28 May

Luigi Capuana - author and journalist

Sicilian was leading figure in verismo movement

The author and journalist Luigi Capuana, one of the most important writers of the verismo movement that flourished in Italy in the late 19th century, was born on this day in 1839 in Mineo, a medieval town in southeast Sicily, in the province of Catania.  Verismo - meaning ‘realism’ - sought to portray society and humanity in the manner of a photograph, objectively representing life as it really was, stripped of romanticism, usually among the lower classes, using explicit descriptive detail and realistic dialogue.  Capuana, who was influenced by the French writers Honoré de Balzac and Émile Zola, and his fellow Sicilian Giovanni Verga were two of the earliest advocates of the movement, which was at its peak in the final quarter of the 19th century.  It declined in popularity in the early 20th century but its principles were revived in the neorealism movement that dominated Italian cinema in the immediate years after World War II.  Read more…

________________________________________

Muzio Attendolo Sforza - condottiero

Mercenary captain who founded Sforza dynasty

Muzio Attendolo Sforza, who is recognised as the founder of the Sforza dynasty that ruled the Duchy of Milan from 1450 to 1535, was born on this day in 1369 in Cotignola, a town in Emilia-Romagna about 25km (16 miles) west of Ravenna.  A career soldier who made his fortune as a mercenary captain - a condottiero - Muzio was a key figure in many of the wars between rival states across Northern Italy in the late 14th and early 15th century, eventually losing his life on the battlefield.  He acquired the name Sforza initially as a nickname but it was eventually adopted as a family name. His illegitimate son, Francesco, one of Muzio’s 16 known children, became the first Sforza Duke of Milan through his marriage to Bianca Maria Visconti, whose father, the last Visconti Duke of Milan, died without a male heir.  Some accounts have it that the Sforza family grew from peasant origins. Read more…

______________________________________

Caravaggio and a death in Campo Marzio

Hot-tempered artist killed man in Rome in row over a woman

The brilliant late Renaissance artist Caravaggio committed the murder that would cause him to spend the remainder of his life on the run on this day in 1606.  Renowned for his fiery temperament and history of violent acts as well as for the extraordinary qualities of his paintings, Caravaggio is said to have killed Ranuccio Tomassoni, described in some history books as a ‘wealthy scoundrel’, in the Campo Marzio district of central Rome, not far from the Piazza Monte D'Oro.  The incident led to Caravaggio being condemned to death by order of the incumbent pope, Paul V, and then fleeing the city, first to Naples, eventually landing in Malta.  It was thought that the two had a row over a game of tennis, which was gaining popularity in Italy at the time, and that the dispute escalated into a brawl, which was not unusual for Caravaggio. Read more…

_____________________________________

Geminiano Giacomelli – composer

Farnese duke encouraged musician to develop his talent

One of the most popular composers of opera in the early 18th century in Italy, Geminiano Giacomelli (sometimes known as Jacomelli) was born on this day in 1692 at Colorno near Parma.  From 1724, when his opera Ipermestra was performed for the first time, up to his death in 1740, Giacomelli composed 19 operas.  His best known work was Cesare in Egitto (Caesar in Egypt), which he produced in 1735.  As a young child he had studied singing, counterpoint and the harpsichord with Giovanni Maria Capelli, organist and composer at the Farnese court and maestro di cappella at the cathedral in Parma.  After moving to Piacenza, Giacomelli became maestro di cappella in the ducal parish of San Fermo. In 1719 he became maestro di cappella to the Farnese court and also at the Chiesa della Madonna della Steccata. Read more…

The night Maria Callas made an audience weep

La Scala witnesses a stunning performance

Maria Callas gave a stunning performance that has gone down in history as her greatest ever portrayal of Violetta in La traviata on this day in 1955 at La Scala opera house in Milan.  After the opening night of the production on 28 May, it was reported in the press that Callas had driven the audience into a frenzy with her wonderful singing and powerful acting as she played the part of Giuseppe Verdi’s doomed heroine, who was a beautiful courtesan.  The character of Violetta is considered by opera experts to be one of the three finest roles ever portrayed by Callas and it is ranked alongside her performances in Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma and Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.  The staging by director Luchino Visconti for the 1955 production of La traviata provided the perfect setting for Callas with its ornate décor and costumes.  Read more…

______________________________________

The Last Supper goes back on display

Leonardo’s masterpiece put on show again at last

After more than 20 years of careful restoration, the world famous wall painting by Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, was put back on display for visitors on this day in 1999.  The masterpiece, which shows the different expressions on the faces of the disciples at the moment Jesus says the words, ‘One of you will betray me’, was finally back where it belonged on the wall of the refectory of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.  Commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, Leonardo began work on The Last Supper (known as Il Cenacolo in Italian) in 1495 and he completed it four years later. He felt traditional fresco painting techniques would not adequately capture the intensity he wanted so he experimented by painting on to dry plaster on the wall of the refectory.  But his new method was not as durable as the traditional one and the painting deteriorated quickly. Read more…

