Showing posts with label Milan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Milan. Show all posts

11 January 2025

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
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 Villagio was De André's close friend and supporter
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
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
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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27 December 2024

Giovanni Battista Pirelli - industrial entrepreneur

Founder of the giant Pirelli tyre company

Giovanni Battista Pirelli began his company with 45 employees
Giovanni Battista Pirelli began
his company with 45 employees
Giovanni Battista Pirelli, who in 1872 founded a business making products in rubber that would in time became the sixth largest tyre producer in the world, was born on this day in 1848 in Varenna, a village on the shore of Lake Como about 85km (53 miles) north of Milan.

Launched in January 1872 as GB Pirelli & Co, the firm initially produced a range of goods involving rubber, which included drive belts and hoses, underwater electrical and telegraph cables, waterproof clothing and footwear.

It began to manufacture tyres, first for bicycles, in around 1890, followed by motor vehicles in 1901. Pirelli & Co SpA was listed on the Borsa Italiana, the Milan-based Italian stock exchange, in 1922. It was the first Italian company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1929.

A fervent supporter of the Risorgimento movement, Giovanni Battista Pirelli fought in The Third War of Italian Independence, signing up with the third regiment of Garibaldi's volunteers while still a student, helping the Kingdom of Italy’s forces defeat the Austrians at the Battle of Monte Suello near Brescia in July 1866.

The eighth of 10 children born to baker Santino Pirelli and housewife Rosa Riva, Giovanni attended schools in Varenna - then itself part of the Austrian Habsburg empire - and Como and he was able to pursue higher education in Milan despite his father dying when he was only eight years old.

The elongated 'P' of the Pirelli logo has been a feature
of the tyre company's advertising since 1906
After studying physics and mathematics at the University of Pavia, he entered the Higher Technical Institute in Milan (later Milan Polytechnic) in 1867. At first he studied civil engineering before opting for industrial engineering in his second year. His marks in acquiring a diploma of industrial engineering were so impressive he was granted one of the two 3,000-lire scholarships established by the Milanese noblewoman Teresa Berra Kramer.

This allowed him to embark on a tour of Europe with the aim of identifying and studying a new industry. His travel plans were often disrupted by the political turmoil in parts of Europe at the time but the tour was a success nonetheless; Pirelli came into contact with some of the foremost protagonists of European industrial development.  His first inclination was to become involved with textiles but after taking advice from his professor, the engineer Giuseppe Colombo, he identified the nascent elastic rubber industry as the one he wanted to pursue.


When he returned to Italy, after Colombo had helped him raise the capital to set up his company, Pirelli appointed Antoine Aimé Goulard, a contact he had made in France who understood the rubber industry, as his technical director, responsible for instructing Pirelli in the technical processes used for manufacturing items in elastic rubber and for training employees.

The first Pirelli factory in Milan opened for the production of rubber products in June, 1873
The first Pirelli factory in Milan opened for the
production of rubber products in June, 1873

The company’s first factory, near Porta Nuova in the northeastern quarter of Milan, began operations in June, 1873, with five office staff and 40 workers in a 1,000sqm plant. The first articles produced were pipes, belts, valves, and gaskets.  It was the first factory in Italy to produce rubber goods and one of the first in Europe.

Built alongside the Sevesetto stream, on more or less the site where the Pirelli Tower skyscraper stands today, the factory grew to employ more than 250 people in less than ten years.

Committed to the future prosperity of Milan, Pirelli became involved with local politics, joining the city council, where he remained from 1877 until 1889. He was concerned with the problems of the neighbourhood where he lived and where the factory was located. As a member of the city's Chamber of Commerce, he gained enough experience to become a driving force in a successful campaign to reform the tariff laws that were holding back the development of the company.  In 1909, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy appointed Pirelli as a Senator of the Kingdom of Italy.

The company expanded rapidly from the 1880s after Pirelli began the industrial production of electrical conductors and underwater electric cables. Pirelli laid the first submarine telegraph cables in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean on behalf of the Italian government, and was engaged by the Spanish government to lay submarine cables between Spain, the Balearic Islands and Morocco. 

But it was Pirelli’s identifying the potential of tyre manufacturing that was to turn Pirelli & Co into an industrial giant. In 1891 it began the production of bicycle tyres and in 1901 tyres for cars and motorcycles. 

