(by Federica Acqua)- The Marche city of Recanati is gearing up to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Giacomo Leopardi's most famous poem L'Infinito (The Infinite) in 2019.
To celebrate one of Italy's most well-known and beloved poems, one of the poet's descendants, Countess Olimpia Leopardi, has organized, together with Education Minister Marco Bussetti, a flash mob of students from all over Italy who will recite the poem together on May 28, at 11:30 am.
"I though it was the right thing to organize the initiative in the little piazza of Sabato del Villaggio" (Saturday in the Village), the setting of another famous Leopardi poem where Palazzo Leopardi is located, "connecting it symbolically to all Italian squares to transform them from places in which people ignore or bump into each other to a space of spiritual communion to celebrate beauty and build together a future 'beyond the hedge"', Olimpia Leopardi told ANSA, quoting a passage from L'Infinito.
Some 2,000 students in Recanati, the poet's native city, along with young people across Italy will appear in a live program on State broadcaster RAI as well as in videos that will be published on Youtube and social media.
"My dream is that members of the Senate and the House, together with top State officials, will do the same", said Olimpia Leopardi.
Another initiative organized by the museum dedicated to the poet, Casa Leopardi in Recanati, is a permanent exhibition of Leopardi's personal objects inaugurated inside the former oil mill.
Objects on display include Leopardi's ceramic inkwell, his crib and baptism dress, his toys and his first poetry, offering an insight into his most intimate moments at home, his family life and his cultural development.
Visitors can also admire the library in which he studied with his father, the drawings he made with his brothers and his early writings.
Also on show is the passport he obtained in secret to flee Recanati, with the timetable of the stage coach which was seized by his father Monaldo, and his funerary mask together with fragments of a coat and his coffin.
A video is also screened as part of the exhibit - called 'Io nel pensier mi fingo' (I imagine in my thoughts), from a passage of The Infinity - made by Giancarlo Muselli, the set designer of Mario Martone's 'Il giovane favoloso' (The fabulous youth), and by Leopardi researcher Fabiana Cacciapuoti.
The video is a voyage into the rooms and landscapes that inspired the writer.
Meanwhile an exhibit at Recanati's Villa Colloredo Mels features poems by Leopardi, including an autographed L'Infinito from 1825, the year of its first publication, together with other compositions from the rich collection of the municipality of Visso, which was devastated by a quake in 2016. It has registered 26,000 visitors. As of this year, more objects of the poet and his family are also on show.
The Celebrazioni Leopardiani to celebrate the poet's birthday will also take place on June 29 in Recanati, an annual event with the participation of academics and researchers from around the world.
The park- vegetable garden Orto delle Monache del Colle dell'Infinito, which was restored by FAI, the national trust for Italy, will open to the public on September 26.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella will attend the inauguration.
The poet's home town on October 23-24 will also host the international congress 'Interminati spazi' to discuss the message of L'Infinito in contemporary society with scientists, philologists, poets, mathematicians, physicists and writers.
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