19 April

Antonio Carluccio - chef and restaurateur

TV personality and author began his career as a wine merchant

The chef, restaurateur and author Antonio Carluccio was born on this day in 1937 in Vietri-sul-Mare in Campania.  Carluccio, who became a recognisable figure due to his many television appearances, moved to London in 1975 and built up a successful chain of restaurants bearing his name.  He wrote 21 books about Italian food, as well as his autobiography, A Recipe for Life, which was published in 2012.  Although born in Vietri, a seaside town between Amalfi and Salerno famous for ceramics, Carluccio spent most of his childhood in the north, in Borgofranco d'Ivrea in Piedmont.  His father was a station master and his earliest memories are of running home from the station where his father worked to warn his mother that the last train of the day had left and that it was time to begin cooking the evening meal.  Read more…

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Antonio Locatelli - pioneering aviator

Brave airman tried to circumnavigate the globe

Courageous pilot Antonio Locatelli, who was recognised for his valour during World War I, was born on this day in 1895 in Bergamo in Lombardy. Locatelli was celebrated for performing solo reconnaissance flights over Zeppelin yards in Austria and for being daring enough to fly over Vienna, before he was shot down and captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp. He tried unsuccessfully to escape twice, but was successful on his third attempt and was able to rejoin the Italian troops.  After the war, he was awarded three Gold medals and a Silver medal for military valour and made a Knight of the Military Order of Savoy. Born into a Bergamo family, Locatelli studied at the Istituto Industriale P. Paleocapo in Bergamo and then became Chief Technician at a local company.  Read more…

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Canaletto - Venetian painter

Brilliant artist known for beautiful views of Venice

The Venetian artist Giovanni Antonio Canal – better known as Canaletto – died on this day in 1768 in the apartment in Venice in which he had lived for most of his life.  He was 70 years old and according to art historian William George Constable he had been suffering from a fever caused by a bladder infection.  His death certificate dated April 20 indicated that he died la notte scorsa all’ore 7 circa – ‘last night at about seven o'clock’. He was buried in the nearby church of San Lio in the Castello district, not far from the Rialto bridge.  Canaletto was famous largely for the views he painted of his native city, although he also spent time in Rome and the best part of 10 years working in London.  His work was popular with English visitors to Venice, in particular. In the days before photographs, paintings were the only souvenirs that tourists could take home to remind them of the city’s beauty.  Read more…

Sara Simeoni - high jumper

Held world record and won Olympic gold

The high jumper Sara Simeoni, who is regarded as one of Italy’s greatest female athletes, was born on this day in 1953 in Rivoli Veronese, a village about 20km (12 miles) northwest of Verona.  Only the second woman to clear two metres, she won the gold medal in her event at the Moscow Olympics of 1980, setting a Games record in the process.  The Moscow Games was boycotted by 66 countries in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, yet Simeoni, who competed under the Olympic flag after Italy left the issue of participation up to individual athletes, still deserved applause as the only winner in the women’s track and field programme not from an Eastern Bloc country.  She confessed later that she suffered a panic attack just before the final in the Lenin Stadium and was physically sick, but then reminded herself that she was the world record holder. Read more…

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Lilli Gruber - groundbreaking TV journalist

Writer and broadcaster was first female to host prime time news bulletin

The journalist Lilli Gruber, who in 1987 became the first woman to be appointed anchor of a prime time news show on Italian public television, was born on this day in 1957 in Bolzano.  In a distinguished career, as well as being the face of major news programmes for the national broadcaster Rai, Gruber has reported on many major international stories as a foreign correspondent, presented shows on German television, served as a Member of the European Parliament for five years, and written many books.  Since leaving politics in 2008, she has been the host of the long-running political talk show, Otto e Mezzo, on the Rome-based independent TV channel La7.  Gruber was born Dietlinde Gruber into a German-speaking family in Bolzano, the provincial capital of South Tyrol in the Trentino-Alto Adige region of northeast Italy.  Read more… 