The Pirelli Family tomb in the Monumental Cemetery in Milan
The Pirelli Family tomb in the
Monumental Cemetery in Milan
The company’s foreign expansion began with a subsidiary factory opened in Spain in 1902, shortly before Pirelli’s two sons, Piero and Alberto, joined the business. Factories were built in countries across Europe, in Great Britain, Turkey and the Americas. Eventually the Pirelli businesses at home and abroad employed more than 55,000 people. 

Pirelli adopted the famous elongated ‘P’ in the company logo in 1906, and began his company’s long and successful association with motor sport. The motor car race from Peking to Paris in 1906 was won on Pirelli tyres. Today, Pirelli is the exclusive tyre partner for the FIA Formula One World Championship and for the FIM World Superbike Championship.

More recently, the company was the primary sponsor of Inter-Milan football club between 1995 and 2021 and has sponsored other football teams in Europe and South America. 

Although it is 92 years since Giovanni Battista Pirelli died - he was laid to rest in the Monumental Cemetery of Milan - the company name lives on, albeit since 2015 under Chinese ownership. It employed 31,000 people at 19 facilities in 12 countries with a market capitalisation of $6.69 billion as of May, 2024. 

The Pirelli family tomb at the Monumental Cemetery is marked by a monument, the Edicola Pirelli, designed by the Milan architect Luca Beltrami.

The beautiful waterfront at the Lake Como
village of Varenna, Pirelli's birthplace
Travel tip:

Established by local fishermen in the eighth century, Varenna, where Pirelli was born, is an enchanting village nestled on the eastern shore of Lago di Como in northern Italy, located about 23km (14 miles) along the shore from the town of Lecco just opposite the peninsula of land where the lake divides into its Lago di Como and Lago di Lecco forks. Varenna offers stunning views of the lake and surrounding mountains, while the village is known for the vibrant, pastel-coloured houses that line the waterfront, and the narrow, steep streets leading away from the water. Historic sites include the 11th-century Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista and the beautiful Villa Monastero, which features well tended gardens and a museum. The Passeggiata degli Innamorati (Lovers' Walk) is a romantic lakeside promenade perfect for leisurely strolls.  Varenna hosts cultural events and festivals throughout the year, celebrating Italian traditions and arts.

The Pirelli Tower used to be the tallest building in Italy
The Pirelli Tower used to be
the tallest building in Italy
Travel tip:

In 1950, Alberto Pirelli, who had succeeded his father, Giovanni Battista Pirelli as president and owner of the Pirelli tyre company, commissioned the architect Gio Ponti to build a skyscraper in the area where the corporation's first factory was located in the 19th century. Ponti was assisted in the project by Pier Luigi Nervi and Arturo Danusso. Built between 1956 and 1958, it became a symbol not only of Milan, but also of the economic recovery of Italy after the devastation of World War II. At 127m (417 feet) and with 32 floors, it was initially the tallest building in Italy until the pinnacle of the Mole Antonelliana in Turin was restored in 1961. Characterized by curtain wall façades and tapered sides, it was among the first skyscrapers to abandon the customary block form and was hailed as one of the most elegant tall buildings in the world. In a career that spanned six decades, Ponti completed more than 100 architectural projects around the world, including 46 in Milan, his home city, but the Pirelli Tower is still his most famous. Pirelli sold the building to the Lombardy regional government in 1978. 

Also on this day:

1660: The birth of Saint Veronica Giuliani

1888: The birth of tenor Tito Schipa

1983: Pope John Paul II visits prison to forgive would-be assassin

1985: Terror attack at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport 


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1 December 2024

Giuseppe Sarti – composer

Musician and teacher whose work inspired Mozart 

Giuseppe Sarti composed more than 50 operas in a career spanning half a century
Giuseppe Sarti composed more than 50
operas in a career spanning half a century 
Giuseppe Sarti, who composed more than 50 operas and a large quantity of liturgical music, was baptised on this day in 1729 in Faenza, in what used to be the Papal States, but is now part of the region of Emilia-Romagna.

Also sometimes referred to as Il Domenichino, Sarti was playing the organ in Faenza by the time he was 13, but he then went to Bologna to study the organ and composition. He returned to Faenza to become organist at the cathedral and the director of the theatre there and began writing operas.

