27 October

Niccolò Paganini - musician and composer

Extraordinary talent aroused bizarre suspicions

The musician and composer Niccolò Paganini, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, was born on this day in 1782 in Genoa. Paganini’s ability was so far ahead of his contemporaries that to some observers it defied comprehension. He possessed unusually long fingers, a memory that enabled him to play entire pieces without the need for sheet music, and could play at up to 12 notes per second.  This, combined with his appearance - he was tall and thin, with hollow cheeks, pale skin and a fondness for dressing in black - as well as a habit of making wild, exaggerated movements as he played, gave rise to outlandish theories that he was possessed by the Devil, or even was the Devil himself. He also pursued a somewhat dissolute lifestyle, drinking heavily, gambling and taking advantage of his fame to engage in numerous affairs.  Read more…

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Enrico Mattei – industrialist and entrepreneur

Death in plane crash remains an unsolved mystery

Enrico Mattei, one of the most important figures in Italy’s post-War economic rebirth, was killed on this day in 1962 in a plane crash near the village of Bascapè in Lombardy.  Accompanied by a Time-Life journalist, William McHale, Mattei was returning to Milan from Catania in Sicily in a French-built four-seater Morane-Saulnier jet being flown by Irnerio Bertuzzi, a respected pilot who had flown many daring missions during the Second World War.  They were on their descent towards Milan Linate when the crash happened, less than 17km (10.5 miles) from the airport.  Mattei, a politically powerful industrialist, best known for turning round Italy’s seemingly unviable oil industry, was not short of enemies and after his death there was considerable speculation that it did not happen by accident.  Read more…

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Roberto Benigni - Oscar winner

How Life is Beautiful made Tuscan actor and director famous

Roberto Benigni, whose performance in the 1997 film Life is Beautiful won him an Oscar for Best Actor, was born on this day in 1952 in rural Tuscany, around 20km (12 miles) south of Arezzo.  The Academy Award, for which he beat off strong competition from Nick Nolte (Affliction) and Tom Hanks (Saving Private Ryan) among others, put him in the company of Anna Magnani (1955) and Sophia Loren (1961) as one of just three Italian winners of best actor or actress.  Benigni, who also directed Life is Beautiful, had won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film earlier in the awards ceremony, which delighted him so much he famously clambered on to the back of the seats of audience members in the row in front of his to lead the applause before stepping up to the stage to receive the award from Sophia Loren.  Read more…

Simone Moro - mountaineer

Bergamo climber with unique record

The mountaineer Simone Moro, who is the only climber whose list of achievements includes the first winter ascent of four of the so-called eight-thousanders, was born on this day in 1967 in the city of Bergamo in Lombardy.  The eight-thousanders are the 14 peaks on Earth that rise to more than 8,000m (26,247ft) above sea level. All are located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia.  A veteran of 15 winter expeditions, he completed the winter ascent of Shisha Pangma (8,027m) in 2005, Makalu (8,485m) in 2009, Gasherbrum II (8,035m) in 2011 and Nanga Parbat (8,126m) in 2016.  He has scaled Everest (8,848m) four times, including the first solo south-north traverse in 2006. In total he has completed more than 50 expeditions, conquering peaks in Tien Shan, Pamir, Andes, Patagonia and Antarctica as well as the Himalayas and Karakoram.  Read more…

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Giovanni Giolitti – Prime Minister

Long-lasting Liberal politician made important social reforms

Giovanni Giolitti, who served as Prime Minister of Italy five times, was born on this day in 1842 in Mondovì in Piedmont.  A Liberal, he was the leading statesman in Italy between 1900 and 1914 and was responsible for the introduction of universal male suffrage.  He was considered one of the main liberal reformers of late 19th and early 20th century Europe, along with George Clemenceau, who was twice prime minister of France, and David Lloyd George, who led the British government from 1916 to 1922.  Giolitti remains the longest serving democratically elected prime minister in Italian history.  As a master of the political art of trasformismo, by making a flexible, centrist coalition that isolated the extremes of Left and Right in Italian politics after unification, he developed the national economy, which he saw as essential for producing wealth.  Read more…

