Antonio Adriano (1944 - 2006)

Throughout the eighties Adriano deepened his studies and research on the issues dearest to him: the need to preserve and understand the deeper meanings of life in the farming world and the urgency to protect a territory and a landscape scarred and distorted with increasing violence . These are the years in which more and slashing his writings appear in newspapers, magazines or books written by many hands. In 1992 one of his many short stories Prize Cocito, which take place at the Alba (CN) and won the third prize. The title of the paper is the year 402 and tells of the battle fought at Pollenzo (CN), between the Romans and Visigoths. In 1997 he was a founding member of Cooperative Society Cornale Magliano Alfieri, which join about 80 small and medium enterprises, to promote and protect agriculture and to support native forms of exchange based on mutual trust between people.
In 2002 he was elected president of the producers to plant pear madernassa history. "The major fruit trees had to be perfectly aligned and symmetrical to each other, as ordered signs of a religion on earth. (...) Those who cultivate these plants has a strong connection with them, and this link is engaged in a tradition almost tribal village, where the plant is a point of aggregation and environmental recognition. " In 1999 the partnership between Antonio and the District of Adriano takes shape a new draft document is protected, the Museum of Tanaro. "(...) wants to be a museum of earth and water, a museum environment and landscape, material culture of man, his thoughts and his work. " The project, which will be entitled Theatre of the landscape, was launched in 2008. In 2000 she collaborated with the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin for a summer course on the chalk quarries, processing, ceilings. The acts that are being collected in the work De et gypso color bus, edited by Gian Luigi Nicola. Anthony will work with many primary and secondary schools will be teaching in Albese and refresher courses for teachers and tour assistance.
In the spring of 2004, along with some teachers of the Comprehensive Govone (CN), creates a comprehensive project, School of territory before going to New releases generations could communicate his message and his passion. In June 2006, gives the press his opera festivals in the moonlight - Albese danced and danced, after having planned and prepared over years of intense study and work. He has not seen published, unfortunately. Saturday, June 2, 2007 the City Council and the presidents of the associations Maglianesi awarded to Antonio Adriano Memorial Award, Friend of Magliano.

OTHER COLLABORATIONS

- Famija Albèisa, where he became an honorary member in1994 .
-Museo Eusebio Alba, the archeology section .
- Research Center Cesare Pavese, Santo Stefano Belbo (CN).
- Casa degli Alfieri. Archives of the popular drama , Castagnole Monferrato (AT).
- Università di Torino.
- Soprintendenza Archeologica di Torino.
- Centro Etnologico Canavesiano, Bajo Dora (TO).
-Centro di ricerca per il Teatro, Milano.
- Astisio, Art Association - cultural Roero .

WRITINGS OF ADRIAN ANTONIO

* Nuova Archeologia
in La Bilancia, Alba, 1971, n. 23.

* Le feste di primavera nelle Langhe e nel Monferrato
in La Bilancia, Alba, 1972, n. 11, 12, 13.

* Paesaggio e cultura ambientale
in Documenti di Italia Nostra, Alba, 1973, n. 1, p. 9.

* Tradizioni popolari delle Langhe
in Il Cantastorie, Reggio Emilia, dicembre 1973, n. 10/12, pp. 16-24.

Soffitti in gesso dell’Albese
ciclostilato edito a cura della Fiera Nazionale del Tartufo, Alba, 6-20 ottobre 1974.

* Centri storici minori e vita popolare
* I centri storici dell’Albese
in Documenti di Italia Nostra, 1975, n 2 pp. 59-60 e pp. 72-74.

* Giovanni Rava
in Tradizionalismo pittorico e decorazione – Mezzo secolo di pittura minore nell’Albese, Alba, 1975, pp. 5-6.

* Appunti per un dibattito sull’arte popolare
in Espressioni d’arte popolare nell’Albese, Alba, 1976, pp. 6-7.

* Gruppo Spontaneo Maglianese
in La cultura popolare in Piemonte, Torino, 1977, pp.27-33.

Feste calendari ali e canti popolari dell’Albese
libretto allegato al disco ALBATROS, V P A 8415, editoriale Sciascia, Milano, 1977.

