About Vivere
Vivere, meaning To Live, was one of Italy's signature daily soap operas, broadcast on Canale 5 from 1999 to 2008. Set in the elegant lakeside city of Como, it followed the intertwined lives of several well-to-do families whose homes, businesses, and old friendships overlapped across the same streets and shores. Over nine years and more than two thousand episodes, the series built a loyal weekday audience by returning again and again to the same warm, familiar faces and the slow, satisfying rhythms of small-city life.
At the heart of the show were the Bonelli and Gherardi families. Giovanni Bonelli ran a beloved local inn alongside his wife Mirella and their daughters, while the entrepreneur Alfio Gherardi embodied the industrialist with a human face, balancing the pressures of business with the loyalties of family. Around them moved a wide ensemble of neighbors, partners, and rivals, and the storylines wove together romance, marriages tested and renewed, business rivalry, and the everyday quarrels and reconciliations that bind a community together.
Treated in a clean, affectionate style, Vivere celebrated Como itself as much as any single character, using the light off the lake and the rhythms of provincial Italian life as a constant backdrop to love and reconciliation. The blend of intimate family drama, gentle social storytelling, and a dependable cast of mainstays made it a fixture of Italian afternoon television and a fond memory for the viewers who grew up alongside its families. This profile is AI-authored and flagged for editorial fact-check.
