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The Duke of the Abruzzi: An Explorer's Life
Book by Tenderini, Mirella, Shandrick, Michael
- GenresNonfictionMountaineering
188 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1997
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December 18, 2022
No tengo costumbre de leer biografías pero esta en particular me llamó la atención por las expediciones tan diversas que había realizado el duque de Abruzzi a lo largo de su vida. Es en ese sentido que el libro me pareció muy interesante, pero por otro lado no acabo de comulgar con una narrativa que se plantea desde un punto de vista demasiado subjetivo. Se nos intenta plantear al personaje como un camarada más de las expediciones que intentaba rehuir a su posición de privilegio, cuando al mismo tiempo la única voz cantante en la toma de decisiones es la suya, o eso parece según se narra.
Haber descubierto las fotografías de Vittorio Sella es algo que le debo a este libro.
En resumen, un libro muy interesante que, a parte de llevarnos a rincones lejanos del planeta, también permite entender la historia de Italia de principios del siglo XX.
Dejo por aquí las citas que me parecen más relevantes:
King Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy. The hero of Italian unification (the Risorgimento), Vittorio Emanuele had in 1861 brought together into a constitutional monarchy many of the disparate Italian city-states that had been at war with each other for half a century.
The people of Italy had fought bravely for the country's unification. During peace, however, they were losing their enthusiasm for self-government in the face of hard decisions. The wars of independence had cost the country more than it could afford, and more taxes had to be levied to cover the deficit.
With the death of Amedeo, his firstborn son, Emanuele Filiberto, became the Duke of Aosta. King Umberto I named Vittorio Emanuele, the second-born son, Count of Turin, while seventeen-year-old Luigi Amedeo was designated the Duke of the Abruzzi.
King Umberto I, had been assassinated on July 29 by an anarchist’s bullet.
Pius IX had excommunicated King Vittorio Emanuele II, the Duke’s grandfather and head of the Savoy family, when the king had annexed the papal states in forming the new Italy, and papal hostility to the Savoys still lingered.
De la colonización de África
By 1885, most European countries had already established colonies all across Africa, taking advantage of the continent’s vast mineral deposits and other resources to fuel the growth of European industry and expansion.
Germany had occupied Togo, Cameroon, and Tanganyika. France had annexed Madagascar, while Belgium consolidated its possession of the vast rubber deposits in the Congo. Britain had occupied nearly the whole of the east coast of Africa, including a part of Somaliland.
In contrast, Italy had been slow to colonize Africa. Its first African possession, Eritrea—a small desert region between the Red Sea, Ethiopia (Abyssinia), the Sudan, and British Somaliland—was not acquired by exploration or conquest, but was purchased in 1882 from an Italian trader who himself had bought the bay of Assab and the surrounding land from the Eritreans. By 1885, Italy had signed agreements with four Muslim sultans granting the rights to more land in Abyssinia and Somaliland.
Abyssinia (Ethiopia), Italy’s newest colony in Africa. War had broken out between Italian and Abyssinian forces in 1895, and after two early defeats, the Italian government had sent an army of ten thousand troops to conquer Abyssinia once and for all. However, on March 1, 1896, Italian forces underwent a stunning defeat at Adwa, where they fought against the warriors of the Abyssinian emperor, Menelik. Some five thousand Italian troops and two thousand native auxiliary troops had been killed or captured, and the colony had been lost. More Italian lives had been lost in this single battle than in all the wars of Italy’s independence put together, and the shame was felt throughout Italy.
Turkish possession in north Africa: Cyrenaica, which Italy rebaptized Libya, its name under the Roman Empire.
Italy was still considered by its neighbors to be an immature and overly ambitious nation “with a very large appetite and very poor teeth,” as Germany’s chancellor Otto von Bismarck had scornfully remarked in reference to Italy’s limited military force.
European diplomats urged Italy to pull away from the brink of war with Turkey, warning that a further weakening of the Ottoman Empire might allow the continuing conflict between Muslims and Serbs in the Balkans to get out of hand, and that this could lead to a full-scale war if the European allies of the various factions got involved.
