"Atmosphere, castanets and mantillas, Anema e core plays on the turntable, which the Spanish are very fond of. Among the Spanish, bullfighters are those who practice the most sports. Spain's riches are the arena and the sand: Torremolinos costs less than Gabicce, says my uncle Osvaldo. He, however, is convinced that Don Quixote is a priest and that sangria is made with all the fruit left over in the fridge".

Three sheets, each 30 lines by 61 characters, labeled La Repubblica Milan Newsroom, typed and corrected by hand, destined for L'Uomo Vogue, signed Gianni Mura. Period (I could investigate further) between 1981 and 1984, it hardly matters, because words so effervescent, so fragrant, so lively have neither date nor age. Mura composed on the keyboard of his Olivetti (though I've seen him working on a PC too) like Keith Jarrett on his Steinway & Sons, but also – here, for example – like Thelonious Monk.

"In Spain there are four sports dailies, in Italy three, in the USA and on the Trobriand Islands none (and indeed, they are very sporty countries). The sport of bulls is called bullfighting and frankly I hesitate to describe it, because many journalists, even freelancers, have already done so. I point out Hemingway and Garcia Lorca: the latter is the author of a good piece on the death of the bullfighter Ignacio Sanchez, but, perhaps because he was paid by the line, he goes to a new line too often and insists too much on the when (five in the afternoon, we've understood)".

To say that Wednesday, February 25, at 11:30 a.m., an hour now more suited to breakfast than to coffee, the Gianni Mura Sports Library is born: in Milan, at Via Confalonieri 3. And the inauguration opens four days of events, with meetings and dialogues, presentations and in-depth discussions, a fine way to show and demonstrate the connection between sport and all that is beautiful in culture, literature and, yes, in journalism.

"Bullfighters either die or become rich. No difference from the farm laborers of Capitanata or the fishermen of the Lofoten. Bulls either die or become fat. Bullfighters who become rich can even marry important actresses and have singer children, but it's not a rule. The bull is the symbol of Spain and also of a brandy. By replacing the bull with a mouse or a turkey, bullfights work less well and people don't have fun".

The list of guests is long, it begins with Mayor Beppe Sala and continues among authorities and patrons, including journalists and writers, I would like to mention at least Beppe Smorto, who recently published "The 4 Gianni" (Brera, Clerici, Minà and Mura) for publisher Minerva, and Emanuela Audisio, who dedicated pieces to Mura and the documentary Mura Am(o)ur full of affection and gratitude, and especially Paolo Maggioni, from Rai, who fought, not alone, tenaciously and valorously, to obtain doors and windows, walls and shelves, essays and manuals to be handed down to memory and dignity.

"Cyclists (and also corridors, really) have nothing to do with bullfighting: famous are the flea of the Pyrenees, Vicente Trueba, the eagle of Toledo, Federico Martin Bahamontes, and the watchmaker of Avila, Julio Jimenez: all climbers, very thin, ascetic. Spanish cyclists always say they wait for los puertos (the mountains) to unleash themselves, and those journalists who don't know Spanish write that they will attack in Genoa, Marseille, Le Havre".

Mura wrote mainly about football, he reserved the month of July for cycling (Tour de France), but he could write with class and wit, competence and intuition, even about rolls of toilet paper. And he did it this time too, starting from bulls and bullfighting to arrive at "Basque pelota, quite widespread in Milan (Via Palermo): there's the advantage of betting without being summoned by a magistrate".

NB: The photographic report by Silvano Ferrari dates back to a Tour de France, when Gianni Mura was interviewed by a Spanish TV: he was the only correspondent using an old portable typewriter and, afflicted by the oppressive heat and suffocating humidity of the press room, had moved outside