4 November

Florence's catastrophic floods

Tuscan capital devastated on same day six centuries apart

More than 3,000 people were believed to have been killed when the River Arno flooded the streets of Florence on this day in 1333.  More than six centuries later, 101 people died when the city was flooded on the same day in 1966, the event taking a staggering toll of priceless books and works of art. The 1333 disaster - the first recorded flood of the Arno - was chronicled for posterity by Giovanni Villani, a diplomat and banker living in the city.  A plaque in Via San Remigio records the level the water allegedly reached in 1333 and another plaque commemorates the level the water reached after the river flooded in 1966, exactly 633 years later.  Villani wrote in his Nuova Cronica (News Chronicle), ‘By noon on Thursday, 4 November, 1333, a flood along the Arno River spread across the entire plain of San Salvi.’  By nightfall, the flood waters had filled the city streets. Read more…

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Sandrone Dazieri – crime writer

Best-selling novelist in Italy now published in English

Sandrone Dazieri, an Italian author and screenwriter whose first novel published in English received enthusiastic reviews, was born in Cremona on this day in 1964.  A former chef, Dazieri became a best-selling novelist in his mid-30s with Attenti al Gorilla (Beware of the Gorilla), which introduced a complex character, based on himself and even named Sandrone, who suffers from a personality disorder that makes his behaviour unpredictable yet who solves crimes and tackles injustices.  The book spawned a series featuring the same character that not only gained Dazieri enormous popularity among Italian readers but helped him get work as a screenwriter, especially in the area of TV crime dramas.  He is the main writer on the hugely popular Canale 5 series Squadra Antimafia, to which he contributed for seven seasons.  Read more…

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Alfonso II - King of Naples

Ruler forced to abdicate after one year

Alfonso II, who became King of Naples in 1494 but was forced to abdicate after just one year, was born on this day in 1448 in Naples.  Also known as Alfonso II of Aragon, as heir to Ferdinand I he had the title Duke of Calabria from the age of 10. Blessed with a natural flair for leadership and military strategy, he spent much of his life as a condottiero, leading the army of Naples in a number of conflicts.  He contributed to the Renaissance culture of his father’s court, building the splendid palaces of La Duchesca and Poggio Reale, although neither survived to be appreciated today.  Alfonso II also introduced improvements to the urban infrastructure of Naples, building new churches, tree-lined straight roads, and a sophisticated hydraulic system to supply the city’s fountains.  He became King of Naples with the death of his father in January 1494.  Read more…

Day of National Unity in Italy

When Italians celebrate First World War victory as well as their unification

Italians gather today in the main piazza of towns and cities throughout the country to celebrate il Giorno dell’Unità Nazionale – National Unity and Armed Forces Day.  The fourth day of November has been an Italian National Day since 1919, established to commemorate the country’s victory in World War I. This event was also considered to be the completion of the process of the Unification of Italy, finally ending Austrian occupation of the northern part of the country, which made it an even more important date in Italian history.  In Rome, the President of Italy and other important officers of the State, pay homage to the Italian unknown soldier, milite ignoto, buried in the Altare della Patria in the centre of the capital.  Close to this day they also visit the Redipuglia War Memorial in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, where the remains of 100,000 soldiers who died during World War I are buried.  Read more…

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Guido Reni - painter

Bolognese artist who idealised Raphael

The leading Baroque painter, Guido Reni, was born on this day in 1575 in Bologna, then part of the Papal States.  He was to become a dominant figure in the Bolognese school of painting, which emerged under the influence of the Carracci, a family of painters in Bologna. He was held in high regard because of the classical idealism of his portrayals of mythological and religious subjects.  Although his father, Daniele, wanted him to follow in his footsteps as a musician, Guido Reni passionately wanted to become an artist and was apprenticed to the Flemish painter Denis Calvaert when he was 10 years old. He focused on studying the works of Raphael, who, for the rest of his life, remained his ideal.  Reni went on to enter the academy led by Ludovico Carracci, the Accademia degli Incamminati - The academy of the newly-embarked - in Bologna. Read more…

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First night at Teatro San Carlo 

Oldest opera house in the world opens its doors in Naples

Teatro di San Carlo in Naples was officially opened on this day in 1737, way ahead of La Scala in Milan and La Fenice in Venice.  Built in Via San Carlo, close to Piazza del Plebiscito, one of the main squares in Naples, Teatro di San Carlo quickly became one of the most important opera houses in Europe and renowned for its excellent productions. The theatre was designed by Giovanni Antonio Medrano for the Bourbon King of Naples, Charles I, and took just eight months to build.  The official inauguration was on the King’s saint’s day, the festival of San Carlo, on the evening of 4 November. There was a performance of Achille in Sciro by Pietro Metastasio with music by Domenico Sarro, who also conducted the orchestra for the music for two ballets.  This was 41 years before La Scala and 55 years before La Fenice opened.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Florence: Ordeal by Water, by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor

This is a vivid eyewitness account of the 1966 flooding of the River Arno in Florence by an American writer and historian. Her infinitely moving diary of the days of the flood, and those that followed, detail how the citizens of Florence strove against the choking sea of mud that engulfed their homes, possessions, shops and art.  Published in a beautiful gift hardback edition, with an introduction by acclaimed art historian and journalist, Vanessa Nicolson, Florence: Ordeal by Water documents the disaster in vivid and compassionate detail.  In writing her international bestselling novel, Still Life, which is set in London and Florence, author Sarah Winman described Kressman Taylor’s book as “absolutely indispensable during my research. Here, finally, was a vivid eye-witness account of the 1966 flood that devastated Florence. Utterly compelling.”  

