Giuseppe Gibilisco - pole vaulter

World champion who later faced doping ban

Giuseppe Gibilisco, world champion in 2003, is
the most successful pole vaulter in Italian history

Italy’s most successful pole vaulter, the Sicilian Giuseppe Gibilisco, was born on this day in 1979 in Siracusa (Syracuse), the historic city in the southeast of the island.

Generally known as Peppe, Gibilisco won the gold medal at the 2003 World championships in Paris and followed this with a bronze at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

His personal best of 5.90m (19ft 4ins), which clinched gold in Paris, remains the Italian record.

Before Gibilisco, only two Italian pole vaulters had won major international medals - Aldo Righi, who took the bronze at the 1969 European championships, and Renato Dionisi, bronze medallist at the 1971 European championships and European indoor champion in 1973.

Later in his competitive career, Gibilisco changed to an entirely different athletic discipline, taking up bobsleigh, in which he became accomplished enough to compete in the 2017 World championship as brakeman in the four-man event, although without winning a medal.

Since retiring from sport, Gibilisco has become prominent in local politics in his home town, recently appointed chief of staff for the city of Siracusa, following a successful stint as councillor for sport and municipal police.

In 2024, he won many admirers for his frank confession that he suffered depression and contemplated suicide after being handed a two-year ban from competition in 2007 over his links to the disgraced former sports doctor Carlo Santuccione, who was banned for life over his alleged role in supplying athletes with the performance-enhancing hormone, EPO. 

Gibilisco fought successfully to have his suspension
overturned but his career suffered nonetheless

Gibilisco’s suspension was overturned on appeal on the basis that he had never tested positive for any banned substance. But the process took a toll on him mentally and financially, not only costing him vital sponsorship deals but requiring him to sell personal possessions, including his car, to pay for a defence lawyer.

In an interview with sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport, Gibilisco - an officer with the Guardia di Finanza law enforcement agency - admitted that at one stage, with only 43 euros in his bank account, he held his service pistol in his hand and thought about using it on himself.

In another part of the interview, he reflected that had it not been for his prowess in sport he would probably have been drawn into a life on the other side of the law, having followed “a bad path” as an adolescent. The ban made him feel that sport, having perhaps saved his life then, was now taking it away.

An outstanding pole vaulter as a junior, Gibilisco was Italian Under-18 champion as a 16-year-old, prompting his coach in Siracusa, Silvio Lentini, to encourage him to leave home a year later.

Lentini thought he would benefit from basing himself at Formia, the resort on the Lazio coastline 90km (54 miles) north of Naples, in order to work with Vitaliy Petrov, the Ukrainian who had coached his countryman, Sergey Bubka, to Olympic gold at Seoul in 1988 as well as six consecutive world pole vault titles.

Gibilisco is an influential figure
in his home city of Siracusa

Within a year of coming under Petrov’s wing, Gibilisco had won a bronze at the World junior championships, before making his Olympic debut in Sydney in 2000, where he finished tenth but improved his personal best to 5.70m.

An injury in 2001 set him back, but he returned to form strongly at the start of the 2003 season. He broke the Italian national record twice in the space of half an hour, clearing 5.77m and then 5.82m in finishing second at the Rome Golden League meeting in July, celebrating with a lap of the Stadio Olimpico on the Honda motorcycle on which Valentino Rossi had won his own world title.  

At the World championships in Paris a month later, he failed his first two tries at 5.75m, but gambled with his remaining attempt by trying 5.80m, which he successfully cleared. 

Inspired by that success, he went on to vault 5.85m and then 5.90m, which rivals Okkert Brits, the South African, and Patrick Kristiansson, from Sweden, were unable to match.

Gibilisco’s success continued with bronze at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and a victory in his event at the 2005 European Cup in Florence.

The doping ban and his subsequent fight to have it nullified cost him almost a year out of competition arguably at the peak of his career, after which he was unable to reach the level of his pre-suspension form, although he did win gold at the Mediterranean Games in 2013, before retiring from competition the following year.

After taking part in the 2016-17 bobsleigh season, he retired definitively from competitive sport, continuing his career with the Guardia di Finanza and entering local politics in 2023. 

He was appointed head of the cabinet in the Siracusa municipal authority in November 2025, having previously supervised a number of successful projects to improve sports facilities in the city in his former role.

Siracusa's Duomo, on the island of Ortigia, is 
a fine example of Sicilian Baroque architecture 

Travel tip:

Siracusa, often called Syracuse, is a city on the Ionian coast of Sicily. It is steeped in history, being particularly well known for its ancient ruins, notably the Neapolis Archaeological Park, which comprises the Roman Amphitheatre, the Teatro Greco and the Orecchio di Dionisio, a limestone cave shaped like a human ear. The city is the birthplace of the Ancient Greek polymath, Archimedes, born in 287BC. The fourth largest city in Sicily, after Palermo, Catania and Messina with a population of 115,636, it was the island’s capital for several hundred years until the Muslim invasion of 878. During the Spanish era, it was transformed into a fortress, with its historic centre, on the island of Ortigia, rebuilt in the style that became known as Sicilian Baroque, following the devastating earthquake of 1693 that destroyed much of the southeast of the island. The best examples can be found around the Piazza Duomo, notably the Duomo itself, with a facade by Andrea Palma, whose combination of columns, niches, and statues is a classic example of Sicilian Baroque exuberance. Its neighbours include the Chiesa di Santa Lucia alla Badia and the Palazzo Beneventano del Bosco.  Siracusa is also home to Caravaggio’s painting, the Burial of St Lucy - Seppellimento di Santa Lucia - which can still be seen, free of charge, in the Santuario di Santa Lucia al Sepolcro, in the more modern part of the city.