The Libyan War finally ended seven months later on November 11, 1912, with the Treaty of Ouchy, which officially annexed Libya to Italy. The next twenty years, however, were filled with revolts and guerrilla warfare on the part of the Libyan populations of Senussians and Bedouins, who had fought for independence against the Turks and continued to fight against the Italians.
skirmishes ended only with the invasion of Mussolini’s troops in 1931.
in 1889, when King Menelik became emperor of Ethiopia after conquering and annexing most of the territories adjacent to his small kingdom,
the Treaty of Ucciali—which made Ethiopia an Italian protectorate. Menelik, however, had abrogated the treaty in 1893 and in 1896 had decisively defeated the Italian armies at Adwa, establishing Ethiopia’s independence. In 1913 Menelik died, and in 1916 the Scioa chiefs put Menelik’s daughter Zauditù on the throne under the regency of Ras (chief) Tafari Maconnèn. In 1928, Tafari Maconnèn, who had, in fact, been the true sovereign of Ethiopia since the beginning of his regency, assumed power and declared himself Plenipotentiary Vicar of the Empire and Emperor of Ethiopia. Upon Zauditù’s death in 1930, he ascended the throne as Emperor of Emperors, taking the name Haile Selassie I.
De la primera guerra mundial:
the decline of the Ottoman Empire had the effect of destablizing the rebellious Balkans. Bosnia and Herzegovina were in tumult, and on June 28, 1914, the Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was shot and killed by a nineteen-year-old Bosnian while visiting Sarajevo on a goodwill mission with his wife.
Backed by Germany, Austria moved against the Serbians. Russia took sides with Serbia, and France with Russia. Great Britain entered the conflict on the side of France when Germany invaded Belgium. Italy, however, did not immediately join the fray. The Triple Alliance treaty, renegotiated in 1913, allowed Italy to remain neutral if its allies began a war against Serbia or Great Britain. Furthermore, Italy had also signed an agreement with France acknowledging Italy’s right to non-belligerence in case of war.
Only a small minority were in favor of entering the war on the side of Austria. The new, industrial Italy depended on Great Britain for coal and raw material, while between Italy and France there existed an ancient bond of cultural affinity apart from any economic concerns.
On April 26, 1915, Italy repudiated the Triple Alliance treaty and on May 10 signed the Treaty of London, thereby officially joining the Triple Entente of England, France, and Russia.
the country was worse off than when it began. The war had cost Italy more than a million lives. Financially, it had drained the nation of 148 billion lire: double the general expenses of the state in the fifty-two years between 1861 and 1913.
Benefiting from the turmoil was Benito Mussolini, a former socialist and journalist who saw a path to political power through manipulating both the wealthy and the underprivileged. Mussolini ignited nationalist feelings by promising his supporters that Italy would stake its rightful claim to the Adriatic territories of Dalmatia and Albania and would take its “place in the sun” among Africa’s colonial powers.
On October 28, 1922, Mussolini marched on Rome and took control of the government. In a rapid succession of events, he deprived Parliament of its authority and assumed dictatorial powers. The king had witnessed Mussolini’s rise to power without opposition.
Escaladas de Luigi Amadeo, duque de Saboya:
Luigi di Savoia climbed Punta Levanna, a 11,031-foot (3,362-meter) peak on the French border in the western Alps.
he soon climbed the 13,323-foot (4,061-meter) Gran Paradiso in Italy’s Graian Alps, not far from his boyhood home in Turin.
Luigi then turned to the Mont Blanc massif. He climbed the classic routes and reached Mont Blanc’s 15,771-foot (4,807-meter) summit, adding this peak to his growing list of conquests. Mont Blanc was followed by a climb of the Dent du Géant (“The Giant’s Tooth”), a 13,169-foot (4,014 meter) peak, then considered quite a daring ascent.
Luigi climbed several routes on the spurs of Monte Rosa, a 15,203-foot (4,634-meter) massif near the Swiss- Italian border southeast of the Matterhorn
After Monte Rosa, Luigi and Maquignaz, along with two other guides, climbed the 14,690-foot (4,478-meter) Matterhorn—or Monte Cervino, as it is known in Italian—by the Breuil route.
These ascents included climbs and traverses of the 11,194-foot (3,412-meter) Aiguille du Moine, the 12,247-foot (3,733-meter) Petit Dru, the 11,302-foot (3,445-meter) Aiguille des Charmoz, and the 11,423-foot (3,482-meter) Aiguille du Grepon, all in the Mont Blanc range.
The group made several ascents, including climbs on the 14,293-foot (4,357-meter) Dent Blanche (“The White Tooth”) and the 13,849-foot (4,221-meter) Zinalrothorn. It was quite natural that the party chose to climb these long, difficult routes, for they were preparing to attempt the Matterhorn from the Zmutt Ridge.
In August, he arrived in Courmayeur to climb the Southwest Face of the Grandes Jorasses, a chain of five summits all higher than 4,000 meters.
The Mount Saint Elias massif itself is a relatively easy climb technically. The difficulty lies in getting to the base of the peak and in dealing with the region’s unpredictable weather.