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Paolo Veronese – painter

Artist with a talent for using colour and painting people

A leading figure of the 16th century Venetian school of painting, the artist Paolo Veronese died on this day in 1588 in Venice.  Veronese left a legacy of huge, colourful, paintings full of figures, which depicted allegorical, biblical or historical subjects. Much of his work remains in Venice to this day.  A dominant figure during the Renaissance, Veronese has continued to inspire and be appreciated by many of the great artists who came after him, in particular Rubens, Watteau, Tiepolo and Renoir.  Veronese was born in 1528, taking his grandfather’s surname of Caliari, but later adopting the surname Veronese, referencing his birthplace of Verona.  He began training as an artist at the age of 14 with Antonio Badile, whose daughter, Elena, he later married. One of his early works, Temptation of St Anthony, painted in 1552 for the Cathedral in Mantua, shows the influence of Michelangelo. Read more…

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Book of the Day: A Passion for Mushrooms, by Antonio Carluccio

With a career spanning across four decades, Antonio Carluccio OBE, OMRI was one of the best-loved Italian chefs, cookery writers and restaurateurs. This book is his ode to foraging, cooking and enjoying wild mushrooms.  A gastronomic guidebook to the most delicious species of wild mushrooms. This new edition of the 1989 classic cookbook is a tribute to Carluccio’s legacy as one of the best-loved Italian chefs, brimming with inventive and decadent Italian recipes to forage, cook and enjoy wild mushrooms.  A Passion for Mushrooms includes more than 100 of Carluccio's recipes, including antipasti, starters, mains with fish, meat and game and desserts. Enjoy a sumptuous Ossobuco with Wild Mushrooms; all-rounder classics such as Mushroom Lasagne and Mushroom Ratatouille; and even learn how to preserve your own mushrooms at home. Each recipe features a personal introduction from Carluccio filled with expert notes and charming anecdotes from his life and career.  Take your foraging to the next level with this handy field guide to more than 25 species of mushroom, helping you to identify and collect them, as well as to understand the science behind all things funghi.

Antonio Carluccio, who died in 2017 at the age of 80, was an Italian chef, restaurateur and food expert, based in London. He was called "the godfather of Italian gastronomy and enjoyed a career spanning more than 50 years, cooking, writing and making frequent television appearances.

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18 April

Ippolita Maria Sforza – noblewoman

Learned lady sacrificed happiness for a political alliance

Ippolita Maria Sforza, a cultured young noblewoman who wrote poetry, letters and documents in Latin, was born on this day in 1446 in Cremona.  She was married to Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, who later became King Alfonso II of Naples, because it was a politically advantageous alliance, but she did not live long enough to become his Queen consort.  Ippolita was the eldest daughter of Francesco I Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Bianca Maria Visconti.  She was tutored along with her six younger brothers and one younger sister by a Greek scholar who taught her philosophy and Greek.  When she was 14 years old she composed a Latin address for Pope Pius II, which became well known after it was circulated in manuscript form.  She wrote many letters, which were published in Italy in one volume in 1893. She also wrote poetry and a Latin eulogy for her father, Francesco. Read more…

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Giuseppe Terragni - architect

Major pioneer of Italian Rationalism

The influential architect Giuseppe Terragni, who was a pioneer of the modern movement in Italy and a leading Italian Rationalist, was born in Meda, a town in Lombardy between Milan and Como, on this day in 1904.  Terragni was an enthusiastic believer in fascism and his work was consequently associated with the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, although some students of his work have questioned whether he should be considered a Fascist architect.  He was a founding member of the Gruppo 7, a collective of seven Italian architects whose aim was to move Italian architecture away from neo-Classical and neo-Baroque revivalism towards Rationalism. The group produced a manifesto spelling out their aims.  Terragni’s most renowned work is the Casa del Fascio in Como, also known as the Palazzo Terragni. Read more…

