8 May

Victor Amadeus I of Savoy

Duke’s French connection may have proved fatal

Victor Amadeus I, who during his seven-year reign over Savoy was forced to give strategic territory to France, was born on this day in 1587 in Turin.  He was the son of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and Catherine Micaela of Spain, daughter of Philip II of Spain.  Victor Amadeus spent much of his childhood in Madrid at the court of his grandfather.  He became heir-apparent to the Duchy of Savoy, when his brother, Filippo Emanuele, died in 1605 and he succeeded to the Dukedom after his father’s death in 1630.  Charles Emmanuel’s policies had made relationships with France and Spain unstable and troops were needed to defend the Duchy.  But as there was no money to recruit mercenaries or train local soldiers, Victor Amadeus signed a peace treaty with Spain.  In 1619 he married Christine Marie of France, the daughter of Henry IV of France and Marie de Medici. Read more…

_______________________________________

Angelo Italia - architect

Friar who advanced development of Sicilian Baroque

The architect and Jesuit friar Angelo Italia, who was an important protagonist in the development of Sicilian Baroque as an architectural style, was born on this day in 1628 in Licata, a town on the southern coast of Sicily, about 45km (28 miles) east of Agrigento.  In later life, Italia was one of the architects commissioned to work on the rebuilding of cities in the south-eastern corner of the island, following the devastating earthquake of 1693.  He was particularly influential in the design of the reconstructed cities of Avola and Noto, where the beauty of the architecture still attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year.  Individual buildings attributed to Italia include the Chiesa di San Francesco Saverio in Palermo, the Chapel of the Crucifix in the cathedral at Monreale, and the Chiesa Madre Maria Santissima del Rosario in Palma di Montechiaro, not far from Licata. Read more…

_____________________________________

Franco Baresi - AC Milan great

Defender voted club's 'player of the century'

The great AC Milan and Italy footballer Franco Baresi was born on this day in 1960 in Travagliato, a town in Lombardy about 13km (8 miles) south-west of Brescia.  Baresi, a central defender who was at his most effective playing in the libero – sweeper – role, made 719 competitive appearances for the rossoneri, with whom he spent his entire playing career, spanning 20 years.  During that time he won the Italian championship – known as the scudetto – six times and the European Cup three times, as well as many other trophies. He was made captain of the team at just 22 years old.  At Milan he was part of one of the most formidable defences of all time, alongside Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Costacurta, Mauro Tassotti, and later Christian Panucci, with Giovanni Galli in goal.  He and Maldini shared the extraordinary record that in 196 matches they played together, AC Milan conceded only 23 goals.  Read more…

______________________________________

Giovanni Battista Gaulli – artist

Baroque painter decorated leading Jesuit church in Rome

Painter Giovanni Battista Gaulli, whose nickname was Baciccio, was born on this day in 1639 in Genoa.  He became a leading baroque painter whose work was influenced by the sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini. He is most remembered for his beautiful frescoes in the Church of Gesù in Rome, which are considered a masterpiece of quadratura, or architectural illusionism.  Gaulli was born in Genoa and his parents died when he was just a teenager in an outbreak of plague in the city.  He was apprenticed with the painter Luciano Borzone but would also have been influenced by some of the foreign artists who were working in Genoa in the mid 17th century.  Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck were in Genoa at the time but it is also said that Gaulli adopted the warm palette of Genoese artist Bernardo Strozzi.  Read more…

________________________________________

Italy's first football championship

Four teams played three matches - all in one day

Genoa became the first football champions of Italy on this day in 1898, winning a four-team tournament that took place in Turin in the space of a single day.  The event was organised by the newly-formed Italian Football Federation, set up earlier in the year after Genoa and FC Torinese had met in the first organised match played on Italian soil.  The two other teams invited to take part were also from Turin, namely Internazionale di Torino and Ginnastica Torino.  They assembled at the Velodromo Umberto I, where there was space for a pitch at the centre of a cycle track, with the first match kicking off at 9am.  Internazionale beat FC Torinese 1-0 in the opening game, after which Genoa defeated Ginnastica 2-1. After a break for lunch, the final kicked off at 3pm, Genoa winning again by a 2-1 scoreline, reportedly after playing extra time.  Read more…

______________________________________

Book of the Day: The Royal House of Savoy: Unifiers of Italy, by Gino Neil Lupini

For generations, the Italian peninsula was Europe’s fragmented battlefield. The Royal House of Savoy: Unifiers of Italy is the definitive account of how the House of Savoy ended that chaos and forged a modern nation. It is a story of how ruthless realpolitik prevailed over romantic zeal. Through access to private archives and meticulous research, this saga of a dynasty is told one life at a time, revealing successes, failures, and profound humanity. The story chronicles the Savoys’ relentless ascent from their origins as rulers of a shrewd Alpine realm that used dynastic marriages, military genius, and calculated diplomacy to European kings. Stripping away the simple myths of the Risorgimento, this account reveals the complex, often brutal political engine behind Italian unity. From the contested Alpine passes to the triumphant entry into Rome, this is the astonishing, dramatic saga of the family that sacrificed everything to make Italy a reality.

