Bruno Bartoletti – operatic conductor

Florentine maestro conquered hearts in Chicago

Bruno Bartoletti spent more than 50 years at Lyric
Opera Chicago as conductor and artistic director  

Internationally acclaimed operatic conductor Bruno Bartoletti, who conducted and served as an artistic director at Lyric Opera Chicago for more than 50 years, was born on this day in 1926 in Sesto Fiorentino in Tuscany.

Bartoletti is recognised as having shaped the excellent reputation of Lyric Opera Chicago for staging great productions of Italian opera masterpieces, as well as modern works. He also directed Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and was principal conductor at the Danish Royal Opera.

His father, Umberto, was a blacksmith who played the clarinet in a band, and as a young boy Bruno Bartoletti played the piccolo. One of his teachers recognised his musical talent, and her husband, who was the sculptor Antonio Berti, recommended him to the Cherubini conservatory, where he studied the flute and the piano.

Bartoletti went on to play in the orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and then became a pianist on the staff of Teatro Comunale in Florence.

He assisted conductors such as Artur Rodzinski, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Vittorio Gui and Tullio Serafin, who was the one who encouraged Bartoletti to study conducting.

Bartoletti made his professional debut as
a conductor in Florence in 1953

In 1953, Bartoletti made his professional conducting debut at Teatro Comunale in Florence with Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto.

Bartoletti made his debut as a conductor in the United States in 1956 with Lyric Opera Chicago when he conducted Verdi’s Il trovatore, after Tullio Serafin had been taken ill. He had been recommended to the theatre by the Italian baritone, Tito Gobbi. 

He subsequently became principal conductor of the Royal Danish Opera between 1957 and 1960.

From 1956 until 2007, Bartoletti conducted 600 performances of 55 different operas for Lyric Opera of Chicago. He became their principal conductor in 1964 and continued in that role until his retirement in 1999. 

He also became co-artistic director at Lyric Opera and was later named sole artistic director. He worked with many famous opera singers, including Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and Renata Tebaldi. 

His final appearance at Lyric Opera was in 2007 when he conducted Verdi’s La traviata.

Bartoletti died the day before
his 87th birthday in 2013

After his retirement, Bartoletti was given the title of artistic director emeritus by Lyric Opera for the rest of his life.

Bartoletti was awarded the title of Cavaliere di Gran Croce della Repubblica Italiana by the Italian Government, and he was made a member of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, one of the oldest and most prestigious musical institutions in the world. In his later years, he taught at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. Bartoletti conducted his final opera, Manon Lescaut, in 2011.

With his wife, Rosanna, he had two daughters and five grandchildren.  He died in Florence the day before his 87th birthday in 2013.

He has been acknowledged as a superb interpreter of 19th century and early 20th century Italian opera, but Bartoletti also embraced modern music and Slavic works, such as Bedrich Smetana’s Bartered Bride and Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, during his career, although he is said to have rarely conducted symphonies.

Sesto Fiorentino's historic Palazzo Pretorio was
built at the end of the 15th century

Travel tip:

Bartoletti’s home town, Sesto Fiorentino, known locally as simply Sesto, is a town within the metropolitan area of Florence in Tuscany, situated about 12km (7.5 miles) to the northwest. With a population of around 49,000. It is famous above all for its tradition of ceramics. Once an ancient Etruscan settlement, it began to flourish at the time of ancient Romans, thanks to its position along the Via Cassia. Today, there are more than 100 pottery producers in Sesto Fiorentino, the first having been founded there in 1735 by Marquis Carlo Ginori. Now under the name Richard-Ginori, the company is still located in Sesto, which also hosts a state school for teaching pottery, L'Istituto Statale d'Arte. Notable buildings in Sesto Fiorentino include the beautiful Romanesque parish church of San Martino and the Palazzo Pretorio, built at the end of the 15th century as the seat of the podestà, the local representative of Florentine authority. The 15th century façade is still decorated with the coats of arms of the families who exercised power over the town between the 15th and 16th centuries.

The new Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
has been the home of the festival since 2014

Travel tip:

The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is an annual festival in Florence that has been held since 1933. It was started by Luigi Ridolfi Vay da Verrazzano, a politician and entrepreneur who also founded the AC Fiorentina football club, in conjunction with the conductor Vittorio Gui and another politician, Carlo Delcroix, who was its first president. It usually takes place from the end of April to the beginning of July and includes operas, concerts, ballets and prose performances. It has its origins in the ancient tradition of the musical festivals of May, called maggiolate. Originally, the festival was staged at the Teatro Comunale in Corso Italia, on the edge of the city’s historic centre, about 1.5km (1 mile) from the Ponte Vecchio along the Arno river.  Since 2014, the festival has had its own base at the new Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, situated less than a kilometre away on land opposite the public park known as Le Cascine. Designed by Paolo Desideri, it was inaugurated in 2011 with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony conducted by Zubin Mehta. The square in front of the theatre is named Piazza Vittorio Gui in honour of the festival’s founder.

Also on this day:

1465: The birth of statesman and political adviser Mercurino Arborio di Gattinara

1918: The death of opera composer and librettist Arrigo Boito

1940: Italy enters World War Two

1959: The birth of football manager Carlo Ancelotti

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Giulio Carlo Argan – art historian and politician

Award-winning art expert switched from Fascism to Communism

Giulio Carlo Argan was a major
figure in the arts as well as politics

Art historian and critic Giulio Carlo Argan, who joined the Fascist party in the 1920s but went on to become the first Communist mayor of Rome nearly 50 years later, was born on this day in 1909 in Turin.

