Palazzo: A Novel

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Dedication Other Titles About the Author Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Contents Start Copyright Print Page List v vi 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 vii iii 245 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Palazzo is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
 Copyright © 2023 by Danielle Steel
 All rights reserved.
 Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
 Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the DP colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Steel, Danielle, author.
 Title: Palazzo : a novel / Danielle Steel.
 Description: New York : Delacorte Press, [2023]
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022039696 (print) | LCCN 2022039697 (ebook) | ISBN 9781984821898 (hardback ; acid-free paper) | ISBN 9781984821904 (ebook)
 Subjects: LCGFT: Novels.
 Classification: LCC PS3569.T33828 P28 2023 (print) | LCC PS3569.T33828 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54—dc23/eng/20220826
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022039696
 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022039697
 Ebook ISBN 9781984821904
 randomhousebooks.com
 Cover design: Derek Walls
 Cover images: © Yodchai Prominn/Shutterstock (sky), © DEEPOL by plainpicture/Frederic Cirou (buildings and boats on the Grand Canal)
 ep_prh_6.1_144052297_c0_r0
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 
 
 Chapter 1
 
 
 Chapter 2
 
 
 Chapter 3
 
 
 Chapter 4
 
 
 Chapter 5
 
 
 Chapter 6
 
 
 Chapter 7
 
 
 Chapter 8
 
 
 Chapter 9
 
 
 Chapter 10
 
 
 Chapter 11
 
 
 Chapter 12
 
 
 Chapter 13
 
 
 Chapter 14
 
 
 Chapter 15
 
 
 Chapter 16
 
 
 Dedication
 By Danielle Steel
 About the Author
 
 
 _144052297_
 
 
 Chapter 1
 Cosima Saverio sat on the terrace of her penthouse apartment in Rome, looking out over the familiar monuments and rooftops of the city as the sun came up. In the distance, she could see Saint Peter’s Basilica and Vatican City, the dome of the San Carlo al Corso Basilica, and to the north, the Villa Medici and the Borghese Gardens. It was a view she never tired of. It was her favorite time of day, before the city sprang to life. It was already warm and would be hot by midmorning. As she stood at the rail of the balcony a few minutes later, she could see below the Piazza di Spagna, the Spanish Steps, the Fontana della Barcaccia, and the Trinità dei Monti church.
 
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 The apartment was conveniently located on the top floor of the store, which was her family business. The Saverios made the finest leather goods in all of Italy, or all of Europe, rivaled only by Hermès, which was a worldwide enterprise. Saverio leathers were sold only in their two stores, one in Venice, the other in Rome.
 Like all of her ancestors, Cosima had been born in Venice, to an illustrious family that traced its history back to the fifteenth century. The Palazzo Saverio in Venice still belonged to them, although her father had moved the family to Rome shortly after her younger sister, Allegra, was born, and Cosima had lived in the same apartment with her parents and brother and sister on the top floor over the store almost all her life. Her younger brother, Luca, had his own villa now on the Via Appia Antica, and her sister lived in a smaller apartment on the floor below her, with a design studio. It was more convenient for Allegra because it had an elevator, which didn’t go to the top floor. Cosima lived in solitary splendor in the same apartment she had grown up in. She reached the penthouse apartment by a narrow staircase, and the terrace gave her a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the city she considered her home. Venice was their history, but Rome was where she lived and worked, and ran the family business she had inherited fifteen years before, at twenty-three.
 As a young girl, it had never been her plan to run the business or even work there. When they were children, her father intended to have her younger brother, Luca, run it one day, and step into his shoes. Luca had never shown any