31 March

Maurizio De Giovanni – crime writer

Detective novelist has opened up his native Naples to crime fiction fans

Bestselling author Maurizio De Giovanni was born on this day in 1958 in Naples in southern Italy.  His novels have been translated into English, Spanish, Catalan, French and German and have sold well over a million copies throughout Europe.  De Giovanni is best known for his two fictional detectives, Commissario Ricciardi, who works as a detective in 1930s Naples, and Ispettore Lojacono, who has been transferred to present day Naples from his home town of Agrigento in Sicily, after being accused of associating with the Mafia.  He has also written stories featuring a very different character, a social worker called Mina Settembre, who is based at a clinic in Naples specialising in providing psychological support.  In 2005, De Giovanni won a writing competition for unpublished authors with a short story, I vivi e i morti - The Living and the Dead -  which was set in the 1930s and featured the character Commissario Ricciardi.  He was working in a bank at the time, a job for which by his own admission he had no particular inclination but which paid the bills. Always known as a bookworm, he wrote stories that he would show his colleagues. Read more…

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Bianca Maria Visconti – Duchess of Milan

Ruler fought alongside her troops to defend her territory

Bianca Maria Visconti, the daughter of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, was born on this day in 1425 near Settimo Pavese in Lombardy.  A strong character, her surviving letters showed she was able to run Milan efficiently after becoming Duchess and even supposedly donned a suit of armour and rode with her troops into battle, earning herself the nickname, Warrior Woman.  Bianca Maria was the illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Milan, and was sent to live with her mother in comfortable conditions in a castle where she received a good education.  At the age of six she was betrothed for political reasons to the condottiero, Francesco I Sforza, who was 24 years older than her.  Despite the political situation changing many times over the years, Bianca Maria and Francesco Sforza did get married in 1441 when she was 16. The wedding took place in Cremona, which was listed as part of her dowry. The celebrations lasted several days and included a banquet, tournaments, a palio and a huge cake made in the shape of the city’s Torrazzo, the bell tower.  Bianca Maria quickly proved her skills in administration and diplomacy.  Read more…

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Franco Bonvicini – comic book artist

Comic artist became famous for satirising the Nazis

Franco Bonvicini, who signed his comic strips Bonvi, was born on this day in 1941 in either Parma or Modena in Emilia-Romagna.  The correct birthplace is unknown. According to the artist, his mother registered him in both places to obtain double the usual amount of food stamps for rations.  After a brief spell working in advertising, Bonvi made his debut in the comic strip world for the Rome newspaper Paese Sera with his creation Sturmtruppen in 1968.  This series satirising the German army was a big hit and was published in various periodicals over the years. It was also translated for publication in other countries.  Although left-wing and a pacifist, Bonvi was fascinated by war and built up immense knowledge about Nazi Germany’s uniforms, weapons and equipment, which he depicted faithfully in his illustrations. The cartoons satirised military life and the Nazis themselves, providing him with an endless source of comic and surreal situations.  Bonvi also created the character Nick Carter, a comic detective, who later featured in a play, two films and a number of television cartoons.  Read more…

Dante Giacosa - auto engineer

Designer known as ‘the father of the Cinquecento'

The automobile engineer Dante Giacosa, who worked for the Italian car maker Fiat for almost half a century and designed the iconic Fiat 500 - the Cinquecento - in all its incarnations as well as numerous other classic models, died on this day in 1996 at the age of 91.  Giacosa was the lead design engineer for Fiat from 1946 to 1970. As such, he was head of all Fiat car projects during that time and the direction of the company’s output was effectively entirely down to him.  In addition to his success with the Cinquecento, Giacosa’s Fiat 128, launched in 1969, became the template adopted by virtually every other manufacturer in the world for front-wheel drive cars.  His Fiat 124, meanwhile, was exported to the Soviet Union and repackaged as the Zhiguli, known in the West as the Lada, which introduced Soviet society of the 1970s to the then-bourgeois concept of private car ownership.  Born in Rome, where his father was undertaking military service, Giacosa's family roots were in Neive in southern Piedmont. He studied engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin.  After completing his compulsory military service he joined Fiat in 1928.  Read more…

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Francesco Durante – composer and teacher

Musician devoted his life to passing on his composing skills to others

An esteemed composer of religious and instrumental music, Francesco Durante was born on this day in 1684 at Frattamaggiore near Naples.  Durante was a highly regarded teacher at the San Onofrio Conservatorio and the Santa Maria di Loreto Conservatorio and was also Chapelmaster at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesú Cristo in Naples.  He had some famous pupils, among whom were Niccoló Jommelli, Niccoló Piccinni and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, who became leading composers of the Neapolitan School of 18th century opera.  Durante studied music in Rome and at Naples, where he was a pupil at San Onofrio and is believed to have studied under Alessandro Scarlatti. He began his own teaching career at the San Onofrio Conservatorio in 1710.  Between 1728 and 1742 he also taught at Santa Maria Loreto and the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesú Cristo.  Then he succeeded Leonardo Leo as principal teacher at San Onofrio Conservatorio in 1745.  There was always rivalry between Leo’s students and his own pupils, who at various times included the composers Giovanni Paisiello, Tommaso Traetta and Leonardo Vinci.  Read more…

