MILAN

Alda Merini "the poet of the Navigli" was born and had lived in Milan for most of her life. She celebrated the drama and beauty of life, love, disappointment, marginalisation, suffering and the spiritual dimension in her impressive poetic production. She made her debut as an author at the age of 15, publishing her first poems in the magazine Paragone. In the same years, she showed the first signs of the mental illness that would mark her entire life, in respect of which poetry became both a faithful mirror and a salvific expression.

The anthology l suono dell'ombra. Poesie e prose 1953-2009 [The sound of shadow. Poetries and proses 1953-2009] contains the poetry collections of the beginning and all the important writings in poetry and prose by the Milanese author and constitutes a reference point for the knowledge of the poetess. Ambrogio Borsani's in-depth introduction also mentions letters, testimonies and memories of Alda Merini in her city.

Alda Merini's House Museum @A. Scuratti-Milan Municipality

Giuseppe Ungaretti, one of the greatest poets of the Italian twentieth century, published the collection Vita d'un uomo in 1969. The text collects his complete production accompanied by personal comments and notes; in the introduction, titled Ragioni d'una poesia [Reasons for a Poem], the author describes the different stages of a poetic research that went hand in hand with his personal growth.

Ungaretti lived in Milan for a short period, starting from 1914, but he always maintained a close relationship with this city, in particular with the Mondadori publishing house, which released most of his works. His poems recount life in the trenches during the First World War, the journey between pain and love in human life, between death and cruelty, between messages expressing desire and sadness, melancholy and joy. With his words Ungaretti urges man not to give up in the face of difficulties and defeat, to strive to give a high meaning to every action, communicating the value of hope and wonder.