Lord Byron - Ravenna revolutionary

Poet pursues romantic dream in the Romagna

Lord Byron pursued romance and 
adventure during his time in Ravenna

The English poet Lord Byron, who was a member of the secret revolutionary society in Italy known as i Carbonari, wrote the wistful words: ‘Only think .. a free Italy!!!,’ in his diary on this day in 1821 in Ravenna.

He had risked his own life and liberty two days before by allowing a supply of weapons belonging to the revolutionaries to be housed in his apartment in Palazzo Guiccioli, having been recruited to the Carbonari by Ruggiero and Pietro Gamba, the father and brother of his lover, Teresa Guiccioli.

The Carbonari - literally, the charcoal burners - were a network of secret revolutionary societies active in Italy between 1800 and 1831, dedicated to overthrowing oppressive regimes, promoting liberal ideas, and establishing constitutional government. In the run up to Italian unification, the Carbonari fought against foreign domination and absolute monarchy, and were particularly active in southern Italy. Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini, two of the main drivers of the Risorgimento movement, were both members.

Byron had joined the Carbonari in 1820, driven by a combination of his own romantic idealism and political convictions and his friendship with the Gamba family in Ravenna.

Byron had been a successful poet and a celebrity back in Regency England, but it had all turned sour because of his unconventional lifestyle, the slurs on his reputation that had been made by a spurned mistress, and the gossip sparked by his close relationship with his half-sister Augusta, after his brief marriage to Annabella Milbanke had ended in separation.

Fleeing from his notoriety, threats to his life, and his financial problems, Byron travelled to Italy in 1816 and settled in Venice.  

With his friend, John Cam Hobhouse, he put up at the Hotel Grande Bretagne on the Grand Canal and embarked on a few days of tourism. But it was not long before Byron decided to stay for longer and moved into an apartment just off the Frezzeria, settling in to enjoy life in the city that was to be his home for the next three years.

While living in Venice, he had plenty of romantic liaisons, but his life changed when he met Teresa Guiccioli, the young, beautiful wife of Count Alessandro Guiccioli, who he was introduced to at a social gathering in Venice. 

Contessa Teresa Guiccioli, who
became Lord Byron's lover

They embarked on a love affair that was to last for the next few years and Byron reluctantly left Venice and followed Teresa back to her native Ravenna in 1819, where she lived with her much older husband. Initially welcomed by the Count, Byron rented rooms on a floor of the Palazzo Guiccioli and became accepted as Teresa’s official lover, known as a cavaliere servente in Italian.

In due course, Teresa became officially separated from her husband and moved back to live with her father, Ruggiero Gamba, while Byron remained in his apartment in the Count’s palazzo. 

On 16 February 1821, Byron wrote in the diary he had started to keep in Ravenna: ‘Last night il Conte (Teresa’s brother, Pietro Gamba) sent a man with a bag full of bayonets, some muskets and some hundred of cartridges to my house.’

These were weapons the Carbonari had asked him to purchase for them but, having had to postpone their plans for an uprising against their Austrian rulers, they had foisted them on to Byron because of the fear the Austrians would discover them and take reprisals against them and they thought he would be less at risk because he was English. 

However, because of the climate at the time, If Byron had been found to be housing the weapons he would have been arrested and almost certainly imprisoned, or expelled from Austrian controlled territory.

Both Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe
Garibaldi were Carbonari members 

Two days later he wrote in his diary: ‘Today I have had no communication with my Carbonari cronies: but in the meantime, my lower apartments are full of their bayonets, fusils, cartridges and what not. I suppose that they consider me as a depot to be sacrificed in case of accidents. It is no great matter, supposing that Italy could be liberated, who or what is sacrificed. It is a grand object – the very poetry of politics. Only think – a free Italy!!! Why, there has been nothing like it since the days of Augustus…’

Despite the excitement of secret meetings in the pine forests outside Ravenna with other members of the Carbonari, Byron never got the chance to take part in a revolt against Austrian rule. 

Later that year, Teresa’s father, and her brother, were expelled from all papal domains and they had to leave to go and live in Florence, where they would be safe, taking Teresa with them. Byron reluctantly gave up his quarters in Palazzo Guiccioli and followed them a couple of months later.

