The Venice Sketchbook

Juliet decides to go out for food and supplies before rationing begins in earnest, leaving Angelo with Francesca. She encounters carabinieri, rather than the city police, and they harass her, asking for her papers and threatening to take her to a camp.

A woman yells at them to leave Juliet alone. It is the woman who fell into the water with Juliet. More women come out and join her, telling the carabinieri they can’t come into their city and bully people. The woman, Constanta, tells Juliet where she lives and to come to her if she needs anything.

Leo hears about the altercation and rushes to Juliet. He loves her, but he wants her to be safe, and he insists she go to Switzerland. She is unwilling but knows she may not have a choice. Leo asks her to stay home until he can sort something out.

A couple of days later, Leo returns with a dead woman’s identity card and papers, and a ration card. He tells her she still needs to be careful.

Juliet receives her instructions for the radio from a strange English man and sets up a hiding place for the pamphlets under a floorboard, but for some time she doesn’t have news to report.

On the Feast of the Redeemer, the same feast during which she made love to Leo the year before, Juliet watches the pilgrims from her window. She doesn’t regret the past year. She loves Angelo with all her heart, a kind of love she had not known existed.

Juliet stays in Venice with Angelo. She visits the contessa, and they discuss what they are hearing of the treatment of Jews in Germany. The contessa assures Juliet that hardly anyone knows she is a Jew, and those who do appreciate her contributions to the art world. She worries about Juliet, however. Juliet assures her that she has papers now and Leo has taught her how to say several things in the Venetian dialect, since carabinieri from other parts of Italy don’t normally understand it.

The contessa asks Juliet to do something for her. She has helped a 12-year-old girl escape. She asks Juliet to meet the girl at the train station and take her to the contessa’s home.

At the station, Juliet is struck by how young and alone the girl is. The contessa is equally moved, embracing the girl and telling Juliet that she looks just as the contessa did when she was younger. Juliet worries that Italy will start treating Jews like Germany.

It is already Christmas again. Despite rationing, Juliet finds small ways to celebrate and find joy in the holiday with Angelo. Leo joins her, and he gives her his grandmother’s ring as a sign that he would have married her if he could.

As Juliet becomes emotional, they kiss, but Juliet pulls away, reminding him of the result of their last encounter. He assures her he simply wants to hold and kiss her, and they spend the holiday in each other’s arms.

Juliet spends her days caring for Angelo and basking in her time with him. She feels proud to be helping her country when she reports a mysterious ship leaving port.

She also spends time with the contessa and Hanni, the girl she saved. The girl worries about her parents’ safety. Juliet realizes she will have to hand Angelo over soon.

She and Leo celebrate Angelo’s first birthday, and Leo urges her to give Angelo to him. Juliet feels as if she will be left with nothing, but Leo reminds her that giving Angelo up will protect both of them, enabling her to go somewhere safe and him to be adopted by a rich Italian family with ties to Mussolini.

One day, Leo comes in a rush and tells her he has to go away for a time; he can’t tell her where but he looks worried.

Juliet doesn’t feel unsafe, because she knows her neighbors and has built a community around herself. She also realizes there is a way she can keep Angelo—she can claim she adopted an Italian orphan when she returns to England. She decides she must wait to say goodbye to Leo before she goes.

At a checkpoint, an officer examines Juliet’s identity card more closely, not believing it is her. He orders her to report to the questura in the morning, with her child. Juliet, panicking, realizes they only have the address of the dead woman whose ID she took. She won’t go to the questura, but just to be safe, she packs some things, takes money out of the account from Leo, and goes with Angelo to the contessa, leaving a coded note for Leo.

The contessa tells Juliet to stay with her for several weeks, and proposes Juliet help Hanni with her lessons. Juliet feels guilty seeing ships leave harbor, now that she no longer has her radio. She worries that British troops may die because she has chosen to put her own safety ahead of her reports.

Life goes on for Juliet and her friends. She and Angelo continue to live with the contessa, but Juliet, feeling guilty about abandoning her duties reporting ship movements, spends some days at the apartment to observe the port. She grows closer with Hanni, who is becoming fluent in Italian and loves to play with Angelo. Juliet feels more open to love since having Angelo—she cares deeply for Hanni and the contessa. Things begin to feel more optimistic as the US. joins the war on the side of the Allies. Leo, however, has not returned, and she has heard nothing from him.

Juliet shops for Christmas gifts for her loved ones in the city. When she returns to her apartment, Francesca tells her that men came for Angelo. Francesca tried to fight them, but they overpowered her. She believed they were Da Rossi men, finally coming to claim Angelo.

Juliet rushes to the Da Rossi palazzo, barging in and confronting Bianca. Bianca tells Juliet she knows who she is and has for some time. She tells Juliet there is no child except for their heir, Angelo Da Rossi. Juliet asks if Leo ordered this, and Bianca says he did. She claims he left instructions for her before he left, but she couldn’t be bothered before, as she doesn’t care for children. But they haven’t heard from him in months and she assumes he is dead, so it is important to have the heir under their roof. She has her servants remove Juliet from the premises.

