Leone, an Italian nobleman (Prince of Teano and Duke of Sermoneta), brought his second family to Canada due to irreconcilable differences in philosophy — he was a radical socialist and the regime in Italy was fascist.
[3][4] Though she spent her first years at Villa Miraggio, a five-story mansion built by her father on the Janiculum Hill in Rome, her parents left Italy to settle in Canada in the town of Vernon, British Columbia in 1921.
[6] As her father wrote to a friend about the move, "This is not an abandonment of my country and my affairs but a return to simple nature, to a primitive life, a longing for peace and rest after the torment of war and the post-war period.
Her mother became mentally and physically ill, and it was at this time that Ofelia Fabiani began demanding Sveva stay at home, avoiding all contact with the outside world.
Drawing on Dante's Divine Comedy as a model for the overarching format of the series, Caetani adopts the role of a pilgrim on a spiritual journey.