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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Giuseppe ‘del Gesù’ Guarneri – violin maker

Luthier’s surviving instruments are now worth millions

Guarneri made violins in 
18th century Cremona

Bartolomeo Giuseppe ‘del Gesù’ Guarneri, who is regarded as the greatest of the Guarneri family of violin makers, was born on this day in 1698 in Cremona in Lombardy.

He was the son of Giuseppe Giovanni Battista Guarneri and the grandson of Andrea Guarneri, who were both respected violin makers in the city. He learned the craft of violin making in his father’s shop, who in turn had learned from his father, Andrea, who had worked alongside the celebrated violin-maker Antonio Stradivari in the workshop of Niccolò Amati.

Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri became known as Giuseppe ‘del Gesù’ Guarneri because of the religious symbols on the labels he used on the instruments he produced late in his career.

Although Giuseppe ‘del Gesù’ was younger than Stradivari, he became his rival because of the respect and reverence accorded to the violins he produced. These instruments have now become the most coveted of all by violinists and collectors.

Giuseppe ‘del Gesù’ diverged from the family tradition and created instruments in his own style, which were said to have a darker, more robust and sonorous tone than the violins produced by Stradivari.

The violin known
as Il Cannone

Fewer than 200 of the violins he produced have survived and because of their quality they sell for millions of pounds when they come on to the market.  In March this year, a 292-year-old Guarneri violin sold for  $9.44 million (£7.71 million; €8.68 million) at a saleroom in New York, making it the third most expensive instrument to ever be sold at auction.

Guarneri's instruments date from the 1720s, but instruments bearing his ‘del Gesù’ label did not appear until after 1731. His famous ‘King Joseph’ violin was produced in 1737 when he was at the peak of his craftsmanship and his later instruments display the most characteristic qualities of his unique vision.

The violinist Niccolò Paganini was one of the most celebrated players of Guarneri’s instruments. He owned a famous violin known as Il Cannone, the Cannon, which Guarneri had made in 1743, and he played it for most of his career. The name Il Cannone was Paganini's invention, bestowed upon the instrument, which had been a gift to him from an admirer, because of its power and resonance. 

Giuseppe ‘del Gesù’ Guarneri died in Cremona in 1744, at the age of just 46.

In Paganini’s Ghost, a 2009 crime novel by Paul Adam, a fictitious retired Cremonese luthier has to mend Il Cannone for a young virtuoso violinist who is due to play it in the city. He later finds himself caught up in a murder investigation after a scrap of sheet music by Paganini is found in the murder victim’s wallet.

The Piazza del Comune in Cremona is one of 
Italy's best-preserved mediaeval squares

Travel tip:

Cremona is an historic city in Lombardy that claims to be the birthplace of the modern violin, invented in 1566 by Andrea Amati from the viol, or medieval fiddle. The composer Claudio Monteverdi was born in Cremona in 1567 and the composer Amilcare Pochielli was born there in 1834. The bell tower of the Cathedral of Cremona, the Torrazzo di Cremona, which measures 112.54 metres in height is the third tallest brickwork bell tower in the world.  The cathedral overlooks the Piazza del Comune, the city's historic main square, sometimes known as Piazza del Duomo, which is among the best-preserved mediaeval squares in Italy. Next the the cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta, is the beautiful octagonal Romanesque baptistry. Opposite are the Palazzo Comunale - the town hall - and the Loggia dei Militi, once a meeting place for important figures from the city and surrounding countryside.

Genoa's Palazzo Doria-Tursi
houses Paganini's Cannone

Travel tip:

Giuseppe ‘del Gesù’s’ famous Cannone violin, which was played by Paganini for most of his career, was donated to Paganini's his home city of Genoa in the violinist’s will and is now on display in the Paganini Rooms in the Palazzo Doria-Tursi in Genoa, part of the Strada Nuova Museums in the city. The violin is used in concerts, when the honour of playing it is bestowed on the winner of the international Paganini prize, a competition for young violinists.The Palazzo Doria-Tursi is in Via Giuseppe Garibaldi in the centre of the city.  The palazzo's large loggias facing the street were added in 1597, when the building was acquired by Giovanni Andrea Doria for his younger son Carlo, Duke of Tursi, giving the palazzo its present name.

Also on this day: 

1862: The birth of adventure novelist Emilio Salgari

1943: The birth of actor Lino Capolicchio

1969: The death of footballer Giuseppe Meazza 

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Gianluca Vialli - footballer and coach

Striker who managed Chelsea has faced personal battle

Gianluca Vialli is currently working
with the Italian national team

The footballer Gianluca Vialli, who enjoyed success as a player in Italy and England and led Chelsea to five trophies as manager of the London club, was born on this day in 1964 in Cremona in Lombardy.

After beginning his professional career with his local team, Cremonese, Vialli spent eight seasons with Sampdoria of Genoa, helping a team that had seldom previously finished higher than mid-table in Serie A enjoy their most successful era, winning the Coppa Italia three times, the European Cup-Winners’ Cup and an historic first Serie A title in 1990-91.

He then spent four years with Juventus, winning another Scudetto in 1994-95 and becoming a Champions League winner the following season.

He signed for Chelsea in 1996 as one of the first in a wave of top Italian players arriving in the Premier League in the second half of that decade, becoming player-manager in 1998 after the man who signed him, Ruud Gullit, was sacked. 

In the blue of Chelsea, Vialli won medals in the FA Cup as a player, the Football League Cup, the Cup-Winners’ Cup and the UEFA Super Cup as player-manager, before guiding the team to another FA Cup success as manager, after retiring as a player at the end of the 1998-99 season.

After leaving Stamford Bridge, Vialli remained in London, dropping out of the Premier League to take charge of second-tier club Watford but lasted only a season before being sacked and has not worked in management since.

Vialli was a prolific goalscorer in the 
colours of Sampdoria 

Vialli, who also made 59 appearances and scored 16 goals for the Italian national team, was for many years a pundit on the Sky Italia satellite TV channel and has written two books. He has been a member of current Azzurri head coach Roberto Mancini’s pitch-side technical staff during the delayed 2020 European championships, having emerged successfully from a two-and-a-half year battle with pancreatic cancer.

Vialli’s upbringing was very different from most footballers. The youngest of five children, he enjoyed the trappings of his entrepreneur father’s wealth, being brought up in the historic 60-room Castello di Belgioioso, in the small town of the same name set in extensive gardens a little under 60km (37 miles) west of Cremona on the way to Pavia.  Vialli senior was the millionaire owner of a construction company.

He was as keen on football as any young child and played endless games with his sister and three brothers in a large courtyard at the back of the castle. His first formal steps towards a football career came after he had entered the Cristo Re oratory, an educational institution in Cremona, which had a football team and links to others, including Pizzighettone, a regional team from Cremona province. After a few games there, his talent as a striker was quickly picked up on the Cremonese radar and made his senior debut at the age of 16.

Fired by Vialli’s goals, Cremonese jumped from Serie C to Serie A in four seasons. Vialli enjoyed his time there and was often seen around the city, zipping about on his Vespa scooter with the girlfriend from childhood, Giovanna, on the back.  He would sometimes hang out with the club’s fans at the Bar Rio in the centre of Cremona.

Vialli played alongside fellow striker Fabrizio
Ravanelli (left) during his four years with Juventus

But bigger things beckoned. In 1984, at the age of 20, Vialli signed for Sampdoria, making the acquaintance for the first time of his new teammate, Roberto Mancini.  The coach, Vujadin Boskov, treated him like a son and gave him the confidence to form a deadly partnership with Mancini. In 1991, Vialli was top scorer with 19 goals and helped the club to win both the Scudetto and the Italian Super Cup.

In June 1992, with Sampdoria wishing they could keep him but also needing a cash influx, Vialli moved to Juventus for a world record fee, the equivalent of £12.5 million. He made a slow start, his first two seasons disrupted by injuries, but under coach Marcello Lippi he won the domestic league and cup double and the UEFA Cup and both main domestic trophies as well as the Uefa Cup and before making his final appearance in the 1996 Champions League final in Rome, when a Juventus side captained by him beat Ajax of Holland. 

Vialli’s international career ended in 1992, essentially because of his poor relationship with Arrigo Sacchi, the manager who succeeded Azeglio Vicini after the 1990 World Cup and took Italy to the final in USA ‘94. 

After moving to Chelsea, he settled in London, buying a house in Belgravia, marrying an English interior designer, Cathryn White-Cooper, with whom he has two daughters, and later moving to Hampstead.  A smoker even in his playing days, Vialli was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2017. He announced in April 2020 that he had been given the all-clear.

Vialli collaborated with his friend, football journalist Gabriele Marcotti, in writing The Italian Job: A Journey to the Heart of Two Great Footballing Cultures, which discusses the differences between English and Italian football. He donated the proceeds of the book to a charitable foundation he founded together with player-turned-politician Massimo Mauro to raise funds for research into cancer and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is also known as motor neurone disease.

Mancini, who became Italy’s head coach in 2018 after their failure to qualify for the World Cup finals in Russia, turned to Vialli to be part of his backroom team in 2019, giving him the title of delegation chief, a position unfilled since Luigi Riva's retirement in 2013.

UPDATE: Italy won the final of the delayed Euro 2020 championships two days after this article was originally published, defeating host nation England on penalties at Wembley. Vialli shared the glory with Mancini, his close friend since they played together at Sampdoria.

Sadly, Vialli's cancer returned late in 2021. The disease was kept under control initially but his condition deteriorated in December 2022, causing him to be readmitted to hospital in London. He died on 6 January, 2023, aged just 58.

Vialli grew up in the ancient Castello di
Belgioioso between Cremona and Pavia

Travel tip:

It is thought the Castello di Belgioioso was founded by Galeazzo II Visconti in the second half of the 14th century as part of an extensive area owned by the family in the territory where the village of Belgioioso later arose. In the 18th century the castle belonged to Don Antonio Barbiano, the first prince of Belgioioso, who was responsible for the many improvements to the complex.Lombard nobility often met there to celebrate lavish receptions.  Today the castle is home to exhibitions, cultural events, exhibitions and fairs, as well as becoming a popular venue for weddings.

The fishing village and resort of Bogliasco is close
to where Vialli lived in his time at Sampdoria

Travel tip: 

During his time at Sampdoria, lived close to the Ligurian resort of Bogliasco, situated just 11km (7 miles) east of Genoa in an area known as the Golfo Paradiso. Bogliasco is not so well known as the beautiful Camogli or exclusive Portofino further down the coast, yet is an attractive port village with characteristic pastel-coloured houses lining a sweep of sandy beach. Bogliasco has many good restaurants, is accessible by train along the railway line that hugs the coast and has three important art collections in the Frugone, Wolfsoniana and Galleria d'Arte Moderna.

Also on this day:

1879: The birth of violinist and composer Ottorino Respighi

1897: The of former NATO Secretary-General Manlio Brosio

1950: The birth of tennis champion Adriano Panatta

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Sergio Franchi – tenor

Budding opera star became popular for singing romantic ballads

Sergio Franchi's voice first gained
recognition in South Africa

The tenor and actor Sergio Franchi was born Sergio Franci Galli on this day in 1926 in Codogno in the province of Lodi in northern Italy.

Franchi earned recognition as a performer in Britain in the 1960s and subsequently went to America where he became such a success he was once invited by John F Kennedy to sing the US national anthem at a rally.

Franchi was born to a Neapolitan father and a Ligurian mother who were living in Codogno in the Lombardy region. As a child he sang with his father who played the piano and guitar.

When he was 16, Franchi formed a band to earn extra money and went on to sing with a male group in jazz clubs.

Franchi’s father was a successful businessman but he lost all his assets during the German occupation of Italy in World War II.

After the war a family friend suggested to Franchi’s father that he should emigrate to South Africa where there were more opportunities for work. The whole family moved to Johannesburg in 1947.

Franchi worked initially for his father but also began singing in informal concerts. His voice soon attracted attention and he was offered roles in musicals.

Franchi's career took a new direction after opera
 failed to provide an income to support his family 

Alessandro Rota, a successful operatic tenor who had moved to Johannesburg, helped form the National Opera Association and began producing operatic concerts. Taught by Rota, Franchi’s voice matured and his vocal range and technique developed.

He was given the leading tenor roles in Puccini’s Madam Butterfly and Verdi’s La traviata.

Franchi returned to Italy to seek more opportunities to become an opera singer. He reached the finals of a competition at La Scala in Milan and secured a role in an opera at a minor theatre. But with a wife and children to support by then, he had to look for other opportunities to earn money.

He began recording for Durium records, having hits with ‘Amore mio’ and ‘I tuoi occhi verde’, and he then made an album of Italian songs.

An English agent encouraged him to travel to London, where he made two appearances on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. This was to bring him to the attention of RCA Victor in America, who soon gave him a recording contract.

After Franchi’s first album was released in America in 1962 he appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and also made his concert debut at Carnegie Hall, singing without a microphone. He was to become one of Ed Sullivan’s favourite guests.

Sergio Franchi with Ed Sullivan (left), on whose show he
made regular guest appearances

In 1963 Franchi was asked to sing the national anthem by President Kennedy at a rally and he bought a record to help him learn the words. This turned out to be a good move because he was able to reassure the President before the performance when he asked if Franchi knew all the words to the anthem. He later sang for Ladybird Johnson and President Ronald Reagan.

Franchi became a US citizen in 1972 and continued to enjoy a glittering career in America.

The last of Franchi’s 130 television appearances was in July 1989 and his last concert was later that month. While rehearsing for his next concert in August, Franchi collapsed and was taken to hospital. Tests revealed a brain tumour and despite treatment he died in May 1990, less than a month after his 64th birthday.

Franchi had supported the arts and many charities throughout his career and for his support for Italian children’s charities he was posthumously awarded the title of Cavaliere in the Order of Merit (stella al merito del lavoro) by the Italian government in 2001.

The church of Santi Teodoro
e Paradiso in Codogno

Travel tip:

Codogno, where Sergio Franchi was born, is a small city with a population of under 16,000 in Lombardy in the province of Lodi, to the south east of Milan. Codogno hit the headlines worldwide because of the Covid 19 pandemic. It was there that a 38-year-old Italian went to a clinic on 16 February 2020 reporting respiratory problems and it is thought the virus then spread from Codogno throughout Italy and the rest of Europe. The city was quarantined on 22 February 2020.

Il Torrazzo in Cremona is Italy's tallest
bell tower at 112 metres

Travel tip:

Cremona, to the south east of Codogno, was often thought to be Sergio Franchi’s home town, but he made it clear in interviews that he was born in Codogno but spent a lot of time in Cremona while he was growing up. Cremona is famous for having the tallest bell tower in Italy, il Torrazzo, which measures more than 112 metres in height. As well as being well known for producing the world’s best violins, Cremona is also famous for making confectionery. Negozio Sperlari in Via Solferino specialises in producing the city’s renowned torrone (nougat). The concoction of almonds, honey and egg whites was first created in the city to mark the marriage of Bianca Maria Visconti to Francesco Sforza in 1441, when Cremona was given to the bride as part of her dowry.

Also on this day:

1483: The birth of Renaissance genius Raphael

1901: The birth of social activist Pier Giorgio Frassati

1918: The birth of war hero Alberto Marvelli

1957: The birth of race-walking twins Maurizio and Giorgio Damilano

(Picture credit: church in Codogno by Ago56)


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Andrea Zani – violinist and composer

Musician who ushered in the new classical era

Much of Andrea Zani's music has survived and there
are many recordings available

Andrea Teodora Zani, one of the earliest Italian composers to move away from the Baroque style, was born on this day in 1696 in Casalmaggiore in the province of Cremona in Lombardy.

Casalmaggiore, nicknamed ‘the little Venice on the Po’, was a breeding ground for musical talent at this time and Zani was an exact contemporary of Giuseppe Guarneri, the most famous member of the Guarneri family of violin makers in Cremona. He was just a bit younger than the violinist composers, Francesco Maria Veracini, Giuseppe Tartini and Pietro Locatelli.

Zani’s father, an amateur violinist, gave him his first violin lessons and he later received instruction from Giacomo Civeri, a local musician, and Carlo Ricci, who was at the time court musician to the Gonzaga family at their palace in Guastalla.

After Zani played in front of Antonio Caldara, who was Capellmeister for the court of Archduke Ferdinand Charles in nearby Mantua, he was invited to go to Vienna to be a violinist in the service of the Habsburgs.

Antonio Caldara sponsored
Zani's work for many years

A lot of Zani’s work has survived in both published and manuscript form, some of it having been recovered from European libraries. His early works show the influence of Antonio Vivaldi, but his Opus 2, published in 1729, is considered of historical importance because it shows no ambiguity of genre and has cast off Baroque elements in favour of a more classical style.

After his sponsor, Caldara, died in 1736, Zani returned to Casalmaggiore, where he remained for the rest of his life, leaving the town occasionally to make concert appearances.

Zani died at the age of 60 in 1757 after being injured when the carriage in which he was travelling to Mantua accidentally overturned.

The church of Santa Maria
Assunta in Castelmaggiore 

Travel tip:

Casalmaggiore, where Andrea Zani was born, is a town in the province of Cremona in Lombardy. It is believed the town was founded by the Romans as a military camp. Around the year 1000 the town had a fortified castle owned by the Este family. Casalmaggiore was also the birthplace of the composer, Ignazio Donati.

Exhibits at Cremona's Museo del Violino

Travel tip:

Cremona, the nearest city to Andrea Zani’s home town, is well known as a centre of violin production. The Museo Stradivariano in Via Ugolani Dati in Cremona has a collection of musical items housed in the elegant rooms of a former palace. Visitors can see how the contralto viola was constructed in accordance with the classical traditions of Cremona, view instruments commemorating Italian violin makers in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and look at more than 700 relics from the workshop of Antonio Stradivari, who produced violins that are nowadays worth millions. Another museum dedicated to the city's luthiers is the Museo del Violino in Piazza Marconi.

More reading:

Why Antonio Stradivari is considered history's finest violin-maker

Nicolò Amati, the greatest of a dynasty of Cremona luthiers

Success and sadness in the life of Antonio Vivaldi

Also on this day:

1869: The birth of Victor Emmanuel III, Italy's wartime monarch

1932: The birth of controversial broadcaster Germano Mosconi

1961: The birth of Montalbano actor Luca Zigaretti


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Vanessa Ferrari - gymnast

First Italian woman to win a World Championship gold

Vanessa Ferrari is Italy's most
successful female gymnast

The gymnast Vanessa Ferrari, who in 2006 became the first Italian female competitor to win a gold medal at the World Championships of artistic gymnastics, was born on November 10, 1990, in the town of Orzinuovi in Lombardy.

Ferrari won the all-around gold - consisting of uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise - at the World Championships in Aarhus in Denmark when she was only 15 years old. It remains the only artistic gymnastics world title to be won by an Italian woman.

Earlier in 2006, Ferrari had picked up her first gold medal of the European Championships at Volos in Greece as Italy won the all-around team event.

Naturally small in stature, Ferrari was inspired to take up gymnastics by watching the sport on television as a child, when the sport was dominated by Russian and Romanian athletes.

With the help of her Bulgarian-born mother, Galya, who made many sacrifices to help her daughter fulfil her ambitions, Ferrari joined the Brixia gym in the city of Brescia, a 30km (19 miles) drive from the family home.

Brixia was co-founded by Enrico Casella, a former rugby player who was technical director of the Italian women’s gymnastics team at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Casella recognised Ferrari’s potential and took it upon himself to become her personal coach.

Vanessa Ferrari became a World champion
when she was only 15 years old

Ferrari’s first major success came at the 2004 European junior championships, when as a 13-year-old she won the silver medal. She dominated the Mediterranean Games and European Junior Olympic festival the following year. She was all-around champion at both events, as well as winning four more golds at the former.

After her success in the European and World senior events in 2006, she won two gold medals at the 2007 European championships in Amsterdam, finishing first in both the all-around event and the floor exercises.

She could finish only ninth in the all-round when the European championships were held on home ground in Milan in 2009 but collected another medal by finishing runner-up to Great Britain’s Beth Tweddle in the floor exercises.

In Brussels in 2012 she picked up her sixth medal overall with bronze in the team event before bouncing back to win her fourth gold on the floor in Sofia in 2014.

Although she is the most successful of all female Italian gymnasts, an Olympic medal has eluded Ferrari so far, although she has twice narrowly missed out.

At the London Games of 2012 she finished level on points with close rival Aliya Mustafina in the floor exercises only for the Russian to be given the bronze medal on the tie-break system, despite Ferrari finishing with a better mark for difficulty than her rival.

Vanessa Ferrari was injured at the
 2017 World Championships

And at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Ferrari again had to settle for fourth place. This time bronze medallist Amy Tinkler of Great Britain scored higher for difficulty and execution but missing out was again a disappointment for Ferrari because she was in the bronze medal position at the end of qualifying, although it later emerged that she was struggling with an Achilles tendon injury for which she had surgery later in 2016.

Rio was Ferrari’s third Olympics - the most at which any female Italian gymnast has competed - and although she once said she would retire after the 2012 Games she has ambitions to compete at a fourth in Tokyo in 2020 in the hope of clinching that elusive medal.

Since Rio, however, she has another Achilles tendon injury.  She has begun a coaching career alongside competing and hopes to be in Tokyo at least as a coach if not actually on the floor herself.

The Sforzesca Castle at Soncino, one of the neighbouring
towns of Ferrari's home town of Orzonuovi

Travel tip:

Orzinuovi is a town in Lombardy of just over 12,500 inhabitants about 30km (19 miles) southwest of Brescia and about 36km (22 miles) northeast of Cremona in an area of historical interest that includes the neighbouring town of Soncino, where there is well-preserved castle - the Rocca Sforzesca - built in 1473 for Galeazzo Maria Sforza and often used nowadays as a location for films and TV series, and the Casa degli Stampatori - Printers' House - where, in 1488, the first complete Jewish Bible in the world was printed.

Il Torrazzo in Cremona is the tallest bell
tower in the whole of Italy

Travel tip:

Cremona is famous for having the tallest bell tower in Italy, il Torrazzo, which measures more than 112m (367ft) in height. The city is famous for violins, being the home of Antonio Stradivari and the Amati family, and there is a fascinating museum, the Museo Stradivariano in Via Ugolani Dati, which is dedicated to the city’s violin-making tradition of the 16th and 17th centuries. As well as violins, Cremona is also famous for producing confectionery. Negozio Sperlari in Via Solferino specialises in the city’s famous torrone (nougat), a concoction of almonds, honey and egg whites created to mark the marriage of Bianca Maria Visconti to Francesco Sforza in 1441, when the city was given to the bride as part of her dowry.

More reading:

How Valentina Vezzali became Italy's most successful female athlete

World records and Moscow gold for high jumper Sara Simeoni

Horrific accident that drove Francesca Porcellato to Paralympic glory

Also on this day:

1816: Lord Byron arrives in Venice

1869: The birth of assassin Gaetano Bresci

1928: The birth of film music maestro Ennio Morricone


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Camillo Sivori – virtuoso violinist

Paganini’s successor was also a talented composer

Camillo Sivori was the protégé
of the virtuoso Niccolò Paganini

Ernesto Camillo Sivori, a virtuoso violinist and composer, was born on this day in 1815 in Genoa.

Remembered as the only pupil of the great virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini, Sivori began his career as a travelling virtuoso at the age of 12, having by then also studied with other violin teachers.

He was acclaimed as ‘Paganini reincarnated’, or even, ‘Paganini without the flaws’, by music critics during a lengthy tour of Europe that he made between 1841 and 1845.

During his travels he met some of the best-known composers of the day, such as Mendelssohn, Schumann and Berlioz and he took parts in hundreds of concerts.

After being compared to other celebrated violinists, his status as Paganini’s successor was confirmed, even though the great man had died in 1840 and was still remembered in the musical world.

Sivori had met Paganini, who was also from Genoa, when he was seven years old and had made such a favourable impression on him that Paganini gave him lessons between October 1822 and May 1823.

Sivori met Paganini when he was only
seven years old

Paganini also wrote pieces of music for his pupil ‘to shape his spirit’ and even provided guitar accompaniment when Sivori performed these pieces privately.

When Paganini left Genoa he continued to follow Sivori’s progress, writing in 1828 that Sivori was ‘ the only one who may call himself my pupil.’

Shortly before he died, Paganini summoned Sivori and gave him a violin, by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, Il Cannone, which was a replica of his own favourite violin by Bartolomeo Guarneri del Gesù, a member of one of the great families of luthiers from Cremona.

Sivori was entrusted by Mendelssohn with performing the English premiere of his Violin concerto, Op. 64 in 1846.

Sivori’s fame reached America and he visited many north American cities and also travelled to south America between 1846 and 1850.

A replica of Paganini's Guarneri
 violin is in a Genoa museum

He made a great impression in London and Paris, a city where he lived for a few years, because of his technique and breathtaking displays of virtuosity. As late as 1876 Verdi invited him to perform his E minor quartet at its Paris premiere.

Sivori wrote 60 works of his own that inventively married virtuosity with melodic beauty, including two violin concertos.

The violinist lived for many years in Paris but died in his native Genoa in 1894 at the age of 78.