Gino Neil Lupini was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, to an Italian father and British mother. Upon completing his schooling, Lupini embarked on a professional rugby career that led him to Italy, where he proudly represented the national team.

Buy from Amazon

Home

7 May

NEW - Pietro Nardini – violinist

Brilliant musician inspired the young Mozart

Pietro Nardini, who was one of the most celebrated violinists of the 18th century and was also a talented composer of violin music, died on this day in 1793 in Florence.  Nardini’s playing was praised by his contemporaries for its beauty and emotional power and his violin and flute compositions are still valued for their melodious qualities and technical skill.  He was a friend of Johann Georg Leopold Mozart, the father and teacher of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When the young composer first visited Italy with his father, he performed alongside Nardini in Tuscany.  Pietro Nardini was born in Livorno in 1722. At the age of 12 he became a pupil of the violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini. By the time he was 14, he was already playing the violin at festivals in Lucca, but he continued working with Tartini until 1740, when he became head instrumentalist in Lucca. Read more…

_______________________________________

Raimondo Vianello - actor and TV host

Big-screen star who conquered television too

Raimondo Vianello, who enjoyed a career that brought success on the big screen and small screen in equal measure, was born on this day in 1922 in Rome.   Vianello first rose to fame in the 1950s through a satirical TV show in which he starred with the great commedia all’italiana actor Ugo Tognazzi, which was eventually banned.  From television he moved into movies, appearing in no fewer than 79 films in the space of just 21 years, between 1947 and 1968, some with Tognazzi, but also alongside other stars such as Totò and Virna Lisi.  His notable successes included his portrayal alongside Raffaella Carrà of a hopeless secret agent in Mariano Laurenti’s 1966 film Il vostro superagente Flit - a parody of Our Man Flint, an American production that was in itself a parody of the James Bond movies - and Michele Lupo’s comedy Sette volte sette (Seven Times Seven) in 1968. Read more…

Marco Galiazzo - Olympic champion

First to win gold medal for Italy in archery

Marco Galiazzo, the first Italian to win an Olympic gold medal in archery, was born on this day in 1983 in Ponte San Nicolò, just outside Padua.  He won the men’s individual competition at the 2004 Games in Athens at the age of 21, defeating Great Britain’s Larry Godfrey 110-108 in the semi-finals before winning the gold medal match 111-109 against 42-year-old Hiroshi Yamamoto, of Japan. Galiazzo was only one when the veteran Yamamoto competed at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.  Galiazzo was one of 10 Italian gold medal winners at the 2004 Olympics, in which Paolo Bettini won the men’s road race in the cycling competition and Stefano Baldini the men’s marathon.  Eight years later, at the London Games of 2012, Galiazzo won his second Olympic gold as part of the Italian team, alongside Michele Frangilli and Mauro Nespoli, that defeated the United States in the final of the team event at Lord’s Cricket Ground. Read more…

________________________________________

Andrea Lo Cicero - rugby star 

Prop nicknamed "il Barone" now bona fide Knight

Former Italian international rugby star Andrea Lo Cicero was born on this day in 1976 in Catania, Sicily.  The 113 kilo (249lb) prop forward played rugby for the Azzurri between 2000 and 2013, retiring with 103 caps.  At the time it was the highest number won by any player and Lo Cicero was only the second player in the history of the national team to win more than 100 caps.  He made his debut against England at the Stadio Flaminio in Rome in March 2000, as the Five Nations Championship became the Six Nations with the inclusion of Italy for the first time, and ended his international career in the capital, although this time at the Stadio Olimpico, in a 22-15 victory over Ireland in the 2013 Championship, in front of a crowd of 80,054.  Highlights along the way included an outstanding performance in the 2004 Championship, when Italy beat Scotland in Rome.  Read more…

