Irma Marchiani - partisan

Resistance heroine honoured with medal for valour

Irma Marchiani was deputy
commander of her battalion

Irma Marchiani, who was one of only a small number of women to achieve promotion to a leadership role in the Italian Resistance movement in WW2, died on this day in 1944 in the town of Pavullo nel Frignano in the Apennine mountains, about 50km (31 miles) south of the city of Modena.

Along with three other partisans, Marchiani was shot dead by a firing squad, having a few days earlier been captured by a German patrol as they tried to cross enemy lines. She was 33 years old.

Posthumously awarded a Gold Medal for Military Valour by the postwar Italian government, wrote a poignant letter to his sister, Palmyra, shortly before she was killed, in which she said she would die ‘sure that I have done everything possible for freedom to triumph’.

Marchiani was born in Florence, on February 6, 1911. Her father Adamberto was a railway worker with strong anti-Fascist views who would regularly participate in industrial action aimed at achieving better living conditions for his fellow workers. 

After taking part in a large-scale insurrection in June 1914, marked by multiple riots and strikes, Adamberto was given a transfer from Florence to La Spezia in Liguria, seemingly as punishment for his role in the unrest. 

During Irma Marchiani’s school years, violent acts committed by supporters of Benito Mussolini’s Italian Fascist Party became commonplace, with squads of Blackshirt thugs allowed to pursue their agenda with little regard for the rule of law. They set fire to premises used by groups associated with their Socialist enemies and handed savage beatings to their opponents. 

Marchiani was familiar with the rugged territory
around Sestola in the Modena Apennines

Against this backdrop, her father was dismissed from his job in La Spezia in 1924 and Irma grew increasingly to hate what her country had become. In memory of her grandfather, who had fought for Italy’s freedom in a different era, she would often wear on her chest the five-pointed star of Garibaldi's volunteers, of which he had been a member.

At school, Irma had excelled at drawing but her father’s sudden unemployment meant she had to give up her education and find a job. She first found work as a milliner, then as an embroiderer and window dresser. She had ambitions to design clothes of her own and in the 1930s enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara so that she could attend a course in anatomical drawing.

Throughout this time, she suffered regularly from bronchial disorders and every year would spend holidays in the Modena Apennines, breathing the clean air and attending a clinic in the village of Sestola. 

She happened to be there in September, 1943, when Italy’s surrender to the Allies prompted Nazi Germany to invade the country from the north. Having acquired a knowledge of the territory through her frequent visits, Irma recalled her grandfather’s support for Garibaldi and decided she too would fight for Italy’s freedom. Opting to stay in the mountains rather than return to La Spezia, she joined up with the fledgling resistance movement.

After some months working as a courier, conveying vital messages as the various resistance groups tried to co-ordinate their activities, she joined the Garibaldi Roveda brigade and was assigned to the Matteotti battalion. She was known by the nom de guerre "Anty".

In August, 1944, while fighting near Montefiorino, she was arrested, captured while bravely attempting to help a seriously wounded fellow partisan get to a field hospital. She was imprisoned with a view to being deported to Germany.

Irma Marchiani was inspired by
her grandfather to fight for freedom

Determined to continue to fight against the occupation of her homeland, she escaped and managed to rejoin her group. 

Many of the leaders of the resistance movement were communists but for all their supposedly progressive political ideals, the hierarchy was almost exclusively male and it was rare for a female to have a prominent position. Yet Irma’s bravery and knowledge impressed her colleagues and she was soon promoted, first to commissioner and then deputy battalion commander. 

It was her bravery that proved to be her downfall. During fighting in Benedello, she remained alone in occupied territory, again seeking to guide wounded partisans to safety. On the morning of 12 November, while trying to cross enemy lines, she was spotted and was captured by a German patrol along with three fellow fighters.

They were taken to the prison of Pavullo nel Frignano and subjected to questioning under torture. After 15 days of detention, as night fell on November 26, the four were taken outside the prison and executed. 

Alongside Marchiani, 27-year-old Domenico "Pisolo" Guidani, 28-year-old Renzo “Remo” Costi and 17-year-old Gaetano “Balilla” Ruggeri were also shot. Today, there is a monument bearing their names set into a wall that marks the spot where they fell.

Another monument commemorating the trio stands at the entrance to the Ducal Park of Pavullo nel Frignano.

Irma’s letter to her sister came to light in May My Blood Serve, a book written about the men and women of the Italian Resistance by the journalist Aldo Cazzullo, published in 2015. It read:

“My beloved Pally, These are the last moments of my life. Beloved Pally I tell you: greet and kiss everyone who will remember me. Believe me, I have never done anything that could offend our name. I felt the call of the homeland for which I fought: now I am here, soon I will no longer be here, I die sure that I have done everything possible for freedom to triumph. Kisses and kisses from your Paggetto. I would like to be buried in Sestola.”

Eight years after her death, Irma’s Gold Medal for Military Valour was pinned to the chest of her brother, Pietro Marchiani, at a ceremony in La Spezia in June, 1952.

The municipalities of Pavullo nel Frignano, Rome, Modena, Savignano sul Panaro, Livorno and Ciampino all have named a street after her.

In Pavullo nel Frignano, the monument outside the Ducal Park is marked with a plaque that bears the words: 

“Valiant partisan ..... she participated with indomitable courage in the battles of Montefiorino and Benedello did her utmost in loving assistance to the wounded ..... Arrested and sentenced to deportation, she managed to escape, falling back into the hands of the enemy, fearlessly facing death.”

