Ponzano, the Veneto, 1916

The first vacation came, and Luciano and Marina's worst fears came true. The moment she returned from London and they met again, they knew they could not stay away from each other. All through the winter and into the spring, Luciano lived a double life.

Luciano knew that he could not end his marriage, but his relationship with Teresa had changed forever. He had too much respect for his wife to let her find out the truth from someone else. After months of deceit, he told her about the affair with Marina. Her reaction was bitter and angry. He could not stay now.

Luciano moved out of the family home and bought a house forty minutes away in Venice, into which he moved with Marina. After difficult talks, he and Teresa agreed that he would eat lunch with the children each day in the family home.

Teresa had been a member of the Benetton family since the earliest days. She was part of the family and the business, and her relationship with the Benettons remained close. But others close to the family business, like Tobia Scarpa, could not forgive Luciano for what he had done.

Luciano wanted to take his business ideas to the world. At home, his ideas had seen a single store develop into a network of hundreds of stores. In France, however, it had not. Luciano examined the French market with the help of Lison Bonfils.

They talked with Giuliana and decided that one of their mistakes was in the colors. They were clean and international, but they also had to be French to the French, and American to the Americans. Giuliana redesigned the French range of clothes to include softer colors like pale purple and chocolate brown. As a result, the clothes no longer looked "foreign" and there was suddenly an increased demand. By 1978, there were 200 Benetton stores in France.

The site and name of the first store in London were as important as they had been in Paris. South Molton Street is in a wealthy area near Oxford Street, where customers would accept Italian clothes. The first store opened in 1977 and was called simply "Benetton."