Pope Pius IX flees Rome

The day the Pope had to slip out of the side door of his palace

Pope Pius IX fled Rome in the face 
of a revolutionary uprising 

Fearing for his own safety, Pope Pius IX left his home in Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome, disguised as an ordinary priest, and fled from the city on this day in 1848.

It was an unwelcome change of circumstances for Pius IX, who had enjoyed great popularity since being elected as Pope two years before. But the day before his escape from Rome, he had found himself besieged inside his palace by an unruly mob that had gathered in Piazza del Quirinale.

Revolutionary fever had been whipped up and the city was in turmoil following the murder of Count Pellegrino Rossi at Palazzo della Cancelleria, the seat of the government of the Papal States in Rome. This event eventually led to the formation of the short-lived Roman Republic.

Rossi had been the Minister of the Interior in Pope Pius IX’s government and had been responsible for a programme of unpopular reforms, which gave only the well-off the right to vote and did nothing to address economic and social issues. Street violence was being stirred up by secret societies, such as Giuseppe Mazzini’s Young Italy movement, and Rossi had been declared an enemy of the people by revolutionaries.

There was also anger because of Pius IX’s decision to withdraw the support of the Papal Army from the First Italian War of Independence, being fought between the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Austrian Empire.

When Rossi had arrived at Palazzo della Cancelleria and was climbing the stairs to the Assembly Hall a few days before, he had been stabbed in the neck by an attacker and killed. This sparked an uprising against the papal government and Pius IX found himself a prisoner inside his own palace.

So, he decided to escape and, with the help of close allies and his personal attendant, the Pope slipped out of Palazzo del Quirinale by a side door in the attire of an ordinary priest. He was able to leave through one of the gates of the city and board a carriage which took him to Gaeta, situated 120km (75 miles) south of Rome, where the King of the Two Sicilies, Ferdinand II, provided him with a refuge.

Pope Pius IX, who was born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti in Senigallia in Le Marche in 1792, studied theology and was ordained as a priest, working his way up to become Archbishop of Spoleto, and developing a reputation as a Liberal, who visited prisoners in jail and organised programmes for street children.

Pope Pius IX, pictured three years before
he died, was initially a popular figure

His election as Pope in 1846 was greeted with enthusiasm in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. For the first 20 months his popularity was high and it was assumed by his supporters that he would back the cause of Italian unification. 

But unification would have meant the end of the Papal States and Pius IX would also have had to back aggression against Austria, another Catholic country. When he revealed that he opposed the campaign for a united Italy, he was regarded by many people as a traitor.

The murder of his chief minister made the Pope realise that Rome was no longer safe for him and so he fled to Gaeta, where he continued papal business from a comfortable distance.

Pius IX ignored all requests for him to return to Rome until a French army had marched on the city in 1849 and taken it from Giuseppe Garibaldi and his army, who had arrived to defend the new republic.

It was not until April 1850 that Pius IX finally returned to Rome and, ignoring Palazzo del Quirinale, he went straight to the Vatican, from where he was to govern the Catholic Church for another 28 years.

He is thought to have had the second longest papal reign since Saint Peter, who, it is believed, was Pope for 37 years, although this cannot be verified.

Pius IX died at the age of 85 in 1878. All his successors to the papacy have followed his example and chosen to live in the Vatican. 

Senigallia's pier, the Rotonda al Mare, sits on the
resort's renowned Spiaggia di Velluta

Travel tip:

Senigallia, where Pope Pius IX was born, is a port town on the Adriatic coast in the province of Ancona in Le Marche, which is now a popular seaside resort. It was fought over by opposing sides in the Guelph and Ghibelline wars in the 13th and 14th centuries and in 1503, Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, carried out a raid on the town to punish disloyal supporters. The port was then ruled by the Della Rovere family and Medici families in turn before being annexed to the papal states. It suffered damage during World War I, was hit by a powerful earthquake in 1930, and during World War II was damaged again. Senigallia has now become popular with holidaymakers because of its soft, sandy beach, known as Spiaggia di Velluta, Velvet Beach. Also notable is Senigallia's circular pier, known as the Rotonda al Mare.

Stay in Senigallia with Hotels.com

The Palazzo del Quirinale, now the official residence
of presidents, used to be the home of the Pope

Travel tip:

The Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome, from which Pope Pius IX fled, was originally built in 1583 by Pope Gregory XIII as a summer residence. It served both as a papal residence and as the offices responsible for the civil government of the Papal States until 1870. When, in 1871, Rome became the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy, the palace became the official residence of the kings of Italy. When the monarchy was abolished in 1946, the Palazzo del Quirinale became the official residence and place of work for the presidents of the Italian Republic. During its history, the palace has housed 30 popes, four kings and 12 presidents.