The pretty fishing village of Portovenere is
just a short distance from La Spezia

Travel tip:

The port town of La Spezia, where Irma Marchiani grew up, is home to Italy's largest naval base. It is often overlooked as a travel destination because of the proximity of the tourist hot spots of the Cinque Terre coastline but offers an affordable alternative base for touring the area as well as an attractive destination in its own right. It is one of Italy’s busiest ports, yet the narrow streets of the old city are deeply atmospheric and have plenty to interest visitors, with a wealth of good restaurants showing off the best Ligurian cuisine. La Spezia is a point of departure for visiting Lerici, Portovenere and the Cinque Terre by boat. The recently-restored Castle of San Giorgio, the 13th century Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and a number of Art Nouveau villas are all worth visiting. The Gulf of La Spezia is known as the Gulf of the Poets because of its associations with the English romantic poets Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The Castle of Montecuccolo has stood guard
over Pavullo nel Frignano since the 1600s

Travel tip:

In the heart of Frignano Regional Park, the town of Pavullo nel Frignano was once the main Roman stronghold in the Modena Apennines, while it is also home to the medieval Castle of Montecuccolo, birthplace of the 17th century condottiero Raimondo Montecuccoli, which stands well preserved despite the area suffering extensive damage during World War II due to its proximity to the German defensive positions of the Gothic Line.  As well as the mediaeval centre, it is well worth visiting the Ducal Palace and Park, the Parish Church of St Bartholomew, the Church of St Francis of Assisi and the modern art gallery. The surrounding countryside offers the Sassoguidano nature reserve, mountain-bike trails, opportunities for trekking, and an equestrian centre.

Also on this day: 

1908: The birth of hotelier and businessman Charles Forte

1918: The birth of entrepreneur Giorgio Cini

1940: The birth of mathematician Enrico Bombieri

1949: The birth of politician and businesswoman Letizia Moratti

1963: The death of soprano Amelita Galli-Curci

Home

Bianca Cappello – noblewoman

Tragic end for the mistress who earned promotion to Grand Duchess 

Bianca Cappello became the
mistress of Francesco I

Bianca Cappello, the mistress of Francesco I Grand Duke of Tuscany, who became his Grand Duchess after he married her in the face of widespread criticism, died on this day in 1587 in Poggio a Caiano.

Grand Duchess Bianca died just one day after her husband, and historians are still divided between the theories that either they were both poisoned, or that they each died of malarial fever.

Bianca had been born in Venice in 1548, the only daughter of a Venetian nobleman, and as she grew up, she was acknowledged to be a great beauty.

At the age of 15, Bianca fell in love with a young Florentine clerk and she eloped with him to Florence, where they were married. She gave birth to a daughter one year later.

The Venetian government tried to have Bianca arrested and brought back to Venice, but Cosimo I, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, intervened on her behalf and she was allowed to stay in Florence. However, she found that she did not get on well with her husband’s family, who, because they had little money, made Bianca do menial work. 

Because of her beauty, Bianca attracted the attention of the Grand Prince Francesco, the son and heir apparent of Tuscany’s Grand Duke Cosimo I.

Even though Francesco was married to Joanna of Austria, he seduced Bianca, and as a reward, he gave her money and jewellery as presents. Bianca’s own husband was given employment at the Medici court for a while, until he was murdered in a street in Florence in 1572.

After Francesco became Grand Duke on the death of his father in 1574, he installed Bianca in her own palace, which is now known as Palazzo Bianca Cappello, and he flaunted his mistress in front of his wife.

Francesco I de' Medici succeeded
Cosimo I as Grand Duke of Tuscany

Francesco had no legitimate son to inherit the Duchy from him and he thought that a child by Bianca could be a potential heir for him, even though it would be illegitimate.

But after Bianca gave birth to his son, Antonio, in 1576, Francesco refused to acknowledge him, because he was still hoping to have a legitimate heir with his wife, Joanna.

Joanna succeeded in producing a son, Grand Prince Philip de’ Medici, in 1577, crushing Bianca’s hopes of becoming anything more than a mistress who was favoured by Francesco.

However, after Joanna’s death in 1578, Francesco secretly married Bianca, only a few months later.

The marriage was announced publicly in 1579 and Bianca’s son, Antonio, was finally acknowledged as the Duke’s son. Two days later, Bianca was crowned Grand Duchess of Tuscany at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.

The Venetian government sent a representative to the magnificent, official wedding festivities that were held, because they realised that Bianca Cappello could be useful to them as an instrument for cementing good relations with Tuscany.

But Bianca’s position was still insecure because her son, Antonio, was illegitimate, and he was therefore barred from inheriting the Duchy. She was also aware that if her husband died before she did, she would be lost, because his family all disliked her and regarded her as an interloper.

Bianca and Francesco's son,
Antonio, was born in 1576

Then, in 1582, Francesco’s heir, Grand Prince Philip, died, and so Francesco had Antonio legitimised, and declared him to be the heir apparent to the Duchy, making Bianca’s position stronger. In the event, Antonio never succeeded his father, whose title was instead taken by his brother, Ferdinando.

But on 19 October that year, at the Villa Medicea in Poggio a Caiano, Francesco died. The following day, Bianca also died. Both deaths were believed to be either the result of poisoning, or of malarial fever.

Francesco’s brother did not allow Bianca to be buried in the Medici family tomb, and it is thought that she may have been buried in an unmarked, mass grave under the church of San Lorenzo in Florence.

Bianca’s sad story was used as the basis for a tragic drama, Women Beware Women, written  by Thomas Middleton, which was staged for the first time in 1621. She has also been used as a main character in three different novels. 

The historic figure of Bianca Cappello was also a main protagonist in The Venetian, a play written by Clifford Vax, which opened in London’s West End in 1931, before moving on to be staged in venues in America. 

The Palazzo Bianca Cappello can be
found in Via Maggio in Florence

Travel tip:

The Palazzo Bianca Cappello in Florence's Via Maggio was renovated by Bernardo Buontalenti between 1570 and 1574 at the direction of Grand Duke Francesco I in order to install his lover, Bianca Cappello, in a location close to the Grand Ducal residence of Palazzo Pitti, which was less than 200m (220 yards) away. After Bianca had become Grand Duchess and moved permanently to the Palazzo Pitti, she ceded the palace to the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova.  The palace was linked to the Palazzo Pitti by an underground corridor so that Bianca and Francesco could meet secretly during the time they were lovers. Thanks to this corridor, numerous artworks in the Vasari corridor, the elevated enclosed passageway connecting the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti, were kept out of the hands of German occupiers in World War Two. Notable for a facade decorated using the sgraffito technique, with images scratched into layers of different coloured plaster, the palace today houses an hotel.

