One year on, the flame is still burning
August 26th 2026
One year has passed since we lost our founder, our teacher, and our dear friend, Pier Luigi Luisi.
A year is a long time, and yet, for those of us who knew Luigi and were part of the Cortona experience, his presence still feels remarkably close. It is there in the conversations that continue long after a lecture has ended, in the unexpected connections between people from completely different disciplines, in the music, in the laughter, in the moments of silence and reflection – and, above all, in the conviction that life cannot be understood by looking at its parts in isolation.
This was Luigi’s great gift to us.
In 1985, he created Cortona Week with an idea that was both simple and radical: bring together scientists, philosophers, artists, musicians, spiritual teachers, entrepreneurs and young people from different backgrounds, and give them the time and space to encounter one another. His purpose was not simply to transmit knowledge, but to encourage a deeper way of seeing – a systemic vision of life in which science and the humanities, reason and intuition, intellect and experience could meet.
For more than three decades, this experiment grew into a unique community. When the original institutional support came to an end, those who had experienced the magic of Cortona could not simply let it disappear. Cortona Friends was born from that determination, with Luigi himself at its heart, to carry the idea forward.
Today, we understand even more clearly why he felt this work was necessary.
The world has not become simpler. If anything, the challenges we face – environmental, technological, social, political and ethical – have become increasingly interconnected. They cannot be solved from within a single discipline or by technical expertise alone. They require dialogue, imagination, humility and the ability to see the whole.
They require the “Cortona’s spirit”.
Luigi often spoke of keeping the flame alive. It was never meant to be a flame preserved under glass, as a monument to the past. It was a living flame: something to be passed from one generation to the next, changed by every person who receives it, but never extinguished.
This is perhaps the greatest responsibility he has left us.
We remember Luigi not only by looking back at what he created, but by asking ourselves what we can create from it now.
The Cortona Friends Association continues to bring people together around the values that inspired him: interdisciplinarity, curiosity, ethics, tolerance, inner reflection, human dignity and a systemic understanding of life. We continue to believe that meaningful encounters can change people, and that changed people can change the world.
Our recent gathering in Borgo Cerrecchia, the Cortona Friends 2026 Midsummer Rendezvous, where friends from different generations and backgrounds came together to imagine the next chapter of Cortona, was in many ways a conversation with Luigi’s legacy. We spoke about the future, about Cortona 2.0, and about how his original vision might evolve for a new generation.
We know that the future of Cortona will not – and should not – look exactly like its past.
But we also know what must remain.
The openness.
The curiosity.
The courage to cross boundaries.
The joy of learning from one another.
The belief that science is part of a much larger human story.
And the conviction that, in a fragmented world, creating spaces for genuine human encounter is itself an act of hope.
So, one year after his passing, we do not want simply to say goodbye to Luigi.
We want to express our Gratefulness (thanks to Brother David for teaching us how important that is in our lives).
Thank you for having imagined a place that did not yet exist.
Thank you for insisting that different ways of knowing could sit at the same table.
Thank you for trusting generations of students, friends and colleagues with your vision.
And thank you for giving us something that is perhaps more precious than any institution: a community and an idea worth carrying forward.
We miss you, Luigi.
But when a conversation suddenly takes an unexpected turn, when someone from one discipline discovers a new way of looking at another, when music and science meet, when a young person asks a difficult question, or when a group of people sits together trying to understand the world as a whole – we feel that you are still somewhere in the room.
The journey continues.
The flame is still burning.
With love and gratitude,
The Cortona Friends Association