MARIO MORELLINI

Author and Naturalist

Mario was born at home in Siena on December 30th 1959, in the Contrada of Leocorno.

Since a young age he shows an unquenchable passion for nature, more so than for his parents. He adores his maternal grandfather, to whom later on he will dedicate a philosophical book “Bestiarum genus” and another book derived from his grandfather’s  FirstWorld War diary. At the age of five, he runs away from kindergarden. In grammar school he has problems with an authoritarian teacher. When his mother and father split up, he goes to work for a long time with his father in a winery and livestock farm. He starts to cultivate a love for drawing, and at thirteen he wins his first prize for naturalistic drawing.

At eighteen he discovers and explores his first cave, and writes an article about it. He is the co-founder of a naturalistic oasis at the lake of Montepulciano, later acquired by Lipu (Italian Legue for Bird protection). He goes to college, but does not get a degree. He works as a fire fighter, studies zoology, learns to capture wild animals. When his father dies he sells the farm and becomes a naturalistic guide. He starts to teach in school as an external expert on environmental, artistic and scientific education. He holds courses for teachers and students of grammar school and high school. His workshops are about finding pathways within nature, life seen at the microscope, paleontology, experimental archaeology, stories and techniques of colours and painting, ancient crafts, chemistry, the periodic table… Looking at old documents he gets involved with another passion, calligraphy, which he then teaches.

He is not married and doesn’t use a computer. He respects inclinations but he does not bow. He is not an art expert but he loves art and practices in many of its forms. He does not know how to play music but he loves to listen to it. He writes on various magazines. At 45 he starts to write and publish limited editions of children books, bestiaries, and calligraphy books. He now lives teaching workshops at school, selling sculptures, staging exhibitions, building objects for museums and private collectors, and working as a naturalistic guide. He claims he is a good cook, but this does not speak in his favour.