15 April

Filippo Brunelleschi – architect

Genius who designed the largest brick dome ever constructed

One of the founding fathers of the Renaissance, Filippo Brunelleschi died on this day in 1446 in Florence.  He is remembered for developing a technique for linear perspective in art and for building the dome of Florence Cathedral.  However, his achievements also included sculpture, mathematics, engineering and ship design.  Brunelleschi was born in 1377 in Florence. According to his biographer, Antonio Manetti, and the historian Giorgio Vasari, his father was Brunellesco di Lippo, a notary. Filippo’s education would have equipped him to follow in his father’s footsteps but because he was artistically inclined he was enrolled in the silk merchants guild, which also included goldsmiths and metal workers, and he became a master goldsmith in 1398.  In 1401 he entered a competition to design a new set of bronze doors for the Baptistery in Florence. Read more…

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Giovanni Amendola - journalist and politician

Liberal writer died following attack by Mussolini’s thugs

Giovanni Amendola, a dedicated opponent of Fascism, was born on this day in 1882 in Naples in southern Italy.  As a critic of the right wing extremists in Italy, Amendola had to suffer a series of attacks by hired thugs. He endured a particularly brutal beating in 1925 by 15 Blackshirts armed with clubs near Montecatini Terme in Tuscany and he later died as a result of his injuries, becoming one of the earliest victims of the Fascist regime.  Amendola had obtained a degree in philosophy and contributed to the newspapers, Il Leonardo and La Voce, expressing his philosophical and ideological views. He was given the chair of theoretical philosophy at the University of Pisa but, attracted by politics, he stood for parliament and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies three times to represent Salerno.  He began contributing to Il Resto di Carlino and Corriere della Sera, urging Italy’s entry into World War I in 1915. Read more…

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Leonardo da Vinci – painter and inventor

Artist regarded as most talented individual ever to have lived

Leonardo da Vinci, painter, draughtsman, sculptor, architect and engineer, was born on this day in 1452 near Vinci in Tuscany.  Leonardo’s genius epitomises the Renaissance ideal of possessing all-round accomplishments and his wall painting of The Last Supper and portrait of the Mona Lisa are among the most popular and influential artworks of all time.  His surviving notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific enquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries ahead of their time.  Leonardo received an elementary education but must have shown early artistic inclinations because his father apprenticed him to Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence when he was 15, in whose workshop he was trained in painting and sculpting. There are many superb pen and pencil drawings still in existence from this period, including sketches of military weapons and apparatus. Read more…

Italy’s first nuclear reactor opens

Facility based on pioneer Enrico Fermi’s historic Chicago-Pile series

The first nuclear reactor to be built on Italian soil was inaugurated on this day in 1959 at Ispra, a small town on the eastern shore of Lago Maggiore.  The facility, which preceded the first generation of nuclear power plants serving the need for clean, reliable and plentiful electricity sources for industrial and domestic use, was built purely for research purposes.  It was opened four years ahead of the country’s first commercial nuclear plant, at Latina in Lazio.  The 5 megawatt Ispra-1 research reactor, as it was titled, was modelled on the latest version of the Chicago-Pile 5 series developed by Enrico Fermi, the Rome-born nuclear physicist who created the world’s first nuclear reactor, the Chicago-Pile 1, following his discovery that if uranium neutrons were emitted into fissioning uranium, they could split other uranium atoms, setting off a chain reaction that would release enormous amounts of energy.  Read more…

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Jacopo Riccati – mathematician

Venetian nobleman who was fascinated by Maths

Respected mathematician Jacopo Francesco Riccati, who had an equation named after him, died on this day in 1754 in Treviso.  He had devoted his life to the study of mathematical analysis, turning down many prestigious academic posts offered to him. He is chiefly remembered for the Riccati differential equation, which he spent many years studying.  Riccati was born in 1676 in Venice. His father, Conte Montino Riccati, was from a noble family of landowners and his mother was from the powerful Colonna family. His father died when Riccati was only ten years old, leaving him a large estate at Castelfranco Veneto.  Riccati was educated first at the Jesuit school for the nobility in Brescia and in 1693 went to the University of Padua to study law.  After receiving a doctorate in law in 1696 he began to study mathematical analysis.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Brunelleschi's Dome: The Story of the Great Cathedral in Florence, by Ross King

This is the story of one of the most magnificent achievements of the Italian Renaissance, and the architect behind it.  Even in an age of soaring skyscrapers and cavernous sports stadiums, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence still retains a rare power to astonish. Yet the elegance of the building belies the tremendous labour, technical ingenuity and bitter personal strife involved in its creation. For over a century after work on the cathedral began, the proposed dome was regarded as all but impossible to build. The greatest architectural puzzle of its age, when finally completed it was hailed as one of the great wonders of the world.  Brunelleschi's Dome tells the extraordinary story of how the cupola was raised and of the dome's architect, the brilliant and volatile Filippo Brunelleschi. Denounced as a madman at the start of his labours, he was celebrated at their end as a great genius. His life was one of ambition, ingenuity, rivalry and intrigue - a human drama set against the plagues, wars, political feuds and intellectual ferments of Renaissance Florence, the glorious era for which the dome remains the most compelling symbol.