Because the summit of Mount Saint Elias is more than 60 miles (97 kilometers) from the nearest forest vegetation, climbers are committed to the glaciers and are virtually isolated from any base of food supplies for a minimum of two months.
He had briefly considered the Sikkim Himalaya further to the east, but Douglas W. Freshfield had already mapped and studied this range in his circumnavigation of Kangchenjunga in 1899–1902.
Datos sobre otras expediciones:
Himalayan ranges in Nepal and Tibet, which in 1909 were closed to foreigners. Only K2, the tallest peak in the range, and its satellite peaks remained available for climbing expeditions.
William Moorcraft, the first European explorer to visit the region in 1820, gave the mountain range the name of Karakoram, which means “Black Gravel” in Turkish.
Younghusband had already made a thousand-mile traverse of Central Asia, traveling from Manchuria across the Gobi Desert as part of a military reconnaissance mission.
the local people as Chogori, meaning “great mountain.”
(7,654-meter) Bride Peak (Chogolisa), located in the middle of the Golden Throne group, which forms the far southern wall of the Baltoro Glacier and was named for its reflection of bright golden light at sunset.
Chogolisa’s corniced ridge, which had caused the Duke’s expedition so much anxiety, claimed the life of the legendary Hermann Buhl in 1957. Buhl had climbed with Kurt Diemberger to 23,950 feet (7,300 meters), and they were descending unroped during a sudden snowstorm when Buhl disappeared over the jagged edge of the ridge.
Otros:
As guides for his climbs the Duke relied on the so-called Valdostani, who took their name from a mountainous region north of Turin known as the Val d’Aosta, which included the villages of Courmayeur and Valtournanche. Like their counterparts in France and Switzerland, the Valdostani were originally chamois hunters or crystal seekers whose vast knowledge of the mountains made them expert guides. The Valdostani tended to specialize—those from Courmayeur concentrating on Mont Blanc and those from Valtournanche on the Matterhorn—but the best of the Val d’Aosta guides would no doubt have been at home on any mountain in the world.
A range of mountains 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of the equator, the Ruwenzori were believed to be the true source of the Nile.
the fifth century B.C., when the Greek tragic poet Aeschylus wrote of “Egypt nurtured by snows that melt into the waters of the Nile.” The range was also known as the Mountains of the Moon, from the description of Claudius Ptolemy, an Alexandrian astronomer and geographer of the second century A.D.: “There rises the Mountain of the Moon, whose snows feed the lakes, sources of the Nile.”
Ruwenzori, which in the local Mtsora language means “Rainmaker,”
in 1888–89 was the existence of the Ruwenzori firmly documented by Europeans. This particular expedition was carried out under contract to King Leopold of Belgium to help establish the Belgian empire all the way from the source of the Nile to the Sudan. In addition, Stanley was also secretly in league with the English in an attempt to relieve a small force of settlers on the upper Nile who were holding off an army of attacking Mahdist rebels from the Sudan.
guided the Mackinder-Hausberg expedition to Mount Kenya;
chaotic port bazaars of Said, Suez, Aden, and Djibouti.
thirty-two thousand Indian laborers had been imported to construct the railway over a two-year period. More than twenty-five hundred of the workers had been killed by accidents or by lions, who waited near the rail line to attack the men while they worked or drag them out of their tents at night. One pair of lions had managed to kill twenty-eight men before they were caught and killed.
caravans of pilgrims bound for the tomb of Scheck Hussein, a Muslim holy man venerated in the entire world of Islam. The devotees came not only from the surrounding regions, but also from Arabia and far distant countries. The tomb itself was located in a small mosque taken care of by a Galla family, following a tradition dating back to the sixteenth century.
Haber descubierto las fotografías de Vittorio Sella es algo que le debo a este libro.
En resumen, un libro muy interesante que, a parte de llevarnos a rincones lejanos del planeta, también permite entender la historia de Italia de principios del siglo XX.
Dejo por aquí las citas que me parecen más relevantes:
King Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy. The hero of Italian unification (the Risorgimento), Vittorio Emanuele had in 1861 brought together into a constitutional monarchy many of the disparate Italian city-states that had been at war with each other for half a century.
The people of Italy had fought bravely for the country's unification. During peace, however, they were losing their enthusiasm for self-government in the face of hard decisions. The wars of independence had cost the country more than it could afford, and more taxes had to be levied to cover the deficit.
With the death of Amedeo, his firstborn son, Emanuele Filiberto, became the Duke of Aosta. King Umberto I named Vittorio Emanuele, the second-born son, Count of Turin, while seventeen-year-old Luigi Amedeo was designated the Duke of the Abruzzi.
King Umberto I, had been assassinated on July 29 by an anarchist’s bullet.
