Pierluigi Zappacosta - entrepreneur

Electronics engineer who co-founded Logitech

Pierluigi Zappacosta was CEO at
Logitech for 16 years

The electronics engineer and entrepreneur Pierluigi Zappacosta, who co-founded the computer peripherals giant Logitech, was born in the historic city of Chieti in the Abruzzo region on this day in 1950.

Zappacosta studied electronic engineering at Rome’s La Sapienza University and computer science at Stanford University in California. He teamed up with fellow Stanford graduate Daniel Borel and another young Italian, Giacomo Marini, to launch Logitech as a start-up company in Switzerland in 1981.

Marini already had experience in the burgeoning computer business, having worked for Olivetti and IBM.

Logitech began as a software and consultancy business but went on to specialise in computer peripherals, in particular the computer mouse. They were the first company to manufacture the mouse on a commercial scale, refined it by replacing wheels with optical sensors and infrared tracking, and eventually became the biggest mouse producer in the world.

Although the mouse as a device had existed since the 1960s, invented by Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute, Logitech developed the first wireless version.

Zappacosta was Logitech’s president and CEO for 16 years, later serving as vice-chairman. He took Logitech public in Switzerland (1988) and on the NASDAQ (1997), raising over $60 million.  By the time he left the company in 1998, Logitech’s annual sales exceeded $400 million.

Born and brought up in the historic centre of Chieti, about 18km (11 miles) inland from the Adriatic coastal resort of Pescara, Zappacosta attended the Liceo Classico Giambattista Vico on Corso Marrucino in Chieti.

He enrolled at the University of Rome, known since the 17th century as La Sapienza - literally, The Wisdom - to study electronic engineering. At the time of his graduation, he felt he might be best suited to a career as an academic.

Logitech became the world's biggest
producer of the computer mouse

He was persuaded to take a different direction after his girlfriend, Enrica, another Abruzzese who would later become his wife, enrolled at the University of Pisa to study computer science. Not wishing to be apart, he moved with her to Pisa. When she began working, post-graduation, for the Consiglio Nazionale di Richerce (National Research Council), based in Pisa, he took a job with a local computer software company.

But that was only the start. The CNR was closely linked with IBM, the American technology company, who were inviting applications for scholarships to work in the United States. Enrica applied and was successful. Pierluigi was persuaded to go with her and, as she took up a position in Palo Alto, California, he enrolled for an MSc in computer science at nearby Stanford University.

Although Logitech began life in Switzerland, and still has its global headquarters in Lausanne, its client base as the business expanded was increasingly in America, winning a major contract with Hewlett Packard in 1984. The company’s operational headquarters is in San José, California. 

Pierluigi and Enrica eventually settled in California. They have three children, Francesco, Marco and Maria Cristina. Marco, like his father, is a technology entrepreneur. He is co-founder and CEO of Thumbtack, an online home services marketplace.

Since leaving Logitech, Pierluigi has enjoyed continued business success in America. He and Enrica co-founded DigitalPersona, specialising in biometric identification systems. He was CEO of Sierra Sciences, a biotech company focused on anti‑aging research, and is chairman of Faro Ventures, an investment fund active in Italy and the US.

The Delverde pasta factory in Fara San Martino,
which Zappacosta saved from bankruptcy

He has retained strong connections with Italy. In 2005, it was thanks to his intervention that Pastificio Delverde, a pasta manufacturing company in Fara San Martino in Abruzzo, not far from his wife’s home village of Colledimacine, was saved from extinction when he bought it out of bankruptcy.

Zappacosta installed businessman Leonardo Valenti as CEO, rehired the 120 employees who had lost their jobs and began taking on young graduates. Within a year, the factory was back on track. 

Founded in 1967, the Delverde factory uses water from the Verde river, a stream of pure spring water from the Majella massif which flows through the factory itself, providing a crucial raw material for pasta production. Using a low temperature drying process, the company has gained a reputation for high quality pasta products.

Zappacosta is secretary and treasurer of Issnaf (Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation), an association of Italian scientists and researchers in North America that was founded in 2007 by 36 scientists including four Nobel Prize winners - Renato Dulbecco, Riccardo Giacconi, Louis Ignarro and Mario Capecchi.

In 2015, he was appointed a Knight of Labour by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella. 

