The Venice Sketchbook

Juliet’s Venice community is made up of the foreign art students, Contessa Fiorito, Hanni, Angelo, and Francesca. Each of these characters form an important part of the support network that Juliet builds during her extended time in Venice, beginning in 1939. Her first friends are the other visiting art students, whom she meets in her first class. They include Henry from the US, Gaston from France, Imelda from Spain, and Franz from Austria. They form a “small League of Nations” (144), as Gaston puts it, and provide one another with companionship and support as fellow newcomers to the city. Juliet struggles to confide in any of them as they confide in her, but when she becomes pregnant, Imelda recognizes the signs and acts as Juliet’s first confidante. Henry is the student with whom Juliet becomes closest. He is easy-going and sweet, and he often needs support with the language and getting around the city when they arrive. After the group’s first meeting, Juliet feels hopeful: “It was exciting to be part of a group of people—people who teased and expressed opinions and had different views. I felt as if I had just emerged from a cocoon” (146). They become her first friends after the long years of isolation in her mother’s village and at the school where she taught. Most of them are trustworthy friends, but Henry plants seeds of doubt about Franz, believing he is a German spy. This is never confirmed, but Juliet believes she sees signs that Franz is too interested in the contessa’s Jewish artist friends.

Contessa Fiorito becomes a good friend early on, and she is an essential part of Juliet’s support system once war breaks out. A Polish émigré of Jewish heritage, she married an Italian count and became a well-respected patron of the arts in Venice. The contessa introduces Juliet to modern art outside of classes and encourages Juliet’s artistic growth, welcoming Juliet into her elite group of friends. When Juliet’s identification and ration cards are taken partway through the war, the contessa gives Juliet a place to stay and food from her garden and larder. The contessa also supports Jewish refugees, helping as many as she can to escape the Nazis and make new lives in Italy. In the end, she is one of the many people Juliet loses, as the Nazis invade Venice and send Jewish citizens to camps, despite the contessa’s assurances to Juliet that her position will protect her.

Francesca becomes another essential part of Juliet’s support system during the war. When Juliet’s landlady discovers the pregnancy and throws her out, Leo provides Juliet with an apartment and hires Francesca to clean and cook for Juliet. She helps deliver the child when Juliet’s labor progresses quickly, and she helps Juliet access food and other necessities when she is in danger as a foreign enemy in Venice. Juliet believes she can be trusted, but when Juliet and Hanni are captured by Nazis, an officer tells her that Francesca betrayed them out of antisemitism.

Hanni and Angelo are the children who teach Juliet how to love more deeply. Angelo is her son with Leo, born during the war. Juliet insists on caring for him until he is old enough to be weaned, and she is given more time when Leo goes away for longer than expected. While Leo is gone, his wife Bianca decides that the heir should finally be brought to the palazzo, so she has Da Rossi men take Leo from the apartment while Juliet is away. Despite her devastation, Juliet finds that her love for Angelo helped her open herself to loving others, including Hanni.

Hanni is the daughter of Anton Gottfried, the former first violinist of the Vienna Staatsoper orchestra. They are a Jewish family, and her parents find an opportunity to smuggle the girl out of Austria, although they are unable to leave with her. The contessa takes her in, and both the contessa and Juliet adore her. Juliet tries to save Hanni when the contessa is taken, but Nazi soldiers find them before they board their second train to Stresa and send Hanni to a concentration camp. Juliet spends the rest of her life feeling grief and guilt over being unable to protect Hanni, and she is unable to return to teaching after the war because the students remind her of her young friend.