______________________________________

Leandro Jayarajah - cricketer

Father was a pioneer of game in Italy

Leandro Jayarajah, the former captain and head coach of Roma Capannelle Cricket Club, was born on this day in 1987 in Rome.  His father, Francis Alphonsus Jayarajah, usually known as Alfonso, is a Sri Lankan national who founded what became the Capannelle club in 1978 and was one of the pioneers of organised cricket in Italy.  Alfonso was co-founder in 1980 of the Federazione Cricket Italiana, under whose auspices an Italian cricket championship has been played since 1983.  Capannelle, which takes its name from the racecourse in Rome, the Ippodromo Capannelle, where the club plays its home matches, have been Serie A champions on several occasions, including under Leandro’s leadership in 2013.  The club began life as the Commonwealth Wandering Giants Cricket Club, changing its name when the chance to use the green space in the middle of the racecourse as a permanent home presented itself in 1983.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Book of the Day: The Benefactor: A Novella, by Luigi Capuana; translated by Nicolina Lettieri

Luigi Capuana’s The Benefactor is a long novella written at the turn of the 20th century, one of the most accomplished examples of Italian Verismo, a literary movement devoted to the realistic observation of social life and human psychology.  The story is set in the small Sicilian town of Settefonti, where the unexpected arrival of an Englishman, Pietro Kyllea, disturbs the fragile balance of local society. Kyllea announces his intention to purchase vast stretches of neglected land in the barren district of Tirantello and transform them into productive farmland. What appears at first as a practical economic project soon becomes a source of suspicion, fascination, and rivalry among landowners, notables, and townspeople. Through the reactions of the community, Capuana explores the conflict between tradition and change, between entrenched social hierarchies and the disruptive force of individual initiative. Rumours spread, alliances shift, and hidden tensions surface, revealing the psychological mechanisms that govern collective behaviour. Beneath the outward simplicity of events, the narrative exposes deeper questions of pride, illusion, moral responsibility, and social power.

Luigi Capuana was an Italian critic and writer who was one of the earliest Italian advocates of realism. Capuana influenced many writers, including the novelist Giovanni Verga and the playwright Luigi Pirandello, who were his friends.  Nicolina Lettieri is a writer and translator. 

Buy from Amazon

Home

27 May

Giuseppe Tornatore - writer and director

Oscar winner for Cinema Paradiso

The screenwriter and director Giuseppe Tornatore, the creator of the Oscar-winning classic movie Cinema Paradiso, was born on this day in 1956 in Bagheria, a small town a few kilometres along the coast from the Sicilian capital Palermo.  Known as Nuovo Cinema Paradiso in Italy, Tornatore’s best-known work won the award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 62nd Academy Awards following its release in 1988.  The movie, written by Tornatore, tells the story of Salvatore, a successful film director based in Rome who returns to his native Sicily after hearing of the death of the man who kindled his love of the cinema, the projectionist at the picture house in his local village, who became a father figure to him after his own father was killed on wartime national service.  Much of the film consists of flashbacks to Salvatore’s life as a child in the immediate post-war years. Read more…

___________________________________

Lucrezia Crivelli – lady in waiting

Mystery of the beautiful woman in painting by Leonardo

Lucrezia Crivelli, mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, who was for a long time believed to be the subject of a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, died on this day in 1508 in Canneto sull’Oglio in Lombardy.  Crivelli served as a lady in waiting to Ludovico Sforza’s wife, Beatrice d’Este, from 1475 until Beatrice’s death in 1497.  She also became the Duke’s mistress and gave birth to his son, Giovanni Paolo, who went on to become the first Marquess of Caravaggio and a celebrated condottiero.  Crivelli lived for many years in the Castello of Canneto near Mantua under the protection of Isabella d’Este, the elder sister of Beatrice, until her death in 1508.  Coincidentally, her former lover, Ludovico Sforza, is believed to have died on the same day in 1508 while being kept prisoner in the dungeons of the castle of Loches en Touraine in France. Read more…

Giovanni Battista Beccaria - physicist and mathematician

Monk who explained how lightning conductors work

The physicist, mathematician and Piarist monk Giovanni Battista Beccaria, whose work with electricity confirmed and expanded upon the discoveries of the American polymath and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, died in Turin on this day in 1781.  At the age of 64 he had been ill and in pain for some years but was working right up to his death on a treatise on meteors.  For much of his life, Beccaria had been occupied in the study of electricity with particular focus on the discoveries made by Franklin, with whom he corresponded regularly.  He successfully explained such things as the workings of the Leyden Jar and the Franklin square, two devices in which static electricity could be captured and stored, and why pointed objects could discharge electrified objects at a distance.  He was also able to explain why lightning rods, or lightning conductors, protect a building. Read more…

______________________________________

Bruno Vespa – television journalist

TV host opened the door to late night political debate

Bruno Vespa, the founding host of the television programme Porta a Porta, was born on this day in 1944 in L’Aquila in Abruzzo.  Vespa has fronted the late night television talk show, which literally means ‘Door to Door’ in English, since Italy's state broadcaster Rai launched the programme in 1996.  Vespa became a radio announcer with Rai when he was 18 and began hosting the news programme Telegiornale Rai a few years later.  He had begun his career in journalism by writing sports features for the L’Aquila edition of the newspaper, Il Tempo, when he was just 16 years old.  On television, he became well known for interviewing influential world figures just before they became famous, an example being his programme featuring Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, the year before he was elected as Pope John Paul II.  Read more…

