From Magna Graecia’s poleis, to the Roman urbes, from the medieval “Comuni” (city states) to Seafaring Republics”, from the Early modern ideal cities to the modern metropolis, Italian cities carry a tradition of their own uniqueness and marked identity. As repositories of memory they have always fascinated the gaze of artists, writers, filmmakers and cultural historians. This course will explore Italian cities in their “textual” complexity, rooted in landscapes, bodies, language and imagination. Turin, Trieste, Milan, Genoa, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples and Palermo will be the destinations of this “grand tour” into the Italian cityscapes, as they appear fictionalized in 20th century Italian literature and cinema. After investigating the city as a trope through the lens of Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities,” we will venture into the different narratives of these cities as seen through the eyes of high modern and contemporary writers, movie directors, painters and cartoonists, photographers and songwriters. We will analyze their own peculiar geographies of identity, linguistic enclaves, maps of inequalities, fabrics of memories. This class is conducted in Italian and the texts are read in the original.