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The Tomba di Cicerone is one of the
attractions for visitors to Formia 

Travel tip:

Situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea coast between Rome and Naples, in Lazio but close to the border with Campania, Formia is a port town that was a popular resort with the wealthy of Imperial Rome. One of its major attractions is the Tomba di Cicerone, a Roman mausoleum just outside the town which is said to have been built for the great Roman orator Cicero, who was reportedly assassinated on the Appian Way outside the town in 43 BC. Formia is also home to the Cisternone Romano, an underground reservoir built by the Romans. testament to Roman ingenuity.  Other remains include the towers of the forts of Mola and Castellone, once two neighbouring villages. The generally modern feel of much of the resort and harbour today is down to its necessary reconstruction following a bombardment suffered during the Second World War, when Formia was a point on the German army’s Gustav Line and suffered heavy damage during the Allied invasion.

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More reading:

Sara Simeoni, Italy’s gold-medal winning Olympic high jumper

Eugenio Monti, double Olympic bobsleigh champion

Emilio Lunghi, winner of Italy’s historic first Olympic medal

Also on this day:

1905: The birth of physician and Mafia boss Michele Navarra

1919: The birth of flautist Severino Gazzelloni

1948: The birth of anti-Mafia activist Giuseppe Impastato

2016: The death of novelist and semiotician Umberto Eco

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Antonella Bellutti - cycling champion

Versatile athlete who excelled in several sports

Antonella Bellutti celebrates after winning her
second Olympic Gold medal in Sydney in 2000

Olympic cycling champion Antonella Bellutti, one of Italy’s most versatile and pioneering athletes, was born on this day in 1968 in Bolzano, the principal city of Trentino-Alto Adige, also known as Südtirol.

At the peak of her track cycling career, Bellutti won Olympic gold medals in the individual pursuit at the Atlanta Games of 1996 and in the points race at the Sydney Games four years later.  She was also a medallist in pursuit at the 1996 and 1995 world championships and won gold in the omnium at the 1998 European championships in Berlin.

Yet her cycling career may well not have happened but for a knee injury that curtailed her career as a track and field athlete. As a teenager, she had excelled as a hurdler and in combined events such as heptathlon, winning seven youth titles and setting the Italian junior record at 100m hurdles.

She was preparing to make her Olympic hurdling debut in Barcelona in 1992 when the injury occurred. She took up cycling as part of what initially began as a rehabilitation process. In the event was never able to resume her career as a track athlete, yet revealed such talent on wheels that it opened a path to a whole new career.

As further evidence of Bellutti’s all-round sporting prowess, since retiring from competition as a cyclist she has returned to Olympic competition in bobsleigh, agreeing to be brakewoman to former luge gold medallist Gerda Weissensteiner - another native of Bolzano - as they finished seventh in the women’s two-man bob at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

Unlike many athletes, Bellutti did not emerge from a sporting family. Her father had been a factory worker whose passion was organ music and while her brother was a cyclist and her sister played basketball, neither continued beyond their teenage years. It was a gym teacher at elementary school who noticed in her a natural athleticism and introduced her to her first coach.

At Salt Lake City, Bellutti teamed up
with Gerda Weissensteiner in the bob

After her success as a junior, the injury to her knee - a persistent pain and weakness even after being treated for a suspected cyst - came as a blow. Yet cycling came as naturally to her as running and jumping. By chance, out on a recreational ride, she overtook two executives from a local cycling club in Bolzano, who then pursued her until she stopped at a drinking fountain and invited her to join.

Her rise in cycling was meteoric. Just four years after taking up the sport, she won a silver medal in the individual pursuit at the 1995 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Bogotá.  She followed this with a bronze medal in the same event at the 1996 World Championships in Manchester. 

The key to reaching the next level was her decision to adopted the so-called “Superman” riding position pioneered by the Scottish cyclist  Graeme Obree, which allowed for greater aerodynamic efficiency and helped her break the world record twice in the lead-up to the 1996 Olympics.

In 1996 in Atlanta, Bellutti delivered a commanding performance in the individual pursuit, winning gold and becoming the first Italian woman to do so in track cycling.

Four years later, at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she returned to the velodrome and added a second Olympic gold, this time in the points race.

Antonella Bellutti has become
an advocate of the vegan lifestyle 

Beyond the Olympics. Bellutti won 13 World Cup races, 16 Italian national titles, and a European Championship gold in 1997. 

Since retiring from competition, Bellutti has remained deeply involved in sport. She served on the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) from 2000 to 2004 and was Technical Director of Italy’s national track cycling teams from 2002 to 2003. 

She has also worked in sports education and sports journalism, writing a column for the Gazzettino di Venezia for six years and often contributing to TV and radio broadcasts.  She published a book, La vita è come andare in bicicletta - Life is like riding a bicycle - in 2017, which among other things outlined her reasons for taking up a vegan diet. 

For a while, she ran a bed-and-breakfast offering a vegan menu in Andogno, a tiny hamlet of the municipality of San Lorenzo Dorsino in the Adamello Brenta Natural Park, about 30km (19 miles) west of Trento and 30km north of Riva del Garda.

The business was opened after Bellutti had restored a former inn she had inherited from her great-grandparents. Unfortunately, it was forced to close because of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Today, Bellutti lives in Rovereto, in another part of the Trentino-Alto Adige region, and continues to inspire as a speaker, consultant, and advocate for equality in sport. She has taken a strong position in her opposition to doping in sport and has also spoken about depression among athletes and former athletes, having herself faced some mental health challenges following retirement. 

