The first part of the novel is set in Florence, Italy, and describes a young English woman\'s first visit to Florence, at a time when upper middle class English women were starting to lead more independent, adventurous lives.
Lucy is angry with Cecil, as she had tentatively arranged for the elderly Misses Alan, other guests from the Pension Bertolini, to take the villa..
Cecil brought them to the village as a comeuppance to the villa\'s landlord, whom Cecil (who believes himself to be very democratic) thinks to be a snob.
The vicar, Mr Beebe, announces that new tenants have leased a local villa; the new arrivals turn out to be the Emersons, who have been told of the available villa at a chance meeting with Cecil.
Cecil is a sophisticated London aesthete who is desirable in terms of rank and class, even though he despises country society; he is also somewhat of a comic figure in the novel, as he gives himself airs and is quite pretentious.
Cecil proposes yet again at Windy Corner, and this time she accepts.
As Part Two begins, Lucy has returned to Surrey, England, to her family home, Windy Corner.
Cecil proposes to Lucy twice in Italy; she rejects him both times.
In Rome, Lucy spends time with Cecil Vyse, whom she knew in England.
One of the guests at the pension, Mr Emerson, interrupts their "peevish wrangling" by spontaneously offering to swap rooms.
The novel opens with their complaints about the pension where they are staying, the Pension Bertolini, at which rooms with a View of the River Arno had been promised, but which instead overlook a drab courtyard.
Miss Lucy Honeychurch is touring Italy with her overly fussy and priggish but often ineffective older cousin and chaperone, Miss Charlotte Bartlett.
The first part of the novel is set in Florence, Italy, and describes a young English woman\'s first visit to Florence, at a time when upper middle class English women were starting to lead more independent, adventurous lives