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Pope Benedict XIV

Bologna cardinal seen as great intellectual leader

Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, who would in his later years become Pope Benedict XIV, was born on this day in 1675 in Bologna.  Lambertini was a man of considerable intellect, considered one of the most erudite men of his time and arguably the greatest scholar of all the popes.  He promoted scientific learning, the Baroque arts, the reinvigoration of the philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the study of the human form.  He was Bishop of Ancona at the age of 52, Archbishop of Bologna at 56 and Pope at 65 but at no time did he consider his elevation to these posts an honour upon which to congratulate himself.  He saw them as the opportunity to do good and tackled each job with zeal and energy. A man of cheerful character, he set out never to allow anyone to leave his company dissatisfied or angry, without feeling strengthened by his wisdom or advice.  He attracted some criticism for his willingness to make concessions or compromises in his negotiations with governments and rulers, yet his pursuit of peaceful accommodation was always paramount and historians have noted that few conflicts in which he sought to arbitrate remained unresolved.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Blood Curse: The Springtime of Commissario Ricciardi, by Maurizio De Giovanni

Ricciardi has visions. He sees and hears the final seconds in the lives of victims of violent deaths. It is both a gift and a curse. It has helped him become one of the most acute and successful homicide detectives in the Naples police force. But all that horror and suffering has hollowed him out emotionally. He drinks too much and sleeps too little. Other than his loyal partner, Brigadier Maione, he has no friends. Naples: 1931. In a working class apartment in the Sanita' neighborhood an elderly woman by the name of Carmela Calise has been viciously beaten to death. Commissario Ricciardi and Brigadier Maione arrive at the scene and start asking questions. No one wants to talk but slowly the neighbours let a few interesting facts slip out. Carmela Calise was moonlighting as a fortune-teller and moneylender. In her decrepit apartment she would receive clients, among them some of the city's rich and powerful, predicting their futures in such a way as to manipulate and deceive. If economic ruin lurked in their futures, Calise was happy to help. For a price, of course. She had many enemies, those who were indebted to her, or had been manipulated by her lies, disappointed by her prophesies or destroyed by her machinations. Murder suspects abound in this atmospheric thriller, and Commissario Ricciardi, one of the most original and intriguing investigators in contemporary crime fiction, has his work cut out for him.  Blood Curse is the second book in the Commissario Ricciardi series.

Maurizio de Giovanni’s Commissario Ricciardi books are bestsellers across Europe, having sold well over one million copies. He is also the author of the contemporary Neapolitan thriller, The Crocodile, and the contemporary Neapolitan series, The Bastards of Pizzofalcone. He lives in Naples with his family.

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30 March

NEW - Joseph Bonaparte becomes King of Naples

Programme of reform launched to improve lives of citizens

People took to the streets to celebrate in Naples on this day in 1806 after Napoleon’s older brother, Joseph Bonaparte, was declared to be their new king. Joseph had been welcomed when he first arrived in Naples and was eager to be a popular monarch with his subjects. He kept most of the people who had held office under the Bourbons in their posts because he was anxious not to appear as a foreign oppressor.  Once he had established a provisional government in the capital of his new kingdom, he set off on a tour of inspection of his territory.  His immediate objective was to assess the feasibility of an invasion of Sicily to expel King Ferdinand and Queen Maria Carolina, who had fled to Palermo from Naples. But once he arrived at the Strait of Messina, he realized this was going to be impossible as the Bourbon monarchs had taken away all the boats and transport with them and their forces were grouped, alongside British troops, on the opposite side of the water ready to repel any invaders.  Therefore, he continued his progress through Calabria, Lucania, and Puglia, visiting the main villages in the regions and meeting the people so that they could get used to their new king.  Read more…

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Fortunato Depero - artist

Futurist who designed classic Campari bottle

The Futurist painter, sculptor and graphic artist Fortunato Depero, who left a famous mark on Italian culture by designing the conical bottle in which Campari Soda is still sold today, was born on this day in 1892 in the Trentino region.  Depero had a wide breadth of artistic talent, which encompassed painting, sculpture, architecture and graphic design. He designed magazine covers for the New Yorker, Vogue and Vanity Fair among others, created stage sets and costumes for the theatre, made sculptures and paintings and some consider his masterpiece to be the trade fair pavilion he designed for the 1927 Monza Biennale Internazionale delle Arti Decorative, which had giant block letters for walls.  Yet it is the distinctive Campari bottle that has endured longest of all his creations, which went into production in 1932 as the manufacturers of the famous aperitif broke new ground by deciding to sell a ready-made drink of Campari blended with soda water.  It was the first pre-mixed drink anyone had sold commercially and Depero, who was already working with the Milan-based company on a series of advertising posters and stylish black-and-white newspaper ads, was tasked with creating a unique miniature bottle in which the new product would be packaged..  Read more…

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Rimini Proclamation

Opening statement of the Risorgimento came from a Frenchman

The first political proclamation calling for all Italians to unite into a single people and drive out foreigners was issued on this day in 1815 in Rimini.  But the stirring words: ‘Italians! The hour has come to engage in your highest destiny…’ came from a Frenchman, Gioacchino (Joachim) Murat, who was at the time occupying the throne of Naples, which he had been given by his brother-in-law, Napoleon.  Murat had just declared war on Austria and used the Proclamation to call on Italians to revolt against the Austrians occupying Italy. He was trying to show himself as a backer of Italian independence in an attempt to find allies in his desperate battle to hang on to his own throne.  Although Murat was acting out of self-interest at the time, the Proclamation is often seen as the opening statement of the Risorgimento, the movement that helped to arouse the national consciousness of the Italian people. It led to a series of political events that freed the Italian states from foreign domination and unified them politically.  Murat’s Proclamation impressed the Milanese writer Alessandro Manzoni, who wrote a poem about it later that year, Il proclama di Rimini.  Read more…