____________________________________

Book of the Day: Giuseppe Tornatore: Emotion, Cognition, Cinema, by William Hope

The nature of the spectator’s emotional and intellectual engagement with films has attracted increasing critical scrutiny over the past decade, and theoretical frameworks have been elaborated to analyse how and why viewers are moved by what they see on screen. Viewer responses are influenced by factors including genre expectations, involuntary physiological reactions to what is seen and heard, shifting attachments towards screen characters, and by specific devices within a film’s mise-en-scène, such as lighting and colour. Giuseppe Tornatore: Emotion, Cognition, Cinema is a film-by-film analysis of the work of the Oscar-winning director, a study that examines the nature of the strong affective charge that characterizes his films, and which also explores the cognitive and intellectual appeal of Tornatore’s cinema. The volume illustrates the ways in which an affective and intellectual synergy can develop between a film’s aesthetics and its conceptual agenda, as instantiated by films such as the celebrated Cinema Paradiso. The affective power that characterizes Tornatore’s work has long been acknowledged by critics, and while analysing the configurations of visual, aural, and narrative devices that generate such intensely poignant viewing experiences, the volume also elucidates the ways in which the director’s stylistic approach intensifies the significance of a range of social and cultural questions affecting Western society, issues that lie at the heart of his films.

William Hope is a lecturer in Italian language and film at the University of Salford, and his main research area is Italian cinema from the 1970s to the present day. 

Buy from Amazon

Home

26 May

NEW - Francesco Berni - poet

The short turbulent life of a witty satirist   

Tuscan writer Francesco Berni, whose satirical verses poked fun at two Popes and one of his contemporary Italian poets, died on this day in 1535 in Florence.  Berni became known for his distinctive style of burlesque writing, which imitated serious literary forms in a humorous way. This technique became known as ‘bernesco’ and was a device later used by many other poets.  Some people believed his death, when he was in his thirties, was due to having been poisoned in revenge for refusing to take part in a plot to kill either Ippolito de’ Medici or an Italian Cardinal named Giovanni Salviati, but this is not certain.  Berni was born in either 1497 or 1498 in Lamporecchio in Tuscany. His father, Niccoló, who was a doctor, came from an established Florentine family, but he was poor. Berni spent his early years living in Florence, moving to Rome when he was about 20. Read more…

______________________________________

Alberto Ascari - racing driver

F1 champion killed amid eerie echoes of father's death

Racing driver Alberto Ascari, who was twice Formula One champion, died on this day in 1955 in an accident at the Monza racing circuit in Lombardy, just north of Milan.  A hugely popular driver, his death shocked Italy and motor racing fans in particular.  What many found particularly chilling was a series of uncanny parallels with the death of his father, Antonio Ascari, who was also a racing driver, 30 years previously.  Alberto had gone to Monza to watch his friend, Eugenio Castellotti, test a Ferrari 750 Monza sports car, which they were to co-drive in the 1000 km Monza race.  Contracted to Lancia at the time, although he had been given dispensation to drive for Ferrari in the race, Ascari was not supposed to test drive the car, yet he could not resist trying a few laps, even though he was dressed in a jacket and tie, in part to ensure he had not lost his nerve after a serious accident a few days earlier.  Read more…

________________________________________

Napoleon becomes King of Italy

French Emperor places Iron Crown of Lombardy on his own head

Napoleon Bonaparte was declared King of Italy on this day in 1805 in Milan.  He crowned himself at a ceremony in the Duomo using the Iron Crown of Lombardy.  The title King of Italy signified that Napoleon was the head of the new Kingdom of Italy, which was at that time a vassal state of the French Empire. The area controlled by Napoleon had previously been known as a republic, with Napoleon as its president.  But Napoleon had become the Emperor of France the year before and had decided Italy should become a Kingdom ruled by himself, or a member of his family.  Before the ceremony, the Iron Crown had to be fetched from Monza. The crown consisted of a circlet of gold with a central iron band, which according to legend was beaten out of a nail from Christ’s true cross, found by Saint Helena in the Holy Land. Read more…

Luca Toni - World Cup winner

Striker one of stars of 2006 triumph in Germany

The footballer Luca Toni, who played an important role in Italy’s achievement in winning the soccer World Cup in Germany in 2006, was born on this day in 1977 in the small town of Pavullo nel Frignano in Emilia-Romagna.  Toni scored twice in Italy’s 3-0 victory over Ukraine in the quarter-finals before starting as the Azzurri’s main striker in both the semi-final triumph over the hosts and the final against France, in which they eventually prevailed on penalties. Toni hit the bar with one header and saw another disallowed for offside in the final.  The goals were among 16 he scored in 47 appearances for the national team but it was his remarkable club career that makes him stand out in the history of Italian football.  A muscular 6ft 4ins in height and hardly the most mobile of forwards, he was never seen as a great player, more an old-fashioned centre forward.  Read more…