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Lucrezia Borgia – notorious beauty

Pope’s daughter who inspired painters and poets

Lucrezia Borgia, the illegitimate daughter of Rodrigo Borgia - Pope Alexander VI - was born on this day in 1480 in Subiaco near Rome.  A reputedly beautiful woman, she entered into arranged marriages to important men to advance her family’s political position and rumours have abounded about the fate of her first two husbands.  Macchiavelli wrote about the Borgia family in his book, The Prince, depicting Lucrezia as some kind of femme fatale and this characterisation of her, whether just or unjust, has lasted over the years, being reproduced in many works of art, books and films.  Lucrezia was born to Vannozza dei Cattanei, one of Rodrigo Borgia’s mistresses, and had three brothers, Cesare, Giovanni and Gioffre. When she was just ten years old the first matrimonial arrangement was made on her behalf but was annulled after a few weeks. Read more…

Ilario Bandini - racing car maker

Farmer's son who created beautiful and successful cars

Ilario Bandini, a businessman and racing driver who went on to construct some of Italy’s most beautiful racing cars, was born on this day in 1911 in Villa Rovere in Emilia-Romagna.  His cars won races in Europe and America and his designs earned the respect of the great Italian performance car maker Enzo Ferrari.  Bandini was from a farming family but was fascinated with cars and motorcycles and began to work part-time as a mechanic while he was still at school, eventually becoming an apprentice in a workshop in nearby Forlì.  At the age of 25 he took the bold decision to move to Eritrea, then an Italian colony, in northern Africa, where he repaired trucks and in time set up a transport business, which was very successful.  The venture made him enough money to open a garage in Forlì when he returned to Italy in 1939.  Read more…

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Giuseppe Pella – prime minister

Economist did wonders for the value of the lira

Giuseppe Pella, who served as the 31st prime minister of Italy from August 1953 to January 1954, was born on this day in 1902 in Valdengo in Piedmont.  Pella is considered one of the most important politicians in Italy’s postwar history because his economic and monetarist policies led to the strong economic growth that transformed his shattered country into a global industrial power and improved the standard of living for most Italians. Born into a family of sharecroppers, after finishing elementary school Pella attended a technical school and then an accounting institute in Turin. He graduated in economy and commerce in 1924. Pella became a professor of accounting at the Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Turin and also worked as a tax advisor.  Under Mussolini, Pella was forced to join the National Fascist Party to be able to continue with his profession.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Italian City-Republics, by Trevor Dean and Daniel Waley

Now in its fifth edition, The Italian City-Republics illustrates how, from the 11th century onwards, many Italian towns achieved independence as political entities, unhindered by any centralising power. Until the 14th century, when the regimes of individual ‘tyrants’ took over in most towns, these communes were the scene of a precocious experiment in republican self-government.  In this new edition, Trevor Dean has expanded the book’s treatment of women and gender, the early history of the communes and the lives of non-élites. Focusing on the typical medium-sized towns rather than the better-known cities, the authors draw on a rich variety of contemporary material, both documentary and literary, to portray the world of the communes, illustrating the patriotism and public spirit as well as the equally characteristic factional strife which was to tear them apart. Discussion of the artistic and social lives of the inhabitants shows how these towns were the seedbed of the cultural achievements of the early Renaissance. The Bibliography has been updated to a list of Further Reading with the latest scholarship for students to continue their studies. Both students and the general reader interested in Italian history, literature and art will find this accessible book a rewarding and fascinating read.

Trevor Dean is emeritus professor at Roehampton University in London. His first book was on the city of Ferrara and its rulers in the 14th-15th centuries. Since then, he has written numerous books and studies on crime, policing and criminal justice in late medieval Italy.  The late Daniel Waley was professor of medieval history at the London School of Economics until 1972, when he became Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Library until his retirement in 1986. 

