The authors of the vintage..
Where else do the splendour and inspiration of nature seem to come together so clearly as in the Great Lakes region? Some authors were lucky enough to be born here and drink from the source, such as the famous ancient poet Catullus, who was probably born in Verona, perhaps in Sirmione, around 84 BC. As history has not recorded his exact birthplace, men took it upon themselves to write his legend and gave his name to the remains of a Roman villa discovered on the shores of Lake Garda. The texts, on the other hand, have survived the millennia and it is pleasant to reread his poem Return to the fold by the water, in which he praises the city with which he is associated: "O pearl, Sirmio, of the islands, of the peninsulas (...) but how much pleasure, how much joy I have in seeing you again". A few years later, another poet, Virgil, was born near a city that was to become an island by the will of an architect, Alberto Pitentino, who had the audacity and folly to deviate the course of the waters to encircle Mantua. Virgil, when he wasn't working on his masterpieces, the Aeneid, the Bucolics or the Georgics, also praised the beauty of Lake Garda, while Pliny the Elder loved Lake Como, a passion he shared with his nephew, Pliny the Younger, whom he had adopted. Pliny the Younger took advantage of the beauty of the sites of Lenno and Bellagio to build himself two holiday resorts, which have unfortunately disappeared. Nevertheless, in 1570, Count Giovanni Anguissola revived the Pliny family legacy by building a residence on the eastern shore that explicitly bore their name. It is said that in the following centuries this Villa Pliniana received renowned artists, including Rossi who composed his opera Tancredi in 1813 . It was also in the early 19th century that the work most closely linked to Lake Como was written, a marvel by Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873), an author who was born in Milan but raised in Lecco. Thus, The Betrothed, a historical and romantic novel, is partly set here, in the small village of Acquate, where the priest is forced to cancel the marriage that would have united Renzo and Lucia. While the lovers struggle to find each other, the fate of Lombardy is written around them. A hundred years later, in 1926, in a small town between Lake Maggiore and Varese, a future Nobel Prize winner for literature gave his first cry. Dario Fo, one of his country's greatest playwrights, did not deny his roots, on the contrary he attributed to them his sometimes caustic imagination in the preface to Allons-y, on commence translated into French by Maspéro in 1977. Finally, Gianni Rodari (1920-1980) was inspired by Lake Orta, where he grew up, to set the plot of Il était deux fois le Baron Lambert, a novel for young people in which he created a cast of characters, each more colourful than the next.
... and visiting writers
In addition to the native authors of the Great Lakes region, we must of course add the passing visitors who fell under the spell of the still waters. If the ancient times did not fail to remember the praises that Paul Diacre addressed to the lake of Como in De laude Larii laci, or to remember that Dante mentioned the island of Garda in his Divine Comedy, how can we not think of the Journey in Italy where Goethe acclaimed Verona and its surroundings? However, it was in the 19th century that writers became the most enthusiastic, following the example of Stendhal who shared his fascination for the Borromean Islands, Lake Maggiore and even more so for Como, going so far as to pity, in Promenade dans Rome (1829), "those who were not crazy about it". His love for Italy inspired him to reflect that "the true homeland is the one where you meet the most people who resemble you", as well as his flagship work, La Chartreuse de Parme
, which opened in Milan in 1796. Anecdotally, it was in this same city that Stendhal guided Lord Byron in 1816, telling him in his own way about the Russian campaign and elucidating at length about his alleged links with Napoleon. Another Frenchman fell in love with the region, Flaubert, who went there in 1845, accompanying - with his parents - his sister who had just been married. If his notes and his correspondence reveal his annoyances towards his family, these seem to be calmed down by the quietness of the landscapes. Finally alone, he becomes lyrical, describing Lake Como as "a snowy horizon lined with exquisite dwellings made for study and love". On Lake Maggiore, which reminds him of "a sea, but a closed one, the infinite does not take you there", he appreciates the Isola Madré, "earthly paradise", but is less tender with the Isola Bella, something in which Dickens, who had preceded him by a few years, would perhaps not have contradicted him, he who certainly described it as "fantastic", but also as "bizarre". As for Lake Garda, it has many admirers. In September 1909, Franz Kafka took a holiday in Riva del Garda with his friend Max Brod. A few months later, in March 1910, Ezra Pound discovered Sirmione, where he would not tire of returning, encouraging his colleague James Joyce to join him. But it was above all Gabriele d'Annunzio who became attached to the lake, as he spent the last seventeen years of his life devoted to the Vittoriale degli italiani, a house located in a much larger museum complex - the Vittoriale - which is now a must-see place for tourists, although the decor inspires mixed reactions, no doubt reflecting the sulphurous reputation that the author of L'Enfant de volupté and Nocturne has retained due to his political commitments. Finally, Jean Giono, who claimed to be a perfect homebody, also succumbed to the lure of the lake, deciding in 1951 to visit his father's country as he recounted in Voyage en Italie. In conclusion, this literary tour of the Great Lakes region would not be complete without mentioning the figure of a man, charismatic as hell, who left his mark on all the places where he stayed, including Lake Maggiore. At the Grand Hotel, it was said that it was here that the famous Hemingway wrote A Farewell to Arms.
