Italo Calvino (ˈiːtalo kalˈviːno) was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors

Our Ancestors

Our Ancestors is the name of Italo Calvino's "heraldic trilogy" that comprises The Cloven Viscount , The Baron in the Trees , and The Nonexistent Knight ....

 trilogy (1952–1959), the Cosmicomics

Cosmicomics

Cosmicomics is a book of short stories by Italo Calvino first published in Italian in 1965 and in English in 1968. Each story takes a scientific "fact" , and builds an imaginative story around it...

 collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities

Invisible Cities

Invisible Cities is a novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino. It was published in Italy in 1972 by Giulio Einaudi Editore.-Description:The book explores imagination and the imaginable through the descriptions of cities by an explorer, Marco Polo...

 (1972) and If on a winter's night a traveler

If on a winter's night a traveler

If on a winter's night a traveler is a 1979 novel by the Italian writer Italo Calvino. The narrative is about a reader trying to read a book called If on a winter's night a traveler. Every odd-numbered chapter is in the second person, and tells the reader what he is doing in preparation for...

 (1979).

Lionised in Britain and the United States, he was the most-translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death, and a noted contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Italo Calvino was born in Santiago de Las Vegas

Santiago de Las Vegas

Santiago de las Vegas is a city in Havana Province, Cuba, located south of Havana. As of the year 2000, the population was 22,000. The Cuban government maintains an agricultural experiment station, as well as a meteorology center in the city.-History:...

, a suburb of Havana

Havana

Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...

, Cuba in 1923.