The Romanticism of the era blends with the Romantic age of Teresa Gamba and Lord Byron, creating an extraordinary mix and a wonderful story: excellently told, modern, inclusive, and captivating, within the Byron Museum.” This is what Antonio Caprarica, historian and extremely popular correspondent and reporter for RAI from all over the world, and especially the United Kingdom, said in Ravenna, at the invitation of the Italo-British Cultural Association, during his visit to the Museum dedicated to the great British poet.
Caprarica was welcomed by the three Presidents of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna who supported and created the Museum—Lanfranco Gualtieri, Ernesto Giuseppe Alfieri, and Mirella Falconi Mazzotti—by Antonio Patuelli, President of the Cassa di Ravenna and the Museum’s visionary inventor, accompanied by his wife Giulia, as well as by the Foundation’s Vice President Franco Gabici and the Director of the Byron and Risorgimento Museums, Alberta Fabbri.
Caprarica was deeply impressed both by the exhibited memorabilia (“they reveal the absolute, infinite, and irresistible love of Teresa, who even collected fragments of skin that the poet lost after a sunstroke”) and by the immersive digital narration, which the journalist himself activated throughout the various rooms, commenting on and enriching the experience with knowledgeable anecdotes and insights. This morning, as usual, the rooms were crowded with many Italian and international tourists intrigued by the presence of the famous correspondent, essayist, and writer.
Caprarica is a great connoisseur of English history and life: “Byron inherited a fortune and lived in the United Kingdom during one of its most prosperous and wealthy moments, with substantial remittances coming from the Indies. Teresa, besides falling in love with him, certainly fell in love with their love, the story they lived, its development and its challenges—a story of freedom and beauty.”
The visit concluded with the section dedicated to Byron’s journey to Greece and his death, featuring the museum’s last exhibit, the statuette of Greece watching over Byron’s lifeless body, celebrating a now eternal iconography. Speaking of Greece, in Byron’s study, among the Faenza school paintings (“Faenza was the Athens of the time,” said the director), Caprarica dedicated his final gift to the Byron and Risorgimento Museums by recording a video—like his memorable live reports from London—which will soon be available on the Instagram accounts of the Byron and Risorgimento Museums. A tribute through today’s media to the first great communicator and influencer in history, Lord Byron, by an extraordinary protagonist of half a century of traditional, TV, and print communication.
Ravenna, March 23, 2025
