{"id":8285,"date":"2026-02-23T10:21:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mytwostotinki.com\/?p=8285"},"modified":"2026-02-23T10:52:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:52:39","slug":"night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mytwostotinki.com\/?p=8285","title":{"rendered":"Night"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During my recent trip to the Abruzzo region in Italy, I visited among other places the small town of Citt\u00e0 Sant’Angelo, one of the most beautiful villages of Italy (borghi pi\u00f9 belli d’Italia). I truly enjoyed it there.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, Luigi Pirandello, Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature in 1934, spent some time in Citt\u00e0 Sant’Angelo in 1905-1906 as president of the examination committee at the local Magistral Institute. It is worth noting that his impressions were much less favorable, as we can see from his novella ‘Notte’, part of his collection ‘Novelle per un anno’. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pirandello writes about the hero of his novella:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“After the train passed Sulmona, Silvestro Noli found himself alone in the filthy second-class railcar… No more joyful youth; no more carefree times with his friends…no more comforting, warm, familiar air of his old home… Where had his life gone? With that same feeling of coldness he was now returning to Abruzzo, at the end of the fifteen-day leave he had been granted by the headmaster of the all-male high school of Citt\u00e0 Sant\u2019Angelo, where he had been teaching art for the last five years.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before being in Abruzzo, he had been a professor for a year in Calabria; another year, in Basilicata. In Citt\u00e0 Sant’Angelo, overcome and blinded by the burning desire for an affection to fill the void in which he felt lost, he had committed the folly of taking a wife; and now he was trapped there, forever.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Abruzzo he had taught a year in Calabria and then another year in Basilicata. In Citt\u00e0 Sant\u2019Angelo, overpowered and blinded by the burning, restless need for some affection to fill the emptiness in his life, he had been foolish enough to get married, and in doing so he had pinned himself there, forever.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His wife had been born and raised in that humid village perched high up in the mountains, with no running water, ridden with distressing prejudice, pettiness, and the gruffness and languor of drowsy, stolid small-town existence. Rather than becoming his companion, she had intensified his loneliness, making him feel, again and again, that he was ever further from the intimacy of a family that should have been his own. On the contrary, she was impervious to any thought or sentiment that came from him.” (tr. Marella Feltrin-Morris)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pirandello sounds a bit like Thomas Bernhard in his damnation of Citt\u00e0 Sant’Angelo here, doesn’t he?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are people who would like to say: ‘Caro Pirandello, avevi torto!’ (Dear Pirandello, you were wrong!)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But see for yourself: Alla scoperta di CITT\u00c0 SANT’ANGELO, Abruzzo: una risposta a LUIGI PIRANDELLO<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The excerpts from ‘Notte’ are taken from the online project Stories for a Year. You can find the full story here: A Prancing Horse – Night \u2014 Stories for a Year<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few photos from my visit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9 Thomas H\u00fcbner and Mytwostotinki, 2014-26. Unauthorized use and\/or duplication of this material without expressed and written permission from this blog\u2019s author and\/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Thomas H\u00fcbner and Mytwostotinki with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.  <\/strong><\/pre>\n
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