Giulio Monteverde - sculptor

Artist who changed the face of monumental and funerary art

Giulio Monteverde's work broke new
ground in the art of sculpture

Giulio Monteverde, whose works were famous for breaking with neo-classical traditions to introduce realism, romanticism and the celebration of achievement into the art of sculpture, was born on this day in 1837 in Bistagno, a village about 35km (22 miles) southwest of Alessandria, in the Piedmont region.

Monteverde, who spent much of his working life in Rome, is best known for his sculptures commemorating the achievements of Christopher Columbus, Benjamin Franklin and Edward Jenner, the enigmatic beauty of his Angel of the Resurrection funerary monument, the 10-metre bronze sculpture Il pensiero at the Altare della Patria in Rome, and statues of national figures such as Risorgimento leader Giuseppe Mazzini and the opera composer Vincenzo Bellini.

For many years a professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, Monteverde established that secular themes such as scientific progress and medical advancement could be represented in sculpture with the same heroic grace as mythical or religious figures. 

His Angel of the Resurrection, commissioned by the wealthy merchant Francesco Oneta in 1882 to stand guard over his family tomb at the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno in Genoa, a sensual figure with an expression of inscrutable detachment, is considered by some critics to be his masterpiece, lauded as the ‘Mona Lisa of cemetery art’.

Born into a working class family, Monteverde displayed an early interest in art that prompted his father, Vittorio, a weaver, to apprentice him to a wood carver of his acquaintance in Casale Monferrato, his home town, some 70km (42 miles) from Bistagno.

From there he moved to Genoa, where he remained for four years as a student at the Ligurian Academy of Fine Arts, while supporting himself with work as a furniture maker. 

He married young. His wife, Rosa, would prove to be a steadfast supporter of his artistic ambitions, even in the toughest times. When he won a prestigious scholarship to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome in 1865, she encouraged him to take it, even though the accompanying grant would barely cover their living costs.

Monteverde challenged convention
with his Angel of the Resurrection

In the event, they found modest accommodation in the artistic quarter between the Spanish Steps and Piazza Barberini and started a family, Rosa bearing him three daughters in Erminia, Luigia and Corinna.

His first major breakthrough came in 1867. Perhaps with his young daughters as models, he carved a sculpture entitled Bambini che giocano con il gatto (Children Playing with a Cat).

It is said that an art dealer offered him 5,000 lire for it, which was a substantial sum, but that Rosa, already displaying a sharp business brain, advised him to turn it down, reasoning that a dealer would always offer less than the actual value. They later sold the piece directly to King Charles I of Württemberg for double the amount, enough to give them financial security.

Children continued to be a theme in his work as three major pieces in the early 1870s established Monteverde’s international reputation.

In Colombo giovinetto (The Young Columbus), he imagined the future explorer as a slender, rather graceful boy, sitting on a mooring bollard looking thoughtfully out to sea. The work won a gold medal at the Italian Exhibition of 1870 in Parma.

He followed this with Il Genio di Franklin (The Genius of Franklin), which won a silver medal at the 1872 Milan Exposition. The piece depicts a young angel holding a lightning rod, commemorating Benjamin Franklin's scientific discovery in proving that lightning was electricity and inventing the lightning rod to protect buildings in storms.

The following year, he won a gold medal at the 1873 Vienna Universal Exposition with his somewhat daring sculpture Edward Jenner Vaccinating His Son Against Smallpox, showing the English doctor injecting his experimental smallpox serum into the arm of his own infant son. The piece was groundbreaking for the stark realism of the way the figures are posed and for Monteverde’s brilliance in capturing the intense concentration in Jenner’s face.

Monteverde's sculpture of Edward
Jenner was his most daring work

As the demand for copies of his work soared and commissions multiplied, and with his studio on Via Flaminia, where he had moved in 1870, no longer big enough, Monteverde achieved a level of wealth that enabled him to commission the construction of a beautiful custom property in Piazza dell'Indipendenza, in what is now the Castro Pretorio rione, then an upmarket neighbourhood that was at the heart of Rome’s post-unification expansion into a modern European capital.

The house combined a vast workspace and private gallery on the ground floor, while the upper levels housed an elegant residence, where he lived with Rosa and their daughters.

By this time a public figure, both a councillor in Rome and a member of the Senate, Monteverde’s work over the next couple of decades included monumental statues of Giuseppe Mazzini in Buenos Aires, Argentina (with a copy in Milan’s Piazza Della Repubblica), of Vittorio Emanuele II in Rovigo and Bologna, and of Vincenzo Bellini, now in Piazza Stesicoro in Catania.

Yet it was through his funerary art that Monteverde left an indelible stamp on late 19th-century sculpture by altering the visual vocabulary of monumentality and mourning.

Traditionally, funerary monuments were characterised by sorrowful figures or sometimes terrifying images of death. By contrast, his Angel of the Resurrection, also known as Monteverde’s Angel, is a soft, even seductive figure, her elegant form wrapped in flowing silk and with a face of almost Botticellian features, head tilted forwards, her expression revealing little emotion.

Colombo giovinetto - 
his first major success

He made a copy for his own funerary chapel at the Verano Cemetery in Rome, where he created the similarly mysterious Angel of the Night to decorate the tomb of Primo Zonca, a lithographer and printer.

Giulio Monteverde died at the age of almost eighty in October 1917 in Rome.  

His colossal Il pensiero - The Thought - the 10-metre-high allegorical sculpture cast in gilded bronze, positioned on the east side of the grand Vittoriano (Altare della Patria) gate in Rome, was therefore his last great work.

Commissioned as part of a monumental complex dedicated to King Victor Emmanuel II, it combines classical imagery with the patriotic and ideological ideals of post-unification Italy. It features a winged personification of Il pensiero resting a protective hand on the shoulder of La saggezza (Wisdom), who is adorned with the classical helmet and shield of Minerva. La saggezza in turn reaches out to lift Il popolo italiano (The Italian People) lying at their feet. Three other figures on the lower flanks represent a counter narrative: La discordia (Discord), La tirannia (Tyranny), and Il genio della guerra (The Genius of War). 

