A place, the Third, to be sought beyond space and time. Kept within us, to be experienced by connecting with something greater that we can identify with the divine, the unlimited consciousness, God, the Brahman of the Upanishads, our higher Self. When we access this space, a place of salvation and healing, we face life's difficulties better and find a compass that guides us wisely on our path.

Starting from this premise, the author of ‘The Third Place’ Il mio educatore Gabriele D'Annunzio. Fiorenza Palmerio Gancia guides us through this lengthy interview, in which she recounts the challenges of creating a text that analyzes the poet from a completely new point of view, transforming him into a master of life, capable of uniting “mind and heart as the highest degree of intelligence that man can achieve and which today more than ever has the task of preserving.”

I would start by asking you to share with the readers the genesis of the book and the choice of Gabriele d'Annunzio as the focus of the work.

My book was born when I was not yet thirty, when I began to take an interest in oriental philosophies, which for me have been a support and relief to my suffering. I dedicate this book to my sister Alessia, who fell ill at a very young age, and when she passed away, little by little, I began to write down, feeling more and more the need to write down and to better understand everything I had read during those years.

I placed d'Annunzio as my educator for several reasons. First of all, the connection to my family. My great-grandfather, Benigno Palmerio, met d'Annunzio at the Hotel Helvetia in 1898, was his dogs' vet, and then became the poet's friend and confidant during his Florentine years. He wrote the book Con d'Annunzio alla Capponcina. Secondly, I felt an affinity with the poet from an oriental point of view.

It was the literary critic G. A. Borgese who, as early as the 20th century, stated that at the basis of the poet's belief was an Indian matrix. Moreover, as a final reason, I believe that we often tend to make judgments about people, very often hasty and even wrong judgments, because we do not know them deeply. We assign labels, without even knowing ourselves! I felt the need to step out of the world of judging others, re-evaluating in the figure of d'Annunzio many aspects that sometimes, in my opinion, have been overlooked.

‘All I need is the paper, the ink, and the pen to remake not one but ten Capponcine!’ It is no coincidence that the painful moment of d'Annunzio's loss of his Settignano residence is mentioned in the introduction, quoting words that perfectly reflect his character. What do you think was the spiritual baggage that d'Annunzio acquired during his Florentine years, also in virtue of that loss?

I believe that d'Annunzio, with this sentence, teaches us not to give in to the misfortunes of life, and I firmly believe that he shows us how we should rely not so much on material things but rather believe in our talents and our inner strength to move forward and to fulfill ourselves. Thus, d'Annunzio stated, ‘Only he who has the strength to become what he is increases the human spiritual mass.’

‘You must resign yourself to the fact that I pass for a corrupter, thinking that in fifty years I will be an educator.’ Well over a century has passed since this missive to Treves. Can we, today, agree with d'Annunzio?

Absolutely. This is another important reason that inspired me to write the subtitle: ‘My educator Gabriele d'Annunzio.’ D'Annunzio has so many aspects that are worth being inspired by: his love for art, for beauty, for poetry, for nature, and for that cosmic feeling of union with all of creation. I also believe that he should be a source of inspiration for young people and for all of us, in particular, for his art of loving based on a sacred vision of love where the other is always seen as a divinity, a conception that we have sometimes unfortunately lost today.

I do not want to portray d'Annunzio as ‘pure,’ but rather look at him as a man who developed his own ars amandi, inspired by the ancient Oriental traditions that considered sexuality sacred and saw the union of love as a kind of ascesis to reach the divine. We should reflect more on love's capacity to transform us and realize our true essence.

In the book, the Orient, the Poet, Leonardo, Pistoletto, Mondrian... What do you think unites them and can be of help and guidance to contemporaries?

I believe that all these artists have a mystical look at reality. There, the figure of the artist and the mystic tend to overlap because, by relating to a broader dimension of existence, one projected towards the infinite or the divine, they lose their ego and arrive at an inner spaciousness, that Third Place I talk about in the book, where they find an empty sheet of paper on which to create and, if they believe, where they can also encounter the divine. They all begin their art with the inner need to know themselves and to deepen their knowledge of the ‘truth.’ With this profound purpose they relate themselves to a greater, infinite dimension, which allows them to find and raise the spiritual pyramid of mankind, just as Kandinsky stated in 1912 in The Spiritual in Art, very often also finding the keys to living.

As far as the East is concerned, I refer in particular to the ancient Indian texts, the Upanishads, books that even d'Annunzio himself became acquainted with as a very young man and that have as the core of their thought the Sanskrit phrase ‘Tat Tvam Asi,’ ‘You are that,’ or ‘You are the Brahman,’ the divine. Today, Michelangelo Pistoletto, who identifies art with spirituality, began, as he himself explains, his art with the intention of knowing himself in relation to the Infinite, stating a little later with his magnificent Third Paradise, like the ancient Upanishads, ‘You are the other.’ Mondrian was called a ‘mystic’ by art historian Gombrich, and d'Annunzio called himself a ‘mystic healer.’ Leonardo da Vinci claimed that his painting, considered pure philosophy, was the way to know the divine, ‘the way to know the operator of many wonderful things’ and ‘to love such an inventor.’

The Vittoriale is no ordinary house-museum. D'Annunzio is its ‘book of living stones,’ and the ‘book of living stones’ is D'Annunzio. With this ‘allness’ (as scholar Paola Goretti defines it) in mind, how can his book and his studies on the ‘third place’ help the visitor to approach the visit with new eyes?

Entering the Vittoriale gives the impression of entering a sacred temple. The seven steps at the entrance announce this to us because 7 is the divine number par excellence, as do the inscriptions ‘Silentium’ and ‘Clausura’ that remind us of the rooms of an ancient monastery. Each room leads us to the Third Place. From Gabriele d'Annunzio's Leda Room, where his amorous encounters took place, to the Music Room, art par excellence, which leads us to the Third Place, and finally the Leper Room, where d'Annunzio conducted his meditations on death.

In particular, the meditatio morti, which is a prerequisite for entering the Third Place, leads to greater awareness, giving greater meaning to our lives. The Vittoriale is d'Annunzio's third place, but it also becomes ours when we look at it with new eyes. Love, music, and meditatio mortis are all tools that enable us to access the Third Place, a place of salvation and healing, where we rediscover our true selves, thus finally becoming captains of our souls.

May I ask you if you are working on any future projects?

I will definitely continue with my writing and the drafting of a new book because I love writing too much. I have also created a line of candles and room fragrances that I have called ‘Lavs Vitae’ , related to my activity in my family's historical jewelry shop. In honor of the historical friendship between my great-grandfather and Gabriele d'Annunzio, recalling this very book that had been given to him by the poet in 1902. I used as my logo a cross, the D'Annunzio cross, often used by D'Annunzio in his writings, dedications, and letters, whose meaning is typically oriental because it is a symbol of illumination, the realization of our true essence.

This cross is formed by a vertical line and a horizontal line representing the opposites of which our reality is made in a continuous alternation between light and shadow, between matter and spirit, and between male and female. In addition, four rays of light seem to spring from the central point of the cross where these opposites meet, harmonizing in a perfect balance.

It is in this central point of the cross that we should dwell, in that Third Place of which I speak in the book. From this symbol, a line of jewelry was born, which has become for us the union of an ancient symbol of the past, reproduced using very ancient techniques such as guilloché enameling and satin finishing, all handcrafted, with a modern design meticulously studied by my daughter, Virginia. The line has also been called Lavs Vitae, because we should never forget to celebrate life, and, why not, sometimes even with a beautiful piece of jewelry.