L’ultima settimana di settembre, by Lorenzo Licalzi, is a novel about the unexpected journey that brings together an eighty-year-old grandfather and his teenage grandson. Published in 2015, it combines drama, humour, irony and plenty of colloquial Italian.
Pietro and Diego’s relationship develops during a car journey from Genoa to Rome. Both are going through one of the most difficult moments of their lives, but they belong to different generations and barely know each other.
Its direct language, short chapters and first-person narration make it an interesting choice for learners with a strong B1 or B2 level who want to approach a contemporary Italian novel without facing overly complex prose.
What is L’ultima settimana di settembre about?
Pietro Rinaldi is an eighty-year-old writer who has lost the will to live. He has been a widower for seven years, has a distant relationship with his daughter and believes he has nothing left to expect from the future.
On his birthday, he decides to take his own life. He writes a sarcastic farewell letter and prepares the pills he intends to take. Before he can carry out his plan, however, his daughter asks him to look after Diego, his fifteen-year-old grandson, for a few days.
Grandfather and grandson barely know each other. Their time together begins with distance, discomfort and silence, but a road accident kills Diego’s parents and completely changes the situation.
Pietro decides to take the teenager to Rome, where an uncle might be able to look after him. This begins a car journey lasting almost a week, forcing both characters to share space, memories and emotions that neither finds easy to express.
A story structured as a journey
The novel consists of twenty-two chapters and an epilogue. Most of the story is narrated in the first person by Pietro, while the epilogue presents Diego’s perspective several years later.
The chapters are fairly short and the story moves forward mainly in chronological order. This makes reading in Italian easier, as learners can focus on one stage of the journey at a time.
During the trip, Pietro and Diego visit several places along the Italian coast. They go to a house connected with family memories, fish with an old friend of Pietro’s and attend a reunion with former schoolmates.
These stops are not merely separate episodes. Each reveals a part of Pietro’s past and helps us understand why he has become so lonely, sarcastic and detached.
The relationship between Pietro and Diego
Pietro and Diego belong to very different generations. The grandfather looks ironically at the teenager’s behaviour, speech and habits. Diego, meanwhile, is forced to travel with a man with whom he has never built a genuine family relationship.
At first, they struggle to communicate. Pietro uses sarcasm to protect himself, while Diego responds with silence, brief replies and apparent indifference.
Living together, however, gradually changes the way they see each other. Pietro stops viewing his grandson as an obligation, while Diego discovers that behind his grandfather’s bad temper is someone far more vulnerable than he appears.
Their relationship does not change because of one great revelatory conversation, but through small shared experiences. Eating together, sleeping in unfamiliar places, talking to other people and solving a problem on the road gradually allow them to build trust.
The novel’s main themes
Grief and the difficulty of expressing pain
Pietro and Diego are dealing with different losses. Pietro is still affected by his wife’s death, while Diego must face the sudden death of his parents.
Neither knows how to speak directly about his suffering. Pietro hides it behind irony and Diego remains silent. Much of their communication therefore takes place indirectly.
The generation gap
The age difference is one of the story’s driving forces. Pietro interprets the world through experience and disillusionment; Diego sees it through adolescence and a life that is only just beginning.
The book plays with the contrast between the ways they speak, react and relate to others. Yet it also shows that many emotions—fear, loneliness and the need to feel loved—do not depend on age.
Second chances
The journey begins when Pietro believes that his life is already over. Diego’s arrival forces him to accept an unexpected responsibility and reconsider his relationship with the future.
The novel argues that change is possible even when it seems too late. It does so, however, through a rapid and emotional development rather than a slow, wholly realistic transformation.
Family beyond living together
Pietro is Diego’s grandfather, but at first that bond exists only on paper. They have shared no experiences and know almost nothing about each other.
Over the course of the novel, family becomes more than a biological relationship: it becomes a decision to stay close to someone, accept responsibility and create a bond that did not previously exist.
What works and what convinces me less
One of the book’s strengths is Pietro’s voice. His narration is sarcastic, direct and sometimes cruel, yet it constantly reveals the vulnerability he tries to hide. Thanks to this voice, the novel addresses painful themes without becoming entirely bleak.
The journey structure also works well. Each stop introduces new characters and reveals information about Pietro’s past. In this way, the reader gradually discovers the protagonist alongside Diego.
Some elements, however, are less convincing. Diego’s response to his parents’ death and the sudden abandonment of his life in Genoa are treated rather superficially. At several points, he seems too calm or indifferent for someone who has just suffered such a traumatic loss.
Pietro’s transformation is also very rapid. After years of distance from his daughter and grandson, a single week is enough to change completely how he understands both family and his own life.
Finally, some secondary characters seem to appear mainly to move the plot forward. Their decisions are not always entirely realistic, although they allow the story to progress and preserve its emotional tone.
These weaknesses do not prevent the book from being enjoyable, but they make some passages feel closer to a fable about second chances than a fully realistic portrayal of grief.