She still leads an active lifestyle, listing cycling, running, mountain climbing and alpine skiing among her activities, yet participates now solely for enjoyment rather than to compete. 

Bolzano's main square, Piazza Walther, was named
after medieval poet Walther von der Vogelweide

Travel tip:

Bolzano, Antonella Bellutti’s home town, is the capital of the South Tyrol region of what is now northern Italy, also known as Trentino-Alto Adige in Italian, or Südtirol in Austrian.  Occupying a valley flanked by hills covered in lush vineyards, it has a population of 108,000, swelling to 250,000 with all the surrounding communities. One of the largest urban areas in the Alpine region, it has a medieval city centre famous for its wooden market stalls, selling among other things Alpine cheeses, hams and bread. Places of interest include the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, the imposing 13th-century Mareccio Castle, and the Duomo di Bolzano with its Romanesque and Gothic architecture. Other places of interest include Piazza Walther (Waltherplatz), the central square named after medieval poet Walther von der Vogelweide, and the Via dei Portici (Laubengasse), and historic shopping street lined with arcaded walkways. Three languages - Italian, German and a local language called Ladin - are spoken in the area, which consistently polls high among the Italian cities reckoned to have the best standard of living.  The nearest airport to Bolzano is at Verona, about 150km (93 miles) to the south and accessible in approximately an hour and a half by train, although some visitors arrive from Innsbruck in Austria, just over two hours by train in the opposite direction.

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A sweeping panorama over the city of Rovereto in
the Trentino-Alto Adige region, close to Lake Garda

Travel tip:

The picturesque small city of Rovereto, 23km (14 miles) east of Riva del Garda and about 28km (17 miles) south of Trento, is notable for its Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto - one of Italy’s most important modern art museums - as well as for a 14th century castle, which contains the Italian War Museum, and for the Maria Dolens (Mary Grieving) bell, also known as the Campana dei Caduti (the Bell of the Fallen) and the Bell of Peace. The second largest swinging bell in the world, it was originally the idea of a local priest, Father Antonio Rossaro, to honour the fallen of all wars and to invoke peace and brotherhood. Cast in 1924, since 1965 it has been located on Miravale Hill outside the town and sounds 100 times at nightfall each evening.  Nestled in the Vallagarina valley, it was originally a Roman outpost guarding trade routes to the Brenner Pass. It enjoyed substantial growth during the medieval and Renaissance eras, flourishing under Venetian rule and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Rovereto is part of the Marzemino wine region, known for its deep red varietals praised by Mozart.

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More reading:

How Trebisonda ‘Ondina’ Valla became the first Italian woman to win an Olympic gold medal 

The brilliance of high jumper Sara Simeoni

The bobsleigh champion honoured for sportsmanship

Also on this day:

549: Death of Saint Ercolano of Perugia

1512: Dismissal from office of statesman and diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli

1599: The death of pioneer surgeon Gaspara Tagliacozzi

1944: The birth of footballer Luigi ‘Gigi’ Riva

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1960 Summer Olympics

Games of the XVII Olympiad take place in Rome

A scene from the opening ceremony for the 1960
Rome Olympics at the Stadio Olimpico

The Summer Olympic Games opened on this day in 1960 in the ancient city of Rome. It was the first time the Summer Olympics had been held in Italy since the revival of the Games in 1896.

Rome had been due to host the 1908 Summer Olympic Games, but following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius near Naples in 1906, the eternal city had to pass on the Olympic torch to London.

The 1960 Games - known officially as the Games of the XVII Olympiad -  were opened by the then-president of Italy, Giovanni Gronchi, in the Stadio Olimpico in the north west of the city. 

Building had begun on the multi-purpose sports venue in 1928 and it was expanded further in 1937, but then World War II halted any further development of the stadium.  Mussolini’s ruling Fascist party had at one time harboured ambitions of hosting the 1940 Games, which were awarded instead to Japan but then cancelled. The 1944 Games, which had been awarded to London, also did not take place.

After the Liberation of Rome in 1944, the Stadio Olimpico was used by the Allies for vehicle storage and then later as a venue for Anglo-American military competitions.

Following the end of the war, construction on the stadium was completed and the first event to take place there in 1953 was a football match between Italy and Hungary. 

The Italian President, Giovanni Gronchi, second left,
was at the stadium to open the Games officially 

The Stadio Olimpico would later be used as the principal venue for the 1990 Fifa World Cup. It has been the shared home ground for Rome’s two major football clubs - AS Roma and SS Lazio - since 1953.

Other famous locations in Rome used to host Olympic events in 1960, included the Baths of Caracalla, the Basilica of Maxentius, the Villa Borghese gardens and the Arch of Constantine. 

Elsewhere in Italy, Olympic rowing and canoeing events were held on Lake Albano at Castel Gandolfo, and yachting events took place in the Bay of Naples.

During the 1960 Summer Olympic games, South Africa appeared for the last time under its apartheid regime. The country was not allowed to take part in the Olympics again until 1992 when apartheid in sport was being abolished. 

The 18-year-old Cassius Clay, who later became known as Muhammad Ali, won the light heavyweight gold medal in boxing.

The future Constantine II, who was to be the last King of Greece, won his country a gold in sailing, and a young Greek woman, who would later become Queen Sofia of Spain, represented her country in sailing events.

The Ethiopian runner, Abebe Bikila, on his way
to an historic victory in the marathon event 

And history was made when Ethiopia's Abebe Bikila won the marathon, running the full 26 mile 385 yards (42.195km) barefoot. He became the first athlete from sub-Saharan Africa to win an Olympic gold. 

