Showing posts with label 14 February. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 14 February. Show all posts

14 February 2020

14 February

Valentina Vezzali – fencer


Police officer is Italy’s most successful female athlete

The fencer Valentina Vezzali, whose three Olympic and six World Championship individual gold medals make her Italy’s most decorated female athlete of all time, was born on this day in 1974 in the town of Iesi in Marche.  A police officer who sat in the Italian Chamber of Deputies as a representative for Marche until 2018, Vezzali retired from competition after the 2016 World Championships.  Her haul of six Olympics golds in total – three individual and three from the team event – has not been bettered by any Italian athlete, male or female.  Two other Italian fencers from different eras – Edoardo Mangiarotti and Nedo Nadi – also finished their careers with six golds. Fencing has far and away been Italy’s most successful Olympic discipline, accruing 49 gold medals and 125 medals in total, more than twice the number for any other sport.  Alongside the German shooter Ralf Schumann, the Slovak slalom canoeist Michal Martikán and the Japanese judo player Ryoko Tani, Vezzali is one of only four athletes in the history of the Summer Olympics to have won five medals in the same individual event.  Read more…

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The Feast of the Lovers


A day for flowers, chocolates and padlocks

Today is called La festa degli innamorati (The Feast of the Lovers) in Italy when couples celebrate their love for each other.  Italian lovers give each other flowers and chocolates and celebrate with romantic dinners just like the rest of the world.  Chocolatiers Perugina make a special version of their Baci chocolate for the occasion in a shiny, red wrapper with a red cherry in the centre rather than the traditional hazelnut.  Florence and Venice are traditionally considered to be the most romantic places in Italy, but Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet, puts on several days of celebration for the festival each year, featuring a programme of poetry, music and events, including a Romeo and Juliet half-marathon.  The streets around Piazza Bra and Juliet’s house and balcony are illuminated along with the tallest building in the city, the Lamberti tower.  The recent fashion for locking padlocks - lucchetti dell’amore - to bridges, railings and lamp posts to demonstrate never-ending love was started in Italy after the publication of the novel Ho voglio di te (I want you) by Federico Moccia in 2006.  Read more…

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Otto e mezzo - Fellini's masterpiece


Creative crisis spawned director's tour de force

The film Otto e mezzo (8½), regarded by some critics as the director Federico Fellini's greatest work, was released in Italy on this day in 1963.  It was categorised as an avant-garde comedy drama but the description hardly does it justice given its extraordinary individuality, evolving from conception to completion as an interweaving of fantasy and reality in which life not so much imitates art as becomes one and the same thing.  By the early 60s, Fellini was already a three-times Oscar winner following the success of La Strada, Nights in Cabiria and La Dolce Vita, the last-named having also won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.  La Dolce Vita had signalled Fellini's move away from the neo-realism that characterised cinema in Italy in the immediate post-war years towards the surreal interpretations of life and human nature that became popular with later directors and came to define Fellini's art.  While that movie was generating millions of dollars at the box office and turning Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg into international stars, Fellini was under pressure from his producers to come up with a sequel.   Read more…

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San Valentino and Sant’Antonino


Celebrations for two different Italian saints

Saint Valentine, a third century Roman martyr, is commemorated with a feast day on this day every year.  His name has become associated with the tradition of courtly love but all that is really known about him is that he was martyred and buried at a cemetery on the Via Flaminia in Rome on 14 February.  His feast day was first established in 496 by a Pope who revered him. It is thought he was imprisoned and tortured and then hastily buried, but that his disciples later retrieved his body.  During the Middle Ages it was believed that birds paired in mid-February and this is probably why Saint Valentine’s Day became associated with romance.  But while lovers all over the world raise a glass to Saint Valentine on this day, residents and visitors in Sorrento celebrate the festival of Sant’Antonino, the city’s patron saint.  Sant’Antonino Abate died on 14 February, 626. He is credited with saving the life of a child swallowed by a whale and also protecting Sorrento against plague and invasion.  Each year on the anniversary of his death, a silver statue of Sant’Antonino is carried in a procession through the streets of Sorrento.  Read more…


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14 February 2019

14 February

The Feast of the Lovers


A day for flowers, chocolates and padlocks

Today is called La festa degli innamorati (The Feast of the Lovers) in Italy when couples celebrate their love for each other. Florence and Venice are traditionally considered to be the most romantic places in Italy, but Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet, puts on an annual Verona in Love festival. One more recent tradition is locking padlocks - lucchetti dell’amore - to bridges, railings and lamp posts to demonstrate never-ending love, based on a story in a novel, Ho voglio di te (I want you), that was turned into a film. Read more...

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Valentina Vezzali – fencer


Police officer is Italy’s most successful female athlete

The fencer Valentina Vezzali, whose three Olympic and six World Championship individual gold medals make her Italy’s most decorated female athlete of all time, was born on this day in 1974 in the town of Iesi in Marche. A police officer and politician, she retired from competition after the 2016 World Championships with a haul of six Olympics golds in total – three individual and three from the team event – which has not been bettered by any Italian athlete, male or female. Read more...

