Gabriele d’Annunzio was not only one of the greatest Italian writers, but also an eccentric and multifaceted character who left an indelible mark on Italian culture. Poet, novelist, playwright, military man, and even “principe” [prince] of a city-state, d’Annunzio lived a life on the edge of the incredible.
Let’s discover together ten surprising curiosities that reveal new and fascinating aspects of his extraordinary existence.
Beyond the Myth: The D’Annunzio You Don’t Expect
1. THE KING OF PERSONAL MARKETING
D’Annunzio was a master of self-promotion, a forerunner of modern advertising techniques. He went so far as to spread false news about his own death to increase sales of his books and public interest in his person. In 1922, he even staged a fall from the window of the Vittoriale, which he later described as a “volo dell’arcangelo” [flight of the archangel], transforming a mundane domestic accident into a mystical-literary event.
His ability to create media events was legendary: when he published a new book, he organized real promotional campaigns with posters, interviews, and public appearances planned down to the smallest detail. For the launch of the novel “Il Fuoco” [The Fire], he spread rumors that it was based on his relationship with the famous actress Eleonora Duse, causing a scandal that translated into extraordinary sales.
2. THE COLLECTOR OF TEETH AND OTHER MACABRE MEMORABILIA
Among his most bizarre peculiarities, he kept the teeth that fell out or were extracted, arranging them in small velvet boxes complete with the date of extraction and sometimes brief poems dedicated to the event. But his passion for macabre memorabilia didn’t stop there: he collected locks of hair from his lovers, women’s gloves, handkerchiefs with traces of perfume, and even sheets “testimonials” of particularly memorable nights of love.
At the Vittoriale degli Italiani, his residence on Lake Garda, he had created a veritable “stanza dei ricordi” [room of memories] where he kept these objects together with war relics and historical memorabilia. Among the strangest objects was a mummified hand which he claimed belonged to a Risorgimento hero and used as a paperweight on his desk.
3. THE INVENTOR OF WORDS WE USE EVERY DAY
His contribution to the Italian language was enormous and often underestimated. Many words we use daily were invented by him: “velivolo” [aircraft] to indicate airplanes, “tramezzino” [sandwich], “fusoliera” [fuselage] for the central part of airplanes, and even “scudetto” [little shield] in football jargon are d’Annunzian creations.
Discover all the words invented by Italian writers (D’Annunzio and more)!
Expressions like “la bella morte” [the beautiful death], “il vivere inimitabile” [the inimitable living] and “il vivere pericolosamente” [living dangerously] entered common language thanks to him. D’Annunzio created neologisms with surprising ease, mixing archaic terms, dialectal words, and inventing new combinations.
During the Fiume period, when he governed the city as a personal principality, he even created an official vocabulary for his “ideal city,” with terms that mixed Italian, local dialects, and words invented from scratch.
4. THE TIRELESS WOMANIZER AND HIS SEDUCTION TECHNIQUES
Despite being short (just 1.64 m), prematurely bald, and not particularly handsome, he had a legendary love life with hundreds of documented lovers and probably many others that remained secret. His secret? Extraordinary eloquence and the ability to write unforgettable love letters.
He had developed unique seduction techniques: he perfumed his letter paper with essences created specifically for each woman, carefully studied the literary tastes of his “prey” to quote their favorite authors in his approaches, and meticulously informed himself about their habits before meeting them to appear “telepathically” in tune with them.
He kept a detailed “registro delle conquiste” [register of conquests] where he noted not only the names of his lovers but also intimate details, preferences, and performance evaluations. This document, partially preserved in the archives of the Vittoriale, has been defined by some scholars as “the erotic encyclopedia of the Italian Belle Époque”.
5. THE CHRONIC DEBTOR AND HIS SURVIVAL STRATEGIES
His luxurious life led him to contract enormous debts that forced him to flee to France to avoid prison for insolvency. To escape creditors, he transferred his precious furniture at night from one villa to another, like a nomad of high society.
He developed elaborate techniques to avoid bailiffs: he had trained his servants to recognize them and delay their entry with imaginative excuses while he escaped through secret exits. In some of his residences, he had built hidden passages and secret rooms precisely for this purpose.
His relationship with money was paradoxical: he spent fortunes on art objects, rare books, and gifts for lovers, but then could fiercely argue over a few cents with merchants. It is said that once, in Paris, after purchasing an extremely expensive silver dinner service, he refused to pay for the taxi ride that had taken him to the jeweler because he considered it excessive by a few francs.
6. THE “INIMITABLE” LIFESTYLE AND RITUALS AT THE VITTORIALE
At the Vittoriale, his residence on Lake Garda, he lived like an ancient Roman complete with toga, called himself “Principe di Montenevoso” [Prince of Montenevoso] and demanded that servants walk bent over so as not to be taller than him. His day followed rigid and bizarre rituals.
He woke at dawn and had a military trumpet sounded to announce his awakening. He had breakfast with donkey milk that had to be milked in front of his eyes, followed by fruit arranged according to precise chromatic patterns. He always worked standing at a lectern, with a collection of human skulls next to him that he used as “inspirers.”
The rooms of the villa were kept in particular conditions: some had to be always freezing, others overheated. In one, he kept hundreds of little birds in golden cages that were released during visits by female guests to create what he called “l’effetto Paradiso” [the Paradise effect].
To combat insomnia, he had developed a complex ritual that involved baths in ice water followed by massages with perfumed oils, reading sacred texts in Sanskrit (a language he did not know but loved for its sound), and finally taking a mixture of herbs whose recipe remains secret in the archives of the Vittoriale.