______________________________________

Book of the Day:  Renaissance Florence on Five Florins a Day, by Charles FitzRoy  

This fascinating and fact-packed guide provides all the practical advice you need for a journey back to the golden age of one of Europe’s great cultural cities. Take in the sights and sounds, marvel at Brunelleschi’s sublime cathedral dome, wonder at the sculptures and paintings that have made this the art capital of its day, and lose yourself in the thrilling (and often riotous) local feasts and festivals. Along the way, you will find out about the most important and influential families in Florence, the up-and-coming artists Michelangelo and Leonardo, and the humanist philosophers battling the Church. Here, too, is the darker side of life in the city, from its taverns and brothels to the grisly punishments meted out to wrongdoers and the reckless rabble-rousing of Savonarola. Also featured is invaluable advice if you’re planning to travel outside of Florence to the stunning cities of Pisa, Siena, Arezzo and Cortona – including how to recognize and avoid bandits, mercenaries and condottieri. Renaissance Florence on Five Florins a Day will appeal to travellers, museum-goers or anyone who wonders what it would really have been like to visit this model of Renaissance culture.

Charles FitzRoy is a direct descendant of Charles II. Educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, he trained as an art historian under Professor David Watkin. He is the author of Italy: A Grand Tour for the Modern Traveller and Italy Revealed, and runs Fine Art Travel, a company that organises cultural tours throughout Europe, including Italy.

Buy from Amazon

Home

Francesco Berni - poet

The short turbulent life of a witty satirist   

Francesco Berni depicted in a
18th century drawing 

Tuscan writer Francesco Berni, whose satirical verses poked fun at two Popes and one of his contemporary Italian poets, died on this day in 1535 in Florence.

Berni became known for his distinctive style of burlesque writing, which imitated serious literary forms in a humorous way. This technique became known as ‘bernesco’ and was a device later used by many other poets.

Some people believed his death, when he was in his thirties, was due to having been poisoned in revenge for refusing to take part in a plot to kill either Ippolito de’ Medici or an Italian Cardinal named Giovanni Salviati, but this is not certain.

Berni was born in either 1497 or 1498 in Lamporecchio in Tuscany. His father, Niccoló, who was a doctor, came from an established Florentine family, but he was poor. Berni spent his early years living in Florence and, when he was about 20, he entered the service of Cardinal Bernardo Bibbiena and his nephew, Angelo Dovizi, and moved to Rome with them.

At the time of the election of Pope Adrian VI, Berni circulated some witty verses that may have caused offence and he then found himself having to leave the capital city for a while and moved to live in Abruzzo. He returned in 1523 and accepted a post as a clerk, or a secretary, to Gian Matteo Giberti, who had an important role as datary to Pope Clement VII, which was a powerful post, responsible for processing official documents, granting dispensations and conferring benefices.

However, Berni found his duties working for Giberti irritating but, in the meantime, earned himself some celebrity because of his inventive satirical poetry. In about 1530, he was able to relinquish his post to concentrate on his writing, having obtained a canonry in Florence Cathedral, an office that relieved his precarious financial situation.

The writer’s Tuscan translation of Orlando Innamorato, a work that had been composed by the Renaissance author Matteo Maria Boiardo, went on to eclipse the original version, as it was preferred by many readers. The original had been written in the less popular Ferrarese dialect, making it more difficult for a lot of people to read. 

Pope Clement VII was one of Berni's
targets for his satirical verse

Berni’s play La Catrina, which was described as a lively, rustic farce, was also highly regarded at the time, but Berni was to become more well-known for his burlesque poetry.

Some of his output is regarded as savagely satirical, such as his verses attacking his fellow Tuscan poet, Pietro Aretino, and those aimed at the Popes, Adrian VI and Clement VII. 

However, some of his most popular work, which was written in the style of Petrarchan verse, was inspired by relatively unimportant, everyday subjects, such as a poem he wrote mocking his friend’s shorn beard.

Sadly, Berni died, at the age of about 38. After his death, a story circulated that he had been poisoned by Duke Alessandro de’ Medici for having refused to poison the Duke’s cousin, Ippolito de’ Medici, but this has never been proved one way or the other. It was also claimed in a letter written at the time that Berni died from ingesting the poison that he had refused to administer to Cardinal Giovanni Salviati, a Florentine diplomat.

Whether either story is true or not, it is thought more likely that Berni’s mysterious death occurred as a result of being caught up in the political intrigues going on at the time among the Medici, rather than because he had seriously offended any of the targets of his satirical verses. 

Berni’s acclaimed translation and revision of Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato has also provided scholars with a clue about his own opinions about religion. In one of his poetic introductions to a canto, he revealed that he was favourably disposed toward the new Reformation principles being introduced in Italy at the time, which may explain the bitterness of some of his remarks in the satirical verses that he had written about the Church.

Several streets in Italian cities have been named after the poet. You can find a Via Francesco Berni in Florence, Empoli, Pietrasanta, Varese, and Verona.