But within two years, Byron had left Italy to pursue the romantic dream of fighting in the Greek War of Independence. He was to die of a fever in Missolonghi in 1824.

Ravenna is the home of
the tomb of Dante

Travel tip:

Ravenna in Emilia-Romagna, where Byron lived for two of his six years in Italy, was the capital city of the western Roman empire in the fifth century. It is known for its well-preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture and has eight UNESCO world heritage sites. The Basilica of San Vitale is one of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture in Europe. Ravenna also houses the tomb of the poet Dante Alighieri, who lived and died there after he was exiled from Florence. Byron was said to have found the tomb of the poet inspirational and would regularly visit it and sit writing his poetry close by it. Florence has repeatedly asked for Dante’s remains to be sent back to them but Ravenna has always refused to relinquish them.

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Palazzo Guiccioli in Ravenna now
houses a museum dedicated to Byron

Travel tip:

The first floor (mezzanine) of Palazzo Guiccioli in Via Cavour, where Byron had an apartment during his time in Ravenna, is now a museum dedicated to him. Precious pictures and memorabilia belonging to the poet that were kept by Teresa Guiccioli for the rest of her life are now displayed there and the exhibition is accompanied by text and images telling the story of Byron’s time in Ravenna. The second floor, piano nobile, is occupied by a museum devoted to the Risorgimento. There is a restaurant in the former wine cellar of the palazzo and a bar and souvenir shop can be accessed from the courtyard garden. Palazzo Guiccioli is open to visitors between 10 am and 6 pm from Tuesday to Sunday. For more information visit  www.museibyronedelrisorgimento.it.

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More reading:

Lord Byron in Venice

Shelley dies in dramatic storm

Why Dante remains exiled in Ravenna

Also on this day:

1455: The death of painter Fra Angelico

1564: The death of painter and sculptor Michelangelo

1626: The birth of biologist Francesco Redi

1953: The death of crime writer and playwright Alessandro Varaldo

1967: The birth of footballer Roberto Baggio

1983: The birth of tennis champion Roberta Vinci

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Anita Garibaldi – national heroine of Italy

Brave wife of Giuseppe Garibaldi was a freedom fighter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Garibaldi carries Anita through the 
Comacchio lagoons (Pietro Bauvier)

Travel tip:

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

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

Travel tip:

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

 

Also on this day:

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

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

1590: The birth of Pope Urban VII

1994: The death of politician Giovanni Spadolini

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Cardinal Giulio Alberoni – statesman and gourmet

Priest loved power, wealth...and his local pasta

As a diplomat, Cardinal Alberoni became
the equivalent of prime minister of Spain

Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, who gained money and high position through representing the interests of France and Spain, and was also known for his love of good food, was born on this day in 1664 in Fiorenzuola D’Arda near Piacenza in the Duchy of Parma in Emilia-Romagna.

Alberoni had a career punctuated by highs and lows, but he accumulated vast personal wealth and his memory lives on because of two dishes that are still served in Piacenza.

The son of a gardener, Alberoni rose to become a statesman responsible for the revival of Spain’s fortunes during the War of the Spanish Succession, and he was made the papal legate of Ravenna and Bologna.

After being educated by the Jesuits, Alberoni took holy orders and was appointed a canon at Parma in 1698.

In 1702, the government of Parma sent him on a diplomatic mission to Louis-Joseph, Duc de Vendôme, commander of French forces in Italy during the War of the Spanish Succession. He was then taken by Vendôme to France as his secretary in 1706, and to Spain a few years later, although he continued to act as an agent of Parma.

After Vendôme’s death, Alberoni remained in Madrid as the official representative of Parma. His influence at the Spanish court increased and he negotiated the marriage of Philip V of Spain to Isabella Farnese, the daughter of the Duke of Parma.

Alberoni became the equivalent of a prime minister for Philip V, and he carried out administrative and fiscal reforms at the Spanish court. He brought in foreign craftsmen to boost industry, while reducing the powers of the councils made up of aristocrats who were against his reforms.

