The house where the great artist Amedeo Modigliani was born, is located in Via Roma, 38, on the first floor of a charming building of the nineteenth century Livorno Jewish bourgeoisie. The house organized as a museum traces the artistic and human story of this great artist from Livorno through photos, documents, letters, reproductions. The itinerary concludes with a tribute to the great artist, from contemporary painters who have donated a series of their works inspired by the figure and art of Modigliani to the Casa Modigliani, including Bruno Ceccobelli, Mario Madiai, Pietro Cascella, Renato Guttuso , Mimmo Rotella, Tano Festa.

Amedeo Modigliani or Dedo, as they called him in the family, is one of the most famous artists in the world, both for his art and for his existential events that have made him a legendary character.

In a letter that Leopold Zborowski wrote to Giuseppe Emanuele Modigliani, on January 31, 1920, a few days after the death of the painter, speaking of his friend, he said he was a son of the stars; we add son of Livorno.

Livorno is central to the deepening of this artist, both because it is the city that gave him birth, and because he studied here, he became an adult Jew through the celebration of the miamicitzvà bar in the ancient synagogue of the city in July 1897 , here he trained in painting schools, his friends were from Livorno. His maternal relatives, the Garsin, have been in Livorno since the late eighteenth century and his paternal grandparents since 1849. In Livorno the Jewish community is large and is very active in the social and cultural fabric of the city. The Jews in Livorno have always been guaranteed by the privileges of the "Livornine", laws issued in 1593 by Grand Duke Ferdinando dei Medici to increase the population of the new city. The freedoms granted led to an extreme openness towards those who chose to live and work in Livorno.

The Modigliani lived in via Roma 38 in a residential area, "in a quiet neighborhood and in a laughing house", writes Eugenia Garsin in her diary, alongside other families of the Jewish bourgeoisie of Livorno. Just a few meters from them stood the luxurious villa of the Attias family, one of the most important families of Leghorn Jews. The name of the square has remained as evidence of this villa.

On 12 July 1884 Dedo was born in the building in Via Roma viaroma38; Eugenia's birth has gone down in history and has also been represented in films dedicated to the artist. While the mother is in labor, a bailiff arrives to foreclose on the family's assets, but an ancient custom established that one could not touch the bed of a woman in labor, then the whole family competes in throwing more things over and under the bed of Eugenia to save them from foreclosure.

The building on Via Roma was much loved by Eugenia Garsin who remembers: the house in Via Roma very large full of servants, gargantuan meals and always the table laden for an infinite number of Roman relatives and friends. Even Eugenia's father, Isacc Modigliani, who lived in Marseille, often stayed in the Modigliani house in Livorno and every day he took little Dedo for a walk along the ditches, to the station to see the steam trains leave, to the port, to the fish market.

For further infos visit the website: Casa Natale di Amedeo Modigliani