21 June

Pier Luigi Nervi - architect

Striking designs from football stadiums to churches

The brilliant structural engineer and architect Pier Luigi Nervi was born on this day in 1891 in Sondrio, an Alpine town in northern Lombardy at the heart of the Valtellina.  Nervi made his mark with a number of strikingly original designs at home and abroad and was noted both for his innovative use of reinforced concrete and his multi-dimensional designs, which enabled him to create structures that were both strong and elegant.  His major works in Italy include the Palazzo del Lavoro in Turin, the bell tower of the Chiesa del Sacro Cuore in Florence and the Papal Audience Hall at the Vatican City, as well as a number of important sports facilities.  The Stadio Artemio Franchi (formerly the Stadio Communale) in Florence - home of the Fiorentina football club - was one of his first important projects and he designed several stadia for the Rome Olympics in 1960. Read more…

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Pope Paul VI

Pontiff who helped wartime prisoners

Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini was elected as Pope Paul VI on this day in 1963 in Rome.  He succeeded Pope John XXIII and immediately re-convened the Second Vatican Council which had automatically closed after Pope John’s death.  Pope Paul then implemented its various reforms and as a result had to deal with the conflicting expectations of different Catholic groups.  Following his famous predecessor Saint Ambrose of Milan, Pope Paul named Mary as the Mother of the Church.  He described himself as ‘a humble servant for a suffering humanity’ and demanded changes from the rich in North America and Europe in favour of the poor in the third world.  Pope Paul had been born in Concesio near Brescia in 1897 and was ordained a priest in Brescia in 1920. He took a doctorate in Canon Law in Milan. Read more…

Paolo Soleri - architect

Italian greatly influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright

The groundbreaking architect and ecologist Paolo Soleri was born on this day in 1919 in Turin.  Soleri is largely remembered for the Arcosanti project, an experiment in urban design in the Arizona desert that was like no other town on the planet, a unique fusion of architecture and ecology.  Originally conceived as providing a completely self-sufficient urban living space for 5,000 people when it began in 1970, only about five per cent of the proposed development was ever completed.  At its peak, Arcosanti’s population barely exceeded 200 yet the buildings Soleri erected in accordance with his vision are still there, rising from the desert as an assortment of concrete blocks, domes and soaring vaults, resembling a cross between the remains of some ancient civilisation and a set from Star Wars.  It has never been abandoned, however, although Soleri died in 2013. Read more…

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Alessandro Cavriani - naval commander

Heroic officer who sacrificed his own life

Naval commander Alessandro Cavriani, who posthumously received Italy’s highest military honour after sacrificing his own life to prevent his ailing ship falling into enemy hands in World War Two, was born on 21 June, 1911 in the city of Mantua in Lombardy.  Cavriani, who had risen to the rank of corvette captain in the Italian Royal Navy during World War Two, was lieutenant commander of the destroyer Ugolino Vivaldi soon after Italy had signed the 1943 Armistice with the Allies.  The Vivaldi and her sister ship, the Antonio da Noli, on September 9, were ordered to set sail from Genoa to Civitavecchia, the large port north of Rome, where they were to pick up King Vittorio Emanuele III and his government and take them to La Maddalena in Sardinia, to prevent their being captured by the advancing German army.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Pier Luigi Nervi (The Minimum), by Tullia Iori

Tullia Iori’s Pier Luigi Nervi (The Minimum) is a compact, scholarly monograph that introduces Nervi’s architectural and structural achievements with clarity and precision. It is one of the most accessible academic overviews of his work, especially if you want a concise, image‑rich introduction grounded in the history of structural engineering. The volume surveys Nervi’s major works (built and unbuilt), his writings, and critical reception. It blends biography, project summaries, and visual documentation. The author integrates Nervi’s own technical writings, giving insight into his philosophy of reinforced concrete, prefabrication, and structural elegance.  The book includes strong visual material, making it useful for architectural historians and engineers alike.

Tullia Iori is Professor of Technical Architecture at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.  Her research focuses on the history of construction, structural engineering, and conservation of modern architecture.

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20 June

Gian Galeazzo Sforza - Duke of Milan

Ruler who never truly held power

Gian Galeazzo Sforza, the third member of the Sforza family to have the title Duke of Milan, was born on this day in 1469 in Abbiategrasso, a town in the Po Valley about 22km (14 miles) north of Milan.  He was the sixth Duke of Milan in all, the title having previously been the property of the Visconti family.  However, Gian Galeazzo had only a short life and never truly held any power, having inherited the Duchy at the age of seven when his father, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, was assassinated in the porch of Basilica di Santo Stefano Maggiore in Milan, on December 26, 1476, where he was attending a celebration for the Festa di San Stefano.  Gian Galeazzo could not legally inherit the Duchy until he reached the age of majority, which in Renaissance times was 14. Until then, Milan would be ruled by his mother, Galeazzo Maria’s widow, Bona of Savoy.  Read more…

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Luigi de Magistris - politician