The Sicilian Vespers

How the French lost control of the island they were ruling

As the citizens of Palermo walked to vespers - evening prayers - in the church of Santo Spirito on this day in 1282, a French soldier grossly insulted a pretty young Sicilian woman.  The girl’s enraged fiancé immediately drew his dagger and stabbed the soldier through the heart.  The violence was contagious and the local people exploded in fury against the French occupying forces. More than 200 French soldiers were killed at the outset and the violence spread to other parts of Sicily the next day resulting in a full-scale rebellion against French rule. This bloody event, which led to Charles of Anjou losing control of Sicily, became known in history as the Sicilian Vespers.  King Charles was detested for his cold-blooded cruelty and his officials had made the lives of the ordinary Sicilians miserable.  After he was overthrown, Sicily enjoyed almost a century of independence.  There have been different versions given of the events that led to the rebellion against the French and it is not known exactly how the uprising started.  But to many Italians the story of the Sicilian Vespers has always been inspirational.  Read more…

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Faustina Bordoni - mezzo-soprano

Brilliant career overshadowed by infamous on-stage fight

Faustina Bordoni, a fêted mezzo-soprano ranked as one of the finest opera singers of the 18th century, was born on this day in 1697 in Venice.  Such was her popularity that when she joined her husband, the German composer Johann Adolf Hasse, in the employment of the Court of Saxony, where Hasse was maestro di cappella, her salary was double his.  Yet for all her acting talent and vocal brilliance, Bordoni is more often remembered as one half of the so-called ‘rival queens’ engaged by George Frideric Handel to join the company of the booming Royal Academy of Music in London in the 1720s, where she and the Italian soprano Francesca Cuzzoni allegedly came to blows on stage.  Born into a respected Venetian family, Bordoni’s musical talent was nurtured by the composers Alessandro and Benedetto Marcello and by her singing teacher, Michelangelo Gasparini.  She made her debut in Venice at the age of 19 in Carlo Francesco Pollarolo's Ariodante. The quality of her voice excited the critics, while audiences were instantly charmed by her youthful beauty and stage presence.  Read more…

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Ignazio Gardella – architect

Modernist who created Venetian classic

The engineer and architect Ignazio Gardella, considered one of the great talents of modern urban design in Italy, was born on this day in 1905 in Milan.  He represented the fourth generation in a family of architects and his destiny was determined at an early age. He graduated in civil engineering in Milan in 1931 and architecture in Venice in 1949.  Gardella designed numerous buildings during an active career that spanned almost six decades, including the Antituberculosis Dispensary in Alessandria, which is considered one of the purest examples of Italian Rationalism, and the Casa alle Zattere on the Giudecca Canal in Venice, in which he blended modernism with classical style in a way that has been heralded as genius.  During his university years, he made friends with many young architects from the Milan area and together they created the Modern Italian Movement.  He worked with his father, Arnaldo, on a number of projects while still studying.  On graduating, he set up an office in Milan, although he spent a good part of his early career travelling, sometimes with a commission but at other times to study.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Masterpieces of Italian Design, by Charlotte and Peter Fiell and Catharine Rossi

Design in Italy has always reflected the national identity of the Italians themselves: sexy, stylish, and innovative, and with more than a touch of audacity. No other country takes design so seriously, nor treats its leading practitioners with such reverence. In Italy a design is never just a product, but an expression of culture. There is a strongly held belief that good design should be implemented across all aspects of life, or as the architect Ernesto Rogers put it, "from the spoon to the city". Masterpieces of Italian Design is an overview of the past two centuries in Italian design and manufacturing. This new title documents the 100 most pioneering designs to come out of Italy, and explains why, with stunning images (including rare archival photographs, illustrations and patent drawings) and explanatory texts. The Italian design community is at the forefront of modern design practice and has pioneered many styles and movements, from Rationalism to Post-Modernism and Late-Modern. This new book features the ultimate examples of Italian design from among others Alessi, B&B Italia, Cappellini, Cassina, Ducati, Ferrari, Fiat, Kartell, Lamborghini, Luceplan, Magis, Moroso, Pagani, and Riva.

Charlotte and Peter Fiell are internationally renowned authorities on the history, theory and criticism of design and have written over 70 books on the subject, many of which have gone on to become bestsellers.  Catharine Rossi is a context lecturer at the University of Edinburgh Design School who specializes in the study of Italian design.

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Joseph Bonaparte becomes King of Naples

Programme of reform launched to improve lives of citizens

Joseph Bonaparte was the older brother
of the French emperor Napoleon

People took to the streets to celebrate in Naples on this day in 1806 after Napoleon’s older brother, Joseph Bonaparte, was declared to be their new king.

Joseph had been welcomed when he first arrived in Naples and was eager to be a popular monarch with his subjects. He kept most of the people who had held office under the Bourbons in their posts because he was anxious not to appear as a foreign oppressor.

Once he had established a provisional government in the capital of his new kingdom, he set off on a tour of inspection of his territory.

His immediate objective was to assess the feasibility of an invasion of Sicily to expel King Ferdinand and Queen Maria Carolina, who had fled to Palermo from Naples. But once he arrived at the Strait of Messina, he realized this was going to be impossible as the Bourbon monarchs had taken away all the boats and transport with them and their forces were grouped, alongside British troops, on the opposite side of the water ready to repel any invaders.

Therefore, he continued his progress through Calabria, Lucania, and Puglia, visiting the main villages in the regions and meeting the people so that they could get used to their new king.

Joseph embarked on an ambitious programme of reform in Naples and the south of Italy to raise his new kingdom to the level of a modern state in the style of Napoleonic France. He improved the economy, introduced more education for girls and took measures to make life better for ordinary people.

Joseph was the older brother of Napoleon Bonaparte and had trained as a lawyer. He helped his younger brother to overthrow the Directory, the committee who were governing the French First Republic, and, as a Minister in Napoleon’s Government, had signed a treaty of friendship and commerce between France and the United States.

