A view of the statue of Caterina Campodonico in Staglieno Cemetery, Genoa.
Caterina Campodonico (Cattaini, in Genoese dialect), known as the Paesana and also the Nocciolaia, was a popular personage, well known in Genoa for attending the premieres of the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, guest of the composer in recognition that when Verdi was a student without resources, the Paesana used to give him chestnuts. It was dedicated to sell chestnuts and Canestrelli (a popular sweet). It is also famous for having been paid, with the fruit of his work, one of the most famous funeral sculptures, located in the monumental cemetery of Staglieno, sculpted by Lorenzo Orengo in 1881. At the time of his death he still had not satisfied the amount agreed with the sculptor, so that the remaining amount was completed by popular donations. In the epitaph located on the statue's pedestal you can read the following:
Selling trinkets in the Sanctuaries of Acquasanta, Garbo and San Cipriano, challenging the inclemency, I have procured the means to spend my old age and also those to immortalize me through this monument, which I Caterina Campodonico (called the "paesana" ) I made myself do while I was still alive
The work was imitated in other cemeteries. An example would be the statue of David Alleno in the Cemetery of the Recoleta of Buenos Aires.
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