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The life of Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) crossed this territory several times. A friend to counts Kechler, whom he shared a passion for hunting and fishing with, the American writer was often welcomed as a guest in their family residences between Percoto di Pavia di Udine, San Martino di Codroipo and Fraforeano di Ronchis. The latter two are the background of the love story between colonel Courtwell and countess Renata in the book “Across the River and into the Trees”, actually the transposition of Hemingway’s affair with Adriana Ivancich, a young cousin of his Kechler friends he met in Latisana. The Ivancich villa, an admirable example of a Venetian residence, lies in San Michele al Tagliamento, in the province of Venice. The deep bond Hemingway nurtured with Friuli is explicated in a wish the main character of the novel makes, making clear reference to the Kechler villa in San Martino: “I'd like to be buried way out at the edge of the grounds, but in sight of the old graceful house and the tall, great trees. I don't think it would be much of a nuisance to them. I could be a part of the ground where the children play in the evenings, and in the mornings, maybe, they would still be training jumping horses and their hoofs would make the thudding on the turf, and trout would rise in the pool when there was a hatch of fly”. Alberto Kechler, the sponsor of a futuristic project to develop the new town of Lignano Pineta, took Hemingway to visit the site, which the writer defined “the Florida of Italy”.

The futuristic design of Lignano by architect Marcello d’Olivo caused ERNEST HEMINGWAY to compare the new town with Florida, the summer holiday paradise of the United States. The town has dedicated to him its public Park, with a permanent photographic exposition and writings about his life. The legend goes that in 1954 architect D’Olivo asked Hemingway to point to the map and promised to build a villa for him on the same spot. The writer never claimed the right and the villa was never built, but apparently the spot he pointed to was exactly where the park lies today. 

Giorgio Scerbanenco was born in Kiev in 1911, but was educated and lived in Italy, between Rome and Milan, where he collaborated as a journalist with the leading newspaper Correre della Sera and he gained a reputation as a writer of noir and detective stories. In 1965 he moved to Lignano Sabbiadoro, the seaside resort that is the background of his novels “La sabbia non ricorda” (1963) and “Né sempre, né mai” (1973), which he wrote at a table in the café Bar Gabbiano overlooking the sea. He died in Milan in 1969 of a serious disease.

The town library is custodian to the archives of writer GIORGIO SCERBANENCO, which were donated by his daughter Cecilia, a translator and editor of her father’s books, who still lives in Friuli.