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Book of the Day:  Paganini of Genoa, by Lillian Day

Paganini of Genoa offers an evocative and detailed exploration of the life of Niccolò Paganini, perhaps the most celebrated and enigmatic violin virtuoso in history. From his early years in the bustling port city of Genoa to the grand concert halls of Europe, this biography chronicles the meteoric rise of a musician whose technical prowess was so profound that contemporaries whispered of supernatural origins.  In this reproduction of a book first published in 1929, author Lillian Day presents a balanced look at the man behind the myth, detailing his revolutionary contributions to violin technique and his lasting impact on the Romantic movement in music. The narrative captures the intensity of Paganini's performances, his struggles with chronic illness, and the colourful personal life that often overshadowed his professional triumphs. Readers will find a rich tapestry of 19th-century culture, highlighting how Paganini paved the way for the modern concept of the musical superstar. This work serves as an essential resource for those interested in classical music history, the development of string performance, and the fascinating life of a true Genoese master.

Lillian Day, born Lillian Ethel Abrams, was an American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and biographer, whose output ranged from articles in The New Yorker magazine to film screenplays, novels, short stories and Broadway theatre productions. 

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26 October

Trieste becomes part of Italy

Fascinating city retains influences from past rulers

The beautiful seaport of Trieste officially became part of the Italian Republic on this day in 1954.  Trieste is now the capital of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, one of the most prosperous areas of Italy.  The city lies towards the end of a narrow strip of land situated between the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia and it is also just 30km (19 miles) north of Croatia.  Trieste has been disputed territory for thousands of years and throughout its history has been influenced by its location at the crossroads of the Latin, Slavic and Germanic cultures.  It became part of the Roman Republic in 177 BC and was granted the status of a Roman colony by Julius Caesar in 51 BC.  In 788 Trieste was conquered by Charlemagne on behalf of the French but by the 13th century was being occupied by the Venetian Republic. Austria made the city part of the Habsburg domains in the 14th century.  Read more…

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Primo Carnera - boxer

Heavyweight’s career dogged by ‘fix’ rumours

The boxer Primo Carnera, who was world heavyweight champion between 1933 and 1934, was born on this day in 1906 in a village in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.  After launching his professional career in Paris in 1928, Carnera moved to the United States in 1930 and spent many years there, returning from time to time to Italy, where he had a house built for himself and his family, but not permanently until he was in declining health and decided he would like to spend his final years in his home country.  He won 89 of his 103 fights, 72 by a knockout, although there were suspicions that many of his fights were fixed by the New York mobsters who made up his management team, even including the victory over the American Jack Sharkey that earned him the world title.  Physically, he was a freak, said to have weighed 22lbs at birth and the size of an adult by the time he was eight.  Read more… 

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Domenico Scarlatti - composer

Neapolitan famous for his 555 keyboard sonatas

The composer Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, known as Domenico Scarlatti, was born in Naples on this day in 1685.  Born in the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, Scarlatti was the sixth of 10 children fathered by the composer Alessandro Scarlatti.  Like his father, Domenico composed in a variety of musical styles, making the transition in his lifetime from Baroque to traditional Classical. Today, he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas, which expanded the musical possibilities of the harpsichord.  Although he began his career in Naples, Scarlatti spent a large part of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. In fact, he died in Madrid in 1757.  Early in 1701, at the age of just 15, Scarlatti was appointed as composer and organist at the royal chapel in Naples, where his first operas, L’Ottavia restituita al trono and Il giustino, were produced. Read more…

Trilussa - poet and journalist

Writer used humour and irony in social commentary

The Roman poet who went under the name Trilussa was born on this day in 1871.  The writer, best known for his works in Romanesco dialect, was actually christened Carlo Alberto Camillo Mariano Salustri. His pseudonym was an anagram of his last name.  He was inspired to take up poetry by his admiration for Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, who satirised life in 19th century Rome in his sonnets, which were also written in Roman dialect.  Born in a house in Via del Babuino, near the Spanish Steps, Carlo was the son of a waiter originally from Albano Laziale in the Castelli Romani area around Lago Albano south of Rome. His mother, Carlotta, was a seamstress born in Bologna.  His early years were marred by tragedy. He lost both a sister and his father before he was four. After living for a short time in Via Ripetta, close to the Tiber river, his family were offered accommodation in a palazzo in Piazza di Pietra. Read more…