After stepping down as Mayor of Rome in 1979, Argan represented the Italian Communist Party as a Senator of the Italian Republic, between 1983 and 1992.

Argan’s family were originally from Geneva, but by the 19th century they had settled in the Piedmont region. His father was the bursar of the provincial mental asylum and his mother was a school teacher. After leaving high school, Argan went to study at the University of Turin.

He joined the National Fascist Party in 1928 and after graduating in 1931 worked for the National Arts and Antiquity Directorate. Among his duties were directing the magazine, Le Arti, and helping to establish what became one of the most prestigious institutes for art conservation and restoration. 

It has been said that his career was helped by his friendship with Cesare Maria De Vecchi, 1st Conte de Val Cismon, one of the four leaders of the Blackshirt mob that marched on Rome in 1922 and helped to put Mussolini in power.

Argan published a manual of art for high schools and contributed to the magazine, Primato, which was run by another high ranking Fascist official. After World War II he taught in the universities of Palermo and Rome.

He co-founded the publishing house, Il Saggiatore, and was a member of the Superior Council of Antiquities and Fine Arts, which was a predecessor to the Ministry of Culture.

Argan became Mayor of Rome in 1976,
the first Communist to hold the office

In 1968, Argan published his most famous work, Storia dell’arte italiana - The History of Italian Art. 

He then founded an institute for industrial design in Rome In 1973.  Argan was interested in art as a form of social engagement, which he thought was integral and necessary to life. He identified architecture and urban planning as areas where the community had a particularly strong interaction with culture.

A prolific writer of books on art, Argan’s major works, which tended to emphasise the social context of art, ranged from studies of  Renaissance painters and architects, including Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Michelangelo and Palladio, through the Baroque period in art, to modern sculpture and abstract art. His last book, Michelangelo architetto, was published in 1990.

He stimulated much debate in 1963 with his discussion on ‘the death of art’, by which he meant the end of the creative autonomy of the individual. He saw it as an ‘irreversible’ crisis in the system of traditional art techniques used in an industrial and capitalist society.

He was a professor at the University of Rome from 1959 to 1976. He donated his entire library to the university in 1982, following which he was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus. 

In 1976, he was elected as Rome’s first Communist mayor, an office he held for more than three years. While he was Mayor, he supported the defence of the environment and the relaunch of the Imperial Forums, using the slogan: ‘Either cars or monuments,’ and he prevented the construction of a four-star hotel on one of the most panoramic points of the capital city. He resigned as Mayor on health grounds in 1979.

Later, he served as a Communist Senator representing Rome and Tivoli for nearly 11 years. 

Argan was awarded the Feltrinelli prize for the Arts in 1958 and the Gold Medal for Merit and Culture in Art by the Italian Republic in 1976.

He died in Rome in 1992, aged 83. After his death, collections of his writing and articles were published.

The site of the Royal Palace was 
chosen for its open, sunny position

Travel tip:

Giulio Carlo Argan was born in the city of Turin in Piedmont, where much of the architecture illustrates its rich history as the home of the Savoy kings of Italy. In the centre of the city, Piazza Castello, with the Royal Palace, Royal Library, and Palazzo Madama, which used to be where the Italian senate met, showcases some of the finest buildings in ‘royal’ Turin.  The Royal Palace – the Palazzo Reale – was built on the site of what had been the Bishop’s Palace, built by Emmanuel Philibert, who was Duke of Savoy from 1528 to 1580. He chose the site because it had an open and sunny position close to other court buildings. Some members of the House of Savoy are buried in Turin’s Duomo in Piazza San Giovanni, which is also famous for being the home of the Turin shroud. Many people believe that the cloth now preserved in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud was the actual burial shroud of Jesus Christ. 

The entrance to the Villa d'Este and the Tivoli
Gardens, a UNESCO World Heritage site

Travel tip:

Argan spent much of his life living in Rome and, as a Senator, he represented both Rome and Tivoli, a town and commune in Lazio about 30 miles, 19 kilometres, north east of Rome. Tivoli  offers a wide view over the Roman Campagna, a low-lying area of countryside surrounding Rome. Tivoli is famous for being the site of Hadrian’s villa, a large villa complex built around AD 120 by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, and the Villa d’Este, a 16th century villa, famous for its terraced hillside Renaissance Garden. Both villas are UNESCO World Heritage sites. The Villa d'Este is often referred to simply as the Tivoli Gardens, and for its profusion of fountains, more than 50 in total. The nearby river Aniene was diverted to provide water for the complex system of pools, water jets, channels, fountains, cascades and water games. Canals were dug and 200 metres of underground pipes were laid. 

Also on this day:

1500: The birth of Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua

1510: The death of painter Sandro Botticelli

1963: The birth of motorcycle world champion Luca Cadalora

1970: The birth of fencing champion Giovanna Trillini

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Francesco Zucco – artist

Versatile painter decorated churches and produced acclaimed portraits

Zucco's San Diego e la Vergine in the 
Bergamo church of Santa Maria delle Grazie

Francesco Zucco, who was a prolific painter in the Baroque style in the late 16th and early 17th centuries in northern Italy, died on this day in 1627 in Bergamo in Lombardy.

Zucco painted both secular and religious subjects after he had trained as an artist and learnt about technique from other Bergamo painters, such as Giovanni Paolo Cavagna and Enea Salmeggia. Art critics have compared the quality and style of his portrait painting to that of Veronese and Giovan Battista Moroni. 