Chieti occupies an elevated position on a hillside, about
18km (11 miles) inland from the coast of Abruzzo

Travel tip:

Chieti is among the most ancient Italian cities, reputedly founded in 1181BC by the Homeric Greek hero Achilles and named Theate in honour of his mother, Thetis. There is evidence, however, of prehistoric settlement, with Lower Paleolithic hand axes found in the area. Its elevated position, around 330m (1068ft) above sea level, offers panoramic views of both the Adriatic Sea and the Majella mountains, earning it the nickname “the Terrace of Abruzzo.”  The city is notable for the Gothic Cathedral of San Giustino, which has a Romanesque crypt dated at 1069 but is mainly of later construction, having been rebuilt a number of times, usually because of earthquake damage. The main part of the cathedral is in early 18th century Baroque style. There are also some Roman remains, including those of a theatre, an amphitheatre, baths and temples.  The city consists of Chieti Alta, the higher part and the historic centre, where Zappacosta was brought up, and the more modern Chieti Scalo.

Find a hotel in Chieti with Hotels.com

Monte Amaro, the highest point of the Majella
massif, makes for a dramatic backdrop 

Travel tip:

Majella National Park is one of Italy’s most dramatic landscapes, a vast limestone massif rising abruptly between the Adriatic coast and the Abruzzo interior. Its character is shaped by deep gorges, high plateaus, and broad, wind‑scoured summits. The Majella massif itself reaches its peak at Monte Amaro (2,793 m; 9,173ft), a mountain long associated with hermits, shepherds, and pilgrims who sought solitude and silence in its uplands. The park’s biodiversity is exceptional. Beech forests cloak the lower slopes, while chamois, wolves, and golden eagles inhabit the higher, harsher terrain.  Yet Majella is as much a cultural landscape as a natural one. The mountains are threaded with hermitages carved into cliffs, medieval shepherd routes, and abandoned stone villages. It is popular with hikers, who can explore the Vallone di Santo Spirito, the panoramic Blockhaus ridge, or the high Fondo di Femmina Morta plateau. Towns such as Caramanico Terme and Pacentro provide gateways to the park, blending mountain traditions with Abruzzese hospitality. 

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More reading:

The Olivetti engineer who built the first personal computer

The 19th century inventor behind the forerunner of the fax machine

The inventor who used recycled piano keys to make typewriter

Also on this day:

1857: The death of socialist revolutionary Carlo Pisacane

1922: The birth of fashion designer Pierre Cardin

First running of Palio di Siena

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1 July

Achille Varzi - racing driver

Death on track led to mandatory wearing of crash helmets

Italian motor racing fans were in mourning on this day in 1948 when it was announced that Achille Varzi, whose rivalry with fellow driver Tazio Nuvolari made frequent headlines during the 1930s, had been killed in an accident while practising for the Swiss Grand Prix.  Although the sun was shining, an earlier downpour had left parts of the Bremgarten circuit outside Berne very wet and Varzi’s Alfa Romeo 158 was travelling at 110mph (170kph) when he arrived at a corner that was both wet and oily.  The car spun several times and appeared to be coming to a stop but then flipped over. The helmetless Varzi was crushed beneath the car and died from his injuries at the age of 43.  His death was especially shocking because he was regarded as one of the more cautious drivers. Since beginning his career on two wheels in his teens he had suffered only one major accident. Read more…

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Alberto Magnelli - abstract painter

Self-taught artist whose work became known as Concrete Art

The abstract painter Alberto Magnelli, who became a leading figure in the Concrete Art movement, was born on this day in 1888 in Florence.  Concrete Art is described as abstract art that is entirely free of any basis in observed reality and that has no symbolic meaning. It had strong geometric elements and clear lines and its exponents insisted the form should eschew impressionism and that a painting should have no other meaning than itself.  The movement took its name from the definition of concrete as an adjective rather than a noun, meaning ‘existing in a material or physical form’.  It became Magnelli’s focus after he moved to Paris in 1931. Until then, he had experimented in various genres.  He was born into a comfortable background in Florence, his father coming from a wealthy family of textile merchants.  He never studied art formally. Read more…

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Clara Gonzaga – noblewoman

Countess from Mantua founded European dynasties

Clara (Chiara) Gonzaga, the eldest daughter of Federico I Gonzaga and Margaret of Bavaria, was born on this day in 1464 in Mantua.  One of her six children became Charles III, Duke of Bourbon and led the imperial army sent by Emperor Charles V against Pope Clement VII in what was to become the Sack of Rome in 1527.  Clara was also to feature as one of the characters in The Heptameron, a collection of 72 short stories written in French by the sister of King Francis I of France, Marguerite of Angouleme, who had been inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron.  Clara had five siblings, including Francesco II Gonzaga, who married Isabella d’Este.  She was married at the age of 17 to Gilbert of Bourbon Montpensier. Four years later he succeeded his father as Count of Montpensier and Dauphin of Auvergne.  Clara and Gilbert had six children. Read more…