In terms of medals, the most successful country at the 1960 Games was the USSR, whose team topped the table both for gold medals, of which it won 43, and overall medal total of 103.

The United States were second in golds with 37, from an overall total of 71. 

The hosts won 13 golds, including five in cycling events, three in boxing and two in fencing. Italy’s only gold in athletics was won by Livio Berruti in the men’s 200m.

The first Paralympic Games  were held in Rome in conjunction with the 1960 Summer Olympics, the first time that the two events had coincided.

The ruins of the Roman Baths of Caracalla were
used for events in the gymnastics competition

Travel tip:

The Baths of Caracalla, which were used for gymnastics events during the 1960 Summer Olympics, are thermal baths built between AD 211/212 and 216/217, during the reigns of emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla. They were the second largest baths in Rome after the Baths of Diocletian. The magnificent main waiting room at the original Penn Station in New York City, built in 1910, is said to have been inspired by the design of the Baths, which remained in use until the 530s, after which they fell into disrepair.  A year-round tourist attraction, the ruins that remain have been the venue for a number of music concerts, notably including the historic Three Tenors concert, featuring Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras and Plácido Domingo, staged during the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy.

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Lake Albano, to the south of Rome, was the
location used for rowing and canoeing

Travel tip:

Lake Albano near Castel Gandolfo in Lazio was the beautiful location for rowing and canoeing events during the 1960 Summer Olympics. Castel Gandolfo, where the Pope has his summer residence, overlooks Lake Albano from its wonderful position in the hills south of Rome, and the Pope spends every summer in the Apostolic Palace there. Although his villa lies within the town’s boundaries, it is one of the properties of the Holy See. The palace is not under Italian jurisdiction and is policed by the Swiss Guard. The whole area is part of the regional park of Castelli Romani, which has many places of historic and artistic interest to visit, and is the area where the popular white wine Trebbiano, is produced.

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Also on this day:

79: Vesuvius eruption buries Pompeii and Ercolano

79: The death after the eruption of Pliny the Elder

665: The death of Saint Patricia of Naples

1509: The birth of cardinal Ippolito II d’Este

1609: Galileo demonstrates telescope

1691: The birth of architect Alessandro Galilei 

1829: The birth of composer Carlo Eduardo Acton

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Ottavio Bottecchia - cycling champion

First Italian to win the Tour de France

Bottecchia triumphed despite
coming from a poor background

Ottavio Bottechia, who was the first of the seven Italian riders so far to have won the classic Tour de France cycle race, was born on this day in 1894 in San Martino di Colle Umberto, a village in the province of Treviso about 50km (31 miles) north of Venice.

Bottechia, who took up cycling as a sport only after serving with a cycle battalion of the Bersaglieri Corps in World War One, won the Tours de France of both 1924 and 1925.

Such was his dominance of both those races that he achieved the distinction - unique at the time - of wearing the leader’s yellow jersey for all 15 stages in 1924, a feat he almost repeated the following year, when he held the lead for 13 stages.

His successes brought him fame and financial reward yet his life began in hardship. Born into a poor peasant family, he was named Ottavio for the simple reason that he was the eighth out of nine children. He went to school for only a year before his father insisted he find a job, working first as a shoemaker, then a bricklayer. 

His service with the Bersaglieri Corps, an elite, highly-mobile infantry force deployed by the Royal Italian Army, earned him a bronze medal for military valour as a result of what he endured in ferrying messages, supplies and weapons on a folding bicycle across the treacherous Austrian front. He survived malaria, gas attacks, and several spells as a prisoner. 

After the war, Bottecchia moved to France to work as a builder but returned to Italy and began racing competitively. Despite having only a borrowed bicycle, he won a number of events and caught the eye of Teodoro Carnielli, a bicycle manufacturer, who gave him the gift of a racing bike and encouraged him to pursue the sport professionally.

Bottecchia’s breakthrough came in 1923 when he placed fifth in the Giro d’Italia, which was considered an extraordinary feat for a rider without a team to support him. Henri Pélissier, a leading French cyclist, invited him to join the Automoto-Hutchinson team, for whom he competed in the Tour de France for the first time, winning a stage and finishing second overall.

A garlanded Bottecchia on his victory lap after
his first triumph in the Tour de France, in 1924

The following year, 1924, he made history as the first Italian to win the Tour de France, wearing the yellow jersey from start to finish, something no rider had previously accomplished. His riding style was described as rhythmic and effortless, like the swing of a pendulum. He repeated his triumph in 1925, solidifying his status as a cycling legend.

Nicknamed Il muratore del Friuli - The Bricklayer of Friuli - his victories came to be seen as symbols of perseverance and national pride, his story one of rising from obscurity to dominate the most prestigious race in cycling.

His success enabled him to buy a house in San Martino and open a workshop for the construction of bicycles. He seemed set up for comfortable life.

Yet Bottechia died tragically young, at the age of just 32. In the early summer of 1927, after a relatively lean start to the year in terms of success, he had gone back to the area of Friuli-Venezia Giulia where he had trained previously, hoping it would help him recapture his form.

On June 3 - only 10 days after his brother, Giovanni, had been struck by a car and killed near Conegliano, Veneto - Ottavio was found unconscious by the roadside while training near the Tagliamento river, north of Udine, with a fractured skull, a broken collarbone and other injuries. He died 12 days later in a hospital in Gemona.

There was an assumption that he had lost control of his bicycle and that his death was accidental, yet the bicycle itself was undamaged and there were no signs that he had swerved to avoid a car or been forced off the road. 