Julie, Joseph's wife, was
sent to support her husband

When war broke out between France and Austria, Ferdinand IV of Naples had agreed to a treaty of neutrality with Napoleon, but a few days later he declared his support for Austria.

In December 1805, Napoleon declared Ferdinand to be ‘faithless’, and to have forfeited his position, and said that an invasion of Naples would follow.

He sent his brother, Joseph, to Rome to command an army to dispossess Ferdinand of his throne. 

On February 8, 1806, a French army of 40,000 men advanced on Naples, meeting little resistance. The British and Russian forces in the area retreated and King Ferdinand and Queen Maria Carolina went to Sicily.

Gaeta and Capua put up a token resistance, but by February 14 the French had taken Naples,  and Joseph Bonaparte was able to enter the city in triumph the following day.

The French seized control of the Strait of Messina and defeated the Neapolitan Royal Army at the Battle of Campo Tenese, securing the mainland for the French.

On March 30, Napoleon issued a decree, installing his brother, Joseph, as King of Naples and Sicily.

Joseph’s wife, Julie, who had remained in Paris, became Queen Consort of Naples and Napoleon sent her to support her husband in 1808 when he was facing a rebellion.

While she was there, she supported educational projects for girls such as a college for the daughters of public functionaries in Aversa.

After the French invaded Spain, the couple became King and Queen of Spain, and Joseph was replaced as ruler of Naples by his sister’s husband, Joachim Murat.

After they left Naples, they were reputed to have taken valuables with them. The comment made by local people at the time was:  "The King arrived like a sovereign, and left like a brigand. The Queen arrived in rags and left like a sovereign.”

How the Bay of Naples looked in the early 19th
century, according to a contemporary lithograph

Travel tip:

Naples and Sicily were part of an independent and prosperous kingdom from the beginning of the 18th century until the start of the French Revolution. In 1799, Napoleon's army reached Naples, creating the short-lived Parthenopean Republic, ruled by Joseph Bonaparte for part of the time. Joseph Bonaparte and his successor, Joachim Murat both took up residence in the Royal Palace in Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples. Building work had started on the palace after 1600 and it became the main residence of the Bourbons from the 1730s,  after Charles III of Spain became King of Naples. Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat both carried out extensive redecoration work on the palace while they were living there. They had to substantially refurnish the palace because Ferdinand IV had emptied it before escaping to Palermo.

The Strait of Messina: Reggio Calabria is in
the foreground; Mount Etna on the Sicily side

Travel tip:

The Strait of Messina is a narrow stretch of water between Sicily’s most eastern tip and Calabria’s most western tip. It connects the Tyrrhenian sea to the north with the Ionian sea to the south. At its narrowest point it is just 3.1 km wide. A ferry service connects Messina on Sicily with the mainland of Italy at Villa San Giovanni, a port city a few kilometres north of Reggio Calabria. The possibility of building a bridge across the Strait of Messina to link Sicily with the mainland has been discussed for many years. Silvio Berlusconi’s Government announced plans for a bridge in 2009 but these were cancelled in 2013. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni revived the plans with a decree in 2022.

Also on this day:

1282: The Sicilian Vespers uprising

1697: The birth of mezzo-soprano Faustina Bordoni

1815: Joachim Murat’s Rimini Proclamation

1892: The birth of Futurist painter and graphic designer Fortunato Depero

1905: The birth of architect Ignazio Gardella

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29 March

Castruccio Castracani - condottiero

Mercenary soldier who ruled Lucca 

Castruccio Castracani, a condottiero who ruled his home city of Lucca from 1316 to 1328, was born on this day in 1281.  His relatively short life - he died at the age of 47 - was taken up with a series of battles, some fought on behalf of others, but latterly for his own ends in the conflict between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines that dominated medieval Italy as part of the power struggle between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire.  Castruccio's story inspired a biography by Niccolò Machiavelli and later a novel by Mary Shelley.  Born Castruccio Castracani degli Antelminelli, he was from a Ghibelline family and therefore a supporter of the Holy Roman Emperor in opposition to the Guelphs. He was exiled from Lucca at an early age with his parents and others by the Guelphs, then in the ascendancy.  Orphaned at 19, he lived initially in Pisa before moving to England, where he lived for some years and displayed a skill in the use of weapons that earned him victory in some tournaments and won the favour of King Edward I.  However, after committing a murder, even though it was for reasons of honour, he was forced to leave England and went to France.  Read more…

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The Ghetto - Venice’s Jewish quarter

District began as area of enforced segregation

The Doge of Venice, Leonardo Loredan, pronounced a decree creating Venice’s historic Ghetto on this day in 1516.  It meant that the Jewish population of the city, who were already obliged to live under restrictions in place since the 13th century, were forced to move to an island in the northwestern part of the Cannaregio sestiere and could not live in any other district.  There are a number of theories about how it came to be known as the ghetto, the most plausible of which is that the area was known to Venetians by the dialect word geto - foundry - as it used to be home to a factory making heavy iron cannons for the Venetian fleet. The word may have acquired an ‘h’ in its spelling to reflect its mispronunciation by the early inhabitants, mainly German jews, who incorrectly gave it a hard ‘g’ rather than the soft one of the dialect.   Whatever its etymology, ghetto subsequently became a word used to refer to any deprived urban area dominated by one ethnic or religious group, often with negative connotations of deliberate racial segregation.  Yet the history of the Venice Ghetto was not wholly about racial persecution, even though anti-Jewish sentiments played a part.  Read more…

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Enea Bossi - aviation pioneer

