Umberto Tarentella

Umberto is a native of Urbino, where his mother was a maidservant to Giovanni di Lognoro – a wealthy cloth merchant. His father was, ahem, the merchant – although this was not publicly acknowledged. But unofficially, Giovanni was a hard worker, and enjoyed displaying his new wealth. Having a bevy of bastards around his feet added to his prestige.

He was fond of little Umberto, a precocious, although consumptive boy, and ensured that he got a decent education. Umberto wasn’t the type of boy to sit still for long and didn’t take to many of the gentlemanly arts his tutors tried to instil into him. However he did excel at the art of Oratory. But there wasn’t much scope to exercise this talent in a provincial backwater so as soon as he could Umberto left for Rome.

With a pale complexion, dark, wavy hair, long sensuous fingers and brilliant green eyes Umberto is an attractive young man. But he has a habit of trying too hard to impress his acquaintances by exaggerating his qualities and disparaging those of others. This trait has earned him a few black eyes and he is determined to make a real mark in Roman society, based on practical achievements rather than idle boasts.

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