Popular and progressive Mayor of Naples

Luigi de Magistris, who was Mayor of Naples for 10 years following a shock win in the 2011 local elections, was born on this day in 1967.  A former public prosecutor with a reputation for standing up against corruption and organised crime, De Magistris was the Member of the European Parliament for Southern Italy between 2009 and 2011, when he ran for Italy of Values, the centre-left party founded by another former magistrate, Antonio di Pietro.  He stood in the 2011 mayoral elections in Naples with the support of minor parties on the left and the right and won in the second round of voting with 65 per cent of the vote, defeating Gianni Lettieri, the candidate for a centre right coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party.  In office, De Magistris faced difficult times because of the city’s precarious financial situation. Read more…

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Armando Picchi - footballer

Star defender captained ‘La Grande Inter’

The footballer Armando Picchi, who was captain of the Inter-Milan team of the 1960s known as La Grande Inter and one of Italian football’s most accomplished players in the libero position, was born on this day in 1935 in the Tuscan port of Livorno.  Under his captaincy, the Inter side managed by the Argentina-born coach Helenio Herrera won the European Cup twice as well as three Serie A titles and two Intercontinental Cups between 1963 and 1966.  After retiring as a player at 34, Picchi embarked on a coaching career of his own, but after his progress with Varese and hometown club AS Calcio Livorno earned him the chance to take the helm at Juventus his life was cut tragically short in 1971, when he developed an aggressive form of cancer and died just three months after being diagnosed.  Picchi grew up 30km (19 miles) south of Livorno in the coastal resort of Vada.  Read more…

Giannina Arangi-Lombardi – opera singer

Soprano’s superb voice was captured in early recordings

Soprano Giannina Arangi-Lombardi was born on this day in 1891 in Marigliano near Naples in Campania.  She studied singing at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in Naples and made her debut on the stage in Rome in 1920. Arangi-Lombardi sang mezzo-soprano roles for the next three years at theatres in Rome, Sicily, Parma, Florence and Naples.  She then underwent further study and returned to the stage as what is known as a spinto soprano, a singer who can reach the high notes of the lyric soprano but can also achieve dramatic climaxes with her voice.  Arangi-Lombardi’s second debut, this time as a soprano, was in 1923. The first time she sang the role of Aida in Verdi's opera of the same name the audience was stunned by her voice and her fame quickly spread.  She appeared on stage at Teatro alla Scala in Milan for the first time in 1924. Read more…

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Valerio Evangelisti - novelist

Writer's stories of the Inquisition are bestsellers

The bestselling novelist Valerio Evangelisti, best known for his science fiction, fantasy, historical novels and horror stories, was born in Bologna on this day in 1952.  He is famous in Italy for his series of novels featuring the inquisitor Nicolas Eymerich and for the Magus trilogy, all of which have been translated into many languages.  Eymerich is a real historical character, a member of the order of the Dominicans and of the Spanish Inquisition who was born in 1320 in Girona, Catalonia.  Evangelisti portrays him as a cruel and ruthless man who acts without mercy to protect the Catholic Church against threats of both natural and supernatural origin.  Evangelisti uses the Eymerich novels to investigate the mysterious phenomena in medieval Europe that strategically influenced the great historical events of the time. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Italian Dynasties: The Great Families of Italy from the Renaissance to the Present Day by Edward Burman

Italian Dynasties covers every major Renaissance power family in one volume.  It includes dedicated chapters on the Sforza, Visconti, Medici, Este, Gonzaga, and others. The book focuses on political power, cultural patronage, military influence, and the personalities that shaped Renaissance Italy and places the Sforza within the broader ecosystem of Italian princely families. The Colonna, Malatesta and Farnese also have their own chapters. Italian Dynasties is essentially a tour through the great ruling families of Renaissance Italy, each chapter giving you a compact political history, a sense of personality and power, and the cultural legacy they left behind. It’s not a dry genealogical dictionary - it reads more like a sequence of vivid portraits of courts, cities, and the people who shaped them.

Edward Burman, who grew up in Cambridge and studied at the University of Leeds, spent some years living in Italy, where he studied art, learnt Italian, and wrote articles for an English-language newspaper. He has written a number of books on occult subjects and Italian culture and taught in the universities of L’Aquila and Bologna.

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19 June

Pier Angeli - Hollywood star

Actress hailed for talent and beauty died tragically young

The actress Pier Angeli, a Hollywood star in the 1950s and 60s, was born on this day in 1932 in Cagliari, Sardinia.  She won awards in Italy and in America at the start of her career, when she was likened by some critics to the Swedish-born star Greta Garbo.  Described by the actor Paul Newman as "the most beautiful Italian actress of the century", Angeli was also a fixture in the gossip columns.  Linked romantically with a number of Hollywood's leading male actors, she dated Kirk Douglas and became close to the celebrated 'rebel' James Dean before marrying another star, the Italian-American actor and singer, Vic Damone.  It would be the first of two marriages.  She had a son, Perry, with Damone but they divorced after four years.  A second marriage, to the Italian composer, Armando Trovaioli, produced another son, Andrew, but they also divorced.  Read more…

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Francesco Moser - Giro d’Italia winner