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Join the LearnAmo Academy7. THE COMMANDER-POET AND THE REPUBLIC OF FIUME
During the occupation of Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) in 1919-1920, he led the city dressed in theatrical uniforms of his own creation and wrote poetic constitutions rather than practical ones. His government included daily rituals such as dawn concerts and poems recited from public loudspeakers.
The “Carta del Carnaro” [Charter of Carnaro], the constitution he wrote for Fiume, is considered one of the most bizarre and avant-garde political documents in history: it provided for music as “the religious and social principle of the state”, the abolition of military service replaced by collective gymnastic exercises, and collective ownership of coastal lands to guarantee everyone “the contemplation of marine beauty.”
During his reign, sentinels had to salute not with military formulas but by reciting verses from Italian poets. The passports of the “Reggenza del Carnaro” [Regency of Carnaro] (as he renamed Fiume) were decorated with astrological symbols and phrases in ancient Latin. City council sessions began with poetry readings and concluded with classical music concerts.
8. THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAN AND HIS GOOD LUCK RITUALS
He was extremely superstitious: he was afraid of the number 13, never accepted appointments on Tuesday and Friday, and had surrounded the Vittoriale with good luck symbols. Before any important undertaking, he consulted astrologers, palm readers, and mediums.
He had a collection of amulets that he always carried with him, including a meteorite fragment set in a gold ring that he considered the source of his poetic genius. During writing, he followed elaborate rituals: he used only quill pens dipped in inks of different colors depending on the literary genre, and positioned symbolic objects related to the theme of the work on his desk.
At the Vittoriale, he had built a room completely lined with mirrors that he used for what he called “multiplied meditation,” convinced that his infinite reflections amplified his creative energy. To protect the house from negative influences, he had buried talismans at the cardinal points of the garden and planted specific tree essences according to esoteric schemes.
Before airplane flights or military endeavors, he underwent elaborate purification rituals that included fasting, prayers to pagan deities, and the recitation of magical formulas that he had personally composed by mixing Latin, ancient Greek, and invented languages.
9. THE LOVER OF EXOTIC ANIMALS AND HIS PRIVATE ZOO
In his personal park at the Vittoriale, he kept lions, panthers, giant tortoises, and even a hippopotamus in the swimming pool. His favorite animals, however, were greyhounds, which he dressed with jeweled collars and for which he organized birthday parties with cakes of raw meat decorated with flowers.
He had built for his beloved greyhounds a “residenza canina” [canine residence] with canopy beds, mirrors, and even a gramophone that played classical music “for the musical education of the dogs.” Each greyhound had a personal servant and was fed only with selected meats served on silver plates.
Besides live animals, he collected stuffed animals in theatrical poses. Particularly famous was his collection of exotic birds arranged in crystal cases according to what he called “l’alfabeto del volo” [the alphabet of flight], a sort of symbolic system that he claimed to have developed by studying wing shapes.
In his will, he left detailed instructions for the maintenance of the animals that survived him, with dedicated funds and instructions to continue their habits, including the daily reading of poems to the greyhounds and weekly concerts for the panthers.
10. THE MANIACAL PERFUMER AND HIS OLFACTORY CREATIONS
He was obsessed with perfumes and owned hundreds of them. He even had his calling cards and the water in the fountains of his residences perfumed. It was said that one could sense his arrival in a room from the intense perfume that preceded him.
He collaborated with French perfumers to create personal essences that he changed according to the seasons, his mood, and even the literary genre he was working on. For the period in which he wrote “Il Fuoco” [The Fire], he used a perfume based on burnt woods and oriental spices; for “La Figlia di Iorio” [The Daughter of Iorio], an essence of wild Abruzzese herbs.
He had installed in his residences a complex system of perfume diffusers that nebulized different essences in each room, creating what he called an “olfactory path” for visitors. The library was perfumed with essences of ancient paper and leather, the study with stimulating aromas based on citrus fruits and mint, the bedroom with aphrodisiac mixtures of his invention.
He kept an “diario olfattivo” [olfactory diary] where he noted the perfumes associated with particular moments of his life and tried to recreate them to evoke memories and emotions. It is said that before dying, he asked that his room be flooded with the perfume he had used during his first great love affair, to “die twice: in the body and in memory.”
A UNIQUE CHARACTER IN ITALIAN HISTORY
D’Annunzio represented a unique case in Italian culture: a man who transformed his own life into a continuous work of art, between literary genius and excesses that still amaze us today. His legacy goes well beyond literary works: he invented a lifestyle, anticipated modern advertising techniques, and created a public character that remains in the collective imagination as a symbol of creativity, excess, and originality.
Visiting the Vittoriale degli Italiani today means immersing oneself in this d’Annunzian universe made of beauty, eccentricity, and contradictions, to better understand not only a great man of letters but a fundamental piece of Italian cultural history.
THE LEGACY OF A VISIONARY
A century later, the legacy of Gabriele d’Annunzio continues to exert its fascination and influence. His eccentricities, which at the time might have seemed simple extravagances of an unusual character, today reveal themselves as brilliant insights of a man who had understood, well before others, the importance of image, communication, and the construction of a public persona. The Vate [Poet-Prophet] has left us not only a literary heritage of extraordinary value but also a model of life that, in its exaggeration, continues to amaze and teach. As Benedetto Croce said: “D’Annunzio was never a man, but always an event”.
The influence of Gabriele d’Annunzio transcends time and the pages of his books. His eccentric lifestyle, his revolutionary approach to communication, and his limitless creativity make him an immortal figure in Italian culture, a character who knew how to transform every aspect of his existence into a provocative, luxurious, and inimitable work of art.
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If you enjoyed this article, don’t miss the one about the words invented by Dante Alighieri!
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