Giovanna's visit to Costanza's birthday party

Giovanna’s visit to Costanza’s birthday party in Posillipo begins as an attempt to bring her back into the lives of her father’s other household and ends as a reckoning with its concealed history. The reunion with Angela and Ida briefly revives their friendship, but the bracelet Costanza has given Giovanna turns the evening into a public dispute. On the drive home, Andrea explains the love affair that had been hidden beneath his account of family loyalty, and the bracelet becomes evidence of how an intended kindness can also wound.

Invitation and Arrival

Costanza collects Giovanna outside school and invites her to a small family gathering for Ida’s birthday. Giovanna initially resists, citing homework, but Costanza reminds her that the next day is Sunday and that Ida misses her. Her father has called Giovanna’s mother, Nella, who has consented to the visit. The invitation is therefore not a secret escape, though it carries the strain of a family divided between households.

During the drive, Costanza asks about school. Giovanna conceals that she is repeating the first year of high school, wary of making a mistake in front of Costanza, who is a teacher. She also avoids asking about Angela. Costanza says her daughters regret that the girls no longer see one another and describes a dream Angela had in which she lost a shoe and Giovanna found it. Giovanna fingers the bracelet Costanza previously gave her, hoping Costanza will notice it, then says their separation is not the girls’ fault. Costanza’s cordial manner breaks: she insists that Andrea should not be blamed for what happened and begins to cry, saying he misses Giovanna and worries about her, and that she and the girls miss her too.

Giovanna answers that she misses them, including Mariano, and agrees that no one can undo what happened. Costanza praises her as wise and says she has always had a good influence on her daughters. Giovanna explains that the polished phrases that come to mind are often borrowed from novels rather than her own words. Their conversation turns to Angela’s boyfriend: Costanza knows Angela has begun a relationship but does not know the boy’s identity or age. Giovanna withholds what she knows about Tonino and avoids connecting him to Vittoria, Margherita, and Enzo, offering only that he seems serious.

The Birthday Gathering

The house in Posillipo makes an immediate impression on Giovanna. From its garden she can see the sea, Naples, and Vesuvius; compared with the family’s former home on Via San Giacomo dei Capri, the new place seems to have gained in beauty. Before they enter, Costanza asks Giovanna to remove the bracelet because her daughters do not know it was given to her. Giovanna suggests that telling the truth might make matters less complicated. Costanza replies that truth is difficult and that novels cannot prepare someone for it. Giovanna takes off the bracelet and puts it in her pocket.

Inside, she sees Angela and Ida again after a long separation. They quickly recover a semblance of friendship, although all three have changed. Ida comments on Giovanna’s thinness, long feet, and large breasts, and asks why she is dressed in black. The girls eat in the bright kitchen, joke together, and laugh. Watching them, Costanza seems relieved; she is attentive to Giovanna and twice whispers that she is glad Giovanna came and that she has become pretty. When Angela and Ida excitedly describe a trip to London with their grandparents, Costanza gently reproaches them for not letting Giovanna speak.

The hospitality also sharpens Giovanna’s awareness of what the invitation cannot repair. She wonders whether Costanza might want her to leave Nella and live in the spacious, luxurious house. For a moment she thinks she might not object. But Andrea lives there, and his presence makes such a return feel impossible. Giovanna imagines the familiar household pattern recurring: her father coming home with books, greeting Costanza as he once greeted Nella, joking with the girls, then withdrawing to his study while Costanza asks them to keep their voices down so he can work. The new house may be more beautiful, but it threatens to reproduce the same arrangement around Andrea.

The Bracelet Becomes a Dispute

Andrea arrives after dark. Costanza is irritated that he is late, especially because he knew Giovanna was visiting. At dinner he acts happy, but Giovanna believes his cheerfulness is feigned. She, in turn, makes little effort to hide her anger. Costanza’s attentions irritate her; Angela has insulted her; Ida’s efforts to soothe her feel unwelcome. In a deliberately cruel whisper, Giovanna tells Ida that Mariano’s absence from her birthday may have a reason: perhaps Ida is too whiny or clingy. Ida falls silent, visibly hurt.

