19 March

Filippo Mazzei – physician and businessman

Liberal thinker was praised by John F Kennedy

Globe-trotting doctor Filippo Mazzei, who was a close friend of the American president, Thomas Jefferson, died on this day in 1816 in Pisa in Tuscany.  During the American Revolutionary War, Mazzei had acted as an agent for Jefferson, purchasing arms for Virginia.  President John F Kennedy paid tribute to Mazzei’s contribution to the Declaration of Independence in his book, A Nation of Immigrants.  Mazzei was born in 1730 in Poggio a Caiano in Tuscany. He studied medicine in Florence and then practised in both Italy and Turkey. He moved to London in 1755 and set himself up in business as an importer, while also working as an Italian teacher.  In London he met both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, who would become two of the Founding Fathers, and came up with the idea of importing Tuscan products, such as wine and olive trees, to the New World.  Read more…

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Francesco Gasparini – musician and writer

Opera composer who gave Vivaldi a job

Francesco Gasparini, one of the great Baroque composers, whose works were performed all over Europe, was born on this day in 1661 in Camaiore near Lucca in Tuscany.  Gasparini also worked as a music teacher and was musical director of the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice for about 15 years, where he made the inspired decision to employ a 25-year-old Antonio Vivaldi as a violin master.  By the age of 17, Gasparini was a member of the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna. He moved to Rome, where he studied under the musicians Arcangelo Corelli and Bernardo Pasquini. His first important opera, Roderico, was produced there in 1694.  After arriving in Venice in 1702, he became one of the leading composers in the city. He wrote the first opera to use the story of Hamlet - Ambleto - in 1705, although he did not base the work on Shakespeare’s play.  Read more…

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Giuseppe Mercalli - seismologist

Scientist who invented Mercalli Scale died in fire

The seismologist and volcanologist Giuseppe Mercalli, who at the time of his death was director of the Vesuvius Observatory, died in a fire at his home in Naples on this day in 1914.  The initial suspicion was that Mercalli, who devised a scale for determining the strength of earthquakes according to the intensity of shaking, had knocked over a paraffin lamp accidentally after falling asleep while working late.  However, an examination of his remains suggested he may have been strangled after disturbing an intruder, who then soaked his clothes in petrol before setting light to them. A sum of money worth the equivalent of $1,400 (€1,250) today was missing, although no one was ever apprehended for the crime.  Born in Milan, Mercalli was ordained a Roman Catholic priest and became a professor of Natural Sciences at the seminary of Milan. Read more…

Benito Jacovitti - cartoonist

Multiple comic characters loved by generations

Benito Jacovitti, who would become Italy's most famous cartoonist, was born on this day in 1923 in the Adriatic coastal town of Termoli.  Jacovitti drew for a number of satirical magazines and several newspapers but also produced much work aimed at children and young adults.  His characters became the constant companions of generations of schoolchildren for more than 30 years via the pages of Diario Vitt, the school diary produced by the publishers of the Catholic comic magazine Il Vittorioso, which had a huge readership among teenagers and young adults, and for which Jacovitti drew from 1939 until it closed in 1969.  Jacovitti gave life to such characters as "the three Ps" - Pippo, Pertica and Pallo - as well as Chicchiriccì and Jack Mandolino via their cartoon adventures in Il Vittorioso, and introduced Zorry Kid, a parody of Zorro. Read more…

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Mario Monti – prime minister

‘Super Mario’ stepped in during debt crisis

Economist Mario Monti, who was prime minister of Italy from 2011 to 2013, was born on this day in 1943 in Varese in Lombardy.  Monti was invited by Italian president Giorgio Napolitano to form a new government after the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi in November 2011 in the middle of the European debt crisis.  Monti, who was the 54th prime minister of Italy, led a government of technocrats, who introduced austerity measures in Italy.  Monti was born in Varese and, after attending a private school, went to Bocconi University in Milan, where he obtained a degree in Economics.  He was a European commissioner from 1994 to 1999, where he obtained the nickname ‘Super Mario’ from his colleagues and the Press.  In 1999 the prime minister at the time, Massimo D’Alema, appointed him to the new Prodi Commission, giving him responsibility for Competition.  Read more…

