Dino Campana

He was born in Marradi on September 20, 1885, and died in the Castel Pulci psychiatric hospital on March 1, 1932, a “mad” poet. He had a difficult life, and travelled the world doing the oddest jobs. He was arrested numerous times until the time he was committed to the mental hospital. In 1914 he published a book of poems and poetic prose called “Orphic Chants” which will set him among the literary "greats" of the twentieth century.

Rina Faccio, known as Sibilla Aleramo

She was born in Alessandria on September 14, 1876, and died in Rome on January 13, 1960, renowned feminist and “free lover”, as she herself stated. In 1906, she published an autobiographical novel called “A woman”, which immediately made her famous. In 1948, her book of poems “Selva d'amore” wins the “Premio Versilia”, created especially for her as part of the Premio Viareggio.

A Love Story in Mugello

Their "journey of love" starts with a letter written to Dino Campana by Sibilla Aleramo on June 10, 1916. After reading the "Orphic Chants", she expresses her admiration and declares herself "both enchanted and lovestruck".

Aleramo was on holiday at "Villa La Topaia" in Borgo San Lorenzo while Campana was staying at the Barco - Rifredo Spa in Firenzuola to regain his health. Campana, in fact, had suffered a slight palsy on the right side of his body. After an exchange of letters, the two meet at the Barco at 8 am on Thursday, August 3, 1916.

They fall passionately in love: they take on an "impossible" relationship, which is destined to go wrong even before it starts. It is a magnificent and desperate love-story born in the solitude of the Mugello woods.

The two lovers meet again between August and September for 20 days in Casetta di Tiara (Palazzuolo sul Senio).

At the beginning of October in, first, Florence, and then Marina di Pisa, Casciana Terme, and later again Florence, the couple starts to have problems. It ends in a brief encounter at Christmas in 1916 in Marradi. In 1917 a period of separation begins and lasts until January, 1918, when Campana is recovered in the San Salvi mental hospital in Florence. He will later be moved to the Castel Pulci mental institution in Scandicci, where he will die of blood poisoning on March 1, 1932, at only 46 years of age, and after having been recovered there for 14 years.

Campana is first buried in the San Colombana cemetery in Badia a Settimo. Ten years later, on March 3, 1942, his remains are moved to the church of Badia a Settimo, where we can see them today.