette is the first station after that exposed crossing. The ticket collector points it out in the mist, and Lelia steps ashore with a firm gait. Few people are visible on the landing or in the square because of the bad weather. A man working at the landing directs her to Albergo Valsolda, only a short distance away. The closeness of hotel and waterfront makes the arrival immediate: there is little separation between leaving the boat and having to decide where to go next.

The Hotel as Temporary Refuge

At the hotel entrance, Lelia hesitates in a dark, empty hall. She does not know whether to climb the stairs, and the silence and rigid walls seem hostile to her. The prospect of spending a night in an unfamiliar building suddenly fills her with fearful imaginings. She nevertheless manages to ask for a room. The innkeeper notices her distinction and embarrassment and treats her kindly; the maid then shows her the available rooms. The hotel can offer nearly all its rooms, a practical sign of how little company it has at that moment, but for Lelia its emptiness first intensifies the vulnerability of arriving alone.

Once settled, she makes contact with Massimo. She tells him that she came alone, arrived the previous evening, and lodged at San Mamette. Only Donna Fedele knows where she is, and she learned it after Lelia had already left. Massimo proposes taking her back to Dasio to rest and recover. Lelia goes with him, leaning on his arm, and the village functions for a time as the point where a private flight becomes a shared decision. Yet her reunion does not resolve the questions raised by her arrival: she has left without her father’s permission, and Massimo worries that others might speak ill of her. He is determined to protect her from gossip as well as to accept the consequences of her choice.

A Refuge Under Negotiation

Donna Fedele reaches San Mamette by boat with a companion and asks the innkeeper both whether Lelia is staying there and whether Massimo is also in the hotel. Her arrival reveals how uncertain the refuge remains: Lelia has found the person she sought, but her situation is not one in which she can simply remain indefinitely. Donna Fedele is exhausted and nearly faints on entering. After being given Marsala, she recovers enough for Lelia to arrange the best available room, with two beds, for the new arrivals and a small adjoining room for herself.

Donna Fedele and Massimo agree that Lelia cannot stay in Valsolda. Donna Fedele expects a negative reply from Lelia’s father, but acknowledges Massimo’s hope of obtaining a local medical post. She still insists that Lelia must leave with her. Lelia, in turn, hopes Donna Fedele can stay long enough to rest and then accompany her to Turin; she recoils from returning to Velo d’Astico and argues that only a few months remain before she will be of age. Donna Fedele points out that Turin would leave her without support. The village thus becomes the setting for a conflict between Lelia’s desire to remain close to Massimo and Donna Fedele’s effort to secure a safer arrangement.

After discussion, they decide that Donna Fedele will rest for the day and see a doctor the following morning. If permitted to travel, she and Lelia will leave for Turin, while their companion continues with them; a cousin is to meet Lelia at Santhià. Donna Fedele also arranges for letters addressed to Lelia at San Mamette to be forwarded. She yields on the question of paternal permission, judging the proposed stay with her cousins safe and Lelia’s dread of returning to Velo decisive. The plan gives San Mamette a temporary administrative role as well as an emotional one: it is where messages must be redirected and where the next stage of Lelia’s life is provisionally organized.

Illness, Departure, and Death

The departure plan is overtaken by Donna Fedele’s worsening condition. She intends to travel to Turin for an operation, but the doctor finds her heart very weak and fears for her life. She asks him to return the next morning before deciding whether she can go. At six that evening, Massimo comes to the hotel. Donna Fedele has little to say, and the silence unsettles Lelia, Massimo, and her companion. She calls the two young people to her bedside and speaks of Lelia’s inheritance and of the possibility that Montanina may one day be available to them, asking them not to abandon it. San Mamette, intended as a stop on the way to a new arrangement, has become the place where she tries to set the future in order.

The next morning, fever makes travel impossible. Massimo leaves for Porto Ceresio to meet the party bringing Benedetto’s body, intending to return to Oria that afternoon. The route underscores San Mamette’s connection to other points around the lake: the cemetery at Albogasio is only a quarter-hour walk away. But while Massimo is absent, Donna Fedele suddenly deteriorates. The fever signals a general infection, and nothing more can be done. Fully conscious of her condition, she asks for a priest and the viaticum; the priest of San Mamette administers the last rites by five o’clock.

Donna Fedele is distressed by Massimo’s telegram from Porto Ceresio, believing he might have stayed nearer, and repeatedly asks when he will return. Her concern is not for the arrangements she had tried to complete but for the young people and the last words she hopes to say to him. At dawn, she dies in San Mamette, dressed in black with a crucifix in her hands and fresh roses from Valsolda among the flowers. Her projected journey to Turin never takes place. Instead, the hotel and village that briefly sheltered Lelia become the setting for Donna Fedele’s final vigil, closing the refuge chapter with a death that interrupts travel and leaves the future she had tried to arrange in the hands of Lelia and Massimo.