After her mother’s death, Lina is sent to Tuscany, Italy where she discovers her mother’s old journal. Although she is first apprehensive about the idea of living in Italy, she begins to become more accustomed to Italian life as she meets a young boy named Lorenzo who helps her find out the truth about her biological father and her mother’s time in Italy. Despite this, there are many differences between the book and movie.
- Lina’s Home in Italy
- Book: After arriving in Italy, Lina stays with Howard in a cemetery.
- Movie: Lina lives with Francesca in a fancy, Italian mansion.
- Lina’s First Meeting With Her Biological Father
- Book: Lina originally had a very heated conversation with her biological father, Matteo Rossi. During this conversation, Matteo accused Lina’s mother of being obsessive and blackmailing him, resulting in him being forced to resign from his job as a professor at the Fine Arts Academy of Florence.
- Movie: Lina doesn’t talk with Matteo and instead storms out of his office after seeing him.
- Thomas Heath
- Book: Thomas Heath was a handsome, British boy who Lina temporarily dated.
- Movie: Thomas is not featured in the movie but is replaced by a rich boy named Alessandro Albani who Lina was also in love with.
- Lorenzo’s Passion
- Book: Lorenzo is passionate about soccer.
- Movie: Lorenzo is passionate about cooking and aspires to become a professional chef.
- Lorenzo’s House
- Book: Lorenzo lives in a gingerbread house with his mom and little sister.
- Movie: Lorenzo lives in a typical house with his two moms and grandmother.
- Hadley’s Journal
- Book: Lina’s mom, Hadley, originally sent the journal to Italy as a gift to Howard.
- Movie: Hadley told Francesca to give the journal to Lina after she arrived in Italy.
- Howard’s Profession
- Book: Howard worked in the cemetery where he took care of a World War II memorial.
- Movie: Howard is an art professor at a fancy prep school.
- Sonia
- Book: Sonia worked alongside Howard in the cemetery.
- Movie: Sonia is not featured at all.
- Lina’s Trip to Italy
- Book: Hadley planned for Lina to visit Italy only after her death.
- Movie: Hadley originally planned to go to Italy with Lina.
Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.
Mission Viejo Library Teen Voice 
Wow, this sounds like an interesting story and I’d love to give both the movie and book a try! Also, your breakdown of the differences in the movie and novel were very detailed and I like how you picked apart the things that make each unique! Great job!
I love this post! It’s so cool to see comments about how a novel compared to its movie adaptation. I often find that when I watch a movie about a book I read, lots of things are changed. I appreciate you pointing the differences out!
I watched the movie and am reading the book for the second time and they also left out the club part which I felt was significant.