He was successful with his first opera, Pompeo in Armenia, which is believed to have been first performed in 1752. It was seen as establishing his musical capabilities while he was still in his early 20s.

After his second opera, Il re pastore, was well received in Venice in 1753, Sarti travelled to Copenhagen, where he was to spend the next 20 years. 

He worked in various jobs, including that of music director at the court of King Frederick V of Denmark, and he produced 30 operas in Italian and Danish at the Italian Opera there.

After he returned to Italy, Sarti became director of the Conservatorio dell’Ospedaletto in Venice in 1775. He moved to Milan in 1779, to become choirmaster of Milan Cathedral.

While he was there, he wrote many of his operas, which became increasingly popular, and a large amount of sacred music for the cathedral.  He also attracted many students, including the composer, Luigi Cherubini. 

Mozart (above) included an aria by Sarti in his own opera, Don Giovanni
Mozart (above) included an aria by
Sarti in his own opera, Don Giovanni
In 1784 he accepted an invitation to become court conductor in St Petersburg to Empress Catherine II of Russia, who became known as Catherine the Great. He took over the post in succession to the Neapolitan opera composer Giovanni Paisiello, who had served the Empress for eight years.

While he was in St Petersburg, Sarti established a music conservatory, investigated the laws of acoustics, and invented a device for calculating sound vibrations to determine pitch standards.

The Academy of Science in St Petersburg appointed Sarti as an honorary member because of his discoveries.

Among his most popular operas were Ciro riconosciuto (1754), Didone abbandonata (1762), Le gelosie villane (1776), Achille in Sciro (1779), Giulio Sabino (1781), Fra i due litiganti il terzo gode (1782), and Armida e Rinaldo (1786).

Sarti's opera, Fra I due litiganti il terzo gode, was admired by Mozart to the extent that he introduced an aria from it into the dinner scene of his opera, Don Giovanni. Mozart's opera, Le nozze di Figaro, is also thought to have been influenced by the same Sarti opera, which Mozart is believed to have heard in Vienna in 1784. 

Giuseppe Sarti died at the age of 73 in 1802 in Berlin, when he was on his way back from Russia to Italy.

Surviving manuscript copies of some of his works are now kept in an archive of musical works in the Municipal Library at Montecatini Terme in Tuscany.

Faenza's duomo, the Cattedrale di San Pietro Apostolo, where Sarti wrote his earliest operas
Faenza's duomo, the Cattedrale di San Pietro
Apostolo, where Sarti wrote his earliest operas
Travel tip: 

Giuseppe Sarti’s baptism was registered on 1 December in Faenza and he was possibly born in the town on the same day. At that time, Faenza was part of the Papal States, an area of Italy that was under the direct rule of the Pope between 756 and 1850. It has now become part of the Emilia-Romagna region, and is about 50 kilometres south east of Bologna. The city is famous for the manufacture of a type of decorative majolica-ware known as faience. It is also home to the International Museum of Ceramics, which has examples of ceramics from ancient times, the Middle Ages and the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as displaying work by important contemporary artists. The museum is in Viale Baccarini in Faenza. For more information visit www.micfaenza.org.

Milan's imposing duomo, where Sarti composed much of his sacred music
Milan's imposing duomo, where Sarti
composed much of his sacred music
Travel tip:

Sarti was choirmaster at Milan Cathedral, which is also known as the Duomo of Milan, where he taught pupils, including Cherubini, and wrote many of his operas and pieces of sacred music. Milan’s duomo is the largest church in Italy and the fifth largest in the world. Construction of the impressive church began in 1386 using marble brought into the city along Milan’s Navigli canals. Although it was consecrated as a Cathedral in 1418, building work on the Duomo was not finally completed until the 19th century, when Napoleon arranged for the façade to be finished before his coronation was held there.

Also on this day:

1455: The death of sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti

1958: The birth of athlete Alberto Cova

1964: The birth of footballer Salvatore Schillaci

2003: The death of bobsleigh champion Eugenio Monti


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2 November 2024

Arnoldo Mondadori - publisher

Business launched with socialist newspaper became biggest in Italy

Arnoldo Mondadori (left) pictured with Georges  Simenon, one of the authors of the early gialli
Arnoldo Mondadori (left) pictured with Georges 
Simenon, one of the authors of the early gialli

Arnoldo Mondadori, who at the age of 17 founded what would become Italy’s biggest publishing company, was born on this day in 1889 in Poggio Rusco, a small Lombardian town about 40km (25 miles) southeast of Mantua.