_________________________________________

Domenico Bartolucci – composer

Talented musician served under six popes

Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci, director of the Sistine Chapel Choir for 40 years and a talented and prolific composer, was born on this day in 1917 in Borgo San Lorenzo in Tuscany.  Bartolucci was considered one of the most authoritative interpreters of the works of composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and he led the Sistine Chapel Choir in performances all over the world.  His own compositions are said to fill more than 40 volumes and include masses, hymns, madrigals, orchestral music and an opera.  Bartolucci was born in Borgo San Lorenzo near Florence, the son of a brick factory worker who loved the music of Verdi and Donizetti. Bartolucci was recruited as a singer at the seminary in Florence at a young age. After the death of his music master, Bartolucci succeeded him as director of music for the Chapel of the Duomo of Florence and began to compose masses, motets and organ music.  Read more…

______________________________________

Book of the Day: Mozart in Italy: Coming of Age in the Land of Opera, by Jane Glover

At 13 years old, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy who had captured the hearts of northern Europe, but his father Leopold was now determined to conquer Italy. Together, they made three visits there, the last when Mozart was 17, all vividly recounted here by acclaimed conductor Jane Glover. Father and son travelled from the theatres and concert salons of Milan to the church-filled streets of Rome to Naples, poorer and more dangerous than the prosperous north, and to Venice, the birthplace of public opera. All the while Mozart was absorbing Italian culture, language, style and art, and honed his craft. He met the challenge of writing Italian opera for Italian singers and audiences and provoked a variety of responses, from triumph and admiration to intrigue and hostility: in a way, these Italian years can be seen as a microcosm of his whole life.  Evocative, beautifully written and with a profound understanding of eighteenth-century classical music, Mozart in Italy reveals how what he experienced during these Italian journeys changed Mozart – and his music – forever.

In Jane Glover’s long and hugely successful career as a conductor, she has been Music Director of the Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Artistic Director of The London Mozart Players, and, since 2002, is Music Director of Chicago’s Music of the Baroque. Especially known for her interpretations of Mozart, she is a regular broadcaster, with highlights including a television series on Mozart. She is also the author of Mozart’s Women and Handel in London.

Buy from Amazon

Home

Pietro Nardini – violinist

Brilliant musician inspired the young Mozart

Violinist Pietro Nardini was praised for
the beauty and emotion of his playing

Pietro Nardini, who was one of the most celebrated violinists of the 18th century and was also a talented composer of violin music, died on this day in 1793 in Florence.

Nardini’s playing was praised by his contemporaries for its beauty and emotional power and his violin and flute compositions are still valued for their melodious qualities and technical skill.

He was a friend of Johann Georg Leopold Mozart, the father and teacher of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When the young composer first visited Italy with his father, he performed alongside Nardini in Tuscany.

Pietro Nardini was born in Livorno in 1722. At the age of 12 he became a pupil of the violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini. 

By the time he was 14, he was already playing the violin at festivals in Lucca, but he continued working with Tartini until 1740, when he became head instrumentalist in Lucca.

In 1762, Nardini moved to Stuttgart, where he joined the court of Charles Eugene, Duke of Wurtemberg as a violinist. He was later appointed orchestra conductor, succeeding Niccolo Jomelli in the post.

After moving back to Italy to support the ailing Tartini, Nardini was appointed as maestro di cappella in Florence and he remained at the court of Leopold II Grand Duke of Tuscany for the rest of his life, although he also sometimes performed in Pisa, Rome and Naples.

Nardini also had many successful pupils, including Thomas Linley Junior, who was a highly talented violinist and is sometimes referred to as ’the English Mozart.’

The young Mozart performed with Nardini
at the Villa Medicea di Poggio Imperiale

When the teenage Mozart visited Tuscany with his father in 1770, he performed alongside Nardini at the Grand Duke Leopold’s summer palace, the Villa Medicea di Poggio Imperiale.

The Mozart family had first met Nardini in Augsburg in 1763. Pietro Nardini was intrigued to meet the young Mozart again, because his student,  Thomas Linley, was almost exactly the same age. 

The next days the boys met for the first time at the home of the Medici court’s official poetess, who was known as Corilla Olimpica, and was herself a pupil of Nardini on the violin and often held musical evenings.

In 1768, Thomas Linley, at the age of 12, had been sent to Florence to study with Nardini. The Tommasino, as he was known, and the little Mozart, were both talked of in Italy as the most promising musicians of the age. 

That evening in Tuscany, they performed one after another,  constantly embracing each other between pieces of music

The boys spent the next day together as well and the following evening performed together at the home of the court finance minister. The Mozart family party were to leave Tuscany the next day and plans were discussed for a reunion, but sadly, Linley and Mozart were never to see each other again. 

The Mozart family were unable to go back to Florence, and Linley, who also became a promising composer, returned to England. He died eight years later at the age of 22 in a boating accident in Lincolnshire.