Pius IX had excommunicated King Vittorio Emanuele II, the Duke’s grandfather and head of the Savoy family, when the king had annexed the papal states in forming the new Italy, and papal hostility to the Savoys still lingered.
De la colonización de África
By 1885, most European countries had already established colonies all across Africa, taking advantage of the continent’s vast mineral deposits and other resources to fuel the growth of European industry and expansion.
Germany had occupied Togo, Cameroon, and Tanganyika. France had annexed Madagascar, while Belgium consolidated its possession of the vast rubber deposits in the Congo. Britain had occupied nearly the whole of the east coast of Africa, including a part of Somaliland.
In contrast, Italy had been slow to colonize Africa. Its first African possession, Eritrea—a small desert region between the Red Sea, Ethiopia (Abyssinia), the Sudan, and British Somaliland—was not acquired by exploration or conquest, but was purchased in 1882 from an Italian trader who himself had bought the bay of Assab and the surrounding land from the Eritreans. By 1885, Italy had signed agreements with four Muslim sultans granting the rights to more land in Abyssinia and Somaliland.
Abyssinia (Ethiopia), Italy’s newest colony in Africa. War had broken out between Italian and Abyssinian forces in 1895, and after two early defeats, the Italian government had sent an army of ten thousand troops to conquer Abyssinia once and for all. However, on March 1, 1896, Italian forces underwent a stunning defeat at Adwa, where they fought against the warriors of the Abyssinian emperor, Menelik. Some five thousand Italian troops and two thousand native auxiliary troops had been killed or captured, and the colony had been lost. More Italian lives had been lost in this single battle than in all the wars of Italy’s independence put together, and the shame was felt throughout Italy.
Turkish possession in north Africa: Cyrenaica, which Italy rebaptized Libya, its name under the Roman Empire.
Italy was still considered by its neighbors to be an immature and overly ambitious nation “with a very large appetite and very poor teeth,” as Germany’s chancellor Otto von Bismarck had scornfully remarked in reference to Italy’s limited military force.
European diplomats urged Italy to pull away from the brink of war with Turkey, warning that a further weakening of the Ottoman Empire might allow the continuing conflict between Muslims and Serbs in the Balkans to get out of hand, and that this could lead to a full-scale war if the European allies of the various factions got involved.
The Libyan War finally ended seven months later on November 11, 1912, with the Treaty of Ouchy, which officially annexed Libya to Italy. The next twenty years, however, were filled with revolts and guerrilla warfare on the part of the Libyan populations of Senussians and Bedouins, who had fought for independence against the Turks and continued to fight against the Italians.
skirmishes ended only with the invasion of Mussolini’s troops in 1931.
in 1889, when King Menelik became emperor of Ethiopia after conquering and annexing most of the territories adjacent to his small kingdom,
the Treaty of Ucciali—which made Ethiopia an Italian protectorate. Menelik, however, had abrogated the treaty in 1893 and in 1896 had decisively defeated the Italian armies at Adwa, establishing Ethiopia’s independence. In 1913 Menelik died, and in 1916 the Scioa chiefs put Menelik’s daughter Zauditù on the throne under the regency of Ras (chief) Tafari Maconnèn. In 1928, Tafari Maconnèn, who had, in fact, been the true sovereign of Ethiopia since the beginning of his regency, assumed power and declared himself Plenipotentiary Vicar of the Empire and Emperor of Ethiopia. Upon Zauditù’s death in 1930, he ascended the throne as Emperor of Emperors, taking the name Haile Selassie I.
De la primera guerra mundial:
the decline of the Ottoman Empire had the effect of destablizing the rebellious Balkans. Bosnia and Herzegovina were in tumult, and on June 28, 1914, the Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was shot and killed by a nineteen-year-old Bosnian while visiting Sarajevo on a goodwill mission with his wife.
Backed by Germany, Austria moved against the Serbians. Russia took sides with Serbia, and France with Russia. Great Britain entered the conflict on the side of France when Germany invaded Belgium. Italy, however, did not immediately join the fray. The Triple Alliance treaty, renegotiated in 1913, allowed Italy to remain neutral if its allies began a war against Serbia or Great Britain. Furthermore, Italy had also signed an agreement with France acknowledging Italy’s right to non-belligerence in case of war.
Only a small minority were in favor of entering the war on the side of Austria. The new, industrial Italy depended on Great Britain for coal and raw material, while between Italy and France there existed an ancient bond of cultural affinity apart from any economic concerns.
On April 26, 1915, Italy repudiated the Triple Alliance treaty and on May 10 signed the Treaty of London, thereby officially joining the Triple Entente of England, France, and Russia.
the country was worse off than when it began. The war had cost Italy more than a million lives. Financially, it had drained the nation of 148 billion lire: double the general expenses of the state in the fifty-two years between 1861 and 1913.
