Bernardo Tasso - poet

Writer fathered a famous Renaissance literary figure

Bernardo Tasso was for a time resident
poet at the Ducal Palace in Urbino

Bernardo Tasso, a prolific poet who served as a courtier to various Italian noblemen, died on this day in 1569 in Ostiglia, which was then part of the Duchy of Mantua.

He was famous for being the father of Torquato Tasso, who went on to become one of Italy’s greatest Renaissance poet.

Bernardo, who was born in Bergamo in 1493, married Porzia de Rossi while he was in the service of the Prince of Salerno.  Torquato was born in Sorrento in 1544 in a building that is now part of the Hotel Tramontano in the centre of the resort.

When Torquato was a child, the Prince of Salerno fell out of favour with the Spanish government of Naples and he was outlawed. His employee, Bernardo, and his son, Torquato, shared in his punishment and were declared rebels of the state and they both had to leave Sorrento.

Bernardo went into the service of Duke Guidobaldo II at his court in Urbino and Torquato went with him and was educated there. While his father was resident poet at the Ducal Palace in Urbino, Torquato studied alongside Francesco Maria della Rovere, the heir to the Duke. 

It was in Urbino that Bernardo started writing his major work, L’Amadiji, an epic poem of 100 cantos, which was later completed by Torquato.

While at the court in Urbino, he would read cantos of his epic poem to the Duchess and her ladies, and he would also discuss the merits of Homer, Virgil, Trissino, and Ariosto with the Duke’s librarians and secretaries.

Bernardo went on to serve the Duke of Mantua, Guglielmo Gonzaga, who appointed him Governor of Ostiglia, the place where he died in 1569.

During his life, Bernardo Tasso wrote many psalms, sonnets and odes in the manner of Horace. He published his lyric poems, Amori, in Venice in 1555. His main work, L’Amadiji, was inspired by the Spanish chivalric romance, Amadis de Gaula. Torquato later completed L’Amadiji and published the full work under the title of Floridante in 1587.

Torquato Tasso is seen as
one of Italy's greatest poets

Torquato Tasso has come to be regarded as the greatest Italian poet of the Renaissance. His most famous work was his epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) in which he gives an imaginative version of the battles between Christians and Muslims at the end of the first crusade during the siege of Jerusalem. 

His poetry was later to prove inspirational for other writers who followed him, in particular Edmund Spencer and Lord Byron, who visited the places associated with him during his time in Italy.  

Torquato Tasso was to spend many years living in Ferrara at the Castle owned by the Este family, where he fell in love with a lady in waiting and wrote love sonnets to her.

But he suffered from the jealous behaviour of the other courtiers, which led to him developing a persecution mania and suspecting he was going to be poisoned. Eventually, he escaped and made his way to Sorrento to visit his sister, Cornelia, who had married there and settled in a house in the historic centre between the main street and the sea.

After some difficult years during which Tasso was confined to a madhouse by his patron, the Duke of Urbino, and later wandered from city to city without settling, he was invited to go and live in Rome by the Pope.

Torquato Tasso died in Rome in 1595, when he was just about to be crowned poet laureate by Pope Clement VIII.

Caffe del Tasso's tables in Bergamo are watched
over by the statue of Torquato Tasso

Travel tip:

Bernardo Tasso is remembered in his native city, Bergamo, where a street in the Città Bassa, the lower town, is named after the family. His son, Torquato, is also immortalised in the upper town, the Città Alta, by a large statue of him that stands in front of Palazzo della Ragione in the main square, Piazza Vecchia. Torquato Tasso spent only two periods living in his father’s native city, but he wrote about Bergamo with affection. The statue was erected almost 100 years after his death. The bar next to it subsequently changed its name to Caffè del Tasso. Dating back to at least 1476, the bar would have been known during Tasso’s life as Locanda delle Due Spade (Two Swords Inn.) In 1681 when the statue of the poet was erected, the bar’s name was changed to Al Torquato Tasso Caffè e Bottiglieria (Torquato Tasso Café and Wine Shop). Piazza Vecchia, which was remodelled during the Renaissance and has been hailed by architects and writers as the most beautiful square in Italy, is surrounded by old palaces and has a 12th century bell tower that still strikes 100 times at ten pm each night, in recognition of the ancient curfew. The bell would be sounded to warn residents that the gates in the Città Alta’s Venetian walls were about to be closed for the night. 

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Torquato Tasso's sister Cornelia lived
in this house in historic Sorrento

Travel tip:

Although Bernardo and Torquato Tasso travelled all over Italy during their lives, Sorrento’s main square has been named after them. Piazza Tasso is right at the hub of Sorrento, in the middle of the main shopping street, Corso Italia, and looks out over Marina Piccola, Sorrento’s port. The house where Bernardo was living when Torquato Tasso was born in 1544, is a few streets away from Piazza Tasso in Via Vittorio Veneto and now forms part of the Imperial Hotel Tramontano. It was at this hotel that the beautiful song Torna a Surriento was composed by Ernesto De Curtis while he was sitting on the terrace. Sorrento is one of southern Italy’s most popular holiday destinations, a beautiful cliff-top town overlooking the Bay of Naples with wonderful views of the volcano Vesuvius and the islands of Capri, Ischia and Procida in the distance.  Known by Italians as La Gentile, Sorrento has a mild climate and excellent tourist amenities. The historic centre has a wealth of elegant architecture from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with some Greek, Roman and medieval structures still preserved as a reminder of historical roots that go back to 600BC. 