The uncertainty over the cause of his death gave rise to all manner of theories, including political assassination, given that he was quite outspokenly anti-Fascist in his views. Another story alleged that the farmer who originally claimed to have found Bottecchia by the roadside had actually killed him, albeit accidentally, in trying to stop him stealing grapes from his vines. 

Today, Bottecchia’s legacy endures. A museum in his home town commemorates his life, and his name lives on through the Bottecchia bicycle brand, which Carnielli built up after his death. A monument can be found at the roadside where his body was discovered.

The village of San Martino di Colle Umberto, with
the church of San Martino Vescovo in the foreground

Travel tip:

San Martino di Colle Umberto, where Bottecchia was born, is a picturesque village in the province of Treviso, north of Venice. Built across two of the hills that form the Colle Umberto, it offers sweeping views of the Prealpi Bellunesi and surrounding countryside, including the town of Vittorio Veneto.  The heart of the village is the Chiesa di San Martino Vescovo, a Renaissance-style church dating back to the 15th century which features a striking campanile and a seven-arched portico.  During the dominance of the Republic of Venice, San Martino and Colle Umberto became popular retreats for Venetian nobility, drawn to the peaceful hills and scenic beauty.  The village is part of the UNESCO-listed Prosecco Hills. 

A palace in the pretty
town of Serravalle

Travel tip:

Vittorio Veneto is a town of some 28,000 people in the province of Treviso, situated between the Piave and Livenza rivers at the foot of the mountain region known as the Prealpi Bellunesi  It was formed from the joining of the communities of Serravalle and Ceneda in 1866 and named Vittorio in honour of Victor Emmanuel II.  The Veneto suffix was added in 1923 to commemorate the decisive Battle of Vittorio Veneto in 1918, which was a turning point in World War One. The town’s name became a symbol of Italian victory.  Ceneda, once a bishopric, and Serravalle, a medieval trading hub, both retain their own character - Serravalle enchants with winding alleys, Renaissance palaces, and the Cathedral of Santa Maria Nova, while Ceneda offers a more ecclesiastical atmosphere with its bishop’s palace and quiet piazzas.  

Also on this day:

827: The Arab conquest of Sicily

1464: The death of banker and dynasty founder Cosimo de’ Medici

1776: The birth of soldier Francesca Scanagatta

1831: The birth of baritone Antonio Cotogni

1905: The birth of enameller and painter Paolo De Poli

1964: The birth of actor Kaspar Capparoni 

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Andrea Pirlo - footballer and winemaker

Midfielder who won multiple honours now focused on vineyard

Andrea Pirlo was part of the Italian national
team that won the World Cup in 2006

The footballer Andrea Pirlo, who some commentators bracket with Roberto Baggio as one of the two best Italian footballers of the last 30 years, was born on this day in 1979.

The midfielder won the Italian Serie A championship six times with two clubs, and is double winner of the Champions League.

In international football he has a World Cup winner’s medal as a member of the 2006 Italian national team that lifted the trophy in Germany.  In 2019, he was recognized by the Italian Football Hall of Fame.

Pirlo has also enjoyed success as a coach but lately has also been focusing on growing his sustainable wine company, Pratum Coller, which aims for eco-friendly wine production with minimal environmental impact. 

As a strong advocate for protecting nature, Pirlo has helped spark environmental discussions around popular Italian passions, such as wine and football. Artificial football pitches have also attracted ire for their contribution to PFAS, chemicals that harm the ecosystem. 

In the United States, the AFFF lawsuit has been raising awareness about how PFAS in firefighting foam has contributed to cancer. These chemicals are also present in some football equipment, such as gloves and boots.  

Pirlo opened his Pratum Coller winery in 2007 in a village just outside his home town of Flero, which can be found 8km (five miles) south of the city of Brescia in Lombardy.

Since retiring as a player, Pirlo has devoted more
time to running the winery he launched in 2007

In all, Pirlo won 119 caps for his country, the fourth highest total of all Italian internationals. Fellow players nicknamed him l’architetto – the architect – for his ability to design and construct attacking moves.

The highlight of his international career was undoubtedly the role he played in Italy winning the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The fulcrum of the azzurri midfield, he scored one goal and was credited with the assist for three other goals during the tournament.

One of those assists resulted in the crucial opening goal for Italy scored by Fabio Grosso in the classic semi-final against the host nation.  He was also one of Italy’s successful penalty takers during the shoot-out that decided the final against France.

He was named man of the match three times in the tournament, more than any other player.  He matched that achievement six years later at Euro 2012, when Italy were beaten in the final.

Although he began his career as an attacking midfielder or sometimes even a second striker, Pirlo excelled as a deep-lying central midfielder, a playmaker with wonderful vision and the ability to hit accurate passes over any distance.

He also acquired renown as a free kick specialist, capable of curling the ball into the net beyond the reach of the goalkeeper. He claims he honed his technique by watching Roberto Baggio train at Brescia, the club at which Baggio wound down his career and Pirlo began his.

Pirlo in the colours of AC Milan,
where his talent came to the fore

Born in Flero, Pirlo began his career with the Flero youth side. He joined Brescia in 1994 and made his debut in Serie A in May the following year at the age of 16.

He helped Brescia win the Serie B title and promotion to Serie A in 1998. It earned him a move to Internazionale of Milan, who loaned him to Reggina for the 1999-2000 season and then back to Brescia in 2000-01, where he played alongside Baggio, his childhood idol.

Because Baggio occupied the attacking midfield position for Brescia, manager Carlo Mazzone decided to deploy Pirlo in the deep-lying playmaker role that he would make his own. Years later, Pirlo still described the moment he delivered a long pass that enabled Baggio to score against Juventus as one of the high spots of his career.