Only two riders have won more road races

The cycling champion Francesco Moser, winner of the 1984 Giro d’Italia and the 1977 World road racing championship among 273 road victories in his career, was born on this day in 1951 in Palù di Giovo, a village about 10km (6 miles) north of Trento in northern Italy.  Only the great Belgians Eddy Merckx (525) and Rik Van Looy (379) won more road races than Moser, who was at his peak during the late 1970s and early 1980s.  One of his proudest achievements was to break Merckx’s record for the greatest distance covered in one hour.  He became renowned as a specialist in the so-called Monuments, the five road races among what are generally termed the Classics considered to be the oldest, hardest and most prestigious one-day events in cycling.  Of those events, Moser won the Paris-Roubaix three times, the Giro di Lombardia twice and the Milan-San Remo once.  Read more…

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Marisa Pavan - actress

Twin sister of tragic star Pier Angeli

The actress Marisa Pavan, whose twin sister Pier Angeli was a Hollywood star in the 1950s and 1960s, was born on this day in 1932 as Maria Luisa Pierangeli in Cagliari, Sardinia.  Pavan’s career ran parallel with that of her sister, who was born 20 minutes before her, but she rejected the re-invention as an ultra-glamorous starlet that Pier Angeli underwent within the Hollywood studio system.  She turned roles down when she felt they did not have enough substance and did not hesitate to sack agents if she felt they were putting her forward for unsuitable parts.  She refused to sign up to any one studio.  Her biggest success was The Rose Tattoo, the 1955 film adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play in which she played the daughter of the central character, played by Anna Magnani - with whom she is pictured - one of postwar Italian cinema’s most respected actresses. Read more…

Luca Pacioli - mathematician and geometrist 

Friar who became known as ‘Father of Accounting’

Luca Pacioli, the Franciscan friar and mathematician who would become known as the ‘Father of Accounting’, died on this day in 1517 in Sansepolcro, a town in eastern Tuscany in the province of Arezzo.  Taking advantage of the development of the printing press, Pacioli is thought to have published at least 10 mathematical textbooks, of which the best known is his Summa de arithmetica, geometria, Proportioni et proportionalita - usually known as simply Summa.  Published in Venice in 1494, it was a comprehensive treatise of every aspect of mathematical knowledge that had been explored and the first to include a printed description of the double-entry bookkeeping system, widely used by Venetian merchants. The principals he outlined in Summa still influence business practices today.  Read more…

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Francesco Baracca – flying ace

Italy’s most successful First World War fighter pilot

Italy’s top fighter pilot of the First World War, Francesco Baracca, died in action on this day in 1918.  He had been flying a strafing mission against Austro-Hungarian ground troops in support of an Italian attack on the Montello Hill, about 17km (11 miles) north of Treviso in the Veneto, on which he was accompanied by a rookie pilot, Tenente Franco Osnago.  They split from one another after being hit by ground fire but a few minutes later, Osnago saw a burning plane falling from the sky.  Witnesses on the ground saw it too. Osnago flew back to his base but Baracca never returned.  Only when the Austro-Hungarian troops were driven back was the wreckage of Baracca’s Spad VII aircraft found in a valley.  His body was discovered a few metres away.  A monument in his memory was later built on the site. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Pier Angeli: A Fragile Life, by Jane Allen 

This work is the first full-length biography of actress Anna Maria Pierangeli, from her early life in Italy to her death at the age of 39. She was discovered by Vittorio De Sica and soon after starred in her first film, Domani e troppo tardi (Tomorrow Is Too Late), which began her meteoric rise to fame in Italy. She arrived in Hollywood in 1950 at the age of 18, and the first thing MGM did was change her name to Pier Angeli and predict great things for its newest actress.  Pier Angeli: A Fragile Life covers her seven year career with MGM, her two unhappy marriages to Vic Damone and Armando Trovajoli, her love for her children Perry and Andrew, her brief and stormy relationship with James Dean, her dependent relationships with her mother and such stars as Kirk Douglas, Richard Attenborough and Debbie Reynolds, and the mystery surrounding her death.

Writer and psychologist Jane Allen lives in Bowral, New South Wales, Australia. She is the author of A Walk Through Blue Poppies: The Letters of Eric Shipton to Margaret Bradshaw 1934-1974, a book of children's stories, and The Judge's Cat, a novel of Victorian family life.

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18 June

Isabella Rossellini - actress and model

Daughter of ‘cinema royalty’ who became star in her own right 

The actress and model Isabella Rossellini, famed for her roles in the David Lynch-directed mystery Blue Velvet and the Oscar-winning black comedy Death Becomes Her and for 14 years the face of luxury perfume brand Lancôme, was born on this day in 1952 in Rome. Her parents were the Swedish triple Academy Award-winning actress Ingrid Bergman and the Italian director Roberto Rossellini, one of the pioneers of the neorealism movement that spawned some of Italy’s finest films. She is the eldest by 34 minutes of twin girls. Resident in the United States since 1979, when she married the American director Martin Scorsese, she has a home on Long Island, New York, where she keeps a number of animals. An active campaigner for various wildlife conservation causes, Rossellini has a MA in Animal Behaviour & Conservation. Read more…

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Bartolomeo Ammannati – sculptor and architect

