Elegant in a cream silk shirt, impeccable lipstick and freshly coiffed hair-with a hint of punk in her mismatched emerald-and-diamond stud earrings and a nonchalant pavé thumb ring-Silvestri has worked for Bulgari since she was 18 years old. As a young ingénue born and bred in Rome, she went to work for the company as a secretary while studying at university.

“I was studying biology, for love reasons,” explains Silvestri. But not, as it happens, for the love of biology. For the love of a man. Lucia’s inamorato was a doctor and together they had plans to open a practice.