Showing posts with label Motors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Motors. Show all posts

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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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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1 July 2022

Achille Varzi - racing driver

Death on track led to mandatory wearing of crash helmets

Varzi was never seen as a driver who was reckless at the wheel
Varzi was never seen as a driver
who was reckless at the wheel
Italian motor racing fans were in mourning on this day in 1948 when it was announced that Achille Varzi, whose rivalry with fellow driver Tazio Nuvolari made frequent headlines during the 1930s, had been killed in an accident while practising for the Swiss Grand Prix.

Although the sun was shining, an earlier downpour had left parts of the Bremgarten circuit outside Berne very wet and Varzi’s Alfa Romeo 158 was travelling at 110mph when he arrived at a corner that was both wet and oily.

The car spun several times and appeared to be coming to a stop but then flipped over. The helmetless Varzi was crushed beneath the car and died from his injuries at the age of 43.

His death was especially shocking because he was regarded as one of the more cautious drivers. Since beginning his career on two wheels in his teens he had suffered only one major accident, in stark contrast to Nuvolari, whose daredevil tactics led him to have several serious crashes.

Whether Varzi would have survived with better protection is unknown, but his death did prompt motor racing’s governing body, the FIA, to make the wearing of crash helmets by drivers mandatory rather than optional, a ruling many thought was long overdue.

The fearless Nuvolari won 24 Grands Prix but in spite of his more conservative style Varzi still won 17 of his own and his rivalry with Nuvolari has drawn comparisons with that of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost half a century later.

Varzi at the wheel of his Bugatti T51 after winning his duel with rival Tazio Nuvolari at Monaco in 1933
Varzi at the wheel of his Bugatti T51 after winning
his duel with rival Tazio Nuvolari at Monaco in 1933
They were seen as contenders for the crown of Italy’s greatest driver, often competing against each other in Italy’s two great endurance races, the Mille Miglia, which Nuvolari won twice to Varzi’s once, and the Targa Florio, which both won twice each.

Born in 1904 in Galliate, a small town just outside the city of Novara in Piedmont, Varzi was the son of a wealthy cotton manufacturer.

Like Nuvolari, he began his career racing motorcycles, having the financial wherewithal to acquire some of the best machines of the day, such as those made by Garelli, Moto Guzzi and Sunbeam. 

He switched to cars in 1928, at first driving Type 35 Bugattis alongside Nuvolari, although he soon decided to go it alone, again taking advantage of his family’s wealth to buy himself a P2 Alfa Romeo, which was a superior car. He chalked up so many race wins in 1929 that Nuvolari felt he needed a P2 of his own. 

With a shrewd business brain in addition to his talent behind the wheel, Varzi would not hesitate to switch his allegiance if he felt it would be to his advantage and managed to drive for each major marque during their most successful periods: Alfa Romeo in the late 1920s and mid-’30s, Bugatti in the early 1930s, Auto-Union in the mid-1930s after Adolf Hitler began investing in German motorsport, and Maserati in the immediate pre-war years.

There were numerous races that came down to a straight fight between him and Nuvolari, one example of which was the 1933 Monaco Grand Prix, when the two Italians fought a duel along the narrow streets of the principality that the lead changed on almost every lap until Varzi ultimately broke away to win.

Varzi's car rounds a bend in the 1930 Targo Florio, the endurance race in Sicily, which he won
Varzi's car rounds a bend in the 1930 Targo Florio,
the endurance race in Sicily, which he won
Varzi’s peak was 1934, when he drove his P3 Alfa Romeo to victory in the prestigious Coppa Ciano as well as both the Mille Miglia and Targa Florio, and the Grands Prix of Tripoli, Penya Rhin and Nice.

He would have undoubtedly won more had he not begun what would prove to be a disastrous affair with Ilse Pietsch, the wife of one of his teammates at the Auto Union team, which he joined in 1935.

Apart from the tensions this caused in the Auto Union stable, the relationship had terrible consequences for Varzi’s career. It turned out Ilse Pietsch was addicted to the opioid morphine, a potent painkiller that can induce feelings of intense joy and euphoria when taken in large quantities.

