Guided tours of the exhibition "Here Italy is Made"

On Wednesday, May 6, 2026, at 6:15 PM, the Giovanni Canna Civic Library in Casale Monferrato will host the second meeting in the series "I Write to You About the World, I Speak to You About Me. Reading Recommendations: How to Explore Great Authors Through Their Autobiographical Pages," the second edition of the initiative curated by Barbara Marini. The second meeting will be dedicated to Rainer Maria Rilke, with a reading guide exploring his most intimate and less studied writings, offering the public a moment of reflection on the works of Rilke, the poet who seeks "beauty in small things." "The beauty of the world lies there, hidden, in the things that fall, in the things that no one notices, in the things that everyone throws away." A German-speaking Bohemian poet (Prague 1875 - Montreaux, Switzerland, 1926), he was one of the most important German-language lyric poets, known for his existential and metaphysical poetry. His major works include the Duino Elegies, the Sonnets to Orpheus, the novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, and the collection Letters to a Young Poet. In love with Russia, he traveled extensively, and the city of Florence was important to him. Rilke struggled throughout his life with the conflict between living for art and the necessities of life, and his constant longing for solitude. His love for the visual arts led him to live for two years (1900–02) in Worpswede, an artists' village near Bremen, where he married the sculptor Clara Westhoff, a student of Rodin, in a short-lived marriage. The sculptor was a key influence on his poetics. During his stay in Paris, he shared a house with the sculptor, Jean Cocteau, and Isadora Duncan. From there, he continued his series of travels throughout Europe and even to Africa. Among other places, in Rome (1903-04) and at Duino Castle near Trieste (1911-12), where he was a guest of Princess von Thurn und Taxis and where he began The Duino Elegies. A narrator, playwright, and poet—his best-known works—he enjoyed periods of intense social life, alternating with countless travels and periods of isolation. He died in 1926 in Switzerland of a serious form of leukemia. He was a confluence of the major European currents, filtered through his most intimate experiences. From the beginning, this artist appeared as the most precious embodiment of fin-de-siècle aestheticism, but in truth, his life transcended the limits of art itself. Through Giorgio Milani's readings of notebooks, letters, notes, and diaries by great authors, "I Write to You About the World, I Speak to You About Myself. Reading Recommendations: How to Explore Great Authors Through Their Autobiographical Pages" will allow readers to grasp the thoughts, questions, and experiences that inspired their works. The approach will not be that of an academic lecture, but rather an encounter of reflections and suggestions, aimed at establishing a dialogue between the author, their work, and the reader, demonstrating how literary themes still question humanity today and offer insights into authentic knowledge. The next events will be on June 3rd with Eugène Ionesco's "Beauty in the Paradox of the Absurd" and on June 10th with Hetty Hillesum's "Beauty in Pain." Barbara Marini, originally from Perugia, after graduating in Aesthetics, lives in Florence, where she collaborates with publishing houses and manages a contemporary art space, where she organizes cultural events and books. She later moved to Mugello to live and write completely immersed in nature, organizing numerous cultural events and hosting book presentations. She also collaborates with the newspaper Vita.it and combines these activities with teaching and copyediting. She holds a Master's degree in Autobiographical Writing and recently moved to Monferrato. Access to the initiative is free. For more information, please contact the Civic Library at 0142.444246 and 0142.444297, or by email at bibliote@comune.casale-monferrato.al.it