Double Room

"He had always thought of the hills as the natural theater of his love. Instead, it had fallen to him to do the last imaginable thing to them: war."

This is one of the memorable passages in "A Private Matter"-a masterpiece by Beppe Fenoglio of Alba centered on the story of love and war between Milton and Fulvia.

She, Fulvia, lived right here!

Fenoglio's heroine was in fact modeled on Benedetta Ferrero, Italo's younger sister; in the family, however, she was always Aunt Mimma to everyone.

The 1940s atmosphere can be felt, amidst the soft powdery light of the curtains, in the original furniture of the period, the onyx abat-jours, the original pétineuse, the romantic lampshade, and above all in the photo of Benedetta as a girl, forever just Fulvia!

"I, Beppe's beloved Fulvia tell you about my Private Issue," La Repubblica, Turin