The Ponte Leopoldo was one of the earliest 
suspension bridges to be built in Italy

Travel tip:

A settlement since Roman times, Poggio a Caiano is a town of almost 10,000 residents on the banks of the river Ombrone in the Montalbano area northwest of Florence. First the Strozzi and then the Medici families populated the area, an important point of reference for trade and communication. The town is home to the magnificent Villa Medicea, the mansion commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent. Built between the 15th and 16th centuries by the architect Giuliano da Sangallo, the Villa Medicea is considered a masterpiece and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The villa was the scene of the sudden and mysterious death of Francesco I de' Medici and his second wife Bianca Cappello. Between Poggio and neighbouring Poggetto, the Torrente Ombrone river is crossed by the Ponte Leopoldo, built in 1833 and one of Italy's first suspension bridges.

Also on this day:

1438: The death of sculptor Jacopo della Quercia

1950: The birth of television presenter Mara Venier

1951: The birth of football manager Claudio Ranieri

1962: The birth of jazz musician Dado Moroni

Home

 

 

 

  

 

Clara Calamai - actress

Star remembered for groundbreaking moments in Italian cinema history

Clara Calamai enjoyed huge popularity with
Italian cinema audiences in the '30s and '40s

The actress Clara Calamai, best known for two Italian cinema classics of the 1940s and for a cult 1970s horror film, died in the Adriatic resort of Rimini on this day in 1998, at the age of 89.

Calamai’s career is generally seen to have peaked with her appearances in Luchino Visconti’s 1943 crime drama Ossessione and, three years later, in Duilio Coletti’s melodrama L’adultera, for which she won a Nastro d’Argento award as best actress.

She scaled down her career drastically after marriage but won fresh acclaim three decades later for her role as Marta, a murderous ageing actress in ‘Master of Horror’ Dario Argento’s box office smash Profondo Rosso.

For many years, Calamai was also known as the first woman to bare her breasts in Italian cinema - in a 1942 movie that not surprisingly caused scandal at the time - although it was later accepted that another actress, Vittoria Carpi, had beaten her to that claim to fame. 

Calamai, sometimes known as Clara Mais, was born in the Tuscany city of Prato, about 25km (16 miles) northwest of Florence, in 1909. She had two sisters, Vittorina and Paola, yet little is known about her early life before her big screen debut in Aldo Vergano’s 1938 historical epic, Pietro Micca.

She made a good living by accepting multiple parts in what then was a somewhat sanitised Italian film industry, which was regulated so tightly within the guidelines set by the Fascist authorities that approved film-makers were limited mainly to lightweight comedies and heroic costume dramas. 

Calamai in La Cena delle Beffe, a film
largely remembered for her 'nude' scene

Her ‘nude’ scene came relatively early in her career, although it scarcely constituted a scene, occupying just 18 frames of Alessandro Blasetti’s La Cena delle Beffe, a drama set in Renaissance Florence starring Amedeo Nazzari. Although it was so brief that an audience member could literally blink and miss it, the outrage provoked was such that minors under the age of 16 were not permitted to watch.

Despite the furore, the episode did no harm to Calamai’s career and her popularity maintained its upwards trajectory, putting her on a par with actresses such as Alida Valli and Valentina Cortese. It later transpired that Blasetti had already shown Vittoria Carpi's naked breast the previous year in La corona di ferro, although because Carpi was a young comparatively unknown actress, it attracted much less attention.

Indeed, the publicity generated may have helped Calamai land her most famous role, in 1943, when Visconti chose her to replace Anna Magnani, who was pregnant, in Ossessione, his debut film.

Co-written as well as directed by Visconti, the film was an adaptation of the 1934 novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice, by the American author, James M Cain. It was the second of seven adaptations of Cain’s novel, although Visconti’s - controversially - was not authorised or even credited.

The film was condemned by the Fascist regime for its unvarnished depictions of Italy’s working class population. But Calamai’s performance as Giovanna, who embarks on an affair with a young hobo and is eventually persuaded to murder her husband, was outstanding and the film is regarded today as a pioneering work of Italian cinema, perhaps the first neorealist film.

Calamai and co-star Massimo Girotti in a scene
from Luchino Visconti's 1943 drama Ossessione

Three years later, in Coletti’s L'adultera, her performance as Velca, a peasant woman who marries a wealthy but elderly landowner and goes on to be the adulteress of the title, resulted in Calamai winning a Nastro d’Argento - silver ribbon - award from Italian film critics as best actress of 1946.

The year before L’adultera’s success, Calamai had married Leonardo Bonzi, a former Italian tennis champion who also competed in bobsleigh at the Olympics. A qualified pilot, Bonzi was from noble stock and could call himself a count, if he so wished. They met when he embarked on a career in film directing and producing.

With the arrival of the first of their two children, Calamai severely limited her acting commitments, taking  parts only sporadically. She and Bonzi divorced in 1961, after which she began to accept invitations from directors she favoured. Her playing of a prostitute in Visconti’s Le notti bianchi reminded cinemagoers of her acting ability. She appeared on television, too, in a Rai adaptation of Henry Fielding’s 18th century novel, Tom Jones.

What turned out to be her final film was hailed as one of her finest. Cast as Marta, an eccentric multiple killer, Calamai’s performance in Dario Argento’s 1975 hit Profondo Rosso - Deep Red - turned her into something of a cult figure among fans of the director’s work. Argento would later describe the film, which starred David Hemmings as the musician who ultimately identified Marta as the murderer, as his greatest work.

Profondo Rosso kept Calamai in the public eye for a number of years but eventually she disappeared from view. After living alone in her home in Rome not far from Termini station, she spent her final years in Rimini, where her sister, Vittorina, had lived since starting a family.

She died there at the age of 89, reportedly following a heart attack. She is buried at the Cimitero Monumentale di Rimini, where the Emilia-Romagna resort’s greatest cinema icon, Federico Fellini, was laid to rest alongside his wife, the actress Giulietta Masina.

