Villa of the Roses

The Villa of the Roses is the country home near Arsiero to which Donna Fedele returns after years away. Its garden of roses, cultivated and multiplied by her own hands, makes the house more than a residence: it holds the memory of an earlier life and later serves as a possible refuge for Lelia, even as family obligations and inheritance disputes complicate the meaning of home.

Setting and Return

Donna Fedele persuaded her father to leave Arsiero and the roses she loved, and the family went to stay near relatives in Santhià. They spent winters in Torino, where Donna Fedele was much courted, but she never chose to marry. After her parents died, she was left alone at forty-eight and, weary of city life, remembered Arsiero. She left Torino and Santhià and returned to the Villa of the Roses, re-entering a landscape she had once helped make her own.

The garden is the villa’s defining detail in the account of this return. Donna Fedele had planted its roses herself and multiplied them around the red villa. Their abundance gives the place a personal history: leaving Arsiero had meant leaving a cultivated home, and coming back meant recovering it after bereavement and years of urban life.

The Villa and Its Neighbors

In the short period between Andrea Trento’s death and his mother’s death, Donna Fedele often visited the Montanina. Her old feeling for Marcello Trento had become a respectful deference, deepened almost to reverence by his misfortune. After the death of Marcello’s wife and an initial exchange of visits, however, neither he nor Donna Fedele continued visiting the other’s house. Their separation followed a misunderstanding involving Lelia: Lelia felt an immediate sympathy for Donna Fedele, but interpreted her unexpectedly cool manner as dislike and responded with a deliberately cold reserve. The two homes thus mark a relationship that might have drawn close but instead fell quiet.

The Villa of the Roses also figures in the movement of people through the surrounding countryside. When Carnesecca tried to leave an inn on foot, Don Aurelio judged that it would be better to send him to Donna Fedele’s villa, but not to let him make the journey unaided. An offer was made to pull him in a handcart toward Velo and find a sound donkey there. The episode presents the villa as a known destination within the local network of roads and assistance, though the account describes the proposed journey rather than confirming his arrival.

Inheritance and a Father’s Visit

After Marcello Trento’s death, the opening of his handwritten will established Lelia as his universal heir; Teresina was left a daily payment of five lire, exempt from tax. The news arrived alongside a telegram from Padua in which Girolamo da Camin declared that he was Lelia’s father and announced his arrival. Lelia acknowledged that he was her father and said she was twenty years and a few months old, correcting the deceased man’s belief that she was older. The inheritance therefore brought the question of Lelia’s family and legal dependence into the foreground of the villa’s story.

Girolamo da Camin came to the Villa of the Roses hoping to draw Lelia back into his household, but his visit was also shaped by financial calculation. He intended to make himself seem humble and agreeable so that, once Lelia came of age, she might grant him generous support; meanwhile, he wanted to secure as much as possible of the estate’s movable property. He knew that insisting on paternal authority would not win Donna Fedele’s favor, and he feared that Lelia would leave if he tried to house her alongside Gorlago. Donna Fedele nonetheless pressed Lelia to receive him. Lelia stood rigidly through the meeting and accepted his embrace without returning its warmth. He brought her a packet of ten-lire notes and described the money as hers, while promising to account for his handling of her property. The villa is consequently a setting for an uneasy encounter in which inheritance, parental authority, and Lelia’s estrangement meet face to face.

Refuge and Narrative Significance

Later, in Valsolda, Donna Fedele argued that Lelia could not remain there and proposed taking her away. The Villa of the Roses was one possible short-term destination: if Lelia’s father permitted it, Donna Fedele suggested, Lelia might stay for a few days at the villa. The plan changed after discussion. Donna Fedele decided that, after resting and receiving medical approval, she would travel with Lelia to Torino and arrange for a cousin in Santhià to receive her. She chose this course without first obtaining paternal permission, judging the cousin’s home safe and Lelia’s dread of returning to Velo decisive; letters for Lelia arriving at San Mamette were to be forwarded to Santhià.

The villa thus recurs as both a remembered home and an available shelter, but it is not presented as a permanent solution to Lelia’s difficulties. Its roses embody Donna Fedele’s attachment to a place shaped by her own care, while the proposed stay for Lelia gives the house a practical role in the effort to protect her. Across these episodes, the Villa of the Roses stands at the intersection of personal memory and contested family obligation: a home to which Donna Fedele can return, and a refuge she can offer, but not a way to settle the conflicts surrounding Lelia’s inheritance and independence.