* Lineamrnti dell’evoluzione storica del paesaggio agrario della collina delle Basse Langhe  
* La casa rurale lamorrese
in La Morra cultura e territorio, La Morra, 1978, pp.15-20 e pp. 215-238.

* Gruppo Spontaneo di Magliano Alfieri
in Folks – Fest, Bonn, 1979, pp. 77, 96, 98-103, 105.

* Il Carnevale nelle Langhe e nel Monferrato
in Verde, Torino, 1979, n. 1, pp. 29-35.

* Una festa popolare di primavera
in Verde, Torino, 1979, n.3, pp. 47-48.

* Museo rurale a Magliano Alfieri
in Verde, Torino, 1979, n. 4, pp. 46-47.

* Cultura dell’infanzia contadina
in Verde, Torino, 1979, n. 8, pp. 47-48.

* Per la salvaguardia del patrimonio artistico. Restaurata la cappella di San Giacomo a Magliano Alfieri
in Bollettino della Società degli Studi Storici Archeologici ed Artistici della Provincia di Cuneo, Cuneo, 1979, n. 81.

* Il legame culturale con la campagna
in Verde, Torino, 1980, n. 5.

* Ninna nanna nel mondo contadino
in Verde, Torino, 1980, n. 6.

* Giocare con le filastrocche
in Verde, Torino 1980, n. 7.

* Parchi naturali nell’Albese
* Considerazioni sull’archeologia nell’Albese
* Ricerche etnografiche per una storia della società contadina nell’Albese
in  Dieci anni di Italia Nostra nell’Albese, Alba, 1982, pp.51-60; pp.78-89; pp.105-110.

* Gruppo Spontaneo di Magliano Alfieri: fare cultura in una piccola comunità rurale
in  I musei contadini, a cura di Piercarlo Grimaldi, Cuneo, 1982.

* Canté i öv
* Canté mag
in La cultura del mondo popolare, Touring Club Italiano, Milano, 1983, pp. 16-17; p. 72.

* Federico Eusebio folclorista
in Alba Pompeia, Alba, 1983, n.2, pp. 16-18.

I canti di Maggio Nelle Langhe e nel Monferrato
pieghevole edito dalla Regione Piemonte, dalla Comunità montana Alta Langa, dal Comune e dalla Pro Loco di Bergolo (CN), 31 maggio 1986.

* Giovanni Rava
* Sport popolari e tradizioni
* Giuseppe Sappa, fotografo popolare tra le due guerre
in Gente di Magliano, Magliano Alfieri, 1986, pp.14-15; pp. 95-99; pp. 100-111.

* Erte  guazzose tenebre e Colline rosseggianti d’argilla- Magliano visto da Beppe Fenoglio
in Il monte dei sette castelli, Pro loco di Magliano Alfieri, 1989, pp. 31-32.

* Filatüra ‘d Val Fenera a j’è ‘d filere ‘n quantità
in La filatura di Valfenera, Alessandria, 1991, pp. 233-248.

* Magliano dalla preistoria alla romanità
in Le comunità parrocchiali di S. Andrea e S. Antonio, maggio-agosto 1994.

* Terre d'erba, di lune e di gesso...
inTerre d'erba, di lune e di gesso... (cartella di 12 stampe)
e in Questa terra è la mia terra (cartella di 16 stampe)
immagini di Antonio Adriano

* Arte e cultura del gesso: museo di Magliano Alfieri
* Le colline della fatica e della festa
in Langhe e Roero – Le colline della fatica e della festa, Torino, 1995.

* Il mondo tradizionale. Archeomitologia, storia, letteratura, folclore e cultura materiale
* La casa rurale
in Roero viaggio in una terra ritrovata, Bra, 1997, pp. 113-1.

* Il museo dei gessi a Magliano Alfieri
in Piemonte Langhe e Roero, Torino, 1998.

* Compagnie e confraternite. L’organizzazione religiosa popolare nell’antico mondo contadino.
(scritto con Renato Penna e Patrizio Porta) in Un Santo un Conte un Borgo. Trittico maglianese, Torino, 1998, pp. 215-226.

