In love
Before Filomena starts her novella, she turns to the other women seated around her.
“Ladies,” she states, “as much as our piety is being praised, our cruelty will be condemned by divine punishment.”
With this warning, she starts telling the story of Nastagio degli Onesti, a young man who has inherited a small fortune from his late father and uncle. He falls in love with a beautiful girl, the daughter of a noble, Aica Traversaro. Nastagio tries everything to make the girl fall in love with him, but with every new present or other declaration of love, her irrational hatred for him seems to grow. She gives him the cold shoulder and laughs behind his back to her friends about his pitiful attempts at courtship. This, in turn, makes Nastagio so depressed that he often thinks of suicide: if Aica couldn’t love him, it would be better to leave her all together. He even wishes he could hate her as much as she hates him.
Spring comes, and Nastagio wakes up one morning to a beautiful day, which immediately makes him think of his unrequited love. To clear his head, he decides to take a walk through the pine forest nearby, where he hears desperate and hysteric screams and cries…