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More reading:

The troubled life of Torquato Tasso

Bernardo Accolti, love poet of the late Renaissance

Salvatore Quasimodo, the civil engineer who was a Nobel Prize winning-poet 

Also on this day:

1533: The birth of philosopher Giacomo Zabarella

1568: The birth of poet and philosopher Tommaso Campanella

1901: The birth of politician Mario Scelba

1908: The birth of entrepreneur Renzo Rivolta

1970: The birth of Paralympian Francesca Porcellato

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Luigi Pulci - Renaissance poet

Luigi Pulci wrote his epic poem for
the court of Lorenzo the Magnificent

Medici favourite behind milestone work

Luigi Pulci, a major Italian poet of the early Renaissance best known for his epic comic poem, Morgante, was born in Florence on this day in 1432.

Morgante, which featured a real-life Frankish military leader under Emperor Charlemagne who became legendary after dying heroically in battle, was significant in that it could be said to have created the mock-heroic epic genre in Western literature.

Luigi was the youngest son among nine children of Jacopo di Francesco Pulci, an impoverished nobleman. After a difficult childhood caused by his family's poverty, he was introduced to the Medici family in 1461 and came under the patronage of Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, otherwise known as Lorenzo the Magnificent. The de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, Lorenzo became the most powerful supporter of Renaissance culture.

Despite his family’s straitened circumstances, Pulci received a full classical education, which equipped him to navigate the elite literary and political circles of 15th-century Tuscany.

He formed a close personal friendship with Lorenzo when the latter was still a teenager and who found Pulci’s wit and storytelling a welcome distraction from study.

Pulci became a favourite with Lorenzo’s wider circle due to his sharp wit, satirical humour, and talent for popular poetry. It was Lucrezia Tornabuoni, Lorenzo’s mother, who actively encouraged Pulci to write a poem about Orlando.

The eighth-century paladin had entered popular culture in Italy thanks to The Song of Roland, an 11th-century French epic poem based on his heroic death fighting the Spanish at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass on behalf of Charlemagne in 778. It is the oldest surviving major work of French literature. 

Pulci’s version features a giant, called Morgante, who becomes Orlando's loyal follower after the knight stops him from attacking the monastery of Chiaromonte and converts him to Christianity. 

The front cover page of a 1574
edition of the popular Morgante

It differed from the serious courtly epics of tradition in that Pulci filled his work with slapstick humour, popular Tuscan slang, and theological parody. The poem features the gluttonous Margutte, a comic character who proudly boasts of his many sins and eventually dies in a fit of laughter.

Morgante himself is killed by a bite from a crab. The poem ends with an account of Orlando's defeat and death at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass.

At Tornabuoni’s request, the poem was read aloud in the Medici court as it progressed. The first edition containing 23 cantos appeared around 1478, and the final 28-canto version was published in 1483.

As a result of its success and popularity, Pulci’s chosen ottava rima rhyming stanza form became the standard for epic poems. Orlando featured in later epic Renaissance poems such as Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato (1495) and Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (1516).

Pulci’s position in the Medici court eventually deteriorated. His irreverent attitude toward religion and his fascination with the occult drew sharp criticism from prominent court humanists, most notably Marsilio Ficino and Matteo Franco.

Pulci engaged in fierce, bitter poetic public feuds with Franco, a priest who accused him of dabbling in black magic. They traded insults in a series of sonnets.

Eventually, his coarse, popular style fell out of favour, and he grew increasingly isolated. Politically sidelined and in need of money - he had some business interests that saddled him with large debts - he left Florence some time around 1470 and entered the service of Robert Sanseverino, a powerful condottiero. 

A plaque remembering Luigi Pulci in
the area of Padua where he was buried

Pulci travelled extensively on missions for Sanseverino throughout northern Italy. During a journey to Venice, he became ill and died in Padua in November 1484. 

Before that, in 1478, following the assassination of Lorenzo's brother Giuliano during the Pazzi Conspiracy, amid a climate of anti-clericalism in Florence, Pulci wrote a poem in which he fulminated against the Rome of Pope Sixtus IV, dedicating it to Lucrezia Tornabuoni.

It reinforced the church’s view of Pulci as a heretic, as a result of which after his death in Padua, the local clergy refused to give him his last rites and denied him burial in consecrated ground. His body instead was buried in an unmarked grave just outside the churchyard wall of the Chiesa di San Tommaso Apostolo in Padua, which was demolished in the early 20th century. 

There is a plaque commemorating the life of Luigi Pulci on a wall in Via San Tomaso, close to where the church stood.

The church's hostility toward Pulci did not end there. In 1497, a decade after his death, the radical friar Girolamo Savonarola, who led the infamous Bonfire of the Vanities in Florence, deemed Pulci’s comedic epic morally corrupt and dangerous.

Savonarola campaigned against what he considered to be the artistic and social excesses of the Renaissance, preaching with fanatical passion against any material possession that might tempt the owner towards sin. Copies of Morgante were seized and thrown into the public fires.

Nonetheless, Pulci’s legacy endured through his influence on the evolution of the European epic after his blending of high literary culture with low-brow street comedy broke rigid medieval traditions. By elevating the vernacular Tuscan dialect, he helped shape the future of Italian literature. 

Centuries later, Lord Byron, the British romantic poet and adventurer, translated portions of Morgante, cementing Pulci's reputation as a pioneer of the romantic-comic narrative style.