The Villino Monteverdi, which housed the sculptor's
extensive studio as well as his family home

Travel tip:

The Castro Pretorio rione, where Monteverde chose to build his Villino Monteverde house and studio, is home to some of Rome's grandest Imperial ruins and late 19th-century architecture. Situated on the northeast edge of the historic centre of the city, it wraps around two sides of the city’s Termini railway station. Historic sights situated with Castro Pretorio, which takes its names from the Praetorian Guard camp that existed there in ancient Rome, include the Baths of Diocletian, the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, which was built within the ruins of the Diocletian baths, Piazza della Repubblica and Porta Pia - like the basilica, designed by Michelangelo - close to where the Italian Army breached the Aurelian Walls in 1870 to capture Rome and complete the unification of Italy. In the 1870s, it became an area of massive urban expansion, the area chosen for the development of a prestigious residential area to house an influx of government workers, politicians, and wealthy elites, after Rome became Italy’s new capital. Characterised by what became known as Umbertine-style architecture - after King Umberto I - its houses had grand, classical facades, high ceilings, and symmetric windows, with the focus on elegant townhouses or small villas - villini - rather than massive apartment blocks. Piazza dell’Indipendenza was at the heart of this new development.

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The Gipsoteca Giulio Monteverde in Bistagno houses
 the original plaster casts for many of his great works

Travel tip:

Bistagno, Giulio Monteverde’s birthplace, sits within the province of Alessandria, nestled in the picturesque hills of the Langhe and Monferrato wine region, a short drive from the historic thermal spa town of Acqui Terme, and about 100km (60 miles) southeast of the regional capital, Turin.  A quiet village that preserves the medieval layout of its historic centre, it takes pride in its connection with Monteverde, not least through the Gipsoteca Giulio Monteverde, a dedicated gallery of plaster casts in Corso Carlo Testa.  After Monteverde died in Rome in 1917, his daughters inherited the original plaster casts, studies, and models used to carve his iconic marble masterpieces. They were eventually donated to Bistagno. The museum spans seven halls and exhibits 40 original plaster masterpieces, including the original studies for The Genius of Franklin. The Gipsoteca also has a copy of Colombo giovinetto, the original of which is in the Castello d’Albertis in Genoa, having been commissioned by the sea captain, Enrico Alberto d'Albertis in 1870.

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More reading:

How Vincenzo Gemito’s sculpture celebrated figures from Naples street life

Why sculptor Pietro Canonica’s grasp of realism won him favour with European royalty

La Pietà - Michelangelo's masterpiece

Also on this day:

1551: The birth of composer Giulio Caccini

1881: The birth of Mona Lisa thief Vincenzo Peruggia

1887: The birth of naval commander Luigi Rizzo

1957: The birth of footballer Antonio Cabrini

1965: The birth of chef and TV presenter Carlo Cracco

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Enrico Alberto d’Albertis - naval officer and yachtsman

Navigator recreated Colombus’s Atlantic voyage

Enrico Alberto d'Albertis spent his
whole life sailing the globe

Enrico Alberto d’Albertis, an intrepid sailor who circumnavigated the globe at least three times during his lifetime, was born on this day in 1846 in Voltri, a former fishing village now a district of Genoa.

In his time, d’Albertis was a navigator, writer, ethnologist, philologist, yachtsman, and philanthropist. He served in the Royal Italian Navy and commanded merchant vessels, but is best remembered for recreating Christopher Columbus’s Atlantic route using self‑built historical instruments and for founding Italy’s first yacht club. 

He also built a home in the style of a castle, the Castello d’Albertis, an example of the Gothic Revival architectural movement, on the Monte Galletto hill, offering sweeping views over the Gulf of Genoa. He left the castle to the city.

As well as d’Albertis’s own living quarters, the castle now houses the Museo delle Culture del Mondo, which contains ethnographic and archaeological collections assembled by Captain d'Albertis during his travels in Africa, the Americas, and Oceania, as well as nautical collections and photographs, volumes from his library, hundreds of drawings for the construction of the neo-Gothic complex, and a substantial assembly of sundials, for which he had a lifetime’s fascination.

Born into a family who were successful in the textile industry, Enrico was educated at the Collegio “Carlo Alberto” in Moncalieri, near Turin, then entered the Collegio di Marina di Genova.

He made his first circumnavigation of the world as a naval cadet, aboard the Principe Umberto.  His route included the North Sea, Baltic, Egypt, and the Canary Islands as part of a full itinerary that saw him cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans - an experience that shaped his lifelong interest in navigation, ethnology, and maritime instruments.

Commissioned as guardiamarina (ensign) in 1866, he fought in the Battle of Lissa during the Third Italian War of Independence, before serving on the battleships Ancona and Formidabile. In 1869, he witnessed the inauguration of the Suez Canal.

After being promoted to first-class midshipman, he left the navy for the merchant navy. Following several voyages in the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea as mate aboard the Emma D, on which he also sailed to England in 1871, he was given command of the Emilia, a sailing vessel equipped with an auxiliary engine.

The Castello d'Albertis, the neo-Gothic villa-castle
d'Albertis built for himself on a hill above Genoa

The Emilia became the lead ship of the first Italian convoy to transit the Suez Canal en route to the Indies.

From 1874, D’Albertis dedicated himself to yachting. In 1879, he co‑founded the first Italian Yacht Club, a major institutional milestone in Italian maritime culture.

In 1891, he organised the voyage that made him famous in the world of navigators. The year before the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Cristoforo Colombo; d'Albertis set sail in a specially built yacht - the Corsaro - and with it retraced Columbus's course. 

After 27 days at sea, navigating with the same equipment used by his great predecessor, he reached the coasts of San Salvador. He sailed on from the Caribbean island to New York, where he was officially greeted by the US authorities in recognition of his achievement.

The journey back to the old continent was not as comfortable for d'Albertis as had been the one going. Returning on one of the four school ships of the Naval Academy of Livorno that were at anchor in the bay of San Lorenzo, d’Albertis ran into a storm that caused waves ten metres high off the island of Terranova. It was only after several days of violently pitching seas that he managed to get out of the storm.

