ELSA SCHIAPARELLI/2

Elsa was the niece of Giovanni Schiaparelli, a renowned astronomer and director of the Brera observatory, who unwittingly started the legend of Martians on the planet Mars.

Ernesto Schiaparelli, an archeologist, directed theEgyptianMuseumofTorinofor many years. Her uncle Luigi Schiaparelli, a paleographer, established the Schiaparelli Foundation.

Instead Elsa Schiaparelli dreamt of becoming an actress, but she was unable to do so because of her aristocratic origins. So she decided to write and, at 21 years of age she published some poems which had a good circulation, even outside the country. If the public reacted well, the Schiaparelli family’s reaction was terrible, indeed for her father it was a veritable disgrace. Therefore “Schiap” (a nickname she was given inFrance, probably to simplify the pronunciation and which she immediately adopted) was sent to a convent in the German part ofSwitzerland.