Cesare “Caesar” Cardini – restaurateur
Italian emigrant who invented Caesar salad
The restaurateur who history credits with inventing the Caesar salad was born on this day in 1896 in Baveno, a small town on the shore of Lake Maggiore. Cesare Cardini was one of a large family, with four brothers and two sisters. In common with many Italians in the early part of the 20th century, his brothers Nereo, Alessandro and Gaudenzio emigrated to the United States, hoping there would be more opportunities to make a living. Nereo is said to have opened a small hotel in Santa Cruz, California, south of San Francisco, while Alessandro and Guadenzio went to Mexico City. Cesare left Italy for America in 1913. Records indicate he disembarked at Ellis Island, New York on May 1, having endured the transatlantic voyage as a steerage passenger, sleeping in a cargo hold equipped with dozens of bunk beds, which was the cheapest way to travel but came with few comforts. He is thought then to have returned to Italy for a few years, working in restaurants in Milan, but ventured back to the United States in 1919. This time he settled, first in Sacramento, then in San Diego, on the Pacific Ocean and close to the border with Mexico. Read more…
_________________________________________________________________
Bettino Craxi - prime minister
The Socialist who broke the grip of the Christian Democrats
Bettino Craxi, the politician who in 1983 became the first member of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) to be appointed prime minister, was born on this day in 1934 in Milan. He was not the first socialist to hold the office - Ivanoe Bonomi had been prime minister for six months in 1920 on an Italian Reformist Socialist Party ticket and succeeded Marshal Pietro Badoglio as leader of the war-torn nation’s post-Mussolini government in 1944. However, Craxi broke the hold of the Christian Democrats, who had been in power continuously since the first postwar elections in 1946. Craxi was a moderniser who moved his party away from traditional forms of socialism in a way that was replicated elsewhere in Europe, such as in Britain under the New Labour prime minister Tony Blair. Craxi replaced the party’s hammer-and-sickle symbol with a red carnation. His reputation was ultimately wrecked by a corruption scandal, but during his tenure as prime minister, Italy became the fifth largest industrial nation and gained entry into the G7 Group. His fiscal policies saw him clash with the powerful trade unions over the abolition of the wage-price escalator. Read more…
________________________________________________________________
L’Orfeo – an early opera
The lasting appeal of Monteverdi’s first attempt at opera
L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, the earliest opera still being regularly staged, had its first performance on this day in 1607 in Mantua. Two letters, both dated 23 February, 1607, refer to the opera due to be performed the next day in the Ducal Palace as part of the annual carnival in Mantua in Lombardy. In one of them a palace official writes: ‘… it should be most unusual as all the actors are to sing their parts.’ Francesco Gonzaga, the brother of the Duke, wrote in a letter dated 1 March, 1607, that the performance had been to the ‘great satisfaction of all who heard it.’ L’Orfeo, or La favola d’Orfeo as it is sometimes called, is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus. It tells the story of the hero’s descent to Hades and his unsuccessful attempt to bring his dead bride, Eurydice, back to the living world. While it is recognised that L’Orfeo is not the first opera, it is the earliest opera that is still regularly performed in theatres today and it established the basic form that European opera was to take for the next 300 years. The composer, Claudio Monteverdi, was born in Cremona in Lombardy in 1567. Read more…
_________________________________________________________________
Sandro Pertini - popular president
Man of the people who fought Fascism
Sandro Pertini, the respected and well-liked socialist politician who served as Italy's President between 1978 and 1985, died on this day in 1990, aged 93. Pertini, a staunch opponent of Fascism who was twice imprisoned by Mussolini and again by the Nazis, passed away at the apartment near the Trevi Fountain in Rome that he shared with his wife, Carla. After his death was announced, a large crowd gathered in the street near his apartment, with some of his supporters in tears. Francesco Cossiga, who had succeeded him as President, visited the apartment to offer condolences to Pertini's widow, 30 years his junior. They had met towards the end of the Second World War, when they were both fighting with the Italian resistance movement. Pertini's popularity stemmed both from his strong sense of morality and his unwavering good humour. He had the charm and wit to win over most people he met and was blessed with the common touch. He would make a point whenever it was possible of appearing in person to greet parties of schoolchildren visiting the presidential palace, sometimes joined the staff for lunch and endeared himself to the nation with his passionate support for Italy's football team at the 1982 World Cup. Read more…
Home
