Eleonora met Gabriele in 1894. She was 37 years old and he was younger than her. She had the passion for stage performance in her blood, while he had poetical inspiration running through his veins. She was famous all over the world and he was starting to make a name for himself with his work. They met in the most romantic place imaginable: Venice, the city of love, with its languid atmosphere and hidden spots.

The tumultuous relationship between Eleonora Duse and Gabriele D’Annunzio would last for the next ten years. It was a period of infatuation and sadness, joy and disillusion, especially for Eleonora, who had done so much to make the work of her beloved internationally famous.

The "Divina”, as Vate once called her, was let down by the turn of events and perhaps also tired of the applause. She announced her desire to step out of the limelight and withdraw to her red-fronted house in Asolo, where her spirits would be raised by the serenity that the place and its people inspired in her.

She died far away in America, but her peaceful times in Asolo would go on. Her final resting place is in what Carducci called “the town with a hundred horizons”. Here the glory of a figure that enchanted the world is preserved for posterity.

Photos: Aimé Dupont - Eleonora Duse in New York, 1896