Casa Leopardi, the
birthplace of the well-known Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi, will
for the first time on March 21 open the chambers where he and
his brothers lived and the 'noble floor' to the public.
The mansion is located in the town of Recanati in the central
Italy region of Marche, where the poet was born in 1789.
"Ove Abitai Fanciullo" ("Where I As An Adolescent Lived") is
the name given to the itinerary of the visit, which will allow
access to the mansion including the gallery with its art
collections, the garden, and the private chambers of the poet
that for two centuries have not been used by his descendants for
domestic purposes.
Italy's greatest Romantic poet and philosopher Leopardi was
the son of a minor count who owed fealty to the papacy and grew
up in nearly complete isolation in the hilltop town of Recanati.
A sort of child prodigy, he dumped his tutors at the age of
10.
By the time he was 17 had achieved great erudition by
study techniques he later described as "crazy and desperate" and
which may have contributed to the asthma, scoliosis, and weak
eyesight that plagued him later.
In his late teens he started writing the Zibaldone, his
teeming collection of thoughts and verses.
Having failed to run away from home, he later penned some
of his famous Idilli, including L'Infinito - which most Italian
schoolkids have to learn by heart - and Alla luna.
He went briefly to Rome, where he achieved a degree of
fame, lost his religious faith and developed his trademark
pessimism.
Later episodes saw him in Milan, Bologna and Florence, where
he suffered unrequited love and met Alessandro Manzoni, the
other great Italian poet and writer of the century.
During his last months in Naples he discovered a passion for
ice-cream.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
