The first pages of the novel are set in Tuscany. A beautiful villa in the countryside between Siena and Lucca, with a clear blue swimming pool between olive trees.
“Had it been for her, now they would be probably sitting at the coffee table that he had placed in the most distant part of the garden, in front of the sloping hills leading to the horizon of that part of Tuscany.”
The glorious region of Tuscany is a picture-postcard destination in northwest Italy. Great artists and visionaries such as Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Galileo made Tuscany the birthplace of the Renaissance. Several towns and cities are designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites and superb villages are available at every corner. History, culture and local traditions, merge with mouth-watering Tuscan cuisine and wines (Chianti wines, Brunello di Montalcino, Nobile di Montepulciano, Bolgheri, Sangiovese).
The novel also is partially set in Elba Island, a Mediterranean island facing the east of Tuscany. Elba is the biggest island of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest in Italy after Sardinia and Sicily. The island of Elba is famous around the world for harboring French Emperor Napoleon in 1814 during his exile. But its history goes back to prehistory, with the Ilvati tribe from Liguria who named the island Ilva. It was then inhabited first by the Etruscans and later by the Romans, who really appreciated the island and its rich deposits of iron and its mud baths. Today Elba is famous for its clear and blue sea and beautiful beaches.