17 September

NEW - Teresa Casati – revolutionary

Brave and beautiful noblewoman who fought for a free Italy

Teresa Casati, who has gone down in history as a heroine of the Risorgimento, was born into a noble family in Milan on this day in 1787.  She was the older sister of Gabrio Casati, who was a Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia and twice served as President of the Italian Senate. She married the revolutionary Federico Confalonieri, who became one of the leaders of the Italian National Party. Eventually she had to plead with Empress Carolina Augusta of Bavaria to spare her husband’s life, after he had been sentenced to death for his part in the Risorgimento movement. Teresa was the eldest daughter of Count Gaspare Casati and his wife Maria Orrigoni of Ello. Her mother died when she was six, and her father married again. Although she was described as ‘withdrawn’ as a child, Teresa grew up to be very beautiful.  Read more… 

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Nives Meroi - mountaineer

One of history’s greatest female climbers 

The climber Nives Meroi, widely regarded as one of history’s finest female mountaineers, was born on this day in 1961 in Bonate Sotto, a small town in the province of Bergamo, about 40km (25 miles) northeast of Milan.  One half of a renowned husband-and-wife climbing team with Romano Benet, Meroi is one of only three women to have reached the peak of all 14 of the so-called eight-thousanders, the only mountains in the world that tower about 8,000m, topped by Everest (8,848m), which she conquered in 2007, and K2 (8,611), which she had scaled in 2006.  Meroi completed the full set of 14 when she reached the summit of Annapurna (8,091m) in the Himalayas in 2017.  She and Benet, born in Italy but who has Slovenian nationality, are the first married couple to have climbed all 14 together.  The two first met more than 40 years ago in Tarvisio in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Read more… 

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Ranuccio II Farnese – Duke of Parma

Feuding with the Popes led to the destruction of a city

Ranuccio II Farnese, who angered Innocent X so much that the Pope had part of his territory razed to the ground, was born on this day in 1630 in Parma.  Ranuccio II was the eldest son of Odoardo Farnese, the fifth sovereign duke of Parma, and his wife, Margherita de’ Medici.  Odoardo died while Ranuccio was still a minor and, although he succeeded him as Duke of Parma, he had to rule for the first two years of his reign under the regency of both his uncle, Francesco Maria Farnese, and his mother.  The House of Farnese had been founded by Ranuccio’s paternal ancestor, Alessandro Farnese, who became Pope Paul III. The Farnese family had been ruling Parma and Piacenza ever since Paul III gave it to his illegitimate son, Pier Luigi Farnese. He also made Pier Luigi the Duke of Castro.  Read more… 

Reinhold Messner - mountaineer

Climber from Dolomites who conquered Everest

Reinhold Messner, the Italian mountaineer who was the first climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen and the first to reach the peak on a solo climb, was born on this day in 1944 in Bressanone, a town in Italy's most northerly region of Alto Adige, which is also known as South Tyrol.  Messner was also the first man to ascend every one of the world's 14 peaks that rise to more than 8,000 metres (26,000 ft) above sea level.  His 1976 ascent of Everest with the Austrian climber Peter Habeler defied numerous doctors and other specialists in the effects of altitude who insisted that scaling the world's highest mountain without extra oxygen was not possible.  Born only 45km (28 miles) from Italy's border with Austria, Messner grew up speaking German and Italian and has also become fluent in English.  Read more…

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Maria Luisa of Savoy

Girl from Turin ruled Spain while a teenager

Maria Luisa of Savoy, who grew up to become a queen consort of Spain with a lot of influence over her husband, King Philip V, was born on this day in 1688 at the Royal Palace in Turin.  She was the daughter of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy, and his French wife, Anne Marie d’Orleans.  Philip V of Spain wanted to maintain his ties with Victor Amadeus II and therefore asked for Maria Luisa’s hand in marriage. She was wed by proxy to Philip V in 1701 when she was still only 13.  Maria Luisa was escorted to Nice and from there sailed to Antibes en route to Barcelona. The official marriage took place in November of the same year.  Maria Luisa was both beautiful and intelligent and Phillip V was deeply in love with her right from the start.  In 1702 when Philip V left Spain to fight in the War of the Spanish Succession, Maria Luisa acted as Regent in his absence.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Italian Risorgimento: State, Society and National Unification, by Lucy Riall

The Risorgimento was a turbulent and decisive period in the history of Italy. Lucy Riall's engaging account is the first book of its kind on the upheavals of the years between 1815 and 1860, when a series of crises destabilised the states of Restoration Italy and led to the creation of a troubled nation state in 1860. Comprehensive, yet original, The Italian Risorgimento: State, Society and National Unification examines the social history of 19th century Italy and the social context of political action;   offers a critical overview of the historiography of the topic; takes account of the most recent literature, especially literature in Italian not normally accessible to students; adopts a broad thematic approach; places the Italian experience in a European context.

