Dal Lazzaretto al Diurno Venezia : avventure letterarie di un quartiere

From the Leper Hospital to the “Venezia” Daytime Hotel. A quarter’s literary adventures. The Leper Hospital (Lazzaretto) and the “Venezia” Daytime Hotel: disease, dirt, desperation versus water, cleanliness, rest. Two structures at the antipodes, living in different times and ways in the same spaces. Two places that have profoundly marked the history and identity of Milan, two presences/absences still pulsing in the heart of the city. From Manzoni’s The Betrothed to contemporary crime stories, via the works of Dino Buzzati, Luciano Bianciardi and Giovanni Raboni, the piece concentrates on the literary memories that become all the denser in the Porta Venezia quarter, in an attempt to reflect upon how Italy’s so-called “moral capital” has reinvented itself.