After three seasons on Inter’s books, Pirlo was sold to city rivals AC Milan for 33 billion Italian lire – just over 17 million euro – in June 2001.

It was at Milan, in particular under Carlo Ancelotti, where Pirlo began to realise his talent and became a world class player.  He was a key player in a period of consistent success as Italian football became dominated by clubs owned by two business giants - Silvio Berlusconi’s AC Milan and Massimo Moratti’s Inter.

Milan won two Champions Leagues (2003 and 2007), two UEFA Super Cups (2003 and 2007), two Serie A titles (2004 and 2011), a FIFA Club World Cup (2007), a Supercoppa Italiana (2004), and a Coppa Italia (2003) during Pirlo’s time.

After Ancelotti left to become Chelsea manager in 2009, Pirlo remained with Milan for a further two seasons, winning the scudetto again in 2011, but new coach Massimiliano Allegri used him differently and his final season was restricted to 17 appearances for Serie A, which prompted him to seek a change of direction - and a move to Juventus.

Pirlo enjoyed more success when
he moved from Milan to Juventus

There, under coach Antonio Conte, he added three more Serie A titles (2012, 2013, 2014), as well as two more Supercoppa Italiana titles (2012 and 2013). When Conte left to become national manager, Pirlo again worked with Allegri but more successfully this time, playing his part in a league and cup double in 2015 before leaving to play Major League Soccer for New York City.

His final appearance was in the Champions League final – his fourth – in which Juventus were beaten 3-1 by Barcelona.

After calling time on his playing career in 2017, Pirlo returned to Juventus in 2020 as Under-23 head coach, taking charge of the Serie A side just a few days later after Maurizio Sarri was sacked. 

He won the Supercoppa Italia and the Coppa Italia in his debut season, as well as qualifying for the Champions League but was replaced the following season nonetheless. He has since coached in Turkey and back in Italy with Sampdoria, but with less success.

One of two children – he has a brother Ivan – Pirlo was married for 13 years to Deborah Roversi, with whom he had two children. He has had two more children with his second wife, Valentina Baldini. In 2013, his autobiography, Penso Quindi Gioco - I Think, Therefore I Play - became a bestseller.

This is an updated version of an article originally published in 2017.

The Chiesa della Coversione di San Paolo
is the parish church of Flero 

Travel tip:

Flero, where Andrea Pirlo was born, is a town in Lombardy of just under 9,000 residents, situated eight kilometres south of Brescia in the flat plain of the Po Valley, although close enough to the Italian pre-Alps for snow-capped mountains to be visible on clear winter days.  Lake Garda and Lake Iseo are a short distance away.  Flero itself is a typical northern Italian commuter town, orderly and clean with a couple of churches and a few modern shops. The grapes for Pirlo’s Pratum Coller winery are grown in a small vineyard in the adjoining village of Coler, where Pirlo’s father was born. 

The Capitoline Temple is part of Brescia's 
extensive Roman archaeological park

Travel tip:

The city of Brescia tends not to attract many tourists compared with nearby Bergamo or Verona, partly because of the counter-attraction of the lakes.  Yet it has plenty of history, going back to Roman times, and many points of interest, including two cathedrals – the Duomo Vecchio and its neighbour, the Duomo Nuovo – and the attractive Piazza della Loggia, with a Renaissance palace, the Palazzo della Loggia, which is the town’s municipal centre.  The Torre dell’Orologio clock tower bears similarities to the one in St Mark’s Square in Venice. Brescia boasts the largest Roman archaeological area in the whole of Northern Italy . A very important historical legacy in the heart of the city, an integral part of the site that has been a World Heritage Site since 2011. Located along Via Musei near Piazza del Foro, one of the oldest in Brescia, you can admire the Capitoline Temple with the statue of the Winged Victory, and the  Roman Theatre.

Also on this day: 

1462: The birth of woodcarver and architect Baccio d'Agnolo

1860: The birth of politician Vittorio Orlando

1870: The birth of sculptor Pompeo Coppini

1946: The birth of actor Michele Placido

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Luciano Benetton - entrepreneur

Co-founder of iconic clothing and accessories brand

Luciano Benetton, who turns 90 today, has
been active in the business much of his life

The entrepreneur Luciano Benetton, co-founder of a family clothing company that became a worldwide success story in the 1980s and 1990s, was born in Treviso on this day in 1935.

Along with his sister, Giuliana, and their brothers, Carlo and Gilberto, Luciano launched the Benetton Group in 1965, specialising at first in colourful knitwear. From its original store in Belluno, a town in the northern part of the Veneto region, opened in 1965, the group enjoyed a rapid expansion in the 1970s and 80s and at the peak of its success had as many as 6,000 outlets around the world.

Although it has faced tougher trading conditions in more recent years, the group continues to preside over more than 3,500 stores.

Since 1989, the Benetton empire has traded under the name United Colors of Benetton, a brand adopted as part of a long-running collaboration with photographer Oliviero Toscani, who masterminded the group’s provocative and often controversial advertising campaigns.

The Benetton story began in 1955 when Luciano, who had left school at age 14 to work in a clothing store after the death of his father, was working as a knitwear salesman. He had the idea to launch his own business, selling sweaters based on the colourful garments that his sister, Giuliana, designed and knitted for friends and family.

To raise the money needed to buy a knitting machine, he and Giuliana reportedly sold Luciano's accordion and a bicycle belonging to Carlo.  Giuliana was responsible for making the sweaters, which Luciano sold to shops in and around Treviso, using his own bicycle to deliver them.