The beautiful Boboli Gardens were a Medici
addition to their newly-acquired Palazzo Pitti

Travel tip:

The Medici family’s dominance of Florence for approximately 300 years can be seen in numerous reference points across the city. The early years of their rule brought the construction, between 1444 and 1460, of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, in present-day Via Camillo Cavour, which was the family’s original power base, commissioned by Cosimo il Vecchio and home to Lorenzo il Magnifico.  The same period saw Medici funding of improvements to the Basilica di San Lorenzo, to which Michelangelo’s New Sacristy was added from 1520, at the behest of Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici (later Pope Clement VII). The rulership of Cosimo I saw the construction of the Uffizi (1560–1581), originally an administrative complex designed by Giorgio Vasari, the addition of Medici apartments to the medieval Palazzo Vecchio, and the construction in 1565 of the Vasari Corridor, the 750m elevated corridor built to facilitate Cosimo I’s safe passage between the Palazzo Vecchio and the Palazzo Pitti, which had become the ceremonial residence of the Medici family and the seat of the Grand Duchy of Florence in around 1550. The Palazzo Pitti was purchased by Eleonora of Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I, in 1549, having previously been the home of Luca Pitti, a Florentine banker. The Boboli gardens were a Medici addition. 

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The Basilica di Sant'Antonio, one of Padua's
main attractions, was built in the 13th century

Travel tip:

Many of the major sights that attract visitors to Padua had already been built when Luigi Pulci died there in 1484. For example, the Palazzo della Ragione, which still dominates Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta, was built in 1218 and enlarged between 1306 and 1309, while the Scrovegni Chapel, one of the best preserved medieval chapels in Italy and decorated with stunning frescoes by Giotto, was built between 1300–1303. The nearby Church of the Eremitani, built for the hermit friars of Saint Augustine and dedicated to the saints Philip and James, has stood since the 13th century, as has the Basilica di Sant’Antonio, with its eight domes. The Baptistery adjoining the Duomo would have been as it is today. The city’s walls, which existed in Pulci’s time, are not fully intact, although sections remain, along with the Porta Altinate and Porta Molino gates. The city already had a university, which was established in 1222 and is one of the oldest in the world, second in Italy only to the University of Bologna . The main university building, Palazzo del Bò in Via VIII Febbraio in the centre of Padua, used to house the medical faculty. The history of Padua itself goes back much further: it is believed to be one of the oldest cities in northern Italy, founded in about 1183 BC by the Trojan prince, Antenor. 

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More reading:

Ludovico Ariosto, the poet credited with coining the term humanism and author of the epic poem, Orlando furioso

How Tuscan writer Francesco Berni’s satirical verses poked fun at two Popes

The bucket that inspired Alessandro Tassoni’s mock-heroic poem La secchia rapita

Also on this day:

1702: The birth of landscape painter Francesco Zuccarelli

1922: The birth of economic historian and writer Carlo Cipolla

1944: The birth of fashion designer Gianfranco Ferré

Ferragosto - Italy’s great summer escape

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Francesco Berni - poet

The short turbulent life of a witty satirist   

Francesco Berni depicted in a
18th century drawing 

Tuscan writer Francesco Berni, whose satirical verses poked fun at two Popes and one of his contemporary Italian poets, died on this day in 1535 in Florence.

Berni became known for his distinctive style of burlesque writing, which imitated serious literary forms in a humorous way. This technique became known as ‘bernesco’ and was a device later used by many other poets.

Some people believed his death, when he was in his thirties, was due to having been poisoned in revenge for refusing to take part in a plot to kill either Ippolito de’ Medici or an Italian Cardinal named Giovanni Salviati, but this is not certain.

Berni was born in either 1497 or 1498 in Lamporecchio in Tuscany. His father, Niccoló, who was a doctor, came from an established Florentine family, but he was poor. Berni spent his early years living in Florence and, when he was about 20, he entered the service of Cardinal Bernardo Bibbiena and his nephew, Angelo Dovizi, and moved to Rome with them.

At the time of the election of Pope Adrian VI, Berni circulated some witty verses that may have caused offence and he then found himself having to leave the capital city for a while and moved to live in Abruzzo. He returned in 1523 and accepted a post as a clerk, or a secretary, to Gian Matteo Giberti, who had an important role as datary to Pope Clement VII, which was a powerful post, responsible for processing official documents, granting dispensations and conferring benefices.

However, Berni found his duties working for Giberti irritating but, in the meantime, earned himself some celebrity because of his inventive satirical poetry. In about 1530, he was able to relinquish his post to concentrate on his writing, having obtained a canonry in Florence Cathedral, an office that relieved his precarious financial situation.

The writer’s Tuscan translation of Orlando Innamorato, a work that had been composed by the Renaissance author Matteo Maria Boiardo, went on to eclipse the original version, as it was preferred by many readers. The original had been written in the less popular Ferrarese dialect, making it more difficult for a lot of people to read. 

Pope Clement VII was one of Berni's
targets for his satirical verse

Berni’s play La Catrina, which was described as a lively, rustic farce, was also highly regarded at the time, but Berni was to become more well-known for his burlesque poetry.

Some of his output is regarded as savagely satirical, such as his verses attacking his fellow Tuscan poet, Pietro Aretino, and those aimed at the Popes, Adrian VI and Clement VII. 

However, some of his most popular work, which was written in the style of Petrarchan verse, was inspired by relatively unimportant, everyday subjects, such as a poem he wrote mocking his friend’s shorn beard.