Florentine artist created masterpieces for his home city

Bartolomeo Ammannati, whose buildings in Italy marked the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque style, was born on this day in 1511 at Settignano near Florence.  Ammannati began his career as a sculptor, carving statues in a number of Italian cities during the 1530s.  He trained first under Baccio Bandinelli and then under Jacopo Sansovino in Venice, working with him on the Library of St Mark, the Biblioteca Marciana, in the Piazzetta.  Pope Julius III called Ammannati to Rome in 1550 on the advice of architect and art historian Giorgio Vasari. Ammannati then worked with Vasari and Giacomo da Vignola on the Villa Giulia, which belonged to the Pope.  In the same year, Ammannati married the poet Laura Battiferri and they spent the early years of their marriage in Rome.  In 1555, Cosimo I de' Medici brought Ammannati back to Florence, where he spent the rest of his career.  Read more…

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Franco Modigliani – economist

Writer and professor developed theories about spending and saving

Nobel prize winner Franco Modigliani, who was an originator of the economic life-cycle hypothesis that attempts to explain the level of spending in the economy, was born on this day in 1918 in Rome.  He wrote several books outlining his economic theories, became a professor at three American universities, and received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1985.   Modigliani also formulated the Modigliani-Miller theorem for corporate finances, which is based on the idea that the value of a private firm is not affected by whether it is financed by equity or by debt.  Born and brought up in a Jewish family, Modigliani enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the Sapienza University of Rome at the age of 17. In his second year at Sapienza, his entry in a national economics contest won first prize and he was presented with it by the Fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini. Read more…

Raffaella Carrà - entertainer and TV presenter

Much-loved star with long and varied career

Raffaella Carrà, the singer, dancer, television presenter and actress often simply known as la Carrà or Raffaella, was born in Bologna on this day in 1943.  Carrà has become a familiar face on Italian TV screens as the host of many variety shows and, more recently, as a judge on the talent show The Voice of Italy.  She has also enjoyed a recording career spanning 45 years and was a film actress for the best part of 25 years, having made her debut at the age of nine.  Her best-known screen role outside Italy was alongside Frank Sinatra in the hit American wartime drama, Von Ryan’s Express.  Carrà was born Raffaella Maria Roberta Pelloni. She grew up in the Adriatic resort of Bellaria-Igea Marina, just north of Rimini, where her father ran a bar and her maternal grandfather an ice cream parlour.  At the age of eight, she won a place at the National Dance Academy in Rome. Read more…

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Ottaviano dei Petrucci – music printer

Pioneer in printing who worked for a Doge and a Pope

Ottaviano dei Petrucci, who was the first person to print a book of polyphonic music from movable type, was born on this day in 1466 in Fossombrone near Ancona.  It is thought that Petrucci was educated at Urbino, possibly at the humanist court of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, who was Duke of Urbino apart from a brief period from 1482 until his death in 1508.  To learn the art of printing, in 1490 Petrucci went to Venice, then the most advanced centre for printing in Italy.  In 1498, Petrucci petitioned the Doge, Agostino Barbarigo, for the exclusive right to print music for the next 20 years, which was granted. There are no examples of printed music produced by other Venetian printers until 1520.  Over the years, he continued to refine his technique and he held music printing monopolies in Venice until 1511. Read more…

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Fabio Capello - football manager

Veteran Champions League winner with five Serie A titles 

Fabio Capello, one of European club football's most successful managers, was born in San Canzian d'Isonzo, close to the border of Italy and Slovenia, on this day in 1946.  Capello is the winner of five Serie A titles as a coach and four as a player, plus two La Liga titles as manager of Real Madrid, and the Champions League with AC Milan.  At the time he was born, San Canzian d'Isonzo was in an area occupied by Allied forces after the end of the Second World War.  Capello’s uncle, Mario Tortul, who was from the same village near Trieste, had been a professional footballer, playing in Serie A with Sampdoria, Triestina and Padova and making one appearance for the Italian national team.  Capello began his playing career at the Ferrara-based SPAL club and went on to represent Roma, Juventus and AC Milan.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Some of Me, by Isabella Rossellini

Isabella Rossellini’s Some of Me is a playful, intimate, and visually rich autobiography that blends memoir, reflection, and self‑portraiture into a single, unconventional volume. Mixing text with photographs, sketches, and film stills, Rossellini explores her life as the daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini, her modelling career with Lancôme, and her work with directors such as David Lynch. The book moves fluidly between humour and vulnerability as she examines beauty, ageing, fame, and identity, often challenging the expectations placed on women in the public eye. Rather than offering a linear life story, Rossellini presents a collage of memories and ideas - snapshots of childhood, insights into the film world, and candid thoughts about relationships and creativity. Some of Me ultimately reads as a witty, self-aware meditation on how she sees herself and how the world has seen her.

Isabella Rossellini grew up in Paris and Rome. She moved to New York at the age of 19, and began her modelling career at 28, when she was photographed by Bruce Weber for British Vogue. Her films include Blue Velvet, Cousins, Wild at Heart, Fearless and Immortal Beloved.

