Santa Maria ad Montes is a small chapel near Montanina, set beside the approach to the park and the public road. It is both a place of worship and a recurring point of passage: its bell summons people to weekday Mass, its doorway frames a hesitant meeting between Lelia and Massimo Alberti, and its proximity marks the route Lelia takes when she leaves the villa at night. The chapel’s modest setting gathers private crisis into visible religious ritual without resolving the conflicts that brought its visitors there.

Setting and Features

The chapel stands just above a wooden gate that opens from the public road into Parco di Velo. The gate is a little below the little church, placing the chapel at the edge between the villa grounds, the park, and the road beyond. As Lelia leaves Montanina late at night, she goes out through the garden and villa to this gate; the chapel is a landmark on her route, not the stated destination of her flight.

The interior includes a sacristy, an altar, and a small vestibule. A stone holy-water font bears a frieze of alpine stars, while a mystical vine is painted in the apse and carries Christ’s words, “ego sum vitis, vos palmites.” From the side doorway, Lelia can look toward the green scene of Parco di Velo, including a bright strip of meadow among the chestnut trees. The chapel’s religious imagery and its view of the park are thus held in the same frame, though Lelia’s attention often turns outward rather than toward prayer.

Mass and Private Grief

On the anniversary of Signor Marcello’s wife’s death, Donna Fedele arrives near the chapel and hears its plaintive bell. She expects Don Aurelio to be celebrating, but finds the church empty and Don Emanuele moving in the sacristy. A young altar server tells her that the Mass is being offered for the soul of Signor Marcello’s wife. The preparation lasts long enough for Donna Fedele to sit by the font and reflect on her own irritation with the chaplain; the painted vine prompts a moment of self-reproach rather than simple piety.

Signor Marcello enters, followed by Lelia. Don Emanuele celebrates with solemnity. Signor Marcello remains standing through the Mass, reading The Imitation of Christ from beginning to end, while Lelia does not pray and repeatedly looks through the side door toward the park. Donna Fedele watches both of them: Signor Marcello seems thinner and yellowish, and Lelia appears withdrawn. The chapel’s shared service gathers the three characters physically, but their attention reveals different kinds of inward preoccupation—devotion, grief, and uncertainty about what will follow.

A Threshold Between Lelia and Massimo

The chapel also becomes the setting for a brief, carefully balanced encounter. When Massimo Alberti comes down toward it, Signor Marcello tells him that Lelia has gone out with the key to the little church and that Massimo may see her as he passes. Massimo approaches alone, unsure whether to enter or continue on, because he suspects Lelia would rather avoid him. Lelia hears his step and recognizes his hesitation from inside; she too is uncertain whether to come out. Each decides to do what an indifferent person would do, and they meet on the threshold. Her greeting is formal and offers him a good journey, without a handshake. The chapel’s doorway makes their unresolved distance a physical encounter: neither remains inside, and neither quite turns the meeting into a reconciliation.

Narrative Significance

Santa Maria ad Montes recurs where movement and decision meet. Its bell announces a Mass held in memory of the dead; its open doorway gives Lelia a view of the park through which she has passed at night; and its threshold brings her face to face with Massimo as he prepares to leave. These uses give the chapel a role beyond local scenery. It is a compact religious space beside an exit route, where ritual offers a shared form for grief while the characters’ gestures and divided attention preserve the uncertainty of their personal choices.