Pier Leone Ghezzi's painting of Pope Clement XI
conferring the cardinal's hat to Giulio Alberoni

His foreign policy was designed to drive the Austrians from Italy and to safeguard Spanish trade with the American colonies. But Spanish military expeditions to Sicily and Sardinia led to Spain having to go to war, and the defeat of Spanish forces during a French and British invasion of Spain, resulted in Alberoni being banished from the country in 1719.

Alberoni fled from Spain to Italy, but charges were laid against him by Spain in a bid to persuade the Pope to depose him as a Cardinal. However, he managed to avoid being arrested and took refuge in Austrian territory in Lombardy.

After Pope Clement XI died in 1721, Alberoni went to take part in the conclave that elected Pope Innocent XIII. He was briefly imprisoned in a monastery by the new pontiff to satisfy Spain, who had accused Alberoni of sodomy, but he was later cleared of the charges by his fellow cardinals.

When Pope Benedict XIII was elected in 1724, Alberoni was made a cardinal deacon and given the church of Sant’ Adriano al Foro. He was later made the cardinal priest of San Crisogono.

After he was named legate of Ravenna, Alberoni had Porta Alberoni built in the city as a gateway to the dockyards, but this has since been moved.

He later retired to live in Piacenza and the Pope named him administrator of the hospital of San Lazzaro, an institution originally founded for lepers. 

Coppa del Cardinale, named after Alberoni,
is a popular cured pork in Emilia-Romagna

As leprosy had almost disappeared in Italy by then, Alberoni obtained the Pope’s permission to suppress the hospital and use it as a seminary for the priestly education of poor boys, which he named Collegio Alberoni.

After his death in 1752, he left money to the seminary and the rest of his fortune to his nephew. The huge collection of art he had accumulated is now on show to the public in a gallery inside Collegio Alberoni.

His private correspondence was to reveal his love of food, as among his letters there are requests for local delicacies to be sent to him, such as truffles, salame, robiola cheeses, and a type of local pasta known as anolini.

At least two Piacenza dishes are named after him, the cured pork dish, Coppa del Cardinale, and the pasta dish Timballo Alberoni, which contains macaroni, shrimp sauce, mushrooms, butter and cheese.

Alberoni was buried inside the Church of Collegio Alberoni, to which he had bequeathed the sum of 600,000 ducati, a fortune at the time.

The 14th century Collegiata di San Fiorenzo
in Fiorenzuola D'Arda's Piazza Molinari

Travel tip:

Fiorenzuola D’Arda, where Alberoni was born into a humble family,  is a city in the province of Piacenza, which dates back to prehistoric times. One of its main sights is the 14th century church of Collegiata di San Fiorenzo in Piazza Molinari. The former Church of San Giovanni, which over the centuries has been used as a courthouse, barracks, and prison, now houses the town hall and municipal library. There is also a theatre named after the opera composer Giuseppe Verdi. Typical local dishes include anolini pasta in broth with cheese, and cold cuts served with ‘gnocco fritto’ (fried dumplings). Fiorenzuola sits in Val d’Arda, which is home to some of the most beautiful castles in the whole of Emilia-Romagna, set against a backdrop of gently rolling hills.

Antonello da Messina's masterpiece
Ecco Homo in the Galleria Alberoni

Travel tip:

Piacenza is a city about 75km (45 miles) to the north east of Parma in Emilia-Romagna.  The main square in Piacenza is named Piazza Cavalli because of its two bronze equestrian monuments featuring Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, and his son Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma, who succeeded him. The statues are masterpieces by the sculptor Francesco Mochi. Collegio Alberoni still stands in Via Emilia Parmense in Piacenza. It is now a library, an historical and natural museum, and a seismological and weather observatory. Among the many works of art in Galleria Alberoni, which is inside the Collegio, is the masterpiece Ecce Homo by Antonello da Messina, and there are also many church furnishing objects and tapestries, which belonged to Cardinal Alberoni.

Also on this day:

1512: The death of tyrant ruler Pandolfo Petrucci

1910: The birth of Mafia boss Angelo Bruno

1972: Michelangelo’s Pietà damaged

1981: Propaganda Due suspects named

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Flavius Stilicho - Roman general

Last defender of the Western Empire

A diptych in Monza cathedral is thought to show 
Stilicho (right), with Serena and Eucherius

The military commander Flavius Stilicho, who for part of his career could be considered the most powerful man in the Western Roman Empire, was executed on this day in 408 in Ravenna.

