Italo Calvino was born on October 15, 1923, in Santiago de Las Vegas, Cuba. Both his parents were scientists: his father, Mario, was an agronomist, and his mother, Evelina Mameli, a botanist. They instilled in Italo a life-long interest in the natural sciences and their methods of enquiry, which he associated with the legacy of the Enlightenment. In 1925, shortly after Italo’s birth, the family returned to Italy and settled in San Remo, a well-known resort on the Italian Riviera which had been home to the Calvinos, a solidly middle-class family, for generations. The landscape surrounding San Remo left a deep imprint on Italo and became a central element in his imaginative world.
In Italy, the mid-1920s witnessed the consolidation of the Fascist regime, which both of Calvino’s parents
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Citation: Bolongaro, Eugenio. "Italo Calvino". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 February 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=705, accessed 22 November 2024.]
