In the second half of the 13th century, having been depopulated by the plague in 1312, a small colony of Dalmatians from Finodol settled in the area, brought by the counts of Gorizia.
The book was read by Madeleine Stowe to Tori Barban in the movie The Christmas Hope, the third movie in the The Christmas Shoes trilogy.
Author F. Scott Fitzgerald modeled two characters in his books on Tommy Hitchcock, Jr.: Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby (1925) and the Tommy Barban character in Tender Is the Night (1934).