Tresanti is the home of Pietro da Tresanti in the story of his friendship with Dom Gianni di Barolo. The village is presented through a small, poor household where hospitality is constrained by scarcity, and where a stable and a truss of straw set the scene for Pietro’s belief in his friend’s fantastic claim about transforming a mare.

Setting and Household

Pietro lives in Tresanti with his young, handsome wife, Gemmata, and an ass. The account describes their house as poor and barely sufficient for the three of them. Its limited space shapes the arrangements they can offer a guest: there is only one bed, which Pietro shares with Gemmata, while Dom Gianni must sleep beside his mare in the little stable on a truss of straw.

Hospitality and Friendship

Tresanti is one half of a reciprocal pattern of lodging between Pietro and Dom Gianni. When Pietro visits Barletta, Dom Gianni welcomes him to the parsonage and entertains him as best he can. In return, Pietro receives the priest at his own home in Tresanti, despite having far less room and comfort to offer. The contrast between the priest’s parsonage and Pietro’s cramped house makes the friendship’s hospitality tangible: welcome is freely returned, even when the material conditions are unequal.

Role in the Tale

The household’s arrangement brings Dom Gianni’s mare into close proximity with Pietro and Gemmata. Because the priest sleeps beside the animal, Gemmata hears his explanation that he can turn the mare into a woman and back again. She believes him and urges Pietro to learn the supposed charm, setting up the tale’s comic misunderstanding. Tresanti thus supplies the intimate domestic and stable setting in which reciprocal generosity gives way to Pietro’s credulity.