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17 April

NEW - Giovanni Scalfarotto - architect

Grandiose church renovation is one of Venice’s best-known sights

Giovanni Scalfarotto, a Venetian architect remembered essentially for just one project, was born on this day in 1672.  The son of a bricklayer, Scalfarotto spent much of his career as a site foreman or supervisor around Venice and nearby towns, usually involved with relatively minor restoration work, although he advised on the domes of  San Giorgio Maggiore and San Marco as a consultant.  The exception was his work on the church of Saints Simeone and Giuda Apostoli, also known as San Simeon Piccolo, on the Grand Canal, in a restoration project that spanned 20 years between 1718 and 1738 and created what is today arguably one of Venice’s most recognisable visual symbols.  Likely originally to have been a three-nave basilica built parallel to the canal, the church was transformed under Scalfarotto. Read more… 

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Graziella Sciutti - operatic soprano

Vivacious performer who became a successful director

The operatic soprano Graziella Sciutti, a singer known for a vivacious stage presence and engaging personality who excelled in the work of Mozart, Puccini and Verdi, was born on this day in 1927 in Turin.  The daughter of an organist and pianist, she grew up in a bilingual household, speaking both Italian and her mother’s native tongue, French. Her early childhood was spent in Geneva in Switzerland before the family moved to Rome, so that she could attend the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, which is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious musical institutions.  Sciutti wanted to play the piano like her father but it became clear she had a notable voice and she caught the eye as a soloist when she was still a student.  She was asked at the last moment to appear in a performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. Read more…

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Riccardo Patrese - racing driver

Former Williams ace was first in Formula One to start 250 races

The racing driver Riccardo Patrese, who for 15 years was the only Formula One driver to have started more than 250 Grand Prix races, was born on this day in 1954 in Padua.  The former Williams driver reached the milestone in the German Grand Prix of 1993, having three years earlier been the first to make 200 starts.  Patrese retired at the end of the 1993 season with his total on 256 and his record of longevity was not surpassed until 2008, when the Brazilian driver Rubens Barrichello made his 257th start at the Turkish Grand Prix.  Ferrari ace Michael Schumacher passed 250 two years later and Patrese’s total has now been exceeded by six drivers, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa having all joined the 250 club.  Patrese also became famous for an unwanted record. Read more… 

Giovanni Riccioli – astronomer

Jesuit priest had a crater on the moon named after him

Giovanni Battista Riccioli, a Jesuit priest who became one of the principal astronomers of the 17th century, was born on this day in 1598 in Ferrara.  He was renowned for his experiments with pendulums and falling bodies and for his studies of the motion of the earth and the surface of the moon. Riccioli entered the Society of Jesus when he was 16 and after completing his training began studying the humanities.  Between 1620 and 1628 he studied philosophy and theology at the Jesuit College in Parma, where he was taught by Giuseppe Biancani, who had accepted new ideas such as the existence of lunar mountains.  After Riccioli was ordained he taught physics and metaphysics at Parma and engaged in experiments with falling bodies and pendulums. He is believed to be the first scientist to measure the rate of acceleration of a freely falling body.  Read more…

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Gianni Raimondi – tenor

Brilliant performer left few recordings of his voice

Opera singer Gianni Raimondo, who on his first appearance at La Scala in Milan sang opposite Maria Callas in a production by Luchino Visconti, was born on this day in 1923 in Bologna.  Raimondi was admired for his brilliant top notes and exquisite phrasing when he performed. Opera fans have been disappointed that more recordings of his performances were not made at the time.  After studying voice in Bologna and Mantua, the tenor made his stage debut at the Teatro Consorziale in Budrio a small town near Bologna, in 1977 as the Duke in Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto. The following year in Bologna he sang the part of Ernesto in Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and was then chosen for the premiere of Il contrabasso by Valentino Bucchi at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence.  In 1956 he made his La Scala debut opposite Callas in Verdi’s La traviata. Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Architectural History of Venice, by Deborah Howard