She persuaded Varzi, by then in his early 30s, to sample it himself and he too soon became addicted. His performances suffered as well as his health. By then driving for Maserati, he won the inaugural San Remo Grand Prix in 1937 but little more was seen of him after that and it was not until the Second World War curtailed normal life that he was able to beat his addiction.

No longer with Pietsch, he went back to his former partner, Norma, and they were married. When motor racing resumed, he found success again, driving the Alfa 158. He won races in Argentina, where he decided he would retire once his track career had ended. 

A popular figure in Argentina, his name would live on in the Scuderia Achille Varzi, which was set up after his death to enable Juan Manuel Fangio and other Argentine drivers to compete in Europe.

After his death, Varzi’s body was returned to Galliate, his coffin placed on the chassis of a racing car inside the Church of Saints Peter and Paul. His  funeral attracted 15,000 people to the large Piazza Vittorio Veneto at the front of the church.

The skyline of Novara is dominated by the 121m dome of the Basilica of San Gaudenzio
The skyline of Novara is dominated by the 121m
dome of the Basilica of San Gaudenzio
Travel tip:

With a population of more than 100,000, Novara is the second largest city in the Piedmont region after Turin. Founded by the Romans, it became an important crossroads for commercial traffic along the routes from Milan to Turin and from Genoa to Switzerland. It was later ruled by the Visconti and Sforza families. In the 18th century it was ruled by the House of Savoy. In 1849, the defeat of the Sardinian army by the Austrian army at the Battle of Novara led to the abdication of Charles Albert of Sardinia and is seen as the beginning of the Italian unification movement.  Among the fine old buildings in Novara, which include the Basilica of San Gaudenzio, with its tower-dome designed by Alessandro Antonelli, who also designed Turin's landmark Mole Antonelliana, and the Broletto, a collection of buildings showing four distinct architectural styles, is the Novara Pyramid, which is also called the Ossuary of Bicocca, which was built to hold the ashes of fallen soldiers after the Battle of Novara.

The impressive Sforzesco Castle is one of the main features of the historically strategic town of Galliate
The impressive Sforzesco Castle is one of the main features
of the historically strategic town of Galliate
Travel tip:

Galliate, where Varzi was born, is notable for the Sforzesco Castle, which stands on the town’s central square, the Piazza Vittorio Veneto, opposite the Church of Saints Peter and Paul.  Originally built in the 10th century, the castle was rebuilt by Barbarossa in 1168, again by Filippo Maria Visconti in 1413, and by the Sforza family of Milan in the late 15th century. The castle’s exterior retains its Renaissance architectural features, such as the grand entrance tower, the curtain wall and the garden.  The castle passed from the Sforza family to Luchino del Maino and was eventually divided and sold to private individuals. The Galliate municipality took over and subsequently restored a part of the castle.  Today, it houses the civic library, the Angelo Bozzola Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Achille Varzi Museum, dedicated to the driver.

Also on this day:

1464: The birth of noblewoman Clara Gonzaga

1586: The birth of musician Claudio Saracini

1878: The birth of career burglar Gino Meneghetti

1888: The birth of abstract painter Alberto Magnelli


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6 June 2022

Giotto Bizzarrini - auto engineer

Took part in 1961 rebellion that left Ferrari on brink

Giotto Bizzarrini was a key Ferrari engineer
Giotto Bizzarrini was a
key Ferrari engineer
The automobile engineer Giotto Bizzarrini, a key figure in the development of Ferrari’s 1960s sports car, the 250 GTO, was born on this day in 1926 in Quercianella, a seaside village on the coast of Tuscany.

Bizzarrini famously joined with two other key engineers and several more employees in quitting Ferrari in October 1961 after a colleague had been sacked by founder Enzo Ferrari following a row over Ferrari’s wife, Laura, interfering in how the company was run.

Their walk-out left Ferrari effectively with no engineers to further develop on-going projects. The marque was already at a low point following the deaths of five of their main drivers in crashes between 1957 and 1961, one of which, at Monza in 1961, saw 15 spectators also lose their lives.

Enzo Ferrari, who was accused of running his company like a dictator, is said to have considered winding it up after Bizzarrini and the others left. The episode is remembered in Ferrari’s history as ‘the Great Walkout’.