Lucy Riall is an Irish historian. She was a professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London, and is currently a professor in the Department of History and Civilisation at the European University Institute in Florence. She has written or edited several books on Italian history.

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Teresa Casati – revolutionary

Brave and beautiful noblewoman who fought for a free Italy

Teresa Casati was inspired by her
husband to fight for a united Italy

Teresa Casati, who has gone down in history as a heroine of the Risorgimento, was born into a noble family in Milan on this day in 1787. 

She was the older sister of Gabrio Casati, who was a Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia and twice served as President of the Italian Senate.

She married the revolutionary Federico Confalonieri, who became one of the leaders of the Italian National Party. Eventually she had to plead with Empress Carolina Augusta of Bavaria to spare her husband’s life, after he had been sentenced to death for his part in the Risorgimento, the 19th century political and social movement formed with the goal of creating a united, independent Italy.

Teresa was the eldest daughter of Count Gaspare Casati and his wife Maria Orrigoni of Ello. Her mother died when she was six, and her father married again. Although she was described as ‘withdrawn’ as a child, Teresa grew up to be very beautiful.

Her looks were praised by the poet Ugo Foscolo who wrote that she was a ‘young, holy and beautiful girl.’ The politician Giovanni Arravabene described her as ‘a woman in whom beauty, grace and gentle manners harmonised wonderfully together.’

Teresa received a proposal from the Duke of Pasquier, a French statesman, but her father talked her out of marrying him. However, after she met Confalonieri at a ball, and fell in love with him, her father agreed to let them marry. The couple had one child, who died when he was six years old.

Teresa often acted as Confalonieri’s go-between with other revolutionaries when her husband was away from Milan, passing on information to them from the letters he sent to her. She also became part of the Carbonari, a secret society associated with the Risorgimento.  

Anonymous informants told the Austrians that she had offered to kill one of their high-ranking officers with her own stiletto, but this was never proved against her.

When Confalonieri was eventually arrested and imprisoned by the Austrians, Teresa was not allowed to see him for a year and she would often be seen wearing mourning dress.

Federico Confalonieri spent many
years in a remote prison in Moravia

Eventually, she was granted permission to have short visits to see her husband, but the couple were always kept under guard. In 1823, Teresa travelled to Vienna accompanied by her brother, Gabrio, as well as her husband’s father and brother, to ask for Federico to be pardoned. But the Emperor, Francis I, told them that he had already ordered the death sentence and could not overturn it.

Teresa did not give up. She went to the Empress Carolina and convinced her to help them. The Empress tried to change her husband’s mind and eventually he agreed to have the sentence suspended.

Confalonieri was imprisoned in Spilberk Castle in Southern Moravia and before he was sent away he was allowed to embrace his wife for one last time. 

Teresa asked Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma if she could intercede with Emperor Francis I, who was the Duchess’s father, to give her permission to live in Brunn near the prison, but her request was turned down. 

Occasionally, plans were made by revolutionaries for Confalonieri’s escape from the prison, but none of them succeeded and so he remained behind bars.

Teresa Casati Confalonieri died of consumption - now known as tuberculosis - in September 1830, while in Erba near Lake Como in Lombardy.  Unaware of her death, Confalonieri continued to send her letters for another four and a half months.

Teresa was buried in the Casati family tomb and Alessandro Manzoni, the Milanese author of the classic novel, I Promessi Sposi, who was a supporter of Teresa and her husband, wrote the epitaph inscribed on it.

In 2011, there was an exhibition at the Spazio Oberdan in Milan called Rose d'Italia: "Il Risorgimento invisibile" lombardo (Roses of Italy: The invisible Risorgimento in Lombardy), which celebrated the contribution of Teresa Casati Confalonieri. 

The City of Muggio Theatre Competition created an award named after Teresa Casati Confalonieri in 2024. 

A film, Loyalty of Love, was made about Teresa’s life in 1934. Another, Il conte Aquila, a title Federico Confalonieri was also known by, was made about her husband’s life in 1955. 

