Guido Piovene

"[...] about the Alpine municipalities, I will say in passing that one, Capracotta, is the highest of the Apennine municipalities, and therefore the winter is closed by snow and ice. (p. 575)"

"Palermo The design of the mountains and rocks surrounding the port, tending to ochre and violet, on the waters of a deep blue, as contemplated by the Pilgrim, is less sweet, less tender, but purer than that of the mountains surrounding Naples. As in Greece, in Sicily nature has remained stuck in eternal models, and instead men have changed. Contrast makes nature even higher and farther away; The soul of the beholder is forced into a kind of perpetual seesaw. (p. 585)"

"The encounter with nuraghe art takes place first in Cagliari, in the National Archaeological Museum. Here it can best be compared with foreign civilizations. In fact, the Roman department is also important, and even more so than the Punic one, with its sensual and cruel divinities. But the Nuragic department stands out from the rest and marks Sardinia better. There is the rare case of a museum without repetition elsewhere, embedded in this land like nature and customs. (p. 707)"

"The Lucania is a part of the South, which suffered acutely from isolation, from a very long decadence, from an ungrateful land. [...] Many villages received water and electricity only after C.E.1945, and others only in recent years the road; Recent statistics indicated that a good half of the population was illiterate. However, Lucania produced numerous geniuses, some of great importance. She possesses in abundance the virtues that we will call ancient, being industrious, strong-willed, quiet, with a deep feeling of family. (pp. 737-738)"

"You can reach it from bare beaches, and suddenly you see a mushroom grove of tall modern buildings. Power is growing visibly, gripped by building fever. This cladding of tenements [...] surrounds the old core of the Bourbon town, which, however, is far from dead. As soon as you enter it, you find it again, with the main street narrow, and with the alleys arranged in such a way as to cut the wind; In fact, Potenza is a city in the middle of the mountains, with fine and windy air. The wide, modern streets are on the outskirts. The interior has its grace, and some beautiful churches, such as the cathedral, St. Francis, St. Michael the Archangel. (p. 738)"

"It seems that Matera overlooks an uncovered and inhabited subsoil, which together forms a larger city. Such a gathering of semi-cavemen, in which the existence of prehistory is uninterruptedly prolonged, has no parallel in Europe, and is among the Italian landscapes that generate the most amazement. Crisscrossed by rocky valleys, Matera is a kind of Siena of the South, more remote in time [...] (p. 747)"

"Puglia is our region where the East is most felt. The people of Bari remember as a recent fairy tale the years in which the Albanians crossed the sea laden with gold coins; since the Albanians then considered Bari their market and even went down there to buy a hat. (p. 767)"

"Bari refutes the clichés about the South. Commercial and bourgeois, it has few traditions of baronial and landed aristocracy, unlike, for example, Lecce and Brindisi. The typical average Bari man is sparse, exact, dedicated to his business, fond of old administrative methods and savings. You can see him in the shop, until late at night, through the door ajar, concentrating on the accounts. (p. 768)"

"On the whole, Bari does not resemble Milan, as is claimed, but rather Genoa; and, between the two cities, Bari is more composed and more northern in appearance. In fact, there are few cafes; the street life has neither the importance, nor the color, nor the flair usual in the South. The street of Bari is a passage, with only a practical function, not a living room or a stage; with the exception of the working-class neighborhoods of old Bari. The people of Bari, and the Apulian in general, especially of Swabian descent, have a taste for cleanliness that is not felt even in the Po Valley. Even in the poorest streets, the inhabitants never cease to scrub the houses, polish them, give them lime. (pp. 768-769)"

"Rieti is a beautiful city, lively and aristocratic. The Middle Ages of the Romanesque Cathedral, although rebuilt inside, of the Palace of the Popes, which dates back to the end of the thirteenth century, with its powerful Gothic arches, and of some districts with narrow streets, external stairways, severed towers, archivolts, is superimposed on the work of centuries later, the loggia of Vignola, many noble palaces. [...] As we have said, Rieti gathers a nucleus of Roman aristocracy, and bears its imprint. (p. 809)"