Deborah Howard’s The Architectural History of Venice has been described as the indispensable guide to the history of architecture in Venice, encompassing the city's fascinating variety of buildings from ancient times to the present day. Completely updated and filled with splendid new illustrations, this edition invites all visitors to Venice, armchair travelers, and students of Renaissance art and architecture to a fuller appreciation of the buildings of this uniquely beautiful city. The Times Literary Supplement called it: "The best concise introduction to Venetian architecture in English" while the Society of Architectural Historians said it is: "Compact and manageable . . . an excellent introduction to the novice preparing for a first Venetian experience."

Deborah Howard is a British art historian and academic. Her principal research interests are the art and architecture of Venice and the Veneto; the relationship between Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean; and music and architecture in the Renaissance. She is professor emerita of architectural history in the Faculty of Architecture and History of Art, University of Cambridge. 

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Giovanni Scalfarotto - architect

Grandiose church renovation is one of Venice’s best-known sights

The church of San Simeon Piccolo is situated
opposite Venice's Santa Lucia railway station

Giovanni Scalfarotto, a Venetian architect remembered essentially for just one project, was born on this day in 1672.

The son of a bricklayer, Scalfarotto spent much of his career as a site foreman or supervisor around Venice and nearby towns, usually involved with relatively minor restoration work, although he advised on the domes of San Giorgio Maggiore and San Marco as a consultant.

The exception was his work on the church of Saints Simeone and Giuda Apostoli, also known as San Simeon Piccolo, on the Grand Canal, in a restoration project that spanned 20 years between 1718 and 1738 and created what is today arguably one of Venice’s most recognisable visual symbols. 

Likely originally to have been a three-nave basilica built parallel to the canal, the church was transformed under Scalfarotto, who created a central rotunda beneath an enormous oval dome in green copper topped by a temple-shaped lantern, accessed through a Corinthian portico mounted on a flight of steps leading to the water’s edge.

The design had echoes of the Pantheon in Rome, of Antonio Palladio’s Redentore in Venice and his Tempietto in Maser, Baldassare Longhena’s Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute in Venice and the twin churches of Piazza del Popolo in Rome, designed by Carlo Rainaldi.

When the age of the railways reached Venice with the construction of Santa Lucia railway station in the 1860s, the position of San Simeon Piccolo on the Grand Canal, directly opposite the entrance to the station, meant that for hundreds, and ultimately thousands of tourists who arrive in Venice by train every day, it was the first thing their eyes were drawn to as they stepped out into the sunshine.

Given that he was in his 40s when he began work on the church and had only a relatively modest career behind him, many experts have cast doubt on whether the design can be reliably attributed to Scalfarotto.

The twin churches of Piazza del Popolo in Rome
possibly influenced the design of San Simeon Piccolo

But even if he had been merely executing ideas put forward by others, the successful completion of a project of such complexity was a notable achievement in itself.

Scalfarotto - sometimes spelled Scalferotto or Scalfurotto - was born in the parish of San Pantalon, the second son of Tommaso, a bricklayer originally from Valmarino, about 80km (48 miles) north of Venice, in the province of Treviso.

By his early 20s, Giovanni Scalfarotto was himself working in Venice as a bricklayer or mason. His training was probably provided by his father and his older brother, Bartolomeo. He is thought likely to have become interested in architecture and design through his friendship with Andrea Musalo, a Greek mathematician, engineer and architectural theorist who was based in Venice.

His career appeared to move to another level after he had travelled to Rome in 1711 with a group of Baroque artists and craftsmen that included Domenico Rossi, a Swiss‑Italian architect whose major designs included the magnificent, sculpturally theatrical façade of the church of San Stae, the Jesuit church of Santa Maria Assunta and Ca’ Corner della Regina.