Palazzo Confalonieri, where Teresa
and Federico lived in Milan

Travel tip:

Teresa Casati and Federico Confalonieri lived at Palazzo Confalonieri, in Via Monte di Pietà 14 in Milan. There is a plaque on the facade of the palazzo recording their patriotic activity in the cause of the independence of Lombardy-Veneto from the Austrian Empire. Federico was arrested at the house in 1821 and was at first condemned to death, but was later sentenced to life imprisonment in Spilberk Castle in Southern Moravia, which was used as a prison by the Austrian Empire. Via Monte di Pietà is located on the edge of Milan’s fashionable Brera district and just minutes away from some of the city’s most iconic cultural and historical landmarks. Within a short walk are the Pinacoteca di Brera art gallery, the Brera Botanical Garden, the Poldi Pezzoli Museum and the Teatro alla Scala opera house.  One of Italy's premier art galleries, housed in a grand palace, the Pinacoteca di Brera has masterpieces by Caravaggio, Raphael, and Mantegna among others.

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The 11th century bell tower
at the church of Sant'Eufemia

Travel tip: 

Erba, where Teresa Casati Confalonieri died, is a comune - municipality - in the province of Como located about 40 kilometres, 25 miles, north of Milan and to the southeast of Lake Como. It has a Romanesque church, Sant’Eufemia, which has an 11th century bell tower. There are also  remains of a medieval castle there. Things to see around Erba include the Eremo San Salvatore, an historic hillside hermitage offering panoramic views of the surrounding Brianza landscape, Borgo di Villincino, a well-preserved medieval hamlet featuring ancient stone walls and narrow cobblestone alleys, and Teatro Licinium, an outdoor open-air stone theatre built into a natural green amphitheatre, hosting performances in the summer months. 

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More reading:

How the poet Lord Byron helped the Carbonari in Ravenna

The revolutionary who became an English knight

The story of Gabriele Rossetti, poet and revolutionary

Also on this day:

1630: The birth of Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma

1688: The birth of Maria Luisa of Savoy

1944: The birth of mountaineer Reinhold Messner

1961: The birth of mountaineer Nives Meroi

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16 September

Terror attack on Café de Paris

Grenades thrown into iconic meeting place

The Café de Paris, a hang-out for Rome’s rich and famous during the 1950s and ‘60s and a symbol of the era encapsulated in Fellini’s classic film La dolce vita, was attacked by terrorists on this day in 1985.  Tables outside the iconic venue, on the city’s fashionable Via Veneto, were packed with tourists on a busy evening when two grenades were thrown from a passing car or motorcycle.  One of the devices, of the classic type known as pineapple grenades, failed to explode, but the other did go off, injuring up to 39 people in the vicinity.  Although 20 were taken to hospital, thankfully most were released quickly after treatment for minor wounds. There were no fatalities and only one of those hospitalised, a chef who happened to be waiting on tables at the time of the attack, suffered serious injuries.  Read more…

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Pietro Tacca - sculptor

Pupil of Giambologna became major figure in own right

The sculptor Pietro Tacca, who succeeded his master, Giambologna, as court sculptor to the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany, was born on this day in 1577 in Carrara.  Tacca, who initially produced work in the Mannerist style, later made a significant contribution to the advance of Baroque and helped preserve Florence’s pre-eminence in bronze casting.  As well as his work for the Medici family, Tacca achieved something never before attempted with his marble equestrian statue of King Philip IV of Spain in Madrid’s Plaza de Oriente.  The sculpture, considered to be a masterpiece, is notable for depicting the monarch on a rearing horse with its front legs off the ground and the entire weight of the statue supported by its hind legs and tail.  Tacca began attending the Florence workshop of Giambologna in 1592 at the age of 15. Read more…

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Sette e mezzo: The Palermo revolt of 1866

Insurgents took control of city after a major uprising 

The Sette e mezzo revolt - so named because it lasted seven and a half days - began in Palermo, the capital of Sicily, on this day in 1866.  The uprising - five years after the island became part of the new Kingdom of Italy - brought to the surface the tensions that existed in southern Italy following the Risorgimento movement and unification. It was put down harshly by the new government of Italy, who laid siege to the city of Palermo, deploying more than 40,000 soldiers under the command of General Raffaele Cadorna.  It is not known exactly how many Sicilians were killed before the revolt was subdued. Several thousand died as a result of a cholera outbreak that swept through Palermo and the surrounding area, but it is thought that more than 1,000 may have been killed as a direct consequence of the siege.  Read more…

