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Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (Alexandria of Egypt 1826 – Bellagio 1944) was a Futurist poet. In 1938 he was invited to visit the newly founded town of Torviscosa by Franco Marinotti, the true promoter of the industrial venture and town planning design of the new factory town. On one day, August 27th, the poet visited all the industrial sites and farming area, which he later praised in a long poem. As combative as all Futurist works, his verses extol the victory of Divine Geometry over the chaos of farmland, the taming of the giant cane to obtain cellulose. The title of the composition “The Poem Torre Viscosa” certainly inspired the final name assigned to the town. Marinetti had already been in this region as a soldier during the First World War. A groin wound caused him to be healed in the military hospital in Udine, where he received the visit of his fellow poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, with whom he later shared mixed feelings. During this short convalescence, he dictated to a fellow soldier, writer Bruno Corra, a leaflet about “How to seduce women”, his very first successful work.

Known here and then as new town, factory town, the town of autarchy and the town of cellulose, Torviscosa is in fact the result of a clever industrial venture developed starting from the 1930s with the consent of Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, but mainly under the leadership of Franco Marinotti, the CEO of SNIA and SACI (leading companies in the textile manufacturing sector) and the first mayor of the town. He was the most formidable communicator of Torviscosa, his own creation. The CID, an exhibition space and documentation centre about the industrial and urban development of the town, is an ideal starting point to visit the town and learn about a visionary project, which was later swept away by historic events and by the company’s bankruptcy.