Originally published in 1963, in Marcovaldo, character and setting weave together the plot of a circular book that unfolds around the changing seasons. Marcovaldo, a common worker, lives with his many children on the outskirts of a gray city, which is one of the colors Sanna uses to set the work. The other color, that vivid orange, springs from the gaze of the protagonist and from Calvino's writing; both are one and respond to the poetry rooted in details that redefine the unfavorable environment, transforming it into a feast for the senses and for life itself. The marks of nature are decisive for someone like Marcovaldo, who believes in a very different kind of progress than technological progress: a "subjective" progress in which seeing and looking converge.