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Giuditta Pasta – soprano

The first singer to perform the roles of Anna Bolena and Norma

Singer Giuditta Pasta, whose voice was so beautiful Gaetano Donizetti wrote the role of Anna Bolena especially for her, was born on this day in 1797 in Saronno in Lombardy.  Her mezzo-soprano voice was much written about by 19th century opera reviewers and in modern times her performance style has been compared with that of Maria Callas.  Indeed, Vincenzo Bellini’s opera Norma, which Callas would turn into her signature role, was actually written for Pasta in 1831.  Pasta was born Giuditta Negri, the daughter of a Jewish soldier. She studied singing in Milan and made her operatic debut there in 1816.  Later that year she performed at the Theatre Italien in Paris as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, but it was not until 1821 that her talent was fully recognised when she appeared in Paris as Desdemona in Gioachino Rossini’s Otello.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, by Jan Morris

Jan Morris (then James) first visited Trieste as a soldier at the end of the Second World War. Since then, the city has come to represent her own life, with all its hopes, disillusionments, loves and memories. Here, her thoughts on a host of subjects - ships, cities, cats, sex, nationalism, Jewishness, civility and kindness - are inspired by the presence of Trieste, and recorded in or between the lines of this book. Evoking the whole of its modern history, from its explosive growth to wealth and fame under the Habsburgs, through the years of Fascist rule to the miserable years of the Cold War, when rivalries among the great powers prevented its creation as a free city under United Nations auspices, Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere is neither a history nor a travel book; like the place, it is one of a kind.

Jan Morris, who lived for the first 46 years of her life as James, was a Welsh historian, author and travel writer. Her collection of travel writing and reportage spans over five decades and includes such titles as Venice, Coronation Everest, Hong Kong, Spain, Manhattan '45, A Writer's World and the Pax Britannica Trilogy.  Morris was the only journalist to accompany the history-making 1953 British Mount Everest expedition, climbing with the team to a camp at 22,000 feet.

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25 October

NEW - San Miniato – Christian martyr

Romans struggled to kill devout young man

The feast of San Miniato, who is venerated as the first Christian martyr of Florence, is celebrated on this day throughout Italy, marking the anniversary of his execution in 250AD by the Romans.  According to legend, Miniato was an Armenian king, or prince, who had decided to become a religious hermit on a hill near Florence. It is believed that he had either been serving in the Roman army at the time, or was in the process of making a penitential pilgrimage to Rome.  Miniato was denounced as a Christian and captured and brought before the Roman Emperor Decius, who was notorious for persecuting Christians. The unfortunate young man was put through a series of torments because he refused to bow to and worship the Roman gods. He was said to have been thrown into a furnace, stoned, and afterwards thrown to a wild animal in an amphitheatre, which was reputed to have been either a lion or a panther, but did not harm him. Read more…

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Camillo Sivori – virtuoso violinist

Paganini’s successor was also a talented composer

Ernesto Camillo Sivori, a virtuoso violinist and composer, was born on this day in 1815 in Genoa.  Remembered as the only pupil of the great virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini, Sivori began his career as a travelling virtuoso at the age of 12, having by then also studied with other violin teachers.  He was acclaimed as ‘Paganini reincarnated’, or even, ‘Paganini without the flaws’, by music critics during a lengthy tour of Europe that he made between 1841 and 1845.  During his travels he met some of the best-known composers of the day, such as Mendelssohn, Schumann and Berlioz and he took part in hundreds of concerts.  After being compared to other celebrated violinists, his status as Paganini’s successor was confirmed, even though the great man had died in 1840 and was still remembered in the musical world.  Read more…