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17 June

Rinaldo ‘Dindo’ Capello - endurance racing driver

Three times winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours 

Rinaldo ‘Dindo’ Capello, one of Italy’s most successful endurance racing drivers, was born on this day in 1964 in Asti, in Piedmont.  During a period between 1997 and 2008 in which there was an Italian winning driver in all bar two years, Capello won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the most prestigious endurance race on the calendar, three times.  Only Emanuele Pirro, his sometimes Audi teammate and rival during that period, has more victories in the race among Italian drivers, with five. Pirro won in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006 and 2007, Capello in 2003, 2004 and 2008.  Capello’s career record also includes two championship wins in the American Le Mans Series and five victories in the 12 Hours of Sebring. He is also record holder for most wins at Petit Le Mans, the race run annually at Atlanta, Georgia to Le Mans rules, with five.  Read more…

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Giovanni Paolo Panini – artist

Painter who preserved scenes of Rome

Giovanni Paolo Panini, an artist mainly known for his views of Rome, was born on this day in 1691 in Piacenza, in Emilia-Romagna.  He is particularly remembered for his view of the interior of the Pantheon, commissioned by the Venetian collector, Francesco Algarotti, in around 1734.  The Pantheon was as much a tourist attraction in Panini’s day as it is today and Panini manipulated the proportions and perspective to include more of the interior that is actually visible from any one vantage point.  Indeed, many of his works, especially those of ruins, have slightly unreal embellishment. He sought to meet the needs of visitors for painted postcards depicting scenes of Italy and his clients were often happy with minor distortions of reality if it meant they could show off a unique picture.   As a young man, Panini trained in Piacenza but then moved to Rome where he studied drawing. Read more…

Saint Joseph of Copertino 

Flying friar now protects aviators

Saint Joseph, a Franciscan friar who became famous for his miraculous levitation, was born Giuseppe Maria Desa on this day in 1603 in Copertino, a village in Puglia that was then part of the Kingdom of Naples.  Joseph was canonised in 1767, more than 100 years after his death, by Pope Clement XIII and he is now the patron saint for astronauts and aviation.  Joseph’s father, Felice Desa, had died before his birth leaving large debts. After the family home was seized to settle what was owed, his mother, Francesca Panara, was forced to give birth to him in a stable.  Joseph experienced ecstatic visions as a child at school. When he was scorned by other children he had outbursts of anger.  He was apprenticed to a shoemaker but when he applied to join the Franciscan friars he was rejected because of his lack of education.  Read more...

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Sergio Marchionne - business leader

Man who saved Fiat divides opinions in Italy

Controversial business leader Sergio Marchionne was born on this day in 1952 in the city of Chieti in the Abruzzo region of Italy.  The former chief executive of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is credited with saving the iconic Italian motor manufacturer from potential extinction in 2004, when Fiat was on the verge of being taken into the ownership of the banks that were keeping it afloat.  It had suffered cumulative losses of more than $8 billion over the previous two years and a strategic alliance with General Motors had failed. Its share of the European car market had shrunk to an historic low of just 5.8 per cent.  Yet after the little-known Marchionne was appointed chief executive at the company's Turin headquarters it took him only just over a year to bring Fiat back into profit.  When Fiat opened a new assembly line at the Mirafiori plant outside Turin in 2006, Marchionne was hailed as a hero.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: 24 Hours: 100 Years of Le Mans, by Richard Williams

Award-winning writer Richard Williams tells the remarkable story of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the world's most iconic motorsports events, which celebrates its centenary in 2023. The event was created by a group of Frenchmen in 1923 and remains uniquely compelling to spectators, to the major motor manufacturers who continue to see it as an opportunity for priceless publicity, as well as to drivers hoping to add their names to its distinguished roll of honour. Between the wars, those manufacturers included Bugatti, Bentley and Alfa Romeo. Subsequently, Ferrari, Jaguar, Mercedes, Aston Martin, Ford, Porsche, Audi and Toyota have all been serial winners, guaranteeing the continuation of ferocious inter-marque rivalry. Over the decades the race acquired a rich folklore, including stories of leaking petrol tanks being sealed with chewing gum, one competitor making his last pit-stop for a fill-up and a glass of champagne, or the woman who drove her MG through the night wearing a fur coat. But in 1955 it had also been the scene of the greatest tragedy ever to befall motor racing, when 82 people were killed by a competing car, an accident that for a while threatened the sport’s entire future.  From the Bentley Boys of the 1920s, through record-breaking multiple winners Jacky Ickx and Tom Kristensen to modern stars such as Allan McNish, 24 Hours: 100 Years of Le Mans celebrates the skill, courage and technical brilliance of the men and women who gave the race its worldwide renown.

Richard Williams was the chief sportswriter of the Guardian from 1995 to 2012, having previously worked for The Times and the Independent. He was the original presenter of BBC2's The Old Grey Whistle Test and was artistic director of the Berlin Jazz Festival from 2015-17. Among his previous books are The Death of Ayrton Senna (1995), The Last Road Race (2004) and A Race with Love and Death (2020).