"Ninfa That park is one of the most beautiful places in Lazio; so lost and segregated that, thinking of the pompous villas of the Roman aristocracy, it seems to have changed the world. Rather, it would seem that they have been suddenly taken to the East; or in that garden of a short story by Boccaccio, which a necromancer brings to life in one night. (p. 817)"

"Our country is inferior to none in the number of minds and in the quality of intelligence at the source. But that intelligence can hardly take on a political value and a political prestige, and seldom emits voices that carry with it a universal interest. In no other country like us does the whole field seem to be occupied by activists of all kinds; Nowhere else, almost by tacit agreement of businessmen and sociologists, is the conviction that only money and food problems matter. (p. 863)"

"The main tool that remains to assert itself to European countries is their old culture. Our political class does not seem to be convinced of this. [...] Italy's risk is to become one of the peoples of low culture, since it is possible to be intelligent and of low culture. (p. 865)"

"I abhor false coherences and the fiction of the conclusions reached."

"I love the dead transmitted to poetic memory, not unburied corpses."

"The problems of culture today move to the foreground, leading us to react on this terrain where slow infiltration, served by the crowd of mediocre intelligent people, replaces the massive frontal attack."

"The self-criticism that I like is quick, dry, turns the page immediately."

"Anti-Jewish persecution is only one of the aspects of racism in the world, but it was its most horrible expression."

"On If I were honest These films in which an ingenious plot, full of gimmicks and misunderstandings, takes place in an imaginary town of twentieth-century houses, millionaires, butlers they have now become our specialty and it is difficult to see a truly bad one. [...] The director Bragaglia also showed accuracy, measure and security of cut, achieving his intent, which was to entertain. From Corriere della Sera , March 4, C.E.1942; quoted in If I were honest, cinematografo.it."

"On The 3 eagles It is a kind of on the Caserta Air Force Academy, in which a slight plot has been inserted. [...] It is a film that runs smoothly and is expertly conducted: the acting, in which young people from the School and young people from the G.I.L. participated, proceeds without a hitch; and under the good craftsmanship what is not entirely original in the plot remains concealed."

"A virtue is always a transformed vice. We must have the courage to admit that every virtue is derived from vice."

"Traveling should always be an act of humility."

"On A Garibaldino at the Convent Vittorio De Sica made another excellent film, in which he demonstrates his usual skills, accuracy, finesse, zeal, the right ear, the complete measure, and this time something more. [...] The film is good for the delicate painting of the two opposing families, of the family members, of the conventual pietism, of the Bourbon soldiers (if it ever has a flaw it is that it is too beautiful, too finished and polished); it is good for smaller, lively and freshly invented figures; it is good for the dialogue in which writers have collaborated, for example Adolfo Franci; then in the last scenes, the siege, the escape on horseback, the chase and the charge of Garibaldi, pressing, full of anxiety, De Sica finds the best in him."

"Bolzano It is opulent, modern. But its beauty is Gothic: the long streets lined with arcades, embellished not so much by this or that building, as by the movement of the corners and protrusions, which creates theater backdrops, plays of light. (p. 9)"

"[...] get to know Palladio, the Basilica, the Loggia del Capitanio, the Rotonda, the Teatro Olimpico, the Palazzo Chiericati and the others through studies is an imperfect knowledge. You have to see it in Vicenza. (p. 49)"

"It is the imagination of the Friulians that their land, with the mountains of Carnia, the hills of Udinese, the plains, the lagoon landscapes along the coast, the different races and the bright colors of a time older than ours, is in itself a universe in its variety. Roman Aquileia, Venetian Udine and Cividale Longobard... (p. 60)"

"Verona was Roman, Gothic, then Byzantine and Lombard. It was held by the Carolingians and the German emperors; it was a glorious Commune and a glorious Signoria. She was a Scaliger, a Visconti, a Venetian; The change was rapid, and each phase superimposed its mark on the other. In every historical phase it played a dominant role, due to its strategic and mercantile importance, as a great fortress and crossroads of arteries between Italy and the Germanic world. For variety of styles, none of which prevails, Verona has no equal among Italian cities except Rome. (p. 78)"

