Literature itinerary
A widespread itinerary on the territory that marks the stages of the illustrious characters who have left signs in the city.
From Grazia Deledda to Tolmino Baldassari, from Max David to Giovanni Guareschi, to Tonino Guerra. Cervia, which has always been attentive to the cultural world, has in fact conferred honorary citizenship on great masters of the literary world.
1) Giuseppe Ungaretti – Garibaldi Square
Giuseppe Ungaretti was born in Alexandria in Egypt in 1888 and died in Milan in 1970. He was among the most famous poets of the mid-twentieth century, giving his verses a symbolist imprint. He met Cervia in 1935, when he arrived there to visit the Nobel Prize Grazia Deledda. She dedicated an elzeviro to him. In 1958, with a solemn ceremony, the city conferred on the author of "Sentimento del tempo" the honorary citizenship, expressing his gratitude for having carried out with great authority the role of president of the "City of Cervia poetic award" reborn in 1956. He liked to come to Cervia, he was fascinated by the pine forest and the sea, and he loved converse amiably with his friends in Piazza Garibaldi.
2) Teodolinda Franceschi Pignocchi – Circonvallazione Sacchetti 111, Casa natale
Teodolinda Pignocchi was born in Civitella di Romagna in 1816 and died in Bologna in 1894. Conducted to Cervia at an early age, she shows an early love for poetry and, for exhortation of Professor Giovanni Della Valle - then one of the greatest exponents of Romagna neoclassicism and fervent patriot-she starts to study literature. A large part of her compositions concerns precisely the love for the city. Another poetic vein instead draws inspiration from her love for her land as the dream of areturning from a trip, the peaks of its bell towers and her houses or the beautiful stormy waves. In addition to being a poet and she was a patriot, Pignocchi was also an illustrious educator: in Cervia she had directed the first ones elementary schools.
3) Tonino Guerra – Fontana del tappeto sospeso (Flying Carpet Fountain)
Tonino Guerra was born in Santarcangelo di Romagna in 1920 and died there country in 2012. he was a poet and screenwriter, very close to Fellini, capable of create a spontaneous group of young poets of the caliber of Raffaello Baldini, Nino Pedretti and Gianni Fucci. Among his many successes, he won the "Premio Emilia" dedicated to dialect poetry. He was very attached to the "garden city", which he honored with his own presence and to which he dedicated sincere verses. Heconcepted the city’s fountain “suspended carpet”, a work that admirably characterizes the square of the Salinari.
4) Max David - Viale Roma, Cervia
Max David was born in Cervia in 1908 and died in Milan in 1980. He was a writer and journalist, special correspondent for various newspapers such as Corriere della Sera and il Resto del Carlino, in war scenarios. His career is characterized by many adventures and some sensational shots, such as the interview with Jiang Kai-shek. In the 1955 he won the Bagutta prize with "Volapié", a book on Spain torera praised by Ernest Hemingway for his freshness and originality. He recently covered the office of first tribune at the Tribunate of Romagna. Villa Maria, his childhome, is located in viale Roma. He returned there to stay briefly, caressed by the sea breeze and cradled by the creak of pine trees.
5) Giovanni Guareschi - Via Bellucci, Cervia
Guareschi was born in Fontanelle di Roccabianca in 1908 and died in Cervia in 1968. Writer, journalist, humorist and caricaturist, he became famous for his stories on the figures of Peppone (communist mayor of Brescello) and Don Camillo (pastor of the village). He had recreated his "little ancient world" in Cervia, in the summer villa in via Bellucci, from which he left for some brief forays into the shops of his friends and in the port channel. He talked animatedly with the fishermen and had lunch with the innkeeper Silvano Collina. And in front of a good stew he melted. But he didn't love the high society, but the simple characters of the place, who reminded him of the Bassa and the they inspired. He died, struck down by a heart attack, right among the pine trees on a hot July of 1968.
6) Grazia Deledda - Villa Igea. Via Nazario Sauro, Cervia
Grazia Deledda was born in Nuoro in 1871 and died in Rome in 1936. In Cervia she spent her holidays between 1920 and 1935. she The author of "Il paese del vento", recommended by the poet and friend Marino Moretti, she arrived in the city of salt after a stay in Viareggio. She took long walks on the beach and in the pine forest, she left again only with the first chills of autumn. The beauty of this rugged place and wild nature of her reminded her of Sardinia, and also inspired her. She initially spent her holidays at villa Igea, near the pier. The Municipality gave her honorary citizenship in 1927, and in 1937 she dedicated her a plaque placed on the facade of the town hall.
7) Grazia Deledda - dimora estiva. Via Colombo 65, Cervia
With the proceeds of the Nobel Prize (1927), she bought villa Caravella – located in via Cristoforo Colombo – “with the blue sea and the sky lilac". The sculptor Biancini in 1956 dedicated her a monument located in the roundabout of the Lungomare Deledda representing a Sardinian shepherdess and a cervese fishmonger.
