The novel begins in late Spring 1940 in the town of Nomana (a literary depiction of Corti's hometown Besana in Brianza) where the inhabitants live on agriculture, farming, or work in the textile mill owned by the local industrialist Gerardo Riva, Ambrogio's father.
•
Similarly to Manzoni, Corti mixes fictional individual stories with actual history, going as far as inserting real characters in the plot: for example Father Carlo Gnocchi, Nilde Iotti, Agostino Gemelli, Corti's brother Piero (partly recognizable in Pino Riva).
Red Army | International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement | American Red Cross | Red Hot Chili Peppers | Red Sea | horse racing | Dark Horse Comics | Horse racing | Red Star Belgrade | Red | Little Red Riding Hood | Detroit Red Wings | Red Bull | Red River | Red Hat | Red Dwarf | horse breeding | horse | International Committee of the Red Cross | Red River of the North | New York Red Bulls | IUCN Red List | horse trainer | Simply Red | Red Wing, Minnesota | Arabian horse | Red Skelton | Red Army Faction | Red Fort | Pokémon Red and Blue |
The Vale of the Red Horse is a rural area in South Warwickshire, England, below the escarpment of Edgehill in the parish of Tysoe.