Description of the attraction
The Giovanni Verga House Museum, located on Via Anna in Catania, is the house where the renowned Italian writer Giovanni Verga lived for many years. Inside, everything remained the same as it was during the life of the writer, only a few pieces of furniture were brought from his home in Milan.
Giovanni Verga is known for creating a special literary style called "verism" or, literally, realism. He viewed life as a scientist looks at an experiment, trying to find the absolute truth. Verga was an innovator not only in the way he used literary language, but also in the way he described the people of Sicily in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today he is considered one of the most prominent writers in Europe, along with Flaubert and Zola. His works have been translated into many languages of the world, and various musical and artistic works have been created based on them. For example, the great director Luchino Visconti in 1948 shot a black-and-white film "The Earth Is Trembling" based on the most famous story by Verga "The Malvol Family".
Giovanni Verga was born in the province of Catania into a family of landowners and true patriots of his homeland. His parents had a plot of land in the village of Vizzini, and it was there that young Verga began to observe the life of ordinary peasants and fishermen. In 1869 he went to the already united Italy to seek his fortune in the literary field. He lived in Florence and Milan and began his career as a writer there. Ten years later, Verga returned to Catania, to the family and life he had missed so much. Here he began to write about what surrounded him - about the sorrows and joys of everyday life of the lower strata of society. And this is what brought him success and recognition. Since Verga was a Sicilian from Catania, his stories made extensive use of the local dialect and innovative techniques that paved the way for 20th century literary modernism.
After the writer's premature death from a stroke, his house in Catania was turned into a museum. It stands in the very center of the city on the road that connects Via Vittorio Emanuele and Via Garibaldi. The 19th century building, which Verga inherited from his mother, was declared a national monument in Italy in 1940. A long staircase starts from the main entrance, which leads to the writer's apartment. Reproductions of Verga's manuscripts can be seen in the spacious living room. In the corner stands a bust of the writer, created by the sculptor Bruno, and in a wooden box is a wax mask of his father, Giovanni Battista Verga Catalano. Perhaps the main room of the house is the library with a table that has preserved Verga's personal belongings. Along the walls are bookcases with more than 2,500 volumes that belonged to the writer. The small bedroom is furnished very modestly - only a bed, a wardrobe with several suits, a mirror and two armchairs by the fireplace. Portraits and photographs of the Vergi family hang everywhere.
Fans of the work of the famous Italian should also go to the village of Vizzini, where excursions devoted to the life and work of the writer are held all year round.
