“Why don’t you write us something about a local ghost story?” I was asked back in June.

And why not indeed… Only, when I set about researching, I found that my unimaginative hometown only has one official ghost.

Agnese Visconti was one of the many daughters of the Prince of Milan. Plain, sickly and waspish, she was married off very young to handsome Francesco Gonzaga, only son and heir to the de facto Lord of Mantova. It wasn’t what you’d call a happy marriage – but then nobody expected it to be – and it produced only one daughter.

Then Agnese’s father was murdered by an ambitious nephew, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and things went truly downhill. Agnese decided she wanted revenge, and began working with her exiled brother to get back Milan… Continue reading →