The subtext of much of Benetton's advertising has
reflected the company's embrace of diversity

As the business grew, they were joined by Carlo and Gilberto. Together, they launched the Benetton Group and opened the company’s first factory in 1965 in Ponzano Veneto, a small town about 6.5km (four miles) north of Treviso, where the group still has its headquarters at the historic Villa Minelli.

The first Benetton shop was opened shortly afterwards, about 70km (43 miles) further north in the beautiful and prosperous town of Belluno in the Eastern Dolomites.  

More outlets were opened in Italy and in 1969 Benetton ventured outside their home country to open a store in Paris. By the early 1970s, the company had a network of 200 shops around Europe. 

The business steadily grew throughout the decade, expanding its range beyond simply sweaters. In 1974, the French fashion company, Sisley, became part of the Benetton Group. 

The first Benetton store in New York opened in 1980, followed by a store in Tokyo in 1982. By the mid-1980s, a Benetton store was opening almost daily. This decade, and the early ‘90s, saw the business at its peak.

United Colors of Benetton was adopted as the
company's brand name from the late 1980s

Apart from the quality and originality of its clothing ranges, the Benetton name maintained its high profile thanks to the controversial advertising campaigns devised by Toscani, appointed by Luciano as his creative director.

Luciano wanted his advertising to reflect the company’s values, namely having a social conscience and being advocates of tolerance and diversity, but much of it was designed to shock, particularly after Toscani became involved. Billboard images such as those showing a duck drenched with crude oil, a naked man with “HIV Positive” branded on his buttock, and an unwashed new-born baby with umbilical cord still attached, all labelled with United Colors of Benetton, became the company’s stock in trade. 

The campaigns prompted a number of lawsuits in different countries but at the same time ensured the Benetton brand remained in the public eye. 

Luciano also identified sports sponsorship as a way to consolidate public awareness of the company name. After first sponsoring Treviso’s rugby team, AS Rugby Treviso, which became a major force in Italian rugby, Benetton became an even bigger influence in motor racing.

Benetton took their colourful image into the world
of Formula One racing with considerable success

Benetton sponsored Formula One teams starting with Tyrrell in 1983, then Alfa Romeo, and eventually set up their own Benetton F1 team, which competed from 1986 to 2000 and achieved significant success under the management of Flavio Briatore. Michael Schumacher won the first two of his seven world championships driving for Benetton. 

As the clothing market became more challenging, Benetton’s success began to wane in the 2000s and Luciano and the other family members stepped back from management roles, although Luciano would twice return to the boardroom out of concern for the company’s ailing fortunes, resigning from his latest stint only in 2024, at the age of 89.  

Away from business, Luciano Benetton served as a senator for the Italian Republican Party from 1992 to 1994, while his Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche has developed the Imago Mundi Collection, a vast collection of contemporary art.

In Treviso, where he still lives, his Gallerie delle Prigioni - so called because it is housed in an historic prison from the Habsburg era - provides an exhibition space dedicated to contemporary culture. 

Piazza dei Signori is the beautiful square
at the centre of the city of Treviso

Travel tip:

For many visitors to Italy, Benetton’s home town of Treviso in the Veneto is no more than the name of the airport at which they might land en route to Venice, yet it is an attractive, historic city worth visiting in its own right, rebuilt and faithfully restored after the damage suffered in two world wars. Canals are a feature of the urban landscape – not on the scale of Venice but significant nonetheless – and the Sile river blesses the city with another stretch of attractive waterway, lined with weeping willows. The arcaded streets fanning out from the central square, Piazza dei Signori, have an air of refinement and prosperity and there are plenty of restaurants, as well as bars serving prosecco from a number of vineyards. The prime growing area for prosecco grapes in Valdobbiadene is only 40km (25 miles) away to the northeast.  Treviso also claims to be the birthplace of the famous Italian dessert, tiramisu. 

Benetton's headquarters remains the Villa Minelli in
Ponzano Veneto, which the family bought in 1968

Travel tip:

The Benetton Group headquarters is located in Villa Minelli, in Via Villa Minelli in Ponzano Veneto. It is a building complex built in the 17th century by a family of merchants, which includes a central villa, two colonnades and a small church. After the Minelli family, the villa was abandoned for over 150 years until the Benetton family purchased it in 1968. The renovation project was granted to Afra and Tobia Scarpa, the same architects responsible for the construction of the company’s first factory, the Maglierie Benetton, also in Ponzano Veneto. The renovation took over 15 years to complete. The architects won praise for preserving the solemnity of the villa while also transforming it into an efficient working place, with offices and meeting rooms. The villa is surrounded by vineyards and the park.

Also on this day:

1726: The death of singer and composer Francesco Pistocchi

1804: The birth of Venetian revolutionary leader Daniele Manin

1909: The first Giro d’Italia cycle race

1938: The birth of politician Giuliano Amato 

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Manuela Di Centa - Olympic skiing champion

Friulian won five medals at a single Winter Games

Manuela Di Centa in action at the 1994 Winter
Olympics in Norway, where she won five medals

The Olympic skier, mountaineer and former politician Manuela Di Centa was born on this day in 1963 in the small town of Paluzza in the mountainous north of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, less than five miles (8km) from the Austrian border.

Di Centa made history at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, when she won a total of five medals, including two golds - the only cross-country skier to accumulate so many medals at a single Games.

Three times Italy’s national fell running champion, Di Centa went on to become the first Italian woman to climb Mount Everest when she scaled the world’s highest peak in 2003, planting the five-ringed Olympic flag at the summit.