Ross King is a renowned expert in the Italian Renaissance. He is the author of numerous bestselling and acclaimed books including Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling, Leonardo and the Last Supper and The Shortest History of Italy. He has been studying  writing and lecturing about Renaissance Florence for more than 20 years. He lives just outside Oxford.

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14 April

The Milan-Sanremo cycle race

Classic event older than Giro d’Italia

The Milan-Sanremo cycle race - one of the sport’s oldest and most prestigious single-day contests - took place for the first time on this day in 1907.  Covering a distance of 286km (177 miles), the race followed a course said to have begun at the Conca Fallata Inn, next to a navigation basin on the Naviglio Pavese canal in Milan and ended on Corso Cavallotti on the outskirts of Sanremo, a seaside town on the coast of Liguria famed for its temperate Mediterranean climate.  Cycling was growing in popularity across Europe at the time, particularly in Belgium and France. Both of those countries had established single-day long distance races in the late 19th century and it is probable that these were the inspiration when Tullo Morgagni, a Milan journalist, put forward the idea for Milan-Sanremo.  Morgagni had launched what would become the Giro di Lombardia the previous year.  Read more…

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Lamberto Dalla Costa - Olympic bobsleigh champion

Fighter pilot who became first Italian to win a Gold medal

Lamberto Dalla Costa, part of the team that brought Italy its first gold medal for Olympic bobsleigh, was born on this day in 1920 in Crespano del Grappa, a small town in the Veneto. Dalla Costa was an adventurous individual with a passion for flying. He joined the Italian Air Force as a volunteer during World War Two and became a combat pilot who rose eventually to the rank of air marshall.  When Italy was chosen to host the 1956 Winter Olympics at Cortina d'Ampezzo they was a tradition of looking towards the military to provide the crews for the bobsleigh events and Dalla Costa was selected, even though he had never been involved with high-level competitive sport, after demonstrating the right level of skill and discipline.  It was an advantage when the Games came round that Dalla Costa and his colleagues were able to practise on the Cortina d'Ampezzo track. Read more…

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Gianni Rodari - children’s author

Writer whose books reflect the struggles of the lower classes in society

Writer and journalist Gianni Rodari, who became famous for creating Cipollino, a children’s book character, died on this day in 1980 in Rome. Regarded as the best modern writer for children in Italian, Rodari had been awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for children’s literature in 1970, which gained him an international reputation. Cipollino, which means Little Onion, fought the unjust treatment of his fellow vegetable characters by the fruit royalty, such as Prince Lemon and the overly proud Tomato, in the garden kingdom. The main themes of the stories are the struggle of the underclass against the powerful, good versus evil and the importance of friendship in the face of difficulties. Rodari was born in 1920 in Omegna, a small town on Lake Orta in the province of Novara in northern Italy.  His father died when he was ten years old. Read more…

Gasparo da Salò – violin maker

Founder of the Brescian school of stringed instrument craftsmen

One of Italy’s earliest violin makers, Gasparo da Salò, died on this day in 1609 in Brescia. He developed the art of string making to a high level and his surviving instruments are still admired and revered. Da Salò was born Gasparo Bertolotti in Salò, a resort on Lake Garda in 1542. His father and uncle were violinists and composers and his cousin, Bernardino, was a violinist at the Este court in Ferrara and at the Gonzaga court in Mantua. Bertolotti received a good musical education and was referred to as ‘a talented violone player’ in a 1604 document about the music at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. Bertolotti moved to Brescia on the death of his father and set up shop in an area where there were other instrument makers. He became known as Gasparo da Salò and his workshop quickly became one of the most important in Europe. Read more...

