A renowned international award.
Senator Raffaele Lauro received a renowned international award. His political-institutional and literature biography has been published in English by the “D.A Dante Alighieri Nottingham Society”. His life is now part of the A-list of artists (poets, writers and composers) who have been inspired by Sorrento such as Torquato Tasso, Mary Shelley, Henrik Ibsen, Marion Crawford, Maxim Gorky, Giovanbattista De Curtis and Lucio Dalla.
Senator Raffaele Lauro
The Nottingham Dante Alighieri Society was formed in 1979 and promotes knowledge and appreciation of Italian life, language and culture. Raffaele Lauro is a Sorrento author and politician born in 1944. A prolific author and songwriter, he has also been an important political figure for more than 30 years. As a young man, he worked as a receptionist at a number of hotels along the Sorrento peninsula. After finishing school he went to the University of Naples where he was awarded degrees in Political Science, Law and Economics.
Lauro then won a scholarship from Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and studied at their diplomatic institute and then later in Paris. Afterwards, he studied for a degree in Journalism in Rome and became director of a scientific magazine.
He became a commentator on new technology for Il Tempo in Rome and Il Mattino in Naples and studied Film Directing while living in Rome, also teaching Law of Mass Communications at Rome University.
His political career
His political career began when he was elected as a Councillor for Sorrento in 1980. He went on to become Deputy Mayor and, as Councillor for finance, personnel and culture opened the Public Library of Sorrento and established a theatre school.
He moved to Rome in 1984 and has held a number of Government posts. In the general election of 2008, Lauro was appointed a Senator for the People of Freedom Party representing Campania. He was made a member of the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the Mafia and later became political advisor to the Minister of Economic Development, Claudio Scajola.
For more than 40 years, Lauro has worked as a freelance journalist, essayist, screenwriter, author and director. He has written about foreign affairs and politics, brought out works of fiction under the pseudonym Ralph Lorbeer and composed music. In January 2017, at the age of 73, Lauro published a song dedicated to the songwriter Lucio Dalla, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of his death. Lauro had previously written three books about Dalla.
