3 October

Francesco Bianchini - jockey

19th century rider who contested Palio di Siena 55 times

The jockey Francesco Bianchini, who holds the record for the most consecutive participations in the historic Palio di Siena horse race, was born on this day in 1808 in Siena.  Bianchini, who raced under the name of Campanino, rode in 44 editions of the famous event, in which horses and riders represent 10 of the city of Siena’s 17 contrade or districts, without missing one between his debut in 1827 and the second running of the twice-yearly race in 1847. He rode in 55 editions in total before he retired for good in 1860, at the age of 51, chalking up a total of nine wins. In his career, he rode for all bar two of the 17 contrade.  Held in July and again in August every summer in the medieval square at the centre of Siena, the Piazza del Campo, with occasionally an extra race to commemorate a special event or anniversary, the Palio can be a brutal affair.  Read more…

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Giovanni Comisso - writer

Novelist and journalist with distinctive literary voice

The writer Giovanni Comisso, one of Italy’s most distinctive literary voices of the 20th century, was born on this day in 1895 in Treviso in the Veneto region.  He was acclaimed for his novel Giorni di guerra - Days of War - which drew on his experiences serving as a telegraph engineer in the First World War. Comisso’s work won critical praise for being deeply attuned to the emotional and philosophical currents of his time.  For much of his life, Comisso led a peripatetic career as a journalist and art dealer, as well as a writer. He travelled extensively across Europe, North Africa, and the Far East, taking work as a correspondent for Italian newspapers such as Corriere della Sera and La Gazzetta del Popolo.  For a while, he lived in Paris with the Italian painter Filippo De Pisis within the city’s bohemian postwar artistic community.  Read more…

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Ruggero Raimondi - opera star

Singer overcame shyness to become a great bass-baritone

The bass-baritone singer Ruggero Raimondi, who would become famous for his performances in the operas of Verdi, Rossini, Puccini and Mozart, was born on this day in Bologna in 1941.  Blessed with a mature voice at an early age, he was soon encouraged to pursue a career in opera and enrolled at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan at the age of only 16, later continuing his studies in Rome at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia.  He won a national competition for young singers in Spoleto and made his debut in the same Umbrian city in 1964 in the role of Colline in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème in 1964. Soon afterwards, he appeared in the leading role of Procida in Verdi’s I vespri siciliani at the Rome Opera House.  Raimondi was also studying accountancy, wary that his ambitions in opera might not materialise.  Read more…

Alessandro Mazzinghi - boxing champion

Tuscan fighter held world title twice

The boxer Alessandro 'Sandro' Mazzinghi, who won the world light middleweight championship twice in his 64-fight career, was born on this day in 1938 in Pontedera in Tuscany.  Mazzinghi won the title for the first time at the Velodromo Vigorelli in Milan in September 1963, defeating the American Ralph Dupas, defending his title successfully in a rematch in Sydney, Australia in December of the same year.  He lost the crown to fellow Italian Nino Benvenuti in 1965 at the San Siro football stadium in Milan but regained it at the same venue in May 1968, defeating  the South Korean Ki-Soo.  He did so after recovering from an horrific car crash in January 1964 that claimed the life of his young wife, Vera, only 12 days after they were married.  The couple had been on their way home to Pontedera from a gala dinner in Montecatini Terme in Tuscany.  Read more… 

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Eleonora Duse – actress

Performer 'became' the person she played with her whole being

Regarded as one of the greatest acting talents of all times, Eleonora Duse was born on this day in 1858 in Vigevano in Lombardy.  Often simply known as Duse, she was admired for her total assumption of the roles she played. In 1947, the film, Eleonora Duse, was made about her life.  She began acting at the age of four, joining her father and grandfather in the profession. She worked in a troupe with her family, travelling from city to city. Duse became famous for creating Italian versions of roles made famous by the actor Sarah Bernhardt.  Duse toured South America, Russia and the US, beginning the tours as an unknown actor, but leaving in her wake a general recognition of her genius.  She had an affair with the Italian poet, Arrigo Boito, who was the librettist for the composer, Giuseppe Verdi.  They carried out their relationship in a clandestine manner. Read more… 

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Book of the Day:  Seven Seasons in Siena: My Quixotic Quest for Acceptance Among Italy's Proudest People, by Robert Rodi