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Festa del Papà - Father’s Day

Italian celebration always takes place on 19 March

Today in Italy is a celebration day in honour of the nation’s fathers.  La Festa del Papà - Italy’s equivalent of Father’s Day - owes its history to La Festa di San Giuseppe - St Joseph’s Day - the annual celebration that has been held since the Middle Ages to recognise the role of Joseph, the husband of Mary, as the legal if not the biological father of Jesus Christ.  In Catholic tradition, Saint Joseph is the embodiment of the ideal father, a strong, pious character perfectly suited to fulfil his role as protector of and provider for his family.  For many years, the Festa di San Giuseppe - which always falls on March 19, regardless of whether it is a weekday or a weekend - remained a largely religious celebration. But, thanks to the growth of commercialism around family celebration days, it has taken a lead from Father’s Days around the world. Read more…

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Book of the Day:  America's Forgotten Founding Father: A Novel Based on the Life of Filippo Mazzei, by Rosanne Welch

Surgeon, merchant, vintner, and writer Filippo Mazzei influenced American business, politics, and philosophy. Befriending Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, Mazzei was a strong liaison for others in Europe. Mazzei was Jefferson’s inspiration for the most famous line in the Declaration of Independence: “All men are created equal.” Clearly, Mazzei had a gift of language and often used his words to share his ideas about religious freedom. Mazzei encouraged other Italians still living overseas to join him in a country rich with opportunity and promise. Often, when returning from Italy, he booked passages on ships for people who desired to travel to America and employed them on his estate - just to ensure a better, more fruitful life for everyone. During those travels, Mazzei found himself at the centre of many fights for freedom. Rosanne Welch presents her story as a novel, but it is more of a factual presentation than fictional storytelling, the chronology interspersed with anecdotal conversations with Franklin, Jefferson, and others involved in the emerging American state.  America’s Forgotten Founding Father paints a portrait of Mazzei as a friend to freedom around the world.

Dr. Rosanne Welch is a television writer and author, a professor of humanities at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; and is the director of the MFA in TV and Screenwriting for Stephens College.

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18 March

Mount Vesuvius – the 1944 eruption

The last time the volcano was seen to blow its top

Mount Vesuvius, the huge volcano looming over the bay of Naples, last erupted on this day in 1944.  Vesuvius is the only volcano on mainland Europe to have erupted during the last 100 years and is regarded as a constant worry because of its history of explosive eruptions and the large number of people living close by.  It is most famous for its eruption in AD 79, which buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and is believed to have killed thousands of people.  An eyewitness account of the eruption, in which tons of stones, ash and fumes were ejected from the cone, has been left behind for posterity by Pliny the Younger in his letters to the historian, Tacitus.  There were at least three larger eruptions of Vesuvius before AD 79 and there have been many since. In 1631 a major eruption buried villages under lava flows and killed about 300 people. Read more…

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The Five Days of Milan

Citizens rebel to drive out ruling Austrians

The Five Days of Milan, one of the most significant episodes of the Risorgimento, began on this day in 1848 as the citizens of Milan rebelled against Austrian rule.  More than 400 Milanese citizens were killed and a further 600 wounded but after five days of street battles the Austrian commander, Marshal Josef Radetzky, withdrew his 13,000 troops from the city.  The 'Cinque Giornate' uprising sparked the First Italian War of Independence between the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Austrian Empire.  Much of northern Italy was under Austrian rule in the early part of the 19th century and they maintained a harsh regime. Elsewhere, governments were introducing social reform, especially in Rome but also in Sicily, Salerno and Naples after riots against the Bourbon King Ferdinand II.  Both the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Kingdom of Sardinia, adopted a new constitution, limiting the power of the monarchy.  Read more…

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Alessandro Alessandroni – composer

