“THE2022 is the year of Dino Buzzati. The author of the Desert of the Tartars he disappeared on January 28, 1972 and now his fiftieth anniversary will be celebrated with events, conferences and exhibitions all over the world: first of all on 27 and 28 January with a conference at the IULM University of Milan and then in Paris (where he was much loved), New York, Toronto, Berlin, London, Warsaw, Munich, Dublin … And of course his city, Belluno. Do you know that it is translated into 34 languages, more than Calvino, Pasolini and Moravia? To be honest, his works are better known abroad than in Italy. But this year we will try to fix it“. It’s a raging river of enthusiasm Marco Perale, Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Belluno but also president ofDino Buzzati International Association which is based in Feltre, a refined city of art in the Belluno area. This Association is the driving force behind almost all the events dedicated to highlighting Buzzati’s multifaceted activity: writer, painter («writing and painting are basically the same thing for me », Buzzati confided), cartoonist (his Comic poem in 1969 was the first Italian graphic novel), author of theater, librettist of operas, and obviously a journalist of the Corriere della Sera, for which he worked all his life writing memorable chronicles. Today, not surprisingly, one of the main spaces of the Corriere della Sera Foundation in Milan is the Buzzati Room.
Italy, Veneto, province of Belluno, Belluno, Alps, Dolomites, Piave River, View at dawn on the historic center, with the bell tower of the Basilica of San Martino and the Belluno Dolomites in the background
Murals that he would have liked
Throughout his life Buzzati remained a man with roots firmly planted in his own land, the green Valbelluna that divides the Pre-Alps from the Alps, crossed by “the Piave”, a feminine river in the tradition and in the local dialect. The river gives its name to Borgo Piave, the historic district of the old river port of Belluno, from which once the rafts loaded with goods and people left for the Venetian plain. Borgo Piave today is decorated with a series of evocative murals by the painter Marta Farina, which tell, between reality and fantasies, stories of mountain and river people. Like the miracles attributed to San Nicolò, protector of the raftsmen, or like the legendary courage of La Rossa (for the color of her hair), the only woman who in the nineteenth century was able to lead a raft. Murals between history and legend that both the painter Buzzati and the writer would have liked, often dedicated to revisiting traditions and folklore; as happens in that very original work which is The Miracles of Val Morel, where painting and writing are complementary. Belluno has dedicated the Buzzati Itinerary to its illustrious citizen, which touches the artistically most important places in the city center – from the historic Piazza dei Martiri with its cafes, the walk on the listòn and the gardens, to the Palazzo dei Rectors from 1536 and then to the Church of Santo Stefano from 1485. But only by touring in Valbelluna is it possible to fully understand what source of inspiration the territory was for Buzzati.
The sixteenth-century facade of the Palazzo dei Rettore, in Belluno.
In the countryside on the outskirts of Belluno, in the locality of San Pellegrino, there is his birthplace: the sixteenth-century Villa Buzzati, a family home since 1811, a typical Venetian villa with a frescoed façade, large garden and a crown of mountains. Visitors are welcomed by the writer’s great-granddaughter, Valentina Morassutti, who lives here. He transformed a part of the villa into a B&B, the granary into a center of the Villa Buzzati San Pellegrino Cultural Association, and with his sister Antonella, artistic director, manages Giardino Buzzati, an event held every summer and especially in 2022 (villabuzzati.com). «Dino’s bond with the mountain was born here, in the panorama that can still be enjoyed today from the garden of this villa», says Valentina Morassutti. “His writings are full of references to the mountains, starting with his debut novel, Bàrnabo delle montagne, and it is natural: here in front is the Schiara, which he defined as the mountain of his life, without forgetting the other Dolomites that he loved and climbed, being a passionate mountaineer. “I have dreamed of mountains all my life”, he confessed one day ». The Dolomites have reciprocated: today a peak of the Croda da Lago group is called Campanile Buzzati.