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Girolamo Riario - papal military leader

Assassinated after failed attempt to unseat Medici family

Girolamo Riario, the 15th century governor of Imola and Forlì who was part of a major plot to displace the powerful Medici family as rulers of Florence, was assassinated on this day in 1488. Riario, a nephew of Pope Sixtus IV who had appointed him Captain General of the Church, was unpopular with his subjects as a result of imposing high taxes, but his murder was thought to be an attempt by the noble Orsi family of Forlì to seize control of the city. Two members of the family, Checco and Ludovico, led a group of assassins armed with swords into the government palace, where Riario was set upon.  Despite the presence of guards, Riario was stabbed and slashed repeatedly.  Eventually, his dead body was left in a local piazza, surrounded by a crowd celebrating his demise, as the Orsi brothers and their gang looted the palace. Read more…

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Randolfo Pacciardi – anti-Fascist and journalist

Valiant republican opposed Mussolini and served his country

Ardent anti-Fascist Randolfo Pacciardi, who was Deputy Prime Minister and then Minister of Defence for the Italian Government between 1948 and 1953, died on this day in 1991 in Rome.  Pacciardi had to live abroad in exile for many years after the Fascists outlawed all opposition parties in 1926, but he was able to return to Italy in 1944 after the liberation of Rome. He was born in 1899 in Giuncarico in the province of Grosseto in Tuscany. By the time he was 16 years old, Pacciardi had become a member of the Partito Repubblicano Italiano (PRI), the Italian Republican party.  He was a supporter of Italy’s participation in World War I and enrolled in the officers’ school of the Italian Army. He took part in the fighting and received two silver medals and a bronze medal for military valour, a British military cross and a French croix de guerre.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Pedalare! Pedalare! A History of Italian Cycling, by John Foot

Cycling was a sport so important in Italy that it marked a generation, sparked fears of civil war, changed the way Italian was spoken and led to legal reform. It was a sport so popular that it created the geography of Italy in the minds of her citizens, and some have said that it was cycling, not political change, that united Italy.  Pedalare! Pedalare! is the first complete history of Italian cycling to be published in English. The book moves chronologically from the first Giro d'Italia (Italy's equivalent of the Tour de France) in 1909 to the 21st century. The tragedies and triumphs of great riders such as Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali appear alongside stories of the support riders, snow-bound mountains and the first and only woman to ride the whole Giro.  Cycling's relationship with Italian history, politics and culture is always up front, with reference to fascism, the cold war and the effect of two world wars. The sport is explored alongside changes in Italian society as a whole, from the poor peasants who took up cycling in the early, pioneering period, to the slick, professional sport of today. Scandals and controversy appear throughout the book as constant features of the connection between fans, journalists and cycling.

John Foot is an English academic historian specialising in Italy. He is the author of several books, including histories of Italy and Italian football, and the story of the pioneering psychiatrist, Franco Basaglia, who led a revolution in mental health care in Italy. 

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13 April

NEW - Nino Sanzogno – conductor

Orchestra leader introduced audiences to new composers

The talented conductor and composer Nino Sanzogno, who was much admired for his elegance and the precision of his conducting, was born Giovanni Giuseppe Luigi Sanzogno on this day in 1911 in Venice.  He led the premieres of many important operas at Teatro alla Scala in Milan and also became well known for championing new music.  Sanzogno learnt the violin and developed a love of music from a young age. He went on to study under musicians such as Hermann Scherchen and Gian Francesco Malipiero and later went to Vienna to learn more about conducting from Scherchen.  His career took off when he was given the opportunity to lead the Gruppo Strumentale Italiano, who performed at concerts in Italy and abroad.  In 1937, Sanzogno became the main conductor at the opera house Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Read more… 

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Antonio Meucci - inventor of the telephone

Engineer from Florence was 'true' father of communications

Antonio Meucci, the Italian engineer who was acknowledged 113 years after his death to be the true inventor of the telephone, was born on this day in 1808 in Florence.  Until Vito Fossella, a Congressman from New York, asked the House of Representatives to recognise that the credit should have gone to Meucci, it was the Scottish-born scientist Alexander Graham Bell who was always seen as the father of modern communications.  Yet Meucci’s invention was demonstrated in public 16 years before Bell took out a patent for his device. This was part of the evidence Fossella submitted to the House, which prompted a resolution in June, 2002, that the wealth and fame that Bell enjoyed were based on a falsehood.  It has even been suggested that Bell actually stole Meucci’s invention and developed it as his own while the Italian died in poverty, having been unable to afford the patent.  Meucci’s story began when he was born in the San Frediano area of Florence, which was then part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the first of nine children fathered by a policeman, Amatis Meucci, and his wife, Domenica.  Read more…

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Catherine de’ Medici – Queen of France

