Stravaganza

Stravaganza is a series of novels by British writer Mary Hoffman about the adventures of young Earthlings in Talia, the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Renaissance Italy. These people, called 'Stravaganti', can go to Talia while asleep by using magical talismans. Political troubles have started to brew, and the Stravaganti are caught up in the middle of it.

The series was well-received by critics, though not popular. It was originally intended as a trilogy, but a fourth and now a fifth book was recently released.

The series is as follows:

• City of Masks, which focuses on Lucien, a cancer patient whose talisman is a marbled notebook, who visits Bellezza, the Talian version of Venice;
• City of Stars, which focuses on Georgia, a girl tormented by her stepbrother whose talisman is a horse figurine, who visits Remora, the Talian version of Siena;
• City of Flowers, which focuses on Sky, a teenager living with his single mother whose talisman is a perfume bottle, who visits Giglia, the Talian version of Florence;
• City of Secrets, which focuses on Matt, a dyslexic young man whose talisman is a leather-bound book, who visits Padavia, the Talian version of Padua; and
• City of Ships, which focuses on Isabel, a girl overshadowed by her twin brother. Her talisman is a bag full of mosaic tiles, who visits Classe, the Talian version of Ravenna.

Tropes used in Stravaganza include:

• Alchemy: Dr. Dethridge was an alchemist back in England before he discovered stravagation. Also, it is mentioned that Talian alchemists try to turn lead into silver, which is more valuable than gold in Talia.
• Anti-Villain: Maybe they don't all quite qualify as this, but the di Chimici become a lot more human as the series progresses, and not in a Villain Decay sort of way.
• Arranged Marriage: Between the di Chimici, like nobody's business.
• Action Girl: Arianna, Georgia, and Isabel
• Avenging the Villain: Happens in the fourth book when the Chimici are trying to arrest Luciano for causing their head of family's death.
• Awesome McCoolname: Sky Meadows is... odd to English-speaking ears. But when he stravagates to Talia, he's named Celestino Pascoli. His name basically Took a Level in Badass.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: In City of Masks, Arianna is named the new Duchessa of Belleza.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Inverted: Gaetano, one of the first sympathetic di Chimici, is markedly less attractive than most of his relatives. Likewise, Falco would be a charmingly pretty little boy if he weren't horribly crippled.
• Beta Couple: Georgia and Nick
• Big Bad Ensemble: City of Stars has two separate Big Bads who have nothing to do with each other; Niccolò Di Chimici and Russell, Georgia's stepbrother.
• Big Brother Instinct: Gaetano
• Big Screwed-Up Family: the di Chimici
• Bittersweet Ending: The ending to City of Masks is actually pretty tragic. Lucien's real body dies, leaving him stranded in Bellezza, unable to return home, but the heroes do score victory over the Di Chimici.
• Body Double: The Duchessa uses different doubles for all the flashy ceremonies, such as the Marriage with the Sea - she began this procedure when she became pregnant with her daughter, Arianna. One such double thinks she can outsmart the Duchessa, rat out her secret, and throw her lot in with the di Chimici with no ill consequences. She's wrong.
• City of Canals: Bellezza, which reflects Venice
• Corrupt Church: the evil di Chimici family practically run Talia's version of the Catholic Church - in the second book, we discover that the Pope is the villain's brother.
• Cycle of Revenge: Oh god yes.
• Disappeared Dad: Sky's father, a rock star, has never been a member of his life.
• Dramatis Personae: At the beginning of the third book, and boy is it useful.
• Driven to Suicide: Falco di Chimici, who enlists the help of the Stravaganti to stravagate permanently to our world by dying in his own.
• Duel to the Death: Between Luciano and Duke Niccoló in City of Flowers.
• Dysfunction Junction: Lampshaded and invoked within the story. The Stravaganti postulate that talismans are drawn to teenagers who are unhappy so that they can grow from their experiences in Talia.
• Evil Is One Big Happy Family: The Di Chimici. Most of them.
• Faking the Dead (Silvia)
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The series revolves around Talia, the 'Culture of Renaissance Italy
• Fate Worse Than Death: Narrowly averted in City of Secrets when the Chimici in residence attempt to exact their revenge on Luciano by drugging him and stashing him in the local university's cache of dead bodies to be publicly dissected during medical lectures.
• Feuding Families: The di Chimici and the Nucci.
• First-Name Basis: Arianna is on one with her birth mother.
• Fish Out of Temporal Water: All the Stravaganti.
• Fish Out of Water: All the Stravaganti.
• The Good Old British Comp: All of the Earth characters study at Barnsbury Comprehensive, which also happens to be built on the site of the first stravagation, and therefore more likely to produce Stravaganti.
