Luca Goldoni, one of Italy's best-known writers and journalists, a champion of old-fashioned humor and winner of several awards, including the Libro d'Oro (“Golden Book”) for having exceeded three million copies, has died at 95. He was a byline for such newspapers as Corriere della Sera, QN, Il Resto del Carlino, Il Giorno, and La Nazione. He died at the hospice in Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna), where he had been hospitalized in recent days due to a sudden worsening of his condition. Born in Parma in 1928, it was at his hometown newspaper, La Gazzetta, that he began his journalistic profession. Among the many stories about him is a truly remarkable one. When, in 1968, he dictated his correspondence from Prague during the Soviet invasion Luca Goldoni chose to do so in the dialect of Parma. He did not intend to do it as a joke, but out of necessity: "The press halfway around the world," he once recalled, "crowded the hotels from which to phone in the articles. I soon noticed that as soon as I transmitted phrases unwelcome to the Russians, the phone cut off. A quick investigation revealed that each switchboard was manned by a polyglot Soviet detective. He also understood Italian perfectly and relentlessly censored every text". Hence the need to use dialect, suggested by senior colleague Egisto Corradi.
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