Paolo Di Lauro - Camorra boss

Capture of mobster struck at heart of Naples underworld

Italy's war against organised crime achieved one of its biggest victories on this day in 2005 when the powerful Camorra boss Paolo Di Lauro was arrested.  In a 6am raid, Carabinieri officers surrounded a building in the notorious Secondigliano district of Naples and entered the modest apartment in which Di Lauro was living with a female companion.  The 52-year-old gang boss did not resist arrest, possibly believing any charges against him would not stick.  However, he was subsequently convicted and sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment for drug trafficking and other crimes and remains in jail.  Di Lauro's conviction was significant because it removed the man who for more than 20 years had been at the head of one of Italy’s most lucrative criminal networks and yet who had managed to maintain such a low profile that police at times suspected he was dead.  Read more…

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Sir Anthony Panizzi - revolutionary librarian

Political refugee knighted by Queen Victoria

Sir Anthony Panizzi, who as Principal Librarian at the British Museum was knighted by Queen Victoria, was a former Italian revolutionary, born Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi in Brescello in what is now Reggio Emilia, on this day in 1797.  A law graduate from the University of Parma, Panizzi began his working life as a civil servant, attaining the position of Inspector of Public Schools in his home town.   At the same time he was a member of the Carbonari, the network of secret societies set up across Italy in the early part of the 19th century, whose aim was to overthrow the repressive regimes of the Kingdoms of Naples and Sardinia, the Papal States and the Duchy of Modena and bring about the unification of Italy as a republic or a constitutional monarchy.  He was party to a number of attempted uprisings but was forced to flee the country in 1822. Read more…

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Alessandro Fortis - politician

Revolutionary who became Prime Minister

Alessandro Fortis, a controversial politician who was also Italy’s first Jewish prime minister, was born on this day in 1841 in Forlì in Emilia-Romagna.  Fortis led the government from March 1905 to February 1906. A republican follower of Giuseppe Mazzini and a volunteer in the army of Giuseppe Garibaldi, he was politically of the Historical Left but in time managed to alienate both sides of the divide with his policies.  He attracted the harshest criticism for his decision to nationalise the railways, one of his personal political goals, which was naturally opposed by the conservatives on the Right but simultaneously upset his erstwhile supporters on the Left, because the move had the effect of heading off a strike by rail workers. By placing the network in state control, Fortis turned all railway employees into civil servants, who were not allowed to strike under the law.  Read more…

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Book of the Day:  The Italian State and International Terrorism, 1969–1986: The Lodo Moro, by Valentine Lomellini

This book sheds light on the so-called ‘Moro Doctrine’, an Italian state security policy which has been portrayed in literature as an under-the-counter agreement made between Italy and Palestinian movement during the Cold War. The Moro Doctrine, or ‘Lodo Moro’ as it is known in Italy, aimed to protect the peninsula from Palestinian attacks by allowing terrorists to use Italian territory as a base for weapons and guerrilla fighters.  Responsibility for the ‘Lodo’ was instrumentally placed on Aldo Moro, the five- time Prime Minister of Italy, after his death, and since then his name has become indelibly linked with the shame of having negotiated with Palestinian terrorists. Thanks to records collected from  archives in Italy, the USA, France, Germany, Britain and Russia, concrete evidence shows that the significance of this agreement needs to be rethought. In The Italian State and International Terrorism, 1969–1986: The Lodo Moro, the author argues that the decision to adopt the Lodo was not solely made by Moro, but also involved key figures of the Christian Democrat and Socialist parties, various magistrates and even the President of the Republic. It illustrates how terrorism was used as an effective tool in international diplomacy to influence foreign and domestic policies and analyses how Italy responded to international terrorism during the Cold War.

Valentine Lomellini is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, Law and International Studies at the University of Padua in Italy, where she teaches Terrorism and Security in International History, and the History of International Relations. 

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15 September

Fausto Coppi - cycling great

Multiple title-winner who died tragically young

The cycling champion Fausto Coppi, who won the Giro d’Italia five times and the Tour de France twice as well as numerous other races, was born on this day in 1919 in Castellania, a village in Piedmont about 37km (23 miles) southeast of Alessandria.  Although hugely successful and lauded for his talent and mental strength, Coppi was a controversial character. His rivalry with his fellow Italian rider Gino Bartali divided the nation, while he offended many in what was still a socially conservative country by abandoning his wife to live with another woman.  Fausto, who openly admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs, which were then legal, died in 1960 at the age of just 40 following a trip to Burkina Faso in West Africa. The cause of death officially was malaria but a story has circulated in more recent years that he was poisoned in an act of revenge. Read more…

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Ettore Bugatti - car designer

