Crepax's stories were based on imagination and vision. In those years, artists contaminated one another's works, and there was even a curious connection between Crepax's Ciao Valentina and Antonioni's Blow-Up.

Michele is at dinner at Fillide's home. The conversation turns to a grim story of patricide involving someone he knows and he can't let it go. Things get out of hand.

Who was the model for Valentina? Certainly, the actress Louise Brooks who portrayed Lulu in the movie Pandora's Box directed by G.W Pabst (based on two plays by Frank Wedekind), but also Crepax's wife, Luisa Mandelli.

Michele finishes his painting of Fillide and they have a moment to get to know each other better.

Just as in Cubist art, Crepax would design his figures to be seen from various points of view simultaneously. Sometimes he would use small windows to attract attention rather than making them larger.

Caravaggio (as he begins calling himself) and Ranuccio play real tennis. Who's going to win?

Guido Crepax's son Antonio talks about the day Antonio Custra was killed in May of 1977, during an armed demonstration in Milan. This was during the so-called anni di piombo (years of lead), a period of social turmoil, political violence and upheaval that lasted from the late 1960s until the late 1980s, marked by a wave of both far-left and far-right incidents of political terrorism and violent clashes. Many demonstrators were arrested, but Antonio Crepax managed not to get loaded onto a paddy wagon.

Michele goes back to the tavern Ranuccio and Fillide frequent. He challenges Ranuccio.

Crepax loved playing at battles and would change the outcomes, using his friends to fine-tune the moves. He had some famous personalities as willing participants in the games, too.

We learn of the death of Francesco Cenci from a conversation between the Cardinal and one of his guests. Michele arrives too, at a reception, where his latest painting is on display. He makes an impression as someone who speaks his mind.

Besides his much better known activity as a graphic artist, Crepax was a keen wargamer and wargame designer and collector of paper soldiers, drawn by himself.

Young Michele thus enters into the service of Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, man of culture and art connoisseur. All he has to do is what he does best: paint.

One of Crepax's techniques is to use the details of everyday life to build his stories and provide context. We even see the titles of the books in Valentina's bookcase.

Word seems to be getting around that Merisi is a very talented painter. In bed with malaria, Michele himself is the last one to hear about it.

Among the pages of the comic strip, family members find familiar objects, drawings, and personal information from their everyday life. Although Valentina was a figment of Crepax's imagination, she was also an integral part of his family.