Versatile musician became famous for his haunting whistle

Alessandro Alessandroni, the composer of more than 40 film scores who could play many different musical instruments, was born on this day in 1925 in Soriano nel Cimino near Viterbo.  As a child he was a friend of Ennio Morricone and the two of them went on to collaborate on many soundtracks for Spaghetti Western films.  Alessandroni also founded the 16-member vocal group I Cantori Moderni (The Modern Choristers) in 1961. His first wife, the singer Giulia De Mutiis, was a member of the group, who performed wordless vocals on many Italian film soundtracks, as was Edda Dell’Orso, whose exceptional voice also featured in Morricone’s scores.  Most notably they sang Mah Na Mah Na for the film Sweden Heaven and Hell, a song which was later popularised by The Muppet Show.  Read more…

Bobby Solo - pop singer

Sixties star found fame after Sanremo disqualification

Bobby Solo, who was twice winner of Italy's prestigious Sanremo Festival yet had his biggest hit with a song that was disqualified, was born Roberto Satti on this day in 1945 in Rome.  The singer and songwriter won the contest in 1965 and again in 1969 but it was the controversy over his 1964 entry that thrust him into the spotlight and sent him to the top of the Italian singles charts with the first record to sell more than one million copies in Italy. To emphasise that the competition was to select the best song, rather than the best artist, each entry was sung by two artists, one a native Italian, the other an international guest star. In 1964, Solo was paired with the American singer Frankie Laine to showcase Una lacrima sul viso (A Tear on Your Face).  Laine performed the song in English but Solo was stricken with a throat problem. Read more…

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Gian Francesco Malipiero – composer and musicologist

Musician revived interest in Monteverdi and composed music in the same spirit

A composer and editor whose work helped to rekindle interest in pre-19th century Italian music, Gian Francesco Malipiero, was born on this day in 1882 in Venice.  Malipiero’s own output, which included operas and orchestral works, has been assessed by experts as fusing modern techniques with the stylistic qualities of early Italian music.  The composer was born into an aristocratic Venetian family and was the grandson of the opera composer Francesco Malipiero. He studied music at the Vienna conservatory and then returned to Venice to carry on his studies. He used to copy out the music of Claudio Monteverdi and Girolamo Frescobaldi at the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, which inspired his love of music from that period. He moved to Bologna to continue his studies and after graduating, returned to Venice and became an assistant to the blind composer Antonio Smareglia. Read more…

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Book of the Day: In the Shadow of Vesuvius: A Cultural History of Naples, by Jordan Lancaster

Naples is an Italian city like no other. Drama and darkness are often associated with Naples, which rests beneath active Mount Vesuvius and is the home of the Camorra - its version of the mafia. But beyond this, Naples reveals itself to be one of the most historically and culturally vibrant cities in Europe.  From its origins in Homer's Odyssey and its founding nearly 3,000 years ago, Naples has long attracted travellers, artists and foreign rulers - from the visitors of the Grand Tour to Goethe, Nelson, Dickens and Neruda.  The stunning beauty of its natural setting coupled with the charms of its colourful past and lively present - from the ruins of Pompeii to the glittering performances of the San Carlo opera house - continue to seduce all those who explore Naples today.  In the Shadow of Vesuvius is a sparkling portrait of the city - the definitive companion for anyone seeking to delve beneath its surface.

Jordan Lancaster studied at the universities of Cambridge and Bologna and holds a PhD in Italian Studies from the University of Toronto. She taught Italian language and literature at universities in Canada and the United States and lived for a time in Naples, where she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici, before moving to London to work as a translator and interpreter.

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17 March

NEW - Giuseppe Borgatti - tenor

Beautiful voice brings fame for former bricklayer

Opera singer Giuseppe Borgatti, who became known as Italy’s greatest Wagnerian tenor, was born on this day in 1871 in Cento in the province of Ferrara. Borgatti began his working life as a bricklayer and stone cutter, until a wealthy patron discovered that he had an outstanding voice and arranged for him to have music lessons.  He went on to sing leading roles at Teatro alla Scala in Milan for a period of 20 years and he was the first Italian tenor to be invited to sing at the annual Wagner festival held in Bayreuth in Germany.  After being born into a poor family, Borgatti had grown up to be illiterate, but when his singing talent was discovered, a local aristocrat paid for him to have professional singing lessons and to acquire some basic education.  When Borgatti was in his early twenties, he made his debut at Castelfranco Veneto, singing the title role in Faust by Charles Gounod.  Read more…