Benefiting from the turmoil was Benito Mussolini, a former socialist and journalist who saw a path to political power through manipulating both the wealthy and the underprivileged. Mussolini ignited nationalist feelings by promising his supporters that Italy would stake its rightful claim to the Adriatic territories of Dalmatia and Albania and would take its “place in the sun” among Africa’s colonial powers.
On October 28, 1922, Mussolini marched on Rome and took control of the government. In a rapid succession of events, he deprived Parliament of its authority and assumed dictatorial powers. The king had witnessed Mussolini’s rise to power without opposition.
Escaladas de Luigi Amadeo, duque de Saboya:
Luigi di Savoia climbed Punta Levanna, a 11,031-foot (3,362-meter) peak on the French border in the western Alps.
he soon climbed the 13,323-foot (4,061-meter) Gran Paradiso in Italy’s Graian Alps, not far from his boyhood home in Turin.
Luigi then turned to the Mont Blanc massif. He climbed the classic routes and reached Mont Blanc’s 15,771-foot (4,807-meter) summit, adding this peak to his growing list of conquests. Mont Blanc was followed by a climb of the Dent du Géant (“The Giant’s Tooth”), a 13,169-foot (4,014 meter) peak, then considered quite a daring ascent.
Luigi climbed several routes on the spurs of Monte Rosa, a 15,203-foot (4,634-meter) massif near the Swiss- Italian border southeast of the Matterhorn
After Monte Rosa, Luigi and Maquignaz, along with two other guides, climbed the 14,690-foot (4,478-meter) Matterhorn—or Monte Cervino, as it is known in Italian—by the Breuil route.
These ascents included climbs and traverses of the 11,194-foot (3,412-meter) Aiguille du Moine, the 12,247-foot (3,733-meter) Petit Dru, the 11,302-foot (3,445-meter) Aiguille des Charmoz, and the 11,423-foot (3,482-meter) Aiguille du Grepon, all in the Mont Blanc range.
The group made several ascents, including climbs on the 14,293-foot (4,357-meter) Dent Blanche (“The White Tooth”) and the 13,849-foot (4,221-meter) Zinalrothorn. It was quite natural that the party chose to climb these long, difficult routes, for they were preparing to attempt the Matterhorn from the Zmutt Ridge.
In August, he arrived in Courmayeur to climb the Southwest Face of the Grandes Jorasses, a chain of five summits all higher than 4,000 meters.
The Mount Saint Elias massif itself is a relatively easy climb technically. The difficulty lies in getting to the base of the peak and in dealing with the region’s unpredictable weather.
Because the summit of Mount Saint Elias is more than 60 miles (97 kilometers) from the nearest forest vegetation, climbers are committed to the glaciers and are virtually isolated from any base of food supplies for a minimum of two months.
He had briefly considered the Sikkim Himalaya further to the east, but Douglas W. Freshfield had already mapped and studied this range in his circumnavigation of Kangchenjunga in 1899–1902.
Datos sobre otras expediciones:
Himalayan ranges in Nepal and Tibet, which in 1909 were closed to foreigners. Only K2, the tallest peak in the range, and its satellite peaks remained available for climbing expeditions.
William Moorcraft, the first European explorer to visit the region in 1820, gave the mountain range the name of Karakoram, which means “Black Gravel” in Turkish.
Younghusband had already made a thousand-mile traverse of Central Asia, traveling from Manchuria across the Gobi Desert as part of a military reconnaissance mission.
the local people as Chogori, meaning “great mountain.”
(7,654-meter) Bride Peak (Chogolisa), located in the middle of the Golden Throne group, which forms the far southern wall of the Baltoro Glacier and was named for its reflection of bright golden light at sunset.
Chogolisa’s corniced ridge, which had caused the Duke’s expedition so much anxiety, claimed the life of the legendary Hermann Buhl in 1957. Buhl had climbed with Kurt Diemberger to 23,950 feet (7,300 meters), and they were descending unroped during a sudden snowstorm when Buhl disappeared over the jagged edge of the ridge.
Otros:
As guides for his climbs the Duke relied on the so-called Valdostani, who took their name from a mountainous region north of Turin known as the Val d’Aosta, which included the villages of Courmayeur and Valtournanche. Like their counterparts in France and Switzerland, the Valdostani were originally chamois hunters or crystal seekers whose vast knowledge of the mountains made them expert guides. The Valdostani tended to specialize—those from Courmayeur concentrating on Mont Blanc and those from Valtournanche on the Matterhorn—but the best of the Val d’Aosta guides would no doubt have been at home on any mountain in the world.