Some of the instruments used by
d'Albertis in his Columbus voyage

Between 1895 and 1896 he made his second or perhaps third voyage around the world. Although he never published any accounts of these journeys, their itineraries have been reconstructed thanks to the text of unpublished manuscripts, which show that between October 1877 and October 1878 he visited Ceylon, India, Burma, Singapore, Borneo, New Guinea, Australia, Sumatra, Japan, the United States, and Panama, before travelling to South Africa, Tasmania, New Zealand, Polynesia, California, Mexico, and Cuba between 1895 and 1896. 

Further to these voyages, at the end of 1910 he visited Egypt, Ceylon, Australia, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil.

In between, he had travelled to Tripolitania, Algeria, Tunisia, Eritrea and Benadir in Somalia, as well as several times also to Egypt and Sudan, taking part in excavations while in Egypt. In 1906 he sailed to East Africa, Harrar, Uganda and Lake Victoria , while in 1908 he circumnavigated the entire African continent. 

When Italy entered World War One, d’Albertis volunteered to work in the Tyrrhenian Sea. He was awarded the War Merit Cross by the Ministry of the Navy for his work in the surveillance of enemy submarines

He spent the last years of his life in Genoa, in the castle he built atop Monte Galletto, which he transformed into a museum. In retirement, he devoted himself to the construction of sundials, which had always been a hobby he enthusiastically embraced. Between 1875 and 1928, he built around a hundred, many of which can be seen in the museum today.

D'Albertis died on the evening of March 3, 1932, leaving his castle to the municipality of Genoa.

The Sanctuary of Nostra Signora di Acquasanta,
which contains a number of important artworks
 

Travel tip:

The area around Voltri, where d’Albertis was born, has been inhabited since prehistoric times. It probably took its name from the Ligures tribe of the Veituri. In the Middle Ages it was a hamlet in the Republic of Genoa and a centre for the production of paper.  In 1796 Voltri was the site of a battle between the French troops of Napoléon Bonaparte and the allied forces of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. After the fall of the First French Empire, it became an autonomous commune in the Sardinian territories, a status it kept until 1926, when the Mussolini’s Fascist government made it part of the wider Genoa area. It sits about 17km (10 miles) west of the centre of Genoa. It is now a quartiere of the city, part of the VII Municipio.  Notable sights include the Sanctuary of Nostra Signora di Acquasanta, the Villa Duchessa di Galliera and the parish churches of Sant’Ambrogio and Santi Nicolò ed Erasmo.

The headquarters of the Yacht Club Italiano, which
still plays a major part in the Italian yachting world 

Travel tip:

The Yacht Club Italiano, which Enrico d’Albertis co-founded in 1879 with Vittorio Augusto Vecchi, a naval officer, with the support of King Umberto I, is today based at the Porticciolo Duca degli Abruzzi in the Carignano area of Genoa, about 1.5km (1 mile) east of the city centre. The club is a thriving organisation, putting on prestigious events on the yachting calendar, including the Rolex Giraglia, Genova Sailing Week, and the Millevele. The club also provides sailing education through its Scuola di Mare Beppe Croce, founded in 2000. Croce was president of the club for 28 years, D’Albertis is remembered in a prize, the d'Albertis Trophy, which the club awards for significant sailing feats. Originally founded as the Regio Yacht Club Italiano, the club organised its first regatta in August, 1880, in the Gulf of La Spezia, featuring 177 boats. Following the fall of the Italian monarchy, the club was re-founded in 1946 as the Yacht Club Italiano.

More reading:

Amerigo Vespucci, the Medici clerk who discovered a new world

The four-year epic journey of Alessandro Malaspina 

Andrea Doria, the brilliant naval commander who freed Genoa from foreign domination

Also on this day:

1514: The birth of Lorenzino de’ Medici

1919: The founding of the Italian Fascists

1922: The birth of comic actor Ugo Tognazzi

1945: The birth of singer-songwriter Franco Battiato

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Renzo De Vecchi - footballer

Record-holder since 1910 as youngest to play for Italy

Renzo De Vecchi in the red
and black of AC Milan

Renzo De Vecchi, a defender whose record as the youngest player to appear for the Italy national team has stood since 1910, was born on this day in 1894 in Milan.

De Vecchi was aged 16 years and 112 days when he was sent on to replace an injured player in a match against Hungary in Budapest on May 26, 1910. The newly-formed Italian team had played its first fixture only 16 days previously, beating France 6-2 in Milan. This time the result was a resounding 6-1 defeat.

Forward Rodolfo Gavinelli might have been credited with the record a year later. It was claimed he was only 16 years and 97 days when he appeared against France in Paris 1911 but it could not be recognised officially  because of uncertainty over his date of birth.

Since then, the only player to appear for the azzurri before the age of 17 is the Udinese attacker Simone Pafundi - currently on loan with Sampdoria - who was 16 years 247 days when he came off the substitutes’ bench against Albania in Tirana in November 2022.

De Vecchi, who made a total of 43 appearances for Italy, many as captain, in a career interrupted by the First World War, also held the record for 28 years as the youngest to play in Serie A, which was known as the Italian Football Championship during his career.

He was 15 years 284 days on his debut in November 1909, which was bettered in 1937 by Amedeo Amedei of Roma at 15 years 280 days.  The current record-holder is another AC Milan player, forward Francesco Camarda, who was aged 15 years 260 days when he tasted his first Serie A action in November 2023.

De Vecchi had another claim to football fame off the field. After hanging up his boots as a player in 1930, he became a regular contributor to many sport newspapers and in 1939 helped journalist Leone Boccali compile the first edition of Enciclopedia lllustrata del Calcio Italiano, considered the bible of Italian football.

The publication became so popular and well regarded that it is still published. Now called Almanacco lllustrato del Calcio, the 2026 edition is the 75th.  

De Vecchi was part of a Milan side that twice finished second in the Italian Football Championship, his qualities as a player making him such a revered member of the team that he was given the nickname "Il Figlio di Dio" - The Son of God - by the Milan fans.

De Vecchi (second right, back row) pictured with
the title-winning Genoa CFC team of 1924

As a player of brains rather than brawn, De Vecchi is said to have transformed the role of full back, who was traditionally asked to perform only basic tasks, mostly as uncomplicated as kicking the ball away from danger or hurling it as far up the field as possible from throw-ins.