A member of the International Olympic Committee from 1999 to 2010, Di Centa has also represented her region as a politician, sitting in the Italian Chamber of Deputies for the Forza Italia and People of Freedom parties between 2006 and 2013.

Born and raised in the beautiful surroundings of the Carnia region of Friuli, Di Centa grew up in a family of Nordic skiers and took to skis almost as naturally as learning to walk.

Di Centa on her ascent
of Mount Everest

After some impressive displays in youth level skiing, she made her debut for the Italy national team at the age of 17 in 1980, contested her first World Championships events in 1982 and competed in her first Winter Olympics in Sarajevo in 1984.

She won her first medals in either competition at the 1991 World Championships on home territory in Val di Fiemme in the Dolomites, when she won silver in the four by 5km relay - alongside Bice Vanzetta, Gabriella Paruzzi and Stefania Belmondo - and individual bronze over 5km and 30km.  The 5km relay team repeated their bronze medal success at the Olympics at Albertville in France the following year.

Di Centa pocketed a World Championship 30km silver and a medal of the same colour in the four by 5km relay at Falun in Sweden in 1993 but it was at the Olympics in Lillehammer the following February that she hit her peak.

She medalled in all five cross-country events in which she competed, winning golds over 15km and 30km, silver in the 5km and pursuit, and a second bronze in the four by 5km relay. 

No cross-country skier - male or female - has won five medals at a single Winter Olympics before or since. Another relay bronze at the 1998 Games in Nagano in Japan raised her career total Olympic medal haul to seven, after which she announced her retirement from competition.

Her World Championship medal haul was also seven - including four silvers but no gold. She twice won her sport’s prestigious World Cup, finishing first in 15 events all told and being crowned overall champion in 1994 and 1996.

Di Centa's official photograph as a
member of the Chamber of Deputies

An accomplished fell runner as well as a skier - winning the Italian championships in 1985, 1989 and 1991 - Di Centa then turned her knowledge of mountainous terrain into more achievement.

Having revealed that she had two childhood dreams - to compete at the Olympics and to climb the world’s highest mountain - she achieved the latter on May 23, 2003 by becoming the first Italian woman to reach the 8,848m summit of Mount Everest. 

She needed supplementary oxygen for the final 1,500m but was determined to complete the climb - 50 years after Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay conquered it for the first time in 1953.  Di Centa celebrated by planting the Olympic and Italian flags at the summit.

Di Centa has also enjoyed a successful career as a television presenter, mainly in programmes dedicated to her beloved mountains, and successfully ran for election to the Chamber of Deputies in 2006 as a Forza Italia candidate for Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and in 2008 for Trentino Alto-Adige as a member of Il Popolo della Libertá - the People of Freedom.

Married to the mountaineer and cross-country skier Fabio Meraldi, Manuela di Centa is the sister of another Olympic cross-country skiing gold medallist, Giorgio Di Centa, and the cousin of long distance runner Venanzio Ortis, who was European 5,000m champion in 1978.

Giorgio Di Centa won Olympic gold in the 50km and four by 10km events at the Turin Olympics in 2006, where Manuela was one of the flag bearers and, in her role as Italian representative on the IOC, presented her brother with one of his golds.

Manuela and Giorgio’s maternal grandmother, Irma Englaro, served with distinction as a Carnic Porter during the First World War, one of a legion of local women who helped Italy’s war effort along the Carnia front by transporting supplies and ammunition in their back-borne panniers.

Carnia, the region in which Paluzza is situated, 
 is an area of outstanding natural beauty 

Travel tip:

Manuela Di Centa’s place of birth, Paluzza - Paluce in Friulian dialect - is a small town of around 2,200 inhabitants situated about 120km (75 miles) northwest of Trieste and approximately 50km (31 miles) northwest of Udine, in the historic Carnia region of Friuli, close to the border with Austria. It is best known today as a ski resort, famed for its cross-country ski runs, but historically it was a key strategic defensive position where a castle - Castrum Moscardum - was built in the 13th century to guard the valley against invaders from the north. One tower of the castle remains standing today. The valley in which Paluzza sits - the Val Bût or Canale di San Pietro - is one of five that make up the picturesque Carnia region, which includes 27 municipalities. Carnia is thought to take its name from the Germanic Carni tribe who are thought to have migrated south from around 400 BC, reaching the area through the Plöcken Pass.

The Loggia del Lionello is a feature of Udine's
beautiful main square, Piazza della Libertà

Travel tip:

Udine, the nearest city to Di Centa’s home town, is an attractive and wealthy provincial city and the gastronomic capital of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Udine's most attractive area lies within the mediæval centre, which has Venetian, Greek and Roman influences. The main square, Piazza della Libertà, features the town hall, the Loggia del Lionello, built in 1448–1457 in the Venetian-Gothic style, and a clock tower, the Torre dell’Orologio, which is similar to the clock tower in Piazza San Marco - St Mark's Square - in Venice.  The city was part of the Austrian Empire between 1797 and 1866 and retains elements of a café society as legacy from that era, particularly around Piazza Matteotti, known locally as il salotto di Udine - Udine's drawing room.  Long regarded as something of a hidden gem, Udine does not attract the tourist traffic of other, better-known Italian cities, yet with its upmarket coffee shops, artisan boutiques and warm, traditional eating places in an elegant setting, it has much to commend it.

Also on this day:

1788: The death of royal exile Charles Edward Stuart

1857: The birth of architect Ernesto Basile

1888: The death of Saint Don Bosco

1925: The birth of fashion designer Mariuccia Mandelli

1933: The birth of Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano

1942: The birth of actress Daniela Bianchi

1951: Final of the first Sanremo Music Festival

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