Stilicho had successfully defended the empire against several Barbarian invasions and gained his power through acting as regent when the death of Theodosius I in 395 left the Western Empire in the hands of Honorius, his 10-year-old son.

But as a soldier of partly Vandal descent, Stilicho had always aroused suspicion within the Roman court and his failure to deal with the advance across northern Europe of the rebellious Constantine III, leader of the Romans in Britain, combined with rumours that he planned to install his own son, Eucherius, as emperor of the Eastern Empire following the death of Arcadius, sparked a mutiny of the Roman army at Ticinum - modern Pavia - on August 13, 408.

Stilicho retreated to Ravenna, then capital of the Western Empire, where he was imprisoned on the orders of Honorius and executed, along with Eucherius, on August 22.

Born around 359, at a time of political turbulence and rivalries within a Roman Empire in decline, Stilicho is thought to have been the son of a soldier of Vandal origin in the Roman army and a Roman mother. 

A bust of Theodosius I,
in the Louvre in Paris

As a soldier himself, he proved to be a skilled strategist and diplomat and quickly rose through the ranks under Theodosius I, the last emperor of a unified Roman Empire.

His success in 383 in negotiating a territorial settlement with Shapur III, the King of Persia, on behalf of Theodosius saw him quickly promoted to be head of the emperor's corps of bodyguards.

Theodosius increasingly saw Stilicho as a valued ally and strengthened their bond by allowing Stilicho to marry his favourite niece, Serena.

In around 393, Theodosius made him commander-in-chief of the Roman army and entrusted him with the guardianship of Honorius ahead of his death in 395.

Stilicho’s successes on the battlefield strengthened his position still further.

The Battle of the Frigidus in 394 in what is now western Slovenia saw him fighting alongside Alaric, the King of the Visigoths, to defeat the usurper Eugenius, unifying the Empire under Theodosius, while between 395 and 398 he successfully contained the Gothic threat in the Balkans.

In 398 Stilicho defeated Gildo, the rebel governor of Africa, securing a vital grain supply for Rome.

In the early fifth century, he defeated the Ostrogoth king Radagaisus, preventing an invasion of the Italian peninsula, and twice defeated Alaric, his ally in Frigidus, in the Battles of Pollentia and Verona.

A bust depicting Emperor
Honorius as an adolescent

Stilicho’s power inevitably made him enemies, notably a Praetorian prefect by the name of Rufinus, who is said to have been appointed to be the guardian for Theodosius’s other son, Arcadius, in the Eastern Empire.

They clashed over a number of issues but matters came to a head during one of Stilicho’s battles against Alaric, sparked by the latter reneging on a peace treaty with Rome.  

After purportedly trying to negotiate a diplomatic solution to the conflict, Rufinus is said to have instructed Arcadius to order the Roman troops to withdraw just as they were about to attack Alaric's army.  A group of the returning soldiers then murdered Rufinus, leading some historians to speculate that Stilicho ordered Rufinus to be killed because he suspected him of being in league with Alaric.

Stilicho’s power began to wane after the twin threat of Alaric and Radagaisus depleted the Roman forces defending the empire in the north. 

In 407, Constantine, a Roman general who had been proclaimed by his soldiers as the Emperor in Britain, moved his troops across the English Channel, taking control of Gaul and Hispania. 

Stilicho failed to stop his advance, which further drained his resources and highlighted the empire’s inability to defend its borders, leading to growing dissent among the Roman army.

The Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan has a monument called 
 the Sarcophagus of Stilicho, although it is unlikely he is buried there 

This and the false news that Stilicho was planning a coup d’état to install his son as Eastern Roman Emperor led to their mutiny. They killed Stilicho’s most trusted generals, leaving him powerless to the extent that when he was arrested in Ravenna, he is said to have accepted his fate.

For the future of the Western Empire, Stilicho’s execution proved to be a telling moment. In the disturbances that followed, murderous attacks by Romans on fellow  citizens of Vandal and other Germanic descent caused an exodus of 30,000 men to the side of Alaric, demanding that he lead them against the Romans.