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More reading:

The murder of Pellegrino Rossi

Giuseppe Mazzini, journalist and revolutionary

How the Bersaglieri corps became key to completing Italy’s unification

Also on this day:

1472: The birth of sculptor Pietro Torrigiano

1826: The birth of Pinocchio creator Carlo Collodi

1897: The birth of Mafia boss Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano

1926: The birth of painter Vittorio Miele

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Giuseppe Cesare Abba – writer and soldier

Patriotic revolutionary took notes during historic expedition with Garibaldi

Abba as a young man in the
uniform of Garibaldi's army

Giuseppe Cesare Abba, an Italian writer who volunteered to fight alongside Giuseppe Garibaldi during his campaign to unify Italy, was born on this day in 1836 in Cairo Montenotte in Liguria, which was then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Abba took part in most of the battles that led to the dissolution of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and he made notes during the 1860 campaign. 

His major work, Noterelle d’Uno dei Mille was published in 1880, thanks to a recommendation by Giosuè Carducci, the Italian writer and poet who won a Nobel prize in Literature.

While attending a college in Liguria, Abba became enthusiastic about the work of patriotic romantic poets and writers such as Ugo Foscolo, Giovanni Prati, and Aleardo Aleardi. He went on to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Genoa, but left in 1859 to voluntarily enrol in a cavalry regiment in Pinerolo, a comune - municipality - of Turin. 

The following year he moved to Parma where he joined up with Garibaldi and his volunteers.

The literary career he was to follow later was inspired by his memories of his revolutionary experiences during the campaign to unite Italy.

He left Liguria for Sicily, where he had a baptism of fire fighting in the Battle of Calatafimi.  He also played his part in the taking of Palermo and earned himself an honourable mention in the Battle of Volturno.

Afterwards, he retired to live as a civilian in Pisa and then later moved back to his native town in Liguria, where he was elected as mayor.

Abba’s first attempt at writing was a romantic poem in five canti under the title, Arrigo. Then, as a keen follower of the novelist Alessandro Manzoni, he embarked on an historical novel, Le rive della Bormida nel 1794 - The Banks of the Bormida in 1794 - which used ideas from the notes he had taken during the 1860 Spedizione dei Mille - the Expedition of the Thousand.

Abba pictured around the time his
Notorelle were published

In 1880, he used the same notes to produce Noterelle di Uno dei Mille, edite dopo vent’anni - Notes by One of the Thousand, 20 Years Later. It was only in 1891 that this work was given its final title, Da Quarto al Volturno: noterelle d’uno dei mille - From Quarto to Volturno: Notes by One of the Thousand.

Yet Abba’s magnum opus may never have been published had it not been for the support of Giosuè Carducci. One of Abba’s former revolutionary compatriots had urged him to send his manuscript to Carducci who was considering writing a book about the life of Garibaldi and had been encouraging survivors of the campaign to send him their historical testimonies.

After Carducci had read Abba’s work, he passed it on to the publishers, Zanichelli, because he regarded it so highly. He also told Abba that he might not now go ahead with his own biography of the Italian hero, Garibaldi.

Abba became famous after the publication of his Noterelle. He went on to write a Life of Nino Bixio, the soldier who helped to organise Giuseppe Garibaldi’s Expedition of the Thousand, and took part in the capture of Rome in 1870, which completed the unification process for Italy.

He also wrote a History of the Thousand and other works based on his experiences with Garibaldi, and some poetry and short stories. But none of his other books became as popular as his Noterelle.

In later life, he was appointed first teacher at the secondary school in Faenza in Emilia-Romagna and principal of the technological institute of Brescia in Lombardy. 

Abba was nominated as a senator in June 1910, but he died in Brescia in November 1910 at the age of 72 and was laid to rest in the cemetery at Cairo Montenotte. 

A commemorative plaque to Abba can be seen on a wall of the Palazzo Martinengo Colleoni di Pianezza in Corso Matteotti in Brescia, while the Italian destroyer Giuseppe Cesare Abba was named in his honour.

Porta Soprana, one of the ancient
gateways into Cairo Montenotte

Travel tip:

Cairo Montenotte, where Abba was born and is buried, is a comune in the province of Savona in Liguria, located about 50km (31 miles) west of Genoa and 20km (12 miles) northwest of Savona.  Archaeological finds indicate that Cairo Montenotte - which now has a population of around 12,500 - was inhabited in the Neolithic age and was conquered by the Romans more than 100 years before the birth of Christ. Roman artefacts and the remains of a villa from the Imperial period have been found there. The name Cairo is thought to have come from the ancient Ligurian word Carium, which is used to refer to the comune in a document from the tenth century. There is a legend that Francis of Assisi went through the town in the 13th century on his way to Spain but there is no evidence for this. King Victor Emmanuel II authorised Cairo to add Montenotte to its name in memory of a 1796 battle fought there, with a royal decree issued in 1863. Among the many interesting sites in the comune are a ruined castle and Porta Soprana, with its 15th century quadrangular tower.

