La Calamita

La Calamita represents both hubris and the end. For Luca, it is a symbol of his ego and belief that he is on top of the world. This is why he is willing to build on a mass graveyard and bury the ominous and painful history of the island with his own success. This is also why La Calamita is destroyed in a flood at the end of the novel. The lives of those buried on the island are still important, and the villa’s end is an allegory for the transition of Charlotte’s idolization of Luca to her understanding that he is not the person she thought he was.

San Zaccaria

San Zaccaria represents the oppression of women throughout history and the ways they sought to overcome it. Charlotte learns throughout her time in Italy that many women were forced into convents to...