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Otto e mezzo - Fellini's masterpiece


Creative crisis spawned director's tour de force

The film Otto e mezzo (8½), regarded by some critics as the director Federico Fellini's greatest work, was released in Italy on this day in 1963. It was categorised as an avant-garde comedy drama but the description hardly does it justice given its extraordinary individuality, evolving from conception to completion as an interweaving of fantasy and reality in which life not so much imitates art as becomes one and the same thing.  Fellini won Oscars for La Strada, Nights in Cabiria, La Dolce Vita in the early ‘60s and later with AmarcordRead more…

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San Valentino and Sant’Antonino


Celebrations for two different Italian saints

As well as San Valentino, February 14 is also the feast day of Sant’Antonino, an occasion celebrated by the resort of Sorrento in particular, Antonino being the city’s patron saint. Sant’Antonino Abate, who died on February 14, 626, is credited with saving the life of a child swallowed by a whale and also protecting Sorrento against plague and invasion. Each year on the anniversary of his death, a silver statue of Sant’Antonino is carried in a procession through the streets of Sorrento. Read more...

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The Feast of the Lovers

A day for flowers, chocolates and padlocks


Romeo and Juliet - as depicted by Francesco Hayez in the 16th century
Romeo and Juliet - as depicted by
Francesco Hayez in the 19th century
Today is called La festa degli innamorati (The Feast of the Lovers) in Italy when couples celebrate their love for each other.

Italian lovers give each other flowers and chocolates and celebrate with romantic dinners just like the rest of the world.

Chocolatier Perugina make a special version of their Baci chocolate for the occasion in a shiny, red wrapper with a red cherry in the centre rather than the traditional hazelnut.

Florence and Venice are traditionally considered to be the most romantic places in Italy, but Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet, puts on several days of celebration for the festival each year.

Verona in Love 2019 will run until February 17 and will feature a programme of poetry, music and events, including a Romeo and Juliet half-marathon.

The streets round Piazza Bra and Juliet’s house and balcony will be illuminated and the tallest building in the city, the Lamberti tower, will be lit up in red.

Market stalls offering visitors the chance to taste local products will be arranged in a heart shape in Piazza dei Signori.

Padlocks - lucchetti dell'amore - attached to a lamppost  on the Ponte Milvio across the Tiber in Rome
Padlocks - lucchetti dell'amore - attached to a lamppost
on the Ponte Milvio across the Tiber in Rome
Official guides will offer Tours of Love, leading themed walks throughout the city, and many restaurants will offer Valentine’s Day-themed romantic dinners.

The tradition of locking padlocks - lucchetti dell’amore - to bridges, railings and lamp posts to demonstrate never-ending love started in Italy after the publication of the novel Ho voglio di te (I want you) by Federico Moccia, and the screening of the film of the same name, starring Riccardo Scamarcio and Laura Chiatti.

In the story, young lovers tie a chain and padlock around a lamppost at the side of Ponte Milvio in Rome, inscribe their names on it, lock it and then throw the key into the River Tiber, suggesting they will be together forever.

This has been copied throughout Italy and hundreds have had to be removed from Ponte Milvio and the Accademia and Rialto bridges in Venice.

Special Valentine's Day Baci are in the shops
Special Valentine's Day Baci
are in the shops
The tradition of February 14 being the day to celebrate love started long ago with the death of Saint Valentine, a third-century Roman martyr, who is commemorated with a feast day on this day every year.

All that is really known about him is that he was martyred and buried at a cemetery on the Via Flaminia in Rome on 14 February, but there is a story that he was a priest, who secretly married lovers whose marriages had been banned by the Emperor.

It is believed he was imprisoned and tortured to death. His feast day was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who revered him.

The alleged skull of Saint Valentine, crowned with flowers, is displayed in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome.

During the Middle Ages it was believed that birds paired in mid-February and this is probably why February 14, Saint Valentine’s Day, became associated with romance.

Juliet's Balcony at the so-called Casa di Giulietta in Verona
Juliet's Balcony at the so-called
Casa di Giulietta in Verona 
Travel tip:


‘Fair Verona’, the setting for William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, is the second biggest city in the Veneto. It is home to the first-century Roman Arena, famous for staging open air opera productions, and Casa di Giulietta, which has a romantic, marble ‘Juliet’ balcony, although there is little evidence that the real-life Romeo ever stood below it declaring his love for Juliet. Casa di Giulietta, (Juliet’s House) is a Gothic-style 14th century house, which now has a museum, in Via Cappello in Verona.





The Ponte Milvio is a narrow bridge across the Tiber in the north of Rome, close to the Stadio Olimpico football ground
The Ponte Milvio is a narrow bridge across the Tiber in the
north of Rome, close to the Stadio Olimpico football ground

Travel tip:

Ponte Milvio in Rome, where the tradition of attaching padlocks as a symbol of love started, is a bridge over the Tiber in northern Rome that was strategically important in the era of the Roman Empire and was the site of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in October 312.The lamp post featured in the novel, Ho voglia di te, partially collapsed under the weight of all the padlocks in 2007 and afterwards all parts of the bridge were used by couples. Rome’s city council has now introduced a 50 euro fine for anyone seen attaching a love lock. The bridge is also a notorious place for A S Roma fans to gather to attack fans of the opposing team on match days.



Also on this day:



(Painting location: L'ultimo bacio dato a Giulietta da Romeo by Francesco Hayez, the Villa Carlotta museum at Tremezzo on Lake Como)

(Picture credits: Juliet's Balcony by btr; Ponte Milvio at night by Peppe64; via Wikimedia Commons)


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