Find accommodation in Cairo Montenotte with Expedia

Piazza della Loggia, the elegant square at the
heart of the beautiful Lombardy city of Brescia

Travel tip:

Brescia, where Abba taught in later life and died in 1910, is the second city in Lombardy, after Milan, and has Roman remains and well-preserved Renaissance buildings.  Brescia became a Roman colony before the birth of Christ and you can still see remains from the forum, theatre, and a temple. The town was fought over by different rulers in the middle ages but came under the protection of Venice in the 15th century. There is a distinct Venetian influence in the architecture of the Piazza della Loggia, an elegant square in the centre of the town, which has a clock tower similar to the one in Saint Mark’s square in Venice. Next to the 17th century Duomo is an older cathedral, the unusually shaped Duomo Vecchio, also known as la Rotonda, which is open to the public. The Santa Giulia Museo covers more than 3,000 years of Brescia’s history, housed within the Benedictine Nunnery of San Salvatore and Santa Giulia in Via Musei. The nunnery was built over a Roman residential quarter, but some of the houses, with their original mosaics and frescoes, have now been excavated and can be seen by visitors looking round the museum.

Brescia hotels from Hotels.com

More reading:

The Expedition of the Thousand and what it achieved

Victory at the Battle of Calatafimi

Nino Bixio - the patriotic general who helped unite Italy

Also on this day:

1888: The birth of wartime nurse Saint Maria Bertilla Boscardin

1935: The birth of champion wrestler Bruno Sammartino

1943: The birth of football coach Ottavio Bianchi

1943: The massacre of civilians in Lanciano, Abruzzo

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Anita Garibaldi – national heroine of Italy

Brave wife of Giuseppe Garibaldi was a freedom fighter

Anita Garibaldi met her future husband
in Brazil and they married in Uruguay

Anita Garibaldi, the Brazilian wife of Italy’s revolutionary hero Giuseppe Garibaldi, died in the arms of her husband on this day in 1849 in Mandriole, near Ravenna, in Emilia-Romagna.

She was pregnant and also ill with malaria, but she was having to retreat from Austrian and French troops with the Garibaldian Legion. After her death, her body had to be hurriedly buried, and it was said to have been later dug up by a dog.

A Brazilian revolutionary, Anita had fought alongside Garibaldi in his campaigns, after meeting him in her home country in 1839.

She was born Ana Maria di Jesus Ribeiro in 1821 in Laguna in Brazil. She was the third of ten children born to a poor family. At the age of 14 she was forced to marry, but her husband later abandoned her to join the Brazilian Imperial Army.

Anita met Garibaldi, who was a sailor of Ligurian descent, after he had left Europe in 1836 and was fighting on behalf of the separatist Riograndense republic in southern Brazil. They fell in love immediately and she joined him on his ship, the Rio Pardo.

She soon saw military action in battles at Imbituba, and Laguna, during which she fought at the side of her lover.

Anita was said to have been a skilled horsewoman, who taught Garibaldi about the Gaucho culture of the Pampas of southern Brazil. It was claimed by one of Garibaldi’s comrades that she had the strength and courage of a man, with the charm and tenderness of a woman. She was reputed to have been very beautiful with an oval-shaped face and remarkable eyes.

During one battle, Anita and Garibaldi became separated and Anita was captured. Her guards told her Garibaldi was dead, but she did not believe them. She asked if she could search the battleground for his body and they agreed, but she could not find him, which gave her hope.

Garibaldi and Anita fought together
in the defence of Rome in 1849

When she came across a horse, she mounted it and escaped at a gallop. The soldiers chased her and shot and killed her horse and so she waded into a river to escape from them. 

After they had given her up for dead, she spent four days wandering, without food or drink, in woodland in the area, until she encountered someone who gave her something to eat.

Eventually, Anita was able to get in touch with the rebels and she was reunited with Garibaldi in Vacaria. 

A few months later, their first child, Menotti, was born. He had a skull deformity resulting from Anita’s fall from the horse, but he grew up to be a freedom fighter and accompanied Garibaldi on his campaigns in Italy.

In 1841, Anita and Garibaldi moved to Montevideo in Uruguay and they were married there in 1842. They went on to have another three children.

After Garibaldi took command of the Uruguayan fleet, Anita participated in his defence of Montevideo against Argentina in 1847.

Anita accompanied Garibaldi when he returned to Italy to join in the revolutions of 1848, where he fought against the Austrians.

In 1849, Garibaldi joined in the defence of the newly-proclaimed Roman Republic against Neapolitan and French intervention. But after Rome fell to the French at the end of June that year, Garibaldi and Anita found themselves forced to flee with their troops from the French and Austrian soldiers.

