Antonio Tabucchi was an Italian writer and academic who taught Portuguese language and literature at the University of Siena, Italy. Deeply in love with Portugal, he was an expert, critic and translator of the works of Fernando Pessoa from whom he drew the conceptions of saudade, of fiction and of the heteronyms. Tabucchi was first introduced to Pessoa's works in the 1960s when attending the Sorbonne. He was so charmed that when he returned to Italy, he took an introductory course in Portuguese for a better comprehension of the poet.

The University of Siena in Siena, Tuscany, is the first publicly funded university as well as one of the oldest in Italy. Originally called Studium Senese, the institution was founded in 1240. It had around 16,000 students in 2022, which is nearly one-third of Siena's total population of around 53,000. Today, the University of Siena is best known for its schools of law, medicine, and economics and management.