Packets of brigidini, Lamporecchio's speciality
wafer biscuits, on sale at a market

Travel tip:

Lamporecchio, where Francesco Berni was born, is a comune - municipality - in the province of Pistoia in Tuscany. It is about 13km (eight miles) south of Pistoia. The town is known for the invention of brigidini, which are thin, anise-flavoured wafers, and the berlingozzo, a cake typically eaten during the Carnival. The noble Rospigliosi family, of which Pope Clement IX was a member, has its roots in Lamporecchio. With a population of around 7,500,  Lamporecchio is located in the Valdinievole, a valley that extends between Pistoia and Lucca, in an area halfway between the Fucecchio Marsh and the hills of Montalbano, which are planted with vineyards and olive trees. Halfway along the valley - and a good base for visiting the area - is the town of Montecatini Terme, famous for its thermal baths that can be enjoyed in the town’s Liberty-style spa resorts.

Stay in Montecatini Terme with Expedia

Brunelleschi's colossal dome of the Cattedrale di
Santa Maria del Fiore dominates the skyline

Travel tip:

Berni achieved financial security and was able to concentrate on his poetry after 1530 when he obtained a canonry at Florence Cathedral. Otherwise known as Santa Maria del Fiore, or the Duomo of Florence, the cathedral dominates the city skyline with its immense, brick-built dome designed by the Florentine Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi. It was built without scaffolding and given an inner shell to provide a platform for the timbers that support the outer shell. The architect died in 1446 before it was completed, but a statue of Brunelleschi was erected in Piazza del Duomo. The dome was his greatest achievement, and would forever define the city of Florence. It remains, to this day, the largest masonry dome in the world.

Find Florence hotels with Hotels.com

More reading:

How satirist Giuseppe Parini mocked the aristocracy of 18th century Milan

Why Pietro Aretino was both admired and feared by the nobility

Ludovico Ariosto, Renaissance author of the epic poem, Orlando Furioso

Also on this day:

1805: Napoleon Bonaparte was declared King of Italy

1955: The death of racing driver Alberto Ascari

1977: The birth of footballer Luca Toni

Home

25 May

Enrico Berlinguer - communist politician

Popular leader turned left-wing party into political force

Enrico Berlinguer, who for more than a decade was Western Europe's most powerful and influential communist politician, was born on this day in 1922 in the Sardinian city of Sassari.  As secretary-general of the Italian Communist Party from March 1972 until his death in 1984, he led the largest communist movement outside the Eastern Bloc, coming close to winning a general election in 1976.  He achieved popularity by striving to establish the Italian Communists as a political force that was not controlled from Moscow, pledging a commitment to democracy, a parliamentary system, a mixed economy, and Italian membership of the Common Market and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.  At its peak, Berlinguer's Westernised brand of communism appealed to nearly a third of Italian voters.  His policies were adopted by other left-wing parties in Europe under what became known as Eurocommunism.  Read more…

______________________________________

Stefano Baldini - Olympic marathon champion

Won gold medal over historic course in Athens

Stefano Baldini, the marathon runner who was Olympic champion in Athens in 2004 and twice won the European marathon title, was born on this day in 1971 in Castelnovo di Sotto, about 14km (nine miles) north-west of the city of Reggio Emilia.  Although Baldini’s class was not doubted, his Olympic gold was slightly tarnished by an incident seven kilometres from the finish when a spectator broke through the barriers and attacked the Brazilian runner, Vanderlei de Lima, who was leading the field.  The spectator, an Irishman called Cornelius Horan who had disrupted the British Grand Prix motor race the previous year, was wrestled off de Lima by another spectator but the incident cost the Brazilian 15 to 20 seconds. He was passed by Baldini and finished third.  Baldini finished the race, which followed the historic route from Marathon to Athens, in two hours 10 minutes and 55 seconds. Read more…

______________________________________

Padre Pio – Saint

Capuchin friar is claimed to have cured cancer

Padre Pio, who has become one of the world’s most famous and popular saints, was born on this day in 1887 in Pietrelcina in Campania.  He was well-known for exhibiting stigmata, marks corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, constantly making him the subject of controversy.  Padre Pio has said that at five years old he decided to dedicate his life to God and as a youth he reported experiencing heavenly visions and ecstasies. At the age of 15 he was admitted to the novitiate of the Capuchin Order, taking the name of Fra Pio, in honour of Pope Pius I.  He suffered from poor health for most of his life and fellow friars say he often appeared to be in a stupor during prayers. One claimed to have seen him in ecstasy, levitating above the ground.  In 1910 he was ordained a priest and moved to a friary in San Giovanni Rotondo in Foggia.  Read more…

Gaetano Scirea - footballer

Multiple champion who died tragically young

The World Cup-winning footballer Gaetano Scirea, one of the most accomplished players in the history of the game, was born on this day in 1953 in the town of Cernusco sul Naviglio in Lombardy.  Scirea, who became an outstanding performer in the so-called libero role, was a key member of the Italy team that won the 1982 World Cup in Spain and enjoyed huge success also in club football.  In a career spent mostly with Juventus, he won every medal that was available to a club player in Italy, some several times over.  During his time there, the Turin club won the scudetto - the popular name for the Serie A championship - seven times and the Coppa Italia twice.  He also won the UEFA Cup, the European Cup-Winners’ Cup, the European Cup (forerunner of the Champions League), the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup.  Read more...

