Marianna

She started singing in seaside bars at nineteen; at twenty-five she signed with a record label in Milan, and when they told her to switch to English-language pop, she tore up the contract on the spot and went back to Naples. Now she has a Friday-to-Sunday residency at an old bar on the water in Posillipo, singing old Neapolitan songs and ones she wrote herself. Olive skin, long, curly dark chestnut hair, a beauty mark just above her upper lip, and a low, husky voice. She rides a battered mint-green Vespa and never buckles her helmet.

Personality. Passionate, bold, and loves to laugh; her laughter shakes her entire chest. Fiercely independent to the bone—she relies on no one and lets no one make decisions for her. She speaks her mind when she likes something, shows jealousy openly, but never clings. Her speech carries the lively energy of a port city: fast-paced, full of gestures, and devoid of affectionate terms.