* Il Gruppo Spontaneo di Magliano Alfieri. Alla ricerca del folclore perduto
in Fantasie in gesso e stanze contadine, 1999.

* Gli intagliatori delle matrici lignee. Minüsié e mèistr da bòsch
in De Gypso et colori bus, Torino, 2002, pp. 28-33.

* I soffitti di gesso dell’Albese; storia di una ricerca sul campo
* Gli intagliatori delle matrici lignee, minüsié e mèistr da bòsch
* Dioniso nel Monferrato. Grappoli d’uva e festa galante nelle decorazioni dei soffitti di gesso
* Cave di gesso, loro peso economico
* Mezzi di trasporto del gesso: l’asino
* Cave e fornaci di gesso, notizie storiche
in Il Platano, Asti, 2002, pp. 155-205.

* Prefazione
in Il paese della musica. 1854 - 2004: i 150 anni della Banda di Magliano Alfieri, Alba, 2004, pp. 5-7.

Il Varej – Cronaca di una morte annunciata
ricerca in collaborazione con Olga Scarsi per il concorso “I tesori nascosti del Roero”, Canale (CN).

Il pilone desparecido
ricerca in collaborazione  con Olga Scarsi per il concorso “Iconografia popolare del Roero”, Canale (CN), maggio 2006.                

* L’orso di piume nelle Langhe e nel Roero
in Carnevale. Orsi di pelle, di paglia, di piume, di foglie, Grugliasco (TO), 2005.      

* Distruzione della memoria del paesaggio
in “Pagine del Cornale”, febbraio 2005.                  

Feste sotto la luna. Balli e Ballate dell’Albese, Torino, 2006.

 

WRITING ABOUT HIM

"Being at night, shone like solar character of a poem by Oreste Gallina. But as the drama" fresh "Fenoglio concealed confession of hard work, the carefree, I know Anthony has hidden behind the great talent of the ability to synthesize, the huge research work.. "
[ Giovanni Castella, Alba Pompeia, n.s., a. XXVI ]

«(…) I remember him especially because he has founded and led for years, the Volunteer Group of Magliano Alfieri. To him we owe the insight that he cleverly revived the traditional singing of begging for eggs “canté j euv”».
[ Carlin Petrini, La Stampa, 6 luglio 2006 ]

"I met him one Sunday afternoon in" his "castle, a Magliano Alfieri. Class 1944, around six feet tall, interesting face, modeled on the intensity of these hills and strains that still able to evoke. Striking, bright eyes and sincere, but important to dominate a nose kind. He has the air of one who believes in something noble. Her figure may have been carved in wood or molded into the tufa of this land (...). This big boy, not yet tired of the amazing and the world and the revelations of the valleys of hilly mix of mud, dirt, vines, reeds and feeling, is out of his deep voice, downstairs, all the love and passion for his land "
[ Walter Giuliano, Slow food, periodico d’informazione, luglio 2006 ]

"Very few, like him, were able to distance themselves from the prevailing mentality geared to the worship of money and consumerism: to thrill, to fill the sense of its seasons, are other dimensions of life, reading late into the night (in the first instead of "his" Pavese and Fenoglio), discussions with friends when combined with dialectical talent and taste for controversy, from the meticulous collection of archaeological finds, to the contemplation of the beautiful aspects of nature. While many speak of sobriety, he practiced seriously, dressing, eating, every choice in life. Who has had the good fortune to attend it closely could not help but appreciate the vast culture, youthful exuberance, the taste for beautiful things, the irrepressible love of life. "
[ Mauro Aimassi, Gazzetta d’Alba, 11 luglio 2006 ]

"The study room / library, highly original to the infinite variety of printed materials, is the physical projection of the stratification of knowledge of the landlord. Antonio has everything that made it special: it would seem trivial, but can not find another way to define his work that has ranged as vast territories in culture. He worked with me and other friends in the newspaper "La Balance": his writings could be defined thesis for the depth of content and annotations. Today I can say that I was leader and teacher in the knowledge of the territory '
[ Raul Molinari, Gazzetta d’Alba, 11 luglio 2006 ]

