That same urge led him to give all those who attended the conference held to mark his leaving the European Central Bank a small bookmark with a drawing by Goya of an old man with the motto “Aun aprendo”, or “still learning”.
The need to combine doing and understanding was strong for a young economist working in the research department of the Banca d’Italia at the end of the 1960s. The Bretton Woods system, which had given Italy a solid monetary framework, was starting to show the signs of wear, while the growth miracle of the Italian economy was approaching its limits.