Claimed first pedal-powered flight in 1936

Enea Bossi, the aviator credited - albeit disputedly - with building the world's first human-powered aeroplane, was born on this day in 1888 in Milan.  It was claimed that in 1936 Bossi's Pedaliante aircraft flew for approximately 300 feet (91.4m) under pedal power alone.  Piloted by Emilio Casco, a robustly built major in the Italian army and an experienced cyclist, the Pedaliante - or pedal glider - is said to have taken off and covered the distance while remaining a few feet off the ground, although in the absence of independent verification it is not counted as the first authenticated human-powered flight, which did not take place until 1961 in Southampton, England.  The following year, as Bossi attempted to win a competition in Italy offering a prize of 100,000 lire for a successful human-powered flight, Casco succeeded in completing the required 1km (0.62 miles) distance at a height of 30 feet (9m) off the ground.  The Pedaliante, which had been built by the Italian glider manufacturer Vittorio Bonomi, was disqualified, however, on account of having used a catapult launch to achieve its altitude.  Read more…

Terence Hill – actor

Film star progressed from cowboy roles to popular parish priest

Terence Hill was born as Mario Girotti on this day in 1939 in Venice.  He became an actor as a child and went on to have many starring roles in films, particularly spaghetti westerns.  He took up the stage name Terence Hill after it was suggested as a publicity stunt by the producers of one of his films. It is said he had to pick from a list of names and chose one with his mother’s initials.  Terence Hill later became a household name in Italy as the actor who played the lead character in the long-running television series, Don Matteo.  Hill lived in Germany as a child but then his family moved to Rome, the capital of Italy’s film industry. When he was 12 years old, Hill was spotted by director Dino Risi and given a part in Vacanze col gangster, an adventure movie in which five youngsters help a dangerous gangster escape from prison.  Other film parts quickly followed and at the height of his popularity, Hill was said to be among the highest-paid actors in Italy.  His most famous films are They Call Me Trinity and My Name is Nobody, in which he appeared with Henry Fonda. Another of his films, Django, Prepare a Coffin was featured at the 64th Venice film festival in 2007.  Read more…

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Francesco Faà di Bruno - advocate for poor

Entered priesthood after appeal to Pope

The blessed Francesco Faà di Bruno, a talented academic from a wealthy family who devoted much energy to helping the poor, disadvantaged and elderly, was born on this day in 1825 near Alessandria in Piedmont.  He was a supporter of Italian unification and indeed was wounded in the cause as a commissioned lieutenant in the Piedmontese Army during the First Italian War of Independence. Yet he could not accept the anti-Catholic sentiments of many of the movement’s leaders.  At the age of 51 he became a priest, although only after the intervention of Pope Pius IX, who stepped in to overrule the Archbishop of Turin, who had rejected Francesco’s credentials on the grounds that he was too old.  He was beatified 100 years after his death by Pope John Paul II.  Francesco was the youngest of 12 children born to Lady Carolina Sappa de' Milanesi of her husband, Luigi, a wealthy landowner whose various titles included Marquis of Bruno, Count of Carentino, Lord of Fontanile, and Patrizio of Alessandria.  His family were of a strong Catholic faith and encouraged a concern for the poor among all their children.  Read more…

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Edoardo De Martino – painter

Naval officer who painted battle scenes was royal favourite 

Edoardo Federico De Martino, an artist who became famous for his paintings of warships and naval battles, was born on this day in 1838 in Meta, just outside Sorrento.  At the height of his success, De Martino worked in London, where his paintings of ships and famous British naval victories were held in high regard by Queen Victoria.  He went on to work as a painter for Queen Victoria’s son, King Edward VII, and he often accompanied the King on naval tours.  De Martino was born in the small town of Meta, to the northeast of Sorrento, which had a long history of boat building.  He served as an officer in the Italian Navy but by the time he was 30 his main interest was painting.  He became associated with the School of Resina, a group of artists who painted landscapes and contemporary scenes that gathered in Resina, a seaside resort south of Naples, now incorporated into the towns of Ercolano and Portici. Influenced by his fellow artists, De Martino eventually went to live and work in Naples.  He found fame after moving to London, where he painted scenes from the battles of Trafalgar, the Nile and Cape San Vincenzo.  Read more…

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Book of the Day:  Mercenaries and Their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy, by Michael Mallett

Michael Mallett's classic study of Renaissance warfare in Italy is as relevant today as it was when it was first published a generation ago. His lucid account of the age of the condottieri - the mercenary captains of fortune - and of the soldiers who fought under them is set in the wider context of the Italian society of the time and of the warring city-states who employed them. A fascinating picture emerges of the mercenaries themselves, of their commanders and their campaigns, but also of the way in which war was organized and practised in the Renaissance world. The book concentrates on the 15th century, a confused period of turbulence and transition when standing armies were formed in Italy and more modern types of military organisation took hold across Europe. But it also looks back to the middle ages and the 14th century, and forward to the Italian wars of the 16th century when foreign armies disputed the European balance of power on Italian soil. Mercenaries and Their Masters is a pioneering study, which embodies much scholarly research into this neglected, often misunderstood subject. It is essential reading for anyone who is keen to understand the history of warfare in the late mediæval period and the Renaissance.