Gino Meneghetti - career burglar

Pisa-born criminal became legend in Brazil

Gino Amleto Meneghetti, a small-time thief in Italy who became a romanticised figure for his criminal exploits after emigrating to Brazil, was born on this day in 1878 in Pisa.  His early days were spent in a fishing village outside Pisa, but his father could find only low-paid work and moved the family to a different neighbourhood so he could take a job in a ceramics factory.  It was there that Gino fell in with a gang of boys who regularly engaged in petty crime, stealing fruit or chickens or other objects of minimal worth.  The young Meneghetti was arrested for the first time at 11 years of age.  After teenage years spent largely thieving, he made an attempt to change his life, going back to the classroom to learn to be a mechanic and a locksmith.  He found work and saved money, but then decided to move to Marseilles in France to live with an uncle, who owned a restaurant.  Read more…

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Claudio Saracini – musician

Baroque songs have survived till modern times

Composer Claudio Saracini was born on this day in 1586 in or close to Siena in Tuscany.  He is one of the most highly regarded composers of his time and is known also to have played the lute and been a singer.  He became famous for composing monody, which is secular music for a single voice, and 133 of the songs he wrote in this style have survived till today.  Some of Saracini’s compositions are still recorded, often in collections along with works by other composers of the same era, such as Monteverdi, who is said to have admired him.  Saracini travelled widely and seems to have established useful connections abroad as he dedicated a lot of his music to foreign aristocrats. He also appeared to have absorbed some of the musical styles of the lands he visited in his own compositions.  A unique feature of his work is the influence of folk music.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Motor Racing Heroes: The Stories of 100 Greats, by Robert Newman

Covering almost 100 years of motor racing history, Motor Racing Heroes emphasises that humanity, rather than simple statistics, is the true source of the subjects’ heroism. Take André Boillot; so tired at the end of the 1919 Targa Florio, he made a silly mistake, spinning his car backwards across the finish line – yet he still won. Or Grand Prix winners Robert Benoist, William Grover Williams and Jean-Pierre Wimille, all of whom became French resistance fighters during WWII. There’s David Purley’s valiant attempt at rescuing a trapped Roger Williamson by overturning Williamson's blazing march with his bare hands during the 1973 Grand Prix of Holland. And Alessandro Zanardi, who lost both his legs in a CART accident, yet still came back to win races. The lighter side of motor sport is also here, with Giannino Marzotto, who won the 1950 Mille Miglia wearing an immaculate double-breasted suit. Or Giovanni Bracco, who won the 1952 Mille Miglia as he swigged from a bottle of red wine! There are so many heroes and heroines in this sport. This book is about 100 of them.

Born in Ashford, Kent, Robert Newman spent almost a decade in Melbourne, Australia before returning to the UK in 1955 to pursue a career in journalism. In 1965 joined Pirelli Limited as their British press officer, later becoming PR director of their United States subsidiary.

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30 June

Mario Carotenuto - actor

Roman from theatrical family made more than 100 films

The actor Mario Carotenuto, who became one of the most familiar faces in the commedia all’italiana genre of Italian film, was born on this day in 1916 in Rome.  Carotenuto, who was active in the movie industry for more than 30 years having started in the theatre and on radio, played alongside some of the greats of Italian cinema, including Totò, Alberto Sordi, Vittorio De Sica, Sophia Loren and Monica Vitti.  More often than not, he was cast in supporting roles rather than as the star, yet became respected as one of Italy’s finest character actors in comedy, winning a Nastro d'argento award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of The Professor in Luigi Comencini’s 1973 comedy-drama Lo scopone scientifico - The Scientific Card Player - which starred Sordi, Silvana Mangano and the American Bette Davis.  Read more…

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Gianrico Carofiglio - novelist

Ex anti-Mafia judge now bestselling author

The novelist Gianrico Carofiglio, whose books have sold more than five million copies, was born on this day in 1961 in Bari.  Carofiglio is best known for a series of thrillers featuring the character of lawyer Guido Guerrieri but he has also written a number of novels featuring other characters, still mainly in the crime thriller genre.  One of them, his 2004 novel Il passato è una terra straniera (The Past is a Foreign Country), was made into an acclaimed film, directed by Daniele Vicari and starring Elio Germano, who appeared in the multi award-winning TV series Romanzo Criminale, and Michele Riondino, who played Andrea Camilleri’s most famous detective in the TV series The Young Montalbano.  Carofiglio drew inspiration and much technical knowledge from his career as a magistrate, which culminated in him becoming deputy prosecutor in the Anti-Mafia Directorate of his home town, Bari.  Read more…

