One Italian Summer

One Italian Summer is a 2022 novel by Rebecca Serle. Author of the New York Times best-selling novel In Five Years (2020), Serle has published eight novels within the contemporary fiction and young adult genres.

Focusing on a mother-daughter relationship, the novel is told through the first-person narrative voice of Katy Silver, who must learn to navigate life after the death of her mother, Carol Silver. The novel explores the importance of self-discovery and how to deal with grief as Katy and her mother learn more about each other than they have in the past through magical elements within the realistic settings of California and Italy.

This guide uses the 2023 Atria paperback edition.

Plot Summary

The novel, starting off in California, begins a week after Carol Silver’s death after a prolonged illness. Her daughter, Katy, is devastated by the loss of her mother, and she starts to contemplate the decisions that she has made so far in life. Since her mother’s passing, Katy has stayed with her father, Chuck, as they grieve their loss. Throughout the process of losing her mother, Katy questions her marriage and tells her husband, Eric, that she wants a divorce.

After another few days go by, Katy returns to her and Eric’s house. Katy plans to go to Positano, Italy on the mother-daughter trip that she planned with Carol. Carol felt a deep connection to the city because she spent time there as a child and a 30-year-old, so she booked a trip for the duo before she passed away. Rather than taking anyone else with her, Katy decides to head to Italy alone and uses this time to take space from Eric.

Arriving in Positano, Katy stays at the Hotel Poseidon, where she meets the owner, Marco, and his daughter, Nika, along with a fellow Californian, Adam Westbrooke. As a lover of Italy and Hotel Poseidon, Adam, who works for a developer, attempts to buy the hotel. However, Marco refuses to sell his family’s business, despite Nika’s belief that selling will save the hotel’s future.

At the beginning of her trip, Katy sees a younger version of her mother when she drops off a package to be mailed at Hotel Poseidon. Almost immediately, Katy recognizes this woman as the 30-year-old version of Carol, which happens to be the age that Carol was during the summer that she spent in Positano by herself. Carol, who is delighted to meet another solo-traveling young American woman, invites Katy to spend time with her, and the pair arranges to meet later that day.

Despite questioning whether this younger version of Carol is real, Katy decides to spend much of her trip with her and is happy to have a chance to spend time with her mother. They take a boat to a nearby restaurant with Carol’s friend, Remo, where they spend the day together. Due to their friendly demeanor and comfort with each other, Katy questions whether Carol and Remo are together. Once Katy gets back to her hotel, she eats dinner with Adam and relishes the time spent with a man who does not know anything about her.

On the next day of her trip, Katy and Carol run into each other on a hike, and Carol tells her that she will be busy planning a design proposal for a famous hotel, the Sirenuse. However, they do decide to meet for dinner, and, upon her arrival back in Hotel Poseidon, Katy spends the day with Adam. They go sight-seeing, and Katy finds herself attracted to Adam, which she finds conflicting due to her marriage with Eric.

During dinner, Katy confides in Carol about her marriage with Eric and the grief that she feels for her mother’s death, to which Carol provides her with the motherly advice that Katy was wanting. They spend the rest of the night dancing with Remo, which causes Katy to further question his relationship with Carol. However, she assures Katy that they are nothing more than friends. When Katy returns to the hotel, Adam sits on the terrace, where Katy kisses him. She quickly runs away in guilt after remembering Eric. The next day, Adam and Katy have a romantic dinner during which they talk about his previous relationship and her marriage. Adam admits that he struggles to maintain long term relationships due to traveling often for work but attempts to kiss Katy again. However, she stops him.

After unsuccessfully looking for young Carol, Katy runs into Adam on a hike, and she asks him to accompany her to Capri. They spend the day swimming and lounging in the sun before he takes her to Faraglioni. Although they do not kiss, Adam holds her hand, and the two share an intimate moment before the famous Italian landmark. Two days later, Katy and Adam go to Naples, which she finds to be dirty and chaotic in comparison to Positano. However, Katy grows to enjoy the community in the city. During their time in Naples, Adam tells Katy about losing his sister when he was young, and the two share a moment of compassion over losing loved ones. Adam also tells Katy about how watching his mother experience the loss of her daughter caused him to be fearful of fully opening up to another person.

On the next day in Positano, Katy spends the evening with Carol in her apartment, where she tells Katy stories about her childhood. Katy uses this as an opportunity to ask questions about her grandparents and seek more advice on her marriage with Eric as she continues to develop an attraction for Adam. However, Carol does not give Katy concrete advice and tells her that only Katy knows the best decision to make. Katy then discovers a picture of herself as a baby on Carol’s nightstand and lashes out at Carol for leaving her baby and husband behind in California. In her angry outburst, Katy tells Carol that she is her daughter and that Carol has abandoned her. She leaves Carol behind in confusion.

Running back to Hotel Poseidon, Katy discovers Adam and takes him back into her room where they have sex. After sleeping in the next morning, Adam quickly makes his leave to prepare for a business meeting with Carol about designing the Sirenuse.

Katy runs into Carol, who tells her that she needed time alone because she felt overwhelmed with life as a wife and mother. She wanted time to pursue her dreams of being an interior designer and discover herself outside of the household. When Carol leaves to attend the business meeting with Adam, Katy realizes that Adam and Carol are both from the past. Once she realizes this, Katy hurries back to the Hotel Poseidon to ask Nika what year it is and discovers that it is 1992. Nika gives Katy one of Carol’s letters that got sent back, and Katy rushes to lock it inside of a safe before heading to the Sirenuse. She plans to stop her mother from meeting Adam so that she will return to America rather than staying in Italy.

Once Katy sees her mother arrive for the meeting, she realizes that she cannot interfere with her mother’s decisions. She meets with Adam later in the day and tells him not to invest in either the Sirenuse or Hotel Poseidon so that Positano can stay a place that he loves to visit and not a destination for his work. She also extends advice to Nika on investing in Apple and Starbucks stocks with the hope that Nika and Marco will be able to keep their hotel afloat without having to sell. Later, Carol goes to Hotel Poseidon in search of Katy, where she confides her doubts about her designs. Katy tells Carol that she will be a good mother.

The following day, Eric arrives to Positano. Katy is relieved to see him and realizes that she is back in the present time. Eric tells Katy that he wants to spend his future with her; while he showers, Katy calls her father to tell him that she understands why Carol decided to go to Positano that summer. After their conversation, Eric gets out of the shower to Katy declaring her love for him. The couple spends another few days in Positano, and they release Carol’s ashes at Faraglioni.