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28 March

Fra Bartolommeo - Renaissance great

Friar rated equal of Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo

Fra Bartolommeo, the Renaissance artist recognised as one of the greatest religious painters, was born on this day in 1472 in Savignano di Vaiano, in Tuscany.  Also known as Baccio della Porta, a nickname he acquired because when he lived in Florence his lodgings were near what is now the Porta Romana, Bartolommeo created works that chart the development of artistic styles and fashion in Florence, from the earthly realism of the 15th century to the grandeur of High Renaissance in the 16th century.  His most famous works include Annunciation, Vision of St Bernard, Madonna and Child with Saints, The Holy Family, The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine, God the Father with SS Catherine of Siena and Mary Magdalene and Madonna della Misericordia.  Bartolommeo always prepared for any painting by making sketches, more than 1,000 in total over the years he was active.  Around 500 of them were discovered at the convent of St Catherine of Siena in Florence in 1722, where nuns were unaware of their significance.  He is also remembered for his striking profile portrait of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, the fanatical priest under whose influence he came in the 1490s.  Read more…

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Alberto Grimaldi - film producer

Spaghetti Western trilogy gave Naples producer his big break

Film producer Alberto Grimaldi, who boasts an extraordinary list of credits that includes Last Tango in Paris, The Canterbury Tales, Man of La Mancha, Fellini's Casanova, 1900, Ginger and Fred and Gangs of New York, was born in Naples on this day in 1925. Grimaldi trained as a lawyer and it was in that capacity that he initially found work in the cinema industry in the 1950s.  However, he could see the money-making potential in production and in the early 1960s set up his own company, Produzioni Europee Associate (PEA).  His first three productions, cashing in on the popularity in Italy of westerns, enjoyed some success but it was a meeting with Sergio Leone, the Italian director, that earned him his big break. Leone, whose first venture into the western genre, A Fistful of Dollars, had been an unexpected hit both for him and the young American actor, Clint Eastwood, was busy planning the sequel when a dispute arose with his producers over the cost of the movie.  As it happened, Grimaldi's first production, The Shadow of Zorro, had been filmed, like A Fistful of Dollars, on location in Spain.  Read more…

Anselmo Colzani - opera star

Baritone who had 16 seasons at the New York Met

Anselmo Colzani, an operatic baritone who was a fixture at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as La Scala in his home country, was born on this day in 1918 in Budrio, a town not far from Bologna.  His stage career continued until 1980, when he made his final stage appearance in one of his signature roles as Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca.  Although his repertoire was much wider, his reputation became strongly associated with the works of Puccini and Giuseppe Verdi, with Jack Rance in Puccini's Fanciulla del West and the title role of Verdi's Falstaff, as well as Amonasro in Aida and Iago in Otello among his most famous roles.  Colzani’s association with the Met began in March 1960 after he was approached by Rudolf Bing, the opera house’s general manager,  following the sudden death of Leonard Warren on stage during a performance of La Forza del Destino.  A few weeks later, Colzani took over Warren's role in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. It was not only the first time he had sung at the Met, but the first time he had sung the role.  Read more…

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Vincenzo Capone - prohibition agent

'War hero'-turned-lawman hid his family identity

Vincenzo Capone, older brother of the notorious mobster Al Capone, was born on this day in 1892 in Angri, a town in Campania located between Salerno and Naples.  While Al drifted into crime as a teenager, Vincenzo wanted a different life. After running away to join a circus, he changed his name and invented a new background to conceal his true identity. He acquired a reputation as a war hero before forging a career in law enforcement, notably pitting himself against the criminal gangs of his brother’s world as an agent for the Bureau of Prohibition.  The first in a family of nine children, Vincenzo had just one sibling, his brother Ralph, when his father, Gabriele, a barber, and his mother, Teresa, emigrated to the United States in 1895. His father continued to work as a hairdresser, while Teresa’s skills as a seamstress enabled her to find a job. They settled in Brooklyn.  Over the years that followed, the family grew and Vincenzo and Ralph were joined by Frank, Alphonse, Ermina, John, Albert, Matthew and Mafalda. Sadly, Ermina did not survive her infancy.  As they grew up, most of his younger brothers became involved with petty crime.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Italian Painters of the Renaissance, by Bernard Berenson

Bernard Berenson's authoritative and insightful book, The Italian Painters of the Renaissance, offers readers a chance to immerse themselves in the captivating world of Renaissance art. In a profound and comprehensive analysis of the artists and masterpieces that defined this golden age of creativity and innovation, Berenson meticulously examines the works of key figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and Botticelli, among others. Through his erudite and engaging narrative, he explores the distinct styles, techniques, and contributions of these artists, shedding light on how they collectively transformed the art world and laid the foundation for modern Western art.  Berenson delves into the historical and cultural context of the Renaissance, providing readers with a deeper understanding of the social, political, and philosophical currents that influenced these painters. He eloquently discusses the interplay between art and humanism, the revival of classical antiquity, and the burgeoning spirit of scientific inquiry that characterized the period.  More than 70 years after it was originally published, Berenson's work remains a cornerstone in the study of Renaissance art, ensuring that the brilliance of this era continues to captivate and educate future generations.

Bernard Berenson (1865-1959) was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance, regarded among collectors in the early 20th century as the pre-eminent authority on Renaissance art. He wrote around 20 books on the subject. Born in what is now Lithuania, he died in Florence, where his residence in Settignano became the The Harvard Centre for Italian Renaissance Studies.

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27 March

Sara Gama - footballer 

Role model who captained Italy Women to first World Cup quarter-final

The footballer Sara Gama, a pioneer for women’s professional football in Italy who as captain led Italy’s national team to their best performance at a FIFA Women’s World Cup, was born on this day in 1989 in Trieste.  Central defender Gama, who retired from international football in 2024 with 140 caps but still captains Juventus in the Women’s Serie A, is one of only eight female players in the Italian football Hall of Fame. She has become a role model for young girls wishing to make a career in football.  Only three Italian women have won more international caps, the peak of Gama’s international career arriving in 2019 when Italy’s women qualified under her captaincy for the World Cup finals for the first time in 20 years. Italy's quarter-final appearance was their best performance in the history of the competition. In a highly-decorated club career, Gama is a six-times Serie A champion - once with Brescia, five times with Juventus. In addition, she has also won the Coppa Italia three times and the Supercoppa Italiana five times.  Gama was also one of the driving forces as Italian women’s football turned fully professional in 2022. Read more…