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Gabriele Ferzetti - actor

Starred in classic Italian films as well as Bond movie

The actor Gabriele Ferzetti, best known to international audiences for his role in the 1969 Bond movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service but in Italy for the Michelangelo Antonioni classic L’avventura (1960), was born on this day in 1925 in Rome.  Ferzetti, who cut a naturally elegant and debonair appearance, was the go-to actor for handsome, romantic leads in the early part of his career and although he was ultimately eclipsed to some extent by Marcello Mastroianni, he seemed equally content with prominent supporting roles. Rarely idle, he made more than 160 films and appeared in countless TV dramas and was still working at 85 years old.  His intense performance as Antonioni’s wealthy yet unfulfilled playboy opposite Lea Massari and Monica Vitti in L’avventura was the role that identified him most as an actor of considerable talent. Read more…

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Angelo Beolco - playwright

Actor and dramatist with a genius for comedy

One of the most powerful Italian dramatists of the 16th century, Angelo Beolco, who was nicknamed Ruzzante (or sometimes Ruzante) after his favourite character, died on this day in 1542 in Padua in the Veneto region.  Beolco was famous for his rustic comedies, which were written mostly in the Paduan dialect of the Venetian language.  Many of his plays featured a peasant called Ruzzante and they painted a vivid picture of life in the Paduan countryside during the 16th century.  Beolco was born in Padua in 1496 and was the illegitimate son of a doctor. His mother was possibly a maid in the household where he was brought up by his father. He received a good education and after his father’s death became manager of the family estate. In 1529, he also became manager of a farm owned by a nobleman, Alvise Cornaro, who had retired to live in the Paduan countryside.  Read more…

Innocenzo Manzetti - inventor

Made prototype telephone 33 years ahead of Bell

The inventor Innocenzo Manzetti, credited by some scientific historians as having been the creator of a forerunner of the telephone many years ahead of his compatriot Antonio Meucci and the Scottish-American Alexander Graham Bell, was born on this day in 1826 in Aosta, in northwest Italy.  Manzetti's extraordinary catalogue of inventions included a steam-powered car, a hydraulic water pump, a pendulum watch that would keep going for a whole year and a robot that could play the flute.  But he was a man whose creative talents were not allied to business sense.  Like Meucci, a Florentine emigrant to New York who demonstrated a telephone-like device in 1860 - 16 years before Bell was granted the patent - Manzetti did not patent his device and therefore missed out on the fortune that came the way of Bell.  Read more…

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Giovanni Trapattoni - football coach

His seven Serie A titles is unequalled achievement

Giovanni Trapattoni, the former Juventus and Internazionale coach who is one of only six coaches to have won the principal league titles of four different European countries, was born on this day in 1939 in Cusano Milanino, a suburb on the northern perimeter of Milan.  The most successful club coach in the history of Serie A, he won seven titles, six with Juventus and one with Inter.  His nearest challenger in terms of most Italian domestic championships is Massimiliano Allegri, who won six - five with Juventus, one with AC Milan. In addition, Trapattoni has also won the German Bundesliga with Bayern Munich, the Portuguese Primeira Liga with Benfica and the Austrian Bundesliga with Red Bull Salzburg, with whom he secured his 10th league title all told in 2007. Former Chelsea and Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho is among the other managers to have won titles in four countries.  Read more…