8) Lina Sacchetti – Casa natale. Via Cristoforo Colombo, Cervia
Lina Sacchetti was born in Cervia in 1894 and died in the same town in 1988. Her work is mostly aimed at childhood education to which she has dedicated a vast work breath. This is the case of "The History of Literature for Youth", a book that she had great success and was adopted as a reference text in various teaching institutes. The book "History of a conscience" earned her the praise of the President of the Republic Sandro Pertini. She was a great friend of Grazia Deledda, who accompanied in the long walks to let her discover the most hidden aspects of Cervia. In the lasts her times she had returned to live in the villa in via Cristoforo Colombo, starting a book on Deledda's stories. For her merits in the field of education and child pedagogy she was awarded two gold medals: the first from Provveditorato agli studi di Bologna (where you worked for several years); the second by the Ministry of Education. Finally, she was awarded the ”Premio della culture” of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
9) Gabriele D'Annunzio – Villa Palanti, Via Due Giugno 72, Milano Marittima
Gabriele D'Annunzio was born in Pescara in 1863 and died in Gardone Riviera in 1938. He was a leading figure of the early 1900s in Italy. Writer, poet, playwright, soldier, politician, journalist and Italian patriot, symbol of decadentism, was a famous figure of the First World War. Among his exploits stands out that of River. His poem, "Verses of love", inspired the first tourist poster of the city of Cervia and Giuseppe Palanti chose the first verse to decorate the facade of his house, a clear declaration of love for his wife Ada.
10) Dante Alighieri – Pineta, Milano Marittima
Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265 and died in Ravenna in 1321. He is considered the father of the Italian language, thanks to his "Divine Comedy", universally judged to be the greatest work written in the Italian language and one of the greatest masterpieces of world literature. Expression of medieval culture, filtered through the lyric of the "Dolce stil novo", the Comedy is also an allegorical vehicle of salvation Human. In two of his songs the great poet refers first to Cervia and then to Ravenna pine forest, within which he will have happened to walk during the period in which he was a guest of the Da Polenta, lords of Ravenna. In memory of him was placed a plaque on the facade of the town hall on the occasion of the sixth centenary of his death in 1921.
11) Marino Moretti – Pineta, Pinarella
Marino Moretti was born in Cesenatico in 1885 and died in the same place in 1979. During his lifetime he worked as a playwright, poet and novelist. Declaring himself against fascism, he signed the "Manifesto of anti-fascist intellectuals" by Benedetto Croce. In 1959 he received the Viareggio prize, which will be due to controversy because he had surpassed "A violent life" by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Intense his literary production, including poetry collections, short stories and novels. Called a twilight, he struck up an intense friendship with Grazia Deledda, who had known as editor of the literary magazine "The great illustration".
12) Rino Alessi – Casa Natale (Trucolo Caffè). Via XX Settembre 145, Cervia
Baldassare “Rino” Alessi was born in Cervia in 1885 and died in the same city in 1970. In his life he was a journalist, writer and essayist. Enlisted as volunteer in the First World War he became a war correspondent for various newspapers. Censored for his articles, he then published "Dall'Isonzo al Piave, clandestine letters by a war correspondent”. He was a friend of Mussolini and very close to fascism, but opposed the racial laws, and made them a battle from the columns of “Piccolo” of Trieste. On "Il Giornale del Mattino", in which he dealt with topics of political-social character, he published, following contact with the rioters, a service related to the "Settimana Rossa". It was his intervention, after the kidnapping of the general Agliardi, to avoid the arrival of the army.
13) Tolmino Baldassari – Casa Natale. Cannuzzo di Cervia
Tolmino Baldassari was born in Castiglione in 1927 and died in 2010 in Cannuzzo, in the Cervia fraction that runs along the Savio river where he has for years found the source of inspiration, sitting on his terrace, in an aura as magical as that place. Before he worked as a farm laborer and trade unionist for the CGIL, and then started the business literary at almost fifty years with "Al progni serbi". His work is characterized from writing in the Romagna dialect but Tolmino also distinguished himself as a translator, especially from Spanish. Considered one of the greatest European poets of the twentieth century - flanked by Raffaello Baldini - describes his world of lights with short strokes, shadows and silences.
14) Tolmino Baldassari. Biblioteca Maria Goia. Via Circonvallazione Sacchetti 111, Cervia
The poet bequeathed his large library and the entire furniture of the studio in which he composed his main works to the Municipal Library. The wood and metal shelving with books; a sofa upholstered in fabric; a desk with seat, objects for reading and writing (typewriter, glasses). Other material, such as the vinyl collection, the magazines and books placed in the attic of the house as well as the collections of photographs and correspondence remained in Cannuzzo's house. The books kept there have been cataloged by the Library. We are talking about 2185 volumes: prestigious series of which Tolmino was a collector and admirer such as "The millennia" by Einaudi, series of poetry, encyclopedias of literature and history, art books.
15) Carlo Nava – Colonna del Mare. Piazzale Aliprandi, Cervia
Carlo Nava was born in 1927 in Ravenna and died in 2013 in the same city. In love of the sea he embarked as a cabin boy at a young age, and lived a great part of his life a close contact with the fishermen of the Borgo marina. At 60 he started writing poetry and short stories. His tales of the sea often have a dreamlike vein, and they are characterized by the characters he has known during his numerous careers navigations. Stories of storms but also of love, are the counterpoint to seafaring techniques with lugsails. After receiving numerous awards, some verses of him are in the “ Colonna del Mare” , the monument situated in front of the fisherman's market and dedicated to fishermen’s wives