The Palazzo Pretorio is one
of Prato's notable buildings

Travel tip:

Prato, a city of just under 200,000 inhabitants, is less than 20 minutes by train from Florence, yet Clara Calamain’s home city is something of an overlooked gem among Tuscany's many attractions. Prato is the home of the Datini archives, a significant collection of late mediaeval documents concerning economic and trade history, produced between 1363 and 1410, as well as many artistic treasures, including frescoes by Filippo Lippi, Paolo Uccello and Agnolo Gaddi inside its Duomo, which has an external pulpit by built by Michelozzo and decorated by Donatello. The Palazzo Pretorio is a building of great beauty, situated in the pretty Piazza del Comune, and there are the ruins of the castle built for the mediaeval emperor and King of Sicily Frederick II.  Prato’s commercial heritage is founded on the textile industry and its growth in the 19th century earned it the nickname the "Manchester of Tuscany".

Rimini's Tempio Malatestiano has frescoes by
Piero della Francesca and paintings by Giotto

Travel tip:

Rimini has become one of the most popular seaside resorts in Europe, with wide sandy beaches and plenty of hotels and restaurants. But it is also a historic town with many interesting things to see. One of Rimini’s most famous sights is the Tempio Malatestiano, a 13th century Gothic church originally built for the Franciscans but which was transformed on the outside in the 15th century and decorated inside with frescoes by Piero della Francesca and works by Giotto and many other artists. Rimini had a role in the unification of Italy in the 19th century. It was there that Joachim Murat, the brother-in-law of Napoleon and King of Naples, issued his Proclamation in 1815, calling for all Italians to unite into a single people and drive out foreigners, namely the Austrians, who occupied large parts of northern Italy at the time. Although Murat was almost certainly acting out of self-interest at the time - he had just declared war on Austria and desperately needed support - the Proclamation is often seen as the opening statement of the Risorgimento.

Also on this day:

1559: The birth of painter and architect Cigoli

1744: The birth of architect Giacamo Quarenghi

1960: The birth of controversial conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan

Home

Pietro Tacca - sculptor

Pupil of Giambologna became major figure in own right

Tacca's equestrian sculpture of Philip IV 
of Spain broke new ground in statuary

The sculptor Pietro Tacca, who succeeded his master, Giambologna, as court sculptor to the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany, was born on this day in 1577 in Carrara.

Tacca, who initially produced work in the Mannerist style, later made a significant contribution to the advance of Baroque and helped preserve Florence’s pre-eminence in bronze casting.

As well as his work for the Medici family, Tacca achieved something never before attempted with his marble equestrian statue of King Philip IV of Spain in Madrid’s Plaza de Oriente. 

The sculpture, considered to be a masterpiece, is notable for depicting the monarch on a rearing horse with its front legs off the ground and the entire weight of the statue supported by its hind legs and tail. 

Tacca began attending the Florence workshop of Giambologna in 1592 at the age of 15. Giambologna was the most important sculptor of his time in Florence, not only for his relationship with the Medici but also for his bronze statue of Neptune above the Fontana di Nettuno in Bologna.

When Giambologna’s first assistant, Pietro Francavilla, left for Paris in 1601, Tacca was chosen to fill his role. On the death of the master in 1608 at the age of 79, Tacca inherited both his studio and his house in Borgo Pinti. A year later, the Medici family appointed him as Giambologna’s successor as the grand-ducal sculptor.

Tacca's i Quattro Mori sculptures in Livorno
showed his embrace of the drama of Baroque

Among Tacca's earliest tasks in his prestigious new position were the completion of some of Giambologna’s unfinished works, including the equestrian statues of Ferdinando I de' Medici in Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence, of Henry IV of France, which was sent to Paris but later destroyed during the revolution in 1793, and of Philip III of Spain, which is still located in the Madrid’s Plaza Mayor.

The statue of Ferdinando I de’ Medici was cast with bronze melted from the cannons of captured Barbary and Ottoman galleys, taken by the Order of Saint Stephen, of which Ferdinando was Grand Master.

As his own career progressed, Tacca began to embrace the Baroque aesthetic. His work became characterised by a sense of the theatrical, conveying dramatic movement and exaggerated emotion. While his sculptures often depicted religious subjects, such as saints and biblical figures, he also created secular works, including fountains and allegorical figures.

Between 1623 and 1626 he executed what is considered his masterpiece, i Quattri Mori - the Four Moors - which shows four Saracen pirates chained at the base of Giovanni Bandini's monument to Ferdinando I de' Medici in Piazza della Darsena in Livorno. The pirates were supposedly taken prisoner by the Order of St. Stephen and imprisoned in Livorno. Tacca used some of them as models, posing them in accentuated twists and depicting grimaces of pain on their faces.

Tacca's Porcellino Fountain, a bronze of a wild
boar, is now in a museum in Florence

Two bronze fountains by Tacca originally destined for Livorno, notable for their intricate grotesque masks and shellwork textures, were set up instead in Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence.

In 1634, Tacco created his famous Fontana del Porcellino, a bronze fountain statue of a wild boar originally planned for the gardens - the Giardino di Boboli - behind Palazzo Pitti, the main Medici residence in Florence, but subsequently placed in the recently built Loggia del Mercato Nuovo, where a copy is currently on display. The original is in the Museo Stefano Bardini in Palazzo Mozzi.

The colossal equestrian bronze of Philip IV in Madrid was Tacca's last public commission.

Based on a design by Diego Velázquez, it was started in 1634 and shipped to Madrid in 1640, the year of Tacca’s death. The sculpture, set on top of a fountain composition, forms the centrepiece of the façade of the Royal Palace. 

Tacca consulted the scientist Galileo Galilei for advice on how he might make the statue stable, despite its entire weight being supported by the two hind legs and the tip of the tail, shown as brushing the ground as the horse rears. The feat had never been attempted successfully in a statue of such scale. 

Towards the end of his life, Pietro Tacca was assisted by his son, Ferdinando, who almost certainly completed some of his father’s unfinished projects. After the death of Ferdinando Tacca, the studio and foundry in Borgo Pinti were taken over by Giovanni Battista Foggini.