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Kingdom of Italy proclaimed

First king of Italy calls himself Victor Emmanuel II

The newly-unified Kingdom of Italy was officially proclaimed on this day in 1861 in Turin.  The first Italian parliament to meet in the city confirmed Victor Emmanuel as the first King of the new country.  It was the monarch's own choice to call himself Victor Emmanuel II, rather than Victor Emmanuel I. This immediately provoked criticism from some factions, who took it as implying that Italy had always been ruled by the House of Savoy.  Victor Emmanuel I, with whom Victor Emmanuel II had ancestral links, had been King of Sardinia - ruled by the Dukes of Savoy - from 1802 until his death in 1824.  Victor Emmanuel II had become King of Sardinia in 1849 after his father, Charles Albert, abdicated. His father had succeeded a distant cousin, Charles Felix, to become King of Sardinia in 1831.  The Kingdom of Sardinia is considered to be the legal predecessor to the Kingdom of Italy. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Richard Wagner: The Sorcerer of Bayreuth, by Barry Millington

Richard Wagner is one of the most influential and also one of the most polarizing composers in the history of music. Over the course of his long career, he produced a stream of spellbinding works that challenged musical convention through their richness and tonal experimentation, ultimately paving the way for modernism. The Sorcerer of Bayreuth presents an in-depth but easy-to-read overview of Wagner's life, work and times. Making use of the very latest scholarship, much of it undertaken by the author himself in connection with his editorship of The Wagner Journal, Millington reassesses received notions about Wagner and his work, demolishing ill-informed opinion in favour of proper critical understanding. It is a radical and occasionally controversial reappraisal of this most perplexing of composers. The book considers a whole range of themes, including the composer's original sources of inspiration; his fetish for exotic silks; his relationship with his wife, Cosima, and with his mistress, Mathilde Wesendonck; his anti-semitism; the opera's proto-cinematic nature; and the turbulent legacy both of the Bayreuth Festival and of Wagnerism itself. The volume’s arrangement, unique among books on the composer, combines an accessible text, intriguing images and original documents in carefully co-ordinated sections, thus ensuring a consistently fresh approach. 

Barry Millington is founder/editor of The Wagner Journal and author of eight books on Wagner. He is chief music critic for the Evening Standard. He has also acted as dramaturgical adviser at opera houses internationally.

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Giuseppe Borgatti - tenor

Beautiful voice brings fame for former bricklayer

Borgatti was an illiterate bricklayer
before his vocal talent was spotted

Opera singer Giuseppe Borgatti, who became known as Italy’s greatest Wagnerian tenor, was born on this day in 1871 in Cento in the province of Ferrara.

Borgatti began his working life as a bricklayer and stone cutter, until a wealthy patron discovered that he had an outstanding voice and arranged for him to have music lessons. 

He went on to sing leading roles at Teatro alla Scala in Milan for a period of 20 years and he was the first Italian tenor to be invited to sing at the annual Wagner festival held in Bayreuth in Germany.

After being born into a poor family, Borgatti had grown up to be illiterate, but when his singing talent was discovered, a local aristocrat paid for him to have professional singing lessons and to acquire some basic education.

When Borgatti was in his early twenties, he made his debut at Castelfranco Veneto, singing the title role in Faust by Charles Gounod. After performing at some Italian opera houses, he was given the chance to sing the role of Chevalier des Grieux in Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut in a production in Venice. 

Later in the year, he appeared at Teatro del Verme in Milan as Lohengrin, which was his first Wagnerian role.

Borgatti’s big breakthrough came when he sang the title role in Andrea Chénier on the night of the premiere of the opera at La Scala in Milan. The composer of the opera, Umberto Giordano, had worked with the tenor Alfonso Garulli to create the role of Andrea Chénier, but Garulli became ill at the eleventh hour and his place on the first night in 1896 had to be taken by the young tenor Borgatti.

On the night of the premiere, many members of the audience in Milan were moved by the emotional intensity of Giordano’s music sung by Borgatti. 

The opera was a big success and his triumph in the role escalated him into the top tier of Italian opera singers. 

Borgatti continued to appear in Italian operas, but also worked closely with La Scala’s principal conductor, Arturo Toscanini to try to master the main tenor parts in the Richard Wagner repertoire. He also travelled to Spain, Russia, and South America with other Italian opera stars to perform. 

Borgatti on stage at as Siegfried in the
third opera of Wagner's The Ring Cycle

In 1901 he took part in a grand concert at La Scala, held to mark the death of Giuseppe Verdi, in which the rising young star Enrico Caruso also appeared. 