Sadly, Berni died, at the age of about 38. After his death, a story circulated that he had been poisoned by Duke Alessandro de’ Medici for having refused to poison the Duke’s cousin, Ippolito de’ Medici, but this has never been proved one way or the other. It was also claimed in a letter written at the time that Berni died from ingesting the poison that he had refused to administer to Cardinal Giovanni Salviati, a Florentine diplomat.

Whether either story is true or not, it is thought more likely that Berni’s mysterious death occurred as a result of being caught up in the political intrigues going on at the time among the Medici, rather than because he had seriously offended any of the targets of his satirical verses. 

Berni’s acclaimed translation and revision of Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato has also provided scholars with a clue about his own opinions about religion. In one of his poetic introductions to a canto, he revealed that he was favourably disposed toward the new Reformation principles being introduced in Italy at the time, which may explain the bitterness of some of his remarks in the satirical verses that he had written about the Church.

Several streets in Italian cities have been named after the poet. You can find a Via Francesco Berni in Florence, Empoli, Pietrasanta, Varese, and Verona.

Packets of brigidini, Lamporecchio's speciality
wafer biscuits, on sale at a market

Travel tip:

Lamporecchio, where Francesco Berni was born, is a comune - municipality - in the province of Pistoia in Tuscany. It is about 13km (eight miles) south of Pistoia. The town is known for the invention of brigidini, which are thin, anise-flavoured wafers, and the berlingozzo, a cake typically eaten during the Carnival. The noble Rospigliosi family, of which Pope Clement IX was a member, has its roots in Lamporecchio. With a population of around 7,500,  Lamporecchio is located in the Valdinievole, a valley that extends between Pistoia and Lucca, in an area halfway between the Fucecchio Marsh and the hills of Montalbano, which are planted with vineyards and olive trees. Halfway along the valley - and a good base for visiting the area - is the town of Montecatini Terme, famous for its thermal baths that can be enjoyed in the town’s Liberty-style spa resorts.

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Brunelleschi's colossal dome of the Cattedrale di
Santa Maria del Fiore dominates the skyline

Travel tip:

Berni achieved financial security and was able to concentrate on his poetry after 1530 when he obtained a canonry at Florence Cathedral. Otherwise known as Santa Maria del Fiore, or the Duomo of Florence, the cathedral dominates the city skyline with its immense, brick-built dome designed by the Florentine Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi. It was built without scaffolding and given an inner shell to provide a platform for the timbers that support the outer shell. The architect died in 1446 before it was completed, but a statue of Brunelleschi was erected in Piazza del Duomo. The dome was his greatest achievement, and would forever define the city of Florence. It remains, to this day, the largest masonry dome in the world.

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More reading:

How satirist Giuseppe Parini mocked the aristocracy of 18th century Milan

Why Pietro Aretino was both admired and feared by the nobility

Ludovico Ariosto, Renaissance author of the epic poem, Orlando Furioso

Also on this day:

1805: Napoleon Bonaparte was declared King of Italy

1955: The death of racing driver Alberto Ascari

1977: The birth of footballer Luca Toni

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Giovanni Comisso - writer

Novelist and journalist with distinctive literary voice

Giovanni Comisso spent much of his 
writing life travelling abroad

The writer Giovanni Comisso, one of Italy’s most distinctive literary voices of the 20th century, was born on this day in 1895 in Treviso in the Veneto region.

He was acclaimed for his novel Giorni di guerra - Days of War - which drew on his experiences serving as a telegraph engineer in the First World War. Comisso’s work won critical praise for being deeply attuned to the emotional and philosophical currents of his time.

For much of his life, Comisso led a peripatetic career as a journalist and art dealer, as well as a writer. He traveled extensively across Europe, North Africa, and the Far East, taking work as a correspondent for Italian newspapers such as Corriere della Sera and La Gazzetta del Popolo.  For a while, he lived in Paris with the Italian painter Filippo De Pisis, leading what he described as a “disorderly and frenetic” existence within the city’s bohemian postwar artistic community.

Comisso was born into a comfortable, middle-class household, the son of an agricultural merchant. He attended the Antonio Canova classical high school in Treviso but failed his final exams and signed up for military service, taking a telegraph engineering course in Florence. By that time he had met Arturo Martini, a Trevisan sculptor six years his senior, with whom he developed a strong friendship.  Martini helped him find a publisher for his first collection of poems, also painting his portrait for the cover.

In common with so many young Italian men, the course of Comisso's life abruptly changed with the outbreak of World War One. His service with the Telegraph Corps of Engineers took him to the front line in the war against Austria-Hungary. He took part in the Battle of Caporetto, a disastrous defeat for the Italians in November 1917, and the Battle of the Piave River in June 1918, a decisive victory that was probably the beginning of the end for Austria-Hungary.

Following the armistice, he was transferred to Fiume - the city that is now Rijeka in Croatia but to which Italy felt they had an historic claim. He was there in September, 1919, when a rebel army led by the Italian Army officer Gabriele D'Annunzio occupied the city in a response to what Italians perceived as the unfairness of post-war division of territory by their allies. 

Comisso deserted and joined the rebel troops, an experience that deepened his fascination with rebellion and individualism. The occupation was short-lived but Fiume subsequently became part of Italy under the 1924 Treaty of Rome.