A magazine illustration imagines Anita with
Garibaldi in the last moments of her life

After Anita’s death in the farmhouse in Mandriole, Garibaldi continued to honour her memory. When he hailed Victor Emmanuel II as King of the newly-united Italy, 12 years later, he was wearing Anita’s striped scarf over his south American poncho.

Anita Garibaldi is recognised as a national heroine in Brazil and has squares named after her and a museum dedicated to her memory,

In Italy, her legacy was used by Mussolini in 1932, when there was a discussion about removing Garibaldi’s statue from the top of the Gianicolo. 

Mussolini not only refused to remove the statue of Garibaldi, but also said he would erect a statue of Anita Garibaldi on the same hill. The resulting statue depicted her mounted on a rearing horse holding her baby son close to her, while brandishing a pistol, as she leads her husband’s army to victory.

Garibaldi carries Anita through the 
Comacchio lagoons (Pietro Bauvier)

Travel tip:

Fattore Guiccioli, the farmhouse where Anita Garibaldi died in Mandriole, is in the countryside between Casal Borsetti and Sant’Alberto, just south of the lagoons of Comacchio. Garibaldi stumbled across the farmhouse while looking for shelter for him and Anita as they made their escape across Romagna. The building now houses an exhibition of relics and mementoes of Garibaldi’s flight through the area. There is a replica of Anita’s death bed, as the original one was burnt during the Nazi occupation of Italy during World War II, and there are two paintings dedicated to her. A memorial stone marks the site of her original burial place near the farmhouse. 

The tomb of Anita Garibaldi on the Gianicolo
hill in Rome, topped by an equestrian statue

Travel tip:

The Gianicolo, or Janiculum, one of the hills outside the walls of ancient Rome, has monuments to many Italian patriots who fought during the Risorgimento for the unification of Italy. It is regarded as one of the best locations to enjoy a scenic view of the centre of the city, with its domes and bell towers. When Anita’s statue was erected there in 1932, the event was celebrated with a three-day commemoration ceremony. On the first day, Anita’s remains were brought to Rome, on the second day, her remains were interred in the base of the monument built in her memory, which was placed near the equestrian statue of her husband, and on the third day, her monument was inaugurated officially by Mussolini.

 

Also on this day:

1463: The birth of banker Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici

1470: The birth of noblewoman Lucrezia Maria Romola de’ Medici

1590: The birth of Pope Urban VII

1994: The death of politician Giovanni Spadolini

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Urbano Rattazzi – prime minister

Unpopular politician had anticlerical views

Urbano Rattazzi twice served
as prime minister of the new Italy

Urbano Pio Francesco Rattazzi, the third prime minister of the newly unified Kingdom of Italy, who is remembered for his clashes with the Italian people’s hero, Giuseppe Garibaldi, was born on this day in 1808 in Alessandria in the region of Piedmont.

Rattazzi became prime minister in 1862, succeeding Bettino Ricasoli, and he held the office for nine months until his behaviour towards Garibaldi led to him being driven from office. 

He served as prime minister again in 1867 from April to October, but was forced by King Victor Emmanuel II to resign again because of the Italian people’s reaction to his treatment of Garibaldi.

Rattazzi was married to the French novelist, Laetitia Marie Wyse Bonaparte, who was the great niece of the Emperor Napoleon I, and they had one daughter, Romana, who was born in 1871. He also had a nephew, Urbano Rattazzi Iuniore, who was appointed Minister of the Royal House during the reign of Umberto I.

As a young man, Urbano Rattazzi studied law in Turin and ran a successful legal practice in Turin and in Casale, in Piedmont.

From 1848, he represented Alessandria in the Sardinian Chamber of Deputies in Turin. He had allied himself to the Liberals, and using his debating powers, he contributed to the defeat of Cesare Balbo, who was then prime minister of Sardinia.

Under Sardinian Prime Minister Vincenzo Gioberti, Rattazzi became Minister of the Interior and his first act was to send a ministerial circular to all the bishops of the Kingdom, threatening them with arrest if they did not stop preaching against the new institutions. 

Garibaldi, whose popularity with the 
people was not shared by Rattazzi

After the fall of Gioberti, Rattazzi was asked to form a new cabinet, but he lasted in office for only a few weeks because the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia was beaten by the Austrians at the Battle of Novara in 1849 and he had to resign.

With the Moderate Liberals, Rattazzi formed a coalition with the centre right, who were backed by Count Camillo Cavour, which brought about the fall of the cabinet led by Massimo d’Azeglio in 1852.

Rattazzi benefited from his alliance with Cavour and became Minister of Justice and Minister of the Interior. He suppressed monastic orders and restricted the influence of religious associations, demonstrating his anticlerical views. He had to resign in 1858 because of public opinion, but he later served in the cabinet of Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora before retiring in 1860.

