In the enchanting Principality of Seborga, there is a magical place as much as the history of its small town, with its suggestive noble ambitions. We are talking about a place enclosing hundreds of years of music history, a museum built by Mr. Giuliano Fogliarino, born in 1948, who patiently collected plenty of musical instruments.
“I started collecting musical instruments when I was 17”, explains Mr. Fogliarino “and I honestly don’t know what pushed me to do it. Imagine that sometimes I even wonder about it. I only know that I had a grandfather, who however I didn’t know, who was a music teacher. My father told me he was used to walk from Seborga to Vallebona with the lantern just to learn how to play music and come back when it was already dark. Maybe my love for music comes from great-grandfather”. Music is everything for Mr. Fogliarino: “Over the years I have collected 350 musical instruments of any kind, from violin to trumpet and accordion”, he explains “and some of them are really ancient. There is one dated back to 1610, which belonged to a teacher from Udine”.
Very important instruments that, thanks to the Seborga Municipality, which understood their artistic even before their commercial value, are now shielded in a room looking like a museum that can be visited on reservation by personally contacting Mr. Fogliarino.
“I am so proud and jealous of my instruments”, he states “that in the past someone asked me to bring them to Sanremo for an exhibition, but I refused. I’m a Seborga citizen and I want they remain here where I have always lived and where 43 years ago everything has begun. I am proud to tell my story to those who call me and show them my jewels, which form part of my life and, above all, gave a meaning to my life as a simple peasant”.
[Simona Maccaferri]
