Literary suggestions in Lombardy

Wandering around the region, among places, cities and events that have inspired great authors

Lombardy has its own strong literary charge.It is rich in stories and places that have inspired and still inspire the pen of great writers.

From Manzoni's famous novel to great international writers to contemporary authors who were born in Lombardy and found inspiration for their works here.

The scenery changes, from the beauty of the lakes to metropolitan settings to the seemingly placid province , but in which strong passions flow underground.

What remains are anecdotes, descriptions and frescoes that tell of a living land that has given so much to literature and poetry. Happy reading!

Alessandro Manzoni and his Promessi Sposi, between Lecco and Milan. — Let's start with the most famous author and "that branch of Lake Como that turns to noon." Following the story of Renzo and Lucia, one can still walk along the many Manzonian itineraries: Villa Manzoni with an adjoining museum in Lecco, the Capuchin convent of Friar Cristoforo in the village of Pescarenico, Lucia's house in Acquate, Don Abbondio's church in Olate, the Rocca dell'Innominato near Vercurago and much more. All the way to Milan, the setting of many episodes of the historical novel: what remains of the Lazzaretto in the street of the same name or in Via S. Gregorio, the memory of the Forno delle Grucce probably at numbers 3-5 of Corso Vittorio Emanuele, and the biographical places of Manzoni himself: the House-museum in Via del Morone, the monument dedicated to him, in Piazza San Fedele, and the tomb, at the Famedio of the Monumental Cemetery.

Stendhal, Milanese at heart, who knew Lombardy well. — More or less in the same years in which Manzoni was writing I Promessi sposi, Stendhal, the great French novelist who had arrived in the Navigli following Napoleon's army, elected Milan as his ideal homeland, to the point of requesting that on the tombstone of his tomb, in the Parisian cemetery of Montmartre, be written in Italian: "Arrigo Beyle, Milanese" (this was his real name). A Meneghino at heart, the writer expressed himself thus, "Every one of these evenings I have gone, at about one o'clock in the morning to see the Cathedral of Milan again...it offers a spectacle of extraordinary beauty unique in the world. Architecture has never offered me such sensations." But Stendhal also loved Brianza very much "for the placidity of its rivers, for the multitude of its lakes" and the romantic beauty of Lake Como with its villas that he knew well.

Carlo Porta and the Milanese dialect elevated to poetry — A friend of Manzoni and Stendhal, Carlo Porta is considered the greatest poet in Milanese. His poems in the Milanese dialect are veritable novels in miniature; his characters from the fearful and tragicomic Giovannin Bongee to the prostitute and proto-feminist Ninetta, from the Marchionn di Gamb-Avert, a slovenly and melancholy tavern musician, to the truncated and boisterous Marchesa Donna Fabia Fabron de' Fabrian are relocated in almost entirely recognizable urban scenic backdrops: Piazza Vetra and the Verziere, Via della Commenda and the churchyard of S. Maria presso S. Celso. Right at the Verziere (herb market), near Piazza Fontana, not surprisingly stands a 1966 bronze monument to Porta, a remake of an older sculpture.

Small and large lakes to inspire Fogazzaro's works — The Como shore of Lake Lugano is the characteristic location of Antonio Fogazzaro's "Piccolo mondo antico" (Little Ancient World). The tale is in fact set in Valsolda, where the famous writer, as well as a senator of the Kingdom of Italy in 1896, spent part of his life. Many passages in the novel, one of the first adapted into a television script in 1957, are moreover autobiographical and refer to figures who really existed on the shores of the Ceresio. Another famous book by Fogazzaro, a writer several times nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature, is also set in Lombardy. It is Malombra, which takes its starting point from the shores of Lake Segrino, in the Como Brianza area; while the palace featured in the work is the ancient Villa Pliniana on Lake Como, which with its atmosphere was a source of inspiration for the author.

