Elisa di Rivombrosa is an Italian television series (partly inspired by the 1740 novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded) about a love story in 18th century Italy between Fabrizio Ristori, a young Italian Count, and his mother's maid, Elisa. It was broadcast on Mediaset for two seasons from 2003 to 2005.
This series is followed by a spin-off called La figlia di Elisa – Ritorno a Rivombrosa (2007), which takes place in 1797 and focuses on Elisa's daughter Agnese Ristori.
Cast
Vittoria Puccini: Elisa Scalzi Ristori - Countess di Rivombrosa Alessandro Preziosi: Fabrizio Federico Giovanni Clemente Ristori Antonella Fattori: Anna Ristori di Radicati / Anna Ristori di Ceppi Jane Alexander: Lucrezia Van Necker Beauville Kaspar Capparoni: Giulio Drago Pierluigi Coppola: Angelo Buondio Luca Ward: Ottavio Ranieri Cesare Bocci: Antonio Ceppi Antonino Iuorio: Alvise Radicati Linda Batista: Isabella Regina Bianchi: Agnese Ristori madre Luis Molteni: Don Tognino Elio Pandolfi: Abate Van Necker Philippe Leroy: Carlo Emanuele III Francesca Rettondini: Clelia Bussani Eleonora Mazzoni: Margherita Maffei Giovanna Rei: Betta Maffei Marzia Ubaldi: Amelia Emanuela Garuccio: Celeste Antonio Salines: Jean Luc Beauville Pamela Saino: Orsolina Scalzi Giovanni Guidelli: Victor Benac Raffaello Balzo: Armand Benac Antonio Cupo: Christian Grey Elena Russo: Rossana Chevalier Marco Leonardi: Gaetano Capece Fiorenza Marchegiani: Cristina di Conegliano Sergio Assisi: Nicola di Conegliano Tommaso Ragno: Vittorio Amedeo III Monica Scattini: Eugenia Bonomi
Episodes Season 1 Episodes 1 - 7 Piemonte, Italy, 1769. Elisa Scalzi is a poor but beautiful and determined young lady, who pleasantly takes care of the old Countess Agnese Ristori of Rivombrosa. Anna Ristori, Agnese's daughter, is jealous of the privileged relationship Elisa has with the countess (who took her at her service as her lady companion although Elisa was only a maid). The Countess's health gets worse and she keeps expressing her desire to see her son, the charming Count Fabrizio Ristori, who has been enlisted in the French army for the past 10 years. Elisa decides to communicate the Countess' desire to see Fabrizio, so she writes him a letter and signs herself as "Elisa di Rivombrosa" . As soon as Fabrizio gets her letter, he decides to come back home. Before leaving, he's asked to deliver some important and confidential documents to a friend, Capitano Lombardi, who would be waiting for him on the way home. When the two friends meet, they're ambushed by a group of soldiers, sent by Duke Ottavio Ranieri, an evil and influent aristocrat and Commander of the Guard of his Majesty the King, who wants to steal these precious documents in order to save himself and several other plotting nobles from prison and death penalty. Although Fabrizio manages to chase the killers away, Captain Lombardi is seriously injured. Just before dying, he hands Fabrizio the documents and asks him to personally deliver them to King Carlo Emanuele III. Fabrizio then goes home to the beautiful Estate of Rivombrosa, where everyone is pleased to see him after so long. When he meets Elisa, he's amazed by her beauty. Not knowing she's a maidservant, he mistakes "Elisa di Rivombrosa" for an aristocrat because she's smart and well educated. He tries to seduce her, and Elisa realises she's seriously falling for him. Fabrizio shocks everyone - his sister Anna and all the other nobles, well aware of the girl's un-aristocratic conditions - when he dares invite Elisa to dance with him at a ball in honour of his return. The ball is interrupted by Dr. Antonio Ceppi, a former noble man who lost all of his properties and his title after getting married with Lucia, a servant girl. He's seriously worried about his wife, who can't be found, and asks the nobles to help him. The Count, against everyone's will, decides to help Antonio to look for his wife. Lucia is found dead in the lake: she committed suicide because she felt responsible for her husband's social downfall and wanted him to be happy and accepted by the Upper class. Her desperate action makes Elisa confess her social position to Fabrizio, who really gets mad at her. He starts to treat her roughly and rudely, trying several times to take advantage of her. He even ends up locking her in a cellar, in order to subdue her. When his mother is about to die, he releases Elisa. Countess Agnese Ristori, who really loves the young girl, asks her son to take care of her. After the death of the Countess, Elisa, still traumatized by Fabrizio's behaviour, decides to leave Rivombrosa and find a job somewhere else. The Count, however, doesn't want to give up on the girl and persuades all the aristocrats in the neighbourhood not to hire her. Because of this, Elisa decides to go back to the village, to live with her mother and sister. On the way home, she is attacked by the drunken Count Giulio Drago (Fabrizio's best friend). Elisa hits him with a stone and ends up in prison. When Fabrizio is informed of it, he first tries to convince his friend Giulio to remove the charges against Elisa. When his friend refuses to do so, Fabrizio goes to Turin to ask the king for Elisa's grace in exchange for the confidential documents. When he's about to give them to Duke Ranieri, he understands that the duke is the one who once tried to steal them. With an excuse, Fabrizio takes Elisa's grace and runs away from Turin. Those documents, in fact, could be very compromising for a number of nobles: they're a list of the king's conspirators. Meanwhile, Elisa, still in prison, meets the young witch Celeste, who becomes a good friend of hers. Count Giulio Drago knows that Fabrizio really cares about Elisa, and he finally decides to go and remove charges from her, telling her he does it because his friend asked him to. When Fabrizio finally arrives in Rivombrosa, he finds out that Elisa is already out of prison and safe. When she comes thank the Count for his gesture, she decides with Fabrizio's approval to start working again at the Estate of Rivombrosa as a governess for Emilia, Fabrizio's niece and Anna's daughter. Fabrizio and Elisa are now getting closer and closer, and they're both falling in love with each other. The problem, however, is Elisa's social condition. Because of that, in fact, they can't get married. Giulio Drago convinces Fabrizio to make her marry Angelo Buondio, a sweet servant boy who's always been in love with her, in order to make her become his mistress. Disgusted by the proposal, Elisa firmly refuses. Fabrizio declares his love for her in the garden, in front of all the servants, and explains that this is the only way possible for him to stay with her. In that moment, the carriage of the marchioness Lucrezia Van Necker, Fabrizio's former lover, arrives and the count tries to make Elisa jealous by flirting with the marchioness in front of her. Lucrezia is a beautiful but cruel aristocrat woman and, together with her lover, the duke Ranieri, is one of the conspirators who longs for the king's death. After Fabrizio's attempts with Lucrezia, Elisa decides to accept Angelo's marriage proposal but still refuses to become the count's mistress.