Giorni di guerra, the novel that
drew on Comisso's war experience

While in Fiume, he enjoyed sailing in the Adriatic, which inspired his first novel, The Port of Love, published in 1924.

In the same year, Comisso completed the studies he had abandoned before WW1 and obtained a degree in law at the University of Siena. He never practised, instead combining travelling with writing, earning a living as a correspondent for a number of Italian newspapers and magazines. At different times, he ran a bookshop in Milan and was an art dealer in Paris. 

Among his varied experiences, his time aboard a sailing ship based in Chioggia, at the southern end of the Venetian Lagoon, led him to write Gente di Mare - Seafarers - which won him the Bagutta Prize in 1929.

In December of that year, as a special correspondent for Corriere della Sera, he made the Grand Tour of the Far East, visiting China, Japan, Siberia, and Russia, which he travelled across to reach Moscow. His trip lasted seven months. 

Back in Italy, he published his great wartime novel, Giorni di guerra, which initially caused him some problems with the Fascist regime, who were unhappy that it portrayed the Italian military in a raw, unheroic light. 

Comisso used the money he had earned from his newspaper work and literature to buy a house and some land in Zero Branco, a town in the Treviso area, about 14km (nine miles) to the southwest of the city.

He published books of his writings in Paris and the Far East, although his travelling was not finished. The Gazzetta del Popolo, based in Turin, sent him on a tour of the entire Italian peninsula, from which he reported his observations, and then to East Africa to document the birth of the new Fascist Empire.

Comisso's final home in the village of Santa Maria
del Rovere, on the outskirts of Treviso

World War Two had devastating consequences for Comisso, whose family home in Piazza Fiumicelli was destroyed when Treviso was bombed in April 1944, although his mother and her housekeeper had been evacuated to Zero Branco.  

Meanwhile, his companion, Guido, with whom he shared his own home, was arrested by the Fascists, then released on condition that he joined a combat unit of the new Italian Social Republic, from which he deserted only to be shot dead by partisans, who suspected him of spying.

Comisso’s writing continued to be honoured. He won the Viareggio Prize in 1952 with Capricci italiani - Italian whims - and the Strega Prize in 1955 with Un gatto attraversa la strada - A Cat Crosses the Road - two collections of short stories.

After the deaths of his mother and both Arturo Martini and Filippo De Pisis, Comisso left Zero Branco to rent an apartment in Treviso, but moved again, to a house in Santa Maria del Rovere, on the outskirts of Treviso, where he continued to write.

His final work, a collection of stories entitled Attraverso il tempo - Through Time - was published just a few months before his death, in hospital in Treviso, in January 1969.

Comisso’s writing, distinguished by its lyrical prose, existential undertones, and a tension between rootedness and escape, left an indelible mark on Italian literature.

The pretty Piazza dei Signori is the 
square at the heart of Treviso

Travel tip:

For many visitors to Italy, Treviso is no more than the name of the airport at which they might land en route to Venice, yet it is an attractive city worth visiting in its own right, rebuilt and faithfully restored after the damage suffered in two world wars. Canals are a feature of the urban landscape – not on the scale of Venice but significant nonetheless – and the Sile river blesses the city with another stretch of attractive waterway, lined with weeping willows. The arcaded streets have an air of refinement and prosperity and there are plenty of restaurants, as well as bars serving prosecco from a number of vineyards. The prime growing area for prosecco grapes in Valdobbiadene is only 40km (25 miles) away to the northeast. Treviso’s main sights include its historic squares, medieval walls, unique fountains, and art-filled museums.  Piazza dei Signori is the heart of Treviso’s historic centre, a 13th-century square lined with elegant cafés, boutiques, and civic buildings.  The city’s well-preserved walls date back to the 15th century and once protected the city. The Porta San Tomaso entrance to the city is a grand marble city gate from the 16th century, adorned with ornate carvings and the winged lion of Venice.

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The National Theatre in Rijeka, where the
architecture bears a heavy Italian influence

Travel tip:

Rijeka is a vibrant port city on Croatia’s northern Adriatic coast, yet between 1924 to 1947, it was known as Fiume and part of the Kingdom of Italy. During this period, Italian was the official language, and many public buildings, schools, and cultural institutions reflected Italian styles and values. Architecture flourished, with neoclassical and rationalist designs still visible today, especially in the city centre, while the Italian community thrived, contributing to Rijeka’s literary, musical, and culinary traditions. After World War II, the city was ceded to Yugoslavia, and many Italians left or were expelled. Yet traces of Italian heritage remain in street names and inscriptions, while many buildings still bear Italian influence.  The city’s dual identity is reflected in its cuisine, blending Mediterranean and Central European flavours.

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Also on this day: 

The minister who persuaded Italy to switch sides in WW1

A poet who drew inspiration from the landscapes of the Veneto

How Gabriele d’Annunzio influenced Mussolini

Also on this day:

1808: The birth of record-breaking Palio jockey Francesco Bianchini

1858: The birth of actress Eleonora Duse

1938: The birth of world champion boxer Alessando Mazzinghi

1941: The birth of bass-baritone star Ruggero Raimondi

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Bernardo Accolti – poet and politician

Writer rose to become a duke but died in poverty

Bernardo Accolti became one of the most
popular love poets of the Renaissance

One of the most popular and well-known Italian love poets of the late Renaissance, Bernardo di Benedetto degli Accolti, was born on this day in 1458 in Arezzo In Tuscany.