The novel’s style and register
The story is told mainly from Pietro’s point of view. His voice often resembles an oral monologue: he comments, remembers, criticises and indirectly addresses the reader.
The descriptions are brief and functional. Licalzi focuses more on the protagonist’s thoughts and on dialogue than on detailed descriptions of landscapes.
The Italian is contemporary and generally easy to follow. There are few technical terms or especially complex syntactic constructions. The text’s apparent simplicity, however, does not make it suitable for beginners.
Pietro uses irony, double meanings, cultural references and colloquial expressions whose meaning cannot always be deduced through literal translation.
There are also some swear words and vulgar expressions. These are not necessarily forms learners should start using, but recognising them is useful for understanding contemporary conversations, films and novels.
Colloquial expressions you will encounter
The novel contains many expressions typical of spoken Italian. For example:
- Piovere che Dio la manda means that it is raining extremely heavily.
- Andare a letto con le galline means to go to bed very early.
- Lanciare una frecciatina means to make an indirect remark intended to criticise or provoke someone.
- Stare sul cazzo a qualcuno is a vulgar expression meaning that someone really cannot stand you.
- Chissenefrega expresses indifference and, depending on the context, can mean “I don’t care” or “who cares?”.
These expressions show that understanding each individual word is not always enough. To interpret colloquial Italian correctly, you need to recognise the overall meaning of the expression and consider the communicative situation.
Some dialogues also contain regional features and references to Ligurian speech, although dialect does not play a large enough role to make the story difficult to follow.
What level of Italian do you need to read it?
I would recommend L’ultima settimana di settembre to learners with a strong B1 or B2 level.
The chronological structure, short chapters and relatively simple syntax aid comprehension. The number of main characters is also limited, and the purpose of the journey is clear from the start.
The main difficulties are:
- Idiomatic and colloquial expressions.
- The narrator’s irony.
- Some swear words and vulgar forms.
- Cultural and generational references.
- Shifts between narration, memories and dialogue.
An A2 learner might understand the general plot, but would probably miss much of Pietro’s humour, irony and nuance.
Why is it useful for learning Italian?
It has a narrative voice close to spoken language
Although this is a novel, Pietro often expresses himself as if he were speaking. This allows learners to observe connectors, comments, interruptions and expressions commonly used in spoken Italian.
It helps you understand irony
Pietro does not always say exactly what he thinks. Many of his observations are ironic and must be interpreted in context.
Recognising this gap between literal meaning and actual intention is essential for understanding conversations between native speakers.
It helps you develop vocabulary for emotions
The novel contains vocabulary connected with loneliness, grief, guilt, affection, responsibility and fear of the future.
It also shows different ways of expressing emotions: discussing them directly, hiding them behind sarcasm or communicating them through actions.
It provides interesting conversation topics
After reading each section, you can reflect on questions such as:
- Why has Pietro distanced himself from his family?
- How does he use sarcasm to protect himself?
- Does Diego’s response to his parents’ death seem realistic?
- Can a family relationship be built in a single week?
- What does it mean to have a second chance?
- Does Pietro truly change, or does he discover a part of himself that was already there?
How to read the book to improve your Italian
To make the most of your reading, try this method:
- Read one or two chapters without looking up every unfamiliar word.
- Underline expressions whose meaning differs from their literal translation.
- Record colloquial forms, swear words and neutral expressions separately.
- Summarise each stage of the journey in three or four sentences.
- Write about how the relationship between Pietro and Diego changes.
- Choose one of the narrator’s opinions and explain whether he is serious or ironic.
- After finishing the book, write a short review explaining which aspects you found believable and which you did not.
The book and the film L’ultima settimana di settembre
A film adaptation directed by Gianni De Blasi and starring Diego Abatantuono was released in 2024.
The film retains the central premise of a journey between a grandfather and his grandson, but changes some elements. For example, the teenager called Diego in the novel is named Mattia in the film.
For learners, it can be useful to read the book first and then watch the adaptation in Italian. This lets you compare how the first-person narration is transformed, identify which parts of the story were removed and practise listening comprehension.
The film does not replace the book, because much of its linguistic interest lies precisely in Pietro’s thoughts and ironic comments.
Is L’ultima settimana di settembre worth reading?
Yes, especially if you want an accessible and moving contemporary novel that introduces you to more colloquial Italian than you usually find in textbooks.
The plot includes some overly rapid psychological changes, and certain reactions feel unrealistic. Nevertheless, Pietro’s voice, the relationship between the two generations and the everyday expressions make it useful reading for intermediate learners.
If you would like to discover other suitable works for different levels, see my selection of 12 Italian books for learners, organised by level.
You can also read my analysis of Tutto chiede salvezza by Daniele Mencarelli, another contemporary novel combining colloquial language, vulnerability and human relationships.
If you want to study a novel like this, understand informal Italian more clearly or learn to express complex opinions, discover my individual and group Italian lessons.
