Lived around 1300, Geneva degli Amieri is remembered as “the woman who lived twice”. Daughter of a rich merchant was one of the most beautiful women in the city. The girl has become the protagonist of several popular short stories over time, as well as a famous work by Leopoldo Marenco. Despite the love for Antonio Rondinelli, Geneva was forced by his father to marry Francesco Agolanti, in a marriage of interest. According to some because of this unhappy love, according to others due to an epidemic of plague, the girl was declared dead and exhibited the night after the funeral at the church of Santa Reparata. However, it is said that it was a rare case of apparent death.
In fact, Geneva woke up and, wearing the white dress that had been put on her for the funeral, left the church to return to her husband. But these, believing that it was a ghost returned from the afterlife, hurd her off. The same happened when he introduced himself to the Paterna house, located in the Torre degli Amieri, where the parents had the same reaction. The girl then decided to go to her old lover who, unlike family members, welcomed her with open arms, helping her to get back on the sixth.
Subsequently, the ecclesiastical authorities established that Geneva’s death had been a real miracle and that her husband’s refusal had now interrupted their marriage bond. The woman then married the beloved Rondinelli, while via del Campanile near Piazza Duomo, where it is said that Geneva passed that night, was renamed for a long time “Via della Death”.
