Tofano’s Well

This well lies at the end of Via dell’orto and is called Tofano's Well as Boccaccio mentioned it in a tale inside his “Decamerone”. This tale is called 'Tofano beffato dalla moglie', that means Tofano is spurned by his wife and below there's a brief summary of it.  

Don't you think it's quite strange this well is here just in front of Petrarch' house? Petrarch is in fact one of the three Italian XIV^th century writers , who are famous all over the world: Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. You might be surprised to know there is a connection between Petrarch, Boccaccio and an English writer,  Geoffrey Chaucer.

'Tofano beffato dalla moglie'

The story talks about a rich man called Tofano who was married to a beautiful woman: Ghita. He had two defects, he was jealous and liked to drink wine. His wife used to make him drink a lot, so that he would fall asleep and she could go out with her lover. But one evening Tofano pretended to sleep and saw her going out with another man. So he locked the door and waited for her at the window: when she came back home, he didn’t open the door. She tried to convince him to let her in, telling him some lies, but he didn’t believe her. At this point Ghita had an idea: she said she would commit suicide throwing  iherself into the well in front of their house and took a big stone and threw it inside the well. The stone splashed and as it was dark outside Tofano thought she had really killed herself. So he ran out in the street to save her, but she was so quick to get in the house and locked him out. He shouted and shouted and the neighbours woke up and she explained he had drunk too much as usual and she wouldn't let him in for this reason. They all blamed him and all he had to do was to say he was sorry and promise not to do it any more. After that peace reigned between them again.

Now click here, if you want to read this tale in Italian.