One Italian Summer

Marco explains that Adam comes to Positano every year, and this year he brought a proposal with him to buy Hotel Poseidon. Katy feels angered by Adam for “trying to Americanize this Italian gem” (48). Despite providing a proposal that will save the future of the hotel, Marco denies Adam the opportunity to invest in the property. He claims that Hotel Poseidon means as much to him as a child.

Katy now views Adam’s charm and confidence with contempt, and she fears the idea that all things, in time, will end. With this realization, Katy cries for her mother, and Marco comforts her. He tells her: “Positano is a good place to let life return to you” (49). He recommends that she goes to Chez Black for lunch, which happens to be the same restaurant that Carol loved.

Katy heads to the restaurant, where she hopes to find a trace of her mother from her visit to Positano 30 years prior. Anticipating the dread of grief, Katy leaves Chez Black and goes to the beach. Overwhelmed with her emotions, she contemplates returning home to Eric.

Katy makes up her mind to go back home, but, back at the hotel, she sees a woman who looks remarkably like a young Carol. She watches the 30-year-old version of her mother try to send a package in the mail, and Katy faints at the sight of her.

Katy wakes up to young Carol holding her on the lobby floor. Carol introduces herself and tells her that she rents a room up the street from Hotel Poseidon. Katy realizes that she has found her mom during her “summer of freedom” (56). Katy believes that Carol has yet to meet Chuck and is overjoyed with seeing her mother; she recognizes her mother’s radiance as a young woman.

When Carol discovers that Katy is also from Los Angeles, she is excited to meet another solo-traveling woman from the United States. She invites her to Da Adolfo, a restaurant, and they plan to meet at the dock at one o’clock to take the boat to lunch.

Katy arrives at the dock early so as not to risk missing the boat. She wears a swimsuit cover up that she bought with her mom before she passed away. While she waits for young Carol, Katy wonders if she has hit her head too hard and has imagined that she ran into this version of her mother. Katy sees the boat labeled with Da Adolfo on it and yells with excitement. Carol walks up to Katy just as Katy’s sandal gets caught on the dock. Katy falls into the water and drags Carol with her.

The two women laugh, and a man on the deck helps the two of them out of the water. Carol knows their rescuer, Remo, and he slips his arm around her waist as she introduces him to Katy. Katy wonders if Remo was Carol’s former romantic partner and realizes that she does not know much about Carol’s love life prior to meeting Chuck. Katy reflects on the conversation that she had with Carol about Eric for the first time. She thinks about how sex was not a topic discussed between her and her mom.

On the boat, Carol introduces Katy to the driver, Antonio, and Katy notices Carol’s carefree attitude. Katy takes a picture of Carol with an old camera that Eric gave her. Katy appreciates her mother’s beauty and freedom, but she questions just how much she really knows about her mother’s time in Positano.

Feeling unsettled about how much she knows about Carol’s romantic partnerships, Katy wonders if her parents were actually soulmates. She recognizes that Chuck and Carol had a good marriage and questions if it was actually a great one. She views her father as an outsider who would watch her relationship with her mom. However, Katy also reflects on her parents’ love for each other and how they would show their love through taking care of the other. She also wonders how Carol knew that Chuck was the man she wanted to marry.

Remo, Katy, and Carol are dropped off at the restaurant, where they spend the afternoon lounging and eating. Remo tells Katy that he works in Positano during the summer but is actually from Naples. When Remo engages in a conversation with the waiter, Katy begins to question Carol’s relationship with Remo, but Carol quickly tells Katy that they are friends. He has shown Carol Positano from a local’s perspective.

Carol asks what has brought her to Italy, and Katy tells her that she needed a break. They drink wine, and Katy recalls a memory of drinking with her mother. Carol encouraged her to buy a sparkly, velvet mini skirt, and Katy acknowledges that her mother always had a carefree attitude even if she may not have realized it. She thinks that she chose not to see all sides of Carol: “I think that maybe there were parts of her I never made an effort to see” (69). Katy spends the rest of lunch thinking about questions that she never asked her mom and how she wishes that she knew more about her mother’s past.

After lunch, they head to the ocean to swim until Antoni returns to take them back to the port at Positano. Carol and Katy make plans to see each other the next day for dinner at a restaurant called La Tagliata. Carol tells her to meet her at four in front of Hotel Poseidon and lets her know that she is making dinner with the woman who owns the apartment that she rents. Katy becomes jealous of this news. Katy thinks that a small part of Carol must recognize her, too, and Katy leans forward to hug her before they part ways.

After returning back to the hotel, Nika wakes Katy up from her nap to tell her that Adam wants to check up on her. Katy mentions that Marco told her that Adam wants to buy their hotel, and Nika claims that Hotel Poseidon is not as desirable as her father believes despite her own love for the family business. She says that they could use the help from someone like Adam.

Katy goes down to meet Adam on the terrace, and he suggests that they get dinner together. Katy confronts Adam about his proposal to buy Hotel Poseidon. He tells her that the owners are struggling but wants to change the subject. Katy thinks about Eric’s picky eating habits. Adam and Katy spend this time getting to know each other, and Adam subtly mentions a previous trip to Tokyo with his ex-girlfriend in an attempt to let Katy know that he is single.

As they eat their dessert, Katy tells Adam about her mother’s death and the uncertainty of her marriage. Adam confidently tells Katy that she does not have control over her own life. His comment shocks Katy because they hardly know each other, yet he seems to understand her: “It’s a strange thing, to have a stranger tell you off and then be right” (80). Despite this feeling, Katy and Adam spend the rest of their meal flirting with each other.