Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“We must give thanks for this day and every day, no matter how flawed. Bow your heads, give your gratitude to God, and have faith in him, and in a better tomorrow.” 

While Pino has heard Father Re say these words hundreds of times before, they take on a new import, as Pino is grateful to be away from the bombing in Milan. At this point in his life, Pino is eager to look forward to a better tomorrow.

“The distance doesn’t matter. Just think about your next step.”

Pino is helping Luigi make it through their trek through the Alps and across the border to Switzerland to escape the Nazis. Pino means this literally, as they need to be careful as they hike, but the quote is also a metaphor for how to persevere through trying times. 

“‘The small luxuries of life are how we survive what the mind can’t fathom.’”

Luigi is speaking with Pino about his family continuing to play music in their house on the first night of the bombings in Milan. When Luigi attempts to explain Michele’s actions to Pino, he implies that Michele is employing coping mechanisms and is aware of the bigger picture; Pino is not yet at that point.

“‘We can’t stop loving our fellow man, Pino, because we’re frightened. If we lose love, all is lost.’”

Father Re and Pino discuss the atrocities the Nazis have committed and understand that they risk their lives by helping the refugees escape to Switzerland. Despite this, Father Re decides to continue to help refugees and tells Pino they must get smarter about doing so.

“‘No good-byes among old friends.’”

Mrs. Napolitano has tears in her eyes as Pino departs after helping her escape to Switzerland. They are old friends—she was one of the musicians playing at the Lellas’ apartment on the first night of the bombing in Milan.

“That sounded like love, Pino thought. When I fall in love, I think it will feel just like that.”

Pino compares the passion that Mrs. Napolitano puts into her playing of “Nessun Dorma” to the feeling of being in love. The music makes him feel incredibly happy as he heads back into Italy after having helped a group of refugees escape.

“‘We have ears everywhere, you know, Father. The Gestapo is like God. We hear all things.’”

After Rauff compares the Gestapo to God, Father Re reminds Rauff that even if he holds the priest’s life in his hands, it still doesn’t make Rauff God. Father Re is defiant as Rauff searches Casa Alpina for refugees. 

“‘How can you survive what life throws at you if you cannot laugh and love, and are they not the same thing?’” 

It’s been a long time since Mr. Beltramini and Pino have seen each other. Mr. Beltramini shares his advice for carrying on through rough times. When Pino asks about Mr. Beltramini’s wife, however, Mr. Beltramini’s smile and laugh disappear: She only has less than six months left to live.

“The world doesn’t work like this, he tried to tell himself. The world is not sick and evil like this.”

Pino wills himself to believe that what he’s seeing isn’t reality. He hears the screams as prisoners are being executed in Piazzale Loreto. Tullio is among the executed prisoners.

“‘By opening our hearts, revealing our scars, we are made human and flawed and whole.’” 

Anna shares a quote that someone once told her. She doesn’t want to show Pino her flawed, human side just yet. She wants things to remain a fantasy—an escape from the war.

“‘It’s all I really want—happiness, every day for the rest of my life. Sometimes happiness comes to us. But usually you have to seek it out.’” 

Anna and Pino share a meal together, and Anna tells Pino that happiness is the only thing she wants in life. Pino seems surprised that her answer is so simple and straightforward; however, his reaction is ironic, given that finding and sustaining happiness can be complex, especially in times of war. 

“‘If you stay too close to someone like Hitler, you are going to burn someday.’”

Leyers explains to Pino his philosophy of being a man who works in the shadows. Leyers believes it’s a good thing that he’s working in Italy and not in Germany, close to Hitler. It’s apparent that Leyers knows Hitler is unhinged and dangerous to be around.

“‘In the game of life, it is always preferable to be a man of the shadows, and even the darkness, if necessary. In this way, you run things, but you are never, ever seen. You are like a…phantom of the opera.’” 

Leyers is drunk in the back of the car as Pino drives him to Milan after saving him from a British fighter pilot’s ambush. Leyers waxes poetic about his philosophy on life and how he’s made it so far.

“‘When you have done men favors, when you look out for others so they can prosper, they owe you. With each favor, you become stronger, more supported. It is a law of nature.’” 

Leyers shares a piece of advice with Pino that he says might change Pino’s life. This advice also foreshadows how Leyers is ultimately able to have the Americans help him escape to Austria.

“‘The best thing is to grieve for the people you loved and lost, and then welcome and love the new people life puts in front of you.’”

Anna attempts to offer Pino advice on how to bear his recent losses. Pino recalls the murder of his friend Tullio. On top of that, Pino’s family and friends think he’s a Nazi and a traitor.

“‘Do what I sometimes do when I get scared: imagine you’re someone else, someone who’s far braver and smarter.’”

Pino tells this to Anna as they prepare to sneak a shortwave radio past the SS guards at his parents’ apartment. Pino tells Anna that she makes him unafraid, but Anna admits to being terrified.

“Maybe that’s all it takes for the future to exist, Pino thought. You must imagine it first. You must dream it first.”

Pino allows himself to dream of what his life will be like after the war has ended. He has a sense that time and possibilities are limitless. He dreams of traveling to America, seeing the world, and being with Anna. 

“‘Working a man to death is the same as shooting a man to death,’ the priest said. ‘Just a different choice of weapons.’”

Pino returns to Casa Alpina to seek Father Re’s counsel. Deep in his heart, he believes that what Leyers is doing is evil, but Pino also knows the situation is complicated. He asks Father Re for his opinion.

“As far as Pino was concerned, wars were about murder and thievery. One army killed to steal the hill; then another killed to steal it back.”

After watching the Germans lose a battle for Monte della Torraccia and Monte Castello, Pino is completely disillusioned about war. Leyers seems unconcerned by the loss of life that he witnessed; this makes Pino sick to his stomach.

“It all made Pino realize that the earth did not know war, that nature would go on no matter what horror one man might inflict on another. Nature didn’t care a bit about men and their need to kill and conquer.”

Pino waits with Leyers on a vantage point above Lake Comacchio. As they wait for the destruction of the Allied forces to come, Pino notes how serene everything looks around them; the beauty of nature persists despite the atrocities of war.

“‘To be young and in love. Isn’t it remarkable that something like that can happen in the middle of a war? It says something about the inherent goodness of life, despite all the evil we’ve seen.’”

Uncle Albert is both amazed and happy to hear that Pino has fallen in love with Anna over the course of the war. Uncle Albert seems optimistic now that the war is over, and Pino is grateful for him.

“‘To the end of homicidal dictators with weird black bangs and puny square mustaches!’”

American GIs crack jokes about the end of the war and the downfall of Hitler. Pino must translate so that the Italian girls at the party can laugh along.

“‘Faith is a strange creature,’ Schuster said. ‘Like a falcon that nests year after year in the same place, but then flies away, sometimes for years, only to return again, stronger than ever.’”

Pino has completely abandoned all faith in a better future after Anna is executed. He is on the verge of suicide, on the roof of the Duomo, when Cardinal Schuster tries to talk him down. Cardinal Schuster explains to Pino that even in the most desperate of times, all hope is not lost.