The experience
An itinerary that explores the Langhe area dedicated to the in-depth study of two internationally renowned literary figures of the Italian twentieth century: Giuseppe Fenoglio and Cesare Pavese. The Langhe are today a reference point for wine lovers and proposals related to wine tourism, boasting the production of some of the most renowned wines in the world: Barolo and Barbaresco. With this experience you will immerse yourself in a different reality: that of the past, the one in which life in the hills was extremely hard and difficult, the traces of the partisan resistance during the Second World War.
Beppe Fenoglio was born in Alba in 1922. He was a student of the gymnasium-high school and the Faculty of Letters of the University of Turin, which he attended until 1943, the year in which he was called up for military service. In 1944 he joined the first partisan formations to defend Alba, the city to which he is deeply attached and its beloved hills. After the Liberation, he returned to civilian life; But the partisan experience is fundamental in his life and inspires many of his novels and short stories. The partisan resistance together with the hills of the Langhe and the peasant world are the main themes of his literary work. In this way, you will be able to learn about the valiant actions of the partisans that your ancestors may have told you about or that you studied at school and what the Second World War represented for the local populations.
The second literary character is Cesare Pavese, who was born in Santo Stefano Belbo in 1908 and committed suicide in Turin in 1950. On the border between the provinces of Cuneo and Asti, the town develops along the Belbo stream, from which it takes its name. Here in Santo Stefano Belbo, Cesare Pavese’s words become Urban Design with the installation of literary benches: book-shaped benches that show some passages of the most famous works written by the writer. Cesare Pavese was a poet, writer, translator, publisher and literary critic. He is considered one of the greatest and most important Italian intellectuals of the twentieth century. Although he lived mostly in Turin, the Langhe represent the place of his soul and the mythical universe from which he draws for the development of his literary career. Cesare Pavese was a young lover of American literature that allowed him to begin his path of popularizing overseas literature until he became editorial director of Einaudi. For Pavese, the publishing house became everything.
Shortly
Tour
Meeting with the guide to start the visit of the city of Alba in the footsteps of Beppe Fenoglio. Fenoglio’s emotional bond with the Langhe unites the writer and his characters, they are not only the natural setting of his stories, but his own life, the land that he never wanted to abandon and that he defended during his partisan experience. The half-day itinerary focuses on the city of Alba, the birthplace of Beppe Fenoglio, touching on several stops: the balcony of the Council Chamber of the Town Hall, the Govone Classical High School, the place of training of the young Fenoglio, the Episcopal Seminary and the historic Caffè Calissano.
Lunch at a restaurant in Alba to taste the typical gastronomic specialties of the Langhe and Nebbiolo wine in its many versions.
Transfer to the village of Santo Stefano Belbo from where the guided tour will begin to begin to savor the atmosphere of the Pavesian places. Entrance to the Museo Pavesiano which houses an interactive installation and a series of video-projections relating to the author’s private and professional life in the places he crossed. A series of stations along the walls invite the visitor to read between the lines of some of the writer’s works, to grasp his most intimate reflections. There are also a series of unpublished and original books, annotated books, letters, manuscripts, pinned and underlined newspaper articles, postcards, drafts of stories.
The second stop is the birthplace of Pavese, and then continues to the House Museum of Noto of his great friend Pinolo Scaglione, the church of Saints James and Christopher where he was baptized and the tomb where he is buried, as well as the many symbolic places that appear in the novel and in other works of his.
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