A range of mountains 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of the equator, the Ruwenzori were believed to be the true source of the Nile.
the fifth century B.C., when the Greek tragic poet Aeschylus wrote of “Egypt nurtured by snows that melt into the waters of the Nile.” The range was also known as the Mountains of the Moon, from the description of Claudius Ptolemy, an Alexandrian astronomer and geographer of the second century A.D.: “There rises the Mountain of the Moon, whose snows feed the lakes, sources of the Nile.”
Ruwenzori, which in the local Mtsora language means “Rainmaker,”
in 1888–89 was the existence of the Ruwenzori firmly documented by Europeans. This particular expedition was carried out under contract to King Leopold of Belgium to help establish the Belgian empire all the way from the source of the Nile to the Sudan. In addition, Stanley was also secretly in league with the English in an attempt to relieve a small force of settlers on the upper Nile who were holding off an army of attacking Mahdist rebels from the Sudan.
guided the Mackinder-Hausberg expedition to Mount Kenya;
chaotic port bazaars of Said, Suez, Aden, and Djibouti.
thirty-two thousand Indian laborers had been imported to construct the railway over a two-year period. More than twenty-five hundred of the workers had been killed by accidents or by lions, who waited near the rail line to attack the men while they worked or drag them out of their tents at night. One pair of lions had managed to kill twenty-eight men before they were caught and killed.
caravans of pilgrims bound for the tomb of Scheck Hussein, a Muslim holy man venerated in the entire world of Islam. The devotees came not only from the surrounding regions, but also from Arabia and far distant countries. The tomb itself was located in a small mosque taken care of by a Galla family, following a tradition dating back to the sixteenth century.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 20, 2018
E’ il suo sguardo, lo sguardo di Luigi Amedeo d’Aosta che stride. Non è lo sguardo che ci si immagina di un avventuriero, di uno che scalava montagne non ancora conquistate, che poi tornava a casa, recuperava la barca che si era appena fatto costruire per le regate in Inghilterra e ripartiva per andare a regattare con il fior fiore dell’aristocrazia mondiale; concluse le gare, rientrava in Italia per progettare e poi ripartire per lunghe spedizioni al Polo, organizzate al dettaglio (e con dettaglio intendo anche l’elemento noia/depressione per i lunghi mesi di buio e inattivi, aspettando di nuovo la luce: come fare per non scoraggiare i suoi uomini?); quindi rientrava ancora alla base, sperimentava le automobili e si lanciava in gare di corsa; poi si innamorava perdutamente (di una ragazza americana, che viveva negli Stati Uniti) ma non potendo sposarla allora si concentra sull’Africa, dove progettava un villaggio innovativo e autosufficiente – e tutto questo svolto tra un congedo e l’altro della carriera militare in marina che ha sempre assolto col massimo impegno. Ecco, come può essere lo sguardo di un uomo così? Uno sguardo di sfida? Sardonico? Strafottente? Divertito? Beh, qualsiasi cosa ci immaginiamo non corrisponde al dolcissimo sguardo malinconico del Duca d’Abruzzi, un uomo rimasto orfano di madre da piccolo e affidato presto alle cure della marina militare (all’età di sei anni); che ha percorso ogni tappa della carriera militare fino a giungere al vertice supremo, facendo sempre tutto quello che gli veniva richiesto, sia per rango militare che sociale, facendolo poi con coscienza e con stile - ma mai supinamente; un uomo che ha riportato successi come insuccessi dai quali ha sempre tratto però in maniera equa il meglio di quello che c’era da imparare; un uomo che ha sofferto molto per un grande amore contrastato e che ha deciso di morire poi lontano da casa, in un altro continente, circondato da persone che gli hanno voluto sinceramente bene per tutto quello che ha fatto per loro e che l’hanno venerato, anche dopo morto, come un Dio.
Una persona eccezionale, credo poco valorizzata perché facente parte di una famiglia il cui cognome suscita ancora qualche ricordo sgradevole. Forse però adesso si può riprendere in mano la sua storia e far riemergere questa figura fuori dalla norma (e dalla sua famiglia!), di buon cuore, di buon gusto, dal cervello fino ed arguto, uno dei pochissimi italiani molto apprezzati (per il suo valore) a livello internazionale, non che un italiano che ha contribuito in grande stile alla storia del nostro paese e di cui penso, possiamo/dovremmo andare orgogliosi.
