An aunt who is a teacher and a mysterious Mercante in Fiera pack of cards trigger off the story, and then there is El Pit, the mythical mechanic of Lambertone, who has changed the course of his life with an impossible bet. There are the restaurant owners, two brothers who haven’t spoken to each other for twenty-five years because of an argument, the house-painter/actor and the mattress maker, a man of faith and hope who is unwillingly involved in recuperating at any cost a win of millions. There is Clotilde, the pharmacist’s wife, an ex-aspiring singer but who now has a vested interest in inspiring miraculous galenical preparations cooked up for the happiness of the village wives, and, above all, there is Emilia who has herself called Dominique, a lady of pleasure who works at the Yellow Elm and whom every man (really, every single one) in the area knows… They are all there in this amusing and profound book that talks about a territory which is currently big news in all the papers because of the earthquake that destroyed entire villages and touched all of Italy. Emilia la dolce is the ironic and sentimental portrayal of a story that, at bottom, belongs to all Italians: what happens to the inhabitants of Lambertone takes us back to a provincial Italy that has not disappeared, it has only been a bit hidden behind the modern rhythms.