Venetia Nigra by Alessandro Vizzino
A breathtaking epic among the streets and canals of the Most Serene Republic of Venice
Venice, 1725.
A man in Baùta roams the city streets at night, armed.
The nobleman Nicolò Testier Gritti is a brilliant young man, desired by women and given to vice. During one of his visits to the Ridotto he falls in love with Elisabetta Pitacchi, whom he wins as a bet after a series of challenges at the Sbaraglino . The love between Nicolò and Elisabetta grows stronger. In Venice, the girl also meets Zanetta Farussi, Gaetano Casanova's wife and little Giacomo's new mother.
A few weeks later, Nicolò met Samuele Grozzi, State Inquisitor, and one of the most influential people in the city, whom the patrician had already met at a reception at Sandi Palace. The magistrate asked Nicolò to go to Cremona for him, to collect a violin intended for Antonio Vivaldi. The following day, the art dealer Alfonso Bottin went to Nicolò's residence to propose to the aristocrat a painting by his friend Antonio Canal, which Testier decided to buy, paying the dealer with a scratched coin.
In the comfortable life of Nicolò Testier Gritti, however, something begins to crack sudden disappearances, inextricable secrets, new presences, and accusations from which they cannot exonerate themselves start to change the course of his existence. Even Giorgio Aliprandi, Capitan Grande and his brotherly companion, no longer knows which path to follow.
Meanwhile, an even greater danger looms over the entire Serenissima...