After Italian unification in 1861, Rattazzi became president of the lower chamber in the first parliament of the newly unified kingdom. He then succeeded Ricasoli as prime minister, retaining for himself the portfolios of foreign affairs and the interior. He delivered the funeral eulogy for Cavour, after he died in 1861.

Rattazzi's government experience lasted a few months during which emerged the ‘Roman question’ - the conflict between the Papacy and the Italian government over the status of Rome and the Papal States following unification. 

In the summer of 1862, Garibaldi tried to promote an expedition of volunteers to occupy Rome and put an end to the power of the Pope. Rattazzi, who was initially in favour of Garibaldi's action, changed his mind and called in the army. 

In the resulting Battle of Aspromonte, the army dispersed the volunteers and arrested Garibaldi, who had been wounded during the clashes. Rattazzi was condemned by public opinion, which was on the side of Garibaldi and he was forced to resign. He was succeeded by Luigi Carlo Farini. 

Rattazzi held the office of prime minister again for a few months in 1867. But then Garibaldi penetrated the Papal States with a contingent of volunteers and was later defeated by the Pope’s troops and a French expeditionary force. This led to the collapse of Rattazzi's majority, and Rattazzi was forced by King Victor Emmanuel II to resign. He was succeeded by Luigi Federico Menabrea. 

Urbano Rattazzi died of liver cancer at his villa at Frosinone in Lazio in 1873. He was 64 years old. After ceremonies in Rome and Alessandria, Rattazzi's embalmed body was buried in the monumental cemetery in his home town.

The commemorative plaque that marks Urbano
Rattazzi's place of birth in Alessandria

Travel tip:

Alessandria, where Rattazzi was born and is buried, is an historic city in Piedmont, situated about 90km (56 miles) to the southeast of Turin. There is a plaque above the entrance door to Rattazzi’s birthplace in the street now called Via Urbano Rattazzi, at number 43. After Napoleon won the Battle of Marengo in 1800, Alessandria became part of French territory and was made the capital of the area by the French. It became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia again in 1814 and later part of the Kingdom of Italy. One of its most important buildings is the Cittadella di Alessandria, a star fort and citadel built in the 18th century. Today it is one of the best preserved fortifications of that era and one of the few fortifications in Europe still in their original environment, with no buildings blocking the views of the ramparts, or a road that surrounds the ditches.  Alessandria suffered extensive Allied bombing in World War Two but many areas have been rebuilt. The city is now a major Italian railway hub. 

The facade of the Cathedral of
Santa Maria Assunta in Frosinone

Travel tip:

Frosinone, where Urbano Rattazzi died, is about 75 kilometres (47 miles) southeast of Rome in Lazio. It is the main city of the Valle Latina that extends from south of Rome to Cassino, the site of the Abbey of Monte Cassino and the famous battle in World War II. The city of Frosinone remained part of the Papal States and did not become part of the new Kingdom of Italy until as late as September 1870, three days before Italian troops were finally able to enter Rome at Porta Pia and install Victor Emanuel II in the Quirinale Palace. The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, located at the highest point of the hill on which the historic centre of the city stands, is the most important church in Frosinone. With a marble facade, it has a 63m (207ft) bell tower which has been adopted as an emblem of the city.

Also on this day:

First Martyrs’ Day

1916: The birth of actor Mario Carotenuto

1932: The laying of the first stone of the Fascist city of Latina

1961: The birth of novelist Gianrico Carofiglio

1986: The birth of Allegra Versace, niece of Gianni

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 .

Pino Aprile – journalist

Author wrote about unification from the point of view of the South

Pino Aprile has enjoyed a long
career as a writer and journalist

Writer Pino Aprile, who became internationally famous as the author of Terroni, a book outlining 'all that has been done to ensure that the Italians of the south became Southerners', was born on this day in 1950 in Gioia del Colle, in Puglia.

Terroni was first published in 2010, a year before Italy celebrated the 150th anniversary of becoming a unified country. Over 200,000 copies were sold in Italy and an English version of Terroni, translated by Ilaria Marra Rosiglioni, was published in 2011.

With the stage set for the tricolore to fly proudly over a year of celebrations in Italy, Terroni appeared just before the party started, to provide readers with stark examples of what Aprile claims happened to people living in the south of the country when troops fighting for Victor Emmanuel II arrived in their towns and villages.

The catalogue of alleged massacres, executions, rapes, and torture that Aprile details in Terroni are hard to read about. Aprile himself says that at times he was tempted to walk away from the whole project. But he persevered because he was determined to set out the South’s version of events during the Risorgimento in Italy for readers to consider. 

At the beginning of the book there is a publisher’s note explaining that the singular noun terrone is an offensive term used by people in northern Italy to describe those from southern Italy. The word is from the term terra, meaning dirt or land, and to call someone a terrone implies that they are ignorant, uneducated, lazy, unwilling to work, rude, and of poor hygiene. 