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Joe Sentieri - singer and actor

Career remembered for international hit song

The singer, songwriter and actor Joe Sentieri, who released seven albums and around 100 singles over the course of a career spanning more than a quarter of a century, died on this day in 2007 in the Adriatic coastal city of Pescara.  Although he enjoyed considerable success in his own right, he tends to be remembered most for his association with an Italian song that became an international hit after it was translated into English.  Sentieri’s 1961 song Uno dei tanti (One of the Many) was given English lyrics by the American producing partners Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and repackaged as I (Who Have Nothing).  A hit first for the American soul and R&B star Ben E King, it was covered with considerable success by the British artists Tom Jones and later Shirley Bassey. The Jones version reached No 14 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, while Bassey’s climbed to No 6 in the UK singles chart in 1963 and became a staple of her concert repertoire.  Countless other cover versions were released over time, by performers as diverse as Petula Clark and Joe Cocker, Katherine Jenkins and Gladys Knight.  Read more…

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Alessandro La Marmora - military general

Founder of Italy's famed Bersaglieri corps

The general who founded the Italian army's famous Bersaglieri corps was born on this day in 1799 in Turin.  Alessandro Ferrero La Marmora was one of 16 children born to the Marquis Celestino Ferrero della Marmora and his wife Raffaella.  The family had a strong military tradition. Alessandro was one of four of the male children who grew up to serve as generals.  La Marmora was a captain when he came up with the idea for the Bersaglieri in 1836.  He had spent much time in France, England, Bavaria, Saxony, Switzerland, and the Austrian county of Tyrol studying armies and tactics and he approached King Carlo Alberto of Piedmont-Sardinia with the idea of creating a new corps of light infantry.  He envisaged a mobile elite corps similar to the French chasseurs and Austrian jägers, trained to a high physical level and all crack marksmen.  He suggested they should act as scouts, providing screen for the main army,operate as skirmishers and use their sharpshooting skills to weaken the flanks of the enemy during a battle.  From this proposal emerged the Bersaglieri, soldiers who were trained to be bold, carrying out their duties with patriotic fervour despite personal danger.  Read more…

Luca Zaia - politician

Popular president of Veneto was tipped as future PM

The politician Luca Zaia, who has been spoken of as a possible candidate to be Italy’s prime minister, was born on this day in 1968 in Conegliano, in the Veneto.  Zaia, who has been president of the Veneto region since 2010, received an approval rating of 56 per cent in a 2018 poll to find the most popular regional governor, the highest rating of any of Italy’s regional presidents.  A member of the Lega party, formerly Lega Nord (Northern League), he was suggested by some commentators as a dark horse for the position of President of the Council of Ministers - the official title of Italy’s prime minister.  Before successfully standing to be Veneto’s president in 2010 he had served in national government as Minister of Agriculture under Silvio Berlusconi.  At the 2018 election,the populist Movimento Cinque Stelle (Five Star Movement) won the biggest proportion of the vote at just over 32 per cent and the Lega achieved its highest share at just under 18 per cent, almost as many as the Democratic Party.   The Lega, whose traditional position was to campaign for an independent northern Italy, have been branded far-right because of the anti-immigration and anti-EU rhetoric of some of their leading figures.  Read more…

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Gianluigi Lentini - transfer record breaker

AC Milan outbid Juventus for Torino star

Gianluigi Lentini, who was for four years the world's most expensive footballer, was born on this day in 1969.  A winger with Torino known for outstanding dribbling skills, crossing accuracy and lightning pace, Lentini was the subject of a fierce bidding war between Torino's city neighbours, Juventus, and defending Serie A champions AC Milan in the summer of 1992 which ended with Milan paying a fee of around £13 million for the 23-year-old star.  It was the second time in the space of a few weeks that Milan had paid a world record sum for a player, having signed the French striker Jean-Pierre Papin from Marseille for £10 million.  At a time when the Italian league was awash with cash,the Papin record itself had been eclipsed a short while before the Lentini deal was agreed when Juventus paid Sampdoria £12 million for striker Gianluca Vialli.  The Lentini record would remain until Newcastle United forked out £15 million for the Blackburn and England striker Alan Shearer in 1996.  Born in Carmagnola, a small town around 30km (18 miles) south of Turin, Lentini made his Serie A debut for Torino as a 17-year-old.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Made in Italy: Studies in Popular Music, edited by Franco Fabbri and Goffredo Plastino

Made in Italy serves as a comprehensive and rigorous introduction to the history, sociology, and musicology of contemporary Italian popular music. Each essay, written by a leading scholar of Italian music, covers the major figures, styles, and social contexts of pop music in Italy and provides adequate context so readers understand why the figure or genre under discussion is of lasting significance to Italian popular music. The book first presents a general description of the history and background of popular music, followed by essays organized into thematic sections: Themes; Singer-Songwriters; and Stories.

Franco Fabbri is Professor of Popular Music, and Techniques and Cultures of Sound and Music, at the University of Torino in Italy. He has published widely and in many languages on subjects such as pop music, genre theory and music in the digital age. Goffredo Plastino is Reader in Ethnomusicology at Newcastle University in the UK. He has co-edited multiple volumes on popular music and has published in several languages on folk music, jazz, and organology.

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Sara Gama - footballer

Role model who captained Italy Women to first World Cup quarter-final

Sara Gama won 140 caps for the Italy 
national women's football team

The footballer Sara Gama, a pioneer for women’s professional football in Italy who as captain led Italy’s national team to their best performance at a FIFA Women’s World Cup, was born on this day in 1989 in Trieste.

Central defender Gama, who retired from international football in 2024 with 140 caps but still captains Juventus in the Women’s Serie A, is one of only eight female players in the Italian football Hall of Fame. She has become a role model for young girls wishing to make a career in football.

