Gino Paoli, Defining Voice of Italy’s Genoese Pop School, Dies at 91

Overview

• The family said Tuesday that Paoli died overnight in his native Genoa at age 91.
• He wrote Il cielo in una stanza and Sapore di sale, songs that became standards and were widely covered by artists such as Mina and Ornella Vanoni.
• He anchored the Genoese school with Fabrizio De André and Luigi Tenco, a circle that steered post‑war Italian pop toward poetic, inward-looking lyrics.
• He served in Italy’s Parliament for the Italian Communist Party from 1987 to 1992.
• In 1963 he survived a suicide attempt and lived with a bullet near his heart, a biographical marker often recalled in today’s obituaries and tributes.