The Veneto branch of the Alberti family still use the form D' Alberti, possibly to distinguish themselves from the present Florentine and Genoese branches of the family.
Ponte presents the political and economic life of Genoa as the place where members of the Alberti family had established bank branches since the thirteenth century.
(We should, however, note that this particular storm may be an Alberti family myth since the local daily newspaper in El Puerto, La Revista Portuense, reported calm weather conditions for that day.)
Toward the end of the fourteenth century, the Alberti family had been exiled from their native Florence; and one of the leading bankers of the Alberti clan, Lorenzo, sought refuge in Genoa, where the family had a branch office.