Foggini specialised in small bronze statuary. His reproductions of Tacca’s Moors figures in bronze and ceramic were still selling well on the connoisseur market in the early to mid-18th century.

The Giambologna coat of arms
identifies his former workshop

Travel tip:

Borgo Pinti is an historic street in the heart of Florence, which runs from Via Sant’Egidio to Piazzale Donatello. It has several notable landmarks along its path, including the Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, a church dating back to around 1250 on a site that was previously occupied by the Monastery of the Women of Penance, a house of refuge for repentant women known as the Repentite, to which some ascribe the origin of the name Pinti, although others claim it was the name of an ancient family. The street, which forms a north-south axis of the historic centre, is lined with many notable palaces, as well as houses occupied by the painter Perugino and the sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini.  The house and workshops where Giambologna and Pietro Tacca created so much of their art were at numbers 24-26 in a building now called Palazzo Bellini delle Stelle, identifiable by the Giambologna coat of arms over the door.

The white of Carrara's marble makes the Apuan
Alps seemed snow-covered even in the summer

Travel tip:

Pietro Tacca’s town of birth, Carrara, famous for its blue and white marble, sits just inland from the Ligurian Sea coastline, in a valley that descends from the Alpi Apuane in Tuscany. The natural white of the peaks often convinces visitors they are covered with snow even in the summer. Marble has been quarried in the area for more than 2,000 years. Michelangelo was said to have been so taken with the purity of the stone that he spent eight months there choosing blocks for specific projects.  The Pantheon and Trajan's Column were both constructed using Carrara marble, which was also the material used for many Renaissance sculptures.  Carrara, nowadays a city of around 70,000 inhabitants, is home to many academies of sculpture and fine arts and a museum of statuary and antiquities.  The exterior of the city's own 12th century duomo is almost entirely marble.

Also on this day:

1797: The birth of revolutionary-turned-librarian Sir Anthony Panizzi

1841: The birth of politician Alessandro Fortis

1866: Sette e mezzo revolt breaks out in Palermo

1985: Terrorists attack Rome’s iconic Café de Paris

2005: Camorra boss Paolo Di Lauro captured in Naples

Home

Eugenio Montale - poet and translator

Influential writer was fourth Italian to be awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

Eugenio Montale became a
Nobel Prize winner in 1975

Eugenio Montale, who became one of the most influential Italian writers of the 20th century and was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1975, died on this day in 1981 in Milan at the age of 84.

Montale's most famous work is often considered to be his first, a collection of poems he published in 1925 under the title Ossi di seppia - Cuttlefish Bones. These poems established his use of stark imagery, his introspective tone and his fascination with themes such as desolation, alienation and mortality, and the search for elusive meaning in a fragmented world.

Later collections such as Le occasioni (1939) - The Occasions - and La bufera e altro (1956) - The Storm and Other Things - reinforced his reputation as one of Italian literature’s 20th century greats.

Montale was born in 1896 in a building overlooking the botanical gardens of the University of Genoa, a short distance from the city’s Piazza Principe railway station. His father, Domenico, was the co-owner of a chemical products company.

As a young man, Montale was dogged by ill health but obtained a qualification in accountancy and for eight years had ambitions to be an opera singer under the tuition of the baritone, Ernesto Sivori. He never performed in public and after Sivori died in 1923 he did not pursue his studies, focussing more and more on literature, taking it upon himself to learn about Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and D'Annunzio in particular.

Eugenio Montale's first volume of poetry
established him as a great literary talent

Despite his frail health, he was passed fit for military service when Italy entered World War One and experienced frontline fighting in the area around Vallarsa and Rovereto. By the time he was discharged in 1920, he had risen to the rank of lieutenant.

Politically, he opposed Fascism to the extent of signing Benedetto Croce’s Manifesto of Anti-Fascist Intellectuals, yet after the fall of Mussolini he rejected both the Christian Democrats and the Italian Communists and, apart from a brief membership of the centre-left Partito d'Azione, steered clear of any involvement in politics.

He began publishing poetry in the 1920s, initially influenced by the works of poets such as Ezra Pound and TS Eliot, but also drawing on the inspiration he took from family holidays on the rugged Ligurian coast around the Cinque Terre and Rapallo. Montale often uses imagery drawn from the sea and the Mediterranean landscape to convey feelings of isolation and the fragility of existence.

In 1927, he moved to Florence, where he worked as a journalist and literary critic and mixed in the city's intellectual and artistic circles, attending literary gatherings of the café Le Giubbe Rosse, meeting Carlo Emilio Gadda, Tommaso Landolfi and Elio Vittorini among others.  He worked as an editor for the publisher Bemporad and later became the director of the Gabinetto Vieusseux Library, although he lost that position in 1938 because of his anti-Fascist views. 

From 1948 until his death, Montale lived in Milan. He became literary editor of the Corriere della Sera, dealing in particular with the Teatro alla Scala, and music critic for the Corriere d'informazione.

Montale was buried alongside his wife,
Drusilla, at cemetery outside Florence

Montale’s language skills enabled him to translate works by authors such as William Blake and Wallace Stevens into Italian, introducing these writers to a wider Italian audience. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1975 as a recognition of his contributions to Italian poetry, joining Giosuè Carducci  (1904), Grazia Deledda (1926) and Luigi Pirandello (1934) as winners of the prestigious award. They would be followed by Dario Fo in 1997 and, posthumously, by Elsa Morante. Montale had earlier been made a senator for life.

In 1962, in Montereggi, near Fiesole, he had married Drusilla Tanzi, with whom he had been living since 1939. Sadly, after a fall that left her with a fractured femur, she died in October 1964 at the age of 77. He would reflect poignantly on her death in his 1966 collection, Xenia, written in a more personal style. 

In failing health, Montale himself died in Milan’s San Pio X clinic in 1981 a month before his 85th birthday.  A state funeral was held in Milan Cathedral and he was buried in the cemetery next to the church of San Felice a Ema, a suburb on the southern outskirts of Florence, next to his wife Drusilla. 

