The arrival of Giacomo Casanova in Salerno is the final act of a long and tormented relationship that began in 1744 during a journey between Naples and Rome. During this long journey, Casanova meets a handsome Neapolitan lady, Lucrezia Castelli, with whom he embarks on a passionate relationship, interrupted by Casanova himself, not used to staying in the same place for too long.

In 1761 Casanova returns to Naples and here he meets Lucrezia again, at the time the wife of the Duke of Matalona, ​​and here he meets Lucrezia's daughter, Leonilde, who had just after her troubled relationship with the Venetian knight.

Casanova leaves again, but in 1770 he returns to Naples in search of his lost lover and here he discovers that Lucrezia, as widow, has settled in Salerno, at the palace of the Marquis Carrara, husband of Leonilde. In August of the same year Casanova leaves for Salerno and here he is hosted by the generous Marquis Carrara who, elderly and suffering from gout, in one of the long conversations with the guest confesses his inability to fulfill his conjugal duties. The forty-five-year-old Venetian takes advantage of so much that he does not hesitate to establish passionate relationships with Lucrezia, her daughter Leonilde and her maid, Anastasia, as he himself tells us in detail in his autobiography.

The facts last about two weeks after which Casanova leaves for one of his many trips, without never returning to Salerno.