The autobiographical text of Giacomo Leopardi reveals his narrative skill on his first encounter with love. With remarkable energy and full awareness of the internal contradictions caused by this unfamiliar feeling, a feeling that he expected throughout his adolescence, he records the surge and decline of desire, the complex psychological transitions - from agitation to melancholy and lethargy to physical manifestations such as insomnia and loss of appetite - as well as the slow decay, the appeasement of passion that leads to resignation, but also his decision to accept this experience as an initiation into the amorous adventure.