The Visigoth leader subsequently led his forces on a campaign that saw them reach the walls of Rome and lay siege to the city in September, 408.

Without a general in the mould of Stilicho, Honorius could do little to break the siege. Alaric tried and failed four times to negotiate a peace treaty until August 27, 410, when - with the people of Rome dying of hunger - his army smashed through the gates and sacked the city.

It was the first time in 800 years that an invading army had successfully breached the walls of the Eternal City and many historians regard the event as the beginning of the end for the Western Roman Empire.

The Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna is
famous for its Byzantine mosaics

Travel tip:

Ravenna, where Stilicho was executed, was the capital of the Western Roman Empire from 402, when Honorius moved his court from Mediolanum (modern Milan), until the collapse of the empire in 476, after which it became the capital of the Italy ruled by the barbarian Odoacer until he was defeated by the Ostrogoth king Theodoric. In 540 Belisarius conquered Ravenna for the Byzantine Empire, and the city became the capital of Byzantine Italy.  The city, which is in the region of Emilia-Romagna, about 78km (48 miles) east of Bologna, is now renowned for its wealth of well-preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture and has eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. One of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture is the Basilica of San Vitale, which is famous for its fine Byzantine mosaics.  Ravenna was also the city where the 13th century poet Dante Alighieri lived in exile until his death in 1321. Dante's tomb is next to the Basilica of San Francesco.

The beautiful Ponte Coperto, which links the city
of Pavia with the suburb of Borgo Ticino

Travel tip:

Ticinum, which occupied the site of the modern Pavia, was an ancient city of Gallia Transpadana, a division of Cisalpine Gaul. It was founded on the banks of the river of the same name - now the Ticino - near where it joins the Po, then called the Padus. Its importance in Roman times was due to the extension of the Via Aemilia from Ariminum (Rimini) to the Padus, which it crossed at Placentia (Piacenza) and there forked, one branch going to Mediolanum (Milan) and the other to Ticinum.  Modern Pavia has little in the way of Roman remains.  It is thought that the city’s Duomo might have been built over the remains of an ancient temple, but there is no evidence of this. Pavia’s picturesque covered bridge, the Ponte Coperto or Ponte Vecchio, which originated in the 16th century and was rebuilt after being bombed in the Second World War, linking Pavia with the Borgo Ticino suburb, was preceded by a Roman bridge, of which only one pillar exists under the remains of the central arch of the mediaeval bridge.  Pavia is also known for its ancient university, which was founded in 1361, and its famous Certosa, a magnificent monastery complex north of the city that dates back to 1396. 

Also on this day:

1599: The death of composer Luca Marenzio

1849: Venice hit by history’s first air raid

1913: The birth of nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo

1914: The death of bishop Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi

1970: The birth of TV chef Giada De Laurentiis

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Giovanni Minzoni - priest

Devout Catholic murdered for opposing Fascists

Giovanni Minzoni objected to the
Fascist youth movement in his town

Don Giovanni Minzoni, a Catholic priest whose name is commemorated in many street names around Italy, was murdered by Fascist thugs in the small town of Argenta in Emilia-Romagna on this day in 1923.

A parish priest in the town, midway between the cities of  Ferrara and Ravenna, Don Minzoni was attacked at around 10.30pm as he returned to his rectory in the company of Enrico Bondanelli, a parishioner, when he was set upon by two men who were attached to a Fascist militia in Casumaro, almost 50km (31 miles) from Argenta on the other side of Ferrara.

He was pelted with stones and, when the blows made him fall to the ground, was beaten. What proved to be the fatal blow was struck with a heavy walking stick. He had a fractured skull and, despite being helped home by Bondanelli and neighbours, died a couple of hours later. His attackers were later named as Giorgio Molinari and Vittore Casoni, who were allegedly acting on the orders of Italo Balbo, a Blackshirt Commander who would later be seen as an heir to dictator Benito Mussolini.

Don Minzoni, a former military chaplain, had made no secret of his opposition to the Fascist regime. Shortly before he was attacked, he had set up a Catholic Scout group in Argenta in response to the introduction in the town of the Opera Nazionale Balilla, the Fascist youth movement.

