Lucia Cammeniti

Lucia Cammeniti is a fictional character in the Network Ten soap opera Neighbours, portrayed by actress Maria Mercedes. The character made recurring appearances from 2004 to 2005 and will return in late 2006.

Character
The wife of mafia boss Rocco Cammeniti (Robert Forza), Lucia was used to getting her own way, both in her business and personal lives. When Rocco was jailed for his various crimes, Lucia kept control of the family businesses. She then brought her youngest daughter, Carmella (Natalie Blair), back from school in Italy to stand in for her as head editor of All Her magazine.

Carmella’s return to Erinsborough saw her reunite with her ex-boyfriend, Connor O'Neill (Patrick Harvey). As the relationship became more serious, Carmella introduced Connor to Lucia. Although things went reasonably well, Lucia had reservations when she found out that Connor had a baby daughter, Maddy (Madison Lu), from a previous relationship with Lori Lee (Michelle Ang). When Carmella decided to move in with Connor, Lucia secretly made a pact with him to challenge his worth. The first challenge saw him forced to turn $500 into $1000 overnight. When a man named Dan Stevens (Jason Buckley) entered the pub and asked about the secret recipe for O'Neill's Beer, Connor sold him a recipe, albeit a fake one, thus completing his first challenge.

Lucia soon arrived to see Connor and gave him a suitcase. She told him that it contained sensitive information, which could hurt Carmella should she find out, before instructing him to take it to the family’s solicitor across town. Unfortunately, a mix-up with recently-blinded Stuart Parker (Blair McDonough) saw the suitcase get mixed up with Stu’s work case. As Connor scrambled to stop his friend from opening Lucia’s case, he arrived just in time to grab it, but it fell open at his feet. Inside, he found a note from Lucia, saying that she knew that he’d open the case. Later that day, as he tried to explain to her exactly what had happened, Lucia told Connor that he’d passed with flying colours, as any loving boyfriend would want to find the information inside and prevent his girlfriend from getting hurt. Satisfied with Connor, Lucia left town.