Above: Schifanoia palace.
In Ferrara, my hometown, right in the heart of the historic centre, at number 23 of Via Scandiana, stands Palazzo Schifanoia. It was built in 1385 at the behest of Alberto V d’Este, and its name says it all: schivar la noia, “to escape boredom”. It was neither a seat of government nor a fortress, but a place designed for the rest and leisure of the court, a retreat where one could step away from affairs of state and devote oneself to what makes life more pleasant.
A few decades later, Borso d’Este enlarged it and had the Hall of the Months frescoed, one of the most extraordinary pictorial cycles of the Renaissance: twelve months in which everyday life, the gods of Olympus and the constellations of the zodiac intertwine. But the place I’m most fond of is another: the garden. Sitting at a café table, in the shade of centuries-old trees and surrounded by flowering plants, I always get the same feeling: the mind grows calm, and at the same time the urge to imagine and to build something comes alive.
I chose this name for three reasons.
The first is precisely that feeling. This blog, for me, is a space for otium in the Latin sense of the word: not idleness, but time taken away from obligations and devoted to what nourishes the mind, exactly as the palace was for the Este family.
The second is more personal. By day I work as an employee in the IT sector, among big data pipelines and corporate processes with very little creativity to them: my negotium, to stay on theme. Schifanoia is my breath of fresh air: the place where technology goes back to being curiosity, experimentation and, yes, fun as well.
The third, I’ll admit, is a not-so-brilliant pun: “Schifanoia” ends with IA, which is Italian for AI. A homemade AI, born to escape boredom.