"Between blue and white, on the background of the opaque green hills, Genoa is mysterious in the manner of London, the other European city made up of watertight compartments. The imagination, Stevenson says, is stimulated in London, because London is an interlocking of secret circles to each other. The soul can thus play with mystery, delight in acrobatics that today would be called metaphysical, imagining here a, here a cheat, an old duchess, a rubber merchant, a dynamiter, juxtaposing them, mixing them, placing them in occult relationships. Such mysteries are never encountered in simple Italian cities, but Genoa is perhaps the only one that arouses the imagination of clandestine backstories. A mystery book that takes place in Rome, Venice or Florence has something incredible, but if it takes place in Genoa you can believe it (or almost). And, just like London, Genoa has the special theatricality of beings and events on which one feels something occult hanging. (p. 220)"

"But the affection still lingers on Old Genoa, which remains the most real, alive and basically modern. Leaning against terraces that slope down to the slopes, the houses seem to be erected one on top of the other; they all seem to push themselves to the side as much as they can, like the plants of a forest, in search of light; It would seem that a single spiral staircase, inside them, can lead us from the port to the top of the hills. At the top, the new skyscrapers match the vertical appearance of the city. In the crowd there are small gardens of casbah, oleanders, magnolias. (p. 221)"

"Almost all Italian cities were made and rebuilt over the centuries. But the houses of Old Genoa, in a special way. Rather than bearing the signs of transformation, they hide them with avarice. Their walls are ossuaries of styles, chests of vestiges; It is enough to pierce a wall to find a terracotta window under the plaster, here a bas-relief or a fresco. They are walls full of ghosts among swarms of lively people. (p. 222)"

"Parallel to Via Gramsci, higher up, but in continuous symbiosis with the port, runs via Prè, narrow, long, the most popular in Genoa, and perhaps the most Genoese. Although it lies close to the markets and the Stock Exchange, many of its inhabitants never leave it, having too much to do there. Frying, cakes, smuggling to the minute, a subject too important to pass over in silence. (p. 222-223)"

"The Genoese are savers, workers, producers and prudent. Not producers in the way of the Milanese, too much of a player for Genoa and inclined to confuse business with adventure. A moralistic idea of work predominates in this port; Therefore, at least in some, there is a fear of earning too much, that is, of being gamblers, people, according to moralists, exposed to certain ruin. They hide the wealth even more than the Piedmontese; I know rich people who have a large number of employees, but they seem ashamed of it, and they don't see them much. Wealth pours into the home. (p. 224)"

"Genoa is a tough city that delights in being sentimental. She imagines herself rough, but sweet in secret. The good-hearted misanthrope is an important character in the dialect comedy that she plays in life. A good Genoese must never be moved, but once he turns his back he must always wipe away a tear surreptitiously. (p. 225)"

"Mention has been made of the Genoese cult of the dead, which sometimes reveals a grandiose concept of class. A visit to Staglieno, the most famous cemetery in Italy, shows how that concept was handed down from the aristocracy to the philanthropic bourgeoisie. Not even the Monumental Cemetery of Milan offers such an anthology of self-celebrations through the tomb. Here you see the financier in a white marble waistcoat, taking leave of his weeping wife; but he takes his leave in a palace; And to die is to go beyond a brocade curtain with rich folds. Another deceased appears in the guise of an angel pouring a shower of gold coins from a bowl; and another, says the epigraph, "ceased to live but not to benefit – by binding to pious institutes – a non-humble part of his rich census". (pp. 227-228)"

"The port of Genoa is one of the most perfect in Europe; There is no commodity that cannot be quickly unloaded and embarked. (p. 232)"

"A typical reaction of the Genoese producer in the face of the crisis is the moralistic one: "I work from morning to night". Adriano Olivetti in Ivrea spoke to me about this moralism-sorrow of Italian industry, this national fetishism for fatigue, Sunday work and little sleep; in no city is it greater than in Genoa; It is opposed to the crisis, which is therefore suffered as an injustice. Never as in Genoa have I welcomed so many testimonies of people who always work and never sleep. (p. 235)"