Bizzarrini was born into a wealthy family from Livorno. His father was a landowner and his grandfather, also called Giotto, had worked with Guglielmo Marconi on his development of the wireless telegraph.

After obtaining a degree in engineering from the University of Pisa, in 1954 Bizzarrini began his career in the automobile industry with Alfa Romeo, where he trained to be a test driver. He felt it important to his work as an engineer that he understood from a driver’s point of view the problems he was asked to solve.

The Ferrari 250 GTO, developed by Bizzarrini, is still seen as one of Ferrari's best cars
The Ferrari 250 GTO, developed by Bizzarrini,
is still seen as one of Ferrari's best cars
It was as a test driver that he joined Ferrari in 1957. Promotion came quickly and it was not long before he was the company’s chief engineer. 

Bizzarrini’s most notable achievement at Ferrari was the development of the 250 GTO sports car, which even 60 years after it went into production is still regarded as one of the greatest Ferraris. In response to Enzo Ferrari’s concerns over competition from the Shelby Cobra and Jaguar E-Type Lightweight, Bizzarrini developed a shorter wheelbase than the standard 250 GT to improve its handling, as well as more aerodynamic bodywork.

The 250 GTO was capable of reaching 174 mph, which was unheard of at the time. The car won the GT world championship in its class in 1962, 1963 and 1964.

Despite the governing body of motorsport requiring that a minimum 100 examples of a car to be built in order to compete in GT events, only 39 examples of the 250 GTO were built. Enzo Ferrari created the impression that more cars existed by giving them non-consecutive chassis numbers.

Bizzarrini (right) speaks to the driver after a test run of the prototype 250 GTO in 1961
Bizzarrini (right) speaks to the driver after
a test run of the prototype 250 GTO in 1961
Its scarcity value now is such that in 2018, a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO sold for $70 million dollars at auction, which at the time was a record for any car changing hands at a public auction.

It was Bizzarrini’s success in turning the 250 into a serial winner that made his departure such a serious blow, although in the event the project was completed successfully in his absence. 

The Great Walkout came against a background of rising tensions at Ferrari in which sales manager Girolamo Gardini frequently argued with Enzo Ferrari’s wife, Laura. Matters came to a head when Gardini was joined by Bizzarrini and two other senior staff in demanding that Laura’s involvement with the running of the company. Enzo Ferrari rejected their demands and the four left, along with several other personnel.  It has never been entirely clear whether they resigned, or were sacked.

After Ferrari, Bizzarrini worked for Scuderia Serenissima, the Venice-based racing team run by Count Giovanni Volpi, whose father, Count Giuseppe Volpi, was the founder of the Venice Film Festival, and had a spell with Lamborghini, developing the first of the marque’s successful V12 engines.

His company, Società Autostar, then won a contract with Iso Autoveicoli, building the Iso Rivolta IR 300 and the Iso Grifo. He left Iso after another dispute and began building cars under his own name, starting with the Bizzarrini Grifo Stradale in 1965.

The car evolved into the Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada, which was produced between 1965 and 1968. Bizzarrini ran into financial difficulties and Bizzarrini Spa was declared bankrupt in 1969, after which his career as an automobile manufacturer was over.

As a consultant and university lecturer, however, he remained an influential figure in the industry, working well into his 80s.

A beach on the rocky waterfront at the seaside village of Quercianella
A beach on the rocky waterfront at
the seaside village of Quercianella.

Travel tip:

Quercianella, where Bizzarrini was born, is a small hamlet situated some 15km (nine miles) south of the port of Livorno on the Tuscan coast, from which it is separated by a stretch of rocky coastline known as Il Romito. Surrounded by tall cliffs lined with pine forests. The village is largely residential but has a small public beach and a salt-water swimming pool. The sea off Quercianella has been praised for its cleanliness and is popular with water sports enthusiasts and has abundant fish stocks. The Quercianella coastline was chosen by a former prime minister, Sidney Sonnino, who led two governments in the 1900s, to build the Castello Sonnino, a neo-medieval style castle residence built on the site of a 16th-century fort built by the Medici. 