"His profile is certainly the forerunner of a rigorous and coherent research exciting, a champion of ideas to counter the assertion of neglected or disdained by many values, a sensitive and engaging" leader "for local initiatives. For us, our partners in Italy, his regret is deeply felt. "
[ Alessandro Marengo, presidente di “Italia Nostra” – Alba, Gazzetta d’Alba, 18 luglio 2006 ]

"It was back in" High Forest "Magliano Alfieri after walking all corners of the Langhe Roero and its highest at the end of years of teaching in Turin, the chair of the School of Agriculture and the beginning of the first Cravanzana cravings rebellion. In Bosco High, sound that reminds one of the most beautiful stories of Dino Buzzati, there was a poplar grove, fields of wheat and corn, a meadow because the land could breathe, and mulberry trees that tell stories from the world of the silkworm, been swallowed by time. And there was a small wooden hut, to be silent or talk with friends, sing the songs of "May" and "eggs" and together watch the arrival of spring, the first and last fog over snow Tanaro.
[ Luigi Sugliano, La Stampa, 23 settembre 2006 ]

"I want to remember, that does not remain in the background, another unusual aspect of his personality: a great public spirit" in all areas "(...). Antonio had the capacity to become indignant when people intensely, not only uncivilized pissing beer surplus against the door or the walls of the castle, but also, for example, before an act of vandalism against a traffic sign, or when he saw the Bealera waste, or when a car was performing at a high speed dangerously through the streets of Magliano, or when an elderly man was robbed (…)».
[ Cesare Giudice, Il Paese, Novembre – Dicembre 2006 ]

"A house of Antonio all emanated a deep sense of balance: the vegetable and animal world did not seem to struggle for mutual survival, but all lived in a climate of peace and harmony, according to the principle that" everything flows ". Even the big oak tree that stands like a pile of "May" in the middle of the court created a magical atmosphere for her hair purple and violet: the wisteria is grafted from the roots was devouring his living space and making her choke, but Antonio not if it was felt to voluntarily sever any of the two copies, so it was left to nature take its course and every time he admired the devastating natural union as an unusual spectacle. "
[ Olga Scarsi, Il Cantastorie, Gennaio – Giugno 2007 ]

"Antonio Adriano give us a big, busy and valuable material and immaterial heritage. On the one hand, a vast and valuable archives are his publications, the many and various research materials found on the lands of Langa and Roero, collections of songs, tales, legends, folk tales, stories of life. Extraordinary connoisseur and interpreter of the countryside, gave us a unique and irreplaceable photographic heritage, documenting a world that today no longer possible to comply completely distorted by industrial development and neorurale nothing compared to the traditional landscape (...). Antonio has made the earth to ripen the grain, when its apricots who know all the flavors of the world, are mature, when the bonfires are lit on the hills and the moons of the long summer holidays, and the song stretches out on the night Pavese hills free. So we want to remember Antonio Adriano, wild man of postmodernity last essay that goes in the time of the harvest. "
[ Piercarlo Grimaldi, Feste sotto la luna, luglio 2006, postfazione ]

"Among the many painful memories or reassuring us back to mind the question that made his friend Antonio Mauro, during one of the great passionate discussions on the subject, which gave him no peace, of good and evil, of pain that hurts the creatures and the promise of infinite calm, "But because the Lord has made us like angels?". ".


And now we hear his voice .  
By volume Feste sotto la luna – Balli e ballate dell’Albese, Torino, 2006.