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Emma Gramatica – actress

Celebrating the long career of a seasoned stage and film performer

The theatre and cinema actress Emma Gramattica was born Aida Laura Argia Gramatica on this day in 1874 in Borgo San Donnino, which is today known as Fidenza, in the province of Parma in Emilia Romagna.  Emma appeared in 29 films between 1919 and 1962 and was also a principal actress in the Italian theatre in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her sisters, Irma and Anna Gramatica, were also actresses. Her sister, Anna, married the actor Ruggero Capodaglio and therefore became the sister-in-law of the famous actress, Wanda Capodaglio.  While still a teenager, Emma Gramatica made her stage debut next to the celebrated actress Eleonora Duse in La Gioconda by Gabriele D’Annunzio.  Emma became the primattrice (first actress) in the stage companies led by some of the most prestigious names in the Italian theatre.  Read more… 

Evangelista Torricelli – inventor of the barometer

Physicist's name lives on in scientific terminology

The inventor of the barometer, Evangelista Torricelli, died on this day in 1647 in Florence at the age of just 39.  A disciple of Galileo, Torricelli made many mathematical and scientific advances during his short life and had an asteroid and a crater on the moon named after him.  Torricelli was born into a poor family from Faenza in the province of Ravenna.  He studied science under the Benedictine monk, Benedetto Castelli, a professor of Mathematics at the Collegio della Sapienza, now known as the Sapienza University of Rome, who had been a student of Galileo Galilei.  After Galileo’s death the Grand Duke Ferdinand II de’ Medici asked Torricelli to succeed Galileo as Chair of Mathematics at the University of Pisa.  Torricelli was also interested in optics and designed and built telescopes and microscopes.  Read more…

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Carlo Gnocchi – military chaplain

Remembering a protector of the sick and the mutilated

Carlo Gnocchi, a brave priest who was chaplain to Italy’s alpine troops during the Second World War, was born on this day in 1902 in San Colombano al Lambro, near Lodi in Lombardy.  In recognition of his life, which was dedicated to easing the wounds of suffering and misery created by war, his birthday was made into his feast day when he was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on October 25, 2009 in Milan.  Gnocchi was the youngest of three boys born to Henry and Clementine Gnocchi. His father died when he was five years old and his two brothers died of tuberculosis before he was 13.  He was ordained a priest in 1925 in the archdiocese of Milan and afterwards worked as a teacher.  When war broke out he joined up as a voluntary priest and departed first for the front line between Greece and Albania and then for the tragic campaign in Russia. Read more…

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Book of the Day:  The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Saints: An Authoritative Guide to the Lives and Works of over 300 Christian Saints, by Tessa Paul

This beautiful book chronicles the fascinating history of sainthood and the lives of more than 300 saints. A concise introduction outlines the religious and social history of Christian saints from stigmata and martyrdom to feast days and patron saints. Then, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Saints outlines the work of each saint, listed in chronological order, from the Apostles and early medieval martyrs, through to 21st-century saints. Well-known saints such as St Francis of Assisi and St Teresa of Avila sit alongside 1st-century martyrs and African saints of the 19th century. Special themed pages explore subjects such as Celtic Saints, the Holy Family, and Saints in Art. Illustrated with more than 500 images, this expert guide will inform every reader interested in learning more about Christianity and the lives of the saints.

Tessa Paul co-edited and co-wrote 'Fiesta!', a series of 32 volumes on the religious festivals of Christianity and other major world religions. 

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San Miniato – Christian martyr

Romans struggled to kill devout young man

San Miniato may have been a soldier who
tried to spread Christianity in the Roman army 

The feast of San Miniato, who is venerated as the first Christian martyr of Florence, is celebrated on this day throughout Italy, marking the anniversary of his execution in 250AD by the Romans.

According to legend, Miniato was an Armenian king, or prince, who had decided to become a religious hermit on a hill near Florence. It is believed that he had either been serving in the Roman army at the time, or was in the process of making a penitential pilgrimage to Rome.

Miniato was denounced as a Christian and captured and brought before the Roman Emperor Decius, who was notorious for persecuting Christians. The unfortunate young man was put through a series of torments because he refused to bow to and worship the Roman gods. He was said to have been thrown into a furnace, stoned, and afterwards thrown to a wild animal in an amphitheatre, which was reputed to have been either a lion or a panther, but did not harm him.