Livorno's duomo, the Cathedral of St Francis of Assissi, originally built in the 17th century
Livorno's duomo, the Cathedral of St Francis
of Assissi, originally built in the 17th century
Travel tip:

The port of Livorno is the second largest city in Tuscany after Florence, with a population of almost 160,000. Although it is a large, industrialised  commercial port, it has many attractions, including the elegant Terrazza Mascagni, a waterside promenade with checkerboard paving, and its historic centre – the Venetian quarter – which has a network of canals and a tradition of serving excellent seafood. Situated next to Terrazza Mascagni is the Livorno Aquarium, which has 33 exhibition tanks containing around 300 different species. The city’s cathedral, commonly called Duomo di Livorno and dedicated to Francis of Assisi, can be found on the south side of Piazza Grande.

Also on this day:

1513: The Battle of Novara

1772: The birth of Maria Theresa, the last Holy Roman Empress

1861: The death of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, Italy’s first prime minister


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6 May 2022

Carlo Mollino - architect and polymath

A Renaissance man of the mid-20th century

Carlo Mollino's talent was nurtured by his engineer father
Carlo Mollino's talent was
nurtured by his engineer father
The multi-talented architect Carlo Mollino, who designed buildings, interiors and furniture but whose talents also ran to writing and photography, racing car design, aerobatic flying and downhill skiing, was born on this day in 1905 in Turin.

Mollino, whose style has been described as an eclectic fusion of the modern and the surreal, was responsible for several notable public buildings, including the Turin Chamber of Commerce and the headquarters of the Horse Riding Club of Turin, as well as several striking private residences and apartment buildings.

He also designed the extraordinary Lago Nero Sled Station, at Sauze d'Oulx, the winter resort 50km (31 miles) north of Turin, and rebuilt the interior of the Teatro Regio opera house in Turin 40 years after a catastrophic fire left little behind the the 18th century facade intact.

Never married in his 68 years, Mollino also had a deeply secretive side, which manifested itself in a number of apartments he kept, the whereabouts of which he disclosed to no one, not even his closest friends and acquaintances.

One of these, in a 19th century villa overlooking the Po river in the centre of Turin, which he preserved as a kind of idealistic shrine, filled with his favourite objects but where it is thought he never actually lived, is now a museum, the Casa Mollino.

Mollino was raised in comfortable surroundings in a 19th-century neo-Gothic villa in Rivoli, about 20km (12 miles) west of Turin. His father, Eugenio, was an important civil engineer who, over the course of his career, built more than 300 buildings in Turin.  His father’s work was evidently something that captured the imagination of the young boy, who astonished his teachers at the age of just six by drawing a detailed cross section of a car engine and an illustration of an imaginary town drawn with accurate perspective.

Mollino's Lago Nero Sled Station, which he called a "flying chalet"
Mollino's Lago Nero Sled Station,
which he called a "flying chalet"
An only child, Mollino grew up in an environment populated mainly by women, the house being home to three great aunts and two female housekeepers as well as his mother, Jolanda. After high school, he studied engineering at the Polytechnic of Turin he attended the Royal Superior School of Architecture, making friends with students at the Academy of Fine Arts, to which it was attached.

After graduating, he worked in Eugenio’s studio, from which he pursued his own projects as well as helping his father. The first major work to bear his own stamp was the offices of the Farmers’ Federation in Cuneo, a city about 100km (62 miles) south of Turin, the commission for which was a prize in a competition. The building, which had influences of metaphysical art, immediately identified Mollino as an architect eager to challenge conventions.

At the same time, Mollino was devoting much of his energy to writing. His novel, the Life of Oberon, in which the main character was an architect called Oberon, was published in several instalments in the architecture magazine, Casabella. The novel, seen to be ahead of its time in its protagonist’s description of nature and history as the environments in which architects work, and of the capacity of designs to tell a story, has been interpreted as a personal manifesto.

Mollino's foyer of the Teatro Regio opera house in Turin
Mollino's foyer of the Teatro Regio
opera house in Turin
Mollino’s first acknowledged architectural masterpiece was the headquarters of the Società Ippica Torinese - the Horse Riding Club of Turin - which he completed in 1940. The building combines elements of surrealism and metaphysical art with modernism in an innovative design.

War interrupted Mollino’s architectural career. He escaped being sent away to fight after a friend gave him a job as a technician at an aeronautical construction company.  

Mollino was by then living in an apartment in Turin but left the city because of Allied bombing and returned to live in the family villa in Rivoli. During the war years, he wrote books on photography and skiing, at which he was so proficient he qualified as an instructor. His Il Messaggio dalla Camera Oscura was the first compendium on the history of photography to be published in Italy. 

The years after the war were his most productive as as an architect, during which he built the Lago Nero Sled Station on behalf of the car designer Piero Dusio, owner of the Cisitalia company, which resembled a traditional log ski chalet suspended on concrete trusses, the Casa del Sole apartment building in Cervinia, a new Monumental Cemetery on the outskirts of Turin, the interior of Turin’s RAI Auditorium and the Casa Cattaneo, a rationalist villa overlooking Lago Maggiore.

The dining room from one of Mollino's apartments illustrated his interior design work
The dining room from one of Mollino's
apartments illustrated his interior design work
The death of his father in 1953 pushed Mollino into a personal crisis, during which he almost abandoned architecture. His consuming interests were photography, latterly of an increasingly erotic nature as he sought to highlight what he saw as the aesthetic qualities of the female form, car design - his Bisiluro racing car, built in 1955, competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans - and aerobatic flying, by which he became excited after obtaining his pilot’s license in 1956.  It was during this time that his one serious relationship, with the sculptress Carmelina Piccolis, came to an end.

His focus on architectural projects returned in the late 1950s and continued until his death in 1953 from cardiac arrest. By then, he had sealed his legacy with the Chamber of Commerce building in Turin, the design of which allowed for large functional spaces free from columns, and the Teatro Regio opera house, the interior of which saw Mollino create a spectacular elliptical auditorium with a shell-like roof and lightning that resembled icicles, and a labyrinthine foyer based on the enormous subterranean vaults imagined by the 18th century artist, Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

After his death in 1973, it was discovered that he had created in his secret apartment in Via Napione between 1961 and 1970 a collection of different rooms, each lavishly decorated in individual style, one of which was furnished with a boat-shaped bed on a blue carpet, surrounded with symbols of ancient funeral rituals and some of his personal treasures and photographs. It is thought this was the room in which he intended to spend his final hours, although in the event he was working in his studio when he died.

The museum, which can be visited by private appointment, is now maintained by Italian design expert Fulvio Ferrari and his son Napoleone.

Juvarra's unfinished facade of the Castle of Rivoli
Juvarra's unfinished facade
of the Castle of Rivoli
Travel tip:

The town of Rivoli, where Mollino grew up, is notable for the Castle of Rivoli, probably built in the 9th–10th centuries and acquired by the House of Savoy in the 11th century.  In 1273 King Edward I of England visited the castle en route from the Crusades and the castle was the first place of public veneration of the Shroud of Turin, the length of cloth claimed to have been wrapped around the body of Christ after the crucifixion. Work on the current Baroque structure began in the 17th century and was redesigned but never finished by the architect Filippo Juvarra in the 18th century. Since the late 20th century it has been home to a permanent collection of 20th-century Italian art.

Mollino's elliptical auditorium at the Teatro Regio Torino, with its icicle lighting
Mollino's elliptical auditorium at the Teatro
Regio Torino, with its icicle lighting
Travel tip:

The Teatro Regio Torino, which was Mollino’s last major work, can be found in Piazza Castello close to the Palazzo Reale in the centre of Turin. The theatre has had of a chequered history. Inaugurated in 1740, it was closed by royal decree in 1792 then reopened with the French occupation of Turin during the early 19th century, first as the Teatro Nazionale and then the Teatro Imperiale before its original name was reinstated with the fall of Napoleon in 1814. It endured several financial crises in the late 1800s but limped into the 20th century only to be burnt down in the catastrophic fire in 1936. It remained dark for 37 years until reopening in 1973. The rebuilt theatre, with Mollino’s striking contemporary interior design hidden behind the original facade, was inaugurated with a production of Verdi's I vespri siciliani directed by Maria Callas and Giuseppe Di Stefano.

Also on this day:

1527: The Sack of Rome

1895: The birth of silent movie star Rudolph Valentino

1963: The birth of ballerina Alessandra Ferri


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28 July 2020

Vittorio Valletta - industrialist

Agnelli lieutenant who turned Fiat into an auto giant


Vittorio Valletta worked for Fiat for 45 years, 27 as CEO
Vittorio Valletta worked for Fiat
for 45 years, 27 as CEO
The industrialist Vittorio Valletta, whose diplomatic and deal-making skills helped him turn Fiat into the beacon of Italy’s postwar recovery, was born on this day in 1883 in Sampierdarena, a port suburb of Genoa famous for shipbuilding.

He joined Fiat in 1921, quickly rising to the top and became effectively the right-hand man to founder and president Giovanni Agnelli, as CEO practically steering the company single-handed through the turmoil of the Second World War.

After Agnelli’s death in 1945 he became president and remained in control of the company until 1966, when he finally handed over to Gianni Agnelli, the founder’s grandson, at the age of 83.

Under his leadership, Fiat grew to such a position of dominance in postwar Italy that at one stage 80 per cent of cars bought in Italy were made by Fiat. The company’s factories employed almost 100,000 people, fulfilling Giovanni’s ambition, which he handed to Valletta almost on his deathbed, to "make Fiat greater, giving more working opportunities to the people, and producing cheaper and better cars".

Valletta also pulled off one of the greatest business coups of the postwar years when he secured a contract with the government of Russia to produce 600,000 cars per year at a factory in the Volga region.

The son of a railway official originally from Brindisi, Valletta moved with his family to Turin while he was a boy. He graduated in economics from a college that is now part of the University of Turin and might have settled for the life of an accountant had his military service as a pilot not steered him into the aviation industry.

The classic Fiat 500 was Italy's  people's car in the 1950s
The classic Fiat 500 was Italy's 
people's car in the 1950s
He was recruited by an organisation charged with co-ordinating the aeronautical industries in assisting military aviation. After the First World War, one of the many contacts he had made asked him to run an aeroplane parts business, which subsequently transitioned into Autocostruzioni Chiribiri, a small car manufacturer.

Valletta joined Fiat in 1921 during a period in which Italian industry was having to deal with an unstable political climate in which the occupation of factories by socialist and communist workers’ collectives was common. The rise of Mussolini’s Fascists further complicated the company’s ability to pursue friction-free trade.

After Agnelli’s son Edoardo was killed in a plane crash, Valletta was appointed CEO in 1928. He spent much of the next decade travelling back and forth between Turin and Rome, trying to stay on the right side of Mussolini, who had a long-standing animosity towards Fiat and Agnelli.

The German invasion of Italy in 1943 put Fiat in a difficult position. They had made vehicles and machinery for the Italian army and were expected to continue to do so for the Nazis. Failure to do so would have led Agnelli and Valletta and others to risk arrest, the seizure of their factories and perhaps even execution.

Fiat's founder, Giovanni Agnelli, saw Valletta as his right-hand man
Fiat's founder, Giovanni Agnelli,
saw Valletta as his right-hand man
Yet Valletta was a patriot, prepared to risk his own safety by deliberating creating excuses for slow production of equipment and armaments, while secretly giving financial help to the Resistance.

Despite this, when the war ended, the trade unions and political parties on the left accused Valletta of collaboration and reported him to the National Liberation Committee, who removed him from his position as head of Fiat. However, the intervention of the Christian Democrat prime minister, Alcide De Gasperi, who had persuaded communist leader Palmiro Togliati that Italy’s workforce needed a successful Fiat, led the Committee to reconsider and he was reinstated.

Agnelli died in December 1945, which brought another crisis for the Fiat board over succession. Gianni, who was heir to the empire after the death of Edoardo, was only 24 and had no experience of running a business. It was with his blessing - and vote as a board member - that Valletta, forever known as The Professor on account of his academic background, was made president.

Rebuilding the business was a herculean task, not least because so many of Fiat’s factories had been flattened in bombing raids. But Valletta put funds granted through the Marshall Plan for Europe’s postwar recovery to good use, even persuading further investment from the sceptical United States on the basis that a powerful Italian economy would help check the growth of communism the Americans feared.

Fiat’s big winners under Valletta’s guidance were the four-door Fiat 600 and its two-door brother, the 500, two massive sellers introduced in the 1950s in place of the popular but dated Topolino of the 1930s.