The artist was born at some time between 1570 and 1575 in Bergamo. He is known to have studied art at the workshop of the Campi brothers in Cremona and afterwards returned to live in his native city, where he associated with other painters working in Bergamo at the time.

Even if he was never a pupil of the Bergamo portrait painter Giovan Battista Moroni, art experts believe Zucco must have studied the artist’s works closely. He also formed strong personal links with Cavagna and Salmeggia. They all lived close to each other in Borgo San Leonardo, the artists’ quarter in Bergamo’s Città Bassa.

As he matured, Zucco began to dominate the artistic scene in Bergamo and painted many religious works of art. His success began in 1592 with his painting, la Circoncisione di Gesù - the Circumcision of Jesus - for a church in Stezzano in the province of Bergamo. It was a work that revealed signs of the training he had received from the Campi brothers at their workshop in Cremona.

The following year, Zucco painted Vergine con bambino e santi (Virgin with Baby and Saints), and L’adorazione dei Magi (the Adoration of the Magi) for the Church of Santi Pietro e Paolo, in Levate in the province of Bergamo. The painting of the Magi was signed Franciscus Zucchis 1593, indicating that he had already achieved artistic fame, with a style similar to that of Moroni, while maintaining the strength of design reminiscent of the Campi brothers.

Ritratto di gentildonna gravida can be
seen in the Accademia Carrara

Zucco then received numerous commissions that gave him the chance to perfect his own style. Among the many works he executed towards the end of the 16th century is a Vergine con bambino (Virgin with Child) for the church at Orio al Serio, a Bergamo suburb that is well known because of its airport.

In the years that followed, there were many paintings for other churches in the province but in Bergamo itself, Zucco painted for the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore and the Monastero di Astino.

For his own local church, Sant’Alessandro in Colonna in Via Sant’Alessandro, named after Bergamo’s patron saint, which was near where he lived in Bergamo, Zucco painted a Cycle of the life of Sant’Alessandro and his last known painting, Sant’Alessandro si presenta ad un Vescovo (Saint Alexander is Presented to a Bishop) which was dated 1627. 

Zucco married Aurelia Chiesa and they had three children, Bartolomeo Carlo, born in 1617, and Margherita and Giovanni Battista, who were born in 1623. Sadly, Zucco did not live long enough to see his children grow up. He died on May 3, 1627 at his home in Bergamo.

Examples of his religious paintings can still be seen in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in the Città Alta in Bergamo and in many other churches throughout the province of Bergamo. The Accademia Carrara in Bergamo have some of his portraits on display, such as the acclaimed Ritratto di gentildonna gravida (Portrait of an Expectant Gentlewoman).

The art treasures of the Accademia Carrara are
a major attraction for visitors to Bergamo

Travel tip:

The Accademia Carrara, a palace filled with art treasures, is a major attraction in Bergamo. The art gallery, just outside the Città Alta in Piazza Giacomo Cararra, was built in the 18th century to house one of the richest private collections of art in Italy and now houses some of the portraits painted by Francesco Zucco. It is the only Italian museum to be entirely stocked with donations and bequests from private collectors. Visitors can view a broad-ranging collection of works by the masters of the Venetian, Lombard, and Tuscan Renaissances as well as great artists who came later, such as Lotto, Titian, Moroni, Rubens, Tiepolo, Guardi, and Canaletto. The Accademia Carrara was established in Bergamo in 1794 as a combined Pinacoteca (art gallery) and School of Painting on the initiative of Bergamo aristocrat Count Giacomo Carrara. In addition to his collection of paintings he left his entire estate to the Accademia to secure its future. From being a museum dedicated to Renaissance painting, the Accademia grew into an art gallery that also provided a broad representation of pictorial genres from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Among the highlights are a Madonna and Child by Andrea Mantegna; Portrait of Leonello d’Este by Pisanello; Madonna and Child by Giovanni Bellini; Portrait of an Elderly Man Seated by Giovan Battista Moroni and The Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi by Canaletto.

The church of Sant'Alessandro
in Colonna in Bergamo

Travel tip:

A Roman column in front of Chiesa di Sant’Alessandro in Colonna is believed to mark the exact spot where Bergamo’s patron saint was martyred by the Romans for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. The column in Via Sant’Alessandro in Bergamo’s lower town was constructed in the 17th century from Roman fragments. Every year on August 26, Bergamo remembers their patron saint’s decapitation there in 303. The church of Sant’Alessandro in Colonna was rebuilt in the 18th century on the site of an earlier church. Its ornate campanile (bell tower) was completed at the beginning of the 20th century. The church houses some works by Francesco Zucco, as well as a work depicting the Martyrdom of Sant’Alessandro by Enea Salmeggia and one showing the transporting of Sant’Alessandro’s corpse by Gian Paolo Cavagna. It also contains paintings by Lorenzo Lotto and Romanino. 

Also on this day:

1461: The birth of Cardinal Raffaele Riario

1469: The birth of writer and diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli

1764: The death of writer and art collector Francesco Algarotti

1815: The Battle of Tolentino

1901: The birth of actor Gino Cervi

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Palma Bucarelli - art historian and curator

Iconic figure who transformed major Rome gallery

Palma Bucarelli, who was the dynamic director of
Rome's major modern art gallery for more than 30 years

Palma Bucarelli, an art historian who for more than 30 years was director and superintendent of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (GNAM) in Rome, was born on this day in 1910 in the Italian capital.

Under Bucarelli’s dynamic leadership, GNAM was transformed into a major centre in Italy’s cultural life, staging groundbreaking exhibitions featuring some of the biggest names in modern and contemporary art, such as Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko.   