Borgatti was honoured by being the first Italian tenor asked to sing at the Bayreuth festival in Germany in 1904, after which Cosima Wagner, the composer’s widow, praised his voice.

When he was at the height of his career in 2007 and his voice was at its peak, Borgatti began losing his sight due to glaucoma. After another seven years, he had to retire from the operatic stage, even though his voice was still excellent.

He continued to give concerts and the theatre in his home town of Cento was named in his honour in 1924. Eventually he lost his sight in both eyes and, in 1928, he gave his last public performance in Bologna.

After retiring, he taught singing in Milan. His best known pupils were the English Lyric tenor, Heddle Nash, and the German baritone, Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender.

Borgatti married one of his singing teachers, Elena Cuccoli, and they had a daughter, Renata Borgatti, who became a concert pianist.

Borgatti died in 1850 when he was 79 at Reno di Leggiuno, a resort he had moved to near Lago Maggiore. He left fewer than 20 recordings, which were all sung in Italian, of extracts from works by Wagner, Verdi, and Puccini. Borgatti had been La Scala’s original Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca in 1900 and among the recordings he left behind is the aria E lucevan le stelle, from Tosca.

Cento's impressive Rocca, the 14th century castle
originally built by the Bishop of Bologna

Travel tip:

Cento, where Giuseppe Borgatti was born, is a town in the province of Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna. It grew from being a little fishing village to become an established farming town and, in 1502, Pope Alexander VI took Cento away from the dominion of the Bishop of Bologna and made it part of the dowry for his daughter, Lucrezia Borgia, when she was betrothed to Duke Alfonso I d’Este. Cento was returned to the Papal States in 1598.The town’s 19th century theatre was named the Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Borgatti in honour of the famous tenor.  Known sometimes as "Little Bologna" for its arcaded streets and colourful buildings, it is famous as the birthplace of the Baroque painter Guercino, for its historic 14th-century Rocca fortress, and its world-renowned carnival.  Some of Guercino’s works can be seen in the Palazzo del Monte di Pietà, which houses the Civic Gallery, as well as in the Basilica Collegiata San Biagio, the Church of the Rosary and, in the frazione of Corporeno, the 14th-century church of San Giorgio.  The Rocca, a massive square castle with square towers, was built in 1378 by the Bishop of Bologna and enlarged by Giulio della Rovere, the future pope Julius II, in 1460.

Hotels in Cento by Hotels.com

The Hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso, built into
the rock face, is accessible only by boat or on foot

Travel tip:

Giuseppe Borgatti went to live at Reno di Leggiuno, a resort at Lago Maggiore in the province of Varese, when he retired and he died there in 1850. Reno di Leggiuno is a picturesque  hamlet on the Lombardy shore of the lake. The area is famous for the Hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso, a Roman Catholic monastery perched on a rocky ridge overlooking the lake, which dates back possibly to the 12th century. It is thought to have been founded by a hermit, Alberto Besozzi. Though still in use as a monastery, it serves mainly as a tourist attraction and pilgrimage site. It can be reached by boat or on foot by climbing down a winding stairway and was declared a national monument in 1914. Reno di Leggiuno, which has a marina and a number of hotels, is a tranquil, authentic location featuring a scenic sand-and-pebble beach, lakefront dining, and panoramic views of the Borromean Islands. It is the birthplace of the footballer Luigi ‘Gigi’ Riva, while the actor and playwright Dario Fo, was born in nearby Leggiuno Sangiano. Reno di Leggiuno is about 25km (15 miles) northwest of the city of Varese.

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More reading:

The opera that propelled Umberto Giordano into the front rank of composers

How the great conductor Toscanini became an orchestra leader by chance

The painter Guercino, 17th century master who is Cento’s most famous son

Also on this day:

1542: The death of playwright Angelo Bealco

1826: The birth of inventor Innocenzo Manzetti

1861: Kingdom of Italy proclaimed 

1925: The birth of actor Gabriele Ferzetti

1939: The birth of football coach Giovanni Trapattoni

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