Juliet, struggling to accept what has happened, documents the events in her journal before locking it into her desk’s secret compartment.

Caroline, still in Venice, wonders why she hasn’t gone home. She feels guilty about Luca, believing she slept with him to get back at Josh and to feel as if she’s still a desirable woman. She doesn’t believe Luca wants more than this affair, but he visits her often.

Meanwhile, she worries more and more about Teddy. Josh emails her to say the psychiatrist still thinks Teddy shouldn’t go on planes.

Luca’s mother, the contessa, makes a surprise visit to Caroline’s flat. She has been thinking about Caroline’s situation, and she offers to have her brother, a high-powered lawyer in New York, write Josh a letter. When Caroline says she wouldn’t be able to afford him, the contessa says he would do it as a favor for his sister. The contessa says that she’s never seen Luca so happy and that she hopes things work out.

As Caroline considers all of this, her gaze lands on her grandmother’s desk and she is struck by how large it is. She realizes the drawers are not as deep as the desk itself. Realizing what this might mean, she searches the drawers and finds the hidden compartment. Her final key opens it, and inside she finds Juliet’s journals from her time in Venice. Caroline learns the whole story, but it stops right after Angelo is taken to the Da Rossi palazzo, so she still doesn’t know how and when Juliet got to Switzerland or whether she ever saw Leo again.

Caroline calls Luca and asks him to come over to read the journals himself. It’s an emotional story for both of them. Luca has illegally procured his grandmother’s medical records, which they use to confirm that Juliet, not Bianca, was indeed Angelo’s mother. They decide not to tell Angelo or Caroline’s grandmother. Caroline invites Luca to join her in spreading Lettie’s ashes. They find the tree where Juliet and Leo picnicked in 1928, and they each scatter some of the ashes, Luca saying he wishes he had known his grandmother.

As they head back to the main part of Venice on his boat, Luca tells her that he and his mother think Caroline should go to New York herself and get Teddy. He has a business trip there and offers to accompany her. She cannot bring herself to look at him, but she tells him that yes, he can, if he wants. He replies that he does.

Juliet’s journal begins again in 1942. She says she does not wish to write, but she believes some of the events of her life and the city should be recorded.

Juliet lives in despair over the loss of Angelo and Leo’s disappearance. She tries to spy on the Da Rossi palazzo to catch glimpses of Angelo, but she realizes how dangerous this is when a man confronts her and she only escapes by claiming to be bird watching.

Juliet cares about little now that she has lost Angelo, but her sense of duty keeps her from abandoning her job watching the port. She hasn’t received new codes in some time, however, and worries that Italian soldiers have found her out and are now listening in.

The journal entries are intermittent, with an entire year between two of them. Italy finally abandons Hitler and joins the Allies, but Germany invades in retaliation. Venice is overrun by Nazi soldiers, and Juliet hears about a camp that has been built near the Lido—near the contessa—where they send Jewish Venetians. The contessa assures Juliet that her position will keep her safe, but just in case, she shows Juliet her most precious works of art, hidden even from Vittorio. They include Picasso sketches and works from other modernists. She has left them to Juliet in her will, and if the worst happens, she wants Juliet to take them somewhere safe.

The Germans commandeer the boats, so Juliet cannot return to the contessa for some time. Eventually, worried over her and Hanni’s safety, she asks a fisherman to take her with him to the Lido. When a Nazi soldier stops them, he tells the soldier that she is his wife. He says to her afterward that he didn’t want a good Venetian girl to be taken, and Juliet feels proud that her Italian is good enough for him to take her as a native.

When she gets to the contessa’s home, it is empty. Suddenly she hears a noise and turns to find Hanni emerging from a hiding spot. Hanni tells Juliet that men came to take the contessa, but the contessa was able to tell Hanni to hide before they got inside. Hanni has been hiding ever since. They hear a noise, and Juliet tells her to hide again.

It is Vittorio. He asks about the contessa, and Juliet tells him the contessa went away to family. He is particularly interested in Hanni, but Juliet tells him the contessa would have taken Hanni with her, because she is so fond of her. He looks around the home, claiming to be looking for keys so he can grab the contessa’s artwork and take it somewhere safe. However, Juliet doesn’t trust him. She manages to get him to go to another part of the house, then she tells Hanni to leave and hide in the bushes until she comes back. Juliet finds the secret artwork the contessa had shown her and hides it in her coat. She says goodbye to Vittorio, then, when the coast is clear, takes Hanni and leaves, instructing Hanni on what to say if they are stopped by soldiers. Juliet takes Hanni to stay with her in her apartment. She hopes that the contessa will be released due to her important position.

