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broadcast as the “most
spectacular vision which the
Earth has ever seen”. A vision
which in this case transmitted the
images of an epic tragedy, from
which we will have not recovered.
Symbolically, it was the
introduction for all the negative
events that we are experiencing
now today.
We are missing Calvino in this
moment, the lucidity of his pen.
He who in his American lessons
wished to speak of Lightness,
Rapidity, Exactness, Visibility,
Multiplicity. Looking at all these
words lined up today, in the times
of internet and globalization,
they seem more pertinent than
ever. The lectures, which he was
to give during the academic year
of 1985-86, were to be six,
though he only wrote five. The
sixth was to be called Consistency,
a form of strength, tenacity, and
solidity. Maybe that is why he
never ended up writing it. Do we
not live, as Bauman has
suggested, in a liquid society In
which little is able to deposit
leave a sediment A rolling stone
gathers no moss. From savings to
memory, from work to affection.
Born in North America, in Cuba,
in 1923, Calvino docked in
Sanremo, the city of his ancestors,
at age two. During the Second
World War, he joined the
partisans in the woods of the
mountains along the coast of
Liguria. A landscape so important
in his imagery, that it is the
landscape of many of his tales
and novels, including “The Baron
in the Trees”. A book that has
received universal recognition, an
emblem of one of the Italian
writers who has been most
translated in the world, and most
loved by Americans. That baron
who decided to live in the trees is
a world heritage.
Calvino did not want to follow his
father’s career as an agronomist.
Nor did he want to be a scientist.
He became a writer. “The Road to
San Giovanni” - a sort of
intellectual autobiography –
sarebbe dovuta
intitolare Consistency che mi
azzardo a tradurre
con consistenza ma
anche fermezza, densità, solidit.
Forse non è un caso che non sia
riuscito a scrivere proprio
quella. Non viviamo, come ci ha
suggerito Bauman, nella società
liquida, in cui ben poco si riesce
a sedimentare Dai risparmi alla
memoria, dal lavoro agli affetti.
Nato a Cuba nel 1923, Calvino
approda a Sanremo a due anni -
la città dei suoi antenati per
parte di padre. Durante la
Seconda Guerra Mondiale si
unisce ai partigiani in
quell’entroterra ligure così
importante per il suo
immaginario, un paesaggio che
si può ritrovare in molti racconti
e romanzi, tra cui Il barone
rampante. Un’opera
universalmente riconosciuta,
emblema di uno degli scrittori
italiani più tradotti al mondo e
molto amato dagli statunitensi.
Quel barone che decide di vivere
sugli alberi è patrimonio
dell’umanità.
Calvino non voleva seguire la
carriera paterna, facendo
l’agronomo, neppure lo
scienziato, ma diventare
scrittore. La strada di San
Giovanni – una sorta di
autobiografia intellettuale - è il
racconto dove questo conflitto
con il padre viene alla luce.
Mario Calvino, le mattine
d’estate, obbligava i figli ad
accompagnarlo all’alba nell’orto
di proprietà a San Giovanni per
portare a casa le ceste di frutta
e di verdura. Il giovane Italo,
invece, era attratto dalla città,
dal centro di Sanremo, “il resto
era spazio bianco, senza
significati; i segni del futuro mi
aspettavo di decifrarli laggiù da
quelle vie, da quelle luci
notturne che non erano solo le
vie e le luci della nostra piccola
città appartata, ma la città, uno
spiraglio di tutte le città
possibili”. Due strade che
divergono, si scontrano,
brings out this conflict that he
had with his father. Mario Calvino
on summer mornings would force
his children to accompany him at
dawn to the vegetable gardens to
bring home baskets of fruit and
vegetables. The young Italo,
instead, was attracted to the city,
to the center of Sanremo, “the
rest is a blank space, without
meaning. The signs of the future
awaited my deciphering of them
down there, down those streets,
down under those streetlights
which were not just the streets
and the lights of our little town,
pushed to the side, but the city, a
glimpse of all possible cities.” Two
roads that diverged, that clashed,
irreconcilable for the young Italo,
but which, in future, when he
became an adult, joined together
to make a harmonious narrative.
Like a Marco Polo of the 20th
Century, he desired to leave his
hometown, Sanremo, to cross all
the cities possible. Marco Polo,
and not by chance, is the main
character of Calvino’s book,
“Invisible Cities”. Calvino leaves
Liguria forever after
the Second World
War. He moves
first to Turin,
then Paris and
Rome.
La locandina di "Dal fondo
dell'opaco io scrivo", la mostra
curata da Laura Guglielmi
allestita alla New York
University nel 1999, e la prima
copertina di Lezioni americane.
Sotto, la figlia di Italo Giovanna
Calvino, da anni cittadina della
Grande Mela
The poster from the exhibition
“From the Depths of the
Opaque, I Write” which curator,
Laura Guglielmi, set up at the
University of New York in 1999,
and the first cover of
“American Lessons”. Below,
Italo Calvino’s daughter,
Giovanna, who for years has
lived in New York City
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