Ode to a Skylark

The English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822), thanks to the inheritance of his grandfather and to remedy the poor health due to the consumption that undermined him, chose to spend a large part of his life in Italy, places of choice were Naples, Pisa (where Byron joined him) and Livorno.

In Livorno he stayed three times, in 1918, in 19 and 22, the year of his tragic death at sea.

He was a guest of English friends but he also stayed at Villa Valsovano, where he composed the tragedy “The Cenci”, published in 1819 — which also drew on Guerrazzi — and the famous odes “To a…