On his return to Venice, Scalfarotto began to take on bigger projects involving his own designs, although few of them saw fruition. He also married Domenico Rossi’s daughter, Caterina, with whom he had three children. When Caterina died, he was married for a second time to Marina, daughter of the architect Andrea Tirali, who recommended him to be elected as ‘proto’ of the monasteries - a kind of master builder or chief engineer in charge of appraisals and reports on the state of churches and monasteries in Venice.

Scalfarotto’s name is engraved on the internal architrave of the portico in front of church of San Simeon Piccolo, which remains known as such even though the nearby church of San Simeone Grande was dwarfed by the 'smaller' church's rebuild. 

It is known that, in 1721, he was appointed foreman of the restoration project at San Simeon Piccolo by the church chapter, raising doubts about his role as an independent designer of the building. There are suggestions that, as foreman, he may have received suggestions about design from his client and drafted the project based on those ideas, rather than executing his own original ideas. 

Information about Scalfarotto in later life became sparse, although it is known that, between 1748 and 1750, after having lived in the parish of Sant’ Agnese in a house possibly owned by Andrea Musalo’s brother, he moved to Santa Maria Formosa, where he lived comfortably until his death in October, 1764. He was buried in the church of Santa Maria Formosa.

Campo Santa Maria Formosa, with its church
of the same name, offers a taste of Venetian life

Travel tip:

Campo Santa Maria Formosa, at the heart of the parish where Giovanni Scalfarotto spent his later years, is one of Venice’s most atmospheric squares, one in which the city’s layers of history bump into daily life in a generous open space. It is rare among squares in Venice, often tight and enclosed, in that it opens out in multiple directions, creating a sense of breadth and light that feels unexpected in the dense fabric of Castello. Palaces sit shoulder to shoulder with humbler residential buildings amid the commanding presence of the church that gives the square its name. The church of Santa Maria Formosa, where Scalfarotto is buried, is said to have been founded in the seventh century and rebuilt in the 15th century as a landmark of early Renaissance architecture in Venice. The church is unusual in having two façades, each addressing a different side of the square, one serene and classical, the other more theatrical, adorned with sculptural flourishes.  The Campo feels like a crossroads of Venetian life, with children playing, local people going about their daily business and visitors enjoying a break from the crowds of Piazza San Marco, which is barely five minutes’ walk away. 

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Castelbrando, which now contains a luxury hotel,
stands guard over the village of Cison di Valmarino

Travel tip:

Valmarino - Cison di Valmarino to give its full name - is a village about 40km (24 miles) north of Treviso in the characterised by arcaded streets, stone houses, and a landscape shaped by vineyards and wooded hills. It sits at the foot of the Prealps along the Strada del Prosecco, and today is recognised as one of I Borghi più belli d’Italia and a Touring Club Bandiera Arancione destination. Its position gives it a distinctive blend of Venetian, Alpine, and agricultural character. The village was once the seat of the historic County of Valmareno, which included two castles and 20 villages. From 1439 it belonged to the Brandolini family, who shaped the area’s political and architectural identity for centuries. Part of their legacy is perched above the village on a limestone ridge in the shape of Castelbrando, one of Veneto’s most imposing castles, enclosing nearly 2,000 years of history. Today it functions as a hotel, museum complex, and cultural venue, accessible by funicular. The village lies in the heart of the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG zone, with numerous cellars offering tastings. Local food specialities include spiedo, a traditional slow‑roasted meat dish cooked for at least seven hours, and local speciality biscuits called Buzholà.

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More reading:

Andrea Palladio, the stonecutter who became a giant of architecture

How Giorgio Massari built on Palladio’s legacy in Venice

The magnificent Venetian church built to commemorate deliverance from the plague

Also on this day:

1598: The birth of astronomer Giovanni Riccioli

1923: The birth of tenor Gianni Raimondi

1927: The birth of soprano Graziella Sciutti

1954: The birth of racing driver Riccardo Patrese

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