Casa Manzoni in Milan
One of the tours more interesting cultural events than Milan can offer to the visitor, is that of the places where most of the life of Alessandro Manzoni took place , the greatest modern Italian writer and one of the most illustrious artists and intellectuals of all time.
Fortunately, the Lombard capital still retains a lot, we can say everything, of what was the background to Manzoni's private and professional existence:who like me has a deep passion for the figure of him, cannot fail to go to the sites I indicate below. .
Start with the house in which the author of the Promessi Sposi lived, together with his family, from 1813 until his death:located in Via Gerolamo Morone 1, near Piazza Belgioioso, practically intact, today it is a museum in which the writer's complex personality still pervades every corner and object.
Casa Manzoni in Milan:the studio
Seat of the National Center for Manzoni Studies , the interior furnishings are the original ones, including the small desk that has seen many masterpieces compose in that studio full of papers, relics and books that hosted, among others, Giuseppe Garibaldi (1862) and Giuseppe Verdi (1868), who visited the distinguished scholar.
The elegant and austere building has a delightful garden that after a thorough redevelopment work, in 2015 it was opened to the public; lover of botany and gardening, this small green space was one of the main reasons that led Manzoni to buy the building.
For information, reservations and tickets click on the official website :Http://www.casadelmanzoni.it/.
Going to Via Visconti di Modrone 16 , find instead the sober eighteenth-century building in which Giulia Beccaria , daughter of Caesar, she gave birth to the little and very promising Alexander:it was March 7, 1785 and a plaque affixed to the door reminds those passing by of the event ( click here: http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/architettura/schede/LMD80-00316/).
A cultured and fervent Catholic, Manzoni went to mass in the Church of San Fedele , a few steps from his home; to the left of the main altar, a bronze plaque indicates the exact spot where he used to gather in prayer.
The solemn funeral of the writer took place in the Cathedral, but the body was first exhibited as a tribute to fellow citizens and the world in the prestigious Sala Alessi of Palazzo Marino, to be finally moved to the Monumental Cemetery, where it still rests today.
Finally, in the Brera district, there is the Basilica di San Marco :it is here that in 1874, on the first anniversary of his death, the famous Requiem Mass was celebrated directed by Verdi, a great admirer of Manzoni.