Name that became a trademark for luxury and high performance

The car designer and manufacturer Ettore Bugatti was born in Milan on this day in 1881.  The company Bugatti launched in 1909 became associated with luxury and exclusivity while also enjoying considerable success in motor racing.  When the glamorous Principality of Monaco launched its famous Grand Prix in 1929, the inaugural race was won by a Bugatti.  Although Bugatti cars were manufactured for the most part in a factory in Alsace, on the border of France and Germany, their stylish designs reflected the company’s Italian heritage and Bugatti cars are seen as part of Italy’s traditional success in producing desirable high-performance cars.  The story of Bugatti as a purely family business ended in 1956, and the company closed altogether in 1963.  The name did not die, however, and Bugatti cars are currently produced by Volkswagen.  Read more…

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The first free public school in Europe

Frascati sees groundbreaking development in education

The first free public school in Europe opened its doors to children on this day in 1616 in Frascati, a town in Lazio just a few kilometres from Rome.  The school was founded by a Spanish Catholic priest, José de Calasanz, who was originally from Aragon but who moved to Rome in 1592 at the age of 35.  Calasanz had a passion for education and in particular made it his life’s work to set up schools for children who did not have the benefit of coming from wealthy families.  Previously, schools existed only for the children of noble families or for those studying for the priesthood. Calasanz established Pious Schools and a religious order responsible for running them, who became known as the Piarists.  Calasanz had been a priest for 10 years when he decided to go to Rome in the hope of furthering his ecclesiastical career.  Read more…

Gaetano Cozzi – historian and writer

Professor pursued academic research despite his disability

Historian, professor, and writer Gaetano Cozzi, who became an expert on the history of Venice and taught at both Venice and Padua Universities, was born on this day in 1922 in Zero Branco in the province of Treviso in the Veneto.  Although confined to a wheelchair for most of his adult life, Cozzi became famous internationally because of his research into the life of writer and statesman, Paolo Sarpi, and his own writing about the relationship between law and society in Italy.  Cozzi grew up in Legnano, a municipality of Milan, and went to military school. At the age of 20, he became a second lieutenant in the Alpine troops. While attending a training school in Parma he was kicked by a horse and suffered a leg wound. A vaccine injected into him to treat the wound caused a serious infection and he was left paralysed in his lower limbs.  Read more…

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Umberto II - last King of Italy

Brief reign was followed by long exile

The last King of Italy, Umberto II, was born on this day in 1904 in Racconigi in Piedmont.  Umberto reigned over Italy from 9 May 1946 to 12 June 1946 and was therefore nicknamed the May King - Re di Maggio.  When Umberto Nicola Tommaso Giovanni Maria di Savoia was born at the Castle of Racconigi he became heir apparent to the Italian throne as the only son and third child of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and his wife Queen Elena of Montenegro.  He was given the title of Prince of Piedmont.  Umberto married Marie Jose of Belgium in Rome in 1930 and they had four children.  He became de facto head of state in 1944 when his father, Victor Emmanuel III, transferred his powers to him in an attempt to repair the monarchy’s image after the fall of Benito Mussolini’s regime.  Victor Emmanuel III abdicated his throne in favour of Umberto in 1946. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Fallen Angel: The Passion of Fausto Coppi (Yellow Jersey Cycling Classics), by William Fotheringham

Voted the most popular Italian sportsman of the 20th century, Fausto Angelo Coppi was the campionissimo - champion of champions. The greatest cyclist of the immediate post-war years, he was the first man to win cycling's great double, the Tour de France and Tour of Italy in the same year - and he did it twice. He achieved mythical status for his crushing solo victories, world titles and world records. But his significance extends far beyond his sport.  Coppi's scandalous divorce and controversial early death convulsed a conservative, staunchly Roman Catholic Italy in the 1950s. At a time when adultery was still illegal, Coppi and his lover were dragged from their bed in the middle of the night, excommunicated and forced to face a clamorous legal battle. The ramifications of this case are still being felt today.  In Fallen Angel, acclaimed cycling biographer, William Fotheringham, tells the tragic story of Coppi's life and death - of how a man who became the symbol of a nation's rebirth after the disasters of war died reviled and heartbroken. Told with insight and intelligence, this is a unique portrait of Italy and Italian sport at a time of tumultuous change.

William Fotheringham is the bestselling author of Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike. He writes for the Guardian and Observer on cycling and rugby and is the critically lauded author of Fallen Angel, Roule Britannia, and Put Me Back on My Bike, which Vélo magazine called `the best cycling biography ever written’. A racing cyclist and launch editor of Procycling and Cycle Sport magazines, he has reported on more than 20 Tours de France.

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