Thanks to De Vecchi’s example, the full back became a contributor to the game as well as simply a defender, looking to pass the ball to a midfield teammate to set attacks in motion and taking throw-ins that had direction and purpose. 

De Vecchi even scored goals, which was unheard of from a traditional full back. He hit seven in his 64 appearances for AC Milan, who often asked him to take penalties.  As a defender, he was known for his strength, tackling ability, anticipation and organisational skills, yet had excellent ball skills and could dribble as effectively as a winger.

Despite becoming an idol among Milan fans, it was after he moved to Genoa in 1913 that he enjoyed his biggest success, winning the title in 1914-15 season and again in 1922-23 and 1923-24. Ultimately, he spent 16 years with the Liguria club before retiring as a player in 1929, having spent the last two seasons there in the role of player-coach.

De Vecchi, captain of the Italy team, with
his Netherlands counterpart, in 1920

Brought up in the Porta Ticinese area of Milan, De Vecchi first displayed his exceptional ability playing for a small Milanese team, Pro Monforte. 

Convinced his son could have a bright future in the game, De Vecchi’s father, Enrico, a die-hard AC Milan supporter, became a partner in the club. He had to pay handsomely for the privilege, but it opened doors for his son to sign with the rossoneri. 

Yet the Milan of De Vecchi’s time could not reproduce the success the club enjoyed under the club’s English-born player-manager and co-founder, Herbert Kilpin, who led them to three titles in their first eight years as a club.

When rumours began to circulate that De Vecchi, fast establishing a reputation as the best defender in the Italian game, was unsettled, another of the Italian game’s early giants, Genoa Cricket and Football Club, set out to sign him.

Genoa’s Scottish-born president, Geo Davidson, came up with a record transfer fee of 24,000 lire to persuade Milan to sell. He also fixed up De Vecchi with a well-paid job at the port city’s Banca Commerciale, which enabled him to circumnavigate the Italian Football Federation’s rule that players, who were still officially amateurs, could be transferred from one club to another only if they had moved for work reasons.

De Vecchi’s amateur status also permitted him to play for Italy at the Olympic football tournaments of 1920 and 1924, in Antwerp and Paris, although the azzurri were successful in neither.

During World War One, when Genoa were declared champions after the 1914-15 championship ended early, many footballers lost their lives in action. De Vecchi managed to avoid being sent to the front. He enlisted in the infantry, stationed in Brescia, but was employed on liaison services, traveling in a motorcycle sidecar. 

After ending his career as a player, De Vecchi became a coach, first with Genoa and then Rapallo, a resort town near Genova. He reinforced his reputation as a hero in his adopted city by winning the 1934-35 Serie B (Girone A) title as coach, ensuring their absence from Serie A was limited to just one season after relegation the year before.

Having originally pursued his journalist interests simultaneously with being a player and then coach, he became a journalist full time. Having returned to Milan, he died in 1967 at the age of 73.

Porta Ticinese, of one Milan's historic gates, gives
its name to the district in which De Vecchi was born

Travel tip:

Porta Ticinese, the rione - district - of Milan in which De Vecchi was born, is today one of Milan’s most atmospheric and historic quarters. It takes its name from the Porta Ticinese gate. Formerly known as Porta Cicca, and during Napoleonic rule as Porta Marengo, the south-west facing former entrance to the city was first created with the Spanish walls of the city, in the 16th century, but later demolished and rebuilt in the early 19th century. The current arch was built between 1801 and 1813 by architect Luigi Cagnola. The district is part of the Navigli area of Milan, which boasts monuments, significant churches and night life, particularly around its canals, and has become one of the most important areas of Milan outside the historic centre. It is home to the Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio, first established in the Middle Ages and restored several times. Sant'Eustorgio is located inside the Parco delle Basiliche - officially known as the Parco Papa Giovanni Paolo II - a 40,700 square metre urban park that also includes the Basilica of San Lorenzo, one of the oldest churches in the city, originally built in Roman times. The nearby Colonne di San Lorenzo are among the best preserved Roman ruins in Milan.

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A sheltered gulf and mild climate have made
Rapallo an attractive tourist destination

Travel tip: 

Rapallo, the coastal town on the Gulf of Tigullio in eastern Liguria, where De Vecchi coached for a time, is known for its sheltered gulf, mild climate and elegant seafront, which made it one of the earliest winter resorts in Italy. With its palm-lined promenade, Rapallo became famous across Europe in the late 19th century as a winter retreat for visitors from northern countries. A settlement since pre‑Roman times, the town grew significantly in the Middle Ages under the Republic of Genoa, benefiting from its strategic coastal position, and flourished after the arrival of the railway in the late 1800s opened it to tourism. Rapallo has an unusually rich literary heritage for a small Ligurian town, having attracted British, Irish, and American writers during the interwar years. Max Beerbohm, Ezra Pound and Friedrich Nietzsche all chose to stay in Rapallo for part of their lives, as did the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.  Architectural highlights include the Castello sul Mare, a 16th‑century coastal fort that sits right at the water’s edge, plus the churches of San Gervasio e Protasio and San Stefano. The Santuario di Montallegro, a major pilgrimage destination reached by cable car, offers sweeping views of the gulf.  Portofino, Santa Margherita Ligure  and the Cinque Terre are among its neighbours on the Ligurian Riviera.

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More reading:

Genoa CFC  - Italy’s oldest football club

The first Italian football championship

Herbert Kilpin and the founding of AC Milan

Also on this day:

1702: The birth of architect Giovanni Battista Vaccarini

1757: The birth of eye surgeon Giuseppe Forlenza

1857: The birth of sculptor Giuseppe Moretti

1862: The birth of opera impresario Giulio Gatti-Casazza

1932: The birth of Wilma Montesi, murder victim in 1953 scandal

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Virginia Centurione Braccelli – Saint

Wealthy woman dedicated her life to relieving poverty

Virginia defied her father in order to
help the poor and sick in Genoa

The Feast Day of Virginia Centurione Braccelli, a noble lady from Genoa, who was made a Saint by Pope John Paul II, is celebrated every year on this day throughout Italy and in other parts of the world. Virginia died on December 15, 1651 in her native city after devoting her life to helping the poor and the sick.