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16 June

Pietro Bracci - sculptor

Artist best known for Oceanus statue at Trevi Fountain

The sculptor Pietro Bracci, who left his mark on the architectural landscape of Rome with the colossal six-metre high statue Oceanus that towers over the Trevi Fountain, was born on this day in 1700 in Rome.  The monumental figure is shown standing on a chariot, in the form of a shell, pulled by two winged horses flanked by two tritons. Bracci worked from sketches by Giovanni Battista Maini, who died before he could execute the project.  He also completed work on the fountain itself, built in front of Luigi Vanvitelli’s Palazzo Poli. This was started by Bracci’s close friend Nicola Salvi, who had been commissioned by Pope Clement XII to realize plans drawn up by Gian Lorenzo Bernini that had been shelved in the previous century. Salvi died in 1751, before he could complete the work. Giuseppe Pannini was also involved for a while before Bracci took over in 1761.  Read more…

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Achille Lauro - shipping magnate and politician

Businessman once dubbed the ‘Neapolitan Onassis’

The businessman and politician Achille Lauro, who at his peak controlled the largest private shipping fleet in the Mediterranean and whose achievements as Mayor of Naples included building the San Paolo football stadium and the city’s main railway station, was born on this day in 1887 in Piano di Sorrento in Campania.  Lauro inherited a small number of ships from his father, Gioacchino, but lost them at the start of the First World War, when they were requisitioned by the government. When the conflict ended he had no money but managed to launch another fleet by creating a company that was essentially owned by its employees, who invested their savings in return for a share of the profits and a guarantee of employment.  Within little more than a decade, Flotta Lauro consisted of 21 vessels. Lauro's business plan avoided the union problems that were prevalent in the 1920s. Read more…

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Giacomo Agostini - world motorcycle champion

Brescia-born rider enjoyed record-breaking career 

Giacomo Agostini, 15 times Grand Prix world motorcycling champion, was born on this day in 1942 in Brescia. Agostini moved with his family to the lakeside town of Lovere, which overlooks the picturesque Lago d'Iseo, when he was 13.   Riding for the Italian MV Agusta team, Agostini won the 500cc class seven times in a row from 1966 to 1972 and the 350cc class seven times in succession from 1968 to 1974, adding a further 500cc title on a Yamaha in 1975.  His total of 122 Grand Prix wins from 1965 to 1976 is the highest by any rider in the history of the sport. Agostini, considered perhaps the greatest motorcycle racer of all time, was at the peak of his powers between 1967 and 1970.  In 1967, he won an epic duel with his former MV Agusta teammate, Britain's Mike Hailwood, who was riding for Honda.  Read more…

Mario Rigoni Stern – author

Brave soldier became a bestselling novelist

The novelist Mario Rigoni Stern, who was a veteran of World War II, died on this day in 2008 in Asiago in the Veneto region.  His first novel, Il sergente della neve - The Sergeant in the Snow - was published in 1953. It drew upon his experiences as a sergeant major in the Alpine corps during the disastrous retreat from Russia in the Second World War. It became a best seller and was translated into English and Spanish.  Rigoni Stern had been a sergeant commanding a platoon in Mussolini’s army in the Soviet Union during the retreat of the Italians in the winter of 1942.  His book was inspired by how he succeeded in leading 70 survivors on foot from Ukraine into what was then White Russia - now part of Belarus - and back to Italy.  It won the Viareggio Prize for best debut novel and went on to sell more than a million copies.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Baroque Sculpture in Rome, by Alessandro Angelini

On the whole, when one thinks of 17th-century sculpture in Rome, one has in mind the wonderful and famous works of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, such as the Fountain of the Four Rivers or The Ecstasy of St. Theresa. The influence of Bernini's work on sculpture and art in general, especially in Rome, was huge. However, this domination spread only during the second half of the 17th century, and less unequivocally than one might suppose. Other great sculptors, with personalities often very different from Bernini's, contributed to making the extraordinary proliferation of Roman statuary extremely complex and varied at that time.  Baroque Sculpture in Rome is aimed especially at students and museum visitors who would like to learn more about the topic and discusses the art in a straightforward and strictly chronological fashion. The narrative begins in the early decades of the 17th century with sculpture created by a motley and conspicuously cosmopolitan group of artists. Later, with the growing success of the great masters, commissions began to gravitate around Bernini, Alessandro Algardi, and François Duquesnoy.  The book aims to show how marble and travertine were used throughout the century to create a whole army of statues that were positioned in the open and in churches, lending modern Rome its truly incomparable new face.

Alessandro Angelini was born in Siena in 1958 and teaches History of Modern Art at the University of Siena. He specialises in 15th- and 16th-century Tuscan art (Disegni italiani del tempo di Donatello, Florence, 1986) and 17th-century sculpture (Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Chigi tra Roma e Siena, Milan, 1998). 

