Gabriele D’annunzio

Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863-1938) is the civil poet par excellence, the absolute protagonist of Italy’s political and cultural life between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Born in Pescara, he lived in Naples from 1891 to 1893, collaborating with Il Mattino and Il Corriere di Napoli.

Tradition has it that during a coffee at Gambrinus, the poet was challenged by his friend Ferdinando Russo to write a song in Neapolitan dialect, a song that D’Annunzio even wrote in pencil on the marble of one of the coffee tables.

The text of the famous A vucchella was performed by Francesco Paolo Tosti a few years later and the song was recorded by Enrico Caruso.