Siena seems at first glance a typical Italian city: within its venerable medieval walls the citizens sport designer clothes, wield digital phones, and prize their dazzling local cuisine. But unlike neighboring Florence, Siena is still deeply rooted in ancient traditions - chiefly the spectacular Palio, in which 17 independent societies known as contrade vie for bragging rights in a bareback horse race around the central piazza.  Into this strange, closed world steps Robert Rodi. A Chicago writer with few friends in town and a shaky command of conversational Italian, he couldn’t be more out of place. Yet something about the sense of belonging radiating from the ritual-obsessed Sienese excites him, and draws him back to witness first hand how their passionate brand of community extends beyond the Palio into the entire calendar year. Smitten, Rodi undertakes a plan to insinuate himself into this body politic, learn their ways, and win their acceptance.  Seven Seasons in Siena is the story of Rodi’s love affair with the people of Siena - and of his awkward, heartfelt, intermittently successful, occasionally disastrous attempts to become a naturalized member of the Noble Contrada of the Caterpillar. 

Robert Rodi was born in Chicago. After publishing seven novels, he published his first nonfiction book, Dogged Pursuit: My Year of Competing Dusty, the World’s Least Likely Agility Dog. He is also the creator of several comic-book series, including 4 Horsemen, Codename: Knockout, and The Crossovers.

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2 October

NEW - The 1870 Rome plebiscite

When the Eternal City defied the Pope to be part of the new Italy

Citizens of Rome voted overwhelmingly in favour of becoming part of the new Italy on this day in 1870, less than two weeks after the city had been captured by the Italian army and the unification process was finally complete.  For nine years after the Kingdom of Italy was officially declared in 1861, Rome remained under the control of the Pope as the sovereign territory of the Church, even though much of the area that had been the Papal States had been captured by the unification forces by 1860. The city’s independence had been protected by a French garrison stationed there permanently by Emperor Napoleon III, but the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 meant that the French soldiers had to be withdrawn.  In their absence, after attempts to persuade Pope Pius IX to agree a peaceful surrender had failed, Italian troops led by General Raffaele Cadorna breached the Aurelian Walls near Porta Pia. Read more…

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Joe Profaci - Mafia boss

Sicilian who influenced profile of Mario Puzo’s Godfather

The Mafia boss Giuseppe ‘Joe’ Profaci, one of the real-life gangsters who influenced the author Mario Puzo as he created the character of his fictional mob boss Vito Corleone in The Godfather, was born in Villabate in Sicily on this day in 1897.  It was after studying Profaci’s crime career that Puzo decided that Corleone, who is thought to have been based largely on one of Profaci's fellow mob bosses, Carlo Gambino, should hide his criminal activities behind his ‘legitimate’ identity as an olive oil importer, mirroring what Profaci did in real life in New York.  Profaci is believed to have started importing olive oil before he became heavily involved in crime but chose to keep the business going as one of a network of legitimate companies, so that he could mask the proceeds of his crime empire and satisfy the authorities that he was paying his taxes.  Read more…

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Antonio Di Pietro – magistrate and politician

Former policeman who led mani pulite corruption investigations

The politician and former magistrate Antonio Di Pietro, who uncovered wide-ranging corruption in the Italian government in a scandal that changed the landscape of Italian politics, was born on this day in 1950 in Molise.  Di Pietro was the lead prosecutor in the so-called mani pulite - clean hands - trials in the early 1990s, which led to many politicians and businessmen being indicted and to the collapse of the traditional Socialist and Christian Democratic parties.  The Christian Democrats had been the dominant force in Italian politics since the formation of the Italian Republic at the end of the World War Two but after several high-profile arrests, resignations and poor results in the 1992 general election and 1993 local elections the party was disbanded in 1994.  The Italian Socialist Party was dissolved in the same year after the resignation of party secretary and former prime minister Bettino Craxi. Read more…

Nino Bixio – soldier and politician

Patriotic general helped to unify Italy

A leading personality during the unification of Italy, Nino Bixio was born Gerolamo Bixio on this day in 1821 in Genoa.  Bixio helped to organise Giuseppe Garibaldi’s Expedition of the Thousand in 1860 against the Kingdom of the two Sicilies, and he took part in the capture of Rome in 1870, which completed the unification process.  Bixio’s parents had made him join the navy of the Kingdom of Sardinia, with whom he served until returning to Italy in 1846, when he joined Giovine Italia, a political movement founded by Giuseppe Mazzini, who had written to Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, asking him to unite and lead Italy.  The following year in Genoa, Bixio is said to have seized the bridle of Charles Albert’s horse and cried out: “Pass the Ticino, Sire, and we are all with you” - a reference to the Ticino river, which his army would have to cross in order to drive out the Austrians in northern Italy.  Read more…

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Saint Charles Borromeo

Great reformer earned appreciation after his death

Charles (Carlo) Borromeo, a leading Catholic figure who led the movement to combat the spread of Protestantism, was born on this day in Milan in 1538.  Part of the noble Borromeo family, he became a Cardinal and brought in many reforms to benefit the Church, which made him unpopular at the time. But he was held in high regard after his death and was quickly made a saint by Pope Paul V.  Borromeo was born at the Castle of Arona on Lake Maggiore, near Milan. His father was Count of Arona and his mother was part of the Medici family.  When his uncle, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Medici became Pope Pius IV in 1559, Borromeo was brought to Rome and given a post in the Vatican.  The following year the Pope made him a Cardinal and asked him to organise the last session of the Council of Trent, which was being held in Trento to reform the Church and counter the spread of Protestantism.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions and their Peoples, by David Gilmour

The Pursuit of Italy traces the whole history of the Italian peninsula in a wonderfully readable style, full of well-chosen stories and observations from personal experience, and peopled by many of the great figures of the Italian past, from Cicero and Virgil to Dante and the Medici, from Cavour and Verdi to the controversial political figures of the 20th century. The book gives a clear-eyed view of the Risorgimento, the pivotal event in modern Italian history, debunking the influential myths which have grown up around it. Gilmour shows that the glory of Italy has always lain in its regions, with their distinctive art, civic cultures, identities and cuisine and whose inhabitants identified themselves not as Italians, but as Tuscans and Venetians, Sicilians and Lombards, Neapolitans and Genoese. This is where the strength and culture of Italy still comes from, rather than from misconceived and mishandled concepts of nationalism and unity. This wise and enormously engaging book explains the course of Italian history in a manner and with a coherence which no one with an interest in the country could fail to enjoy.

David Gilmour is one of Britain's most admired and accomplished historical writers and biographers. His previous books include The Last Leopard: A Life of Giuseppe di Lampedusa (winner of the Marsh Biography Award); Curzon (Duff Cooper Prize); and Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling (Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography).

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The 1870 Rome plebiscite

When the Eternal City defied the Pope to be part of the new Italy

Romans celebrate the result of the
vote outside the Palazzo Senatorio

Citizens of Rome voted overwhelmingly in favour of becoming part of the new Italy on this day in 1870, less than two weeks after the city had been captured by the Italian army and the unification process was finally complete.

For nine years after the Kingdom of Italy was officially declared in 1861, Rome remained under the control of Pope Pius IX as the sovereign territory of the Church, even though much of the area that had been the Papal States had been captured by the unification forces by 1860. 

The city’s independence had been protected by a French garrison stationed there permanently by Emperor Napoleon III, a key Church ally, but the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 meant that the French soldiers had to be withdrawn.

In their absence, after attempts to persuade Pope Pius IX to agree a peaceful surrender had failed, Italian troops led by General Raffaele Cadorna breached the Aurelian Walls near Porta Pia early on the morning of September 20, and flooded into the city, needing only a few hours to be in complete control. There were casualties on both sides, although thankfully few.

Pius IX, who had been head of the Catholic Church since 1846, believed that retaining the sovereign territorial power held by the church for more than 1,100 years was vital to its spiritual authority.  He was also fiercely opposed to two of the leading figures in the Risorgimento movement, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini, whom he perceived as anti-Catholic.

But the people of Rome and the surrounding Lazio region, which was the last territorial remnant of the Papal States, wanted to be part of a unified Italy and Giovanni Lanza, who had been prime minister since December 1869, believed that a referendum would settle any arguments and legitimise the annexation of the territories.

Thus a plebiscite was organised for Sunday, October 2, 1870. Multiple polling stations, typically in public buildings, were set up across the city and region, which were open from early morning until the evening.

Voting eligibility was quite restricted at the time. Only males over the age of 21 were allowed to take part and they were required to meet certain property or tax‑paying requirements, often needing to prove their literacy as well. 

Pope Pius IX opposed the absorption of
Rome into the unified Kingdom of Italy 

The number of registered voters across Rome and Lazio was 167,548, of which there was a turnout of 80.75 per cent despite Pius IX asking Catholics to abstain.

When the results were announced the following day, there was an overwhelming majority in favour of becoming part of the unified kingdom.

In the city itself, the vote was ‘Yes: 40,785  No: 46’; in the Lazio region it was ‘Yes: 77,520  No: 857’.  Overall, 133,681 had voted in favour and only 1,507 against.

Rome was officially declared the capital of Italy in February, 1871. Before then, the status of capital city had been bestowed first on Turin (1861-65) and then Florence (1865-71).

Despite the numbers, Pope Pius IX remained steadfast in his opposition.

After the plebiscite had ratified annexation, the Italian government passed the Law of Guarantees offering personal inviolability for the pope, annual financial support, extra-territoriality for the Vatican and Lateran palaces, and the freedom to conduct diplomacy.

But Pius IX rejected the law entirely, arguing that accepting it would imply recognising Italy’s sovereignty over Rome. He continued to insist that the pope needed territorial sovereignty to remain politically independent and able to act freely in international affairs.

He declared himself a “prisoner in the Vatican”, refusing to leave the Apostolic Palace and refusing all contact with the Italian state.

His actions began a stand-off between the Papacy and the Italian state that persisted for almost 60 years in which a succession of popes refused to recognise Italy’s sovereignty and the Italian authorities in turn avoided interfering in Vatican affairs.

This awkward relationship came to be known as the ‘Roman Question’ and was not settled until the Lateran Treaty of 1929, agreed between Pope Pius XI and Benito Mussolini.

Under the terms of the treaty, the Vatican City was recognised as an independent, sovereign micro state, Catholicism was recognised as the sole official state religion of Italy, and a financial settlement was agreed that provided substantial financial compensation to the Holy See for the loss of its historical territories.

St Peter's Basilica is part of the Vatican City, the 
smallest sovereign state in the world

Travel tip:

The Vatican City, which occupies an area of 44 hectares (110 acres) within the city of Rome and has approximately 1,000 citizens, is the smallest sovereign state in the world by both area and population. It came into existence in 1929 when an agreement was signed between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See to recognise the Vatican as an independent state. The treaty - known as the Lateran Treaty - settled what had been a long-running dispute regarding the power of the Popes as rulers of civil territory within a united Italy.  The treaty was named after the Lateran Palace where the agreement was signed and although the signatory for the Italian government was the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, succeeding democratic governments have all upheld the treaty.  The major tourist attractions of St Peter’s Square and St Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and the Pinocateca Vaticana art gallery are all within Vatican territory. The Via della Conciliazione, the broad thoroughfare that connects St Peter's Square to Castel Sant'Angelo on the western bank of the Tiber, was built by Mussolini to symbolise the new accord between the Vatican and the Italian state.

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The Monumento al Bersaglieri
stands opposite Porta Pia

Travel tip:

Porta Pia is a gate in Rome’s ancient walls, named after Pope Pius lV, who commissioned Michelangelo to design it just before his death in Rome in 1564. You will find it at the end of Via XX Settembre, which goes off Piazza di San Bernardo, not far from the Quirinale Palace and the Trevi Fountain. It was a dozen metres to the west of the gate that Italian artillery created the breach in the wall through which soldiers from the Bersaglieri, an elite light-infantry corps of the Italian army, entered Rome on September 20, 1870, to complete the unification of Italy. A marble and bronze Monument to the Porta Pia Breach marks the spot. Opposite the gate, on the external side, at the centre of the Piazzale di Porta Pia, is the Monumento al Bersagliere, commissioned by Mussolini and erected in 1932 by Publio Morbiducci. The buildings between the two arches of the gate now contain the Historical Museum of the Bersaglieri.