Virginia was born in 1587 to Giorgio Centurione, who was the Doge of Genoa between 1621 and 1623, and his wife, Lelia Spinola. At that time, the Doge was the Head of State of the maritime Republic of Genoa.

Her mother was very pious and as a young girl Virginia spent a lot of time with her mother in prayer and contemplation. She could also hear her brother’s Latin lessons as she sat sewing and because she took in everything she heard, she learnt the language of the church. She was able to read passages of scripture in Latin and learn them by heart and meditate on them.

But after her mother’s death, although Virginia wanted to take holy orders, her father forced her to marry a rich nobleman, Gaspare Grimaldi Bracelli, when she was still only 15 years old. She bore him two daughters, Lelia and Isabella.

After her husband’s death, when Virginia was still only 20, she refused to have a second marriage arranged by her father and she made a vow to live a celibate life and to work to help poor and sick people in Genoa. She lived in her mother-in-law’s house, where she looked after her daughters and devoted herself to charitable work, sharing her own wealth with the needy.

Following Genoa’s involvement in a war in 1624, unemployment rose and there was an increase in the number of starving people in the city. It led Virginia to found a centre to accommodate some of the people living in poverty because she could not house them all in her home. The centre soon became overrun with people who were suffering as a result of either famine or the plague and she had to rent a convent to accommodate all the people who needed help.

Virginia created a community at the convent dedicated to Our Lady of Refuge, which she later split into two separate congregations, The Sisters of Our Lady of Refuge and the Daughters of Our Lady of Refuge.

By 1635, the centre was caring for more than 300 patients at any one time and it received official recognition as a hospital. Virginia trained the poor people she was caring for to gain employment so that they could eventually work to provide themselves with sustenance and she also earned extra money herself by teaching the catechism, the text that summarises the doctrine of the Catholic faith.

Virginia's body was found to be incorrupt
almost 300 years after her death

Although the community at the convent lost its official status in 1647 due to a decline in donations from the wealthy residents of Genoa, Virginia somehow managed to carry on with her work of helping the poor. She also acted as a peacemaker, intervening in disputes between the noble houses in Genoa, until she died in 1651 at the age of 64.

The work of the Sisters of Our Lady of Refuge in Monte Calvario continues to this day with the sisters working to help sick, poor, and elderly people in hospitals, and also young people as far afield as Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and India.

The process for making Virginia a Saint was started in 1933, with theologians approving her writings and historians assessing the cause and clearing it to allow it to continue. 

In 1977, Pope Paul VI accorded Virginia the title of Servant of God. She was made Venerable in 1984, Beatified in 1985, and Canonised by Pope John Paul II in 2003.

When Virginia’s remains were examined during the long process leading up to her Beatification and Canonisation, they were found to be in a remarkable state of preservation and officially classified as incorrupt.

While not a prerequisite for sainthood, the incorruptibility of an individual’s remains is considered by the Catholic Church as strong evidence of sanctity, a miraculous sign of divine favour, showing that the saint lived a life of purity and closeness to God.

The Marassi district is best known for its football
stadium, the Stadio Luigi Ferraris

Travel tip:

Virginia Centurione Braccelli’s remains are buried within the chapel of the religious congregation she founded, the Sisters of Our Lady of Refuge in Mount Calvary, in the Marassi district of Genoa, a hillside area east of the city centre overlooking the Bisagno valley.  The sanctuary is thought to have roots going back to the 16th century, having been originally built on the site of a chapel dedicated to Saint Raphael.  It was relocated to Marassi in the 19th century after the church in central Genoa where it was originally based was demolished to make way for the Brignole railway station. The Marassi district, known as a lively, authentic neighbourhood away from the regular tourist trails, is most famous as the home of the Stadio Luigi Ferraris - also known as Stadio Marassi - which is shared by the city’s two major football clubs, Genoa and Sampdoria. The former, which still goes under the official title of Genoa Cricket and Football Club, was founded in 1893 by a group of British Consular officials. Among existing football clubs, it is the oldest in Italy.

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Piazza De Ferrari, at the heart of Genoa's elegant
city centre, with its impressive bronze fountain

Travel tip:

The port city of Genoa, the capital of the Liguria region, has a rich history as a powerful trading centre with considerable wealth built on its shipyards and steelworks. It also boasts some fine buildings, many of which have been restored to their original splendour.  The Palazzo Ducale - the Doge's Palace - the 16th century Palazzo Reale, a lavish royal residence with frescoes, tapestries and a rooftop garden, and the Romanesque-Renaissance style San Lorenzo Cathedral, with its striking black-and-white façade, are just three examples.  At the heart of the city centre is the Piazza De Ferrari, which features a monumental bronze fountain and is flanked by the Palazzo Ducale, the Palazzo della Borsa and the Teatro Carlo Felice among other buildings.  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.

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More reading:

The secret gift maker who has become known as Santa Claus

The noblewoman who gave up luxurious lifestyle to help the poor

A reformed gambler who became devoted to caring for sick

Also on this day:

1946: The birth of footballer Comunardo Niccolai

1966: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly released in Italy

1970: The birth of champion jockey Frankie Dettori

1973: Kidnappers release John Paul Getty III

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Fernanda Pivano - writer and translator

Played key role in popularising American literature in Italy

Fernanda Pivano, pictured in 1979 with Allan Ginsberg.
one of the Beat Generation writers she so admired

The writer and translator Fernanda Pivano, who became an important figure in Italian literary circles for translating and writing about the greats of 20th century American literature, from Ernest Hemingway to the so-called Beat Generation, died in Milan on this day in 2009.

She was 92, having enjoyed a literary career spanning half a century. Her final article in the Milan daily Corriere della Sera was published only a month before her death.

As well as Hemingway, with whom she developed a close friendship after meeting him for the first time in 1949, Pivano - whose first name was usually shortened to Nanda - translated into Italian works by classic American writers such as F Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner and Dorothy Parker.