As the business grew, Mondadori published Italian editions of works by Winston Churchill, Thomas Mann and Ernest Hemingway among others, as well as by some of Italy’s own literary giants, including Gabriele D’Annunzio and Eugenio Montale.

Mondadori was the publisher of news magazines such as Epoca, Tempo and Panorama, launched the women’s magazine, Grazia, struck a deal with Walt Disney to publish children’s magazines, and introduced Italy to detective fiction with a series of crime mysteries called Gialli Mondadori, whose yellow (giallo) covers eventually led to gialli becoming a generic term in the Italian language, used not only to identify a detective novel but to describe unsolved mysteries in real life. 

His Oscar Mondadori paperback novels, sold on newsstands, made fiction accessible to much wider audiences than previously, while he set up the Club degli Editori as Italy’s first mail-order book club.

The third of six children born to Domenico Secondo, an itinerant shoemaker, and his wife, Ermenegilda, Arnoldo was forced to give up his formal education at a young age in order to contribute to the family’s income. 

The tradition of gialli crime novels was started by Mondadori
The tradition of gialli crime novels
was started by Mondadori
After the family had moved to Ostiglia, on the banks of the Po river, Arnoldo had a series of jobs and became an active socialist. His publishing career began when he began working in a stationery shop, which gave him access to a printing press.

After teaching himself how to operate the machine, he began to publish a socialist newspaper called Luce.  He enjoyed his new working environment and with the aid of a benefactor was able to raise enough money to buy the shop and its press. 

Mondadori proved to be an astute businessman, soon recognising that handsome profits could be made by producing textbooks for Italy’s growing education system. In 1912 he launched the La Scolastica imprint with Aia Madama, a collection of folk tales assembled by his friend, Tomaso Monicelli, an Ostigliese scholar whose collaboration encouraged other noteworthy authors to sign up with Mondadori. 

The outbreak of World War One interrupted the growth of the company, although Mondadori struck on another profitable idea by publishing illustrated newspapers to entertain soldiers on the front line. 

After the end of hostilities, the business expanded rapidly, with new partners coming on board, bringing investment and resources that enabled Mondadori to move his headquarters to Milan, open a production centre in Verona and an administrative office in Rome. One such partner, a well-connected Milan industrialist called Senatore Borletti, enabled Mondadori to make valuable contacts inside the increasingly powerful Fascist party, which turned out to be vital when the Fascist government introduced strict controls in the education system.

It was Borletti who helped persuade D’Annunzio, the aristocratic writer, soldier and nationalist politician, to join Mondadori when he retired to his home on Lake Garda to devote his later years to writing poetry and plays.

Arnoldo Mondadori turned his business  into Italy's biggest publishing company
Arnoldo Mondadori turned his business 
into Italy's biggest publishing company
In 1921, Mondadori acquired the rights to the popular Children’s Encyclopaedia but his ambitions were not limited to the education sector. Seeking to strengthen his relationship with the Fascist government, Mondadori commissioned Margherita Sarfatti, a well-known art critic, to write a biography of the Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini. Entitled Dux, it was a largely sympathetic work which met with the approval of the Duce himself and proved to be a best-seller.

This cosying up to the regime proved to be worthwhile when the decision was made in 1928 to require schools to teach from just one, state-sanctioned textbook. Soon, almost a third of these textbooks were being printed and distributed by Mondadori and in time he had a virtual monopoly.

Nonetheless, this shrinking of the market in school books required Mondadori to establish other business models.

Encouraged by Luigi Rusca, a translator and director of the company, who had seen the success of the genre in the United States, Mondadori moved into publishing crime fiction.  At first, it was foreign writers such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Georges Simenon, Agatha Christie and Erle Stanley Gardner whose stories began to appear in Italian translation. Yet they were so successful, with 5,000 copies sold in the first month following the launch, that Italian writers began to take an interest in the genre and in 1931 the first truly Italian giallo - Alessandro Varaldo’s Il Sette Bello - was added to the series.

In 1935, the publishing house further diversified through an agreement with Walt Disney to publish children's magazines based on Disney comics characters, a deal which ran until 1988. Grazia magazine launched in 1938.

The present headquarters of Arnaldo Mondadore Editore at Segrate, an eastern suburb of Milan
The present headquarters of Arnaldo Mondadore
Editore at Segrate, an eastern suburb of Milan
World War Two had severe consequences for the company, who had to move its headquarters to Verona after Milan was subjected to heavy allied bombing.  Mondadori and his family sought refuge in Switzerland.

After the war, the business shifted more and more towards magazine publishing, but books remained a large part of Mondadori’s success, particularly the Oscar Mondadori series, which was launched in 1965 with Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. In the same year, the number of people employed by the company, which stood at 335 in 1950, topped 3,000.

Arnoldo Mondadori died in 1971 at the age of 81, after which the control of the business passed to the younger of his two sons, Giorgio, who had been chairman at the time of his father’s death. Arnoldo was survived by his wife, Andreina.

Giorgio commissioned the Mondadori group’s impressive headquarters at Segrate on the outskirts of Milan but left the company in 1976 after his two sisters, Cristina and Mimma, merged their shares to acquire a controlling interest, putting Cristina’s husband, Mario Formenton, in charge.

Since 1991, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore has been controlled by Fininvest, the holding company established by the late Silvio Berlusconi. The former Italian prime minister’s daughter, Marina, has been chair since 2003.

The elegant parish church of Santissimo Nome di Maria in Poggio Rusco
The elegant parish church of Santissimo
Nome di Maria in Poggio Rusco
Travel tip:

Poggio Rusco, where Arnoldo Mondadori was born, is a town of around 6,500 inhabitants, to which visitors can experience the authentic culture and cuisine of the Oltrepò Mantovano area. Surrounded by fertile fields and canals, Poggio Rusco has an impressive 16th-century castle, an elegant parish church, and an ancient tower that overlooks the town. Local specialties include tortelli di zucca, the pumpkin-filled pasta, and salame mantovano, a typical cured meat. Poggio Rusco is well placed as a base from which to explore the nearby cities of Mantua, Verona, Ferrara, Bologna and Modena, which are all within an hour's drive.

The art nouveau Palazzina Mondadori in Ostiglia, once the home of La Sociale print workshop
The art nouveau Palazzina Mondadori in Ostiglia,
once the home of La Sociale print workshop
Travel tip:

Ostiglia, where Mondadori launched his business career in 1907, is a small town located along the ancient Via Claudia Augusta Padana, overlooking the Po River, in a strategic position once exploited by the Romans. The area around Ostiglia, which lies just under 35km (22 miles) southeast of Mantua, is popular with visitors for its network of nature trails, many of them in the Paludi di Ostiglia nature reserve, which is home to 175 bird species. There are also many cycle routes, including one that links Ostiglia with the city of Treviso in Veneto, which follows the path of the disused 120km (75 miles) Treviso-Ostiglia military railway line. The centre of Ostiglia is notable for its mediaeval towers and art nouveau houses, while the archaeological museum tells the town’s history from its days as the Roman trading post, Hostilia. The Roman historian Cornelius Nepote, who was born there, as was Ermanno, Marquis of Verona, who built the town’s castle. Mondadori's first printing house, La Sociale, can be visited as part of the art nouveau Palazzina Mondadori, which today houses Arnoldo Mondadori's personal and private library, consisting of about 1,000 volumes. The building is equipped with classrooms, multimedia and exhibition halls used to promote reading in conjunction with the Fondazione Mondadori.

Also on this day:

293: The death of San Giusto of Trieste

1418: The birth of builder and diarist Gaspare Nadi

1475: The death of condottiero Bartolomeo Colleoni

1893: The birth of car designer Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina

1906: The birth of film director Luchino Visconti


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8 October 2024

Carlo Cracco - chef and TV presenter

Former MasterChef Italia judge has won six Michelin stars

Carlo Cracco learned his craft under renowned chef Gualtiero Marchesi
Carlo Cracco learned his craft under
renowned chef Gualtiero Marchesi
The chef and television presenter Carlo Cracco, who has restaurants in Milan, the jet-set resort of Portofino and is shortly to open his first venture in London, was born on this day in 1965 in Creazzo, a town just outside the city of Vicenza.

During his career as a chef, which began in earnest when he began working for the renowned Gualtiero Marchesi in Milan in 1986, Cracco has been awarded a total of six Michelin stars.

He has also enjoyed a successful career in television. Between 2011 and 2017 he was a judge on MasterChef Italia and he fronted Hell’s Kitchen Italia from 2014 to 2018. Among other shows in which he participated was Cracco Confidential, a 2018 documentary about a year in his life.

The son of a railway worker, Cracco obtained a diploma in hospitality from the Pellegrino Artusi hotel institute in Recoaro Terme, while working at the Da Remo restaurant in Vicenza.

From there he joined the kitchen of Gualtiero Marchesi at his eponymous restaurant in Via Bonvesin de la Riva in Milan.

The experience was a real baptism of fire. Marchesi is regarded as the Godfather of modern Italian cuisine and his restaurant in the Porta Venezia district of central Milan was the first in Italy to be awarded three Michelin stars.

To expand his knowledge, Cracco spent some time in France, working with leading chefs Alain Ducasse at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, and Alain Senderins at the Lucas Carlton in Paris.

Cracco's flagship restaurant can be found in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
Cracco's flagship restaurant can be
found in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
Returning to Italy in 1991, Cracco became head chef at L’Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, winning his first two Michelin stars, before reuniting with his mentor Marchesi at L’Albereta, in the town of Erbusco, near Brescia.

From there, he decided to go it alone. After his first venture, Le Clivie at Piobesi d'Alba, southwest of Asti in Piedmont, had earned him another Michelin star, he returned to Milan, where he agreed a deal with the owners of Peck, the luxury food emporium, to open a restaurant called Peck-Cracco.

It was awarded two Michelin stars, soon becoming known simply as ‘Cracco’. He would remain there for 17 years before relocating to new premises within the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the glass-domed 19th century shopping arcade that links Piazza del Duomo with Piazza della Scala. 

Also in Milan, Cracco opened Carlo e Camilla in Segheria, a bistro that takes its name from a disused sawmill, in the Navigli area. In November 2016 he opened his first restaurant outside Italy, OVO by Carlo Cracco, located in Moscow inside the Hotel Lotte.

His Portofino restaurant, Cracco Portofino, opened in 2021 in what was previously the Ristorante Il Pitosforo, directly opposite the harbour. His first London venture - Terra Cracco - within the Eataly food store in Bishopsgate, London is due to open in October, 2024.

From 2014 to 2018, Cracco fronted the reality TV show Hell's Kitchen Italia
From 2014 to 2018, Cracco fronted the
reality TV show Hell's Kitchen Italia
Cracco’s inventive creations include twists on traditional dishes such as Cotoletta alla Milanese and Insalata Russa. His version of the Milanese veal cutlet is a slice of pounded raw Piedmont veal on a rectangle of breadcrumbs, with slivers of lemon peel on the side. 

His Russian Salad, meanwhile, comes caramelised, a crisp nugget of peas, carrot and beans with a creamy mayonnaise centre within its sugar shell. 

Another of Cracco’s signature creations is his marinated egg yolk in salt and sugar, which can be rolled out into pasta without the addition of flour or water.

Not all of his inventions have met with universal approval. His 'healthy' pizza with a grain base was mocked by traditionalists, particularly in Naples, while the town of Amatrice in Lazio disapproved of his addition of garlic to their trademark amatriciana pasta sauce, which is made simply with guanciale (pig’s cheek), tomatoes, pecorino cheese and black pepper.

However, Cracco successfully sued a newspaper in Verona over comments made by its editor following a dinner to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the city’s annual wine festival, where 400 guests were served with a meal cooked by the chef and his team. 

The Villa Masiero-Pegoraro-Monti is one of a  several elegant villas in the hills around Creazzo
The Villa Masiero-Pegoraro-Monti is one of a 
several elegant villas in the hills around Creazzo
Travel tip:

Creazzo, where Carlo Cracco was born, has been inhabited since Rome times and perhaps earlier. Situated about 7km (4 miles) west of the city of Vicenza, it has a historical significance because of the Battle of Creazzo in 1513, which was part of the larger conflict between the Republic of Venice and the combined forces of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, which highlighted the town’s strategic importance. The town came under Venetian rule and the influence of Venetian architecture and culture can still be seen in the town’s buildings and traditions. In an area of fertile land, Creazzo is known for the production of figs, cheese and a variety of broccoli called Broccoli fiolaro di Creazzo. As well as an elegant centre, the hills around Creazzo are also distinguished by a series of elegant villas including the 18th-century Villa Fadinelli-Suppiej, or Villa dei Veneziani; the Villa Legrenzi, also known as Villa del Sole; and the Villa Masiero-Pegoraro-Monti.

The Navigli district is one of the most popular areas of Milan for restaurants and night life
The Navigli district is one of the most popular
areas of Milan for restaurants and night life
Travel tip:

The Navigli district, where Cracco opened the Carlo e Camilla in Segheria bistro, is an area to the southwest of central Milan that originally consisted of five canals used for commercial transport in the city that date back to the Middle Ages. Their importance declined in the last century and only two - Naviglio Grande and Naviglio Pavese - still exist.  Once a poor neighbourhood, the Navigli is now very popular for the restaurants and bars that line the two waterways and is often thronged with young Milanese in the evenings. What is reputed to be Milan’s best flea and antiques market is held on the last Sunday of the month, with almost two kilometres (one and a quarter miles) of stalls lining the Naviglio Grande. The area still has some examples of palazzi di ringhiera - tenement buildings with shared balconies - which were once typical of the city. 

Also on this day:

1551: The birth of composer Giulio Caccini

1881: The birth of Mona Lisa thief Vincenzo Perrugia

1957: The birth of footballer Antonio Cabrini


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12 September 2024

Eugenio Montale - poet and translator

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eugenio Montale's first volume of poetry established him as a great literary talent
Eugenio Montale's first volume of poetry
established him as a great literary talent
Despite his frail health, he was passed fit for military service when Italy entered World War One and experienced frontline fighting in the area around Vallarsa and Rovereto. By the time he was discharged in 1920, he had risen to the rank of lieutenant.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The pretty fishing village of Boccadesse is just outside the historic centre of Genoa
The pretty fishing village of Boccadesse is only 
a short distance from the historic centre of Genoa
Travel tip:

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

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

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

Also on this day:

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

1937: The birth of actress Daniela Rocca

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


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5 September 2024

Renzo Rivolta - engineer

Entrepreneur who invented the ‘bubble car’

Rivolta's Isetta filled a gap in the auto market between motorcycles and scooters and cars
Rivolta's Isetta filled a gap in the auto market
between motorcycles and scooters and cars
Renzo Rivolta, the businessman and engineer behind the ‘bubble car’ phenomenon of the 1950s, was born in Desio, a town in Lombardy about 20km (12 miles) north of Milan, on this day in 1908.

A visionary entrepreneur, Rivolta conceived the three-wheeled vehicle as a crossover between a motorcycle and a car, to bridge the gap in the market between conventional motorcycles and scooters and Italy’s cheapest car, the Fiat Topolino.

Named the Isetta, the car was essentially egg-shaped with just about room for two adults on the one seat. The nose section was also the access door, with a rack attached to the rear to carry a small amount of luggage. Because of its shape and bubble-like windows, it became known as a bubble car.

In the event, it was not particularly successful in Italy, yet it was a hit with buyers in other parts of Europe and in South America, where it was produced under licence.  

In Germany it is remembered as the car that saved BMW.  The company’s decision to invest in the Isetta, sold in Germany as the BMW Isetta 250, enabled a postwar recovery that was in serious doubt with the market in luxury cars slow to pick up.

Renzo Rivolta's business began by manufacturing refrigerators
Renzo Rivolta's business began
by manufacturing refrigerators
The first BMW Isettas rolled off the production line in 1955 and eventually more than 160,000 were sold. Isettas were built under licence in Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom. Unlike the version produced in England, the German Isetta had four wheels as opposed to three, albeit with the rear two wheels positioned closer together than the front.

The car also sparked a rash of copies, with companies in Europe such as Messerschmitt, Heinkel, Vespa and Renault producing their own microcars. Britain’s roads saw the Peel P50, the Scootacar and the Bond Bug follow the trend, their popularity helped by road tax on three-wheelers being the same as for two-wheeled vehicles. 

Renzo Rivolta’s family in Desio were in the lumbar business. As a young man, as well as studying engineering, he had a passion for cars, motorcycles and speed boats, in all of which he raced. The Monza motor racing circuit was just a few kilometres from the family home.

One of his earliest business ventures, however, involved none of those things but refrigerators. In 1940, he bought a company called Isothermos, which had a factory just outside Genoa making heaters and chillers. When the factory was damaged in a bombing raid in 1942, he moved production to new premises at Bresso, a town now part of greater Milan.

Immediately after the end of the Second World War, Rivolta decided to devote his company to the production of Iso motorcycles and scooters, which buyers saw as an affordable and versatile means of getting around and offered significant commercial profits.

By 1953, he had changed the company’s name to Iso Autoveicoli and launched the Isetta, the success of which ultimately enabled Rivolta to pursue his ambition to produce high-performance sports cars. 

The Iso Grifo fulfilled Renzo Rivolta's dream of moving into the performance car market
The Iso Grifo fulfilled Renzo Rivolta's dream
of moving into the performance car market
In collaboration with renowned designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, engineer Giotto Bizzarrini and coachbuilder Giovanni Bertone, Iso developed the Iso Grifo, a stunning grand tourer, which later led to the creation of the Bizzarini 5300 GT. 

Sadly, Renzo’s time to enjoy the trappings of his success was cut short when he died suddenly in 1966 at the age of 57.

He left a widow, Maria Aurelia Barberi (known as Marion), and two children, Attilia and Pier Attilio (known as Piero). Piero took over the running of the company, overseeing a period which saw the formation of the Iso-Rivolta-Marlboro Formula One team, managed by a young Frank Williams.

The Rivolta family sold the business in 1972, with car production ending two years later. Piero bought back the names Iso and Iso Rivolta, and after an initiative launched by the coachbuilder Zagato, a limited edition of a new sports car, the ISO Rivolta GTZ, was produced in 2019.

After success in a number of business projects, Piero and his family moved to Florida in 1980. In recent years, Pietro has devoted more of his time to writing novels and poetry, publishing eight books.

Renzo Rivolta's home in Bresso was the magnificent  Villa Patellani, seen from Via Giulio Centurelli
Renzo Rivolta's home in Bresso was the magnificent 
Villa Patellani, seen from Via Giulio Centurelli
Travel tip:

Bresso, situated a few kilometres north of the centre of Milan, is a charming suburban town with origins that can be traced back to the Roman era, when it was a small agricultural settlement known as Brissum. It remained a rural community until Milan experienced rapid industrialisation and urbanisation in the 20th century, when it began to attract commuters seeking a more affordable and less crowded lifestyle within easy reach of the city centre. Nonetheless, Bresso has a well preserved historic centre of narrow cobblestone streets, quaint squares, and traditional Lombard architecture.  Its oldest church, the Chiesa dei Santi Nazaro e Celso, dates back to the 15th century, while the modern Madonna della Misericordia, which was built in 1963, is shaped like Noah's ark. In 1939, Renzo Rivolta bought the Villa Patellani, a typical example of 18th-century Lombardy architecture, a reconstruction of a pre-existing 16th-century building. In 1942 it became part of the estate that incorporated the headquarters of his company, Isothermos, later Iso Autoveicoli. Part of the estate is now a community park, while one of the two surviving warehouse buildings now houses the municipality’s Post Office. 

The Basilica dei Santi Siro e Materno in Desio, which was completed in 1744 and later enlarged
The Basilica dei Santi Siro e Materno in Desio,
which was completed in 1744 and later enlarged

Travel tip:

Desio, where Rivolta was born, is a town of just under 21,000 people in the province of Monza and Brianza, which takes its name from the Latin ad decimum, meaning "at the 10th mile," referring to its location 10 Roman miles north of Milan. In 1277, it was the scene of a pivotal battle between the Visconti and della Torre families for the rule of Milan, won decisively by the Visconti, who would dominate the city until the mid-15th century. It is also the birthplace of Achille Ratti, who as Pope Pius XI was head of the Catholic Church between 1922 and 1939 and first sovereign of the independent Vatican City State upon its creation in 1929. His birthplace is now a museum dedicated to his life and legacy. The town is home to several notable churches, including the Basilica dei Santi Siro e Materno, which was consecrated upon its completion in 1744 and reconsecrated in 1895 following its enlargement and the addition of its dome.  

Also on this day: 

1533: The birth of philosopher Giacamo Zabarella

1568: The birth of poet and philosopher Tommaso Campanella

1901: The birth of politician Mario Scelba

1970: The birth of Paralympian Francesca Porcellato


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