Episode 8 After deciding to marry Angelo, Elisa is getting ready for the wedding. Fabrizio is hurt by the girl's decision and, feeling like he lost her forever, he decides to leave for Turin with Lucrezia, who offers to help him deliver the documents to the king. Fabrizio thinks that the woman's husband, the king's counselor, Marquise Bouville, is involved in the conspiracy. What he doesn't know is that the name written on the list is Lucrezia's, and not her husband's. In fact, she's plotting to help her lover steal the documents by misleading the Count Ristori : when he arrives in Turin, Fabrizio is captured. He manages to escape but gets hurt and falls into a river. Meanwhile, Elisa, who's about to get married, remembers Fabrizio's words and his declarations of love, and runs away from the church, leaving a heart-broken Angelo at the altar.
Episode 9 After escaping from her wedding, Elisa returns to Rivombrosa, where she is now avoided by everyone. The girl tries to apologize to Angelo but he's so hurt that he can't even talk to her and decides to leave Rivombrosa forever. Elisa returns to her mother's house. Fabrizio, wounded, is rescued by two fishermen and is then taken back to Rivombrosa by Celeste, Elisa's friend from prison, who recognised him. His health condition is critical. While Dr. Ceppi tries his best to save him, Fabrizio asks for Elisa. Meanwhile, Celeste goes warn Elisa about Fabrizio's state, and the girl runs to the Count's Estate to be at his side.
Once Elisa reaches him, he asks her to hide the documents somewhere safe. The girl is a little confused by his request, but still grants his wish, and hides the conspirators' list between the endpapers of Countess Agnese Ristori's favourite book.
Episode 10 Fabrizio is getting better and Elisa and him can't deny their feelings anymore. Count's sister Anna is very worried and refuses to accept this socially dishonourable relationship. When Lucrezia comes to visit Fabrizio, Anna explains all her worries to the marchioness. Giulio Drago is one of the conspirators, and as soon as he's informed that Duke Ranieri tried to hurt his friend, he argues with Lucrezia and the Duke, and leaves the conspirators' meeting in which they plot to attack the king. Meanwhile, Count Ristori is so in love with young Elisa that he even starts thinking about a possible marriage, which would eventually make him lose his title. His friend Giulio, though, makes him think about Antonio Ceppi's condition and how his marriage ended, and Fabrizio gives up his idea. He is then recalled up to the army. He does not want to leave Rivombrosa because he doesn't want to leave Elisa, but when the girl still refuses to be his mistress, he lets her go, and leaves. Elisa soon realizes she made a mistake and chases him, and the two end up making love.
Episode 11 The next morning, Anna bursts into her brother's bedroom and finds out Elisa is in bed with him. Count Giulio Drago asks for Margherita Maffei's hand, a marchioness he's in love with and Elisa's good friend. Margherita's father, however, is forced to refuse his proposal because, due to a bad investment, he has lost all his properties, and he can't provide an appropriate dowry for his daughter. Rumors of Elisa's love affair with Count Fabrizio reach everyone's ears, including Elisa's mother's, who refuses to talk to her. Elisa is upset but Fabrizio comforts her. The two lovers decide to get married secretly in Rivombrosa and ask Father Tognino to celebrate the ceremony. The old man accepts, but the Abbot Van Neker, disconcerted about such a wedding between a noble man and a maidservant, decides to warn his cousin, the marchioness Lucrezia. The jealous woman, still in love with Fabrizio, has Father Tognino killed. The Father is found dead in the church by Fabrizio and Elisa, right before their wedding.
Episode 12 Fabrizio receives a proposal from Duke Ranieri to join the conspiration. Fabrizio refuses, and the Duke tries to find out more about the documents: his guards, disguised as servants, pay the servant girl Bianca for information and she tells them to question Elisa. During the play performed by a traveling theatrical troupe in Rivombrosa, which all the nobles attend, two of the Duke's men attack Elisa in order to get information about the documents. She is saved by the arrival of Fabrizio, who fights and kills them. Ludovico Maffei attempts suicide by poisoning himself, overwhelmed by the responsibility of having ruined his daughters lives. Margherita and Dr. Ceppi find him and try to save him. Anna, who still cannot accept the love between Fabrizio and Elisa, goes to Turin to ask her friend, the beautiful Duchess Clelia Bussani, to try to seduce her brother.
Episode 13