• Happily Adopted: Heartbreakingly subverted by Luciano and Falco/Nick. While they both love and are happy with their foster families, neither can stop longing for their real families, particularly Nick.
  • Also played straight with Arianna.
• Heel Face Turn Enrico, when he realises that he was tricked into killing his fiancée
• The Hero Dies: In the first book. Technically.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In book 3, Niccolo di Chimici is killed with a poisoned rapier he was planning to use against Luciano.
• Hot Mom: Silvia Bellini.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: 'City of ___'
• Ill Boy: Lucien and Falco until each gets translated
• Iron Lady: The Duchessa of Bellezza must be this to stand up against the di Chimici.
• Jerkass: Georgia's stepbrother, Russell
• Living on Borrowed Time: Luciano. As the struggle heats up in later books, some characters even wonder if his luck might run out.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: By book three? Oh yes.
• Mommy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You: Well, she did, Arianna.
• Moses in the Bulrushes: Arianna. Her mother could not take care of her, so she was left with her aunt and uncle and never told that she was even related to the Duchessa.
• Narnia Time: Most of the time, it's a consistent one-to-one day ratio between Talia and England, with the only oddity being that day and night are switched. But from the first, we know that the timeflow is much more unstable - Doctor Dethridge, who lived in the Renaissance and was the first Stravagator, regularly gets visits from Stravaganti from modern-day England because time has flown by more quickly in England.
  • And this is played to its heartbreaking conclusion when Lucien's entrapment in Bellezza for about two days translates into a three-week coma in England - coinciding with a resurgence of his brain cancer. His parents, having concluded he's never waking up, decide to cut off his life support.
• Official Couple: Arianna and Luciano
• Older Than They Think: In-universe: the Stellata, unbeknownst to most Remorans, is coincident with a much older Manoush (Gypsy) festival
• Parental Abandonment: Lots.
• Parental Substitute: The Gasparinis for Arianna, Doctor Dethridge and Leonora for Lucien, the Mulhollands for Falco.
• Pimped-Out Dress: The Duchessa's pretty much obligated to wear these. Also, the bridal gowns in the di Chimici triple wedding.
• Promotion to Parent: Sky Meadows, having to take care of his ill mother.
• Purple Eyes: Arianna and the Duchessa both, which is an early clue that they're related.
• Real Name as an Alias: Silvia Bellini has been the Duchessa for so long that almost nobody remembers her actual name. It makes it easy for her to pretend to be a widow in Padavia using her real name, even after she marries Rodolfo again.
• Rebellious Princess: Arianna takes on the mantle of Duchessa voluntarily, but she still chafes under all the pressure and rules laid upon her in the later books.
• Replacement Love Interest: Falco Nick for Georgia. Doubles as Second Love.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Though not technically royalty, the Duchessa of Bellezza takes the welfare of the city very much to heart. Germano, the Duke of Classe in book 5, qualifies.
• Serious Business: The Stellata horse race in the second book has the entire city obsessed every year. It's based on the real-life Palio in Siena.
• Shown Their Work: There's a whole arc in City of Masks where Lucien and his parents visit the real-world Venice that pretty much exists so Hoffman can show her work.
• Shrinking Violet: Georgia is a variation in that she has a lot of pent-up anger and upset beneath that shyness. Part of her development in Talia involves becoming as forceful outside as she is inside. Isabel plays it straight; she avoids attention so she won't be compared to her talented twin brother, but feels even worse because nobody notices her.
• Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Georgia's crush on Lucien.
• Smug Snake: Enrico
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Lucien meets Arianna when she is disguised as a boy to try and enlist as a mandolier (the Bellezzan version of a gondolier).
• Translation Convention: In effect for the Stravaganti so that they hear people in the alternate world speaking in whatever the Stravagante's first language is.
• Trapped in Another World: 'Trapped' isn't quite the word, since the Stravaganti fell asleep with their talismans, but the principle is the same - and if you lose your talisman, or die in your home world, you are trapped.
  • Played completely straight with Lucien at the end of his book in a scene that is pure Tear Jerker.
• The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask: Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza would not accept anything but a female ruler.
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Dethridge's English sounds like this to the Stravaganti from modern England.