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15 June

NEW - Festa di San Vito

Saint watches over dancers, entertainers, and pet dogs 

Celebrations are held throughout Italy every year on this day to celebrate the feast day of San Vito (Saint Vitus) . Although it is not a national public holiday, June 15 is the day when many Italians remember San Vito, a  young Christian martyr from Sicily, who died during the persecutions carried out in the fourth century by successive Roman Emperors, including Diocletian.  Many Italian towns, particularly those in southern Italy, honour San Vito with processions through the streets, theatrical events and religious ceremonies.  Vito was thought to have been born towards the end of the third century in Mazzaro del Vallo in Sicily. Little is known about his life, but according to legend, he was the son of a senator. As he grew up, he resisted his father’s attempts, which included various forms of torture, to persuade him to renounce his faith. Read more… 

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Carlo Scorza - politician and journalist

Blackshirt who was last party secretary of Mussolini’s Fascists 

Carlo Scorza, who rose to prominence with the Fascist paramilitary group known as the Blackshirts and was the last party secretary of Benito Mussolini’s regime, was born on this day in 1897 in Paolo, a seaside town in Calabria.  Scorza fought with the Italian Army’s Bersaglieri corps during World War One. After the war he became a member of Mussolini’s fasci italiani di combattimento, the organisation that was the forerunner of the National Fascist Party.  Such was his loyalty to Mussolini even as the course of the Second World War turned against Italy that the dictator appointed him secretary of the party in April 1943, although the position ceased to exist when the party was dissolved in July of that year after Mussolini was deposed as leader and arrested.  After growing up on his father’s small farm in Calabria, Scorza moved with his family to Lucca in Tuscany, where ultimately he studied to be an accountant. Read more…

Lisa del Giocondo – the Mona Lisa

Florentine wife and mother who became a global icon

Merchant’s wife Lisa del Giocondo, who has been identified as the model for the Mona Lisa, was born on this day in 1479 in Florence.  Her enigmatic beauty was immortalised by Leonardo da Vinci in the early part of the 16th century when he painted her portrait, a major work of art known as the Mona Lisa, which is now in the Louvre in Paris.  The painting, sometimes known as La Gioconda, has become a global icon that has been used in other works of art, illustrations and advertising.  The face of the Mona Lisa belongs to a woman who was born as Lisa Gherardini into a well-off Tuscan family. When she was still in her teens she was married to Francesco di Bartolomeo di Zanobi del Giocondo, a successful cloth and silk merchant who was much older than her. They had five children together.  Read more…

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Carlo Cattaneo - philosopher and writer

Intellectual who became a key figure in Milan uprising

Carlo Cattaneo, the philosopher and political writer who emerged as a leader in the so-called Five Days of Milan, the 1848 rebellion against the harsh rule of Austria, was born on this day in 1801 in Milan.  An influential figure in academic and intellectual circles in Milan, whose ideas helped shape the Risorgimento, Cattaneo was fundamentally against violence as a means to achieve change.  Yet when large-scale rioting broke out in the city in March 1848 he joined other intellectuals bringing organisation to the insurrection and succeeded in driving out Austria's occupying army, at least temporarily.  The uprising happened against a backcloth of social reform in other parts of the peninsula, in Rome and further south in Salerno, Naples and Sicily.  By contrast, the Austrians, who ruled most of northern Italy, sought to strengthen their grip by imposing harsh tax increases. Read more…

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Hugo Pratt – comic book creator

Talented writer and artist travelled widely

The creator of the comic book character, Corto Maltese, was born Hugo Eugenio Pratt on this day in 1927 in Rimini.  Pratt became a famous comic book writer and artist and was renowned for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research.  His most famous character, Corto Maltese, came into being when he started a magazine with Florenzo Ivaldi.  Pratt spent most of his childhood in Venice with his parents, Rolando Pratt and Evelina Genero. His paternal grandfather, Joseph Pratt, was English and Hugo Pratt was related to the actor, Boris Karloff, who was born William Henry Pratt.  Hugo Pratt moved to Ethiopia with his mother in the late 1930s to join his father, who was working there following the conquest of the country by Benito Mussolini.  Pratt’s father was later captured by British troops and died from disease while he was a prisoner of war.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Dictionary of Saints, by John J Delaney 

The preeminent resource guide for more than 20 years, this one-of-a-kind book, now available in paperback, has been updated to include those more recently canonized and beatified.  Since its original publication in 1980, John J Delaney's Dictionary of Saints (more than 200,000 copies sold) has become the leading reference book for the scholar and general reader alike. With more than five thousand biographies of the saints from the well known to the obscure, this new edition brings to life the inspiring accomplishments of these men and women of God. The martyrs and the monks, the mystics and the virgins, the doctors and the peasants are all contained in this essential volume. To know the saints, how they thrived in their achievements, how they lived in destitution, is to meet a fascinating company of people whose actions have influenced and enriched the history of the world.  Reset in an easy-to use-format, it contains substantial listings for the more popular saints, and thumbnail sketches for those less well known. From Aaron to Zosimus, this modern dictionary has been updated with the entries for the newly canonized, including Italian mystic Padre Pio, Mexican Nahuatl Juan Diego, Polish Franciscan Maximilian Kolbe, and Americans Katharine Drexel and Rose Philippine Duchesne. It also contains a complete listing of feast days, an index of patron saints, and several other useful appendixes.

John J Delaney, the former director of Doubleday Religious Publishing and founder of Image Books, was an active figure in the world of religious publishing for more than 40 years.