"Cesena This pretty town, surrounded by beautiful orchards, and therefore in spring surrounded by a cloud of white and pink trees, leaning against a hill and dominated by a fortress which includes it in part, is also known in the chronicle of the last wars, because it gave a good number of airmen gold medals. There I collected a lot of that Romagna color, which I then poured into these pages only in a small part. (pp. 318-319)"

"The splendid Malatesta Library in Cesena is the heart of Romagna's culture. Built in the mid-fifteenth century by order of Novello Malatesta on the back of an older convent library, in the wake of that of San Marco in Florence, it is a perfect creation of the genius of the Renaissance. Not only for the illuminated choral codices, incunabula of great value that it contains, but for the stupendous hall, the work of Matteo Nuti, a pupil of the Alberti. With the Malatesta temple of Rimini, with the The Ducal Palace of Urbino and with the later palaces of the Este family in Ferrara is the purest that century has given us in which culture reached the extreme point of refinement. [...] The marvellous room appears, with two rows of columns in perspective and the walls to which time has given green and pink shades. It is difficult to associate more distilled purity with more impetus of imagination. (p. 319)"

"Tuscany is among the most famous regions in the world for their beauty. It is a cliché to talk about the sweetness and grace of its landscapes. The valleys around Florence, in the Pistoia area, in Lucca and elsewhere, with their play of light olive trees and dark cypresses, have an enchanting appearance that smacks of painting and artistic perspective, Yet, if you look closely, sweetness is not the most intimate characteristic of the Tuscan land, as it is of Umbria. Even in the most pleasant parts, such as the Mugello valley and Chianti, under the graceful envelope one discovers a precision, a purity of contours, a meagre rigor of design: while the eye is enchanted by the sweetness of the first appearances, a more severe lesson slips into the soul. Tuscan beauty is a beauty of rigour, of perfection, sometimes of asceticism under the aspect of grace. (pp. 359-360)"

"The rigor of the Tuscan landscape emerges in plaghe where, as around Siena and Volterra, the whitish clay shines through the vegetation, fixing as in a diamond the contours of a clear, hard and supremely perfect landscape. Thus an intellectual landscape, imbued with intelligence, which seems to think itself around man and in the highest way. (p. 360)"

"The attachment to the district has nothing to do with ideas, with the political party, with interests. It depends exclusively on the place of birth, on the atavistic, on everything that is prenatal; It is not thought, but passion contracted with the simple coming into the world. The man from Siena feels, most profoundly of all, in front of his own Contrada, what was called "the demon of belonging". (p. 387)"

"A Siena In the days of the race everything is suspended, appetite as well as love and public administration. [...] In the evening [after the Palio], there are two Siene. Light, wine and jubilation in the victorious district and in the allies. But if you peek into the enemy's country, you think you are in an abandoned city; The windows and doors are locked, darkness, silence and mourning. (pp. 387-388)"

"The beauty of Naples grows day by day, week by week, as it discovers its secrets. Until one comes to understand that this is truly the most beautiful gulf on earth. (p. 430)"

"The timetable in Naples can be a practical necessity, never an intimate necessity. You abandon it when you no longer need it. (p. 430)"

"Clarifying to Italians that race is a scientific, biological fact, based on blood affinity, is the first task that the book [Contra Judeos] encourages; second, to demonstrate that the inferiority of some races is perpetual; that in crossbreeding the inferior prevails over the superior; that the Italian race must be jealous of its immunity... The Jews can only be enemies and oppressors of the nation that hosts them. Of different blood, and aware of their bonds, they cannot help but unite against the alien race. The enormous number of eminent positions occupied in Italy by Jews is the result of a tenacious battle. As foreigners, they attempt to obtain triumph over the national culture of others, bringing it to "Europeanistic" forms, detaching it from the popular roots of art, as happened in Italy."