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The 'master of the night' with an artist's soul: that's the best description of Mauro Donati. He has been the owner and managing director of one of the most famous discos in Tuscany for over 30 years. He has always followed his passion for painting, following his artistic vocation and the inspiration given from his home town Castiglioncello , home of many 'macchiaioli'. He was born in Rosignano in 1945. In the '60s he has gone to the Artistic School in Florence. One of his teachers convince the family that his artistic gift would be lost if he would follow the family business: a transport firm.
Florence is like a huge museum. He spends many days at the Uffizi to admire the masterpieces of the most important artists, trying to understand the secrets of their work.
After a few years he starts a new adventure. He decides to follow a woman to Paris.
From one city of art to the next one! In the bohemian Paris a painter has to do different jobs and count on the help of other artists who gather in the "La Palette" Cafè where who sold a painting pays the meal to a less fortunate colleague.
Being born by the sea he cannot leave without. He needs to see it, to feel its smell, to be hurt by the waves. That's why Mauro goes back home. Here he uses the experience matured in the french Cafès and venues. He runs a small beach-resort, a small disco in the basement of a hotel. At the beginning of the '70s he starts the "Ciucheba", an hystoric disco located in Castiglioncello.
Here come and perform actors, singers, show girls and some of his good friends who will become very famous and many others who want a spend a night "chez Mauro":Giorgio Ariani, Diego Abatantuono, Beppe Grillo, Roberto Benigni, Gianna Nannini,I Giancattivi, Renato Zero, Piero Ciampi, Teo Teocoli e Massimo Boldi, Gino Paoli and Bruno Lauzi, Lucio Dalla, Mara Venier, Alba Parietti, Corrado Tedeschi, Jerry Calà, Franco Oppini, Nini Salerno e Umberto Smaila, Ornella Vanoni, Renzo Montagnani, the Oscar winner Gabriele Salvatores, Giorgio Panariello, Leonardo Pieraccioni are some of the VIP's of the Ciucheba Among the usual guests there are alro the journalist Lello Bersani and painters like Safa from Turkey, Pierre Hamon from Belgium, Francesco Rubino from Verona, Franco Sumberaz and Mario Madiai from Livorno, Ernesto Portas from Spain.
In the meantime he gets married and has three chilren.
The first exibit in 1994 is held in Rovereto at the "Due Spine" Gallery, followed in 1995 by an exibit in Villa Falk in Innsbruck.
After having achieved the title of "Master of the Night" in a book dedicated to the best discos in Italy. At the end of the '90s he creates a new Ciucheba, twinned with the "Bain Douce" in Paris: the "Piccolo Ciucheba in Sardinia on the Emerald Cost. This soon becomes a new venue for actors and VIP's and painters like Filippo of Sambuj. At "Piccololo Ciucheba" there are lectures with Achille Bonito Oliva e long discussions about art. He helds new exibits in Poltu Quatu at the Melia Hotes and in 2004 at the Hotel Cala di Volpe in Porto Cervo.
Since a few years Mauro is a full time painter. At his house there are paintings everywhere waiting to be finished. Big and small canvases and drawings. Lots of colors which make him and his beloved happy. Often during a gathering with friends at night he stands up and says
"Sorry I have to go to work!"
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