His archive is preserved at the University of Pavia, with which Montale had a long association and where his daughter, Bianca, was a professor.

The pretty fishing village of Boccadesse is only 
a short distance from the historic centre of Genoa

Travel tip:

The port city of Genoa (Genova), where Eugenio Montale was born, is the capital of the Liguria region. It has a rich blend of mediaeval history, Renaissance architecture, and a vibrant modern culture. Its strategic location has made it a centre of trade and commerce for centuries, with considerable wealth built on its shipyards and steelworks, but also boasts many fine buildings, many of which have been restored to their original splendour.  The Doge's Palace, the 16th century Royal Palace and the Romanesque-Renaissance style San Lorenzo Cathedral are just three examples.  The area around the restored harbour area offers a maze of fascinating alleys and squares, enhanced recently by the work of Genoa architect Renzo Piano, and a landmark aquarium, the largest in Italy, which showcases a diverse array of marine life, from sharks and dolphins to jellyfish and seahorses. The picturesque fishing village of Boccadasse, just outside the historic centre, boasts pastel-coloured houses, a charming harbour, and authentic seafood restaurants.

Manarola, where houses cling to rugged cliffs, is
one of the five villages of the Cinque Terre

Travel tip:

The Cinque Terre, where Montale spent family holidays as a child, is a breathtaking part of the Italian Riviera renowned for its picturesque villages perched on cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is made up of five villages - Riomaggiore, known for its narrow alleys, charming shops, and stunning views; Manarola, which has a picturesque harbour and colourful houses clinging to the cliff; Vernazza, which has mediaeval castle and a sandy beach; Corniglia, which can be reached only by a steep staircase or a shuttle bus but offers stunning views of the surrounding coastline; and Monterosso al Mare, the largest of the five, which has a sandy beach and a historic centre.  The Cinque Terre National Park offers a network of hiking trails that connect the five villages, while boat tours offer the chance to explore the coastline from a different perspective. The Cinque Terre is known for Sciacchetrà, a sweet dessert wine made from dried grapes.

Also on this day:

1492: The birth of Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino

1937: The birth of actress Daniela Rocca

1943: Nazis paratroopers free Mussolini from imprisonment at mountain ski resort

Home

Michele Giuttari – crime writer and police officer

Cop-turned-novelist with inside knowledge of police investigations

Michele Giuttari's novels draw on his experience
as a high-ranking Italian police officer

Michele Giuttari, who headed the police in Florence and used his experience working on investigations into Mafia activities and dangerous criminals to become a successful crime writer, was born on this day in 1950 in Novara di Sicilia, a village in the province of Messina in Sicily.

After studying for a degree in Jurisprudence at the University of Messina, Giuttari qualified as a lawyer. He joined the Polizia di Stato as a commissario in 1978 and later rose through the ranks to take charge of the Florentine police between 1995 and 2003.

Giuttari first served in Calabria, where he held positions in the Squadra Mobile of Reggio Calabria and Cosenza. He then joined the Anti-Mafia investigation department and served first in Naples and then in Florence, where he became head of the Judicial Investigation section, and succeeded in jailing several key Mafia figures.

During his time in command of the Squadra Mobile in Florence, Giuttari was responsible for reopening the Monster of Florence case and proving that the so-called monster was not simply a lone serial killer but was, in fact, a group of killers.

After retiring from serving in the Polizia di Stato, Giuttari started crime writing and has now written a series of novels featuring his character, Commissario Michele Ferrara, the latest, entitled Sangue sul Chianti (Blood on Chianti), having been published in 2021.

Seven novels in the Ferrara series have been published in English, the first of which - entitled A Florentine Death - will fascinate readers who are interested in learning about the methods or seeing into the minds of the Italian police. The book had been published in Italy under the title Scarabeo.

Michele Giuttari has made many appearances on
television in Italy to talk about his life and work

The hero, Commissario Ferrara - the equivalent of Chief Superintendent in the English police - is the head of the Squadra Mobile in Florence, about which Giuttari can write with authority. He can describe what really happens in  murder investigations, interviewing suspects, and organising armed police operations.

As well as providing an authentic account of police procedure in a multiple murder investigation, Giuttari delivers a cleverly plotted mystery that becomes increasingly more gripping as it reaches its dramatic conclusion.

A Death in Tuscany, the second Commissario Ferrara novel published in English, is also fascinating because it offers even more glimpses behind the scenes of an Italian police station and gives the readers the feeling that they are on the inside of a major police investigation.

In this novel, the reader finds out more about the man behind the job title and about his earlier life in Sicily.

Ferrara finds he is up against the Mafia as well as ruthless drugs bosses, and even his own Commissioner, who is enraged both by his unorthodox behaviour during the investigation and because he has fallen foul of the Carabinieri, pressures Giuttari himself has obviously experienced at times during his career.

The Death of a Mafia Don
is available in English  

The next in the series - The Death of a Mafia Don - starts with a bomb exploding near Commissario Ferrara’s car in the centre of Florence, leaving the head of the Squadra Mobile injured. There is an urgent need to find out who was responsible to prevent further atrocities, but with Ferrara  unconscious and in hospital, his loyal colleagues are forced to start the investigation without him.

This is a fast moving novel about terrorism and Mafia activity in Italy seen from the perspective of the security forces. It shows the way the police and the Carabinieri often work together and there is a realistic portrait of Florence as the backdrop for the action.

Former policeman Giuttari has now achieved international success with his crime novels, which have been published in more than 100 countries, and he has won several literary awards, including the Fenice Europa for La Loggia degli Innocenti and the Camaiore Letteratura Gialla for Il Basilisco.

In a film made about the Monster of Florence murders, the character of Giuttari was played by the actor Giorgio Colangeli.

