The Palazzo Guiccioli in Ravenna, which Lord Byron called home for two years, has had a major renovation – now housing a new immersive experience which centres on Nottinghamshire’s most renowned poet. Stuart Baird has been out there to tell us more...
Lord Byron is one of the highest profile literary figures in the world. He attracts attention from global media, literary and cultural travellers from across the globe. His outrageous behaviour, including multiple affairs with the wives of the wealthy, drinking from the skull of a monk on the Italian Grand Tour, as well as his poetry and cultural impact, continues to capture the imagination worldwide.
He is one of many reasons Nottingham was declared a UNESCO city of literature in 2015 and his legacy continues to draw in cultural visitors from across the globe.
What’s probably not as well-known is his connection with Ravenna – a stunning city on the east (Adriatic) coast of Italy, south of Venice – itself a UNESCO approved heritage centre. A multimillion-pound renovation of Byron’s Ravenna bolthole this year has revived interest in the poet, particularly in Italy.
While Byron’s Notts home, Newstead, represented his last connection with his homeland, it also represented to him a sense of debt and decay. He wrote in 1807 'Newstead! fast-falling, once-resplendent dome! .. Hail to thy pile! more honour'd in thy fall Than modern mansions in their pillar'd state; Proudly majestic frowns thy vaulted hall, Scowling defiance on the blasts of fate.'
Conversely when he found home in Ravenna, he found peace and revival – and created some of his famous works there. He wrote of his ‘romantic solitude’ as he rode through the pine forests of Ravenna, which reminded him of his rides in Nottinghamshire.
Some of Italy’s main locations are now struggling with over-tourism – chiefly Venice, Florence and Rome. In Pompeii, too, restrictions on daily numbers are being put in place. Yet to the east of the country, Ravenna has found a perfect harmony by greeting the more discerning visitor, those who look for more than an Instagram picture before moving on.
Two hundred years ago Byron made such a comment in one of his many letters: ‘Ravenna retains more of its old Italian style than any other city. It remains out of the way of travellers and therefore that style has remained original.’
That may still change. In April this year King Charles and Queen Camilla travelled to Ravenna – their only stop in Italy outside of Rome. And while the King marvelled at 5th century Byzantine churches, the Queen spent so much time in the Byron centre that she had to be urged away by her courtiers in order to stick to timetable.
Why did Byron travel to Ravenna in the first place? The great poet had been threaten with a lynching in England, and decided to spend seven years in Italy. After several affairs in Venice, he moved to the Palazzo Guiccioli, home of the 21-year-old Countess Guiccioli, where he lived between 1819 to 1821 and was visited by Shelley, as well as others. Married off to an elderly Count at 19, Teresa Gambo was besotted with Byron and after his untimely death in Greece, she made the pilgrimage back to Newstead, where she collected ferns and other mementos to bring back to her home in Italy.
In recognition of this history, the restored Palazzo has now become an immersive Byron experience, complete with memorabilia, relics, texts and the poet’s personal belongings. Videos now spring to life there, and you find yourself part of a throng of 18th century revellers at the Venice Carnavale. When you pick up a nearby (smart) quill, Byron’s words flow on a huge screen as though you yourself have written them. And if you really want a treat, you can see relics from Byron’s time there yourself – some more appealing than others.
Locks of his hair were collected and other personal items, as well as the fruits of his prolific letter writing. Following a three-hour swim in the blistering Italian sun, the Countess even saved fragments of Byron’s peeling skin.
A Byron taverna is now sited in the cellars where Byron’s menagerie of monkeys, horses, dogs, cats, cranes and peacocks used to roam. It is a wonderfully relaxed environment, where one can find the trademark Italian precision when it comes to friendly service and wonderful food. Thankfully, visitors don’t need a peerage to dine there.
Byron himself was inspired while living in the Palazzo – rejuvenated in his passions and in his poetry, while igniting his love for the nationalism of the emerging Italian and Greek nations.
The Lord of Newstead left to fight for Greek independence and died unheroically of a fever before he could head into battle. The Countess never forgot the love of her life and carried a case with his many love letters wherever she went – all of them are preserved for us today but only revealed in full in 2005.
As an elderly woman, the Countess Guiccioli heard someone say that Byron was the ‘king of poets’ her response was that he was more than that – he was ‘the king of men’.
Any literature or cultural tourist can whet their appetite for Byron with a trip just up the road to Newstead, with its stunning Gothic grounds. If the revamped Palazzo Guiccioli is a success, and Byronmania takes hold in Ravenna once more – then we might expect to find some more Italians arriving in north Nottinghamshire, too.
You can find out more about the renovated Palazzo Guiccioli here.
For more about the Byron’s life, you can visit the Newstead Abbey site here.
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