Giuseppe Garibaldi, whose
soldiers stand accused

Italy’s Corte di Cassazione (the equivalent of a Supreme Court) has upheld the decision of a lower court that the term terrone is derogatory and offensive.

Aprile says he grew up not realising what had really happened in the area he was born in during the Risorgimento, because the history was never taught in schools. He had not realised that the people in the South who were labelled as brigands and executed were in fact Bourbon soldiers defending their homeland and that their wives and children were allegedly killed by Giuseppe Garibaldi’s soldiers just because they were considered brigands by association.

He had also never known that the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was one of the most industrialised places in the world, only just behind England and France, before it was invaded by Garibaldi and his men. 

Aprile writes: “The South has been deprived of its institutions; it has been deprived of its industries, its riches and of its ability to react. It has also been deprived of its people, with an emigration that was induced or forced…”

He says that while we think of the North of Italy today as prosperous, and the South as poor, the reverse was the case when Garibaldi set out to unify Italy. And he claims large quantities of money and valuable items were taken from the South to pay off the debts of the North. 

For the reader, references to the war crimes he says were committed during the military campaign to unify Italy are disturbing to say the least. Millions were either killed or wounded and at the very least forced to abandon their homes and land, leading to mass emigration from the south of Italy to the United States and South America.

Terroni sold more
 than 200,000 copies

But Aprile ends Terroni on a hopeful note saying: "I believe that there is no other land in Europe today that has a more promising future, and as many riches to offer than our South."

Aprile is the author of numerous other books, some of which have been translated into English. During his career as a journalist, Aprile was deputy editor of the magazine, Gente, and editor of the magazine, Oggi and he worked for Tg1, the Rai news programme, and TV7.  He also worked with Sergio Zavoli on the investigative series, Journey South.

Although he was born in Gioia del Colle and brought up in the Puglian coastal city of Taranto, Aprile spent many years living and working in Milan. He now lives in the Castelli Romani region of Lazio.

Pino Aprile is celebrating his 75th birthday today.

The well-preserved throne room inside
Gioia del Colle's historic castle

Travel tip:

Gioia del Colle, where Pino Aprile was born, is a comune of Bari in Puglia. It is situated on top of a hill between the Adriatic and Ionian seas. The town’s castle dates from the Byzantine period but it was enlarged by the Normans and Swabians, who successively dominated the area. The main church, initially dedicated to Saint Peter when it was built in the 11th century, but later renamed Madonna della Neve, contains historic frescoes. Gioia del Colle is famous for its production of mozzarella and for its Gioia del Colle Primitivo wine.

Find accommodation in Bari with Expedia

The remains of the Greek
Temple of Poseidon

Travel tip:

The coastal city of Taranto in Puglia, where Pino Aprile grew up, is an important port as well as an Italian naval base. It was founded by the Greeks in the eighth century BC and had become one of the largest cities in the world with a population of about 300,000 by 500 BC. There are several ruined Greek temples, some dating back to the sixth century BC. The old city or Città Vecchia retains the same street layout as when the Byzantines rebuilt it after it had been damaged by the Saracens in 927AD. Taranto has a Big Sea, the natural harbour where the ships are moored, which is separated from its Little Sea, which is actually a lagoon, by a cape. Taranto is famous for its mussels, which are given their distinctive flavour by the special conditions of salinity of the Little Sea. It is also said to be where the Tarantella, a frenetic dance, originated as a response to being bitten by a supposedly venomous spider.

See Hotels.com's selection of Taranto hotels

Also on this day: 

1339: The Battle of Parabiago

1549: The birth of Francesco Maria II della Rovere, last Duke of Urbino

1778: The death of groundbreaking scientist Laura Bassi

1816: Rossini’s Barber of Seville premieres in Rome

1993: The death of car maker Ferruccio Lamborghini

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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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The Battle of Bezzecca

Garibaldi-led force suffers heavy casualties but wins important victory

A depiction of the Battle of Bezzecca by the
Venetian painter Felice Zennaro

The Battle of Bezzecca, a significant Italian victory in the push for unification, took place on this day in 1866 on a site approximately 10km (6.2 miles) west of the northern tip of Lake Garda in what is now the Trentino region of northern Italy.

The battle was part of the Third Italian War of Independence as the new Kingdom of Italy, which had been formally proclaimed in 1861, sought to expel the Austrians from Venetia, which along with Papal Rome had remained outside the control of the fledgling nation.

It took place within the wider context of the Austro-Prussian War, a conflict that had begun earlier in the year after a territorial dispute. Italy, sensing an opportunity to annex Venetia and the part of Lombardy still under Austrian rule, had agreed an alliance with Prussia.

The Prussian victory at the Battle of Königgrätz resulted in Austria moving troops from Venetia towards Vienna, leaving their territories in northeastern Italy vulnerable to attack. 

