The rooms, the villa, the resting place

In Fucecchio, an itinerary dedicated to this extraordinary figure of the twentieth century can only start from the Montanelli Bassi Foundation (www.fondazionemontanelli.it), which he himself founded in 1987. Here, in the rooms rich in history and charm of the Palazzo della Volta you can still feel the unmistakable presence of Indro.
Since 2001, by will, the Foundation hosts the studies of Milan and Rome, here transferred integrally, with all books, papers, personal objects and furnishings, which tell the best of every biography, the personality and passions of Montanelli.
Entering the Milanese studio, one is led to approach the solid wooden desk, built by "grandfather" Emilio Bassi at the beginning of the twentieth century, where the famous typewriter Lettera 22 "rests", after many years of work under the tireless fingers of Indro.
The agenda with the latest appointments, the favorite chair, books signed by other famous writers, photographs in the Roman studio and the library, where all his works are kept, They reveal a hidden and more intimate side of the journalist who appears less distant in these rooms. Montanelli’s bond with his Fucecchio is also witnessed by the presence of a collection of works by fellow citizen Arturo Checchi, which he wanted to donate to his Foundation.

In the nearby locality of Sights there is another place that was very dear to Indro: it is Villa Bassi, where as a boy he spent a long time as a guest of the family of the Mayor Emilio Bassi, whose children took repetitions from Montanelli’s father. In his writings, the journalist speaks of the villa as the "cherry orchard" and confesses his "dream of the Views", in which he imagined returning to this place of his youth and meeting another himself, who accused him of having betrayed his roots. The villa is privately owned but is still visible from the street.

Montanelli’s ashes rest in an urn inside the family tomb in the municipal cemetery of Fucecchio. Maybe not everyone knows, but Indro, since the '50s, used to write down here and there, where he happened, hypothetical epitaphs for the graves of famous people who, during his long and adventurous life, he met. And he did not spare himself for whom with great self-irony he wrote: