Lionello Archetti Maestri

From January 1974 till June 2011 he was documentalist at the Public Library of Acqui Terme and from 1981, he is tourist guide for the Province of Alessandria. 

He is also member of several organisations: 
-He is a founding member of Italia Nostra - Section of Acqui Terme – Association for the safeguard of the country’s historic, artistic and natural heritage.
-He is president in prorogatio – section of Acqui Terme – covered the task of regional and national President; 
-Member of the FAI – Fondo Ambiente Italiano (National Trust) – founder and councillor for the first delegation, and a member of the national committee;
-Member of the International Institute of Studi Liguri – a member of the Directive Committee of the Statiella section Alessandria; 
-Founder- councillor for the Society of history, art and archaeology for the provinces of Alessandria and Asti.
-Promoter and founding member of Aquesana-cultural association of studies and researches of cultural and environmental heritage of the old and modern Aquesana – of which he was the President;
-Member of the Society of Valdese History; 
-Member of the Piemontese Society of Architecture and Fine Arts; 
-Member of the Scientific Committee of the Institute of History and Resistance and of the Contemporary Society of Alessandria; 
-Member of the Scientific Committee of the European Historic Thermal Towns Association – EHTTA; 

He is also lecturer at the University of the Third Age of Acqui Terme. 

He contributed towards the realisation of prestigious publications for: Italia Nostra, FAI, Aquesana and for the Int. Institute of Studi Liguri.

Date City Interventions Summary Media
2014-10-17 Acqui Terme Lionello Archetti Maestri -

The theme that I would like to talk about today is dedicated to the expressions that up until not long ago the local Acquesi people used to describe those who attended their thermae - “strangers” that before the wide spreading of <<amaro e reo caffè>> came and frequented Acqui.  

This isn't going to be a delightful list of satisfied customers that have faded away in our memories, but I want to bring back to life famous Mr nobodies: from Niccolò III d'Este, husband of the Parisian sung by Byron, to the anonymous rascal that found himself with a paralysed arm and hand caused by a lapidation, and in eight days was entirely cured. 

For a few moments, ladies and cavaliers will return to life, cardinals and simple sick people, along with animals like Bonifacio Paleologo's dog or those« horses and other creatures » that were submitted to purification « in the bath destined to that ».

I'll never forget humanists such as Betussi, soldiers like the Admiral greedy of salted focaccia, filled with Nutella. I'll remember with some chronological exceeding how up until the last century, there were the cocottes and the gigolò.

  The adventurer Celso Cesare Moreno, vizir of the sultanate of Sumatra, the melancholic and impoverished homosexual Maharaja, the spies, the solitary  vacations of Alice B. Toklas, the figures of the hôtellerie such as incomparable concierge Bussi, the capable administrator Ambrogio Michetti, the far-sighted businessperson Francesco Cirio and the recklessness of the calibre of Mosè Osmo Morris.

I cannot forget the doctors from Guainerio to Malacarne to the persecuted Professor Donati. The «Compagnia dei fangaroli» whose indispensable exponents before the first half of the 19th century « non diu vivunt » were due to constant jumping in the water to collect the mud. 

I'll reserve a moment– without confining in the domination of my friend Alessandro Martini – to all the architects that contributed in the course of the centuries to the shape of our ville d’eaux.