Giuseppe Garibaldi, who had famously led the initial push for Italian unification with his Expedition of the Thousand in 1860 and was now a general in the Royal Italian Army, took arms again as the head of another volunteer army known as the Hunters of the Alps, as the Kingdom of Italy sought to capitalise on this supposed Austrian weakness.

The Hunters of the Alps were under
the command of Giuseppe Garibaldi

The Battle of Bezzecca came about a month after hostilities began as Garibaldi’s army, which initially had consisted of about 38,000 men, came up against 15,000 Austrian regulars under the command of General Baron Franz Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld. 

Despite some setbacks, which had included Garibaldi himself being wounded in an assault on an enemy position, the Hunters of the Alps seized control of strategically important towns, opening two potential routes towards the ultimate goal of capturing the city of Trento.

As Garibaldi’s troops moved towards Riva del Garda, from which they intended to push north towards Trento, the Austrians occupied the town of Bezzecca in Val di Ledro, blocking the route.

Garibaldi, overseeing the battle from a coach because of his injuries, directed his artillery to secure a hill near the town to provide support for an infantry assault, which forced the Austrians to withdraw.

It was an Italian victory, albeit one with heavy casualties. Of the 15,500 deployed by Garibaldi, at least 120 were killed or declared missing presumed killed, a further 450 wounded and, before the Austrian withdrawal, more than 1,000 captured. This compared with only about 100 casualties in total on the Austrian side.

In the event, it was the last battle Garibaldi would need to fight before the Italian objective of bringing Venetia into the new kingdom was achieved.

General Alfonso La Marmora, who 
ordered Garibaldi to withdraw

As he prepared to continue the invasion toward Garda, he received orders from General Alfonso La Marmora, commander-in-chief of the Italian army, to abandon Trentino ahead of an impending armistice between Italy and Austria following the cessation of hostilities between Austria and Prussia. 

From the main square of Bezzecca, Giuseppe Garibaldi famously replied with a telegram consisting of just one word: “Obbedisco!" - "I obey!” 

Under the terms of the Treaty of Vienna, which was signed on October 3, 1866, the Iron Crown of Lombardy, which had been in Austria’s possession since the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815, was returned to the Italian monarchy, while Venetia, consisting of modern Veneto, parts of Friuli and the city of Mantua, was ceded to Italy. 

The annexation of Venetia and Mantua was subject to a plebiscite, allowing the population to express its will. The result was overwhelmingly in favour, with 99.9 percent of participants saying yes to becoming part of the Kingdom of Italy.

The Chiesa di Santi Stefano e Lorenzo houses
a memorial to victims of the Battle of Bezzecca

Travel tip:

The Bezzecca of today, about 35km (22 miles) southwest of Trento, is a popular holiday destination in unspoilt surroundings, a short distance from Lago di Ledro, one of the most beautiful of the Trentino lakes. It is popular with walkers and cyclists, with many paths and trails to follow through the surrounding countryside. Since 2010, along with Pieve di Ledro, Concei, Molina di Ledro, Tiarno di Sopra and Tiarno di Sotto, it has been part of the new municipality of Ledro. The Battle of Bezzecca is recalled in many street names and buildings, while there is a small museum dedicated to Garibaldi and the Great War. Museum. In Piazza Garibaldi, the Chiesa di Santi Stefano e Lorenzo houses the Bezzecca War Memorial, which commemorates those who died fighting with Garibaldi and local men killed during the Great War. Outside the church, there is a 75 mm Italian cannon and a column donated to Bezzecca by the city of Rome in 1924.

Trento's Piazza Duomo, with the Palazzo Pretorio
on the left and the Cattedrale di San Vigilio

Travel tip:

The prosperous modern city of Trento is considered one of the most desirable places to live in Italy for quality of life and employment opportunities. With a population of 117,000, it is situated in an Alpine valley on the Adige river between the northern tip of Lake Garda and the border city of Bolzano, about 95km (59 miles) north of Verona. Settled by the Romans in the first century, it changed hands many times before becoming a major city in the Holy Roman Empire. The Austrians took charge in the 14th century and it remained under their control, with the exception of a spell of French domination in the Napoleonic era until the First World War.  It was notable in the 16th century for hosting the Council of Trent, the ecumenical council of the Catholic Church that gave rise to the resurgence of the church following Protestant Reformation. The 13th century Castello del Buonconsiglio, next to Trento’s city walls, was a military barracks under the Austrians, then a jail, before falling into disrepair.  It was restored after Trento became part of Italy in the 1920s and now houses a museum and art gallery.

Also on this day: 

1871: The birth of writer and historian Guglielmo Ferrero

1914: The birth of screenwriter Suso Cecchi D’Amico

1948: The birth of comedian-turned-activist Beppe Grillo

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Michele Amari – politician, historian, and writer

Scholarly revolutionary became a leading translator of mediaeval Arabic

Michele Amari embraced the 
cause of Italian unification

Patriotic Sicilian revolutionary Michele Amari was born on this day in 1806 in Palermo.