Andrea notices and rebukes Giovanna for being rude. She says nothing, but her smile aggravates him. She goes to the bathroom, washes her face, and remakes her eyes as Costanza had done after crying. Then she takes the bracelet from her pocket, puts it back on, and returns to the table. Angela asks why Giovanna is wearing her mother’s bracelet. Giovanna answers that Costanza gave it to her. Angela protests that she wanted it, and Ida admits she wanted it too. Andrea, looking ashen, orders Giovanna to return it; Costanza counters that the bracelet is Giovanna’s because she gave it to her.

Costanza explains the gift by calling Giovanna a good, studious girl. The praise lands painfully: Giovanna fears that Angela and Ida may use her failure at school to wound her and to argue that she does not deserve the bracelet. She corrects Costanza in front of everyone, admitting that she failed the previous year and is repeating it. Andrea confirms the failure but minimizes it, saying she is doing well now and may complete two years in one. He again tells her to give the bracelet to the girls. Giovanna refuses on the ground that it belonged to her grandmother and cannot be given to strangers. When Andrea insists that he knows who owns it and orders her to remove it, she tears it off and throws it at a kitchen cabinet.

The Journey Home and the Hidden History

Giovanna leaves the party with the bracelet in her backpack and a piece of cake for Nella. Costanza retrieves the bracelet from the floor, checks that it is not broken, and tells Andrea that it is irrevocably Giovanna’s and that she will not discuss it further. The birthday continues to its close: Ida blows out her candles, Angela wraps the cake, and Costanza sends a piece to her former friend, Nella. The gathering has yielded neither a settled reconciliation nor a simple return to old affection. Giovanna leaves tense and exhausted, while Andrea drives her home upset and visibly changed from the father she knows.

In the car, Andrea says he understands that Giovanna thinks he destroyed Nella’s life and that she wants revenge on him, Costanza, Angela, and Ida. Giovanna is frightened by his agitation and denies wanting to ruin him, telling him that she loves him. He acknowledges that she is afraid and says he is sorry if he frightens her, while asking for time and describing the period as difficult. He insists that she remains his only daughter and that he still loves both her and Nella. The disclosure is not a calm explanation: Andrea pours out justifications, pain, and self-reproach in a speech Giovanna remembers as confused and difficult to interrupt.

Andrea then reveals that his relationship with Costanza began before Giovanna was born, although he says he had been faithful to Nella for a long time and describes Costanza as a sister-like friend. He recounts a work trip on which he and Costanza spent the night talking together in his room. They discovered that their attachment was not merely sibling affection but another kind of love. He presents the realization as unexpected and insists that it did not continue afterward as a sustained betrayal. His explanation directly complicates the image of Costanza as only a friend and the image of Andrea as a husband whose loyalties were uncomplicated.

The bracelet’s history makes that complication material. Andrea says that he had always thought of it as Costanza’s and wanted it for her when his mother died. He recalls striking Vittoria when she insisted it belonged to her, and says that when Giovanna was born he asked Vittoria to give it to the child. He then gave it to Costanza. He describes the gift as an act meant to do good, but admits that it may instead have caused harm, because he had already imagined the bracelet as Costanza’s. His account exposes the object’s competing meanings: inheritance, a gift to a newborn, a token of Andrea’s attachment to Costanza, and, in the present, a possession Giovanna refuses to surrender.

Consequences and Significance

Giovanna tries to stop Andrea’s explanation, saying that the conflict belongs between him and Nella, and between him and Costanza, not to her. She says she feels bad too, and questions whether their shared unhappiness can simply be taken as proof of love. Part of her wants to ask how harmful feelings can spread through a person alongside goodness, but Andrea hears the possible sarcasm rather than the deeper question and continues his defense. At home, Giovanna kisses him on the side of the mouth and runs away, repelled by the smell she notices on him. The conversation gives her information, not reconciliation.

The episode’s decisive reversal is that the party’s gestures of welcome cannot keep the adults’ history outside the room. Costanza’s appeal to conceal the bracelet, Angela and Ida’s claims on it, Andrea’s order to return it, and Costanza’s insistence that it is Giovanna’s make the family’s silences visible through a single object. Andrea’s confession then reveals why the bracelet has carried conflicting loyalties for so long. The visit briefly restores the girls’ companionship, but it also teaches Giovanna that adults can forbid lies while relying on concealment themselves, and that love and injury may occupy the same act.