Gianni Agnelli took the reins at Fiat in 1966 as Valletta retired
Gianni Agnelli took the reins at
Fiat in 1966 as Valletta retired
The company expanded in other directions, too, mass-producing tractors to mobilise the growth of agriculture, and further strengthening the West’s bulwark against the Soviets by supplying the Italian military with its first jet plane, the G-80 fighter aircraft.

The cosiness of Valletta’s relationship with the United States did not stop him pursuing his long-held ambition of breaking into the Russian market, however, and in May 1966 his diplomatic and negotiating skills resulted in an historic agreement being reached with the Soviet leader Leonid Breshnev for Fiat to develop a factory and produce a version of the Fiat 124 sedan under the name Zhiguli - later, Lada - beating competition from the French company, Renault.

It was The Professor’s last act as Fiat supremo. By then, plans were already in place for him to step down and for Gianni Agnelli to take charge, at the age of 43, alongside chief executive Gaudenzio Bono.

Valletta was made a senator for life later in the same year, described by the Italian President, Giuseppe Saragat, as "the first Fiat worker, and one of the great men who most contributed to the Italian economic miracle and to the welfare of the country".

Valletta died only a few months later, in August 1967, having suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while on holiday at his summer villa in Pietrasanta, a town slightly inland of the coast of northern Tuscany.

In recognition of the accord fostered by Valletta, Gianni Agnelli was joined by the Russian ambassador to Italy in placing a laurel wreath sent by the Russian president, Aleksej Kosygin, on his tomb at the Monumental Cemetery of Turin.

Sampierdarena is now an industrial suburb of  the Italian port city of Genoa
Sampierdarena is now an industrial suburb of 
the Italian port city of Genoa
Travel tip:

Sampierdarena was historically a fishing village, named after the church of San Pietro d'Arena.  During the Italian Renaissance it became a residential area, with great palaces being built such as the Palazzo Imperiale Scassi, designed by Domenico and Giovanni Ponzello according to the style of Galeazzo Alessi.  After the coming of the railways (1854) it became one of the great industrial centres of Italy, known particularly for shipbuilding and armaments. In 1926, Sampierdarena was absorbed into the greater Genoa area. Today it is part of the city’s Municipio II (Centro Ovest) zone.

The Piazza del Duomo is the main square in Pietrasanta, a town 32km (20miles) north of Pisa
The Piazza del Duomo is the main square in
Pietrasanta, a town 32km (20miles) north of Pisa
Travel tip:

Pietrasanta, which has Roman origins, was founded in 1255 around the  "Rocca di Sala" fortress of the Lombards by Luca Guiscardo da Pietrasanta, from whom it got its name. At different times belonging to Genoa and Lucca, it came under Medici control in 1484 before being seized by Charles VIII of France in 1494.  Pope Leo X, a member of the Medici family, gave Pietrasanta back to his family.  The town declined during the 17th and 18th centuries, partly due to malaria. In 1841, Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany promoted several reconstruction projects, including the reopening of once-famous quarries.  The seaside resort of Marina di Pietrasanta is 3km (1.9 miles) away.

Also on this day:






 


 









18 October 2019

Ludovico Scarfiotti - racing driver

Last Italian to win ‘home’ Grand Prix


Ludovico Scarfiotti grew up in a background of cars and racing
Ludovico Scarfiotti grew up in a background
of cars and racing
The racing driver Ludovico Scarfiotti, whose victory in the 1966 Italian Grand Prix at Monza is the last by an Italian, was born on this day in 1933 in Turin.

His success at Monza, where he came home first in a Ferrari one-two with the British driver Mike Parkes, was the first by a home driver for 14 years since Alberto Ascari won the last of his three Italian Grand Prix in 1952.

It was Scarfiotti’s sole victory - indeed, his only top-three finish - in 10 Formula One starts. His competitive career spanned 15 years, ending in tragic circumstances with a fatal crash in 1968, little more than a month after he had come home fourth in the Monaco Grand Prix in a Cooper-BRM.

Scarfiotti in some respects was born to race. His father, Luigi, a deputy in the Italian parliament who made his fortune from cement, had raced for Ferrari as an amateur.  His uncle was Gianni Agnelli, the powerful president of Fiat.

