Princess Vittoria Colonna met the Futurist painter Umberto Boccioni in June 1916. Their love affair was intense but brief--on August 17, Boccioni died following a fall from his horse. The last letter he had received from Vittoria was found in his wallet. Featuring a Roman princess, a major 20th-century artist, unbridled passion, World War I, and a tragic accident, this fascinating story is full of romance and sweeping drama. Their letters provide the basis for not only a story of a great love, but also the portrait of a remote world and time that the author has reconstructed in all its wonder.