Marina is Gloria’s best friend who shows up after 15 years to reconnect. Pina Turco plays the character.
Marina shows up at Gloria’s office but isn’t welcomed with open arms. 15 years ago, she was supposed to move to Barcelona with Gloria but backed out at the final moment.
Now she has 2 children and is pregnant with a third. She says she just wanted to meet her old friend but Gloria doesn’t believe her explanation.
She later admits that she is trying to stay away from Pietro and Sergio, the fathers of Salvatore and Arianna respectively.
Marina also reveals that Andrea is Gloria’s son from the time they had sex before her transition.
Complicated friendship
Gloria realizes that Marina didn’t go along with her back then because she was pregnant but that doesn’t completely absolve her.
Marina is a very carefree and flaky individual who always likes to have fun. She continues to smoke despite being pregnant and uses humor to avoid serious conversations.
When Gloria moved to Naples for college, Marina had a vacancy in the huge apartment that her grandmother left her, but she rejected Gloria’s application because of her tarot cards.
When Gloria threatens to leave, she calls her back and agrees to ignore the cards. Even though Gloria isn’t interested in women, Marina grows close to her and they make love often.
Then Marina left and returned all these years later.
She keeps her cancer a secret from everyone else and doesn’t want to talk about it when Sergio and Gloria find out.
Marina keeps Sergio at a distance even though he has been a decent father and partner. She was always in love with Gloria and refused to marry Sergio because of that.
Now she tolerates his presence because she is more focused on avoiding Pietro who is abusive.
Even though he hit Andrea and would be rough with her, she doesn’t consider him a serious threat and downplays the danger he poses.
After reluctantly agreeing to get the surgery for her tumor, she has cold feet and runs away from the hospital.
The only person she is willing to talk to is Gloria, and she is convinced by her best friend to give the surgery a chance.
Unfortunately, she decides to talk to Pietro once before her surgery. This proves to be the last time she talks to anyone because Pietro’s paranoia drives him to kill her.
One of her final wishes was that Gloria be involved in Andrea’s life she is his parent. Sergio initially lies about it but later fulfills Marina’s wish.