The writer Italo Calvino (1923-1985) was born in Havana, Cuba. Two years later the family moved back to the place of their origin – to San Remo, Italy. In 1941 Italo, under the influence of his family enrolled in the course of agronomy at the University in Turin; his father was a tropical agronomist and botanic, his mother botanic. During the Second World War he joined the communist resistance movement The Garibaldi Brigades. After the war he enroled in the Faculty of Arts in Turin. After his studies he worked in the publicity department for Einaudi publishing and as a journalist for the communist daily L'Unitŕ and the magazine Rinascita. In 1947 he published the novel The Path to the Nest of Spiders and received for it the Premio Riccione award. Among other works he wrote: Marcovaldo or the Seasons in the City, Invisible Cities, The Castle of Crossed Destinies, If on a winter's night a traveller, Six Memos for the Next Millennium and Cosmicomics.

translation: Polona Mesec, abstract: Jan Babnik