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Urbano Rattazzi – prime minister

Unpopular politician had anticlerical views

Urbano Pio Francesco Rattazzi, the third prime minister of the newly unified Kingdom of Italy, who is remembered for his clashes with the Italian people’s hero, Giuseppe Garibaldi, was born on this day in 1808 in Alessandria in the region of Piedmont.  Rattazzi became prime minister in 1862, succeeding Bettino Ricasoli, and he held the office for nine months until his behaviour towards Garibaldi led to him being driven from office.  He served as prime minister again in 1867 from April to October, but was forced by King Victor Emmanuel II to resign again because of the Italian people’s reaction to his treatment of Garibaldi.  Rattazzi was married to the French novelist, Laetitia Marie Wyse Bonaparte, who was the great niece of the Emperor Napoleon I, and they had one daughter, Romana, who was born in 1871. Read more…

Allegra Versace – heiress

‘Favourite niece’ who inherited Gianni fortune

The heiress Allegra Versace, owner of half the Versace fashion empire, was born on this day in 1986 in Milan.  The daughter of Donatella Versace, the company’s chief designer and vice-president, she was the favourite niece of Gianni Versace, who founded the fashion house in 1978.  When Gianni was shot dead outside his mansion in Miami in July 1997, Allegra was just 11 years old but could look forward to becoming immensely rich after it was announced that her uncle had willed his share of the business, amounting to 50 per cent, to her when she reached her 18th birthday.  By the most recent valuation of the Versace group, this means Allegra has a personal fortune worth $800 million. The remainder of the empire is owned by her mother, who has 20 per cent, and Gianni’s older brother, Santo Versace, who has 30 per cent.  Read more…

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First Martyrs' Day

Nero blamed Christians for his own crimes

Christians martyred in Rome during the reign of Nero in AD 64 are remembered every year on this day in Italy.  The Catholic Church celebrates the lives of the many men and women put to death by Nero, who are now known as i Primi Martiri, first martyrs of the Church of Rome, with a feast day every year on 30 June.  In the summer of AD 64, Rome was devastated by fire. The unpopular emperor Nero, who wanted to enlarge his palace, was suspected of setting fire to the city himself but he accused the early Christians then living in Rome and had them executed.  Some were fed to wild animals, some crucified, while others were burnt to death to illuminate the sky and provide evening entertainment.  The feast of the First Martyrs came into the Church calendar in 1969 as a general celebration day for the early Roman martyrs. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Comedy Italian Style: The Golden Age of Italian Film Comedies, by Rémi Fournier Lanzoni 

This book explores the work of Dino Risi with The Easy Life (1962), The Monsters (1963), The New Monsters (1977), and Scent of a Woman (1974), Mario Monicelli with Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958), The Great War (1959), and Amici miei (1975), also Pietro Germi with Divorce Italian Style (1961), as well as filmmakers as disparate as Federico Fellini with Amarcord (1973), Ettore Scola with Down and Dirty (1976), Lina Wertmüller with Swept Away (1974), Luigi Comencini with The Scientific Card Player (1972) and many others. In addition, Comedy Italian Style: The Golden Age of Italian Film Comedies explains how the genre was able to reveal during two decades (1960s and 1970s) many acting talents and confirmed the future legacy of picturesque icons such as Alberto Sordi, Nino Manfredi, Vittorio Gassman, Stefania Sandrelli, Claudia Cardinale, Monica Vitti, Giancarlo Giannini and Ugo Tognazzi, all of whom depicted the Italian resilience in the utmost idiosyncratic manner.

Rémi Lanzoni, who earned a PhD in Italian from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is also the author of French Cinema: From its Beginnings to Present (2003). 