A champion of abstract and avant-garde art, for which she was a powerful advocate, she also worked hard on behalf of Italian artists to showcase their work alongside their international counterparts.

Turning GNAM into an active space for public engagement and encouraging debate that challenged traditional perceptions of modern art, she helped position Italy as a significant player in the contemporary art scene during the mid-20th century.

As a powerful woman in a male-dominated world, who at the same time cut an elegantly stylish figure, Bucarelli also became something of an icon of female emancipation.

Bucarelli’s father, Giuseppe, was a high-ranking official in the Italian government who would eventually be appointed vice-prefect of Rome. It was from her mother, Ester Loteta Clori, that Palma and her sister, Anna, inherited a taste for culture, both becoming passionate about music, theatre, fashion and art.

Bucarelli, elegantly stylish, was regarded by some
as a trailblazer for female emancipation

Palma Bucarelli was educated at the Liceo Ennio Quirino Visconti, the oldest classical high school in Rome and one of the most prestigious in Italy. From there, she progressed to the Sapienza University of Rome, where she graduated in literature. 

Already keen to forge a career in the arts world, she successfully entered a competition run by the Ministry of National Education for the post of Inspector of Antiquities and Fine Arts, after which she was assigned to Rome’s Galleria Borghese art museum at the age of just 23.

After working briefly in Naples, where she became acquainted with the philosopher and historian Benedetto Croce, Bucarelli returned to Rome and took over the direction of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna soon after turning 31. It was unusual, perhaps unprecedented, for a woman to be appointed to such a prestigious role.

By this time, Italy had entered World War Two and one of Bucarelli’s first major tasks was to move works of art away from the gallery to places of safety, a process that needed to be carried out amid secrecy. Some were concealed within hiding places in Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, others taken to Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola, well away from the capital in northern Lazio.

After the liberation of Rome in 1944, the gallery was gradually reopened and Bucarelli, who had a clear vision of how she wanted it to evolve under her leadership, began to develop her plans.

A portrait of Bucarelli by Giulio
Turcato, an abstract impressionist

The proposed function of the gallery when it was opened in 1883 was to be a home and a historical archive for Italian and foreign art from the 19th century onwards. When Bucarelli became director, it proudly represented the history of the artistic trends in that time, from neoclassicism and impressionism to the avant-gardes of the early 20th century through futurism, surrealism, the Novecento movement and the Roman School that was at its height between the late 1920s and mid 1940s. 

Bucarelli’s ambition was to preserve that core purpose and to enhance it. She wanted the gallery to exist not just as a repository for important works of art but to be at the heart of Italian culture and, though she clashed at times with traditionalists in her desire to be at the cutting edge as artists explored new boundaries, her transformative work generally met with approval.

In her time, GNAM moved on from simply housing works of art, becoming a meeting and information point for artists, art critics and the public. She also equipped the gallery for the modern world, adding functions that would in time be seen as standard in a modern museum, such as educational services, a library, cafeteria and bookshop. She also took steps to increase footfall by offering book presentations, meetings with artists and important exhibitions, showing off the museum’s vast existing collections but also offering the public the opportunity to appreciate new artists.

The gallery hosted fashion shows, too, which in part reflected her own interest in stylish clothes. Bucarelli was a much-photographed woman. Alongside a personal collection of artworks, she preserved many elegant items from her wardrobe, some of which were donated to the Boncompagni Ludovisi Museum in Rome, which specialises in decorative arts, costume and Italian fashion.

Married in 1963 to the journalist Paolo Monelli, whom she had known for 30 years, she stepped down as GNAM’s director in 1975. She died in Rome in 1998 at the age of 88.  One of the approach roads to the gallery, linking Viale delle Belle Arti and Viale Antonio Gramsci, was renamed Via Palma Bucarelli in remembrance.

The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna's current
headquarters was completed in 1915

Travel tip:

The Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, home to almost 20,000 paintings, drawings and sculptures, was founded in 1883 on the initiative of the Minister of Education in the young Italy’s government, Guido Beccali. The gallery’s main building on Via delle Belle Arti, within the Villa Borghese park just north of Rome’s city centre, was designed by Cesare Bazzani and built between 1911 and 1915.  Bazzani returned to double its size in 1934. Around 1100 items from its collection are on display at any one time. Artists whose work can be admired there include Italian greats Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Antonio Canova, Giorgio de Chirico, Amedeo Modigliani, Giacomo Manzù and Giorgio Morandi. The museum also holds some works by foreign artists, among them Cézanne, Degas, Duchamp, Mondrian, Monet, Jackson Pollock, Rodin, and Van Gogh.  The gallery is open everyday except Mondays from 9am to 7pm. Entry costs €15.00.

The Palazzo Farnese, with its hexagonal shape,
was built by the future Pope Paul III

Travel tip:

Caprarola is a small town in northern Lazio, situated about 20km (12 miles) southeast of Viterbo, not far from the picturesque Lago di Vico. The town is dominated by the imposing pentagonal Palazzo Farnese, built in the 16th century. With its well preserved frescoed interiors, a magnificent helicoidal staircase, the Sala del Mappamondo, the Sala degli Angeli and its splendid Italian garden, the palace is a unique architectural jewel well worth visiting. To enhance the view from the villa, architect Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola built the Via Dritta, today known as Via Filippo Nicolai, a long sloping street that stretches out from its main entrance almost for half a mile without deviating from the straight. The road divided the village neatly into two districts, named Corsica and Sardinia. The Villa Farnese, originally the home of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the future Pope Paul III, is said to have been the inspiration for the design of the Pentagon, headquarters of the United States Defense Department in Washington. It has no occupant today but a smaller building, known as the Casino, within the villa’s extensive gardens, is one of the properties at the disposal of the President of the Italian Republic.

Also on this day:

37: The death of Roman emperor Tiberius

1820: The birth of tenor Enrico Tamberlik

1886: The birth of athlete Emilio Lunghi

1940: The birth of film director Bernardo Bertolucci

1978:  The kidnapping of ex-PM Aldo Moro

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Luisa Ranieri - actress

Naples-born star of The Hand of God

Luisa Ranieri in a scene from The Hand of God,
which won her a Best Supporting Actress award

The actress Luisa Ranieri, who received a Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated 2021 movie The Hand of God, was born on this day in 1973 in Naples.

Ranieri, who is married to Inspector Montalbano actor Luca Zingaretti, was honoured with a prestigious Nastro d’Argento for her portrayal of Patrizia, the troubled aunt of The Hand of God’s central character, Fabietto.

Among more than 30 films in a big screen career that began with a leading role in Leonardo Pieraccioni’s Il principe e il pirata (The Prince and the Pirate) in 2001, Ranieri is also well known for her performances in Michelangelo’s Antonioni’s Eros in 2004, in Pupi Avati’s Gli amici del Bar Margherita (The Friends of the Bar Margherita) in 2009 and Gary Winick’s final film, Letters to Juliet (2010).

Ranieri, whose latest movie, Diamanti, (Diamonds) directed by Ferzan Özpetek, premieres in Italy this week, also boasts a string of successes in television. 

In 2005, she won plaudits for her portrayal of the opera singer Maria Callas in a Canale 5 miniseries Callas e Onassis, and for playing the entrepreneur Luisa Spagnoli in the Rai fiction of the same name in 2016. Since 2021 she has filled the title role in the Rai crime series, Le indagini di Lolita Lobosco, (The Investigations of Lolita Lobosco) in which she plays a deputy commissioner of police in the southern Italian city of Bari. 

Ranieri won acclaim for her
portrayal of Maria Callas

It was while making another Rai miniseries, Cefalonia, in 2005 that she became romantically involved with co-star Zingaretti. The couple married in Sicily in 2012 and have two children. 

Ranieri spent her early years in the Vomero district of Naples, an upmarket suburb which occupies an elevated position that offers commanding views over the city. She enrolled in the Faculty of Law in the city’s university but gave up her studies to devote herself to acting, building the foundations of a career as a theatre actress before quickly landing the part in Il principe e il pirata in 2001, in which she also gained considerable exposure thanks to a starring role on a TV advertising campaign for Nestea, a major player in Italy’s lucrative iced tea market.

She quickly established her reputation as an actress of considerable talent, gaining significant recognition through TV roles, including playing Assunta Goretti, the mother of the child saint, Maria Goretti, who was murdered at the age of 11, in Giulio Base’s 2003 miniseries, and two years later Maria Callas opposite the Aristotle Onassis of French actor Gérard Darmon under Giorgio Capitani’s direction.

In 2009, the same year that Avati’s Gli amici del bar Margherita brought more critical acclaim, she demonstrated her versatility with a return to the stage, acting in the theatrical production of L'oro di Napoli (the Gold of Naples), directed by Gianfelice Imparato and Armando Pugliese, based on the stories of Neapolitan life by Giuseppe Marotta.

The terrace at the Castello di Donnafugata will
be familiar to fans of the Montalbano TV series

Back on screen, Letters to Juliet further solidified her reputation in the film industry, which was taken to another level by The Hand of God - È stata la mano di Dio in Italian - in which her performance as Patrizia, the voluptuous aunt for whom main character Fabietto has an adolescent crush, and who escapes an abusive husband by admitting herself to a psychiatric hospital, attracted much acclaim and turned her into something of an icon for many Italian women.

As a further recognition of her standing in the acting profession, Ranieri was chosen to host the opening and closing nights of the 71st Venice International Film Festival in 2014.

Her marriage to Zingaretti caught the public imagination. After living together for several years, the couple tied the knot at the Castello di Donnafugata, a castle near Ragusa in Sicily where scenes were filmed in several episodes of the long-running Inspector Montalbano series. 

The Castel Sant'Elmo and the Certosa di San
Martino tower above Naples on Vomero hill

Travel tip:

The Vomero district of Naples is widely-regarded as the most upmarket area of the city in which to live. Perched on a hill overlooking the city and the Bay of Naples, it is known for its elegant architecture, beautiful parks, and a more relaxed atmosphere compared to the sometimes chaotic nature of the southern Italian city’s centre.  Highlights include Castel Sant'Elmo, a mediaeval fortress offering stunning panoramic views of the city and the bay; the adjoining Certosa di San Martino, a former monastery that now houses a museum; the lively Piazza Vanvitelli, Vomero’s central square; and the Villa Floridiana, a beautiful park with gardens, fountains and another museum. Three funicular railways connect Vomero to the city centre. The district boasts a mix of high-end and local shops and a similar variety of restaurants. 

The magnificent Duomo di San Giorgio is one
of the main attractions of Ragusa Ibla

Travel tip:

The city of Ragusa, at the centre of the area of southeastern Sicily where Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano mysteries were filmed, is set in a rugged landscape with a mix of mediaeval and Baroque architecture. It has two parts - Ragusa Ibla, a town on top of a hill rebuilt on the site of the original settlement destroyed in a major earthquake in 1693, and Ragusa Superiore, which was built on flatter ground nearby in the wake of the earthquake.  A spectacular sight in its own right and affording wonderful views as well, Ragusa Ibla attracts visitors to its maze of narrow streets and to see the Duomo di San Giorgio, the magnificent 18th century Sicilian Baroque church that stands at the top of a wide flight of steps at the head of the sloping Piazza Duomo, the wide square that, with Corso XXV Aprile, comprises Ragusa Ibla’s central thoroughfare. Designed by Rosario Gagliardi, the cathedral is characterised by a monumental façade which incorporates the bell tower beneath a bulbous spire.

Also on this day:

1899: The founding of AC Milan football club

1944: The birth of businessman Santo Versace

1945: The death of Fiat founder Giovanni Agnelli

1952: The birth of footballer Francesco Graziani

1954: The birth of pop singer Ivana Spagna

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Lucrezia Maria Romola de’ Medici – noblewoman

Daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent supported popes and poets

Lucrezia de' Medici

Lucrezia Maria Romola de’ Medici, who as a newborn baby inspired Sandro Botticelli’s depiction of baby Jesus in one of his paintings, was born on this day in 1470 in the Republic of Florence.

After her brother became Pope Leo X, Lucrezia helped him fund papal building projects in Florence and Rome. She also raised money to pay a ransom and secure the release of her husband when he was taken prisoner by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

She had 11 children, many of whom were to play an important part in the history of Renaissance Europe.  

Lucrezia was the eldest daughter of Lorenzo de’ Medici and Clarice Orsini. After her birth, Botticelli painted Our Lady of the Magnificat, which is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and used her image as a baby as the model for the figure of the newborn Christ in his masterpiece.

She grew up to be married to Florentine politician Jacopo Salviati in 1488 and brought a dowry of 2000 florins with her. But after her brothers were exiled from Florence, she was unable to help them because her husband was a supporter of the new rulers.

In 1497 she spent 3000 ducats to support a plot to bring her brother, Piero, to power in the city. The plot failed and all the men involved in it were executed, but Lucrezia was spared from harm because she was a woman.

Lucrezia is thought to have inspired
Botticelli's depiction of baby Jesus

Afterwards she worked to build more support for the Medici family and organised a marriage for her niece, Clarice de’ Medici, to Filippo Strozzi the Younger, even though it was against the wishes of the rulers of Florence at the time.

When her brother, Giuliano, returned to Florence in 1512, he asked for her advice on how to restructure the government of the city.

Another of Lucrezia’s brothers, Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici, became Pope Leo X in 1513, and during the celebrations in Florence, Lucrezia and her family gave out money and gifts to the crowds who gathered outside their palace.

By 1514, Leo X had drained the Vatican treasuries and had to pawn the papal tiara, which was worth 44,000 ducats, to Lucrezia and her husband.

Lorenzo the Magnificent
was Lucrezia's father

After Leo X had appointed Lucrezia’s son, Giovanni, a cardinal, Lucrezia managed his household and office for him, especially when he was travelling as a papal legate, and she used her influence to promote Medici causes in Rome.

When the Medici were again exiled from Florence in 1527, Lucrezia’s husband, Jacopo, was taken prisoner by Charles V along with her cousin, who had become Pope Clement VII, and she worked to gather money for a ransom to get them released.

During her life, Lucrezia supported convents in Florence, funding new dormitories, cloisters, and workshops, and she also paid for the building of chapels in Rome, including a chapel that would be a resting place for members of the Medici family.

She corresponded with Niccolò Machiavelli about editing a biography of Alexander the Great and was a patron of the poet, Girolamo Benivieni.  With Benivieni, she petitioned her brother, Pope Leo X, to support their efforts to bring the body of the poet, Dante Alighieri, back to his home town of Florence.

After her husband, Jacopo, died in 1533, Lucrezia survived him by 20 years. She died at the age of 83. Of their children, Maria Salviati (1499–1543) was married to Lodovico de' Medici, uniting two branches of the Medici family, while Bernardo Salviati (1505/1508 - 1568) served Catherine de' Medici in France.

Lorenzo de' Medici was living at the family
villa in Careggi at the time of Lucrezia's birth

Travel tip:

Lorenzo de’ Medici, Lucrezia’s father, who is usually known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, lived at the Villa Medici at Careggi, originally a working farm acquired in 1417 by Cosimo de’ Medici’s father to help make his family self-sufficient. Cosimo employed the architect Michelozzo, who was considered one of the great pioneers of building design during the Renaissance, to remodel it around a central courtyard overlooked by loggias. Lorenzo - Cosimo’s grandson - extended the terraced garden and the shaded woodland area. After his death, in 1492, the villa was allowed to become somewhat run down until the early 17th century, when Cardinal Carlo de' Medici commissioned the remodelling of the interior, and updated the garden. Careggi, which is not far from Florence’s airport, is nowadays a suburb of the city, about 8km (5 miles) northwest of the centre.

The Piazzale degli Uffizi in Florence
offers access to the Uffizi Gallery

Travel tip:

The Uffizi Gallery evolved from a building project that began in around 1560, when the artist and architect Giorgio Vasari was engaged to build offices for the Florentine magistrates, hence the name uffizi (offices). Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who commissioned the building, planned to display prime art works of the Medici collections in a part of the complex lit by a wall of windows .  Over the years, more sections of the palace were recruited to exhibit paintings and sculptures collected or commissioned by the Medici.  In 1765 it was officially opened to the public as an art gallery. Located in Piazzale degli Uffizi, it is close to Piazza della Signoria and the Palazzo Vecchio. Opening hours today are from 8.15 am until 6.50 pm from Tuesday to Sunday.

Also on this day:

1463: The birth of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici

1521: The birth of Pope Urban VII

1994: The death of politician Giovanni Spadolini

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Kaspar Capparoni - actor

Found fame co-starring with crime-fighting dog

Kaspar Capparoni with his German Shepherd
co-star in the crime drama Il Commissario Rex

The actor Kaspar Capparoni, an accomplished performer on stage and screen whose fame received its biggest boost after he starred alongside a German Shepherd dog in the TV crime series Il Commissario Rex, was born in Rome on this day in 1964.

Capparoni played the part of Commissioner Lorenzo Fabbri, a homicide detective who is accompanied in his work by an unusually talented police dog known as Rex, whose ever-growing range of skills are often key to solving the crimes Fabbri is charged with investigating.

Il Commissario Rex, which was screened by Italian national broadcaster Rai between 2008 and 2015, revived a show previously shown on TV in Austria but which had ceased production in 2004 after 11 years.

Capparoni portrayed Commissioner Fabbri for four seasons, working alongside two different German Shepherds in the Rex role. The action, which had been set in Vienna in the original version, was switched to Rome for the Italian revival.  Capparoni decided to leave after the show’s producers proposed a return to its former setting in Austria.

Nonetheless, the popularity of Rex with Italian audiences brought Capparoni a much higher profile. His acting ability was already well regarded within his profession but thanks to Rex he acquired a large following among the public.

Capparoni and his dance partner Julija Musichina
won the 2011 edition of Ballando con le Stelle

Invited to take part in the 2011 edition of Ballando con le Stelle - the Italian equivalent of the UK’s Strictly Come Dancing and the US show Dancing with the Stars - he was paired with the Russian dancer Julija Musichina, the couple emerging from 10 weeks of competition to be crowned champions.

Born Gaspare Capparoni, his father was a surgeon, his mother a German teacher, originally from Sexten - Sesto in Italian - a German-speaking village in Alto Adige, also known as South Tyrol. Kaspar attended Rome’s German School - the Deutsche Schule - and is fluent in German as well as Italian.

After some early work as a model in advertising campaigns, he enrolled for acting lessons at the Teatro Argentina in Rome, where his work came to the attention of the writer and director Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, who gave him his stage debut at the age of 18.

It was the beginning of a relationship that would last 20 years and see Capparoni appear under Griffi’s direction in a host of classic stage plays, including works by Molière, Shakespeare, Goldoni, Ceckhov, Pirandello, Ibsen and Tennessee Williams among others.

Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, who
nurtured Capparoni's stage career

Capparoni’s big screen debut came in 1985 when he was cast in a small role in the horror film Phenomena, directed by Dario Argento and with a cast that included Jennifer Connelly and Donald Pleasance. 

Although he subsequently starred in a number of movies, notably opposite Valeria Golino in Il Sole Nero (2007) and with Claudio Amendola and Elisabetta Rocchetti in Il ritorno del Monnezza (2005), it for his work in television that he has become best known.

In addition to Il Commissario Rex, he is well known for his roles in the drama series such as Solo per amore and Capri, soaps such as Incantesimo and the period drama Elisa di Rivombrosa.

Capparoni has been married twice, first to the former Tunisian model Ashraf Ganouchi, with whom he had two children - Sheherazade, born in 1993, and Joseph, born in 2000 - before a traumatic divorce in 2003, and subsequently to Veronica Maccarone, who was best known for her appearances on Quelli che il calcio, a sports-themed entertainment show. She is the mother of Alessandro, born in 2008, and Daniel (2013).

He recently appeared with Alessandro - a student at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome - in Mothers, Fathers, Sons and Daughters, a production of words and dance, on stage at the Teatro Municipale in Piacenza.

Rome's Teatro Argentina has staged
a number of important premieres 

Travel tip:

The Teatro Argentina, where Capparoni enrolled for acting lessons as a teenager, is one of the oldest theatres in Rome. Located in Largo di Torre Argentina the Teatro Argentina was built over the remains of the curia section of the Theatre of Pompey, where Julius Caesar was murdered in 44BC. It was commissioned by the Sforza-Cesarini family, designed by the architect Gerolamo Theodoli and inaugurated in 1732. In the 19th century, it staged the premieres of Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville as well as Giuseppe Verdi's I due Foscari and La battaglia di Legnano. Several plays by Luigi Pirandello, Henrik Ibsen and Maxim Gorky were performed for the first time there in the 20th century. The auditorium is set out in the traditional horseshoe shape, with seats for 696 people, including 344 in the stalls, and 40 boxes on five levels seating an additional 352.

Sexten (Sesto) enjoys a picturesque setting in 
the Puster Valley in the Alto Adige region

Travel tip:

Sexten - known as Sesto in Italian - is the home village of Capparoni’s mother, who taught German to Italian students. A centre for both winter and summer sports, it is situated in a branch of the Puster Valley, near Innichen (It: San Candido) and Toblach (It: Dobbiaco). Just 3km (1.88 miles) from the Austrian border, it has a population of just under 2,000, 95 per cent of whom speak German as their first language, yet is part of the Alto Adige region. The nearest substantial Italian cities are Bolzano, which is 113km (70 miles) to the west by road, and Belluno, 86km (53 miles) south. Damaged during World War One, when it was on the front line as the Italian army battled against the forces of Austria-Hungary, it is now a thriving centre for skiing in the Dolomite mountains in the winter months and for trekking and mountain biking in the summer. Its most famous sporting product is the tennis player Jannik Sinner, who was born in Innichen but grew up in Sexten.

