'Hotel Portofino' Recap: Season 3 Episode 2

Hotel Portofino airs Sundays at 7:00 pm and is available to stream by WTTW Passport members. Recap the previous and following episodes.  
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Bella still hasn’t decided whether she will accept Cecil’s request for a divorce, since the scandal of it might tarnish her reputation as proprietor of the hotel. Cecil is pressuring her to make a decision quickly, and her lover Marco also thinks the divorce would be a good thing, as he tells her while they gather mushrooms in the forest.

Marco is being watched closely by Danioni, who makes Marco leave his architecture license with him for review. Danioni tells Marco to stop working for Bella if he wants to continue practicing as an architect. But the threat pushes Marco in the opposite direction. He goes to the hotel that night and summons Bella with a rock thrown against her window; then he proposes to her. If they are married, he can protect her from Danioni and scandal. But Bella says she isn’t sure about marriage, instantly offending Marco.

Bella is facing pressure from her father, George, as well. He’s passing down his textile business to Bella’s sister, Amelia, and wants Bella to sign a document stating that she won’t interfere with the succession. Bella doesn’t necessarily have a problem with Amelia taking over, although she does worry that Amelia doesn’t have any business experience. She is instead insulted by George’s insinuation that Bella doesn’t run a “real business” at the hotel. It’s just a “rich woman’s plaything.”

But Bella has other things to occupy her: her friend, the movie star Claudine Pascal, is arriving to rent out the hotel for the launch of her new perfume. Claudine has a new convertible and takes Bella for a ride to forget her worries. She then takes Bella dancing and they get drunk. Claudine mopes a bit about being single, and Bella decides to stop by Marco’s. She tells him that she wants to be with him, but has to resolve everything with Cecil first and still doesn’t know whether she wants to divorce – but she doesn’t want to lose Marco. She just needs time. He is still hurt, and tells her not to take too long to decide.

Cecil is waiting up for her when she and Claudine arrive back at the hotel after midnight. Claudine lays into him.

She gets along much better with Amelia, bonding over a love of fashion. Amelia asks Bella why she refused to sign the document guaranteeing her inheritance of their father’s business. Bella says that she will, and offers to help and share her experience running a business – to be a better sister. It’s a little late for that, Amelia says.

Bella also fails to help her daughter, Alice, when she receives an invitation to lunch from a contessa – the woman with whom Alice was surprised to see Count Albani the other day. Alice’s Italian is bad, and the contessa doesn’t speak English, so she needs her mother – but Bella says she’s too busy. Amelia also refuses to go, since she wasn’t invited, but encourages Alice to attend on her own if it involves Albani.

But he is not there, so Alice awkwardly tries her hand at Italian – and learns the contessa speaks English. The noblewoman explains that she has known Albani his whole life – she’s his sister, not his lover, as Alice feared. She wanted to meet the woman who thought she was too good for her brother, and to watch her suffer.

When Albani appears, he invites Alice to come see his horses – he has inherited this estate and its horses from his uncle. Alone with the horses, they almost kiss, but Albani pulls away. Alice asks him where he has been, and he explains that his sister needed him after her husband’s death. He tells Alice that he no longer thinks he and she are right for each other. He loves the simple life he is now living, and she is anything but simple.

Constance’s life is also complicated, given that she has a son but has never been married. Paola and Betty tell her not to reveal this to Vito as she goes on another date with him. But she feels guilty hiding it, and tries to cut the date short – until she observes Vito’s kindness to a boy begging for money. When Vito asks to see her again, she decides to tell him about her son, Tommy, and assumes the worse, walking away from him upset before he has a chance to respond.

Betty has a bit of her own romantic drama. She is meeting the mother of her fiancé, Salvatore, at a big party. As a cook, she tends to express her love through food – but Salvatore’s mother doesn’t want her to prepare anything for the party and will be offended if she does. Nevertheless, Betty bakes some of Salvatore’s favorite cakes: an English base with Italian lemon glaze, a fusion of her and him.

Salvatore is initially upset that Betty is going against his mother’s wishes, but warms to Betty when she gives him a piece of cake in apology. He tells her his mother will love her, and allows her to bring the cakes.

When his mother tries a bite, she is equivocal in her praise – but Salvatore translates it for Betty as a resounding endorsement.

Vito approaches Constance outside the party and tells her he doesn’t care that she is an unwed mother – he likes her. She tells him she likes him, too. They join the party holding hands.

But when two visitors are invited into the party and join during a toast by Salvatore, Constance quickly pulls her hand away. It’s Billy, Betty’s son, and Lucian, Constance’s former lover.

Back at the hotel, George dresses down Bella in front of Cecil and Amelia: you have everything you could want, and yet you won’t let Amelia have the business. Bella signs the document for him right there – and then tells him she’s divorcing Cecil.

“Over my dead body!” George sputters.