He had been involved in a stand-off with the local militia when he invited Father Emilio Faggioli, a leading figure in the Catholic Scout organisation in Emilia-Romagna, to give a talk about the virtues of Catholicism and the scouts in the parish hall on Piazza d’Argenta, the town’s main square.

Blackshirt Italo Balbo (second right)
was suspected of ordering the murder

The Fascists said local youths would be forbidden to attend but more than 70 defied them and gathered in the square.

A militia chief attempted to bring Don Minzoni over to his side by offering to make him the chaplain of their group.  Not surprisingly, the priest refused. He did not expect his decision to be well received and an entry in his diary chillingly anticipated his fate:

“With an open heart, with a prayer for my persecutors that will never disappear from my lips, I await the tempest, the persecution, maybe even death, for the cause of Christ to triumph.”

Born into a middle class family in Ravenna, Minzoni chose at an early age to dedicate his life to Christianity and was ordained a priest at the age of 24. He was made deputy pastor in Argenta, a position he held for three years before leaving to study in Bergamo, in Piedmont, where he graduate in 1914.

He was to have returned to Argenta in 1916 to become parish priest of San Nicoló, following the death of the incumbent, but instead was called by the army of the Kingdom of Italy, who asked him to serve as a military chaplain on the Italian north-eastern front. He was awarded the Silver Medal of Military Valour after showing great courage in the field during the Battle of the Piave River.

Don Minzoni is commemorated in the names of
streets and squares in many Italian towns and cities

On his return to Argenta at the end of the war, he became politically active, joining Partito Popolare Italiano, a forerunner of the Christian Democrats. His shock at the murder of a socialist union leader with whom he had become friends hardened his dislike of Fascism. He also favoured co-operation between political groups to tackle social problems, which put him at odds with the Fascists. 

His murder was covered extensively by two still relatively free newspapers, Il Popolo and La Voce Repubblicana, who named the perpetrators. When they came to trial, however, Molinari and Casoni along with Balbo were acquitted, the process effectively collapsing because intimidation of journalists and witnesses made a fair hearing impossible.

A re-trial did take place at the end of World War Two, in which Molinari and Casoni were found guilty of second degree murder. Balbo, who had been killed when the plane in which he was a passenger was shot down over Libya in 1940, was absolved of blame.

After the war, Don Minzoni became a symbol of the Italian Catholic Resistance, and many books were written about him. Pope John Paul II recalled his courage in a letter to the Bishop of Ravenna in 1983, on the 60th anniversary of his death, when his remains were moved from the monumental cemetery of Ravenna to the Cathedral of San Nicolò in Argenta.

The Cathedral of San Nicolò di Argenta, with
the monument to Don Manzoni in the foreground

Travel tip:

Argenta, which is situated about 30 kilometres (19 miles) southeast of Ferrara and a little over 40km (25 miles) northwest of Ravenna, is a town of Roman origin in a flat agricultural region near the Valli di Comacchio lagoon wetlands, much of which is designated as a wildlife sanctuary with many facilities for ornithology.  Situated close to the German Gothic Line, it suffered damage in World War Two. In 1973, a monument to Don Giovanni Minzoni, sculpted in bronze by Angelo Biancini, was placed in front of the Cathedral of San Nicolò di Argenta, when celebrations of his life in the town were inaugurated by the President of the Republic, Giovanni Leone.

The Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna is famous
for its beautiful Byzantine mosaics

Travel tip:

Ravenna, where Giovanni Minzoni was born, became the capital city of the western Roman empire in the fifth century. It is known for its well preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture and has eight UNESCO world heritage sites. The Basilica of San Vitale is one of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture in Europe, famous for its superb Byzantine mosaics.  The poet Dante died while living in exile in Ravenna in about 1321. He was buried at the Church of San Pier Maggiore in Ravenna and a tomb was erected there for him in 1483.  Another tomb was built for Dante in the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence but despite repeated requests for the return of Dante’s remains to the city of his birth, Ravenna has always refused.