After he emerged unscathed from these ordeals, Miniato was beheaded on a site near the present-day Piazza della Signoria in Florence, which has become one of the most important sites in the history of the city.

According to the legend, Miniato picked up his own head and then crossed the River Arno and returned to his hermitage, which was on a nearby hill known as Monte di Firenze, before he died in the cave where he had lived as a hermit.

The relics of San Miniato have been conserved in the crypt of the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte in Florence, which has been built over his original burial site and dedicated to him.

Work on the church began in the 11th century, at the instigation of the Bishop of Florence at the time and it was paid for by the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry II, who was also later made a Saint. 

The background to San Miniato’s life is uncertain and it is possible that he may have been simply a soldier who was executed for spreading Christianity in the Roman army. 

San Miniato is thought to have been
executed in Florence in 250AD

His cult may have developed because it became known that a relic from a country in the east had been brought to the Church of San Miniato in Florence. 

The story of him picking up his own severed head after his own execution was first recorded in the 14th century by Giovanni Villani, a Florentine banker and diplomat, who wrote Nuova Cronica (New Chronicles) about the history of Florence.

In paintings, San Miniato is often portrayed as a young prince carrying a crown, or as a figure carrying his own severed head.

A town and comune about 41km (25 miles) to the west of Florence, in the province of Pisa, is named San Miniato. Archaeological evidence indicates that the site and its surrounding area would have been a settlement since the Paleolithic era and it would have been well known to the Etruscans as well as the Romans, for whom it was a military post called Quarto. 

The first mention of it in historical documents is of a small village organised around a chapel dedicated to San Miniato, which was built by the Lombards in 783. By the end of the 10th century, San Miniato had a sizeable population enclosed behind a moat and protected by a castle. 

The Basilica sits on one of the
highest points in Florence

Travel tip:

The Bishop of Florence had the present Basilica of San Miniato built in 1018 on the site of a fourth century chapel. The lower part of the facade is decorative but the upper part is simpler and has a 12th-century mosaic of Christ between the Madonna and San Miniato. The basilica has an unfinished 15th century campanile that was damaged during the siege of Florence in 1530. The Bishop's Palace, the fortifications, the monumental cemetery and the basilica all stand at the top of a hill called Monte alle Croci, one of the highest points of the city, which overlooks Piazzale Michelangelo and the city of Florence. The interior of this magnificent example of Florentine Romanesque architecture has a trussed timber roof and the walls retain fragments of 13th and 14th century frescoes. In the crypt, the altar preserves the bones of San Miniato.  Among the artworks in the basilica are the beautiful freestanding Cappella del Crocefisso - Chapel of the Crucifix - designed by Michelozzo in 1448. The terracotta decoration of the vault is by Luca della Robbia, who is also thought to be responsible for the crucifix above the high altar.

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Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus is one
of the statues in Piazza della Signoria

Travel tip:

San Miniato’s execution in Florence on this day in 250AD is said to have taken place close to the present-day Piazza della Signoria, which is an L-shaped square in the centre of the city. The piazza is important as the location of the 14th century Palazzo Vecchio, the focal point for the government in Florence. Citizens would gather here for public meetings and the religious leader, Girolamo Savonarola, was burned at the stake in the piazza in 1498. Nowadays it is a unique outdoor sculpture gallery filled with statues, some of them copies, commemorating major events in the city’s history.  They include Giambologna’s equestrian monument of Cosimo I, the Fountain of Neptune by Bartolomeo Ammannati, Donatello’s Judith and Holofernes and Bandinelli’s Hercules and Cacus. There is a copy of Michelangelo's David at the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio, the original being housed in the Galleria dell'Accademia. Within the Loggia dei Lanzi is Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Cellini and The Abduction of the Sabine Women by Giambologna.

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More reading:

San Vito, victim of Diocletian persecution 

Sant’Eustachio, Christian martyred by Hadrian

Filippo Brunelleschi, architect of the dome of Florence cathedral

Also on this day:

1647: The birth of physicist Evangelista Torricelli

1815: The birth of violinist Camillo Sivori

1874: The birth of actress Emma Gramatica

1902: The birth of military chaplain Carlo Gnocchi

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