"We were very young. I believe that never slept in that year. But I had a friend who slept even less than I [...]. ""In those days it was a continual feast. It was enough to leave home and cross the street to become like mad, and everything was so beautiful, especially at night, dead tired coming back again hoping for something to happen [...]. " These are the two opening words of the Devil respectively Pavese hills and beautiful summer, searing lyrics bursting with words of life and life expectancy for a group of young friends who, in the early sixties, were looking for ways and horizons in a small town in the hills of the Langhe and Roero.
It was then age, to put it again with Pavese, in which "listening to his friend as if we were talking about us. " That group, which later became the Volunteer Group of Magliano Alfieri, revived from the first field of begging for eggs in March 1965, could not and did not want to forget the images, landscapes, stories, songs, fantasies and holidays from the past. It was a history learned as children from talking during the games and the old fellow with the farmyards and fields, in an age where the words of adults are strong imprint in the brain and the paths and the ground trampled with bare feet leave tracks mental and visual effective return over time. It was the story of the ancestors who, after Zappata Zappata, harvest after harvest, they built the world we had seen born and grow up. A world that is rapidly losing its characteristics and its ancient soul.
    We were only the beginning of the Group, as the song says to Paul, "four friends at the bar, who wanted to change the world '(friends, for the record, were Antonio Adriano, Renato Castello, Teresa Sappa, Felice and Frank Torchio Traversa). Then s' began, often at night wandering the paths of the hills, to reflect on the changes taking place in the countryside reduced to wreck the old world peasant, while begging for new cultural patterns created snags and environmental imbalances, which still feel the harmful consequences. Everything that belonged to the folk tradition had to be canceled as a symbol, for many, moral and material misery. In those years, a relentless cultural colonialism was scorched earth. The popular architecture of rural villages was disrupted. In a few years, absurd colored roofs, tiles from public urinal, from the candy colors and shapes schizoid (all wrapped in a dress worthy of tar and pale neon light) gave rise to that construction harlequinade, improvised from a small welfare bourgeois culture and a provincial sordidly, which offends so hopeless now most of our campaigns. The group Maglianesi, who lived the daily life of the village, felt this as a shock and felt rather "the ancient voice 'as a flow of sap still viable, which could not be broken with impunity. In those years a world holiday disappeared. Languished its festivities, processions and sacred rites profane. I remember growing melancholy, old farmers wait in vain for the farmyards, a carnival, the passage of even one lost form. The oldest community celebrations were made to be expected. Their arrival was not experienced by many as a sign of insecurity and spiritual agony. The ethos of the traditional culture el'epos shipwreck as scattered among the wreckage of a scale development ruffled and soulless. Of course, that world was bound to change. Closures, poverty and violence for a long time had a little 'corroded from the inside and made it weak against the powers. Just think of the rural fascist, which proposed a myth is not true, "mechanized", to use an illuminating expression of Karoly Kerényi. We all know how thick the names of our farmers the gravestones memorials: people sent to the slaughterhouse, to make red blood lands from which our fathers did not even know existed. In considering these facts there was in us a deep split between old and new, ancient and modern. To make it more acute emotional reading Pavese contributed to our youth.Emerged in those meditations contrast city - country and even more the myth of the party, which seemed to get lost with the extinction of non-responders more bonfires of ancient agrarian rites. After all, our usual top of the hill was a long and protracted wakefulness waiting for a festive event, but it seemed unattainable in a world that is free and desecrated "the collective value of the great symbols. " (F. Jesi). Langhetto many pages of the writer revealed the bitter aftertaste of the inability of the party and the modern myth. Already in the short novel The Beach, friends urbanized returning to their countries of origin for a party under the "moon [that] everything wet, from the big hills, " can not find in the nighttime ritual chant. "As a garden of the Hesperides - F. Jesi says - which can no longer return in victory, the campaign apparently kept intact in its iconography entire repertoire of images that symbolically allude to the mysteries of the ancient festival. "
The three young protagonists Friend of the Devil hills, are able to live a moment of ancient and festive reality closer to the countryside and nature. During the memorable visit to cousins Mombello meet for a moment the true time of origin. In the hour take grapes intact purified water of the well, drink wine that gives primordial innocence in a cave-temple. "But they can not - says F. Jesi - steal the treasure and should leave with regret. " "We set out in the moonlight, in the cool of the evening. Sorry to leave this island, that immense country red [...]. She was beautiful the moon, white and yellow in the evening, and I began to think of his country within the immense night, on land, on the hedges. " The lunar reference Leopardi, very frequent in Pavese, almost introduces some of the intent of the parties revived calendrical Volunteer Group and stressed its widely ecological aspects.
The begging of the eggs, which took place and still takes place in long walks at night, sees the protagonist on the round moon face of the principle of celestial spring. In our wanderings we also wanted to find the 'white', 'tacit' moon Leopardi exploring the countryside and the "Cyprian light companion on the street, " and many other moons Leopardian. In light of these sometimes poet from Recanati still manages to feel "a certain revival [...] in the midst of the delights of the countryside, " as you can see this in his letter of March 6, 1820. "[...] and a few nights ago, before going to bed, open the window of my room, and seeing a pure sky and a beautiful moonlight, and feeling warm air and some dogs barking from far away, I woke up some ancient images, and I thought I heard a movement in the heart, so I began to scream like a madman, asking mercy of nature, whose voice I seemed to hear in a long time. " These words, though no sound of a song lontanante that it is saved in other pages Leopardian, could be used for vacation time and atmosphere, as high and great introduction to the feeling of our resumption of the spring ritual of begging. The song has verses of the eggs of pregnant lunar beauty.
When the group Maglianesi resumed in May 1972, the Cantar celebrating the triumph of spring, well received, in addition to socializing the sense pleasures, the ancient spirits of the sacred life-giving season. They had strong rural roots, but also prominent cultural influences, starting at least from the troubadour lyric and clearly outline in Petrarch, Botticelli, Poliziano and again in Leopard, with its poignant nostalgia of "old stories":