Only three Italian women have won more international caps, the peak of Gama’s international career arriving in 2019 when Italy’s women qualified under her captaincy for the World Cup finals for the first time in 20 years. Italy's quarter-final appearance was their best performance in the history of the competition.

In a highly-decorated club career, Gama is a six-times Serie A champion - once with Brescia, five times with Juventus. In addition, she has also won the Coppa Italia three times and the Supercoppa Italiana five times.  

Gama was also one of the driving forces as Italian women’s football turned fully professional in 2022, having been at the forefront of a campaign to remove the wage cap previously imposed on women players and introduce a contractual right to health insurance and pensions.

Gama played in France
with Paris St Germain

Born to an Italian mother and a Congolese father, Gama was raised from a young age by her mother and her extended family, who largely originated in Croatia. She recalled recently that she was so fanatical about football as a child that the only time she did not have a ball at her feet was when she was swimming in the sea at nearby Barcola or Miramare Castle.

It was unusual for young girls to play football in the 1990s but Gama’s relatives willingly helped, particularly her grandfather, who would drive her long distances in search of opportunities to play. Her first, mixed team - she was the only girl - was at Muggia, near the border with Slovenia, while her first all-girls team, for which she played for six years, was 22km (14 miles) along the coast in the other direction at Villaggio del Pescatore.

Gama was paid to play for the first time when she signed for Tavagnacco, a Serie A Femminile team based just outside Udine, 80km (50 miles) northwest of Trieste, although the €100 per month she received was intended only to cover expenses.

Tavagnacco, though not a name familiar with fans of men’s football in Italy, had a good women’s team. They finished third in Serie A and twice reached the later stages of the Coppa Italia and the exposure it brought was enough to see Gama selected for the Italy national squad, winning her first call-up as a 16-year-old for a World Cup qualifier against Ukraine in 2006.

Although her career was on a firmly upwards trajectory, Gama did not neglect her education, graduating from high school in Trieste and enrolling at Udine University, where she obtained a degree in foreign languages. She speaks French, English and Spanish as well as her native tongue. 

As a player, meanwhile, she joined another Serie A club, Brescia, where her form earned her a first professional contract to play in France for Paris St Germain. Ultimately, injuries wrecked that move, although she did play in a Champions League final with the French champions.

Gama is women's captain at Juventus,
where she has won five Serie A titles 

Back with Brescia, Gama became a Serie A champion for the first time in 2016 before taking the decision to sign for Juventus, who had established a women’s team for the first time and wanted Gama to join them as captain. 

Under her captaincy, Juventus won the Serie A title five seasons in a row between 2017 and 2022. The success of the women’s team captured the attention of the club’s supporters so much that when they were finally allowed to play a match in the Allianz Stadium, where the Turin club’s men’s team play their home fixtures, a crowd of more than 39,000 spectators turned out to watch them beat rivals Fiorentina. It was almost three times the previous attendance record for a women’s match in Italy.

She was named as Italy’s captain by then-head coach Antonio Cabrini in 2014. As well as reaching the World Cup quarter-finals in 2019, losing to the Netherlands, Gama and the azzurri were twice runners-up in the prestigious Algarve Cup in Portugal, in 2020 and 2022. On the first of those occasions, they reached the final but withdrew because the Covid-19 pandemic was taking hold at home.

Milena Bertolini, who had succeeded Cabrini as coach of the national team in 2017, caused a shock by omitting Gama from her squad for the 2023 World Cup, even though she was still captain. Bertolini’s successor, Andrea Soncin, recalled her, which allowed her to announce her retirement from international football on her own terms, making her final appearance in February 2024.

At the age of 36, Gama remains captain of Juventus, for whom she recently completed 150 appearances.

The Castello di Miramare is located at the point
of a spur jutting out into the Gulf of Trieste

Travel tip:

The Castello di Miramare stands over the harbour at Grignano, one of the places along the Gulf of Trieste waterfront where Sara Gama would go swimming as a child. The castle is located on the end of a rocky spur jutting into the gulf, about 8km (5 miles) from Trieste itself. The Habsburg castle was built between 1856 and 1860 for Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, based on a design by Carl Junker.  The castle's grounds include an extensive cliff and seashore park of 22 hectares (54 acres) designed by the archduke, which features many tropical species of trees and plants.  Legend has it that Ferdinand chose the spot to build the castle after taking refuge from a storm in the gulf in the sheltered harbour of Grignano that sits behind the spur.

The Piazza Unità d’Italia is the large main square
of the maritime city of Trieste in northern Italy

Travel tip:

Trieste, where Sara Gama was born, had been disputed territory for thousands of years until it was granted to Italy in 1922, following the First World War.  Previously, it had been one of the most important cities of the Austrian Empire (since 1867 Austria-Hungary), thanks to the development of a thriving shipping industry that brought a period of prosperity. After the Second World War, it was the capital of the Free Territory of Trieste, staying for nine years under Allied Military administration. It officially became part of the Italian Republic in 1954 and since 1963 it has been the capital of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, although the final border dispute with the part of the former Yugoslavia that is now Slovenia was not settled until the 1975 Treaty of Osimo. The area today is again prosperous and Trieste is a lively, cosmopolitan city and a major centre for trade and ship building.  The city retains a coffee house culture that dates back to the Habsburg era.  Caffè Tommaseo, in Piazza Nicolò Tommaseo, near the grand open space of the Piazza Unità d’Italia, is the oldest in the city, dating back to 1830.

Also on this day:

1799: The birth of military leader Alessandro La Marmora

1968: The birth of politician Luca Zaia

1969: The birth of footballer Gianluigi Lentini

2007: The death of singer Joe Sentieri

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