The Venice Sketchbook

Caroline helps Granny with preparations after Lettie’s death, and she gives up her London apartment to move in with Granny just before the funeral. She buys a ticket to Venice. Once everything is planned, she calls Josh to let him know.

Josh sounds shocked, and Caroline enjoys catching him off guard. When she asks to talk to Teddy and Josh tries to put her off, saying Teddy is in the bath, Caroline insists: “I said I want to speak to my son” (101). Surprised, Josh relents. Teddy is excited about school in America, and Caroline hangs up praying she can still get him back.

In Venice, Caroline asks about the Pensione Regina, where Lettie stayed, but no one seems to know it. She is pointed to another pensione. That night, the concierge unsuccessfully tries to help Caroline figure out what Lettie’s keys might be for.

Caroline begins to wonder if Lettie wanted her to come to Venice to heal.

Caroline spends the day exploring Venice. She recognizes locations from Lettie’s sketches, but still has no luck determining the use of the keys. The next day she ventures out to find an art supply store, wondering if she should start to draw again—if Lettie had wanted her to start to draw again.

She stops at a bank’s ATM and recognizes its logo from one of her keys. Inside, she is told that it is a key to one of their safe deposit boxes, and a banker shows her to Lettie’s safe deposit box. Inside the box is a deed, giving Lettie a 99-year lease on a Venice apartment.

Caroline makes her way to the apartment, trying not to get her hopes up about a Venice vacation home with 40 years left on its lease. The building is undergoing renovations, and a man tries to stop her from going upstairs, claiming it is private property belonging to the Da Rossi family. He says the family would never have given a foreigner a lease to their building, and insists that there is no fourth floor, only a rooftop shack. Caroline finds a door and is able to open it with one of the other keys Lettie left her. She rushes up the stairs despite the man’s warnings about safety, and the man is shocked when they find not a shaded altana but a lovely, furnished apartment.

It’s 1939. Juliet is in Venice yet again, this time to study at La Accademia di Belle Arti (the Academy of Fine Arts) as a visiting student. An unidentified patron with granddaughters at the school where she was teaching has offered to send a teacher abroad for a year to be exposed to another culture, and the headmistress, Miss Huxtable, asked Juliet if she would like to go. Juliet was hesitant to leave her mother, but Miss Huxtable suggested she ask Aunt Hortensia to look after her, and Aunt Hortensia agreed.

As she arrives in Venice, Juliet reminds herself that Leo would be married by now, and that she hardly knows him anyway. She wonders if she will fit in at the school, being older than the other students and much more disillusioned with life.

She enrolls in classes and receives a list of available apartments, continuing to fight feelings of inadequacy and doubt. She wonders, “What did I hope to achieve […] except for living for a year in the city of my fantasy? I doubted I’d ever be a good enough painter to sell my work, and these days who had money for paintings?” (128). Nonetheless, she is determined to enjoy her experience, and she sets off to find an apartment.

Juliet goes to the first address on her list, as it is the closest to the accademia. The building is shabby but respectable, and the room for rent has a partial view of the Grand Canal, which pleases Juliet.

The landlady, Signora Martinelli, tells Juliet that she locks up every night at 10 o’clock, Juliet recalls the night she last saw Leo, when she had to be back to the convent before 10 o’clock at night and he kissed her in the darkness before saying goodbye. Once Signora Martinelli leaves, Juliet whispers to herself: “No men in my room” (135).

Juliet explores the city and buys supplies for her upcoming classes. As she pauses to admire the window of a jewelry shop she hears someone say goodbye to “Signora Da Rossi,” a young, beautiful woman who is leaving the shop. This must be Bianca, Leo’s wife. The woman meets a man at the end of the street and shows off her purchase; they kiss, he helps her put on the necklace, and they part ways.

Juliet feels angry, as she suspects Bianca is having an affair. Despite her anger, she tries to put it out of her mind, but the sighting makes her realize that Venice is small enough that she may indeed run into Leo. She hopes she will have the willpower to resist her feelings for him.

Juliet’s first lesson is in painting with freedom of expression. The professor tells the class to paint an image that includes a church, a face, and an orange. When he sees her “perfectly correct” image of a person standing in a church holding an orange, he instructs her to think differently, creating one “whole” image out of the three items. He deems her next painting “progress.”

The professor invites the foreign students to a welcome dinner at his home that night. There they discuss the potential coming war. The difference in views is represented by Imelda, a Spaniard whose father had to flee from the regime of General Franco, and Franz, who is Austrian but claims that “We are all German” (143).

Nonetheless, the group agrees to be friends and support one another. Juliet realizes she hasn’t had friends in quite some time and is excited to be part of a group, feeling as if she has “emerged from a cocoon” (145).

At dinner that evening, Juliet is introduced to Contessa Fiorito, a patron of the arts, and Vittorio, a man who acquires art for the Contessa. The contessa posed for several famous artists, including Manet and Picasso, and she has kept the sketches several of them gave her. She was born in Poland and is Jewish, but she married an Italian count.

The contessa invites Juliet to one of her regular soirees that Sunday, telling her to bring the other foreign students. Juliet ends the night on a high, excited and exhilarated. She is part of a group of art students, and she has received an invitation to a contessa’s home less than a week into her stay in Venice.

Signora Martinelli is impressed that Juliet received an invitation from a contessa. Juliet attends mass with her out of curiosity, but the foreign traditions and families joined in worship make her feel alone, a feeling heightened by the sight of a child dancing to a street organ player’s music later that day.

At the soiree that evening, the contessa introduces Juliet to several people, including, to Juliet’s shock, the Conte Da Rossi—Leo’s father. To her relief, Leo and Bianca are not in attendance. She is also introduced to is Reginald Sinclair, His Majesty’s consul in Venice.

Mr. Sinclair does indeed see war on the horizon, but he shares that Venice has remained somewhat “civilized,” avoiding implementing some of Il Duce’s worst laws against Jews. Juliet reflects that, although she knew war loomed, she never considered that she might be in danger.

At the soiree, Juliet chats with her classmate Henry, who is expected to go home to work for his father’s automobile company at the end of the year. Juliet recognizes that, like her, Henry is following his duty and living someone else’s life instead of the life he wants. After she has a brief exchange with Franz, Henry suggests Juliet be careful, as he suspects Franz may be a German spy.

Then, it’s time for the reveal of the contessa’s latest acquisition. It is a piece of modern art, a painting by a Jewish man in Germany who paints under an assumed name. Her companion managed to smuggle it out of the country underneath one of the Nazi-approved pastoral paintings. The contessa has tried to convince the artist to escape, but he will not leave his aging parents. He believes that he is safe, as he is a valued employee at his job and he does not sign his paintings with his real name. Franz asks what town he is from, and the contessa shares it, although she does not share his real name. Juliet wonders if Henry is right about Franz.

The art students leave early to catch the vaporetto, the Venetian public waterbus. The count also leaves early, and when he sees how long the line for the vaporetto is, he insists on giving the students a ride in his own boat. To everyone’s surprise, even the count’s, it is Leo driving the boat rather than their servant. Leo is shocked to see Juliet and reveals they know one another, although he tells his father they met last year at the Biennale.

Juliet wonders why she thought this trip was a good idea, why she thought she could avoid Leo. He asks if she lives near the accademia, but she resists giving her address to him. When they land, she waits until his boat is out of sight, then crosses the bridge.