« You live, live, or holy
Natur a? […]
[……………………]
Lived flowers and herbs,
They lived in the woods an day»

The "woods and forests, the poet says administering endless poetic material. " "What a great time was one in which everything was live according to the human imagination [...] when in the woods [...] is judged by some that live in the beautiful hamadryad and fauns and Bread [...]. And clutching a tree breast you almost felt the throb in his hands [...]. " Even these thoughts gave meaning and depth to the attempts of young Maglianesi to regain possession of the old parties during the economic boom years of distorted. Then the brute matter seemed to erase any poetic and spiritual dimension of life. This was our Sixty-eight. The Action Group, which also tried to save trees, monuments, trails and woods, seemed to many almost subversive and more of an 'authority' tried to counter those efforts.
"A living thing can not be known who was alive, " wrote Kerényi about the party. This formula was unknown when (December 1973) declared in a speech on our Storyteller Giorgio Vezzosi, who was "the need to feel alive to push [the re-proposed] field [of] ancient and genuine holiday, such as spring songs ritual of begging for eggs and May Day. " But tout se tien. It was really vital for us then hear, almost in the manner of Galileo, the size of plants. Evangelista Torricelli writes "wonderful disciple of Galileo": "appear the days of spring [...]. Each flower opens on the grass, every plant that grows green in the woods, there are many mouths and many languages, with which speaking, the matter created shows his inner inclination. " Relationship between nature and therefore humanitas.
Look for the old paths celebrations procession was for us a look back on the trail of the ancestors. Tap shoes with the land of their fathers was to find "wanderers" ("How many roads must a man walk down before they can call this man", then sang Bob Dylan), a place originally lost, and stripping of the anonymous dell'inautentico. In our wanderings, profiles of trees and hills, night-sensations in the eyes of cats love moon lit, screeching birds, scents of the awakening earth ed'erba came into us with new sensations, in spite of all the land could still unravel memory throbbing and truth. It could also be the humblest of flowers seen on the trails in a matter of surprise, "It was nice to see some flowers minutes, sods on the untrimmed vine, to recover that the sun stood already frail, miraculous. The blood of the land was often capable of this too. "writes Pavese hills in the Devil. The flowers are certainly alluded to what we call "eyes of the Madonna", tiny signs of life but intense, blue eyes of the world.
   And finally, here the party: small valleys bathed in moonlight, resonant songs of greeting. Laughter and dancing and merry voices welcoming the farmyards of begging. Here's an old master of the house feel festive touch the blood part. He joins the chorus of the brigade. Sing treble, but with a voice that comes from deep, gushing like a thousand layers of memories, a thousand lost youth and then happily and unexpectedly found. And last of all the gifts, food and wine, perfumes and flavors and then revealed the first secret to the small community of beggars. And yet the strength of the party leaves great memories. One of these is one of our songs to Balluri Neive, some twenty years ago.
And 'one o'clock at night. The group Maglianesi proceed on the highway looking for the latest homes hospitable. Suddenly we see a shadow out of a nut-side. A man stops us to talk. He says that the house on the hill behind the hazel is a sick old man, recently arrived from the hospital to die in his bed. He probably still a month to live. It is shaken from sleep hearing the sounds of festive music coming up the valley. Before his death wishes once again to hear sing the eggs. We go to the house silently, pricked, as if to celebrate a rite of vital importance that stands between life and death.   
    The old window is the top floor, lit by the dim light of his room. It 's a man, though sick, tall and straight, almost hieratic in its sharp silhouette. On the shoulders of the jacket has the "garments" of the party and head into the black Borsalino peasants of the patriarchs. The moon is full, the farm has white walls. There is a surreal light, from the realm of shadows. The boys moved the barnyard sing, almost subdued but tense voice farewell tribute to the fathers and builders of worlds, "that as the debris of the mountain are in the bottom of us" (R. M. Rilke, III Elegia Duinese).

