Name: Nico Foscari, future love interest of Marietta Gatti
Age: 25
Hair: Black, curly
Eyes: Green
Build: Above average height, chiseled like Michelangelo’s David

Nico grew up a member of one of Venice’s oldest ruling families. He lives with his parents and younger sister in a gothic palace on the Grand Canal. The family also owns a country villa near Padua. When he was sixteen, his eyesight began to fail. Currently, he sees shapes, but no details. He likens it to living in a cloud. If it weren’t for Raul Orlando, his manservant, Nico would be house bound.

Realizing Nico wouldn’t be able to run the family interests, his father turns cold and distant toward his only son. On the rare occasion that his father speaks to him, it always ends in a fight. Tired of feeling useless, Nico rebels, becoming the family’s black sheep.  Nico has a reputation as a gambler, a womanizer, and a supporter of the Enlightenment movement, which annoys his father to no end, much to Nico’s amusement.

When he meets Marietta, he is frustrated by her lack of interest in him. He isn’t used to his charms being rebuffed so quickly. What starts as a challenge soon changes to much more. He realizes how much he wants Marietta to like him – the real him – not the gambler or the lover. She sparks inside him the desire to be a better person.

However, with his semi-blindness, he feels like half a man, unworthy of true love. Embarrassed by the white moons covering his pupils, he wears dark glasses that wrap around his eyes. Nico hears of a doctor in France who has developed a new surgical technique for curing cataracts, but his father refuses to pay “for false promises.” Nico must come to terms with his disability and learn to love himself before he can capture Marietta’s heart.