An artichoke liqueur, an electric car sharing system, and some of the best artificial intelligence research centers in the world. It sounds like the story of three different entrepreneurs, doesn't it? Instead, it's the extraordinary story of one man: Angel From The Springs. The volcanic mind of this Venetian innovator spanned the twentieth century, constantly anticipating the times, from the economic boom of the 50s to the technologies that we consider revolutionary today. And yet, while everyone knows his Cynar, few know who this man really was, who deserves a place among the great Italian visionaries of the last century. Tireless, restless, capable of seeing beyond the horizon when others stopped at the starting line. And today we can learn more.
A podcast to rediscover Angelo Dalle Molle, an “Italian of the future”
"Angelo Dalle Molle – The Forgotten Genius” is the title of the new original podcast of Radio1 Rai, signed by Massimo Cerofolini directed by Leonardo Patane, available on RaiPlaysound. A precious work that finally brings to light the figure of an extraordinary man who for too long has remained in the folds of history, despite his inventions continuing to influence our daily lives.
“It is impressive, reading his biography, to note the caravan of missed opportunities due to the obtuseness of our political and business class, sitting on its small privileges, without the ability to look a little further ahead,” comments Massimo Cerofolini, journalist, screenwriter and radio host, author of the podcast and host of the show Age Beta on Radio1 Rai. I can only agree. What a treasure trove of experience do lives like that of Angelo Dalle Molle convey to us?
First of all, the North Star that inspired all his undertakings: the dignity of the person and his well-being first of all, before profit, before personal success. And then the intuition four decades in advance of the great fields of the future: health and quality of life, care of cities, sustainable and sharing-based transport models, not to mention research on artificial intelligence when everyone was moving away from it.
Imagine what Italy would be like today if it had followed the intuitions of Olivetti, with personal computers, and of Dalle Molle with machine learning and car sharing? We would be world leaders. And instead we are like sheep without a shepherd.
Massimo Cerofolini
Two reasons why this podcast is unmissable
First: brings together like few others two great cornerstones of Italian innovation of the last century. Great inventiveness and communication strategy, in Italy, are components of a natural DNA that from Olivetti to Piaggio, passing through other greats, has built a "creative empire" that is still in the collective imagination of the world today.
According to: manages to tell the complexity of a character who, like a modern Leonardo, jumped with ease from one field to another, always with astonishing results. A visionary entrepreneur born in 1908 and passed away in 2001, he remained almost invisible despite the enormous impact of his creations.
Just one of his inventions would be enough to guarantee him a place of honor in the collective memory; and yet, with an injustice that almost makes one angry, few know his name. For this reason I consider Cerofolini's podcast as a form of reparation, a tribute due to those who were able to see the "future of yesterday“: or, better, tomorrow decades in advance. But you, aside from everything else, did you know who Angelo Delle Molle is? I'll tell you something, you can listen to the rest.
The visionary who created Cynar
In the beating heart of the post-war years, the young Angelo abandons his studies to take over, together with his brothers, the Pezziol company, producer of spirits such as Vov. And it is here that his genius explodes: he launches theAvio Bar, a cargo plane transformed into a flying temple of taste to promote Italian excellence, a marketing idea that even today would drive any advertising agency crazy (including mine).
In 1948 Angelo undertook an undertaking that everyone deemed impossible: to create a liqueur with artichokes, a vegetable never before dared in the sector, chosen for its beneficial virtues.
This is the Angelo Dalle Molle who does not stop in front of the impossible: when everyone tells him that it is not possible to make an artichoke liqueur, he succeeds (after two years of experimentation). Cynar It was born like this, in 1950, and in just one year it sold two million bottles, becoming one of the symbols of the Italian economic boom.
The pioneer of electric mobility
Dalle Molle was not only a marketing genius (invested 15% of its turnover in promotion, an unthinkable percentage for the time), but also a visionary in completely different fields. He even tried to found a private television before Rai broadcasts, stopped only by a decree in 1952!
The real revolution came in 1976, when he patents the first electric car sharing system with exchange stations, charging stations and automatic vending machines. A project that materializes in Brussels but that, as often happens to visionaries, clashes with the bureaucracy and short-sightedness of Italian institutions. Today we talk about Tesla and sharing mobility as absolute novelties, Angelo Dalle Molle had already conceived them when many of us were not even born.
The Forgotten Father of Artificial Intelligence
In the 70s, when artificial intelligence was considered science fiction or at most a niche field, Angelo Dalle Molle creates three research institutes in Switzerland dedicated to AI. It does so precisely when the world is experiencing the so-called “winters of artificial intelligence”, periods in which public funding ceases due to the first, disappointing initial results.
Years later, in 1997, Business Week listed his Foundation among the five most influential AI research centers in the world, alongside landmarks such as MIT in Boston or the University of Berkeley.
I am particularly struck by this aspect of his personality: the ability to see beyond temporary difficulties, to invest in fields that everyone considered failures and that instead have turned out to be fundamental for our present. Consider that his institutes have contributed to the developments that led to the technologies that we use daily today, such as ChatGPT.
Angelo Dalle Molle, the man beyond the myth
The podcast also gives us a more intimate look at Angelo Dalle Molle: a complex, cultured man, gifted with subtle irony and a rather eventful private life (four parallel relationships and five children!). A character who in many ways resembles the aforementioned Adriano Oliveti: respectful of collaborators, promoter of creativity and individual dignity, always with the human being at the center of every innovation.
It made me smile to discover that this reserved genius, who changed three different sectors of the economy, married his long-time collaborator for the second time at 90. Further confirmation that he was never an ordinary man. The podcast uses precious interviews: from his nephew Anthony From The Springs to artificial intelligence experts such as Alexander Aresu e Nello Cristianini, up to the direct collaborators who lived his entrepreneurial adventure. A mosaic of voices that introduces us to a man who, as Cerofolini says, "knew how to wear the future like a tailored suit". And maybe, truth be told, he sewed it with his own hands.
"Angelo Dalle Molle – The Forgotten Genius” is a fascinating journey into the mind of an Italian visionary that deserves to be studied in schools.
The podcast is available for free on RaiPlaysound – find the link here: https://www.raiplaysound.it/programmi/angelodallemolle-ilgeniodimenticato.
Listen to it, it's really worth it. You'll discover that sometimes geniuses are not the ones who make the most noise, but the ones who silently build the future we live in today.