Amari published a history in 1842 of the War of the Sicilian Vespers, was a minister in the Sicilian revolutionary government in 1848, and was part of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s revolutionary cabinet in Sicily in 1860.

He embraced the cause of Italian unification and helped prepare Sicilians for the annexation of Sicily by the Kingdom of Sardinia. During his later years, he served as a Senator of the new Kingdom of Italy.

A grandson of the third Count Amari of Sant’Adriano, he grew up in an aristocratic household. The title had been acquired in 1772 by one of his ancestors, who had held the hereditary office of the administrator of the royal tobacco monopoly.

Michele Amari lived with his grandfather in the centre of Palermo after his father, Ferdinando, had financial problems caused by his gambling. Armari was educated in Palermo and one of his teachers was a leading Sicilian historian.

Amari’s father later introduced him to Francophile democratic circles in Palermo and secured him a position at the Ministry of the Interior in 1820.

After his grandfather died, Amari returned to live in his father’s house and he was involved, along with his father, in the uprising of the Carbonari in Palermo. The rebels were demanding Sicilian independence and a liberal constitution.

Amari served in the governments
of Sicily and the unified Italy

Ferdinando Amari was initially sentenced to death in 1822 for his participation in the rebellion, but he was kept in prison instead until he was released in 1834. During those years, Michele Amari read widely about politics and published translations of English authors, at one point receiving a letter of thanks from Sir Walter Scott for his work.

By 1837, Amari had prepared an outline for his book investigating the War of the Sicilian Vespers between 1282 and 1302. The work was interpreted by many people as being a call to overthrow the Bourbon rule in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Amari was involved in health administration during an outbreak of cholera in 1837 and he was transferred to Naples in 1838, but the book was eventually released in 1842.

The title was deliberately understated to bypass censorship, but it rapidly won an audience in Sicily and on the mainland in Italy. This caused concern to the Neapolitan Government and Amari had to go into exile in Paris, where he moved in French liberal elite circles.

During the 1848 Sicilian revolution, Amari returned to the island to take up the Chair of Law at the University in Palermo. He was elected as a deputy in the Sicilian parliament and became Minister of Finance in the revolutionary government.

After lobbying for the recognition of the Sicilian state in Paris and London, he accepted an academic position at the University of Pisa.

The Villa Amari in Via Traversa
was the family's home in Palermo

Amari returned to Sicily in 1860 after Garibaldi’s Expedition of The Thousand and campaigned among Sicilians for approval of the annexation of the island. Amari was appointed a senator of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1861, two months before the proclamation of the new Kingdom of Italy.

He served as Minister of Education in the Italian Government from 1862 until 1864 and lived at times in Florence, Rome, and Pisa. He died in Florence in 1889 and was later buried in Palermo, at the church of San Domenico.

Having mastered Arabic while living in Paris, Amari was a forerunner for Oriental studies in Italy and became recognised as one of the finest translators of mediaeval Arabic in Europe.

Pasta alla Norma, served in a sauce made from
tomatoes and aubergine, is a typical Sicilian dish

Travel tip:

With an area of 10,000 square miles (26,000 sq km), and 620 miles of coastline, Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean, just off the toe of Italy’s boot. The ancient ruins, diverse architecture and wonderful cuisine enjoyed by visitors are all testament to the island’s colourful history. It's two biggest cities are Palermo and Catania, while the among the biggest draws for tourists are the cities of the southeast of the island, such as Siracusa (Syracuse), Noto and Ragusa, famous for their stunning Sicilian Baroque architecture, the upmarket resort of Taormina, and the Greek temples at Agrigento. Watching over the east of the island is Mount Etna, a volcano that is still active today. 

Palermo's magnificent cathedral relects the
diversity of architectural style on the island

Travel tip:

Sicily’s capital city, Palermo, where Michele Amari was born and is buried, has a wealth of beautiful architecture, plenty of shops and markets, and is home to the largest opera house in Italy, the Teatro Massimo. Amari’s family residence, the baroque Villa Amari, was built in 1720 by the first Count of Armari in Via Traversa in the Piano dei Colli in Palermo. Palermo's architectural styles bear testament to a history of northern European and Arabian influences.  The church of San Cataldo on Piazza Bellini is a good example of the fusion of Norman and Arabic architectural styles, having a bell tower typical of those common in northern France but with three spherical red domes on the roof, while the city’s majestic Cathedral of the Assumption of Virgin Mary includes Norman, Moorish, Gothic, Baroque and Neoclassical elements. 

Also on this day:

1573: The death of architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola

1903: The birth of film director Vittorio De Sica

1911: The death of composer and librettist Gian Carlo Menotti

1990: Italy finished third in Italia '90 World Cup

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