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29 June

Masaniello - insurgent

Fisherman who led Naples revolt 

The 17th century insurgent known as Masaniello was born on June 29, 1620 in Naples.  A humble fishmonger’s son, Masaniello was the unlikely leader of a revolt against the Spanish rulers of his home city in 1647, which was successful in that it led to the formation of a Neapolitan Republic, even though Spain regained control within less than a year.  The uprising, which followed years of oppression and discontent among the 300,000 inhabitants of Naples, was sparked by the imposition of taxes on fruit and other basic provisions. Masaniello - real name Tommaso Aniello - was a charismatic character, well known among the traders of Piazza Mercato, the expansive square that had been a centre of commerce in the city since the 14th century.  Born in a house in Vico Rotto al Mercato, situated close to the city’s main port, he followed his father into fish trading. Read more…

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning dies in Florence

Romantic poet produced some of her best work after fleeing to Italy

English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning died on June 29, 1861 in Florence.  She had spent 15 years living in Italy with her husband, the poet Robert Browning, after being disinherited by her father who disapproved of their marriage.  The Brownings’ home in Florence, Casa Guidi, is now a memorial to the two poets.  Their only child, Robert Weidemann Barrett Browning, who became known as Pen, was born there in 1849.  Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era and was popular in both Britain and the United States during her lifetime.  From about the age of 15 she had suffered health problems and therefore lived a quiet life in her father’s house, concentrating on her writing.  A volume of her poems, published in 1844, inspired another writer, Robert Browning, to send her a letter praising her work.  Read more…

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Oriana Fallaci - journalist

Writer known for exhaustively probing interviews

Oriana Fallaci, who was at different times in her career one of Italy’s most respected journalists and also one of the most controversial, was born in Florence on June 29, 1929.  As a foreign correspondent, often reporting from the world’s most hazardous regions in times of war and revolution, Fallaci interviewed most of the key figures on both sides of conflicts.  Many of these were assembled in her book Interview with History, in which she published accounts of lengthy conversations, often lasting six or seven hours, with such personalities as Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, Yasser Arafat, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Willy Brandt, Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Henry Kissinger and the presidents of both South and North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.  Others she interviewed included Deng Xiaoping, Lech Wałęsa, Muammar Gaddafi and the Ayatollah Khomeini.  Read more… 

Giorgio Napolitano – 11th President of Italy

Neapolitan was concerned about the development of southern Italy

Giorgio Napolitano, who served as the 11th President of the Republic of Italy, was born on June 29, 1925 in Naples. He was the longest serving president in the history of the republic and the only Italian president to have been re-elected.  He graduated in law from Naples University in 1947, having joined a group of young anti-fascists while he was an undergraduate.  At the age of 20, Napolitano joined the Italian Communist Party. He was a militant and then became one of the leaders, staying with the party until 1991 when it was dissolved. He then joined the Democratic Party of the Left.  Napolitano was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in 1953 and continued to be re-elected by the Naples constituency until 1996.  His parliamentary activity focused on the issue of southern Italy’s development and on national economic policy.  Read more…

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Federico Peliti - catering entrepreneur and photographer

Italian became important figure in British Colonial India

Federico Peliti, whose skills as a chef and pastry-maker led him to spend a large part of his life in India under British colonial rule, was born on June 29, 1844 in Carignano, a town in Piedmont about 20km (12 miles) south of Turin.  He was also an accomplished photographer and collections of his work made an important contribution to the documentary history of the early years of British rule in India.  The restaurant Peliti opened in Shimla, the so-called summer capital of the British Empire in India, became a favourite with colonial high society and was mentioned in the writings of Rudyard Kipling and others.  Peliti’s family hailed from Valganna, near Varese in Lombardy. They had mainly been surveyors and Peliti initially studied sculpture in Turin before being diverted by the Third Italian War of Independence, in which he participated as a cavalryman. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Masaniello: The Life and Afterlife of a Neapolitan Revolutionary, by Silvana D’Alessio

This is a translation and new edition of Masaniello. La sua vita e il mito in Europa (Rome, 2007), the first historical biography of the leader of the revolt that broke out in Naples in 1647–48. Initially, its main objectives were the cancellation of the many taxes introduced in previous decades and a political reform that would allow the people to have their voice in the civic parliament. Thanks to Masaniello, the Neapolitans were able to compel the Spanish viceroy to sign new ‘capitoli’ (popular desiderata) but soon after, Masaniello was isolated by his main counselor, Giulio Genoino, and others, and ultimately abandoned to a tragic fate. From the moment of his death, a fascinating new life began in which Masaniello was exalted and condemned in many texts (historical volumes, plays, and even a dialogue with Wilhelm Tell) until, by the Risorgimento, he was remembered as an Italian hero.

Silvana D’Alessio teaches Early Modern History at the University of Salerno, having trained at the University Federico II in Naples, with periods in England and Germany. Besides the Masaniello revolt of 1647, she has worked on the devastating 1656 bubonic plague outbreak in Naples, focusing on physicians and their world.

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