Una persona eccezionale, credo poco valorizzata perché facente parte di una famiglia il cui cognome suscita ancora qualche ricordo sgradevole. Forse però adesso si può riprendere in mano la sua storia e far riemergere questa figura fuori dalla norma (e dalla sua famiglia!), di buon cuore, di buon gusto, dal cervello fino ed arguto, uno dei pochissimi italiani molto apprezzati (per il suo valore) a livello internazionale, non che un italiano che ha contribuito in grande stile alla storia del nostro paese e di cui penso, possiamo/dovremmo andare orgogliosi.
October 26, 2022
The title caught my eye, because the southeast ridge of K2 is called the Abruzzi Spur. There is also a refuge hut at the base of the Matterhorn, called the Rifugio Duca degli Abruzzi. The famous Italian rock climber Walter Bonatti wrote the intro, citing the Duke as a major inspiration...and I've read Bonatti's The Mountains of My Life, more than once. Turns out, the Duke also made the first ascent of Mount Saint Elias in Alaska, and for me, his mountaineering successes are what drew me to the book, but this is a full biography of this Italian prince, who also attempted to reach the North Pole, and nearly lost his ship, and did lose some of his crew, not to mention several fingertips. He also explored the inner African peaks of the Ruwenzori, and made over a dozen first ascents. Then he explored the Shebelle River in Ethiopia/Somalia, and created an "experimental" farming town to help the locals, where he lived in his later years, and died there, too. Meanwhile, he was climbing the ranks in the Italian navy, all the way to vice admiral, and he commanded the entire Allied navy fleet in the Adriatic Sea during WW1. All this happened in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Unexpected and inspiring. Great book!
May 26, 2022
E qui devo un ringraziamento enorme a Giorgio Ballario che ha inserito tra le fonti utili alla scrittura del suo “Una donna di troppo” un testo che mi ha conquistato nelle ultime settimane, provocando anche qualche tensione familiare per la continuità quotidiana e l’estrema ricchezza di particolari con cui ripercorrevo, ad ogni occasione, l’incredibile biografia del Duca Degli Abruzzi che mi si andava via via svelando davanti agli occhi e al cuore.
Essendo nato a Trieste e cresciuto a Monfalcone, fino a qualche settimana fa l’unico Duca che faceva parte del mio personalissimo Pantheon era il Duca d’Aosta, al secolo Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia-Aosta, Comandante della Terza Armata sul fronte isontino della prima guerra mondiale, che riposa in mezzo ai suoi soldati ai piedi del Sacrario, a esattamente 5,8 chilometri di bicicletta dalla mia cameretta. Emanuele Filiberto non avrà avuto grandi obiezioni e ha fatto spazio nel mio immaginario al fratello Luigi Amedeo di Savoia-Aosta, duca degli Abruzzi, a cui Mirella Tenderini e Michael Shandrick hanno dedicato quest’opera meravigliosa.
Ma chi fu il Duca degli Abruzzi? Bambino orfano di madre a tre anni, ragazzo formato in Accademia, uomo con una divorante passione per l’esplorazione e per la scoperta dell’ignoto, vissuta con gli occhi del lucido sognatore, di chi prepara scrupolosamente la riuscita dell’avventura senza smettere di lasciar vagare lo sguardo oltre le nuvole. Primo scalatore del Monte Saint Elias in Alaska (Alaska! e nel 1897), uomo più vicino a raggiungere il Polo Nord nei suoi anni; primo esploratore del Ruwenzori, 5101 metri di massiccio in pieno Congo (Congo! e nel 1906) la cui vetta è da allora nota come Cima Margherita, omaggio alla Regina, recordmen di altitudine raggiunta nel 1909 quando scalò il K2 senza raggiungerne la cima (ma ancora oggi la via più utilizzata per le scalate transita dallo Sperone degli Abruzzi). Imprese non solitarie, e non si tratta di un minus: il Duca possedeva anche la capacità di formare squadre perfette, e il volume è splendidamente illustrato da alcuni scatti di Vittorio Sella che di quelle imprese fu testimone e fotografo.
E poi una disarmante e misteriosa storia d’amore, una carriera militare lontana dagli intrighi politici, la scoperta delle sorgenti del fiume Uebi Scebeli (il “Secondo Nilo”) e un innovativo progetto di sperimentazione agricola in piena convivenza con la popolazione locale avviato in Somalia, dove ancora oggi il Duca riposa in un ricordo tramandato da generazioni e ai limiti della devozione, se si pensa che nel 1992 vi fu la concreta ipotesi di riportarne le spoglie in Italia e che fu la stessa popolazione locale ad opporsi, con il consenso finale della famiglia.
Una grande Storia di profonda umanità.