Referred to as ‘Unico Aretino’ because of his noble origins and his ability to express himself in verse, Accolti lived at many of the Italian courts and had platonic relationships with some of the most important noblewomen of his time, including Lucrezia Borgia, Isabella d’Este and Elisabetta Gonzaga.

Although born into a noble family, Accolti always had ambitions to acquire more social status for himself, and he eventually managed to accumulate enough money to purchase a Duchy to rule over.

While he was growing up, Accolti had lived with his family in Florence, where he received a humanist education. After moving to Rome when he was a young man, he started writing poetry.

One of his most well-known works, which has survived to this day, is his comedy in verse, Virginia, which was based on a story from Boccaccio’s Decameron and was composed for a wedding in Siena.

But the poet was then exiled from Florence for reasons that are not known and so he returned to Rome, where he was given work as a writer of papal bulls by Pope Alexander VI.

After receiving a pardon by Florence, he returned to the city, but he was exiled again in 1497. Always loyal to the Medici, he was accused of financing the attempt made by Piero Il Fatuo to conquer the city.

Accolti had lent him 200 florins to carry out a plot against Girolamo Savanorala, who was then head of the Florentine Republic. The main conspirators were caught and beheaded and Accolti was exiled permanently.

The painter Raphael painted Accolti as
one of the figures in his Parnassus fresco

But after he returned to Rome, he found his popularity as a poet had grown and he was sought after by many of the Italian courts.

Accolti travelled to Milan, Mantua, Urbino, and Naples, where he would sing his own verses and accompany them on the lute, or lira da braccio, a Renaissance stringed instrument.

He had close relationships with many of the noble ladies he encountered, but it is thought his true love was revealed in his verses to Elisabetta Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino. He also dedicated two sonnets to Lucrezia Borgia, but there is no evidence that he was ever her lover.

After Giovanni de’ Medici became Pope Leo X in 1513, Accolti was given high office because of his previous loyalty to the Medici family.

The first printed editions of his works were published at this time, Virginia in 1512, and a few years later, a collection of his verses.

By then he had amassed enough wealth to buy the Duchy of Nepi from the Pope, an ancient city now in the province of Viterbo in Lazio. He moved into the fortress that had been built there by the Borgias and he built a new residential wing on to it with a motto over the entrance.

But he proved to be a poor administrator and sometimes took violent reprisals against people who opposed him in the Duchy. In 1523, there was a revolt against him by the locals but he managed to suppress it with the help of the Pope’s Swiss Guards.

After being expelled from Nepi three times, Accolti was unable to gather the funds to reconquer it for a fourth time.

Pope Paul III, who had been his protector until then, revoked his title of Duke, as he was intending to give the Duchy to his own illegitimate son. Nepi was later incorporated into the Duchy of Castro.

Accolti returned to Rome, poor and desperate He died there in February 1535, leaving two illegitimate children, Alfonso Maria and Virginia.

A definitive collection of his work was published in Venice by Nicolo d’Aristotele in 1530 and it was reprinted in the year of Accolti’s death.

In 1996, a full collection of his verses was published, which included 58 previously unpublished poems that had been kept in the Vatican archives.

Accolti appears as a character in some passages of Baldassare Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier, and he was a close friend of Pietro Aretino, who was also a poet from Arezzo.

The beautiful Piazza Grande in Arezzo, the sloping
square, paved in red brick, at the heart of the city

Travel tip:

Arezzo is one of the wealthiest cities in Tuscany. Despite its medieval centre suffering massive damage during the Second World War, targeted for its strategic importance on the Italian rail network, many monuments, churches and museums survived or were reconstructed. Its main sights include the Basilica di San Francesco, with its beautiful History of the True Cross fresco cycle by Piero della Francesca, the central Piazza Grande, with its sloping pavement in red brick, the Medici Fortress, the duomo and a Roman amphitheatre. The original duomo was built on the nearby Pionta Hill, over the burial place of Donatus of Arezzo, who was martyred in 363. In 1203 Pope Innocent III had the cathedral moved within the city's walls, to the current site in another elevated position a short walk from Piazza Grande.  The construction of the current structure started in 1278 and continued in phases until 1511, although the façade visible today, designed by Dante Viviani, was not completed until 1914, replacing one left unfinished in the 15th century.  The interior contains several notable artworks, including a relief by Donatello, entitled Baptism of Christ, and a cenotaph to Guido Tarlati, lord of Arezzo until 1327, said to be designed by Giotto, near to which is Piero della Francesca's Mary Magdalene.  

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The Rocca - or Castello Borgia - casts an imposing
shadow over the town of Nepi in northern Lazio

Travel tip:

Nepi, the town that Accolti acquired when he bought the Duchy of Nepi, can be found 50km (31 miles) north of Rome, about 20km (12.4 miles) from Lago Bracciano. It is in the area known as ancient Etruria, having been a pre-Roman settlement before the Romans arrived and established a stronghold in 383 BC and eventually conquered the entire region. Throughout the Renaissance era, it was the feudal domain of the noble families of Lazio and passed successively from the Orsini to the Colonna and then the Borgia. The Rocca - the 15th-century Borgia Castle that was once the property of Lucrezia Borgia - dominates the skyline making it an imposing presence.  Accolti's coat of arms was discovered in a residential extension of the castle, dating it between September 1521 and the beginning of 1535. A graceful monumental aqueduct looks Roman but was built in more recent history to carry spring water. Acqua di Nepi mineral water is bottled and distributed nationwide. The ancient Porta Roman was the main gate, and is still the primary entry to the historic centre. Other attractions include the Palazzo Comunale, a Renaissance style villa built by Sangallo the Younger for Duke Pier Luigi Farnese, which has in front of it a fountain presumed to have been the world of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. 

