Love & Gelato

The next morning, Lina enlists Ren’s help. She is determined to talk to Francesca Bernardi, her mother’s old friend, and figure out the true identity of X. She feels sad for Howard all “alone in the cemetery with his muffins and old music” (238). She worries about telling him the truth since they’ve begun to build a caring friendship.

Ren and Lina head to the Fine Arts Academy to track down Francesca, who is now a famous fashion photographer. While they wait for an address from one of the professors, Lina notices one of her mother’s photographs, a portrait of an old woman, hanging on the wall. Lina asks the professor whether he remembers Hadley Emerson. He gives an enthusiastic yes. She was a talented and driven artist of enormous promise. Lina presses him about who X might be, but the professor offers nothing.

Using the information the academy provides, Lina phones Francesca. The woman remembers Hadley Emerson. She tells Lina about Hadley’s disastrous relationship with Matteo Rossi, an art professor at the academy. Francesca has no idea where Professor Rossi lives now or whether he is even alive. But Francesca is interested in how Lina is 16 and Hadley abruptly left Italy 16 years ago.