Six places of Montale’s poetry in Liguria
Genoa and surroundings, Gulf of Poets
Here are six places in Liguria that inspired Eugenio Montale’s poetry.
The poetry of Eugenio Montale is a true hymn to Liguria.
Nobel Prize winner Eugenio Montale is deeply attached to his hometown of Genoa and to the Cinque Terre: as a young man, he spent his holidays there and it often became the inspiration for his poetry. The Ligurian landscape, with the sea, rocks and the Mediterranean vegetation, is a recurring element in his works.
In his verses, the hills, the sea, the paths, the colours and even the scents of Liguria, from Cinque Terre to Genoa, are so vivid that you can still find them today, lingering, both on the page and in the places themselves.
It’s not always easy to find where the lines of a lyric were inspired, but we gave it a go. Here are some excerpts from Eugenio Montale’s poems and six places in Liguria where the atmosphere of his poems can still be found.
The stages
The Customs HouseLemons
Punta Mesco
Villa delle due Palme
The Monterosso cemetary
The Genoese steps
The Monterosso Giant and the Customs House
“You don't remember the customs house on the ledge overlooking the cliff:
it has awaited you desolately since the evening
when the swarm of your thoughts entered
and lingered there restlessly.”Eugenio Montale, "The Customs Officers' House". It is not certain exactly where The Customs House once stood; it was probably demolished or incorporated into more recent buildings. It must have been located in the western part of Monterosso, near the cliff where the “Monterosso Giant” now stands: a reinforced concrete and iron sculpture depicting Neptune, created in 1910 by the sculptor Arrigo Minerbi at the behest of the Pastines, Monterosso natives who had returned from Argentina after making their fortune. Villa Pastine, built between 1906 and 1910, was also bombed during the Second World War and now only one tower remains.
Lemons
“Here, amidst the amusing passions,
the war miraculously ceases,
here, even we poor people claim our share of wealth
and it is the fragrance of lemons.”
Eugenio Montale, "Lemons" Along the Morione Valley in Monterosso you come across imposing sandstone walls encircling ancient lemon groves.
It is precisely here that Montale's verses seem to echo:"little streets that follow the banks/ descend between the tufts of reeds/ and lead to the vegetable gardens, among the lemon trees..."On those paths, the yellow hues and scent of lemons is truly a message of peace.
Punta Mesco
“I see the path I once walked like a restless dog; it laps at the stream, clambers between the boulders, and a sparse layer of straw occasionally obscures it .And everything is the same.
An echo of the downpours lingers in the wet gravel. The damp sun shines on the tired limbs of the bent stone breakers who hammer.”
Eugenio Montale, “Punta del Mesco” A destination for Montale's youth walks, trail no. SVA 591, which leads from Colle di Gritta to the summit of the Promontory and the Eremo San Antonio, is extremely scenic with blooms of orchids, strawberry trees, cistus and other plants. Once you reach “il Mesco” on one side you can see the Cinque Terre and on the other Levanto. This poem also tells the story of the hard life of the quarrymen who excavated sandstone, then also used in Genoa.
Villa delle due Palme
“The house in which I passed my distant summers was beside you, as you know,
there in a sun-baked landscape where the air is clouded with mosquitoes”
Eugenio Montale, “Ancient sea, the voice which issues from your mouths
each time they open like green bells and then
suck back and melt away has made me drunk”
The house where Eugenio Montale spent his childhood is on the first slopes of Mesco, in the western part of Monterosso, a summer villa, built in Art Nouveau style in 1880, known as Villa delle Due Palme, or called by the poet himself, the Pagoda Giallognola, or the Yellowish Pagoda.
The Monterosso cemetery
than the goat path that leads me
where we will melt like wax,
and the flowering rushes do not soothe the heart
but the vermin, the blood of the cemeteries,
here you are out of the darkness
which held you, father, erect in the glare,
without shawl and cap, to the dull shiver
which announced at dawn
heavily laden mining barges
half-submerged, black on the high waves.”
Eugenio Montale, “Voice arrived with the coots” The poet imagines going up to the cemetery of Monterosso, where his father is buried, accompanied by Clizia, who represents a messenger angel. The cemetery in Monterosso, as is often the case in Liguria, is located in a panoramic position, facing the sea: this is how Ligurians ease the pain of death and the eternal rest of their loved ones.
The Genoese steps
Even so, our long journey was short.
Mine still continues, and I no longer need coincidences, reservations, traps, or the scorn of those who believe that reality is what you see.”
Eugenio Montale, I came down, giving you my arm… This poem, dedicated to his wife Drusilla Tanzi, is a painful and affectionate farewell to his companion, nicknamed “mosca” [fly] because of her short-sightedness, which forced her to wear glasses with very thick lenses. Reading it brings to mind the numerous Genoese steps that Montale undoubtedly frequented, such as Via Palestro, one of the most scenic set of steps.