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Also on this day:

1522: The birth of naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi

1871: The birth of adventurer Scipione Borghese

1920: The birth of partisan Manrico Ducceschi 

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Giovanni Capurro - poet and songwriter

Neapolitan who wrote the words to ‘O sole mio

Giovanni Capurro wrote many songs
but made little money from them

Giovanni Capurro, a poet and songwriter best known for writing the lyric of the classic Neapolitan song ‘O sole mio, was born in Naples on this day in 1859. 

The son of a professor of languages, Capurro was a cultured man who would in time be considered one of the 19th century’s finest Italian poets, yet was never well rewarded for his art. He spent much of his working life as a journalist and died poor.

Capurro grew up in the Montecalvario district of Naples, an area of the city centre that climbs up the hill of San Martino to the west of Via Toledo. Although his first love was writing, and poetry in particular, he was also a talented musician, graduating from the Naples Conservatory after studying the flute. He was also blessed with a good singing voice.

He wrote poetry in both Italian and Neapolitan dialect, both in the form of song lyrics and volumes of poetry. The celebrated actor, Raffaele Viviani, made his first appearance on the stage of an established theatre - the Teatro Perella in Basso Porto - at the age of four, in a sketch written by Capurro entitled Scugnizzo - The Street Urchin.

Capurro published more than 30 lyrics that were put to music, none more famous than ‘O sole mio, which he wrote in 1898, asking Eduardo di Capua, a Neapolitan songwriter and composer, to set it to music. Di Capua, for many credited with writing the melody alone, was later declared only to be the co-composer, after a court in Turin was satisfied that the melody had been an adaptation of one di Capua had bought from another musician, Alfredo Mazzucchi.

The song was presented at the famous Piedigrotta Festival, the music competition in the Chiaia district of Naples that was the launching pad for many famous Neapolitan songs.

The cover of the first edition of the 
sheet music of Capurro's 'O sole mio

It had already been well received when played around Naples yet the judges for the competition decided it was worth only second place behind a song called Napule Bello. However, there was such a public outcry that the decision was reversed.

Capurro’s other songs included Carduccianelle, N'atu munasterio, Napulitanata, Ammore che gira, Totonno 'e Quagliarelle, 'O scugnizzo, 'O guaglione d' 'o speziale, Lily Kangy, Chitarra mia and 'A chiantosa.

Yet he received little money for any of them. He sold the rights to ‘O sole mio, to a publishing house for a one-time fee. 

Had he any notion of how famous it would become - it has featured in the repertoire of such illustrious tenors as Luciano Pavarotti, Enrico Caruso, Andrea Bocelli and Beniamino Gigli - he would surely have negotiated a royalties deal.

As it was, he did not write with the aim of making money, merely to indulge his own fascination with the art. Early in his writing career, his poem Carduccianelle adapted to Neapolitan the evocations of Classical world employed by Nobel Prize-winning poet Giosuè Carducci a few years earlier in his Odi Barbare. Neapolitan readers regarded it more as a curiosity than as a book of true poetry.

Capurri delighted in spending his evenings in salons, where he would sing, play the piano and amuse audiences with his imitations of famous performers, but made his living as a journalist.

Beginning with the socialist periodical La Montagna, he then wrote for the Naples political newspaper Don Marzio, before joining the staff of the daily newspaper, Roma, in 1896, working initially as a reporter before becoming a theatre critic.

Married with three children, Capurro died in Naples in 1920 at the age of 61.

The upper parts of Montecalvario offer some
stunning views over the city of Naples

Travel tip:

The Montecalvario neighbourhood is the area of central Naples that includes the northern part of the Quartieri Spagnoli - the Spanish Quarter - the network of teeming streets that was built in the 16th century to house Spanish soldiers after the armies of Ferdinand II of Aragon had defeated the French to take control of the city. The main part of Montecalvario is to the west of Via Toledo, one of the city’s main shopping thoroughfares, which follows a long, straight course from Piazza Dante, through Piazza Carità before ending at Piazza Trieste e Trento, near Piazza del Plebiscito. The bustling Mercato Pignasecca offers a chance to experience shopping with the locals, while a climb up to Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the street which borders the upper part of the neighbourhood, is worth it to find a vantage point for spectacular views over the city.

The church of Santa Maria di Piedigrotta, which
is the origin of the annual Festa della Madonna

Travel tip:

Piedigrotta is an area that forms part of ​​the Chiaia district of Naples, close to the port at Mergellina. It takes its name from its location at the foot of a tunnel - "ai pedi grotta" - built into the  Posillipo hill in Roman times. It is best known for its annual Festa della Madonna di Piedigrotta, an occasion of fireworks and parades that has been staged every September since the 1800s. For many years, the celebrations included an annual song competition, the Neapolitan Song Festival, which showcased the city’s tradition of street musicians entertaining audiences with folk songs in Neapolitan dialect. It did much to popularise Neapolitan Songs as a genre, challenging the city’s most talented lyricists to excel. The competition launched in 1890 and became enormously successful, but was suspended in the 1960s because of repeated public order incidents as crowds got out of control. There have been a number of attempts in recent years to revive the contest but it has yet to be reinstated as an annual event.

