Legendary Italian singer-songwriter Gino Paoli has died at the age of 91, his family said on Tuesday.
    "Gino left us last night, in peace and surrounded by the affection of his loved ones," the family said in a statement.
    The Genoa native was a key figure in the development of Italian music and wrote several of Italy's most beautiful pop songs.
    These include "Senza fine" (Without End, 1961), Mina's 1960s hit "Il Cielo in Una Stanza" (Heaven in a Room), "Che Cosa C'è" (What's Up, 1963), "Sapore di Sale" (Taste of Salt) and "Quattro Amici" (Four Friends, 1991).
    Paoli was a key figure in the Italian music scene, a man with a tormented and intense life who made a decisive contribution to the evolution of songwriting, and a rugged individualist who pioneered the definition of the singer-songwriter.
    He penned some of the most beautiful and famous songs ever written in our country: He was born in Monfalcone near Trieste on September 23, 1934, but lived in Genoa, his adopted birthplace, from a small child.
    The path that led him to success was the classic for the 1950s' would-be artists: a lazy student, passionate about painting and jazz, he preferred a cheap bohemian lifestyle, endless nights, and friends like Luigi Tenco, Bruno Lauzi, Umberto Bindi, Giorgio Calabrese, and the Reverberi brothers—in short, the founders of the "Genoese School" that, nourished by the songs of George Brassens and Jacques Brel, effectively founded the Italian songwriting movement.
    It was Gianfranco Reverberi who paved the way for him to Milan, where he came into contact with the music industry, as well as with Giorgio Gaber and Mina, who recorded "Il cielo in una stanza," his first huge hit.
    This success was repeated with another song, an almost jazzy three-quarter time signature: "Senza fine," performed by Ornella Vanoni, who at the time was still "the singer of the underworld" and who would go on to have a long relationship with him.
    The song went around the world, but more importantly, it marked the beginning of a lifelong partnership, celebrated a few decades later when, after a long period of crisis, Paoli and Vanoni toured together to resounding success.
    In the early 1960s, another of the songs that would define the history of music was released: "Sapore di sale," arranged by Ennio Morricone with the famous saxophone solo by Gato Barbieri.
    Shortky afterwards, already married, Paolo had a passionate love affair with Stefania Sandrelli, then a teenager, a relationship that resulted in the birth of Amanda.
    Then, on July 11, 1963, came an act that remains mysterious to this day: Paoli attempted suicide by shooting himself in the heart.
    However, the bullet missed any vital areas and remained lodged in the pericardium, from which it was never extracted.
    His period of greatest success didn't last too long: in the second half of the 1960s, he began a long period of professional and personal crisis, marked by alcohol and drug addiction, culminating in a horrific car accident.
    His return to prominence came in the 1980s, when he first recorded a beautiful tribute album to his friend the poet Piero Ciampi, "Ha tutte le carte in regola," and then, in 1985, he returned to the charts with "Una lunga storia d'amore." The following year, he released "Ti lascio una canzone," and then in the 1990s, "Quattro amici al bar." Throughout his career, he performed songs by Joan Manuel Serrat and Charles Aznavour, and was ever active as a songwriter, most recently writing "Come il sole all'improvviso" for Zucchero.
    In 1987, he was elected to parliament as a member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI).
    In the final years of his long career, he played alongside some of Italy's finest jazz musicians, most notably world-class pianist Danilo Rea, who accompanied him on his most recent tours.
    A reserved figure, reluctant to make media appearances, and a performer with a style that was anything but traditional, Gino Paoli remains one of the most beloved and prestigious figures in Italian songwriting, the author of songs that are part of Italian musical history.

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