L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE F errara, loderò le tue vie piane/grandi come fiumane,/che con- ducono all'infinito chi va solo col suo pen- siero ardente: I shall praise your flat streets/as large as rivers/that lead to infinity those walking alone with their fiery thoughts. That's how our Gabriele d'An- nunzio, patriotic poet and high representative of Italy's Decaden- tismo described Ferrara, his città del silenzio. A city of silence, because of that breathtaking beauty of hers, a beauty leaving you speechless, more prone to reflection than boisterous banter. Ferrara, capital of the homonymous province in Emilia Romagna, home to about 130,000 people and UNESCO Heritage Site in its entirety, is sheer mirror of how utterly modern and pro- foundly revolutionary the Renais- sance has been for Humanity. Ferrara: what you see today, what D'Annunzio celebrates in the verses opening our short introduction to the town, is what the Este of 500 years ago con- ceived, created, nurtured, offering to the world the first, true exam- ple of urban game-changing modernity since imperial Rome. The Este family, culture lovers and protectors of the arts, placed their hometown at the heart of Europe: eclectic and live- ly, open and welcoming Ferrara, with the grandiosity of her castle and the liberal atmosphere of her university, became home to the great and talented, from Leon Battista Alberti to Jacopo Bellini, from the divine Piero della Francesca to the tenebrous Andrea Mantegna and that's before mentioning her poets, Matteo Maria Boiardo, Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso — underneath Piazza Sant'Anna, there's still the cell where he was incarcerated when he fell into madness. Even a great of science, Nicolò Copernico, found with the Estes, in their city, a place of respite and research. Ferrara has been so pivotal for the cultural development of Italy and Europe it's almost impossible to believe it isn't better known, but alas, this is the fate of so many places in the country where the gods wanted Rome, Florence and Venice to be. Yet, Ferrara is precious black opal in a sea of diamonds, the rarest find of them all. And it has so much to offer. The capital of modern Europe holds a secret in its name We don't know much about the name "Ferrara," but historians are quite certain it isn't —for a change — of Roman origins. Indeed, it seems that Ferrara was, just like another very famous city in Italy, Venice, born in tempore Gotthorum, that is, at the time of the Goths, after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire. This makes of Ferrara a younger sister to some other important local towns like Ravenna, which of the Roman Empire, albeit only for a brief time, had been also capital. A popular legend says Ferrara, much like Rome according to Virgil, had Trojan origins, because it was a young escapee from the war against the Achaeans, Marcus, along with a girl called Ferrara, who funded here a village. Some even believed the young girl of the leg- end is the same depicted on the right-side door of Ferrara's cathe- dral, known commonly as Madonna Frara. As fascinating and romantic as the whole tale may be, it 's probably just that, a tale. There are, however, some more realistic options: for instance, it's said "Ferrara" may come from "ferro," iron, which was widely worked in the area or from "farro," spelt, the cereal favored by the Romans and quite popular in the area. Ferrara would then come from Farraria, or the land of "farro." All these, are only suppositions. What we truly know is that Ferrara is named for the first time as episcopal see in the 6th century and that in the 7th Castrum Ferrariae, more com- CHIARA D'ALESSIO Piazza Trento e Trieste, and a view of the Cathedral (Ⓒ: Dreamstime) A view of Ferrara, the first truly modern European city (Ⓒ: Dreamstime) Ferrara, "la città del silenzio:" stories and curiosities of the first truly European city Continued to page 14

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