In the 1950s, she became fascinated by the culture and ideals of what became known as the Beat Generation, introducing Italy to the works of writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S Burroughs from a movement characterised by a rejection of the materialism and conformity of postwar America.

Born in Genoa in 1917, Pivano came from a well-to-do family. Her father, Riccardo Newton Pivano, was a banker of partial Scottish heritage. Her mother, Mary, was the daughter of Francis Smallwood, an Englishman who was one of the founders of the Italian Berlitz language school. 

Pivano was educated initially at a Swiss school before her family moved to Turin when he was a teenager, where she attended the Liceo classico Massimo d'Azeglio.

Pivano in 1949, the year she married
the celebrated designer, Ettore Sottsass

There, she was introduced to American literature by her teacher, the writer Cesare Pavese, who had already translated some American fiction into Italian.  Among her classmates was Primo Levi, who would become famous later for writing about his survival of the Auschwitz death camp. 

Pivano graduated with a thesis on Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, which also won a prize from the Centre for American Studies in Rome. She also graduated in philosophy.

She and Pavese, who was in his 20s when he was her teacher, met again some years later, after he returned to Turin from a three-year exile in Calabria imposed for alleged anti-Fascist activity. Their relationship developed into intimacy and he is said to have twice proposed marriage but was turned down by Pivano, who went on to marry the celebrated architect and designer, Ettore Sottsass. 

During that time, Pavese gave her several books in English by American authors, which would launch her career as a translator. Among them were the Spoon River Anthology, by the poet Edgar Lee Masters, which was her first published work, and Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. 

Pivano was arrested herself during World War Two, along with her brother, Franco, after a raid by the Fascist authorities on the Einaudi publishing house discovered the contract - mistakenly addressed to Franco - to publish A Farewell to Arms, which Mussolini’s government banned on the grounds that it was disrespectful to the honour of the armed forces. 

The novel was based on Hemingway’s experiences serving with the Red Cross in Italy in World War One.  He described the catastrophic Italian defeat at the Battle of Caporetto in some detail. Fortunately she and her brother were released after interrogation.

Pivano in 2006, still championing young
American writers at the age of 89

After marrying Sottsass in 1949, Pivano made the first of several visits to the United States in the mid-50s. She had a deep admiration for American culture, especially its ideals of freedom and democracy, which she contrasted with the fear and repression of Fascist Italy.  

Her first awareness of the Beat Generation of writers came when she read a poem by Allen Ginsberg, entitled Howl, in 1957, in an issue of the Evergreen Review.  She regarded the poem's innovative language and counterculture themes as a powerful expression of the freedom she so admired. 

She wrote her first article about the Beat Generation in the Italian culture and philosophy magazine aut aut (either or) in 1959 and set out to meet as many of the movement’s writers as she could. She met Ginsberg in Paris in 1961 and became friends with Kerouac, Burroughs and Gregory Corso, not only as their translator but confidante.

Her promotion of their work through her own writings encouraged a generation of young Italian poets and writers, including Gianni Milano and Antonio Infantino.

Two important documentaries preserved the history of Pivano’s life. She collaborated with the psychoanalyst and film director Ottavio Rosati, a close friend since the 1970s, on Generations of Love - The Four Americas of Fernanda Pivano, and with Luca Facchini on A Farewell to Beat.

Her work can be researched at the Riccardo and Fernanda Pivano Library in Corso di Porta Vittoria in Milan. The library, which includes her father’s collection, was inaugurated in 1998. It contains published and unpublished examples from the writer’s literary career.

Pivano, who was divorced from Ettore Sottsass in the 1990s, died at the Don Leone Porta clinic in Milan. Her funeral was held at the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta di Carignano in Genoa. After cremation, her remains were buried at the port city's Staglieno Cemetery, next to her mother.

Via Alessandro Manzoni, the fashionable street
in Milan where Pivano lived with her husband

Travel tip:

Nanda Pivano and Ettore Sottsass shared a large apartment on Milan’s fashionable Via Manzoni during their marriage, their home at times welcoming many of the American writers for whom Pivano’s work did much to make them appreciated by Italian readers. Via Manzoni leads from the Piazza della Scala northwest towards Porta Nuova and Piazza Cavour, with notable buildings that include the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, which specialises in Northern Italian and Netherlandish/Flemish artists, and the Grand Hotel et de Milan, where the opera composer Giuseppe Verdi died in 1901. Part of the street forms the one boundary of the quadrilatero della moda, Milan’s up-market fashion district. The street commemorates the 18th century writer, Alessandro Manzoni, born in Milan, whose epic novel The Betrothed, is regarded as one of the great works of Italian literature. 

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The Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta in Carignano, the
church in Genoa where Pivano's funeral was held

Travel tip:

The Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta in Carignano in Genoa, where Fernanda Pivano’s funeral took place, is a stunning example of Renaissance architecture and one of the city's major religious landmarks. Located in a residential area on the hills above the city centre, work on the church began in 1522 but was not completed until the 19th century. It follows a Greek cross plan with four symmetrical façades. Built in Renaissance style, it has later Neoclassical additions, including a monumental façade featuring Corinthian pilasters and statues by Claude David. It boasts five domes and originally has four bell towers, now reduced to two, giving it a commanding presence. The art treasures that can be seen inside the church include St Francis of Assisi receives stigmata by Guercino, the celebrated 17th century Baroque painter from Ferrara.

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Also on this day:

1497: The birth of lutenist and composer Francesco Canova da Milano

1750: The birth of composer Antonio Salieri

1943: The birth of footballer and politician Gianni Rivera

1954: The birth of astronaut Umberto Guidoni

1985: The birth of ex-model-turned-journalist Beatrice Borromeo

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Fabrizio De André - singer-songwriter

‘Poet of music’ who spoke for the marginalised in society

Fabrizio De André's lyrics are studied by Italian
students as part of the school curriculum

The singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André, whose songs often celebrated the lives of the marginalised in Italian society and gained him a popularity that has already outlived him by a quarter of a century, died on this day in 1999 in the Città Studi district of Milan.

De André, who was a month short of his 59th birthday, had been diagnosed with lung cancer six months earlier, having been a heavy smoker for much of his adult life. After his death at the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, his body was returned to his native Genoa, where a crowd estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000 gathered for his funeral at the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta in Carignano.