Juliet and Hanni try to stay inside as much as possible. Two weeks into Hanni’s stay, Juliet sneaks back to the contessa’s home and grabs as much food as she can, nothing that the artwork is gone from the walls. Vittorio must have betrayed the contessa and helped himself to her collection—he must have been looking for Hanni to send her to a camp, as well.

One day, Juliet finds a note to meet at “my tree”—it must be from Leo, although she worries it is a trap. She goes anyway and finds Leo, who admits to having been helping the Allies, because he believes what Mussolini and the Nazis are doing is wrong. He tells her he is a wanted man and must go back to the Allies, but he has arranged for her to travel to Stresa and then escape to Switzerland. He tells her he will leave as soon as she is away and safe, and that he will meet her in Switzerland when he can. Juliet feels hopeful.

She and Hanni leave in the morning. They take their first train without any problems, but as they head to the next train, to Stresa, they are stopped by a German officer. He takes them to his superior officer, who orders his soldiers to take Hanni away.

The officer reveals that he knows who Juliet is; Francesca, who does not like Jews, revealed that Hanni was staying with Juliet. The Nazis searched Juliet’s apartment and found the radio, so they know she has been reporting to the British army and helping a Jew escape. He says Hanni will be sent to a camp for Jews, likely in Poland, and Juliet will be sent to a camp for non-Jews. She isn’t allowed to say goodbye to Hanni before she is thrown into a truck.

Juliet is in a German prison camp, but it is run by Italians, so it is not as bad as it might have been. Sometimes guards let them avoid the cold weather during roll call or share their cigarette. The women in the camp avoid befriending one another. They are all traumatized. The conditions are bad, with bed bugs, minimal food, and thin clothing in winter.

Their camp abuts the men’s camp, and one day, Juliet recognizes Leo through the gate. They speak at the gate, each sharing that they were betrayed. A guard tries to stop them speaking, but Leo tells him that Juliet is the love of his life and the mother of his child. The Italian guard is touched and tells them that when he is on guard, they can meet behind the guardhouse. He admits he hates the Germans, but that he needs to feed his family.

Leo reaches out to his father-in-law, who is still in favor with Germany, and who sends him a letter granting his release. It says only that “the bearer” of the letter can leave the camp, so he gives it to Juliet. He assures her he has already written to his father-in-law claiming a vengeful guard ripped it up, so he needs another. He will get the replacement letter and meet her in Switzerland, then they will escape to America or Australia and spend their lives together. He says Angelo must stay in Italy as his heir, but they can have more children.

Juliet leaves reluctantly. She makes it to Stresa, but can’t find a boatman willing to risk his life for her. When a bad storm begins and the shutters of homes are closed against the rain, she steals a boat and rows across the lake. She rows until she has blisters, resting once under a willow tree. Finally, she sees snowy mountain peaks ahead and realizes she has reached Switzerland.

It is December 1945, and Juliet is bound for England. She waited for Leo in Switzerland during the war, but he never came. She wonders if he never escaped or if he returned to his family in Venice, but eventually she writes to his father and receives a short reply informing her that Leo was shot trying to escape from the camp in 1943.

After recovering in a Swiss hospital, Juliet got a job teaching girls in a Swiss convent. When the war ended, she didn’t immediately go home. Instead, she helped refugee children, hoping to find Hanni. Then the world found out what had been happening in German camps, and she lost hope. She feels as if she failed Hanni, and she refuses to go back to teaching because the girls remind her of her failure.

Juliet also decides she will never return to Venice, even to see if Angelo is thriving. There are too many painful memories. Instead, she will return to England and begin a new life, one where she shuts away her heart and never paints again.

She writes that she intended to keep her final journal, but that she has decided she doesn’t want anyone else to read them, nor does she want to reread them: “The only stories worth reading have happy endings” (393). She will rip the pages up and throw them in the ocean, as if this part of her life had never happened.

Caroline is on a flight home to England, where Luca will join her. He has booked them flights to New York and a room at the Plaza hotel, claiming he will file it as a business expense.

She feels hopeful and lighter, and she is excited to see Luca again. Meanwhile, Josh has been emailing her, indicating that he is unhappy with Desiree and might want to come home. She realizes she doesn’t want him back. He said he married her out of duty, and she may have done the same. That, and she was young and sheltered when she met him; she didn’t know what real love was.

Instead, Caroline looks forward to a potential future with Luca, although she knows it’s too early to make serious decisions. She wonders if Lettie left her the box so she could find happiness in Venice, thereby completing the life Lettie had been denied.

As the plane takes off, she peruses the sketches she found, curious about why they were stashed away. She recognizes that some aren’t in Lettie’s style, and when she turns one over, she finds Picasso’s signature. She remembers that the contessa posed for several young artists who later became famous, and she realizes these must be from those sessions. Caroline might be a very rich woman, and while there is still research to do, she knows Luca will help her.

She’s excited to share the sketches with Luca, and she looks forward to seeing Josh’s face when she arrives in New York with Luca at her side, ready to take Teddy home.