25 September

NEW - Elio Germano - actor 

Contemporary star has won multiple awards

Elio Germano, one of Italy’s most acclaimed contemporary actors, was born in Rome on this day in 1980.  Germano has won six David di Donatello awards - Italy’s highest film honour - across a career in which he has won praise for the emotional depth of his performances in films often notable for their social realism.  The prestigious prize, named after the bronze statue of the biblical hero created by the Renaissance sculptor Donatello, is awarded each year by the  Academy of Italian Cinema. Only four actors have won the award more times since their inception in 1955. He won it five times as best actor, the first coming in 2007 in what was his breakthrough year, cast in one of the lead roles in Daniele Luchetti’s Mio fratello è figlio unico - My Brother Is an Only Child.  Four years later, Germano teamed up with Luchetti again to pick up the best actor award for a second time for his performance in La nostra vita - Our Life - for which he also shared a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.  Read more… 

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Nino Cerruti - fashion designer

Turn of fate led to a life in haute couture 

The fashion designer Nino Cerruti, who used the family textile business as the platform on which to build one of the most famous names in haute couture, was born on this day in 1930 in Biella in northern Piedmont.  At its peak, the Cerruti brand became synonymous with Hollywood glitz and the movie industry, both as the favourite label of many top stars and the supplier of clothing ranges for a string of box office hits.  Yet Cerruti might have lived a very different life had fate not intervened. Although Lanificio Fratelli Cerruti - the textile mills set up by his grandfather, Antonio, and his great uncles, Stefano and Quintino - had been the family firm since 1881, Nino wanted to be a journalist.  But when his father, Silvio, who had taken over the running of the business from Antonio, died prematurely, Nino was almost obligated to take over, even though he was only 20 years old. Read more… 

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Francesco Borromini - architect

Rival of Bernini and Da Cortona was pioneer of Roman Baroque

The architect Francesco Borromini, who was a pivotal figure alongside Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona in the development of the Roman Baroque style in the 17th century, was born on this day in 1599 in the village of Bissone, now in Switzerland but at that time part of the Duchy of Lombardy.  Borromini, who was born Francesco Castelli, gained widespread recognition for his innovative design of the small San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane church on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, which was his first independent commission and is regarded by some historians as one of the starting points for Italian Baroque.  His other major works include the church of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, which was part of Rome’s Sapienza University, the Re Magi Chapel, the Palazzo Spada and the church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte.  Read more…

Agostino Bassi – biologist

Scientist who rescued the silk industry in Italy

Bacteriologist Agostino Bassi, who was the first to expound the parasitic theory of infection, was born on this day in 1773 at Mairago near Lodi in Lombardy.  He developed his theory by studying silkworms, which helped him discover that many diseases are caused by microorganisms.  This was 10 years in advance of the work of Louis Pasteur.  In 1807 Bassi began an investigation into the silkworm disease mal de segno, also known as muscardine, which was causing serious economic losses in Italy and France.  After 25 years of research, Bassi was able to demonstrate that the disease was contagious and was caused by a microscopic parasitic fungus.  He concluded that the organism, at the time named botrytis paradoxa, but now known as beauvaria bassiana in his honour, was transmitted among the worms by contact and by infected food.  Read more…

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Zucchero Fornaciari – singer

Sweet success for writer and performer

The singer-songwriter now known simply as Zucchero was born Adelmo Fornaciari on this day in 1955 in Roncocesi, a small village near Reggio Emilia.  In a career lasting more than 30 years, he has sold more than 50 million records and has become popular all over the world.  He is hailed as ‘the father of the Italian blues’, having introduced blues music to Italy, and he has won many awards for his music. He has also been given the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.  As a young boy, Zucchero lived in the Tuscan seaside resort of Forte dei Marmi, where he sang in the choir and learned to play the organ at his local church.  He became fond of soul music and began to write his own songs and play the tenor saxophone. He started playing in bands while studying veterinary medicine but gave up his studies to follow his dream of becoming a singer.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Nino Cerruti: Fashion Icon of the Century, by Cindi Cook

With a text in English and German, this book is an entertaining and gorgeously illustrated homage to the great Italian fashion designer, whose deconstructed jackets and supple fabrics revolutionised menswear in the 1960s. Cerruti took over the family business, which his father established in 1881, at the age of 20 and immediately began to make his mark. In 1965, he opened a boutique in Paris where he launched women's fashion, being the first designer to focus on pants (this at a time when many restaurants in Paris denied women entry if they were wearing pants). He dressed generations of movie stars, both on and off-screen, including Jean-Paul Belmondo, Yves Montand, Catherine Deneuve, Richard Gere (wearing a Cerruti suit in Pretty Woman), Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, Tom Hanks, and Kathleen Turner, among others. Nino Cerruti: Fashion Icon of the Century showcases the elegant nonchalance and uncompromising creativity that went into his designs, and follows his career as one of the great pioneers of 20th century fashion.

Cindi Cook is a writer and editor currently working as a Paris correspondent for an international news agency. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, New York Post, Women's Wear Daily, Hamptons, and numerous other newspapers and magazines.

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