Writer and journalist

Luigi Arnaldo Vassalli, called "Gandolin", was born in Sanremo on 30th October 1852.

Still very young, together with Vittorio Gaetano Grasso and Giacomo Dall'Orso, he gave life to the paper La maga, a republican and revolutionary paper, object of continuous censure. Before discovering himself as a journalist, he worked as a copyist, then as a clerk for a public prosecutor, then as a primary school teacher.

His first article, dated 1869, was published in "La Giovane Italia". For a few years he directed "L'avvenire", then, in 1877, when he returned to Genoa, he created "Mondo illustrato" for the publisher Ludovico Lavagnino.

Thanks to the Genoese newspaper "Caffaro", he started working as a reporter, and his pieces reached the Italian press in Argentina, Brazil and the United States.

In 1880 he moved to Rome to direct "Lo Squillo". Also in Rome he founded and directed "Capitan Fracassa (May 1880), Don Quixote della Mancha and Don Quixote di Roma".

In 1886 he founded "Il Pupazzetto", a monthly illustrated magazine in which  Vassallo signed himself with the pseudonym "Gandolin", that is vagabond. In this period he also published some collections of poems and various comedies.

In 1896 he took over the direction of the newspaper "Secolo XIX".

Wounded during a pistol duel for political differences between Garibaldi and Mazzini, he was saved by a miracle.

Vassalli also worked for the cinema: an Italy-France-Spain co-production for "Policarpo, writing officer" was born and he took care of the subject.
From his novel "La famiglia De Tappetti" of 1903 a film was made, in 1959.

It left an indelible mark on Italian journalism.

He died in Genoa on 10th August 1906.

(source : Marco Mauro: Based on a text by Michela Pisu)