His impact on Italian culture has been such that streets, squares and schools in many towns and cities bear his name. A three-hour tribute to him broadcast on a relatively obscure Italian TV channel to mark the 10th anniversary of his death attracted an audience of almost eight million viewers, as many as tuned in to the new series of Grande Fratello - the Italian version of Big Brother - on a mainstream channel the following evening.

Nicknamed ‘Faber’ by his close friend, the writer and comic actor Paolo Villaggio, and known as ‘the songwriter of the marginalised’ and ‘the poet of the defeated’ as well as simply the ‘poet of music’, De André had a voice of warmth and depth but it was for his lyrics that he acquired a huge following.

De André drew inspiration from
the streets of his home city

Many of his songs told stories of outcasts and rebels or tackled subjects such as prostitution and homosexuality that others regarded as off-limits in a country where the Catholic Church still loomed large over public morality. He did not shy from criticising the church itself, which he felt was riddled with hypocrisy.

His lyrics are often included in school anthologies of modern poetry and he has attained the status of cult hero among some on the Italian political left, itself increasingly marginalised by the shift towards the centre and the right.

Although sometimes spoken of as Italy’s Bob Dylan, De André’s major influences were said to be Leonard Cohen, the Canadian singer-songwriter also renowned for deeply meaningful lyrics, and the French singer-songwriter and poet, Georges Bressens, to whom he was introduced when his father gave him some records as a teenager. It was Bressens who inspired De André to be a pacifist and a libertarian.

He was a jazz enthusiast in his youth, singing and playing the guitar at La Borsa di Arlecchino, a café-theatre located in the basement of the Palazzo della Borsa in Genoa. Always willing to experiment, he explored many types of music in his career, as well as singing in Genoese and Neapolitan dialects in addition to Italian.

Born into a relatively prosperous family in the Pegli district of Genoa in 1940, De André’s early life was inevitably shaped by the war into which Italy was led by Benito Mussolini’s alliance with Hitler and Nazi Germany.  His father, Giuseppe, who had made his money through his purchase of a technical institute in the city, was fervently anti-Fascist, which was part of his reason for taking the family to live in a farmhouse in his native Piemonte, both to avoid the attention of the authorities and to escape Allied bombing. They would not return to Genoa until 1945. 

The writer and comic actor Paolo Villaggio was
De André's close friend and supporter

It was not long before De André began to show both musical talent and a rebellious streak, at the age of eight paying off his violin teacher to let him skip lessons. Later, he would drop out of law school after receiving royalties from a song - La canzone di Marinella (Marinella’s song) - which he sold to Mina, Italy’s all-time biggest selling female star. Its lyrics, which told the story of a young orphan forced into prostitution, provided early evidence of De André’s fascination with the low-life characters populating Genoa's back streets.

He was still a student when he made his stage debut in February 1961, singing two songs as part of a programme of music in a theatre in Genoa. The two songs - Nuvole barocche (Baroque clouds) and E fu la notte (And it was night) were the A and B sides of his debut single, released in 1961.

Although it was 1975 before he could be persuaded to appear on stage in a solo concert, his career would ultimately stretch over four decades, during which he released 14 studio albums, a number of live albums, and numerous singles.  Songs such that established his status as a songwriter and singer of note included Amico fragile, written in stream-of-consciousness style about a drunken evening with friends; Crêuza de mä, a song in Genoese dialect about the tough lives of sailors and fishermen in Genoa; and La ballata del Michè, a song based on the true story of a southern Italian emigrant to Genoa who was sentenced to 20 years in jail after killing a man who had tried to seduce his girlfriend.

Some of his songs were based on his own life experience, not least his kidnapping in 1979, along with his partner, Dori Ghezzi, by bandits in Sardinia, where they lived. They were held for four months until his father paid a ransom, said to be one billion lire. Afterwards, De André wrote Hotel Supramonte, drawing the title from the mountains where he was imprisoned, in which he likened their captivity to the feeling of confinement in love. 

De André's career spanned
almost 40 years

At the trial of the men who seized him, he chose not to condemn his captors, saying that “they were the real prisoners, not I” and blaming the organised crime bosses who made the bandits do their dirty work for them.

Although considered a subversive by the Italian police, De André was never actively involved with politics. Indeed, when the student riots were taking place in 1968, he spent his time writing an album about Jesus, portraying Christ as a revolutionary hero fighting for freedom. Songs from the album are still played in churches, despite De André's lack of faith. 

His adoption by the left as a favourite son followed Silvio Berlusconi’s election victory in 2008, when he won a third term as prime minister, following the collapse of Romano Prodi’s centre left Olive Tree coalition.

Ironically, as they tried to make ends meet during the early 1960s, De Andre and Villaggio would sometimes take work as cruise ships musicians in the backing groups supporting Berlusconi, who was then a singer.

Married twice, to Enrica Rignon, known to him as Puny, and later to Ghezzi, he left two children, a son, Cristiano, from his first marriage, and a daughter, known as Luvi. After his death, he was laid to rest in the monumental Staglieno cemetery, in the De André family chapel.

Pegli is an affluent, mainly residential suburb
but has a lively seafront promenade

Travel tip:

Pegli, where Fabrizio De André was born, is a mainly residential area of Genoa but boasts a lively seafront promenade and a number of hotels. There are good links by road, rail and boat to the central area of Genoa. The port city of Genoa, the capital of the Liguria region, has a rich history as a powerful trading centre 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.

The cloister at the main building of the University
of Milan, founded in 1924

Travel tip:

Città Studi, where De André was treated at the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, is Milan’s university district. It developed from 1915 onwards to the northeast of the city centre, although there are other buildings around the city that are now part of the University.  The streets of the Città Studi area are notable for bars, pizza restaurants and ice cream shops. The University of Milan was founded in 1924 from the merger of two other academic institutions. By 1928, it already had the fourth-highest number of enrolled students in Italy, after Naples, Rome and Padua. Colloquially referred to as La Statale, it is today one of the largest universities in Europe, with about 60,000 students, and a permanent teaching and research staff of about 2,000.