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Festa di San Vito

Saint watches over dancers, entertainers, and pet dogs 

A statue of San Vito, with dogs at
his feet, at Paternò in Sicily

Celebrations are held throughout Italy every year on this day to celebrate the feast day of San Vito (Saint Vitus) . Although it is not a national public holiday, June 15 is the day when many Italians remember San Vito, a  young Christian martyr from Sicily, who died during the persecutions carried out in the fourth century by successive Roman Emperors, including Diocletian.

Many Italian towns, particularly those in southern Italy, honour San Vito with processions through the streets, theatrical events and religious ceremonies.

Vito was thought to have been born towards the end of the third century in Mazzaro del Vallo in Sicily. Little is known about his life, but according to legend, he was the son of a senator. As he grew up, he resisted his father’s attempts, which included various forms of torture, to persuade him to renounce his faith. He fled with his tutor and his tutor’s wife, who was also Vito’s nanny, to Lucania, in what is now Basilicata.

When he was about 12 or 13, he was believed to have been taken to Rome to drive out a demon that had taken possession of the soul of one of the sons of the Emperor Diocletian. He successfully performed the exorcism, but was then tortured, along with his tutor and nanny, for staying faithful to Christianity.

According to the story, an angel brought the three of them back to Lucania by a miracle, but they all died from the wounds they had suffered. After Vito had been dead for three days, he appeared to a local woman, who later discovered the three dead bodies and buried them where they lay.

During the Middle Ages, San Vito was counted among the Fourteen Holy Helpers, a group of saints who are venerated by Catholics because they believe their intercession can help against various diseases. 

In the sixth century, Pope Gregory the Great referred to a monastery dedicated to San Vito in Sicily and later popes wrote about a shrine and a chapel dedicated to him. His relics were taken to Pavia, France, Germany, and Bohemia. The bones from his hand are kept as a sacred relic in St Vitus Cathedral in Prague. 

The Cathedral of Saint Vitus in Prague, where
bones from his hand are kept as a sacred relic

In Germanic and Latvian cultures, the feast of Saint Vitus was once celebrated with manic dancing before his statue. After this dancing became popular, the name Saint Vitus Dance was given to the neurological disorder, Sydenham’s Chorea, which is characterised by involuntary jerking movements.

This also led to San Vito being considered the patron saint of dancers and entertainers. He is also supposed to protect people against lightning strikes, animal attacks and oversleeping.

Vito is the patron saint of the towns of Ciminna and Vita in Sicily, Forio on the island of Ischia, the town of Sapri in Campania, the contrada of San Vito in Torella dei Lombardi in Avellino, and the town of Rapone, in Basilicata. 

On June 15, which Italian regard as the beginning of summer, towns with San Vito as their patron have his statue carried through the streets, accompanied by brass bands. 

Because legend claims that the Emperor Diocletian set rabid dogs on Vito, only for the dogs to be cured and calmed by him, some regions historically tie his feast day in with the blessing of animals.

San Vito Lo Capo in Sicily, which sits at the head
of a promentory 34km (20 miles) north of Trapani

Travel tip:

San Vito Lo Capo, a town in northwestern Sicily named after the Saint, hosts some of the most spectacular celebrations with locals performing a dramatic, torch-lit re-enactment of the Saint's arrival by sea, culminating in a midnight firework display. On the afternoon of June 15, locals participate in a traditional game on the water. Competitors try to walk across a 10-metre-long wooden beam that is suspended over the sea and heavily coated in slippery soap. The goal is to grab a flag at the far end. At dusk, a flotilla of local fishing boats sails out to sea and returns carrying actors portraying young Vito, and his tutor and nanny. The shore erupts with flaring rockets and the blare of boat sirens. A solemn night procession features a heavy statue of San Vito carried on the shoulders of the faithful. The statue is wrapped in a cloak covered in gold ex-votos, offerings that have been given by people in exchange for miracles. San Vito can be found about 34km north of the resort of Trapani.

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Positano, looking from the beach towards the
Church of Santa Maria Assunta

Travel tip:

Because San Vito is also the patron saint of dogs, on June 15 in Positano on the Amalfi coast,  the area near the Church of Santa Maria Assunta and the pier of the Spiaggia Grande is filled with local people bringing their pet dogs to receive a blessing from a priest. The town's main beach is taken over by market stalls selling traditional Italian sweets, street food, and toys. The celebration closes at midnight with a big fireworks display over the sea that illuminates the entire cliffside town. Positano is one of the most glamorous towns on the Amalfi coast and became fashionable with artists and writers after the Second World War. Positano’s villas, shops and hotels spill down the hillside to the beach, so that seen from further round the bay, the resort looks as though it is covered by a cascade of pink, cream and yellow houses.

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More reading:

Sant’Eustachio, the Christian convert martyred by Hadrian

Why Saint Bona of Pisa became the patron saint of flight attendants

Saint Camillus de Lellis, the reformed gambler who gave up his vice to care for the sick

Also on this day:

1479: The birth of Lisa del Giocondo, immortalised as Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa

1801: The birth of philosopher and writer Carlo Cattaneo

1897: The birth of politician and journalist Carlo Scorza

1927: The birth of comic book creator Hugo Pratt

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