Cities in literature: In Calvino’s Mind 

Location: Ottavia, Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino

Year: 2025

Research Project

Ottavia is an aerial city, suspended from a dense network of ropes, cables, and footbridges that connect houses, squares, and urban structures. Everything is hung, poised over the void, and its inhabitants live  suspended between sky and earth, inhabiting emptiness.
The city is not merely a fantastical image; it functions as a profound metaphor. It articulates the essence of the human condition, perpetually torn between the aspiration to stability and the factual experience of instability. The ropes that hold Ottavia together symbolize the invisible bonds that link individuals: fragile yet indispensable, a system in which equilibrium is possible only through cooperation.
Ottavia is, therefore, an impossible yet profoundly truthful city: an imaginary place that reflects our own reality, where dwelling is always an exercise in balance and in trust in others.