Manuscripts of Nardini’s compositions are preserved in many Italian cities and abroad. Much of his work has been recorded in the 20th and 21st centuries and is available on disc. 

Probably the best known among Nardini’s highly regarded compositions are his Sonata in D Major and Concerto in E Minor.

The canal district in the Quartiere Venezia is
one of Livorno's attractions
(Image by danielmanastireanu from Pixabay)

Travel tip:

Livorno, where Pietro Nardini was born, is a lively Tuscan port city dating back to the Renaissance, which features Medici fortresses and canal districts among its attractions. Planned by the Medici as an ideal Renaissance port, its cosmopolitan past as a free port created a tolerant, multicultural atmosphere that remains part of its identity.  The city’s most elegant promenade is the Terrazza Mascagni, a sweeping checkerboard terrace overlooking the Ligurian Sea.  The Livorno Aquarium sits at one end, while historic bathing establishments line the shore.  At the heart of the older part of the town lies Quartiere Venezia, a 17th‑century canal district of bridges, warehouses, and pastel façades. Nearby stands the city’s emblem, the Monumento dei Quattro Mori, a dramatic 1620s sculpture of four chained bronze figures supporting the statue of Grand Duke Ferdinando I.  Livorno has two major fortresses. The Fortezza Vecchia, guarding the Medici port, preserves medieval towers and later Renaissance additions.  Inland, the Fortezza Nuova rises above a green moat and park, offering peaceful walks amid red‑brick ramparts.  For a taste of daily life, the Mercato Centrale is one of Italy’s largest indoor markets, with stalls selling fish, bread and pastries, and many local specialties. 

Stay in Livorno with Hotels.com

The Villa Medicea di Poggio Imperiale, where Mozart
and Nardini performed, now houses a girls' school
(Picture by Sailko via Wikimedia Commons)

Travel tip:

The Villa Medicea di Poggio Imperiale, where Pietro Nardini performed with the young Mozart, is a grand, predominantly neoclassical Medici residence in Arcetri, in the hills just south of Florence.  The villa was originally the Baroncelli family’s country house and passed to the Pandolfini and Salviati families before being seized in 1565 by Cosimo I de’ Medici, who gave it to his daughter Isabella de’ Medici. Isabella transformed it into a refined retreat, hosting an intellectual court and enriching the interiors with art. In 1622, it was bought by Grand Duchess Maria Maddalena of Austria, who commissioned architect Giulio Parigi to double its size, create the monumental façade, and link the villa to Florence via a long, tree‑lined avenue. It was she who gave it the name Poggio Imperiale, reflecting her imperial Habsburg lineage. After further expansions followed under Vittoria Della Rovere, in the 18th century, Grand Duke Leopold II adopted the villa as a principal residence.  The villa’s present neoclassical appearance is largely down to Maria Luisa of Spain, Elisa Baciocchi (Napoleon’s sister), and Ferdinando III, who refined the façade and interiors into the elegant, symmetrical form seen today.  Today the building houses a prestigious girls’ boarding school, but guided tours can be booked.

Book accommodation in Florence with Expedia

More reading:

Giuseppe Tartini, 18th century composer who changed technique of violin playing

Why Italian composer Antonio Salieri was dogged by Mozart murder rumours 

Opera composer Pietro Mascagni, another of Livorno’s famous musical sons

Also on this day: 

1917: The birth of cardinal and composer Domenico Bartolucci

1922: The birth of actor and TV host Raimondo Vianello

1976: The birth of rugby star Andrea Lo Cicero

1983: The birth of Olympic champion archer Marco Galiazzo

Home

6 May

Carlo Mollino - architect and polymath

A Renaissance man of the mid-20th century

The multi-talented architect Carlo Mollino, who designed buildings, interiors and furniture but whose talents also ran to writing and photography, racing car design, aerobatic flying and downhill skiing, was born on this day in 1905 in Turin.  Mollino, whose style has been described as an eclectic fusion of the modern and the surreal, was responsible for several notable public buildings, including the Turin Chamber of Commerce and the headquarters of the Horse Riding Club of Turin, as well as several striking private residences and apartment buildings.  He also designed the extraordinary Lago Nero Sled Station, at Sauze d'Oulx, the winter resort 50km (31 miles) north of Turin, and rebuilt the interior of the Teatro Regio opera house in Turin 40 years after a catastrophic fire left little behind the the 18th century facade intact.  Read more…

