A journey through Vanoni's Milan, starting from Largo Treves, a stone's throw from the historic headquarters of the Corriere della Sera, and walking across the Ponte dei Medici, so dear to Buzzati and Montanelli. The "singer of the underworld" from the canals of the Navigli to the Bussola of Versilia, with a foray into São Paulo, Brazil for the poet De Moraes, and the guitarist of "Tristezza per prego vai via."
Watching the images of ninety-one-year-old Ornella Vanoni's farewell in Milan on Monday, November 24, 2025, from 1.800 kilometers away—from the interminable line in front of the Piccolo Teatro to the people in the rain on the parvis of the Basilica at the corner of Via Fatebenefratelli and Piazza San Marco—sparks sadness and unravels the film of memory of "Ornella's Places."
From the Navigli to Brera, from the trani – understood as taverns – of the mafia to that corner house overlooking Largo Treves, on the corner of Via Senato and Via Solferino, which for over thirty years saw me pass by to dive into the parking lots with access from what was once the Ponte dei Medici over the buried Naviglio and recently renamed Via Eugenio Balzan… yes, we're talking about Dino Buzzati's street (in fact, the conference room of the Corriere della Sera overlooking Via Balzan is named after the Belluno genius of writing and drawing) where, among other things, Cilindro “Indro” Montanelli also lived in a small apartment.
My journey was a ritual: I drove up Via Senato to the Ponte dei Medici, went down to the garage, leaving my car in the reserved space (which had been generously paid for until the Corriere building was renovated), returned to the surface on the "Ponte" or on Via Ancona to take Via Solferino, turning right, to reach the tobacconist I had smoked in the days: cigarettes, coffee, a quick stroll towards number 28 just beyond the threshold of the residence of the Mangiarotti family, the world-famous phenomena of modern fencing.
And up, up towards the editorial offices of the Corriere and the Gazzetta, casting glances at the noble Albertini Hall and the paintings of those who over time directed the "best-selling newspaper in Italy", the other side of the coin which at that time also included the "most read newspaper in Italy", namely the Gazzetta.
There, at 28 Via Solferino and in the more modern and renovated building next door overlooking Via San Marco, where the best-selling and most-read newspaper once came out, freshly printed, for the majority of the national circulation. It was the temple of information: that information with irrefutable credibility. A question of reputation. Good times…
And the temple of Ornella Nazionale was just a stone's throw away. How many times have we peered through the aristocratic entrance on Largo Treves, beyond the hand-crafted iron gate leading to a small garden! At the top of the building was Vanoni's penthouse, where she continued to live with her son Cristiano, her father's son with businessman Lucio Ardenzi, until she was forced to sell the apartment because "I had 30.000 lire left in my bank account," just over 15 euros.
If Bebel on Via San Marco was the restaurant for Sunday lunch, also because of its Roman-style puntarelle with anchovies and vinegar—so dear to Bernie Ecclestone, who went there with his entire family and a few select friends every year on the Thursday before the Italian Formula One Grand Prix in Monza—the building on Largo Treves was the crossroads of certain destinies that, taken individually, would provide inspiration for a gigantic library of stories of life (and even death).
The one in Treves, and the "little apartment" further away chosen as a last refuge in the heart of Brera, have always been the corners where one hoped to be able to experience, even if only for a moment, fairytale plots with, cited haphazardly and not chronologically, the stories of Sarah Ferrati, Giorgio Strehler, Cesare Pavese, Gino Paoli, Teddy Reno, Dario Fo, Franca Rame, Pierpaolo Pasolini, Sergio Bardotti (who you could see writing in Chinese at breakfast...), Luigi Tenco, Giorgio Gaber, Adriano Celentano, Bettino Craxi, the "sacrificed" Silvio Berlusconi, Cardinal Martini, Bruno Lauzi, the one who was first the friend Mina and then the rival Mina, the "Devil" Giulio Andreotti, Francesco Gabbani, Vinicio de Moraes and even the guitarist, poet, singer Antonio Pecci Filho, known as Toquinho... and without having to go to Brazil, to São Paulo.
There, in those places of Ornella, every time you pass by, the notes and words of “Ma-mì” by Strehler, "Endless" by Paoli – “the one who I had been told was unpleasant and gay and to whom I had been portrayed as a bad luck charm and a lesbian”, “The Appointment” by Lauzi, “the desire, the madness, the unconsciousness, the joy” by De Moraes with Toquinho, “Sadness” of Lobo, Chiosso and Niltinho, i “the moon and the bonfires” of Pavese and everything, absolutely everything, Pasolini, who for Vanoni was "the best ever, so oppressed by the right and the left to end up being loved by the people".
The Milan of Bebel (certainly on Via San Marco, but it's not known if also on Via San Vittore), of Santa Lucia, of Rigolo, of Grand'Italia, of Strehler's Piccolo, of the taverns on the Navigli (and beyond), of the Central Station where father Nino, a pharmaceutical industrialist, and mother Mariuccia dragged Ornella away by train at the outbreak of World War II when she was just twelve years old, the Ursuline school, the boarding schools in Switzerland, France, and England where she learned languages while wanting to become... a beautician! And then there's Santa Margherita Ligure, the Versilia of the Bussola, and above all Viareggio with the "Vanoni flowerbed"—she even asked Milan for one—the corners of green Brianza around Capiago Intimiano and Montorfano, Cascina Pelada, and the Il Grillo riding stable.
Looking around, a lot is said about Ornella Vanoni because her "passages" make history as happened in the Catania Theater where she gave a memorable evening also for performing and entertaining the audience by singing with her arm slightly raised.
Cheers and RIP
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