Presentation
Montisola, on lake Iseo, June 1859. Francesca, affectionately called Fanny, is anxiously waiting for Carlo, her fiancée. The young couple are about to be reunited after several weeks apart. Carlo is a promising university student and, in the fervent atmosphere of the Second Italian War of Independence, also an Italian independentist. Finally, with the arrival of summer, the two will be able to spend some time together on lake Iseo, near their summer homes. The Second Italian War of Independence has already been underway for a few months. The war has filled the couple both with joy and foreboding, with the ambition of freedom for Italy but also with fear. Fanny is worried that Carlo will enlist in the army. However, it will not be Carlo who sets off to the war but Carlo’s brother, Eugenio, who is already a member of Garibaldi’s revolutionary Hunters of the Alps corps. Meanwhile Carlo and Fanny find themselves immersed in a romantic whirlwind of amorous glances, kisses and promises of love. Soon Fanny and Carlo’s friends, Cristina, Paolo and Gianni arrive at the Montisola house. Fanny's parents improvise hospitality for the group of determined young compatriots whilst they themselves talk about doing something tangible by organizing help and providing medical relief for the soldiers in the battle of Solferino, which everyone present knows is imminent.