Lisabetta, the Baronessa, is the deuteragonist and the vivid, unpredictable force at the center of Villa Coco. A woman of 92, she defies the conventions of old age with her theatrical personality, crude humor, and relentless energy. She is a static, round character whose core philosophy does not change; instead, she transforms the people and the world around her. Her insistence on living by her own idiosyncratic rules, such as organizing her library by a 1912 map or communicating with her Lebanese handyman in a pidgin language only they understand, establish the novel’s central theme of Embracing Whimsy Over Order. She is a master storyteller, though her narratives are often embellished or entirely invented, reflecting her belief that a good story is more important than a factual one. This trait is part of a larger, carefully constructed performance of an eccentric aristocrat, a role that gives her agency and control over her environment.

Beneath her imperious and whimsical exterior, the Baronessa is driven by loyalty to her friends and a keen awareness of her own mortality. Her elaborate scheme to sell her villa and its forged contents to Furman Childress, is more than a prank on her old rival; it is a final, grand caper conceived for her dying friend, Oscar. This plot allows her to provide for Oscar’s last days and to relive the “high spirits” of their adventurous youth. Her actions, which seem selfish or erratic to the narrator, are often motivated by this fierce, protective love and a desire to shield her friend from his diagnosis. Her vertigo and increasing frailty are constant reminders of her vulnerability, which she combats by engineering situations that force her to be active and engaged, refusing to passively await her end. She tells Geoffrey that she does not want to die in a hospital, a statement that emphasizes her ultimate goal: to control the terms of her own life and death.

The Baronessa’s greatest desire is for freedom, which is symbolized by her beloved boat, the Caprice. By selling her land-bound home and all its possessions, she orchestrates a final escape from the constraints of age and expectation. Her decision to live out her remaining days at sea is the ultimate expression of her life’s philosophy. Her final act of inviting Geoffrey to join her voyage becomes a passing of her legacy, inducting him into a life where one must actively choose one’s own adventures, even if the choice seems ridiculous. As Princess Pippa notes, the Baronessa’s power lies in the fact that she “knows the trick to life […] is knowing what you want” (254).

Giacomo, the Baronessa’s much younger cousin, serves as the primary romantic interest for the narrator and shows him an alternate path. Introduced as shy and awkward, with a characteristic stutter of “eh, ahem,” he lives in a state of conflict between society’s constraints and his desires. He is in a marriage of convenience with his friend Laurine, a pragmatic arrangement made for financial security and to appease their conservative families. This union, which is about to produce a child, exemplifies The Cost of Dispassionate Choices, trapping him in a life that provides stability but lacks genuine emotional fulfillment. His trips to Villa Coco are an escape, a return to the place where he spent a formative and liberating year as a youth after running away from home.

His affair with Geoffrey is an act of rebellion against his carefully constructed life. For Geoffrey, Giacomo embodies the very romantic “chaos” he had sworn to avoid, forcing the narrator to confront his own vows and desires. For Giacomo, the relationship is a taste of the authentic connection he has denied himself. He is simultaneously drawn to this freedom and terrified of its consequences, initially insisting their affair remain a secret and cannot become a habit. However, his feelings deepen, culminating in his ambitious proposal for Geoffrey to move into a connected apartment in Milan. This plan, while seemingly a solution, is an attempt to integrate his desire for Geoffrey into the existing structure of his life. In the end, Geoffrey’s refusal forces Giacomo to confront the limitations of the life he has chosen. He is a round, dynamic character whose journey is one of tentatively reaching for authenticity, even if he is not yet ready to fully grasp it.

Oscar is a mentor figure and the emotional heart of the novel’s later sections. A dapper, charming, and cheerful old man, he is the Baronessa’s dearest friend and former partner in their youthful “shenanigans” on Capri. He provides Geoffrey with important advice and context, acting as a translator for the Baronessa’s eccentricities and helping the narrator navigate the unfamiliar world of Villa Coco. His wisdom is often delivered with a gentle wit, as when he advises Geoffrey on love by calling a new partner a “warm dictionary” for learning Italian. He offers his own life as a cautionary tale. After a health scare at 50, he renounced all pleasures in an attempt to live a long and harmless life. This decision makes him a tragic figure, as he dies not from his heart condition but from leukemia, an illness he was never told he had.

Oscar’s story is an illustration of regret and the folly of living a life governed by fear. His final letter, read at his memorial, reveals his great sorrow over being “lazy in love” with a former partner (157), a man he could have had a different life with. This confession emphasizes his advice to Geoffrey and solidifies his role as a voice for living passionately and without reservation. Furthermore, his secret past as a talented art forger is the key to the Baronessa’s final caper. The central deception of selling forged art to Furman Childress was conceived as one last adventure for the two of them, funded by the sale of the real paintings. His death before the scheme’s completion lends a tragic weight to the Baronessa’s actions, transforming her prank into a tribute to their lifelong friendship.

Estelle is a guide and a grounding presence in the chaotic world of Villa Coco. She is Geoffrey’s first point of contact, and her calm, worldly demeanor provides a counterpoint to the Baronessa’s theatricality. As an artist living a bohemian life in the Tuscan countryside, she shares the Baronessa’s independent spirit but lacks her aristocratic airs. Her background as an Algerian Italian woman who arrived in Italy “on a boat” gives her an outsider’s perspective (225), allowing her to navigate the complexities of her environment with a pragmatic grace. She is a loyal friend and confidante to both the Baronessa and the narrator, often acting as a mediator and providing essential context for the villa’s strange happenings.

Her relationship with the Baronessa is born of a shared history as romantic rivals for the same man, the art dealer Visconti. This past experience forged a bond of mutual respect and understanding between them, and Estelle becomes an important accomplice in the Baronessa’s final scheme. Though she is a talented painter, she claims not to have Oscar’s gift for forgery, showing her role as a facilitator rather than a creator of the grand deception. Her decision to join the Baronessa on the Caprice at the end of the novel is proof of their deep friendship and her own desire for adventure, choosing to leave her settled life behind for an unknown future at sea.

Princess Giuseppina Maria Augusta Raffaella, or Pippa, is a minor character who functions as both a comic foil and an important catalyst for the plot. An eccentric and unapologetic snob, she embodies an extreme version of aristocratic whimsy. Her initial interactions with Geoffrey, in which she pretends she cannot understand his “American dialect,” establish her as a figure from a rarefied world of arcane social rules. However, her creative and persuasive schemes are her defining characteristic. Her story of having her Gustavian sofa copied by a forger to fool the queen of England provides the direct inspiration for the Baronessa’s final caper against Furman Childress. In this way, though her appearance is brief, her influence is central to the novel’s primary conflict and resolution.