Florentine girl was the mother of three French kings

Catherine de’ Medici, who married King Henry II of France and gave birth to the three subsequent Kings of France, was born on this day in 1519 in Florence.  Because of her influence over France during the period of the French-Huguenot wars, Catherine is said to have been one of the most important people in Europe during the 16th century.  She was the daughter of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour d’Auvergne, but within a month of her birth, both her parents had become ill and died. Her paternal grandmother, Alfonsina Orsini cared for her initially, but after her death, Catherine was brought up by her aunt, Clarice de’ Medici. After her uncle, Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, was elected Pope Clement VII in 1523, he hosted Catherine in stately surroundings in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence.  Read more…

Giannino Marzotto - racing driver

Double Mille Miglia winner from a famous family

Giannino Marzotto, a racing driver who twice won the prestigious Mille Miglia and finished fifth at Le Mans, was born on this day in 1928 in Valdagno, a town situated in the mountains about 30km (19 miles) northwest of Vicenza.  He was the great, great grandson of Luigi Marzotto, who in 1836 opened a woollen factory that evolved into the Marzotto Group, one of Italy’s largest textile manufacturers.  Marzotto worked for the company after he retired from motor racing, at one point filling the position of managing director and later company president, before giving up those roles to develop other businesses.  He was one of five sons of Count Gaetano Marzotto, who was the major figure in the Marzotto company in the 20th century, transforming the family business into an international entity and building the Città Sociale, a town adjoining Valdagno characterised by wide, tree-lined boulevards which he built to provide a pleasant and well-appointed community for the workers at the Marzotto factory.  With this wealthy background, Giannino was able to indulge his passion for cars.   Read more…

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Roberto Calvi – banker

Mystery remains over bizarre death of bank chairman

Roberto Calvi, dubbed 'God’s Banker' by the press because of his close association with the Vatican, was born on this day in 1920 in Milan.  In 1982 his body was found hanging from scaffolding beneath Blackfriars Bridge close to London’s financial district. His death is a mystery that has never been satisfactorily solved and it has been made the subject of many books and films.  Calvi was the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano in Milan, which had direct links to Pope John Paul II through his bodyguard, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, who was also head of the Vatican Bank, which had shares in Ambrosiano.  Calvi had been missing for nine days before his body was found by a passer-by in London. At first police treated his death as suicide but a year later a second inquest overturned this and delivered an open verdict.  In October 2002, forensic experts commissioned by an Italian court finally concluded Calvi had been murdered.  Calvi had become chairman of Ambrosiano, Italy’s largest private bank, in 1975 and had built up a vast financial empire.  But three years later the Bank of Italy issued a report claiming Ambrosiano had illegally exported several million lire.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Italian Opera Houses and Festivals, by Karyl Charna Lynn

Italian Opera in the 18th and 19th centuries was an experience unequalled anywhere else in the world. The unique emotion, flavour, and passion that existed have yet to be attained in any other country. Opera houses in Italy are the birthplace of this great art form. They represent its beauty and richness. More than just concrete, stone, glass, and wood, they are alive, each with a character and history of its own.  Italian Opera Houses and Festivals recreates the social, political, architectural, and performance histories of each house by including eyewitness accounts from Italian newspapers, journals, and books of the time. It covers more than 50 Italian opera houses and festivals, organized by their city of origin and geographic region. Each chapter is a journey back in time, beginning with the first theatres and performances in the city and concluding with an architectural description of the principal theater and a practical information guide for visitors (including hotel recommendations). The operatic activities of the main theatre, including inaugurations, important performances, and world premieres, are also covered. A photospread, along with brief descriptions of opera-related sites, including the birthplaces, dwellings, and museums of Italy's greatest composers, give an even more complete portrait of the art.

Karyl Charna Lynn has written six books on opera houses, companies, and architecture, including The National Trust Guide to Great Opera Houses in America and Opera Companies and Houses of Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. She is also a feature writer for Opera Now and Opera-Opera.

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Nino Sanzogno – conductor

Orchestra leader introduced audiences to new composers

Nino Sanzogno in 1951,
during his time at La Scala

The talented conductor and composer Nino Sanzogno, who was much admired for his elegance and the precision of his conducting, was born Giovanni Giuseppe Luigi Sanzogno on this day in 1911 in Venice.

He led the premieres of many important operas at Teatro alla Scala in Milan and also became well known for championing new music.

Sanzogno learnt the violin and developed a love of music from a young age. He went on to study under musicians such as Hermann Scherchen and Gian Francesco Malipiero and later went to Vienna to learn more about conducting from Scherchen.