Kathrine Kressmann Taylor was an American writer, whose short novel Address Unknown (1938) was one of the first works to expose the dangers of Nazism to the American public. She taught humanities, journalism and creative writing at Gettysburg College, in Pennsylvania, before retiring to live in Florence in 1966, a few months before the catastrophic flood.

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3 November

Vincenzo Bellini - opera composer

Short but successful career of Sicilian musical genius

The talented composer of the celebrated opera, Norma, was born Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini on this day in 1801 in Catania in Sicily. Bellini became known for his long, flowing, melodic lines, which earned him the nickname, ‘The Swan of Catania’. He enjoyed great success during the bel canto era of Italian opera in the early part of the 19th century and many of his operas are still regularly performed today.  Born into a musical family, Bellini showed early talent. It was claimed he could sing an aria at 18 months and could play the piano by the age of five. Although some writers have said these are exaggerations, Bellini is known to have already begun composing music by his teens.  He was given financial support by the city of Catania to study music at a college in Naples and while he was there he was profoundly influenced by meeting the composer Gaetano Donizetti. Read more…

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Monica Vitti - actress

Star of Antonioni classics also excelled in comedy roles

The actress Monica Vitti, who became famous as the star of several films directed by Michelangelo Antonioni during the early 1960s, was born on this day in 1931 in Rome.  Antonioni, with whom she had a romantic relationship that lasted a decade, cast her as his female lead in L'avventura (1960), La notte (1961), and L'eclisse (1962), three enigmatically moody films once described as a "trilogy on modernity and its discontents".  She also starred for him in his first colour film, Il deserto rosso (1964), which continued in a similar vein.  Her performance earned her a second of four Golden Grail awards. Vitti was also honoured with five David di Donatello awards as Best Actress from the Italian Film Academy.  After splitting with Antonioni, Vitti excelled in comedy, working with directors such as Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Alberto Sordi and Ettore Scola.  Read more…

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Villa Giusti armistice

Talks held at villa in Padua ended First World War in Italy

An armistice signed between Italy and Austria-Hungary at Villa Giusti near Padua ended World War I on the Italian front on this day in 1918.  After the Allied troops were victorious in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, the Austria-Hungary commanding officers asked for a ceasefire and for peace talks. They were invited to Villa Giusti at Mandria just outside Padua, which was owned by Count Giusti del Giardino, a former mayor of Padua and an Italian senator. The principal signatories on the Italian side were Tenente Generale Pietro Badoglio and Maggior Generale Scipione Scipioni. Leading the Austria-Hungary delegation was General Viktor Weber Edler von Webenau. During the war, the Villa Giusti had been the temporary residence of King Victor Emmanuel III when he was away from the front. The armistice signed on 3 November ended the fighting. Read more…

La cambiale di matrimonio - opera

Rossini’s first professional work premieres in Venice

La cambiale di matrimonio - the first opera by Gioachino Rossini to be performed before a paying audience - premiered at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice on this day in 1810.  Although the Pesaro-born composer, who would go on to write 39 operas including Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) and La Cenerentola (Cinderella), had tried his hand at the genre earlier, La cambiale di matrimonio was the first to be staged in public. Rossini had written the one-act farce - translated in English as The Bill of Marriage or The Marriage Contract - in the space of just a few days while he was an 18-year-old student. Based on an 18th-century play of the same name by Camillo Federici, La cambiale di matrimonio revolves around the attempts by a London merchant, Tobias Mill, to marry off his daughter, Fanny, to a somewhat mature Canadian businessman by the name of Slook.  Read more…

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Annibale Carracci - painter

Bolognese master produced his most influential work in Rome

The Baroque painter Annibale Carracci was born on this day in 1560 in Bologna.  Annibale and his followers were to become highly influential in the development of Roman painting, bringing back the classical tradition of the High Renaissance.  He was probably apprenticed as a painter with members of his own family in Bologna. But his talents began to develop during a tour of northern Italy in the 1580s. He lodged in Venice with the painter Jacopo Bassano, whose style of painting influenced him for a time.  Annibale has been credited with rediscovering the early 16th century painter Correggio, who had almost been forgotten outside Parma. Annibale’s Baptism of Christ, painted in 1585 for the Church of San Gregorio in Bologna, is a brilliant tribute to him.  In 1582 Annibale opened a studio in Bologna with his brother, Agostino Carracci. Read more…

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Giovanni Leone - controversial politician

First president to resign over a scandal

The politician Giovanni Leone, who served both as prime minister of Italy and president during a career that spanned seven decades but which was ultimately overshadowed by scandal, was born on this day in 1908 in Naples.  A co-founder, with his father, Mauro, of the Christian Democracy in 1943, Leone was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1948, served as prime minister for brief periods in 1963 and 1968 and was elected president in 1971.  He occupied the Palazzo Quirinale, the main Rome residence of the president, for seven years but was forced to resign after being implicated in the Lockheed bribery scandal, the first president to step down over such an impropriety.  The accusation levelled at him was that he accepted payment from the American aircraft manufacturer in connection with the purchase of Hercules military transport planes. Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Life of Bellini, by John Rosselli

'A sigh in dancing pumps' was Heine's view of Bellini. His physical beauty, boundless success and untimely death at the age of 33 combined to give Vincenzo Bellini instant mythical status. But both the facts and the fantasies were to be embroidered by Bellini's close friend and eventual biographer Francesco Florimo, who distorted the posthumous image of the composer to the extent of altering or destroying letters in his possession. In The Life of Bellini, John Rosselli's account of Bellini's life and music, a new picture of the composer emerges. He provides a more accurate view of Bellini's personality, his relationships and his short but dazzling career in Naples, Milan and Paris. He introduces the operatic world of the early 19th century, the singers of Bellini's roles, and, above all he explains the writing and performance of the operas themselves.

John Rosselli was an Italian-born British historian, journalist, and music critic renowned for his writings on 19th-century Italian opera, musical culture, and composer biographies.

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2 November

NEW - Giuseppe Sinopoli – conductor and composer

Maestro died while conducting Verdi’s Aida

Musician Giuseppe Sinopoli, who became known for his intense and sometimes controversial interpretations of opera, was born on this day in 1946 in Venice.  Sinopoli specialised in late 19th century and early 20th century music, especially works by the Italian composers of the period and the music of the German composer, Richard Strauss. He was principal conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra in London between 1984 and 1994, succeeding Riccardo Muti, and he made many recordings while he was with them, including complete operas by Mahler and music by Elgar.  His own most famous composition is his opera Lou Salomë, which was based on the life and intellectual circle of the Russian-born psychoanalyst and author Lou Andreas-Salomë, who was known for her relationships with figures such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Rainer Maria Rilke. Read more...

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Battista 'Pinin' Farina - car designer

Family's 'smallest brother' became giant of automobile history

Battista 'Pinin' Farina, arguably the greatest of Italy's long roll call of outstanding automobile designers, was born on this day in 1893 in the village of Cortanze in Piedmont.  His coachbuilding company Carrozzeria Pininfarina became synonymous with Italian sports cars and influenced the design of countless luxury and family cars thanks to the partnerships he forged with Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Lancia, Nash, Peugeot, Rolls Royce and others - most notably Ferrari, with whom his company has had a continuous relationship since 1951.  Among the many iconic marques that Pinin and his designers created are the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider, the Ferrari Dino 206 and the Cisitalia 202.  Battista was the 10th of 11 children raised by his parents in Cortanze, a small community in the province of Asti, situated about 30km (19 miles) east of Turin.  Read more…

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Arnoldo Mondadori - publisher

Business launched with socialist magazine became biggest in Italy

Arnoldo Mondadori, who founded what would become Italy’s biggest publishing company, was born on this day in 1889 in Poggio Rusco, a small town about 40km (25 miles) southeast of Mantua.  As the business grew, Mondadori published Italian editions of works by Winston Churchill, Thomas Mann and Ernest Hemingway among others, as well as by some of Italy’s own literary giants, including Gabriele D’Annunzio and Eugenio Montale.  Mondadori was the publisher of news magazines such as Epoca, Tempo and Panorama, launched the women’s magazine, Grazia, struck a deal with Walt Disney to publish children’s magazines, and introduced Italy to detective fiction with a series of crime mysteries called Gialli Mondadori, whose yellow (giallo) covers eventually led to gialli becoming a generic term in the Italian language, used not only to identify a detective novel but to describe unsolved mysteries in real life.  Read more…

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Gaspare Nadi - builder and diarist

Craftsmen kept chronicle for 50 years

Gaspare Nadi, a builder who became famous for the insight into life in 15th century Italy provided by a diary he maintained for half a century, was born on this day in 1418 in Bologna.  Nadi worked on several important buildings in Bologna, including the bell tower of the Palazzo d’Accursio and several churches. He built the library of the Basilica of San Domenico.  He attained the position of Master Mason in the local guild of bricklayers, whom he also served for many terms as guild manager and other official positions.  Yet it was the diary he began to compile in 1452 that became his legacy. Written in idiomatic Bolognese, it proved to be an extraordinary document, a source for historians seeking to understand how families and society functioned in the Italy of Nadi’s lifetime.  As well as detailing family issues, the diary explained much about the construction industry of the time. Read more…

Bartolomeo Colleoni - soldier

Death of an ‘honourable’ Italian military leader

Bergamo soldier Bartolomeo Colleoni, who became known for using his wealth to benefit people, died on this day in 1475.  Colleoni spent most of his life in the pay of the republic of Venice defending the city of Bergamo against invaders.  But he is remembered as one of the most decent condottieri of his era, carrying out charitable works and agricultural improvements in Bergamo and the surrounding area when he was not involved in military campaigns.  Condottieri were the leaders of troops, who worked for the powerful ruling factions, often for high payments.   Bergamo’s Bartolomeo Colleoni was unusual because he remained steadfast to one employer, the republic of Venice, for most of his career.  During a period of peace between Venice and Milan he worked briefly for Milan but the rulers never fully trusted him.  Read more…

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San Giusto of Trieste - martyr

Patron saint of maritime city 

San Giusto of Trieste - also known as Saint Justus of Trieste - died on this day in 293 after being found guilty of being a Christian, which was illegal under Roman law at the time.  His death occurred during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian, who was notable for his persecution of Christians.  After his trial, he was given the opportunity to renounce his faith and make a sacrifice to the Roman gods.  He refused to do so and was condemned to death by drowning. The story handed down over the centuries was that weights were attached to his ankles before he was thrown from a small boat into the Gulf of Trieste, off the shore of the area known today as Sant'Andrea.  The legend has it that on the night of San Giusto’s death, his friend Sebastian, said to have been a bishop or priest, was told in a dream that the body had broken free of the weights and been washed ashore.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Five Centuries of Music in Venice, by H C Robbins Landon and John Julius Norwich

Five Centuries of Music in Venice explores how music saturated every layer of Venetian life, from sacred state ceremonies at St Mark's Basilica to late-night carnival revelry. The narrative traces the city's shifting sonic landscape across 500 years, charting the evolution of Renaissance polyphony, the commercial birth of public opera, and the Baroque mastery of Vivaldi. It also examines how Venice sheltered later icons such as Verdi, Wagner, and Stravinsky. Balancing structural analysis with social history, this lavishly illustrated volume published in 1996 illustrates a civilization where the development of musical composition was fundamentally linked to the unique political, economic, and physical landscape of the lagoon city itself.

H C (Howard) Robbins Landon was an internationally renowned American musicologist, author, and broadcaster. John Julius Norwich was a prominent English historian, travel writer, and television presenter, who served for decades as chairman of the Venice in Peril conservation fund.

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Giuseppe Sinopoli – conductor and composer

Maestro died while conducting Verdi’s Aida

Giuseppe Sinopoli conducted some of the world's 
most prestigious philharmonic orchestras

Musician Giuseppe Sinopoli, who became known for his intense and sometimes controversial interpretations of opera, was born on this day in 1946 in Venice. 

Sinopoli specialised in late 19th century and early 20th century music, especially works by the Italian composers of the period and the music of the German composer, Richard Strauss.

He was principal conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra in London between 1984 and 1994, succeeding Riccardo Muti, and he made many recordings while he was with them, including complete operas by Mahler and music by Elgar. 

His own most famous composition is his opera Lou Salomë, which was based on the life and intellectual circle of the Russian-born psychoanalyst and author Lou Andreas-Salomë, who was known for her relationships with figures such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Rainer Maria Rilke, which was staged for the first time in Munich in 1981, with the American soprano Karan Armstrong singing the title role.

Sinopoli began to be interested in music from the age of 12 and studied music at the Venice Conservatory under the Italian composer Ernesto Rubin de Cervin Albrizzi. From there he went to Darmstadt in Germany, where he was mentored in composition by the controversial German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, among others.  

While still studying music in his own time, Sinopoli enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Padua. He obtained a doctorate in medicine, with an emphasis on psychiatry, before completing a dissertation on criminal anthropology.

After making a name for himself as a composer, Sinopoli became professor of contemporary and electronic music at the Venice Conservatory, where he became a major proponent of the new movement in Venice for contemporary music. 

He studied orchestral conducting at the Vienna Academy of Music and in 1992 he became principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Saxon State Orchestra. He also joined the roster of conductors for the Bayreuth Festival, staged annually at the town of the same name in northern Bavaria.

Sinopoli was only 54 when he died
following a heart attack

He went on to conduct many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Wiener Philharmoniker, and the orchestras at Covent Garden Opera House, the New York Metropolitan, the New York Philharmonic and the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Tragically, Sinopoli died at the age of just 54 following a heart attack, which he suffered while conducting Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, in 2001. Following his collapse during the third act, he was taken from the opera house to the German Heart Centre in Berlin, but was pronounced dead the following day. 

By a sad coincidence, it was the same opera that he had conducted when he made his debut at the rostrum in Venice in 1978.

Two nights later, the Swiss conductor Marcello Viotti stepped in to conduct Aida and he dedicated his performance to Sinopoli’s memory.

The funeral of Sinopoli took place in Rome on April 23 and was attended  by the Italian President, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and the Prime Minister, Giuliano Amato, as well as a large contingent of musicians and staff from La Scala opera house in Milan.

Sinopoli had previously been studying for a degree in archaeology and he had been due to make the defence of his thesis on the day that his funeral took place. His degree was subsequently awarded to him posthumously by the University of Padua.

An annual arts festival in Taormina in Sicily is now dedicated to the conductor and composer because Sinopoli had been the director of the music section of the Taormina festival  between 1989 and 1997.

Every October, since 2005, the Sinopoli Chamber Orchestra has performed works by Sinopoli at the festival, which is now named after him.

In all, the conductor composed more than 20 pieces of music, making a name for himself by producing what are known as serial works, using pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres and other musical elements in a series.

His conducting sometimes caused controversy, especially in the symphonic genre, with some critics highlighting the ‘eccentricity’ of his interpretations, while others praised his ‘intellectual approach’ to works of music.

Giuseppe Sinopoli also had an extensive collection of Greek antiquities and one of the books he wrote was Masterpieces of Greek Ceramics from the Sinopoli Collection.

The courtyard of the Palazzo Pisani
has twice featured in James Bond films

Travel tip:

The Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello, commonly known as the Venice Conservatory, is a musical education institution located within the historic Palazzo Pisani in the San Marco district of Venice. Founded privately in 1876 as a music high school and society, it permanently relocated to its current home in 1899, later achieving prestigious state conservatory status in 1940.  Renowned Italian composers who helped shape the institution’s legacy as directors or faculty members include Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Gian Francesco Malipiero, and the avant-garde pioneer Bruno Maderna. The conservatory preserves invaluable archives, housing rare, historic manuscripts by the great Venetian late Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi. Visitors are welcomed to attend regular public concerts, masterclasses, and recitals in its very grand rooms. There is also a specialised music museum featuring rare instruments, Richard Wagner relics, and an extensive library housing 50,000 documents. The conservatory has acquired fame of a different kind through its appearance in two James Bond movies. In the 1979 film Moonraker, Roger Moore’s Bond arrives by gondola and uses a skeleton key to sneak into the conservatory's 17th century columned courtyard. The courtyard and its adjoining alleyways doubled as the exterior of a high-tech Venetian glass museum owned by the villainous industrialist Hugo Drax.  Some 27 years later, Daniel Craig’s Bond returns to the exact same courtyard in Casino Royale (2006), one of the most tense, emotional sequences of which sees Bond stalk the double agent Vesper Lynd as she passes beneath the stone arches and columns of the courtyard to hand over poker winnings to the villainous Mr. Gettler. 

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Taormina's Ancient Greek Theatre, which dates back
to the third century BC, still stages performances

Travel tip:

Taormina, which commemorates Giuseppe Sinopoli via its annual arts festival, is an historic hilltop resort town on the east coast of Sicily, known for its dramatic cliffside views of the Ionian Sea and of nearby Mount Etna. Celebrated as the ‘Pearl of the Mediterranean’, it was once an unmissable stop of the Grand Tour, the journey of the 19th century European aristocracy, it remains a popular destination for international tourism,  particularly at the luxury end of the market. beauty.  Originally established as the ancient Greek fortress of Tauromenion prior to 735 BC, its crown jewel is the Ancient Greek Theatre - Teatro Antico - a remarkably preserved third century BC amphitheatre carved directly out of the rockface. It still acts as an active, open-air performance venue framed by a backdrop of Mount Etna. In the global tourism space, Taormina sits firmly at the pinnacle of the luxury and cultural market. It initially rose to prominence in the 19th and early 20th centuries as an exclusive winter refuge for European royalty, avant-garde intellectuals, and literary figures such as Truman Capote. By the mid-20th century, it became a playground for the Hollywood elite, famously hosting stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Greta Garbo. The town’s main thoroughfare, Corso Umberto, is lined with designer stores, Michelin-starred restaurants, and five-star hotels. Taormina’s artistic prestige is anchored heavily by the Giuseppe Sinopoli Festival, which has been held annually since 2005. Prestigious international orchestras often feature at the festival, along with the Sinopoli Chamber Orchestra, a talented collective formed in collaboration with the Messina Conservatory that focuses on performing Sinopoli's own avant-garde compositions. 

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More reading:

Carlo Maria Giulini, the boy violinist who became a maestro of the baton

The brilliant Arturo Toscanini, the cellist who became an orchestra leader by chance

The celebrated career of Riccardo Muti

Also on this day:

293: The death of San Giusto of Trieste

1418: The birth of builder and diarist Gaspare Nadi

1475: The death of condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni

1889: The birth of publishing giant Arnoldo Mondadori

1893: The birth of car designer Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina

1906: The birth of aristocratic film director Luchino Visconti

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1 November

Annibale Bergonzoli - soldier

Commander who was both decorated and imprisoned by the British

The military commander Annibale Bergonzoli, who served the Italian army in both world wars and led an Italian expeditionary force supporting General Francisco Franco’s nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, was born on this day in 1884 in Cannobio, a town on the shore of Lago Maggiore. Bergonzoli had the distinction of being awarded a medal for bravery by the British during World War One only to be held by them as a prisoner of war after being captured during World War Two. As a boy, Bergonzoli always had a taste for adventure. He completed a 1.5 mile (2.4km) swim across Lago Maggiore at the age of seven. He enrolled at the Military Academy of Modena, graduating with the rank of sub-lieutenant in 1907. He joined the Royal Italian Army in 1911 and was immediately sent to take part in the Italo-Turkish War. Read more…

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Pietro da Cortona – painter and architect

Outstanding exponent of Baroque style

Artist Pietro da Cortona was born Pietro Berrettini on this day in 1596 in Cortona in Tuscany.  Widely known by the name of his birthplace, Cortona became the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time and contributed to the emergence of Baroque architecture in Rome.  Having been born into a family of artisans and masons, Cortona went to Florence to train as a painter before moving to Rome, where he was involved in painting frescoes at the Palazzo Mattei by 1622.  His talent was recognised and he was encouraged by prominent people in Rome at the time. He was commissioned to paint a fresco in the church of Santa Bibiana that was being renovated under the direction of Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1624.  Then, in 1633, Pope Urban VIII commissioned Cortona to paint a large fresco on the ceiling of the Grand Salon at Palazzo Barberini. Read more…

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Sistine Chapel ceiling revealed

All Saints’ Day chosen to show off Michelangelo’s work

Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes in the Sistine Chapel were unveiled for public viewing for the first time on this day in 1512.  The date of All Saints’ Day was chosen by Pope Julius II, who had commissioned Michelangelo, because he felt it appropriate to show off the frescoes on a significant festival in the Catholic Church year.  The frescoes, the central nine panels of which depict stories from the Book of Genesis, have become one of the most famous works of art in the world, the image of  The Creation of Adam rivalled only perhaps by Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa for iconic status.  Yet Michelangelo was reluctant initially to take on the project, which was first mooted in 1506 by Julius II, who felt that the Sistine Chapel, which had restored by his uncle, Pope Sixtus IV, ought to have a ceiling with more meaningful decoration than the gold stars on a blue background of his uncle’s design.  Read more…

Antonio Canova - sculptor

Genius who could bring marble to life 

Sculptor Antonio Canova was born on this day in 1757 in Possagno in the hills near Asolo in the Veneto.  He became famous for creating lifelike figures, possessing the ability to make the marble he worked with resemble nude flesh. One of his masterpieces is the group, The Three Graces, now in the Victoria and Albert museum in London.  Canova’s father and grandfather were both stone cutters and his grandfather taught him to draw at an early age.  The noble Falier family of Venice took an interest in Canova’s talent and brought him to the city to learn his trade in the workshop of Giuseppe Bernardi.  Canova also studied anatomy, history and languages and later moved to work in Rome. His first big success was his funerary monument to Clement XIV, which was inaugurated in the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli.  Read more…

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Giulio Romano – artist and architect

Painter from Rome left his mark on Mantua

Giulio Romano, who was the principal heir to the artist Raphael and one of the most important initiators of the Mannerist style of painting, died on this day in 1546 in Mantua.  He is most remembered for his masterpiece, the Palazzo del Te, built on the outskirts of Mantua as a pleasure palace for the Gonzaga family, which was designed, constructed and decorated entirely by him and his pupils.  The artist had been born in Rome some time in the 1490s and was given the name Giulio di Pietro di Filippo de’ Gianuzzi. He was known originally as Giulio Pippi, but later was referred to as Giulio Romano because of where he was born.  Giulio was apprenticed to Raphael when still a child and worked on the frescos in the Vatican loggias to designs by Raphael. He also collaborated with him on the decoration of the ceiling in the Villa Farnesina.  Read more…

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Book of the Day:  The Desert War: The classic trilogy on the North Africa campaign 1940-43, by Alan Moorehead 

The seminal account of the battle between Montgomery’s Eighth Army and Rommel’s Afrika Corps, amidst the endless harsh wastes of the Western Desert.  In 1940, Alan Moorehead was sent to cover the North Africa campaign by the Daily Express, and he followed its dramatic course all the way to 1943. The three books he subsequently wrote about The Desert War – later collected as his ‘African Trilogy’ – were swiftly acclaimed as a classic account of the tussle between Montgomery’s Eighth Army and Rommel’s Afrika Corps, under the beating sun of the Egyptian Sahara's Western Desert.  Moorehead was responsible for the celebrated insight that tank battles in the desert are like battles at sea, the lumbering tanks like ships lost in a vast ocean of sand. The New Statesman could not have put it better when it described his achievement with this riveting book: ‘There is something of genius in the breadth and penetration of his vision, which encompasses the whole panorama of war and then narrows it down to the particular: the soldier stubbing out his cigarette before going into action, the expression on a tank commander’s face as he is hit… The story of the African campaigns will go down in history as one of the great epics of mankind, largely thanks to Mr Moorehead’s account.’

Alan Moorehead was born in Melbourne in 1910. He was a reporter for the Melbourne Herald before sailing to London in 1936. He became foreign correspondent for the Daily Express, and ultimately one of the finest correspondents of World War II. This book, originally published in 1944, was republished by Aurum in 2009.

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31 October

Bud Spencer – swimmer-turned-actor

Competed at two Olympics before turning to screen career

The actor known as Bud Spencer was born Carlo Pedersoli on this day in 1929 in Naples.  He was best known for the series of so-called spaghetti westerns and comedies he made with another Italian-born actor, Terence Hill.  Hill was from Venice and his real name was Mario Girotti.  They began their partnership in 1967 in a spaghetti western directed by Giuseppe Colizzi called God Forgives…I Don’t! and were asked to change their names so that they would sound more American.  Pedersoli came up with Bud Spencer because his movie idol was Spencer Tracy and his favourite American beer was Budweiser.   The two would go on to make 18 movies together, with westerns such as Ace High (1968) and They Call Me Trinity (1970) winning them box office success. As Carlo Pedersoli, he had already achieved a measure of fame as a swimmer.  Read more… 

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Angelo Rizzoli – publisher

Rags to riches story of an editorial entrepreneur

Printer, publisher and film producer Angelo Rizzoli was born on this day in 1889 in Milan.  Rizzoli was orphaned very young and grew up in poverty, but by the time he was in his 20s he had become an entrepreneur.  He was brought up in the orphanage of Martinitt in Milan, which had been founded in the 16th century in Via Manzoni for orphaned and abandoned Roman Catholic boys. It was there that he learnt the trade of a printer.  Along with another trained print worker, and using his savings for the downpayment on a Linotype machine, he opened a typographical firm under the name of A. Rizzoli & C. in Via Cerva in Milan in 1911. The company was later to evolve into the publishing giant, RCS MediaGroup.  Rizzoli acquired Novella magazine, a bi-weekly aimed mainly at women and went on to add new publications, such as Annabella, Bertoldo, Candido, Omnibus, Oggi and L’Europeo.  Read more… 

Eduardo De Filippo - Neapolitan dramatist

Playwright captured essence of city's spirit

One of Italy’s greatest dramatists, Eduardo De Filippo, died on this day in 1984 in Rome at the age of 84.  An actor and film director as well as a playwright, De Filippo – often referred to simply as Eduardo – is most remembered as the author of a number of classic dramas set in his native Naples in the 1940s that continue to be performed today.  Arguably the most famous of these was Filomena Marturano, upon which was based the hit movie Marriage, Italian Style, which starred Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni under the direction of Vittorio de Sica.  De Filippo’s other memorable works included Napoli Milionaria, Le voci di dentro and Sabato, domenica e lunedi.  All of these plays showcased De Filippo’s ability to capture the essence of life in Naples in his time, particularly in the working class neighbourhoods that he felt were the beating heart of the city.  Read more…

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Galileo Ferraris - electrical engineer

Pioneer of alternating current (AC) systems

The physicist and electrical engineer Galileo Ferraris, who was one of the pioneers of the alternating current (AC) system for transmitting electricity and invented the first alternators and induction motors, was born on this day in 1847 in Piedmont.  The AC system was a vital element in the development of electricity as a readily-available source of power in that it made it possible to transport electricity economically and efficiently over long distances.  Ferraris did not benefit financially from his invention, which is still the basis of induction motors in use today. Another scientist, the Serbian-born Nikola Tesla, patented the device after moving to the United States to work for the Edison Corporation.  Tesla had been working simultaneously on creating an induction motor but there is evidence that Ferraris probably developed his first.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Bud Spencer and Terence Hill: Friends on Screen, Best Friends in Real Life, by Massimiliano Santamaria

Bud Spencer and Terence Hill: Friends on Screen, Best Friends in Real Life celebrates one of European cinema's most iconic and beloved action-comedy duos.  The book traces the separate early paths of Mario Girotti - who grew into the agile, quick-witted, blue-eyed hero Terence Hill - and Carlo Pedersoli, an Olympic swimmer and athlete who transformed into the gruff, big-hearted giant Bud Spencer. It covers their accidental first meeting in 1967 on the set of God Forgives… I Don’t! and charts the birth of a partnership that defined the spaghetti western and comedy genres. Through detailed analysis of classics such as They Call Me Trinity and Watch Out, We're Mad, the volume examines their signature blend of slapstick humour, synchronized choreography, and lighthearted brawls. Crucially, it explores their real-life brotherhood - a rare, deeply loyal bond of more than 50 years that anchored their on-screen chemistry and turned them into timeless legends of Italian cinema.

Massimiliano Santamaria is an Italian writer best known for compiling film history, pop culture biographies, and fantasy fiction.

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30 October

Luisa Spagnoli - businesswoman

Inventor of Baci chocolates who diversified into fashion

The businesswoman Luisa Spagnoli, who is credited with creating the Perugina company’s famous Baci chocolates and later developed clothing lines using wool from angora rabbits, was born on this day in 1877 in Perugia.  Spagnoli was one of the four partners who launched the Perugina brand in 1907. She is said to have invented the confection that came to be known as Baci as a way to avoid wasting surplus chocolate and hazelnuts left over from the company’s other lines.  Perugina, now owned by Nestlé, grew to be Italy’s biggest chocolate manufacturer and Baci its best-selling product. The romantic messages inside the wrappers that remain a popular feature of the chocolates to this day are said to have been inspired by the clandestine romance between Spagnoli and the son of one of the other partners.  Read more…

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Poggio Bracciolini – scholar and humanist

Calligrapher who could read Latin changed the course of history

Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini, who rediscovered many forgotten Latin manuscripts including the only surviving work by the Roman poet and philosopher, Lucretius, died on this day in 1459 in Florence.  For his services to literature he was commemorated after his death with a statue by Donatello and a portrait by Antonio del Pollaiuolo.  Bracciolini was born in 1380 at Terranuova near Arezzo in Tuscany. In 1862 his home village was renamed Terranuova Bracciolini in his honour.  He studied Latin as a child under a friend of the poet, Petrarch. His linguistic ability and talent for copying manuscripts neatly was soon noted by scholars in Florence.  He later studied notarial law and at 21 was received into the notaries guild in Florence.  After becoming secretary to the Bishop of Bari, Bracciolini was invited to join the Chancery of Apostolic Briefs in the Roman Curia of Pope Boniface IX.  Read more…

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Giuseppe Ravizza - inventor

His writing machine was forerunner of typewriter

The 19th century inventor Giuseppe Ravizza, whose Cembalo Scrivano machine could be seen as the world’s first typewriter, died on this day in 1885 in Livorno, on the Tuscan coast, about 25km (16 miles) south of Pisa. Ravizza created the first working prototype for his writing machine in 1846 and was granted patent in 1855. Yet, although he hailed from a wealthy Piedmontese family in Novara, he did not have the opportunity in pre-unification Italy to manufacture the device on a commercial scale. As a result, the invention of the typewriter is most commonly credited to Christopher Latham Sholes, an American inventor whose design was not patented until 1868, yet had many of the characteristics of Ravizza’s Cembalo Scrivano.  The American machine was eventually manufactured at scale by E Remington and Sons in 1873.  Read more…

Charles Atlas - bodybuilder

Poor immigrant from Calabria who transformed his physique

The bodybuilder Charles Atlas was born Angelo Siciliano on this day in 1893 in the Calabrian town of Acri.  Set 720m above sea level straddling two hills in the province of Cosenza, on the edge of what is now the mountainous Sila National Park, Acri was a poor town. While Angelo was growing up his father, Santos, began thinking about joining the growing number of southern Italians who had gone to forge a new life in America. They made the move when Angelo was 11.  The journey by sea from Naples took around two weeks. After registering their arrival at Ellis Island, the immigrant inspection station in New York Bay, the family settled in Brooklyn.  Most accounts of Angelo’s life suggest that his father, a farmer, returned to Italy within a short time but his mother remained, taking work as a seamstress and endeavouring to make a better life for her children. Read more… 

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Antonino Votto – conductor

Outstanding operatic conductor made recordings with Callas

Operatic conductor Antonino Votto was born on this day in 1896 in Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna.  He became famous in the 1950s because he conducted the orchestra for the acclaimed recordings made by soprano Maria Callas for EMI.  Votto was also considered one of the leading operatic conductors of his time on account of his performances at La Scala in Milan, where he worked regularly for nearly 20 years.  After Votto had attended the Naples conservatory for his music studies he went to work at La Scala, where he became an assistant conductor to Arturo Toscanini.  He made his official debut there in 1923, leading a performance of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut.  Votto went on to build a reputation as one of the most outstanding conductors of Italian opera, appearing at many other operatic venues in Italy and abroad.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Luisa Spagnoli: 90 Years of Style, by Sofia Gnoli

For decades, Luisa Spagnoli has represented a confident, feminine woman, whose elegance is both modern and sophisticated, a style that is beloved by women of all ages, based on quality tailoring and must-have pieces. Luisa Spagnoli: 90 Years of Style presents the development of the brand through her signature accessories and iconic garments, with vintage and contemporary illustrations, sketches, drawings, and never-before-seen material from the extensive company archives. It pays tribute to the enterprising spirit of Luisa, who after co-founding the chocolatier Perugina and its hallmark Baci transformed her hobby of knitting with angora wool into a women’s clothing and accessories brand, which now boasts 170 outlets around the world. Luisa Spagnoli's brand was popular with Hollywood stars working in Rome, such as Esther Williams and Lana Turner, and Italian actresses, such as Sophia Loren and Anna Magnani. Nowadays, the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, has been photographed wearing Luisa Spagnoli creations. Based on an ethical work plan, business acumen, the ability to evolve over time, and a pioneering approach to marketing, the Luisa Spagnoli brand is a unique element of the Italian fashion scene. This book was published to mark 90 years of success.

Sofia Gnoli is a fashion historian and journalist. She teaches history of fashion at La Sapienza Universita in Rome. She is a contributing fashion editor of La Repubblica and Il Venerdi di Repubblica. Her other publications include The Origins of Italian Fashion, 1900-1945. 

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