The moon, the small satellite that keeps the Earth company, has inspired legions of artists over the centuries: poets, painters, musicians. From Giacomo Leopardi, Charles Baudelaire, Federico García Lorca, George Gordon Byron to William Turner, Caspar David Friedrich, Vincent Van Gogh, René Magritte to Ludwig van Beethoven, Claude Debussy, Antonín Dvořák, Gabriel Fauré. How much we owe to the moon! Without it, our culture would surely be poorer. On 20 July 1969, mankind, who had always been fascinated by the earth's satellite, conquered it in turn ('one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind...' the chronicles report).