An itinerary on the Bolognese Apennines, destination and refuge of artists and scientists who, among its green slopes and soft peaks, have found energy and inspiration to express their genius.
Three personalities, of world fame, whose surnames, curiously, all begin with the same letter, m, like mountain.
Following their "steps", from the shared hometown of Bologna, here is an itinerary full of discoveries, enchantment and "magic".
We recommend slowness, to enjoy, on the way, the alternation of hills and mountains and the blue ribbon of the Reno River that, for a long stretch, accompanies the path, proceeding in reverse towards the valley.
A little more than twenty minutes from the city centre, along Via Porrettana, in Pontecchio Marconi, stands Villa Griffone with at its feet the Mausoleum dedicated to the scientist Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of wireless telegraphy, whose developments led to the invention of radio and many of today's technologies.
In the villa there is the Marconi Museum which, on three floors, houses, among other things, working reproductions of the first apparatus of wireless telegraphy, original pieces of Marconian industrial activity and the attic where the young Marconi set up his first laboratory.
Along the exhibition path, antique equipment, interactive materials, videos and illustrative panels take the visitor to the initial period of remote transmissions with electromagnetic waves and allow you to relive the exciting feats of Marconi and of his rivals and predecessors.
Continuing along Via Porrettana go up for about 25 km to Vergato and then turn towards Grizzana Morandi.
At the entrance of the town is the House Museum where Giorgio Morandi lived and worked for a long time. One of the greatest painters and engravers of the twentieth century, Morandi drew inspiration from this place and its immediate surroundings, which became subjects for some of his most famous masterpieces.
The guided tour gives great emotions. Under the will of the artist's sister, who donated it to the City of Grizzana as long as nothing inside was altered, the house, the "dining room" and in particular the study, appear to the visitor as suspended in the moment in which the artist put down his brush for the last time.
From the windows it seems possible to imagine the stimuli and feelings that animated the creative process of Morandi.
In front of the building there are also the Fienili del Campiaro, a privileged subject of Morandian painting, which today host numerous exhibitions and are the current home of the Archive Museum Cesare Mattei.
There is no better way than moving between shelves and shelves that house documents, vintage photographs, original books on Electrohomeopathy, original samples of electrohomeopathic remedies, letters and correspondence, and paintings (which make the place the first and only Archive Museum on Electrohomeopathy in the world) to move on towards the third stage of the itinerary, which leads to the symbol of genius and creativity of the famous and "mysterious" Count Cesare Mattei: the Rocchetta Mattei.
From Grizzana the journey to Riola is short and the view of the Rocchetta with its countless pinnacles is of great impact.
Count Cesare Mattei bought the land in 1850 and in November of the same year he laid the first stone of the castle where the ruins of the ancient fortress of Savignano stood. He personally directed the building and settled there in 1859.
The architecture of the Rocchetta Mattei, the interior finished in detail and embellished with works of art and allegorical decorations, were the result of his work in the development of Electrohomeopathy, a therapy based on the combination of medicated granules and liquids called "electric fluids" he invented, which had wide international resonance reaching as far as China.
This success did not prevent the Count from taking care of his other "creature", his house, which he continued to enrich and implement until his death.
This is also the reason for the incredible heterogeneity of the Rocchetta, an almost indescribable fusion of styles, symbols and references to myths and subjects of very different times and cultures.
A spectacle for the eyes and the mind embellished by a strong charge of mystery and energy that cannot fail to pervade the visitor.