The Vittoriale degli Italiani on Lake Garda, to learn about D'Annunzio — Another literary lacustrine site is the Vittoriale degli italiani, in Gardone Riviera on Lake Garda, buen retiro of Gabriele D'Annunzio in the last years of his life (1921-38). A visit to the Vittoriale almost allows one to enter the mind of the Poet-Vate, a man stirred by great passions and ambitions: the Priory, the painted stained glass windows, the mottos and aphorisms on chimneys and lintels, almost ten thousand objects and over thirty thousand volumes. Everything at the Vittoriale speaks of him. The large complex now also houses two museums: one celebrating the exploits of Italians in the Great War, while the other is the Secret D'Annunzio. Also notable are the park and outdoor spaces, including the amphitheater with the picturesque backdrop of Lake Garda.

The Vigevano of the economic boom in the novels of Lucio Mastronardi — Let us move to the province of Pavia, upper part, to the expressionist Vigevano of the masters, shoemakers and southerners portrayed in strong colors in Lucio Mastronardi's novels. Perhaps the most famous work of the writer, who was born and died right here, is "Il maestro di Vigevano," published in 1962 on the initiative of Italo Calvino. With "The Shoemaker of Vigevano" and the subsequent "The Southerner of Vigevano," it is part of the trilogy later republished under the title "People of Vigevano." The background of the narrated stories is the industrious (and history-rich) town of Pavia, in the years of profound social transformations of the economic development of the 1960s. From the novel "Il maestro di Vigevano" was made the film of the same name by Elio Petri, starring Alberto Sordi, which gave great notoriety to the comic and grotesque events of the master Mombelli.

The Grottoes of Catullus in Sirmione, pearl of Lake Garda — Let us go back in time, to the first century B.C., to read these verses, "O Sirmione, gem of peninsulas and islands, all those that in the limpid lakes hold up the one and the other Neptune, how gladly I see you again and with what joy...." This is Carme 31 of Catullus's Lirics (84-54 B.C.), in which the poet describes his return to his beloved home in Sirmione. These verses, rediscovered in the 15th century, suggested the connection with the grandiose remains still visible at the end of the Sirmione peninsula. In particular, the first to attribute the villa to Gaius Valerius Catullus was, in 1483, Marin Sanudo the Younger. While there are no certain elements to locate the poet's home, the fact remains that the Catullus Caves are one of the most visited archaeological sites in Italy, set in a fairytale setting.

Luino, the Maggiore and the Varese valleys by Piero Chiara — The novel machine runs well, as seen, even in the province. Let us return to the lakes, for example. From the "skinny shore" of Lake Maggiore, Luino, the surrounding valleys - the Valcuvia and Valtravaglia - piers, small squares, villas and paths among vegetable gardens, where Piero Chiara set the minimal epic of his small but universal world. Perhaps the most emblematic book in this sense is "Il pretore di Cuvio," one of Piero Chiara's bestsellers, with 130,000 copies sold already in the year of publication alone (1973). As in many of the Luino writer's works, the characters' stories are interwoven against the backdrop of the provincial universe of Varesotto and the valleys, representing on a small scale the vices and virtues of humankind.

Hemingway and Farewell to Arms in Milan. — Particular is the story of the well-known U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway, who was very close to Italy and Milan in particular. In the retinue of the Red Cross, Hemingway was a war reporter in 1918 and, wounded on the Veneto front, was treated in a Milanese hospital on Via Armorari, where he met nurse Agnes von Kurowksy and fell in love with her. Thus was born the fable of his "Farewell to Arms." Even today in Via Armorari, not far from Piazza Duomo, it is possible to admire a commemorative plaque recalling Hemingway's presence in the Lombard capital. Of his stay in Milan, the writer recalls, in his letters and in the aforementioned novel, the clubs in the center and the Galleria and the afternoons spent at the San Siro Hippodrome.

La Bella di Lodi by Alberto Arbasino — The Lombardy province and the economic boom years again in Roberto Arbasino's novel "La bella di Lodi," published as a short story as early as 1960. The fresco of an opulent and enriched lowland town, amid flamboyant spiders and agricultural rents, with the brazen exploits of the story's protagonists, from which the film of the same name, starring a very young Stefania Sandrelli, was made in 1963. In 1972, however, the short story turned novel was among the finalists for the Campiello Prize. Roberto Arbasino, a writer but also a journalist, theater critic and politician, was born, moreover, in Voghera and attended university first in Pavia and then at the Statale di Milano. Of his hometown he said sarcastically, "The evil of living I used to meet in Voghera, but I did not greet it."

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