_______________________________________

The 1527 Sack of Rome

Mutinous army of Holy Roman Empire laid waste to city

An army loyal to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, laid siege to the city of Rome on this day in 1527, at the start of the Sack of Rome, a significant event in the conflict between Charles and the so-called League of Cognac that had profound implications for Rome’s wealth and power.  Rome at the time was part of the Papal States, who at the behest of Pope Clement VII had joined the League of Cognac – an alliance that included France, Milan, Florence and Venice – in an effort to stop the advance of the Empire, which had its centre of power in the Kingdom of Germany, into the Italian peninsula.  After the Imperial Army had defeated the French at Pavia in the Italian War of 1521-26, it would have been a logical step for Charles to march on Rome but the attack is said to have come about not through any planned strategy but after a mutiny among his troops. Read more…

_______________________________________

Alessandra Ferri – ballerina

Dancing star who believes age is a matter of attitude

Prima ballerina assoluta Alessandra Ferri, who retired in 2007 but then made a triumphant return to ballet in 2013, was born on this day in 1963 in Milan. She marked her 55th birthday in 2018 by dancing at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and the Hamburg Staatsoper, before performing at the Ravello Festival in Italy in July and in Tokyo in August.  In a newspaper interview, Ferri said she was happy to be breaking barriers as an older woman in a youth-dominated world. She said she still has full confidence in her abilities and believes ageing is largely an attitude and her advice to other women of her age is ‘to keep moving’.  Ferri began studying ballet at La Scala Theatre Ballet School. She moved to the upper school of the Royal Ballet School in London, where she won a scholarship that enabled her to continue studying there.  Read more…

Rudolph Valentino - star of silent films

Heart-throb actor who died tragically young

The man who would become Rudolph Valentino was born on this day in 1895 in Castellaneta, a small town in a rocky region of Puglia notable for steep ravines.  Born the second youngest of four children by the French wife of an Italian veterinary surgeon, he was christened Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla.  When he arrived in America as an immigrant in 1913, he was registered as Rodolfo Guglielmi. His first movie credit listed him as Rudolpho di Valentina and he appeared under nine different variations of that name before achieving fame as Rudolph Valentino in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in 1920.  During the silent movie boom, he enjoyed more success in The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and The Son of the Sheik and his smouldering good looks made him a 1920s sex symbol.  Read more…

________________________________________

Massimiliano Alajmo – Michelin-starred chef

Innovative cook is carrying on a family tradition 

Massimiliano “Max” Alajmo, who at 28 years old became the youngest chef in history to be awarded a Michelin star, was born on this day in 1974 in Padua.  Along with his brother, Raffaele, and his sister, Laura, Alajmo is part of the fifth generation of his family to become chefs and restaurateurs and he now helps them run a group of 14 restaurants, mainly situated in the Veneto region of Italy, as well as in Paris and Marrakech.  After attending a hotel management school, Alajmo furthered his culinary education in the kitchens of Alfredo Chiocchetti of Ja Navalge in the comune - municipality - of Moena, which is in the heart of the Dolomites in Trentino Alto Adige.  He then moved on to work with Marc Veyrat and Michel Guerard at restaurants in Veyrier du Lac d'Annecy and Eugénie les Bains in France. Read more…

________________________________________

Book of the Day: Carlo Mollino: The Sensuality of Form, by Paola and Rossella Colombari 

In 1981, two young gallery owners - Paola and Rossella Colombari - happened upon the furniture of Carlo Mollino, an enigmatic, unclassifiable, and then-unknown figure in Italian design. When they organized the first Mollino furniture auction in Venice in 1985, they never imagined the sale would trigger a massive international collectors’ market for Mollino’s pioneering works. The designer’s sought-after objects would soon sell for millions. This volume presents a wealth of iconographic material - vintage photos, drawings, sketches, and photomontages drawn from Mollino’s archives at the Turin Politecnico - and some previously unpublished documents and images.  The book includes a contribution by the architect Mario Cucinella, and a photographic portfolio by Uli Weber. It is not an exhaustive critical monograph, but instead bears witness with novelistic sweep. Carlo Mollino: The Sensuality of Form explores Mollino’s creative mindset, his architecture and design, his photography, his lifelong passion for speed, his eroticism, and the overlap of his personal and professional life from a childhood in Turin through his death in 1973. No one could portray Mollino, the man and the artist, more convincingly than the two women who brought his legacy to light.

Rossella Colombari is a leading expert in 20th-century Italian design, with over 40 years of experience. Born into a historic Turin antique-dealing family, together with her sister, Paola Colombari, a former competitive skier who opened her first gallery in Turin in 1981, she pioneered the market for designers like Carlo Mollino, Gio Ponti, and Ettore Sottsass. She founded her own gallery in Milan in 1991. 

Buy from Amazon

Home