He first raced in 1953 and he won his class in the 1956 Mille Miglia. He joined Ferrari in 1960 and finished fourth on the Targa Florio. Although he subsequently drove for OSCA and Scuderia Serenissima, he returned to Ferrari in 1962 and won the European Hillclimb championship for the marque.

Ludovico Scarfiotti in the Ferrari 312 with which he won the 1966 Italian GP
Ludovico Scarfiotti in the Ferrari 312
with which he won the 1966 Italian GP
By the following year, he had become a key member of Ferrari’s sports car team. That year, he won at both Sebring and Le Mans and finished second on the Targa Florio. He also made his F1 championship debut that year in the Dutch Grand Prix. His sixth place finish made him only the 31st driver to score points on his GP debut.

After suffering leg injuries preparing for the French GP a week later, he announced he would not race again. Nonetheless, he was persuaded to return in 1964 and was again successful in sports cars – winning at the Nürburgring.

In 1965 he was European Hillclimb champion and winner of the Nürburgring 1000km for a second time.  Scarfiotti returned to Ferrari’s F1 team when John Surtees suddenly quit in the middle of 1966.

The victory at Monza, in which he set a track record speed of 136.7mph (220.0 km/h), came in only his fourth world championship start.

Scarfiotti gained more successes racing sports cars in 1967, finishing runner-up at Daytona, Monza and Le Mans. He dead-heated for first place with team-mate Parkes in a non-championship F1 race at Syracuse in Sicily.

He and Ferrari parted company in 1968. Scarfiotti was in demand, however, and he soon secured drives with Porsche in hillclimbs and sports cars and, and became Cooper’s team leader, in F1.

Scarfiotti was only 34 years old when he  was killed in a crash in 1968
Scarfiotti was only 34 years old when he
was killed in a crash in 1968
His death occurred in June of that year at a hillclimbing event at Rossfeld in the German Alps. During trials, he lost control of his Porsche 910, veered off the track and down a tree-covered slope. As the car stopped abruptly, snared by branches, Scarfiotti was thrown out of the cockpit and struck a tree.

He was discovered, badly injured, some 50 yards from his car. He died in an ambulance of numerous fractures. Traces of burned runner along 60 yards (55m) of road close to the crash site indicated that Scarfiotti had slammed on his brakes at the final moment.

He left a wife, Ida Benignetti, and two children from a previous relationship.  He is buried at the Cimitero Monumentale di Torino.

The futuristic Fiat plant in the Lingotto district in Turin,  with its famous rooftop testing track
The futuristic Fiat plant in the Lingotto district in Turin,
with its famous rooftop testing track
Travel tip:

The former Fiat plant in the Lingotto district of Turin was once the largest car factory in the world, built to a linear design by the Futurist architect Giacomo Matte Trucco and featuring a rooftop test track made famous in the Michael Caine movie, The Italian Job. Redesigned by the award-winning contemporary architect Renzo Piano, it now houses concert halls, a theatre, a convention centre, shopping arcades and a hotel, as well as the Automotive Engineering faculty of the Polytechnic University of Turin. The former Mirafiori plant, situated about 3km (2 miles) from the Lingotto facility, is now the Mirafiori Motor Village, where new models from the Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Jeep ranges can be test driven on the plant's former test track.

Monza's Basilica of San Giovanni Battista, which contains the jewel-bedecked Corona Ferrea
Monza's Basilica of San Giovanni Battista, which
contains the jewel-bedecked Corona Ferrea
Travel tip:

Apart from the motor racing circuit, Monza is notable for its 13th century Basilica of San Giovanni Battista, often known as Monza Cathedral, which contains the famous Corona Ferrea or Iron Crown, bearing precious stones.  According to tradition, the crown was found on Jesus's Cross.  Note also the Villa Reale, built in the neoclassical style by Piermarini at the end of the 18th Century, which has a sumptuous interior and a court theatre.  Monza is a city of just under 125,000 inhabitants about 20km (12 miles) northeast of Milan.

Also on this day:

1634: The birth of composer Luca Giordano

1833: The birth of industrialist Cristoforo Benigno Crespi

2012: The death of cycling great Fiorenzo Magni


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