Hear the parties under the moon

Antonio Adriano was born in Magliano Alfieri (CN) 5 April 1944, to a peasant family.
He graduated from the Civico Istituto Magistrale Elvio Pertinace di Alba (CN)
Attended the Faculty of Education in Turin, passes all the tests, preparing the thesis, but did not graduate. In the same years as an assistant at the University College-School of Agriculture of boarding Cravanzana (CN). Then the turning point back to be a farmer in Magliano and says of himself: "I am a bit 'anarchist. This nature are derived from my choice of freedom and with them the need to do some 'poor but decent life in the country. Now I manage the farm "archaic", composed of wood, the grove, by the cultivation of wheat and corn, fruit trees and a lawn that I left only because its presence has an ecological significance (...). " Since that time started with a small group of friends, the first experimental archaeological excavations. The fruit of those researches, Roman coins and fragments, but also prehistoric pottery and stone, after an initial inventory, is now housed in a room in the Castle of Magliano.

Gives life, with a dozen young people at the Volunteer Group of Magliano Alfieri that will bring in the squares, theaters and libraries in Italy and elsewhere, the songs collected from the farmers of the Langhe and Roero. Bring together in the farmyards of our villages begging songs of spring. "Look for the old paths celebrations procession was for us a look back on the trail of the ancestors. Tap shoes with the land of their fathers was to find "wanderers" ("How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man", then sang Bob Dylan), a place originally lost, and stripping of the anonymous dell'inautentico "

In 1971 he started a collaboration with the Truffle Fair in Alba, dealing with ethnographic and archaeological-ethnological themes.
In 1972 he was a founding member of the Chamber of Albese Our Italy, where he was vice president until 1977. Since those years pursuing a project that provides for the protection of the Castle in Magliano Alfieri, where you can create a documentation center on rural culture. In 1976 he founded, together with some friends, the Public Library of Magliano Alfieri. Begin actively working between Antonio Adriano, the municipality of Magliano Alfieri, The Ministry for Culture and Environment, the Superintendency for the Environmental and Architectural Heritage of Piedmont, the Department of Culture of the Piedmont Region and the National Museum of Arts and Popular Traditions of Rome for the Museum of plaster ceilings.

The museum will be inaugurated in 1994 and Antonio Adriano was to be its director until July 2006 (date of his departure).
In July 2008, the municipality of Magliano Alfieri titled the Museum to its director: ADRIANO ANTONIO MUNICIPAL MUSEUM - THE ARTS AND POPULAR TRADITIONS - THE CULTURE OF PLASTER.

Castello di Magliano Alfieri, living Coat of Arms, July 1994.
Opening ceremony of the Museum of plaster ceilings .
At the center Antonio Adriano, to the right Luca Cannes e Giulia Carpignano;
to the left Giovanna Galante Garrone, Carlo Sacchetto, Flavia Vacchero e Mirella Macera

ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE " AMICI DEL CASTELLO ALFIERI "
Iscritta al Registro  regionale delle  organizzazioni  di  volontariato  nel  settore:  tutela e valorizzazione del  patrimonio  storico  e  artistico  Costituita  il  26/10/1991
Codice  fiscale: 90017150047 sede legale: castello Alfieri di Magliano - sede operativa: via 4 novembre 10 - 12050 Magliano Alfieri (CN)
Tel.  335 5652312     -      fax 0173 50753