Essendo nato a Trieste e cresciuto a Monfalcone, fino a qualche settimana fa l’unico Duca che faceva parte del mio personalissimo Pantheon era il Duca d’Aosta, al secolo Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia-Aosta, Comandante della Terza Armata sul fronte isontino della prima guerra mondiale, che riposa in mezzo ai suoi soldati ai piedi del Sacrario, a esattamente 5,8 chilometri di bicicletta dalla mia cameretta. Emanuele Filiberto non avrà avuto grandi obiezioni e ha fatto spazio nel mio immaginario al fratello Luigi Amedeo di Savoia-Aosta, duca degli Abruzzi, a cui Mirella Tenderini e Michael Shandrick hanno dedicato quest’opera meravigliosa.
Ma chi fu il Duca degli Abruzzi? Bambino orfano di madre a tre anni, ragazzo formato in Accademia, uomo con una divorante passione per l’esplorazione e per la scoperta dell’ignoto, vissuta con gli occhi del lucido sognatore, di chi prepara scrupolosamente la riuscita dell’avventura senza smettere di lasciar vagare lo sguardo oltre le nuvole. Primo scalatore del Monte Saint Elias in Alaska (Alaska! e nel 1897), uomo più vicino a raggiungere il Polo Nord nei suoi anni; primo esploratore del Ruwenzori, 5101 metri di massiccio in pieno Congo (Congo! e nel 1906) la cui vetta è da allora nota come Cima Margherita, omaggio alla Regina, recordmen di altitudine raggiunta nel 1909 quando scalò il K2 senza raggiungerne la cima (ma ancora oggi la via più utilizzata per le scalate transita dallo Sperone degli Abruzzi). Imprese non solitarie, e non si tratta di un minus: il Duca possedeva anche la capacità di formare squadre perfette, e il volume è splendidamente illustrato da alcuni scatti di Vittorio Sella che di quelle imprese fu testimone e fotografo.
E poi una disarmante e misteriosa storia d’amore, una carriera militare lontana dagli intrighi politici, la scoperta delle sorgenti del fiume Uebi Scebeli (il “Secondo Nilo”) e un innovativo progetto di sperimentazione agricola in piena convivenza con la popolazione locale avviato in Somalia, dove ancora oggi il Duca riposa in un ricordo tramandato da generazioni e ai limiti della devozione, se si pensa che nel 1992 vi fu la concreta ipotesi di riportarne le spoglie in Italia e che fu la stessa popolazione locale ad opporsi, con il consenso finale della famiglia.
Una grande Storia di profonda umanità.
August 5, 2022
Non avevo mai sentito parlare né di Luigi Amedeo di Savoia né delle sue memorabili imprese, quindi la lettura di questo libro, regalatomi da un amico appassionato - tra le altre cose - di storia, è stata interessante, appassionante, istruttiva e coinvolgente.
Il testo è diviso in capitoli monotematici relativi alle tante e diverse esplorazioni che il Duca degli Abruzzi ha portato a compimento nella sua lunga vita, ogni volta alzando sempre più l’asticella dell’arditezza delle imprese e delle difficoltà da superare.
Ho trovato veramente sorprendenti la sua perizia nel preparare gli itinerari di viaggio, l’attenzione e il rispetto per le popolazioni locali e soprattutto lo stile che lo ha sempre contraddistinto, sia da un punto di vista umano che tecnico. Il risultato è un ritratto vivido e dettagliato, coinvolgente e formativo.
La scrittura degli autori rappresenta poi la ciliegina sulla torta: semplice, chiara e precisa.
Consiglio la lettura di questa bella biografia: un modo per esplorare gli angoli più remoti della Terra stando seduti sul divano di casa.
Il testo è diviso in capitoli monotematici relativi alle tante e diverse esplorazioni che il Duca degli Abruzzi ha portato a compimento nella sua lunga vita, ogni volta alzando sempre più l’asticella dell’arditezza delle imprese e delle difficoltà da superare.
Ho trovato veramente sorprendenti la sua perizia nel preparare gli itinerari di viaggio, l’attenzione e il rispetto per le popolazioni locali e soprattutto lo stile che lo ha sempre contraddistinto, sia da un punto di vista umano che tecnico. Il risultato è un ritratto vivido e dettagliato, coinvolgente e formativo.
La scrittura degli autori rappresenta poi la ciliegina sulla torta: semplice, chiara e precisa.
Consiglio la lettura di questa bella biografia: un modo per esplorare gli angoli più remoti della Terra stando seduti sul divano di casa.
January 19, 2016
Excellent read about exploration in the early 1900c.
April 22, 2013
A good story of the life of a less well known mountaineer / explorer.
January 17, 2016
Excellent read about exploration in the early 1900c.
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