The bustling port of Genoa, where Sivori was born

Travel tip:

Genoa, where Camillo Sivori was born, is the capital city of Liguria and the sixth largest city in Italy. It has earned the nickname of La Superba because of its proud history as a major port. Part of the old town was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2006 because of the wealth of beautiful 16th century palaces there.

The harbour at Portofino, one of the pretty seaside
villages of the Italian Riviera

Travel tip:

The region of Liguria in northwest Italy is also known as the Italian Riviera. It runs along a section of the Mediterranean coastline between France and Tuscany and is dotted with pretty seaside villages, with houses painted in different pastel colours.

More reading:

Why the violins of Antonio Stradivari are still worth millions

The luthier who set the standard for Stradivari

How Francesco Maria Veracini became one of the great violinists of the 18th century

Also on this day:

1647: The death of Evangelista Torricelli, inventor of the barometer

1902: The birth of Carlo Gnocchi, brave military chaplain


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Ippolita Maria Sforza – noble woman

Learned lady sacrificed happiness for a political alliance

Ippolita Maria Sforza's marriage helped
forge a strong link between Naples and Milan

Ippolita Maria Sforza, a cultured young noblewoman who wrote poetry, letters and documents in Latin, was born on this day in 1446 in Cremona.

She was married to Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, who later became King Alfonso II of Naples, because it was a politically advantageous alliance, but she did not live long enough to become his Queen consort.

Ippolita was the eldest daughter of Francesco I Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Bianca Maria Visconti.

She was tutored along with her six younger brothers and one younger sister by a Greek scholar who taught her philosophy and Greek.

When she was 14 years old she composed a Latin address for Pope Pius II, which became well known after it was circulated in manuscript form.

She wrote many letters, which were published in Italy in one volume in 1893. She also wrote poetry and a Latin eulogy for her father, Francesco.

Ippolita was married at the age of 19 to Alfonso, the eldest son of King Ferdinand I of Naples. The marriage created a powerful alliance between the Kingdom of Naples and the Duchy of Milan.

A copy of a 1472 bust by Francesco Laurana thought to
be of Ippolita Maria Sforza

But her husband, perhaps threatened by her high level of education, treated her with a lack of respect throughout their marriage.

Ippolita’s letters from this period display the adroit diplomacy she used to strengthen the alliance between Milan and Naples amid crises, such as her brother’s assassination in Milan and the Turkish invasion of Otranto.

The couple had three children. Their eldest son, Ferdinand, became King of Naples, their daughter, Isabella, married Gian Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, and their youngest son, Piero, died of an infection after surgery.

Ippolita died at the age of 38 in 1484 in Naples. Her husband then married his long-standing mistress by whom he already had two illegitimate children.

Soon after Ippolita’s death, the Naples-Milan alliance collapsed.

Cremona's bell tower, Il Torrazzo

Travel tip:

Cremona is famous for having the tallest bell tower in Italy, il Torrazzo, which measures more than 112 metres in height. As well as the manufacture of violins, Cremona is also famous for producing confectionery. Negozio Sperlari in Via Solferino specialises in the city’s famous torrone (nougat). The concoction of almonds, honey and egg whites was created in the city to mark the marriage of Bianca Maria Visconti to Francesco Sforza in 1441, when Cremona was given to the bride as part of her dowry.

The Palazzo Reale was one of the residences of the
Kings of Naples

Travel tip:

In the area around Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples you can see buildings with royal connections. The impressive Palazzo Reale at the eastern end of the piazza was one of the residences of the Kings of Naples at the time the city was capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The palace is home to a 30-room museum and the largest library in southern Italy, both now open to the public. Close to the royal palace is one of the oldest opera houses in the world, built for a Bourbon King of Naples. Teatro di San Carlo was officially opened on 4 November 1737, way ahead of La Scala in Milan and La Fenice in Venice. In the magnificent auditorium, the focal point is the royal box surmounted by the crown of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

More reading:

Bianca Maria Visconti - powerful woman who ran Milan

How the despotic Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies ruled for 65 years

Ludovico III Gonzaga - 15th century ruler of Mantua

Also on this day:

1480: The birth of the notorious beauty Lucrezia Borgia

1911: The birth of car maker Ilario Bandini

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Sandrone Dazieri – crime writer

Best-selling novelist in Italy now has first title in English

Sandrone Dazieri has written more than a dozen crime
thrillers and has a big following in Italy 

Sandrone Dazieri, an Italian author and screenwriter whose first novel published in English received enthusiastic reviews, was born in Cremona on this day in 1964.