A typical street in historic
Novara di Sicilia

Travel tip:

Situated about 70km (43 miles) southwest of Messina in the northeastern corner of Sicily, Michele Guittari’s beautiful home village of Novara di Sicilia is rich in history and traditions. Built on a hillside at the point where the Nebrodi mountains meet the Peloritani range, it was founded and inhabited by Greeks, then by Romans and Arabs and later conquered by the Normans. The remains of a Norman castle can be found near the Chiesa di San Giorgio. In the village’s historic centre, the Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta, built in the 16th century, has a sandstone façade typical of the area, with a wide staircase leading to an essentially Renaissance interior. Just 5km (3.5 miles) from the centre of the village is the Abbazia di Santa Maria, which dates back to the 12th century and is said to be the best example of a Cistercian building in Sicily. 

The Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta - Cosenza's
duomo - lies at the heart of the mediaeval city

Travel tip:

Calabria is a part of Italy which did not traditionally attract large numbers of overseas tourists but is becoming more popular thanks to beautiful coastal towns and villages such as Tropea, San Nicola Arcella and Pizzo, while the inland city of Cosenza - where Michele Giuttari once worked - has been described as epitomising the “unkempt charm of southern Italy” with a history that can be traced back to the third century, when there was a settlement called Consentia, the capital of the Brutti tribe. Over subsequent years, the area was captured by the Visigoths, the Lombards, the Saracens, the Normans and the Spanish before the Risorgimento and unification saw it become part of the new Italy.  At the heart of the mediaeval old city, with its network of steep, narrow streets, is a cathedral originally built in the 11th century and modified many times subsequently.  The old town also boasts the 13th century Castello Svevo, built on the site of a Saracen fortification, which hosted the wedding of Louis III of Naples and Margaret of Savoy,  but which the Bourbons used as a prison.

Also on this day:

1576: The birth of Cardinal and art collector Scipione Borghese

1878: The birth of conductor Tullio Serafin

1886: The birth of vaudeville star Guido Deiro 

1922: The birth of actor Vittorio Gassman

Home

Baccio d’Agnolo - architect and woodcarver

Florentine who influenced the look of his home city

Baccio d'Agnolo was a significant
influence on Florentine architecture

The woodcarver, sculptor and architect Baccio D'Agnolo, whose work significantly influenced the architectural landscape of his home city in the Renaissance period, was born in Florence on this day in 1462.

His birth name was Bartolomeo Baglioni but he came to be referred to as d’Agnolo in a reference to the name of his father, Angelo, while Baccio was a popular short form for Bartolomeo. His father was also a woodcarver, which explains the direction of his early career.

Between 1491 and 1502, Baccio executed much of the decorative carving in the church of Santa Maria Novella and the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence before turning to architecture. 

He worked alongside Simone del Pollaiolo in restoring the Palazzo Vecchio, and in 1506 was commissioned to complete the drum of the cupola of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, although the project was ultimately abandoned after criticism from Michelangelo.

Among the notable buildings attributed to Baccio d’Agnolo are the Palazzo Borgherini-Rosselli del Turco and the Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni, while his design for the campanile of the church of Santo Spirito has also been praised.

Baccio had five children, three of whom - Giuliano, Filippo and Domenico - also became architects. 

It was through studying the best work of contemporaries such as Bernardo della Cecca, Giuliano da Maiano and Francione that he acquired such a high level of skill in working with wood.

An example of Baccio d'Agnolo's
early work with wood carving

The art historian Giorgio Vasari, who was a contemporary of so many of the great names of the Renaissance and was a talented architect in his own right, described Baccio as unsurpassed in the art of working wood. At the height of his fame, Baccio’s workshop became a meeting place for the most famous artists of the time, such as Michelangelo Buonarrotti, Raphael, del Pollaiolo, Giuliano and Antono da Sangallo the Elder, and Benedetto da Maiano. 

Many of Baccio’s original wood works were lost. The best remaining evidence of his carpentry is the choir of the church of Santa Maria Novella and the 16th-century choir of the church of Sant'Agostino in Perugia, on which his sons are said to have collaborated.

In a second period of his life, Baccio dedicated himself almost exclusively to architecture. He collaborated with Del Pollaiolo and Antonio da Sangallo the Elder on the construction of the Great Hall in the Palazzo della Signoria.

He established himself as an architect in his own right in 1503-04, building the Palazzo Taddei in Via dei Ginori, which was influenced by Del Pollaiolo’s Palazzo Guadagni and became a template for the typical noble Florentine residence of the first half of the 16th century. 

His commission to build an eighth part of the gallery around the huge dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, left unfinished by Filippo Brunelleschi, was continued due to the harsh criticism of Michelangelo, who defined it as a "cricket cage". 

The Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni palace in the Piazza di Santa Trinita (1517-20) is considered by some to be Baccio's masterpiece, bringing together all the qualities of his art, the windows surmounted by the pediment and interposed by niches and excavations having a genuine originality. 

Executed in the High Renaissance style that Baccio admired during a period in which he worked in Rome, it became a model for civil constructions of the 16th century. 

Baccio d’Agnolo died in Florence in 1543, at the age of 80.

The Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni
is one of Baccio's notable works

Travel tip:

The Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni is in Piazza di Santa Trinita on Via de' Tornabuoni in central Florence. It was built on the site of a former residence of the Soldanieri and Dati families, which was bought by Bartolomeo Bartolini-Salimbeni, who paid Baccio d'Agnolo two florins per month for his work. The Bartolini-Salimbeni family lived in the palace until the early 19th century, after which, in 1839, it became the Hotel du Nord, where figures such as the American writer Herman Melville stayed. The palace was restored in 1961 and it is now a private property. It once housed the San Romano Battle paintings by Paolo Uccello, which were commissioned by a member of the Bartolini Salimbeni family. The paintings are now distributed between the Uffizi, the National Gallery in London and the Louvre in Paris.

