Mad, bad and open to the public: the museum dedicated to Byron

A museum dedicated to the flamboyant British poet and satirist Lord Byron is due to open in the northern Italian city of Ravenna, in the same building where he pursued an intense affair with the wife of an aristocrat and completed some of his most famous works.

- Angela Giuffrida

Byron unabashedly moved in 1819 into Palazzo Guiccioli, owned by the husband of Countess Teresa Guiccioli, whom he met at a party in Venice.

The residence in the heart of the city has been restored by the Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna Foundation and from this Friday visitors will be able to wander through the rooms where the romance took place and where he completed masterpieces including Don Juan, Sardanapalus and The Prophecy of Dante.

One of the rooms contains tokens of love kept by the countess, including letters and locks of the poet's hair.