______________________________________

Book of the Day:  Eurocommunism: From the Communist to the Radical European Left (The Routledge Global 1960s and 1970s Series), by Ioannis Balampanidis

Eurocommunism constitutes a "moment" of great transformation connecting the past and the present of the European Left, a political project by means of which left-wing politics in Europe effected a definitive transition to a thoroughly different paradigm. It rose in the wake of 1968 – that pivotal year of social revolt and rethinking that caused a divide between radical, progressive and socialist thinking in western and southern Europe and the Soviet model. Eurocommunism: From the Communist to the Radical European Left describes how Communist parties in Italy, France, Spain and Greece changed tack, drew on the dynamics of social radicalism of the time and came to be associated with political moderation, liberal democracy and negotiation rather than contentious politics, forging a movement that would hold influence until the early 1980s. Eurocommunism thus wove an original political synthesis delineated against both the revolutionary Left and the social democracy: "party of struggle and party of governance".

Ioannis Balampanidis holds a PhD in Comparative Politics and is a researcher at the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens. He has studied Law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Political Theory at the University Paris 8, and has also been visiting researcher at the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris.

Buy from Amazon

Home

24 May

Gian Gastone de' Medici - Grand Duke of Tuscany

The last Medici to rule Florence

Gian Gastone de' Medici, the seventh and last Grand Duke of Tuscany, was born on this day in 1671 in the Pitti Palace in Florence.  He was the second son of Grand Duke Cosimo III and Marguerite Louise d’Orleans.  Because his elder brother predeceased him he succeeded his father to the title in 1723.  He had an unhappy arranged marriage and the couple had no children so when he died in 1737 it was the end of 300 years of Medici rule over Florence.  He spent the last few years of his reign confined to bed, looked after by his entourage.  One of his final acts was to order the erection of a statue to Galileo in the Basilica of Santa Croce.  He was buried in the Basilica of San Lorenzo and Francis Stephen of Lorraine succeeded to the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany.  The Palazzo Pitti, known to English visitors as the Pitti Palace, is on the south side of the River Arno. Read more…

_______________________________________

Alessandro Cruto - inventor

Produced light bulb hailed as better than Edison’s

The inventor Alessandro Cruto, whose attempts to create artificial diamonds instead led him to develop a light bulb that outperformed that of his contemporary, Thomas Edison, was born on this day in 1847 in Piossasco, a village near Turin.  Younger than his American counterpart by just three months, Cruto hit upon his idea after attending a conference held by Galileo Ferraris, the pioneer of alternating current, where Edison’s attempts to find a suitable filament for incandescent light bulbs were discussed.  Cruto eventually opened a factory that eventually made up to 1,000 light bulbs per day but quit the company after seven years to return to his first love, inventing.  The son of a construction foreman, Cruto enrolled at the University of Turin to study architecture but was more interested in attending physics and chemistry lectures. Read more…

______________________________________

Ilaria Alpi - investigative journalist

TV reporter murdered in Somalia ambush

The TV journalist Ilaria Alpi, who with her Italian cameraman Miran Hrovatin was murdered while reporting from war-torn Somalia in the early 1990s, was born on this day in 1961 in Rome.  Alpi, who was in Somalia for Italy’s national broadcaster Rai as the United Nations attempted to end a three-year long civil war in the country, was killed near the Hotel Sahafi, which was the international media base in the Somali capital Mogadishu.  The white Toyota pick-up in which she and Hrovatin were travelling was at a crossroads about 4.5km (2.8 miles) from the Sahafi when a Land Rover pulled across their path, forcing their vehicle to stop. At this point a gunman or several gunmen - as many as seven, some reports said - began shooting. Alpi and Hrovatin died at the scene, although their driver and three armed bodyguards escaped unhurt.  Read more…

______________________________________

Aurelio De Laurentiis - entrepreneur

Film producer who owns SSC Napoli

The film producer and football club owner Aurelio De Laurentiis was born on this day in 1949 in Rome.  The nephew of Dino De Laurentiis, the producer credited with giving Italian cinema an international platform with his backing for Federico Fellini’s Oscar-winning 1954 movie La strada, Aurelio teamed up with his father, Luigi, to form the production company Filmauro in 1975.  The company has produced or distributed more than 400 films in Italy and around the world, working with directors such as Mario Monicelli, Ettore Scola, Pupi Avati, Damiano Damiani and Roberto Benigni among the greats of Italian cinema, as well as internationally acclaimed names such as Blake Edwards, Peter Weir, Luc Besson, Eduardo Sanchez and Ridley Scott.  Aurelio has won numerous honours for his achievements in the film industry. Read more...