Also on this day:

902: Arab forces complete their conquest of Sicily

1464: The death of Cosimo de’ Medici, the banker who founded the Medici dynasty

1776: The birth of soldier Francesca Scanagatta

1831: The birth of baritone Antonio Cotogni

1905: The birth of painter and enameller Paolo De Poli

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Pietro Ruggeri da Stabello – poet

Talented writer kept record of 1848 rebellions and produced verses in local dialect

Enrico Scuri's 1838 portrait of Pietro Ruggeri
da Stabello (Accademia Carrara, Bergamo)

Prolific writer Pietro Ruggeri da Stabello, who became famous after his death for the poetry he had written in his local dialect, was born on this day in 1797 in a hamlet near Zogno, a short distance from the city of Bergamo in Lombardy.

Ruggeri da Stabello wrote a valuable account of events that occurred in the north of Italy during revolts against the Austrian occupying army, which were later collected in a volume entitled Bergamo Revolution of the Year 1848.

He was the second son of a Bergamo couple, Santo Ruggeri and Diana Stella Ceribelli, who had moved to the Brembana valley to escape the riots that followed the fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797.

When Pietro Ruggeri became an adult, he added the words da Stabello to his name, to honour the small village where he had grown up, which is less than one kilometre from the municipality of Zogno in Val Brembana, to which it belongs.

After Pietro Ruggeri moved to live in Bergamo to study for a diploma in accountancy, he began to compose verses, inspired by his contact with local people and what he had witnessed of how they lived their daily lives in the city.

He wrote his 1816 work, Letter of Pietro Ruggeri da Stabello Against the Widespread Misery, in the Italian language, more for his own pleasure than as a literary exercise. He went on to write four more works in Italian between 1820 and 1822 that were never published.

Ruggeri da Stabello started to write poetry in the Bergamo dialect from about 1822. As his fame spread, he was portrayed in a painting by Enrico Scuri and invited to social gatherings to meet other learned people from the area, while he continued to do a variety of jobs to earn his living.

He founded and became president of The Philharmonic Academy in Bergamo and he was painted on the occasion by Luigi Deleidi, a Bergamo artist, who was also known as Nebbia.

Ruggeri da Stabello wrote sonnets dedicated to his friends and some well-known people, such as the painter Francesco Coghetti, and he started to compile, but never finished, a Bergamo-Italian vocabulary.

Ruggeri da Stabello is commemorated with
a mounted bust in Bergamo's Piazza Pontida 

During 1848, he wrote his volume about the revolts against the Austrians while he was being forced to take refuge in the safer territory of Zogno, because of verses he had written in honour of Pope Pius IX and of Italy, after the Austrians returned to occupy the country.

Pietro Ruggeri da Stabello died in Bergamo in 1878. He was buried in the cemetery of San Maurizio in the Città Bassa, but his tomb was lost after the cemetery was closed.

However, his writing was evaluated after his death and he was recognised as the greatest writer in the Bergamo dialect ever known. In appreciation of his talent, his native city named a street after him and erected a mounted bust of him in Piazza Pontida, one of the historic squares in the Città Bassa, Bergamo’s lower town. 

In 1933, another Bergamo citizen, Bortolo Belotti, published some of his poetry in the volume, Pietro Ruggeri, Poet from Bergamo.

Modern Italian is now the most widely spoken language in Bergamo, but the Bergamo dialect - dialetto Bergamasco - is still seen on menus, street signs and often reproduced in popular Bergamo sayings. Linguistically it is closer to French and Catalan, than to Italian. It is still spoken in some of the small villages out in the province of Bergamo and the area around Crema, another city in Lombardy.

Because of migration in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bergamo dialect is still spoken in some communities in southern Brazil.

The town of Zogno nestles in Val Brembana, 
a beautiful valley north of Bergamo

Travel tip:

The municipality of Zogno, where Pietro Ruggeri da Stabello was born, is about 11km (7 miles) north of Bergamo in the Brembana Valley. Set in beautiful countryside, Zogno has a 17th century church, San Lorenzo Martire, as well as a modern church, the Santuario di Maria Santissima Regina. The village of Stabello now has a population of fewer than 500 people. The Val Brembana is an area rich in history and traditions, about which much can be learned by visiting the San Lorenzo Museum and the Valley Museum. Zogno also attracts many visitors to the Terme di Bracca spa facility.

Piazza Pontida, in Bergamo's Città Bassa, was
once a hub of commercial activity in the city

Travel tip:

Pietro Ruggeri da Stabello’s statue stands in Bergamo's Piazza Pontida in the Città Bassa, the Lombardy city's lower town. It is near the junction of Via Sant’Alessandro and Via XX Settembre, which would have been the hub of the lower town in the 15th century. The piazza is close to a point known for centuries as Cinque Vie (five roads), where traffic from Milan, Lecco, Treviglio and Crema would converge. It was the place where goods arriving in Bergamo would be unloaded before being sent up to the Città Alta (upper town). Some of the portici (porticos) date back to the 15th century, when farmers and merchants would shelter from the sun under them, while negotiating over the goods. It would have been a lively scene, with storytellers and poets roaming from one inn to the next, entertaining the crowds who had come to trade in the square. There are now modern shops doing business behind the porticos, but the square is still a popular meeting place with plenty of bars and restaurants.

Also on this day:

1823: Fire damages Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls

1850: The birth in Italy of Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint

1933: The birth of cartoonist Guido Crepax

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