Lord Byron

“In 1822, Lord George Byron, the most famous of the poets of modern England, lived in Montenero for six weeks. He lived in the Dupouy villa now De Paoli, and according to what they say, in the room in the corner between the main front and the western side of the villa. At the end of this room is a small alcove where the bed occupied by Byron was. (…) Count Ruggero Gamba had come to Montenero with his son Pietro and daughter Teresa married to Count Guiccioli, with a retinue of servants from Romagna, on which all, because they belonged to the secret society of the Carbonari, held a great vigilance the Tuscan police, for which Lord Byron was also an unwelcome guest whose ardently liberal ideas were known, but also his disordered and incorrect life and the nature intolerant of every restraint and submission ” Pietro Vigo.

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) from Pisa, where he lived on the Arno river, came to Montenero in 1822. The historian Pietro Vigo, in his guide to Montenero, gives an ample account of this.

For the price of one hundred Franciscons a month, Byron rented Villa Dupouy, from the banker Francesco Dupouy, with stables, sheds, gardens, cisterns and clean water wells.

In Montenero Byron wrote part of his “Child Harold” and the inscription for the grave of his daughter Allegra.

A group of Americans anchored in the port of Livorno invited him on board and bestowed upon him the honors of great celebrities.

Pietro Vigo reports a dispute that broke out on June 28, around 5 pm, between the people in Byron’s service and those in the service of Countess Guiccioli. The Gambas were also involved, knives and guns were held, Pietro Gamba was bruised. This brawl gave the Tuscan police the opportunity to evict the hated Gamba counts, under the pretext of clamor and excesses that disturbed the quiet village of Montenero. In this regard, Byron wrote the governor the following letter, which Vigo claims to have found only in the Italian translation.

“My friend Count Gamba and family have received the order to leave Tuscany in four days, as has my courier, Swiss by birth. I will not make any comments on this order, at least for now. I will leave this territory in your company, since that country which refuses a refuge to the unfortunate and an asylum to my friends is not a suitable dwelling place for me. But since I have here a considerable capital in furniture and other items that require some time to arrange the removal, I am asking you for a delay of a few days in favor of my friends, as well as my courier, who will accompany me if this it is permitted, and I suppose that a day or two more will be of very little consequence.

Since I will accompany my friends whenever they leave, I ask permission to beg you to honor me with an answer .“

But the English poet did not get what he asked for. As he did not win it in the water dispute.

Byron was very difficult in terms of water, he only digested it if it was very pure and crystalline, but the drought led to the exhaustion of the wells. Byron then refused to pay the rent and sued Dupouy in the Livorno court. He lost and had to pay the arrears, interest and court fees.

While he was still in Montenero, he received a letter in verse from Goethe, who was translated by Enrico Mayer, a young writer with a German father. He replied that he would soon leave for Greece, where they fought for independence. In fact, he departed from the port of Livorno, on the Hercules and reached Missolungi, where he died in the 24th, but not in battle, of meningitis.

In 1900 a via di Montenero was named after him.