Napoleon's ladies: Madame Mère's arrival

On August 2nd, on board the English "Grasshopper", Letizia arrived with Campbell from Livorno, and was given a warm welcome by the Portoferraio people; she remained there until Napoleon's exile was over. (p.121)

Immediately Napoleon had accommodation prepared for his mother in the Vantini house in Via Ferrandini, near the Villa in Mulini, where today you can still read the memorial plaque dedicated to this important guest.

Although she was already sixty-five, Madame Mère set out cleaning and tidying the house as soon as she arrived, going back and forth between Casa Vantini and the Palazzina dei Mulini. (p.122)

During the night she often went to the Palazzina dei Mulini to make sure her son had gone to bed, tiptoing into his bedroom to tuck him in and caress him. He so badly needed affection, her son, always alone! (p.124)

It is said that the love and affection Napoleon felt towards his mother was so strong he wanted her by his side all the time:

Even when he went to Madonna del Monte [...] he had the Vadi house house prepared for her [there is a plaque here too in remembrance of her stay]. On many occasions, when her son didn't come down to the town, Letizia would get the neighbours to take her up as far as the wild Romitorio on a sedan chair, where she would lovingly remain with her "poor little son! He was so lonely!" "as she once said at the Traditi" and pray with him in the Church that was once dedicated to the Virgin. On her way up the Via Crucis she would stop at the Stations of the Cross to pray for her son admire the infinite vastness of the sea. (p.123)

Letizia was enthusiastic over Elba and its people, and the words she often repeated are now history:

[Letizia would often say] that this was an island with thousands of different aspects: soft, pure colours, the smell of the sea and of the countryside, at times swept about by the libeccio wind, and at times still when there was no wind, but it was always beautiful, charming, elegant and frighteningly powerful.

Madame Mère's arrival

• The Villa in San Martino
• Love story with Maria Walewska
• Following the footsteps of Napoleon