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More reading:

The capture of Rome

How the Lateran Treaty confirmed the Vatican as an independent state

Alessandro la Marmora, founder of the Bersaglieri corps

Also on this day:

1538: The birth of Church reformer Saint Charles Borromeo

1821: The birth of soldier and politician Nino Bixio

1897: The birth of Mafia boss Joe Profaci

1950: The birth of anti-corruption magistrate Antonio Di Pietro

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1 October

Attilio Pavesi - Olympic cycling champion

Rider from Emilia-Romagna won Italy's first road racing gold 

Attilio Pavesi, the first winner of an individual Olympic gold medal in Italian cycling history, was born on this day in 1910 in the small town of Caorso in Emilia-Romagna.  At the Los Angeles Olympics of 1932, Pavesi won the individual road race and picked up a second gold medal as a member of the Italian quartet that won the team classification in the same race.  Italy had already won gold medals for the team pursuit in track cycling - indeed, they won that title for the fourth time in a row in 1932 - but had not enjoyed success on the road before Pavesi's triumph.  Pavesi, the last of 11 children born to Angelo, a poultry farmer, and his wife Maria, was a natural all-round sportsman, excelling at running, long jump, swimming, diving, gymnastics and football as he grew up.  He was such a strong swimmer he once saved a boy from drowning in a local river.   Read more…

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Milly Carlucci - TV host

Former actress is the face of Ballando con le Stelle

The television host and former actress Milly Carlucci was born on this day in 1954 in Sulmona, a picturesque town in central Abruzzo, about 52km (32 miles) inland from the coastal city of Pescara.  With a career spanning nearly five decades, Carlucci has been a well known and popular personality on Italian variety television since the late 1970s, establishing a reputation for elegance and professionalism and a list of credits that grew rapidly through the ‘80s and ‘90s.  But it is in her current and most enduring role, as the presenter of the pro-celebrity dance contest Ballando con le Stelle - the Italian version of the US hit Dancing with the Stars and the UK’s Strictly Come Dancing - that she has established herself as a giant of small-screen entertainment.  Having fronted the show from its inception in 2005, Carlucci is also its artistic director and project manager.  Read more… 

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Leonello d’Este - Marquis of Ferrara

Ruler who spent money on the arts and education

Leonello d’Este, who is remembered as a dedicated patron of the arts, literature and culture, died on this day in 1450 in Ferrara.  Leonello was Marquis of Ferrara and Duke of Modena and Reggio Emilia from 1441 to 1450.  An illegitimate son of Niccolo III d’Este, Leonello was favoured by his father as his successor ahead of his legitimate children.  As he was well educated and popular with the common people, he was considered by his father to be the most suitable heir.  During his rule over Ferrara, Leonello transformed the city and reformed the University of Ferrara, actions which influenced the political and artistic achievements of his successors.  Leonello was tutored by Guarino Veronese, who instructed him on the traits of a desirable ruler and how to govern. Veronese was later appointed as a professor at the University of Ferrara.  Read more…

Walter Mazzarri - football coach

Former Watford manager with fine record in Italy

The football coach Walter Mazzarri, whose disappointing spell in English football as Watford manager contrasts with a fine record as a coach in his native Italy, was born on this day in 1961 in San Vincenzo, a resort on the coast of Tuscany.  Mazzarri won promotion to Serie A with his local club Livorno and kept tiny Calabrian team Reggina in Serie A against the odds for three consecutive seasons, on the last occasion despite an 11-point deduction for involvement in an alleged match-fixing scandal.  He subsequently had two seasons as coach of Sampdoria, qualifying for the UEFA Cup by finishing sixth in the first of those campaigns and then reaching the final of the Coppa Italia. After that he was appointed head coach of Napoli, guiding them to sixth - their best Serie A finish for 25 years.  Read more…

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Sylvano Bussotti – composer, opera director and writer

Renaissance man with many strings to his bow

The multi-talented Sylvano Bussotti, a leading composer who was part of Italy’s avant-garde movement, was born on this day in 1931 in Florence.  Bussotti was also a painter, set and costume designer, opera director and writer. His operas and ballets were performed at the most prestigious theatres in Italy and abroad and he served as artistic director of La Fenice in Venice, the Puccini festival in Tuscany and the music section of the Venice Biennale.  Before he was five years old, Bussotti was learning to play the violin and he soon became a prodigy. He was also introduced to painting early in his life by his older brother and uncle.  At the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence, he studied harmony and counterpoint and learnt the piano, but he was unable to complete his studies and receive any official qualifications because of the start of World War II. Read more…

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

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

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

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