In the winter of 1837, Countess San-Severino Porcia wrote from Paris
to her friend in Milan, the Countess Clara Maffei, that Balzac was
coming to her city, and suggested that she receive him in her salon.
This distinguished and cultured woman had visited the novelist in
Paris, and had been much surprised at the kind of home in which he was
living, how like a hermit he was secluded from the world and the
persecutions of his creditors; she was amazed when he received her in
his celebrated monastic role.

The Countess Maffei retained her title after her marriage (in 1832)
with the poet, Andrea Maffei, who was many years older than she. She
was a great friend of the Princess Belgiojoso, and during the stirring
times of 1848 the Princess had been a frequent visitor in her salon.
Six years younger than the Princess, the Countess threw herself heart
and soul into the political and literary life of Milan.

"For fifty-two consecutive years (1834-1886) her salon was the
rendezvous not merely of her compatriots but of intellectual
Europe. The list of celebrities who thronged her modest
drawing-room rivals that of Belgiojoso's Parisian salon, and
includes many of the same immortal names. Daniel Stern, Balzac,
Manzoni, Liszt, Verdi, and a score of others, are of international
fame; but the annuals of Italian patriotism, belles-lettres and
art teem with the names of men and women who, during that half
century of uninterrupted hospitality, sought guidance, inspiration
and intellectual entertainment among the politicians, poets,
musicians and wits who congregated round the hostess."[*]