His career took off when he was given the opportunity to lead the Gruppo Strumentale Italiano, who performed at concerts in Italy and abroad.

In 1937, Sanzogno became the main conductor at the opera house Teatro La Fenice in Venice. He then went on to work with the Rai Milan Symphony Orchestra and, in 1939, he began conducting at La Scala. 

There, he led the first performances of many operas, including David by Darius Milhaud, Dialogues des Carmelites by Francis Poulenc, and Troilus and Cressida by William Walton.

He also introduced Italian audiences to works such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Benjamin Britten, and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Dmitri Shostakovich.

In Britain and in other countries he introduced new Italian composers such as Malpiero, Luigi Dallapiccola, and Ildebrando Pizzetti.

In 1955, Sanzogno helped to open the Piccola Scala theatre, which he inaugurated with a performance of Domenico Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto. This was a smaller theatre where he brought back works from the 1700s by composers such as Niccolò Piccinni, Giovanni Paisiello and Cimarosa.

He took the Piccola Scala company to perform at the Edinburgh Festival in 1957.

Sanzogno inside the Piccola Scala theatre in Milan,
where he would play a major role

Sanzogno was married to the harpist Zeffira Galeati, with whom he had a son, Giampaolo, who also went on to become a highly regarded conductor. After his first wife’s death, Sanzogno married the soprano, Giannina Buniato.

He also composed his own music, writing symphonic poems, concertos and music for solo instruments and small groups of instruments. At the age of just 23, he wrote the soundtrack for the film Il canale degli angeli, a 1934 production directed by Francesco Pasinetti and filmed in Venice.

In 1961 Sanzogno conducted the first full studio recording of Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto, featuring the soprano Joan Sutherland, for Decca Records.

During his career Sanzogno was widely respected for his perfect timing and the discipline and precision of his conducting.  He was admired for the clarity, economy and poise of his conducting style. His movements were unfussy, projecting calm authority rather than theatricality, which often contrasted with the more flamboyant Italian conductors of his generation.

He died in Milan in 1983 at the age of 72. 

A typical street in the Castello district,
which is known as working-class Venice

Travel tip:

Nino Sanzogno was born in the Castello district of Venice, which is the largest and most diverse of the city’s six sestieri, stretching across the entire eastern portion of Venice, from the edge of San Marco to the green spaces of Sant’Elena. It encompasses monumental architecture near San Marco to laundry‑lined alleys further east.  Unlike the heavily-tourist areas around Rialto and San Marco, Castello remains largely residential. Locals outnumber tourists in many parts and it is often described as the area of the city where Venice still lives, day to day. Castello grew around the Arsenale, once one of Europe’s largest naval complexes and the industrial heart of the Venetian Republic. This history still shapes the district’s identity, which shows in its functional architecture, wider streets, and a sense of purposeful design rather than ornamentation. The eastern section is characterised by working‑class residential zones, quiet canals, and dilapidated but picturesque buildings, but also contains some of Venice’s rare greenery, including the Giardini Pubblici and the leafy island of Sant’Elena.

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The final scene from the Piccola Scala's 1956-57
production of Mozart's opera Così fan tutte

Travel tip:

The Piccola Scala, where Sanzogno led the opening night performance of Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto, was a 600‑seat opera house built between 1949 and 1955. It stood on Via Filodrammatici, directly beside the main Teatro alla Scala, and was designed by Piero Portaluppi and Marcello Zavellani Rossi.  It was conceived during the post‑war reconstruction of La Scala, which had been heavily damaged in the 1943 bombings. The idea was to create a second, more intimate hall within the theatre complex - one suited to smaller‑scale works and experimental programming. Its initial focus was on Baroque and late‑18th‑century operas that were too small in scale for the main house, or chamber‑sized productions requiring reduced orchestras or minimalist staging.  Notable productions included Mozart’s Così fan tutte (1956), conducted and directed by Guido Cantelli, and Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (1972), conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.  Despite its artistic successes, the theatre had an unexpectedly short life. In October 1983, regular programming was suspended due to changes in safety regulations for public venues and it was officially closed in 1985. The building itself was demolished in 2002.

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More reading:

How Arturo Toscanini became a great conductor by chance

Bruno Bartoletti, the Italian who led Lyric Opera Chicago for more than 50 years

The celebrated career of maestro Riccardo Muti

Also on this day:

1519: The birth of Catherine de’ Medici, Queen of France

1808: The birth of engineer and inventor Antonio Meucci

1920: The birth of ill-fated banker Roberto Calvi

1928: The birth of racing driver Giannino Marzotto

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