Alessandro Bonora - cricketer

All-rounder played for Italy in almost 100 matches 

The cricketer Alessandro Bonora, who made 99 appearances for Italy’s national team between 2000 and 2016, was born on this day in 1978 in Bordighera, a small town on the coast of Liguria.  Bonara, a right-handed batter and medium-fast bowler, captained Italy on 37 occasions, notably in a 2011 World Cricket League event when he was the tournament’s top scorer and achieved his career-best innings of 124 not out against Oman.  He was also part of the Italian team that took part in the 2013 World Twenty20 qualifying competition in the United Arab Emirates, the highest level of competition in which the team has taken part.  Bonara also played some club cricket in Italy, living in Rome for more than five years and turning out for Lazio Cricket Club.  Although born in Italy, Bonara grew up and learned to play cricket in South Africa.  Read more…

_________________________________________

Jacopo Carucci da Pontormo – artist

Painter’s expressive style was the start of Mannerism

Painter Jacopo Carucci, often referred to simply as Pontormo, was born on this day in 1494 in Pontorme near Empoli in Tuscany.  Pontormo is considered to be the founder of the Mannerist style of painting in the later years of the Italian high renaissance, as he was capable of blending Michelangelo’s use of colour and monumental figures with the metallic rigidity of northern painters such as Albrecht Dürer. His work represents a distinct stylistic shift from the art typical of the Florentine Renaissance.  According to Giorgio Vasari in his book, The Lives of the Artists, Pontormo’s father was also a painter but he became an orphan at the age of ten. As a young art apprentice he moved around a lot, staying with Leonardo da Vinci, Mariotto Albertinelli, Piero di Cosimo and Andrea del Sarto.  Pope Leo X commissioned the young Pontormo to fresco the Pope’s Chapel in the church of Santa Maria Novella.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Simone Rugiati - celebrity chef

Popular presenter found fame early in career

The chef and TV presenter Simone Rugiati was born on this day in 1981 in Santa Croce sull’ Arno, midway between Pisa and Florence in Tuscany.  He became a famous face on TV in Italy with a seven-year run on the hit cookery show La prova del cuoco (the Test of the Cook) - a hugely popular daytime programme on Rai Uno based on the BBC show Ready Steady Cook, fronted by Antonella Clerici.  Rugiati has also presented numerous programmes on the satellite TV food channel Gambero Rosso and since 2010 he has been the face of Cuochi e fiamme (Cooks and Flames) - a cookery contest on the La7 network in which two non-professional chefs cook the same dish and see their efforts marked by a panel of judges.  He has also taken part in reality TV shows, including the 2010 edition of L’isola dei famosi, an Italian version of the American show Survivor.  Read more…

______________________________________

Charles Emmanuel IV – King of Sardinia

Monarch who was descended from Charles I of England

Charles Emmanuel IV, who was King of Sardinia from 1796 until he abdicated in 1802 and might once have had a claim to the throne of England, was born on this day in 1751 in Turin.  Born Carlo Emanuele Ferdinando Maria di Savoia, he was the eldest son of Victor Amadeus III, King of Sardinia, and of his wife Infanta Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain. From his birth he was known as the Prince of Piedmont.  In 1775, he married Marie Clotilde of France, the daughter of Louis, Dauphin of France, and Princess Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, and sister of King Louis XVI of France.  Although it was essentially a political marriage over which they had little choice, the couple became devoted to one another.  With the death of his father in October 1796, Charles Emmanuel inherited the throne of Sardinia, a kingdom that included not only the island of Sardinia, but also the whole of Piedmont and other parts of north-west Italy.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Book of the Day: The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance, by Paul Strathern

A dazzling account of the infamous family that became one of the most powerful in Europe, weaving its history with Renaissance greats from Leonardo da Vinci to Galileo.  Against the background of an age which saw the rebirth of ancient and classical learning, The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance is a remarkably modern story of power, money and ambition. Strathern paints a vivid narrative of the dramatic rise and fall of the Medici family in Florence, as well as the Italian Renaissance which they did so much to sponsor and encourage.  Strathern also follows the lives of many of the great Renaissance artists with whom the Medici had dealings, including Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello; as well as scientists such as Galileo and Pico della Mirandola; and the fortunes of those members of the Medici family who achieved success away from Florence, including the two Medici popes and Catherine de' Médicis, who became Queen of France and played a major role in that country through three turbulent reigns.

Paul Strathern studied philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin. He has lectured in philosophy and mathematics. He is a Somerset Maugham Prize-winning novelist and a prolific author of non-fiction books, mostly on popular history.

Buy from Amazon

Home

23 May

NEW - Ancona comes under attack as Italy enters World War I

The day the capital of Le Marche was bombarded from the sea

The port city of Ancona on the Adriatic Sea became an immediate target for naval ships deployed by Austria-Hungary on this day in 1915, after Italy entered World War I.  The Austrian fleet were quick to react after Italy declared that it was joining the war on the side of the Allies, having initially remained neutral.  Destroyers immediately set sail from their base in Pola - modern-day Pula in Croatia - heading towards Ancona to attack both military and civilian targets under the cover of darkness.  The rest of the Austrian fleet set off to join in the bombardment the following day and the enemy ships attacked several other coastal cities in the province of Ancona, destroying a train and a railway station while they were firing on Senigallia.  Two destroyers and a torpedo boat bombarded Ancona’s harbour for about an hour and 15 minutes. Read more…