Also on this day:

1693: Earthquake in southeastern Sicily

1944: The death of Fascist politician Galeazzo Ciano

1975: The birth of the politician Matteo Renzi

1980: The birth of the Giannini sextuplets

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Michele Novaro - composer

Patriot who wrote music for Italian national anthem

Michele Novaro was an opera
singer as well as a composer

The composer and singer Michele Novaro, who wrote the music that accompanies Goffredo Mameli’s words in Italy’s national anthem, was born on this day in 1818 in Genoa.

While not as actively involved in the Risorgimento movement as Mameli, who took part in various insurrections and died fighting alongside Giuseppe Garibaldi in the battle for a unified, independent Italy, Novaro was a patriot nonetheless.

A committed liberal in his politics, he was a supporter of the cause of independence and composed the music for several patriotic songs in addition to Mameli’s Il canto degli Italiani - The Song of the Italians - which is also known as Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy) and L’inno di Mameli (Mameli’s hymn).

The oldest of five children, Novaro was born into a theatrical background. His father, Gerolamo, was a stagehand at the Teatro Carlo Felice, the Genoa opera house. His mother, Giuseppina Canzio, was the sister of a well-known painter, scenographer and impresario, Michele Canzio.

Novaro attended singing school and achieved a respectable standard as an opera singer. He was good enough to sing in the Genoese premiere of Gaetano Donizetti's opera Gianni di Calais.

He spent three seasons in Vienna as the second resident tenor at Vienna’s Porta Carinthia theater, returning to Italy to take up a post as second tenor and choirmaster at the Teatro Regio and Teatro Carignano in Turin.

Goffredo Mameli, who was killed
fighting alongside Garibaldi

Novaro willingly gave his services in the cause of independence by writing music to patriotic songs, as well as organising fundraisers in support of Garibaldi. 

He and Mameli, who was also from Genoa, were friends and in 1847 after Mameli had written the words for the song that would earn him immortality it was Novaro he sought out to write a suitable score. 

Novaro is said to have received the text of Mameli’s poem at the Turin home of the patriotic writer, Lorenzo Valerio. He immediately sketched out a first draft of the music, which he then completed on his return to his home, staying up late into the night to perfect it.

The writer Anton Giulio Barrili, another friend of Novaro, later wrote about the birth of Il canto degli Italiani, quoting what Novaro had told him following his first sight of the song at Valerio’s home.

‘I sat at the harpsichord, with Goffredo's verses on the music stand, and I strummed, I murdered that poor instrument with my convulsed fingers, always with my eyes on the hymn, putting down melodic phrases, one on top of the other, but a thousand miles away from the idea that they could adapt to those words. 

‘I got up, dissatisfied with myself; I stayed a little longer at Valerio's house, but always with those verses before my mind's eye. I saw that there was no remedy; I took my leave, and ran home. 

‘There, without even taking off my hat, I threw myself at the piano. The tune I had strummed at Valerio's house came back to my mind: I wrote it down on a sheet of paper, the first that came to hand: in my agitation I turned the lamp over on the harpsichord, and consequently also on the poor sheet of paper: this was the original of the hymn "Fratelli d'Italia".’

Friends paid for a memorial for 
Novaro in Staglieno cemetery

Despite leaving his mark on Italian history, Novaro never achieved fame or fortune.

Such money as he did make, he ploughed into setting up a free choral school in Genoa, to which he devoted his later years.  Struggling with declining health and financial difficulties, he died in October, 1885.

His former students arranged for a funeral monument to be erected to him in his hometown in the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno, next to the tomb of Giuseppe Mazzini, another major Risorgimento figure who was among his heroes.

Although Il canto degli Italiani was very popular during Italian unification and the following decades, it was not until a century later that it became Italy’s national anthem.

At the time the Kingdom of Italy came into being in 1861, the republican and Jacobin connotations of Fratelli d'Italia were difficult to reconcile with the new state's constitution as a monarchy rather than the republic that Mazzini and his supporters craved. 

The new kingdom instead adopted Marcia Reale (Royal March), the House of Savoy's official anthem, written by Napoleone Giotti and set to music in 1831 by Giuseppe Gabetti. 

Italy finally became a republic after World War Two, following a referendum that rejected the monarchy. On October 12, 1946, it chose Il canto degli Italiani as a provisional national anthem. It retained its de facto status until December 2017, when it was at last recognised as the Italian anthem by law.

The Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, where
Novaro's father worked as a stagehand

Travel tip:

The port city of Genoa (Genova), where Michele Novaro was born, is the capiital of the Liguria region. Once a powerful trading centre, the city’s wealth was built on its shipyards and steelworks, but it 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. At the time of Novara’s birth, the City Architect was Carlo Barabino, a prominent Neoclassicist who designed the Teatro Carlo Felice Opera, the Palazzo dell'Accademia, and the facades of several other buildings. The theatre opened in 1828. 

The Palazzo Reale - Royal Palace - in Turin is
a reminder of the wealth of the Savoy family

Travel tip:

The Savoy dynasty left a significant mark on Turin, shaping its architecture, culture, and overall identity. The Royal Palace served as the opulent official residence of the Savoy kings for centuries. Its lavish interiors, including the Throne Room and the Royal Apartments, offer a glimpse into the grandeur of the dynasty. Housed within the Royal Palace, the Royal Armoury is now a museum boasting an impressive collection of weapons and armour. Also located inside the Royal Palace, the Savoy Gallery houses a remarkable collection of paintings by Italian and European masters, including works by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Canaletto.  Beyond the city, a network of Savoy palaces, villas, and castles is scattered throughout Piemonte. The city’s Duomo - the Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista - was built between 1491 and 1498 in Piazza San Giovanni. The Chapel of the Holy Shroud, where the Turin Shroud is kept, was added in 1668. Some members of the House of Savoy are buried in the Duomo while others are buried in the Basilica di Superga on the outskirts of the city.

Also on this day: 

1573: The birth of Baroque artist Giovanni Battista Crespi

1896: The birth of writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

1916: The birth of film director Dino Risi

1956: The birth of racing driver Michele Alboreto

1967: The birth of model and singer Carla Bruni

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