Animals that talk and a wind named Matteo
In a 1960 article entitled My Belluno Dino Buzzati tells what bewitches him about Valbelluna: «… The mysterious mountains, the long winters, the fairy tales, the spirits of the caverns and the woods, that untranslatable sense of distance, loneliness and legend ». Nature and the mountains as magical and sacred places, to be respected and even a little to fear: this is the fascination of Il Segreto del Bosco Vecchio. A book (from which the director Ermanno Olmi drew the film of the same name) in which Buzzati, with an ante litteram ecological inspiration, tells the story of a forest that does not want to die, where the genes of the trees take on a human aspect, the animals speak and a rebellious wind has a personality and a name, Matteo. But is there a place that inspired the invention of the Bosco Vecchio? According to the Buzzati scholar Patrizia Dalla Rosa it exists, it is many hundreds of years old, it was once the wood reserve for the ships of the Serenissima Republic of Venice and today it is called Somadida Nature Reserve, which covers 1,676 hectares. It is located at 1,400 meters above sea level between Auronzo di Cadore and the magnificent lake of Misurina, it offers visitors thousands of spruces, silver firs and beeches, an educational museum of the forest, a butterfly garden, many paths including a ring, also usable in winter with snowshoes. An enchantment that bewitched little Buzzati when they took him to Lake Misurina.
Misurina lake in winter. In the background, the Crystal.
A secular portrait of Saint Rita
The Buzzati Path is also suggestive, a path of the writer’s walks, feasible both on foot and by bicycle without particular difficulties.. It starts from the municipality of Limana (near Villa Buzzati), crosses Giaon where there are houses frescoed by artists inspired by Buzzati tales, climbs into the woods following the Via Crucis of the Madonna di Parè, up to the hermitage of San Pietro in Tuba. Here ends the short version of the walk but you can continue in the Valpiana until you reach a very green plateau from which you can enjoy spectacular views. Here is the pretty agricultural village of Valmorel, which inspires the title of the author’s latest, imaginative work: The miracles of Val Morel. A book of 39 paintings and 39 complementary micro-texts. A collection of fairy tales? Maybe, but not for children (like The Famous Bears Invasion of Sicily). A little gem. A set of stories set in a nonexistent valley (Valmorel is a village), narrating miracles (actually never performed) of a highly improbable version of Santa Rita, venerated by the faithful with lots of ex-votos in a chapel that doesn’t exist. Or rather, it wasn’t there. Because in 1973, a year after the writer’s death, a secular chapel of Santa Rita was really built, right on the Sentiero Buzzati. It contains a portrait of Santa Rita – young, pretty and with varnished nails – painted by Buzzati himself. Thus life imitated literature. He, Dino, would have enjoyed it.
Where sleeping in Belluno
B&B Villa Buzzati, Belluno
In the large villa on the outskirts of Belluno where Buzzati was born and where he spent his holiday, writing and climbing its mountains.
Double B&B from 60 €, villabuzzati.com
Villa Buzzati, on the outskirts of Belluno. One part is a B&B.
Where to eat
Al Borgo Restaurant, Belluno
In an eighteenth-century Venetian villa, the traditional cuisine of Valbelluna, from risotto with wild herbs to barley soups, from tagliolini with porcini to roe deer. alborgo.to
Mazzini Wine Shop, Belluno
In the historic center, a nice two-storey restaurant that is very welcoming and rich in history. We eat very fresh fish, according to tasty Chioggia recipes. It drinks very well recommended by the friendly owner. Piazza Giuseppe Mazzini, Tel. 0437 948313
Taverna Restaurant, Belluno
Frescoes and wood paneling in a tavern full of history. Today we eat the specialties of the area such as pastin and schiz cheese. restaurantetaverna.it
What to buy
Tipiko, Belluno
In the historic center, a small shop where you can buy mountain specialties: honey, jams, dried meat, cheese, “sponcio” corn polenta, flavored grappas. Tel 0437 950036
Pastificio Menazza, Belluno
Fresh stuffed pasta such as the typical casunziei with red turnips, dry pasta with mountain cereals, wild herb and game sauces in the historic gastronomy of the center. pastificiomenazza.it
INFO
Belluno Historic Center Consortium, promotes tourism and cultural initiatives in the city. (bellunocentro.it).
Consortium DMO Dolomiti, Agency for the promotion of tourism in the province of Belluno. (infodolomiti.it).
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