Eternal

One of the novel’s three protagonists and a foil to Marco Terrizzi, Sandro Simone is part of a Jewish family—the son of tax lawyer Massimo and doctor Gemma, with a sister named Rosa. Sandro is a talented mathematician who is invited to study at La Sapienza with famous professors. A childhood friend to Elisabetta and Marco, he is described as possessing “light brown curls” and a “long, lean face” like his mother Gemma (5). He initiates a kiss with Elisabetta, but never wavers in his love for Marco, despite their competition for Elisabetta’s love and Marco’s descent into Fascism. Sandro intuits Elisabetta’s emotions better than Marco. He invites her to a lecture about her favorite author Grazia Deledda and her novel Cosima, but when the professor discounts Elisabetta’s interpretation, he reassures her.

After the race laws take effect and Sandro’s education abruptly ends, he teaches mathematics at a makeshift school in the Ghetto, his neighborhood. Due to the legal isolation of Jewish people and his parents’ disapproval of intermarriage (for the sake of Sandro and Rosa’s safety), he lies to Elisabetta and Marco about no longer loving her. He cares more about Elisabetta’s happiness than his own, further contrasting with Marco’s indoctrinated desire for power. Sandro tries to help Marco win Elisabetta’s love by buying her a birthday journal and signing it as Marco. To the end, he sacrifices himself for his friends, being killed in Marco’s stead after a rescue attempt; Sandro is survived by Rosa, as their parents are also killed by Nazis. However, his one night with Elisabetta produces a son, whom Marco raises as his own and tells of his heroic birth father.

One of the novel’s three protagonists and a foil to Sandro Simone, Marco Terrizzi is the son of Beppe and Maria, with older brothers named Aldo and Emedio. A talented cyclist, Marco considers himself “a son of Lazio, Of Roma,” an identification that makes him susceptible to Fascist ideology and its perversion of the Roman past (44). Elisabetta describes him as “terribly handsome” with “large, walnut brown eyes, a strong nose, a square jaw, and a broad neck marked by a prominent Adam’s apple” (3). He is popular in school, but struggles with academics, due to having undiagnosed dyslexia. Marco loves Sandro as a brother and Elisabetta as a potential lover, pursuing her throughout the novel.

A dynamic character, Marco briefly functions as an antagonist to Elisabetta and Sandro. He doesn’t understand Elisabetta’s desire to write and fears their respective parents’ (Beppe and Serafina’s) affair will affect their own romance, even as he claims otherwise; when he sees Elisabetta and Sandro alone together, he assumes the worst and uses an antisemitic slur against Sandro. He dismisses his brother Aldo’s murder by Fascists and initially views the world in absolutes, learning through his father—for whom he fluctuates between admiration and loathing—that absolutes are rare. Upon realizing the horrors of war, Marco tries to sacrifice himself for Sandro during a rescue attempt, but Sandro dies in his stead. He marries Elisabetta and offers to raise her child by Sandro as his own. As he practices reading and writing with Elisabetta, he encourages her, as Nonna did, to write. Marco becomes a successful businessman, changing the name of his deceased father’s bar from Bar GiroSport to Bar Terrizzi.

Giuseppina “Nonna” Servano owns and operates Casa Servano, a small restaurant in Trastevere where she makes pasta nightly. Working with her son Paolo and daughter-in-law Sofia, Nonna appears brusque, but as Elisabetta waits, Nonna becomes her mother figure as well. After Serafina abandons Elisabetta, Nonna helps her get a job at Il Cacciatore, the most upscale restaurant in Trastevere. She houses Elisabetta after Ludovico dies, but disapproves of her romance with Marco, as she knows of Beppe and Serafina’s affair. A symbol of Trastevere and its independence from the rest of Rome, she speaks out against antisemitism and efforts to bar Jewish customers. Nonna actively encourages Elisabetta’s writing, with Elisabetta immortalizing the angelic woman through her novel A Talkative Girl and daughter with Marco, named Nonna.

The father of Marco, Aldo, and Emedio, Giuseppe “Beppe” Terrizzi is married to Maria but had an affair with Serafina. Beppe and Emedio share “curly dark hair, a prominent forehead, and thick brows over coal-dark eyes” (10). Like his wife Maria, he hails from a family of peasants and was once a professional cyclist, placing in the Giro d’Italia. He owns Bar GiroSport, where his sons Aldo and Marco sometimes work. Beppe is a “Fascist of the First Hour,” who joined the Fascist Party because “he believed that the party would be good for small business owners” (12). However, this changes as the war progresses.

A man of morals, despite his infidelity, Beppe refuses to abandon longtime friend Massimo and voices disappointment in Marco for turning on the Simones. At the meeting of the Trastevere merchants, only he and Nonna refuse signs prohibiting Jewish customers. He becomes disillusioned with Italy’s role in the war and alliance with Nazis, and fights on behalf of Italian partisans and the Jewish community. Beppe forgives Marco for past mistakes and dies killing Nazis.