_______________________________________

Sergio Gonella - football referee

First Italian to referee a World Cup final

Sergio Gonella, the first Italian football referee to take charge of a World Cup final, was born on this day in 1933 in Asti, a city in Piedmont best known for its wine production.  Gonella was appointed to officiate in the 1978 final between the Netherlands and the hosts Argentina in Buenos Aires and although he was criticised by many journalists and football historians for what they perceived as a weak performance lacking authority, few matches in the history of the competition can have presented a tougher challenge.  Against a backcloth of political turmoil in a country that had suffered a military coup only two years earlier and where opponents of the regime were routinely kidnapped and tortured, or simply disappeared, this was Argentina’s chance to build prestige by winning the biggest sporting event in the world, outside the Olympics.  Read more…

___________________________________

Girolamo Savonarola executed

Death of the friar who was to inspire best-selling novel by Tom Wolfe

The hellfire preacher Girolamo Savonarola was hanged and burned on this day in 1498 in Piazza della Signoria in Florence.  By sheer force of personality, Savonarola had convinced rich people to burn their worldly goods in spectacular bonfires in Florence during 1497, but within a year it was Savonarola’s burning corpse that the crowds turned out to see.  Savonarola had become famous for his outspoken sermons against vice and corruption in the Catholic Church in Italy and he encouraged wealthy people to burn their valuable goods, paintings and books in what have become known as ‘bonfires of the vanities.’  This phrase inspired the author Tom Wolfe to write The Bonfire of the Vanities, a novel about ambition and politics in 1980s New York.  Savonarola was born in 1452 in Ferrara. He became a Dominican friar and entered the convent of Saint Mark in Florence in 1482. Read more…

Ferdinando II de’ Medici – Grand Duke of Tuscany

Technology fan who supported scientist Galileo

Inventor and patron of science Ferdinando II de’ Medici died on this day in 1670 in Florence.  Like his grandmother, the dowager Grand Duchess Christina, Ferdinando II was a loyal friend to Galileo and he welcomed the scientist back to Florence after the prison sentence imposed on him for ‘vehement suspicion of heresy’ was commuted to house arrest.  Ferdinando II was reputed to be obsessed with new technology and had hygrometers, barometers, thermometers and telescopes installed at his home in the Pitti Palace.  He has also been credited with the invention of the sealed glass thermometer in 1654.  Ferdinando II was born in 1610, the eldest son of Cosimo II de’ Medici and Maria Maddalena of Austria.  He became Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1621 when he was just 10 years old after the death of his father.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Giuseppe Parini – writer

Satirist avenged bad treatment though his poetry

Poet and satirist Giuseppe Parini was born on this day in 1729 in Bosisio in Lombardy.  A writer associated with the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, he is remembered for his series of Horatian odes and for Il giorno - The Day - a satirical poem in four books about the selfishness and superficiality of the aristocracy in Milan.  The son of a silk trader, Parini was sent to Milan to study under the religious order, the Barnabites. In 1752 his first volume of verse introduced him to literary circles and the following year he joined the Milanese Accademia dei Trasformati - Academy of the Transformed - which was located at the Palazzo Imbonati in the Porta Nuova district.  He was ordained a priest in 1754 - a condition of a legacy made to him by a great aunt - and entered the household of Duke Gabrio Serbelloni at Tremezzo on Lake Como to be tutor to his eldest son.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Book of the Day: Italy: Umbria & The Marche (Bradt Travel Guides), by Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls

Bradt's Umbria & the Marche is the most detailed guide to combine these two small central Italian regions, which offer all the beauty, history and culture of neighbouring Tuscany only without the crowds, the traffic or eye-popping prices.  Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls, authors of the original Cadogan guide to the area, lived in Umbria in the 1980s and have been returning regularly and writing about it ever since. They are the perfect guides to the region's landscapes, hill towns, food and wine, and art and architecture.  The superb art cities of Umbria and Le Marche steal the limelight - Perugia, Orvieto, Urbino, Loreto, Todi, where art fills every church and palazzo. There is a dedicated chapter on Assisi, the rose-tinted pilgrim destination, and Spoleto, medieval capital of the Lombards and home of the famous arts festival. But never far from these centres wait unspoiled countryside of rolling olive groves, forests and meadows, long walks and towns and tiny villages, nearly all with a masterpiece or two to show off and a great little family-run restaurant.  The Bradt guide covers them all, along with the republic of San Marino. Le Marche's geography is dominated by a series of east-west river valleys - the Metauro, Esino, and Tronto etc - twisting down to Adriatic and often ending in long sandy beaches, from the historic towns of Senigallia and Fano through Ancona's Cornero Riviera to the Riviera delle Palme at San Benedetto del Tronto. Landlocked Umbria, where rivers flow into the mighty Tiber, has exceptional water features as well: Italy's fourth largest lake, Trasimeno; the Tiber Valley; Clitunno springs; and Italy's most beautiful waterfall, the Cascata delle Marmore.  Featuring superb photography and expert recommendations, Umbria & the Marche is a timely guide to a more authentic corner of Italy.

Long-time travel authors Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls have been tramping over Italy for decades with notebook in hand, in an unending search for the next double espresso. The two spent years living in a tiny village in the Apennines with their small children, and since then they have written over 20 regional and city guides covering every corner of Italy.

Buy from Amazon

Home