Also on this day:

Catania celebrates the Feast of Saint Agatha

1578: The death of painter Giovanni Battista Moroni

1887: Verdi’s Otello premieres in Milan

1932: The birth of football coach Cesare Maldini

1960: Movie La dolce vita shown in public for first time

1964: The birth of footballer and coach Carolina Morace

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Alessandro Tassoni – poet

Writer famed for legendary bucket in a belfry

Alessandro Tassoni was a political
commentator and literary critic

The writer Alessandro Tassoni, who became famous for a poem about an historic battle which included a story about a stolen bucket, was born on this day in 1565 in Modena in Emilia-Romagna.

Tassoni’s bucket, which inspired his mock-heroic poem La secchia rapita (The Rape of the Bucket), is still on public display to this day in the belfry of Modena Cathedral.  

According to some critics, his poem was one of the earliest - and best - Italian poems of its type, and it became very popular in Italy and abroad. 

Tassoni, who also wrote about politics and was a literary critic, was born into a noble family. He lost both of his parents at an early age and was brought up by his grandfather. He first saw the bucket in Modena Cathedral when he was taken there by his grandfather.

At the age of 13, he was taught Latin and Greek and he went on to study philosophy, law, and rhetoric at the universities of Bologna, Pisa, and Ferrara.  

In 1597 he entered the service of Cardinal Ascanio Colonna and went with him to Spain as his first secretary. After his return to Italy, Tassoni went to live in Rome.

He wrote a booklet, le Filippiche, which he published in 1612 anonymously because it attacked the Spanish domination of certain parts of Italy and he was afraid of reprisals. 

But the work became famous enough to attract the attention of Charles Emanuel I Duke of Savoy and in 1618 he hired Tassoni to work for him in Turin and gave him the title of first secretary.

The bucket of Tassoni's famous epic poem today
hangs in the belfry of the Torre della Ghirlandina

Tassoni went to work for Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi in 1626 and then he served under Francesco I d’Este, Duke of Modena. 

The poet died in 1635 in his home town of Modena and a statue of him was later erected in front of the city’s Ghirlandina, the cathedral’s bell tower.

Tassoni is also remembered for his political writing and his works of literary criticism, such as Considerazioni sopra le rime del Petrarca, and Pensieri diversi, an encyclopaedia covering scientific, literary, historical, and philosophical topics, but he is mainly remembered for his satirical poem about the bucket.

La secchia rapita was written by Tassoni between 1614 and 1615 and it was first published in Paris. It couldn’t be published in Italy until Tassoni had modified it to make it comply with the censorship rules imposed by the Catholic Church. 

Tassoni paid to have the first Italian edition bearing his own name published, and the final edition was published in 1630. 

The story related by the poem was loosely based on a war fought between Modena and Bologna in 1325. Most of the events in the poem are fictional, and it refers to a battle that had, in reality, been fought 100 years before the war. But the poem relates what  purports to be an episode when the soldiers from Modena stole a bucket from their Bolognese enemies.

This exploit was not reported by historians from that period. However, a bucket that is claimed to have been the one stolen has been on display in the Torre della Ghirlandina in Modena from Tassoni’s time up to the present day.

In the poem, the theft of the bucket results in a war, in which the Olympian Gods take part, in the tradition of Homer’s Iliad. The war is only resolved when the Pope intervenes to bring it to an end.

The poem references contemporary events and people who were alive at the same time as the author, and its primary purpose was to entertain readers.

For the last 20 years, Tassoni has been remembered in Modena when the city gives out the annual Alessandro Tassoni Literary Award.

The Ducal Palace in Modena, designed by Luigi
Bartolomeo Avanzini, dates back to 1635

Travel tip:

Modena is a city on the south side of the Po Valley in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, known for its car industry, because Ferrari, De Tomaso, Lamborghini, Pagani and Maserati have all been located there. The city is also well-known for its balsamic vinegar. Operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti and soprano Mirella Freni were both born in Modena. One of the main sights in Modena is the huge, Baroque Ducal Palace, begun by Francesco I on the site of a former castle in 1635. His architect, Luigi Bartolomeo Avanzini, created a home for him that few European princes could match at the time. In the Galleria Estense, on the upper floor of the Palazzo dei Musei in Modena, is a one-metre high bust of Francesco I d’Este, Duke of Modena, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Tassoni's statue

Travel tip:

The Cathedral of Modena and its bell tower, Torre della Ghirlandina, are both UNESCO World heritage sites. The tower stands more than 89 metres (292ft) tall and can be seen outside the city from all directions. Inside, there is the Sala della Secchia room, which has 15th century frescoes, and the tower also houses a copy of the oaken bucket, from the War of the Bucket referred to by Tassoni in his poem, which was fought between Modena and Bologna in 1325. The tower was built in 1179, with five floors, and was initially called Torre di San Geminiano. It was renamed after the top of the tower was decorated with two ghirlande - marble railings - during a later renovation. The statue of Alessandro Tassoni, which stands at the foot of the tower, was sculpted by Antonio Cavazza and erected in 1860.

Also on this day:

1871: The birth of soldier and politician Pietro Badoglio

1924: The birth of actor Marcello Mastroianni

1943: The death of 13-year-old partisan Filippo Illuminato

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Eugenio Montale - poet and translator

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

Eugenio Montale became a
Nobel Prize winner in 1975

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Travel tip:

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

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

Travel tip:

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

Also on this day:

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

1937: The birth of actress Daniela Rocca

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

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