Palazzo Vecchio, which
Baccio helped restore

Travel tip:

Florence’s imposing Palazzo Vecchio, formerly Palazzo della Signoria, a cubical building of four storeys made of solid rusticated stonework, crowned with projecting crenellated battlements and a clock tower rising to 94m (308ft), became home of Duke Cosimo I de' Medici moved his official seat from the Medici palazzo in via Larga in May 1540. When Cosimo later removed to Palazzo Pitti, he officially renamed his former palace the Palazzo Vecchio, the "Old Palace", although the adjacent town square, the Piazza della Signoria, still bears the original name. Cosimo commissioned the painter and architect Giorgio Vasari to build an above-ground walkway, the Vasari corridor, from the Palazzo Vecchio, through the Uffizi, over the Ponte Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti. Cosimo I also moved the seat of government to the Uffizi, which translated literally, simply means ‘offices’. Today, of course, the Uffizi, is known the world over for its collection of art treasures.

Also on this day:

1860: The birth of politician Vittorio Orlando

1870: The birth of sculptor Pompeo Coppini

1946: The birth of actor Michele Placido

1979: The birth of footballer Andrea Pirlo

Home

Eugenio Barsanti - engineer

Created the first working internal combustion engine

A model of the Barsanti-Matteucci engine
pictured on display at a museum in Milan

The engineer Eugenio Barsanti, whose internal combustion engine was the first working example of the technology known to have been produced, was born on this day in 1821 in Pietrasanta, a town in northern Tuscany.

The Belgian-French engineer Étienne Lenoir and the German Nicolaus Otto are credited with the first commercially successful internal combustion engines, but Barsanti’s machine, which he developed with partner Felice Matteucci, was unveiled in 1853 - six years before Lenoir’s and eight years ahead of Otto’s.

Barsanti might have achieved commercial success himself but shortly after reaching an agreement with a company in Belgium to produce his machine on a commercial scale he contracted typhoid fever, from which he never recovered.

A rather sickly child, known by his parents as Nicolò, Barsanti took the name Father Eugenio after entering the novitiate of the Piarists, the oldest Catholic religious order dedicated to education, where was ordained as a priest.

He took a teaching position at Collegio San Michele in Volterra. It was there, while lecturing on the explosive energy created by mixing hydrogen and air that he realised the potential of using combustible gases to lift the pistons in a motor.

He developed the idea further after meeting Matteucci, an engineer, while teaching at an institute in Florence. 

A postage stamp issued to mark the 150th
anniversary of the engine's invention

After exhibiting their first engine at the prestigious Accademia dei Georgofili in Florence to much excitement, Barsanti and Matteucci travelled to London to obtain a patent. 

By 1856, Barsanti and Matteucci had developed a two-cylinder five horsepower motor and two years later built a two-piston engine designed to provide a source of energy to drive machinery in factories and workshops.

The Barsanti-Matteucci engine was quicker and more efficient than the one developed by Lenoir and won a silver medal from the Institute of Science of Lombardy. They believed it could also be used in the propulsion of ships as an alternative to steam.

After the prototype of their engine was built in Milan, the two were all set to go into mass production at a plant near Liège in Belgium owned by the English industrialist John Cockerill when Barsanti fell ill with typhoid fever. He died on April 18, 1864.

After his partner’s death, Matteucci found himself unsuited to the demands of running a commercial business and failed to secure the contracts necessary to make mass production viable. He returned to his previous work in hydraulics. 

Nicolaus Otto, on the other hand, had a background in business, giving him an edge not only in marketing skills but in the contacts he could approach for investment. He was the first to enjoy significant commercial success producing internal combustion engines and tends to be credited with its invention.

Barsanti's ashes are buried at the 
Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence

Matteucci’s arguments that Otto’s engine was clearly similar to his and Barsanti’s were largely ignored. Nonetheless, many of the documents relating to the original patents he and Barsanti obtained are preserved in the Museo Galileo in Florence, while Barsanti’s achievements are acknowledged in Italy, where a postage stamp was issued to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Barsanti-Matteucci engine.

In 1954, Barsanti's ashes were moved from the Church of San Giovannino degli Scolopi, the small, Piarist church in Florence, to the Basilica of Santa Croce, to rest alongside the remains of such illustrious Italians as Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, the poet Ugo Foscolo and the composer Gioachino Rossini among many others.

Copies of Barsanti’s engines can be seen at the Osservatorio Ximeniano in Florence and the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan.

The wide, sandy beach at Marina di Pietrasanta
is 5km long and attracts thousands of visitors

Travel tip:

Pietrasanta, just north of Viareggio in the province of Lucca in Tuscany, still has part of its Roman wall, although as a mediaeval town it was not founded until 1255, expanding around the Rocca di Sala fortress of the Lombards. Its Duomo - the Collegiate Church of San Martino - dates back to the 13th century. Pietrasanta grew in importance in the 15th century due to its marble, the beauty of which was first recognised by the sculptor, Michelangelo, to be followed in later years by such artists as Fernando Botero, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, and Damien Hirst. The town declined during the 17th and 18th centuries, partly due to malaria, but underwent reconstruction in the 19th century. It has a pleasant central square, while the seaside resort of Marina di Pietrasanta is just 3km (1.9 miles) away.  Part of the Versilia coastline, Marina di Pietrasanta boasts some of the area's best beaches, stretching for 5km (3 miles).

The waterfront at Viareggio is notable for its many
examples of Liberty-style architecture

Travel tip:

Viareggio, which can be found just 13km (8 miles) south of Pietrasanta, is a popular resort also known for its excellent sandy beaches and for its carnival, a month-long event dating back to 1873 that runs from February through to March and features parades of giant papier-mache floats designed to represent well-known public figures. The Tuscan resort is also notable for its beautiful Liberty-style architecture, much of it built in its heyday in the late 19th and early 20th century, many examples of which thankfully survived heavy bombing in World War Two when the town was a target because of its shipbuilding industry.  The body of the English poet Shelley, who drowned at sea, was washed up on a beach near the resort in 1822.  He was cremated on the beach under the supervision of his friend, the poet Lord Byron. There is a monument to Shelley in the town’s Piazza Paolina.

Also on this day:

54: The death of Roman emperor Claudius

1687: The birth of architect Giorgio Massari

1815: The execution of Joachim Murat, former king of Naples

1884: The birth of anarchist Mario Buda

1988: The birth of sportsman and entrepreneur Piero Dusio

1985: The death of silent movie actress Francesca Bertini

Home