A former chef, Dazieri became a best-selling novelist in his mid-30s with Attenti al Gorilla (Beware of the Gorilla), which introduced a complex character, based on himself and even named Sandrone, who suffers from a personality disorder that makes his behaviour unpredictable yet who solves crimes and tackles injustices.

The book spawned a series featuring the same character that not only gained Dazieri enormous popularity among Italian readers but helped him get work as a screenwriter, especially in the area of TV crime dramas.

He is the main writer on the hugely popular Canale 5 series Squadra Antimafia, to which he contributed for seven seasons.

Now, for the first time, with the help of an American translator, Dazieri has moved into the English language market with Kill the Father, published by Simon & Schuster in London in January 2017.

Already a top-selling title in Italy, the dark crime thriller received such good reviews in the literary sections of English newspapers and magazines that it made the Sunday Times best-sellers list.

The novel features new characters in Colomba Caselli, the chief of the Rome police’s major crimes unit, and Dante Torre, a man who spent 10 years of his childhood imprisoned by a masked kidnapper and is called in to help Caselli solve a crime with all the hallmarks of the one committed by his own captor.

A second title in a planned series featuring the same lead characters, entitled Kill the Angel, is due to be published in English next year.

Although he was always an enthusiastic reader of gialli – the word Italians use for crime novels, based on the tradition of publishing them with yellow covers – and a fan of crime shows on TV, Dazieri’s education after high school pointed him in the direction of a career in catering.  After graduating from hotel management school at San Pellegrino Terme, in Lombardy, he spent the next 10 years working as a chef, at locations all around Italy.

Ultimately, he decided to move to Milan in the hope of finding work in publishing or journalism and eventually succeeded, getting a job as a proof reader and writing pieces for the left-wing newspaper, Il Manifesto, about culture and literature, largely about the crime, thriller and espionage genres. He enrolled to study political science at college.

Dazieri's novel Kill the Father features high-ranking Rome
policeman Colomba Caselli

When he began writing his own novels, Dazieri drew heavily on his own life experiences.  For a while after arriving in Milan, he had so little money he could not afford proper accommodation and often resorted to sleeping in empty train carriages at Milano Centrale railway station, or squatting in unoccupied houses. His main characters share many of his own characteristics, too.

He also became politically active, particular campaigning against the expansion of nuclear power stations.

Since his success as a writer, with several screenplays to his name as well as a dozen or so novels, Dazieri has become a more mainstream figure in the publishing world.

Along with Italian film director Gabriele Salvatores and producer Maurizio Totti, he set up the Colorado Noir publishing house in 2004 and after four years as chief editor of the Gialli Mondadori crime series, he now works for the Mondadori company as a literary consultant.

The facade of Cremona's Romanesque cathedral

Travel tip:

Cremona, a city at the heart of the Po Valley in Lombardy, has an outstanding Romanesque-Gothic cathedral, its façade and the adjoining baptistry regarded as among the finest examples of Romanesque architecture in Italy. Inside there are a number of notable paintings, including fresco decorations on the side walls of the nave by Giovanni Antonio de’ Sacchis, who painted under the name of Il Pordenone.  Cremona is also famous for its tradition for violin making, being the home of Giuseppe Guarneri, Antonio Stradivari and several members of the Amati family.

The majestic Art Nouveau Grand Hotel at San Pellegrino  

Travel tip:

San Pellegrino Terme, which can be found in Val Brembana in the province of Bergamo, is well known as the birthplace of the mineral waters bearing the name of the town. San Pellegrino water is to be found in supermarkets and on restaurant tables all over the world.  The water was always held to have health-enhancing properties and its reputation helped San Pellegrino became a fashionable spa town in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, a favourite haunt with wealthy industrialists from Bergamo.  Some wonderful Art Nouveau architecture remains as a legacy, in the shape of the San Pellegrino Thermal Baths, the Casino and the Grand Hotel.  The resort’s popularity declined somewhat in the mid-20^th century and these fine buildings were closed, but efforts have been made recently to restore them and allow the public back inside for a glimpse of the opulence of the town in its heyday.

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