Also on this day:

1945: The birth of teenage pop star Rita Pavone

1943: The birth of guitarist and composer Pino Presti

1974: The death of eminent psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli

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Caesar crosses the Rubicon

Act of defiance that started a civil war and coined a phrase

Caesar's ambitious designs on power were behind his
programme of conquests in Europe

The Roman general Julius Caesar led his army across the Rubicon river in northern Italy in an act of military defiance that would plunge the Roman Republic into civil war on this day in 49BC.

The course of the Rubicon, which can still be found on maps of Italy today, entering the Adriatic between Ravenna and Rimini in northeast Italy, represented the border between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul, over which Caesar had command, and what was by then known as Italia, the area of the peninsula south of the Alps directly governed by Rome.

One of the most powerful politicians in the Roman Republic after forming an alliance with Pompey and Crassus known as the First Triumvirate, Caesar had spent much of the previous decade expanding his territory through the Gallic Wars, taking control of much of modern-day France and northern Italy and extending the borders of the Republic as far as the Rhine.  He was the first Roman general to invade Britain.

The troops under his command - the 13th Legion - numbered more than 20,000 men who had seen Caesar’s military skills develop and were fiercely loyal.

Caesar had an army of  soldiers who were
fiercely loyal to him

Caesar was hugely ambitious and made sure news of his exploits was regularly conveyed to Rome, where he had growing support.  None of the wars he waged to conquer the Gauls had been sanctioned or even authorised by the Senate, but such was the delicate balance of power in the Republic that he had been allowed to continue.

Matters came to a head, however, in 50BC when Caesar’s former ally Pompey, who had allied himself with Rome following the death of Crassus and the break-up of the Triumvirate, decided that the threat to his own power posed by Caesar had become too much.  As the most powerful figure in the Senate, he ordered Caesar to stand his army down and return to Rome to answer charges of waging illegal wars.

Unwilling to risk being found guilty of treason, Caesar had no intention of returning to Rome under such conditions. He also knew he could not lose face in front of his loyal troops or his supporters in Rome.

He drew up a plan of campaign and on January 9, 49BC, while Caesar was in Ravenna to examine plans for a gladiator school, his army was assembling at the border with Italy, on the banks of the Rubicon river.

According to the Roman historian Suetonius, Caesar arranged for a chariot to collect him after he had taken dinner in Ravenna and took him to join up with his troops by the Rubicon, knowing that to cross it would be in violation of Republican law, which forbade any general in the provinces to lead an army into the territory of Italia, and would inevitably provoke a civil war.

Caesar won power after a war
spanning four years

Suetonius claimed Caesar hesitated, in two minds about whether he should set off a chain of events from which there would be no turning back, but was persuaded by an apparition sent by the gods.  The following day, he led his army across the river and the march on Rome began.

The conflict that followed took four years to reach a conclusion and involved battles in the Balkans, Greece, Egypt, Africa and Spain but the fall one by one of Pompey and his allies.  Pompey himself fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated.  Caesar became the dictator of Rome in 45BC, presiding over changes that would lead to the collapse of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the Roman Empire.

The phrase ‘crossing the Rubicon’ has since entered the English language as an idiom used to describe taking irrevocable action or taking a decision to precipitate a situation that cannot be reversed.

The Fiume Rubicone is little more than a stream in places
on its 80km journey from the mountains to the Adriatic

Travel tip:

When the main E55 highway between the cities of Cesena and Rimini in Emilia-Romagna reaches Savignano, it crosses a narrow stretch of water that has since been accepted as the Rubicon, the dividing line between Cisalpine Gaul and what was then considered Italy, which Julius Caesar crossed with his army to take over the Roman state. The modern-day Fiume Rubicone flows for around 80km (50 miles) from the Apennine Mountains to the Adriatic Sea through the southern part of the Emilia-Romagna region, entering the sea at San Mauro Mare. The river's name is thought to derive from the Latin word rubeus, meaning "red" - the colour the water frequently assumes due to mud deposits.

The Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna contains some of
the finest examples of Byzantine art in Europe

Travel tip:

Ravenna, about 40km (25 miles) north of the Rubicon, became the capital city of the western Roman empire in the fifth century. It is known for its well preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture and has eight UNESCO world heritage sites. The Basilica of San Vitale is one of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture in Europe, famous for its superb Byzantine mosaics.  The poet Dante died while living in exile in Ravenna in about 1321. He was buried at the Church of San Pier Maggiore in Ravenna and a tomb was erected there for him in 1483.


Also on this day:

987: The death of former Doge of Venice San Pietro Orseolo

1890: The birth of silent movie star Pina Menichelli

1903: The birth of car designer Flaminio Bertoni

1959: The birth of football coach Maurizio Sarri


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The 410 Sack of Rome

Invasion that signalled terminal decline of Western Roman Empire

Alaric and the Visigoths entering Rome, as depicted by the
19th century German artist Wilhelm Lindenschmit the Younger

The ancient city of Rome was left in a state of shock and devastation after three days of looting and pillaging by Visigoths under the command of King Alaric came to an end on this day in 410.

An unknown number of citizens had been killed and scores of others had fled into the countryside. Countless women had been raped. Many buildings were damaged and set on fire and Alaric and his hordes made off with vast amounts of Roman treasure.

It was the first time in 800 years that an invading army had successfully breached the walls of the Eternal City and many historians regard the event as the beginning of the end for the Western Roman Empire.

It could have been more devastating still had Alaric, a Christian, been a more cruel leader.  Although he struggled to control his men - historians believe they were an ill-disciplined rabble rather than an organised fighting force - he stopped short of ordering large-scale slaughter of the Roman population, while silver and gold objects they were told had belonged to St Peter were left behind.

A book illustration showing Alaric in Athens
after conquering the city in 395

It was brought to a swift conclusion because Alaric had other targets he wished to attack in the far south of Italy and in northern Africa. In the event, he died not long afterwards of a fever, somewhere near what is now the city of Cosenza in Calabria.

Alaric had risen to become King of the Visigoths in 395, the same year that saw the death of the Emperor Theodosius I, who had signed a peace treaty with the Goths in 382. Leadership of the Eastern and Western Empires was inherited by Theodosius’s two sons, Arcadius in the east and 10-year-old Honorius in the west. The western capital was moved from Rome to Ravenna, which was more easily defended.

Wanting to create a new settlement for his tribes, Alaric staged regular attacks in northern Italy in the early part of the fifth century but these were always repelled by Honorius’s regent, the brilliant military strategist and general Flavius Stilicho.

Stilicho, who was half-German, had many soldiers of German origin under his command and wanted to enlist the help of the Visigoths to fight against the Eastern Empire. Alaric himself had even served in battle under the command of Stilicho, whom he greatly admired and even considered a friend.

But his position changed when Honorius dismissed his demand to be given land and political power and he set his sights on Rome, which was still the symbolic heart of the Empire, even if the seat of government was now in Ravenna.

Alaric is buried in the bed of a river near where he died, along
with personal treasures, as imagined by Heinrich Leutemann

He was unconcerned about Honorius but knew he faced a formidable adversary in Stilicho and it was out of fear and respect for Stilicho that he stopped short of invading Rome after advancing to its gates in 408.

But after Stilicho, suspected of planning an insurrection, was executed on the orders of Honorius later the same year, the obstacle he presented was removed.

As a consequence, after long months laying siege to the city, during which time Roman citizens became hungrier and more desperate, Alaric first set a series of demands in front of Honorius, promising to call off the siege if they were met.  When they were refused, he ordered his tribes to enter the city on August 24, 410.  They did so without much of a fight, ushered in either by corrupt officials or rebellious slaves who opened the Salarian Gate.

The collapse of the Western Roman Empire did not happen as a direct result of Alaric’s invasion. In fact a more severe sacking of the city was still to come, carried out by the Vandals in 455, but the 410 invasion was a symbolic moment in an end game that was to reach its conclusion in 476, when another Germanic leader, Flavius Odoacer, removed the Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, and declared himself King of Italy, which is the moment at which many historians consider the Western Empire to have been no more.

The facade of the cathedral in Cosenza

Travel tip:

Cosenza, a city with an urban area in which more than 260,000 people live, combines a no-nonsense modern city with a small and atmospheric old city, a medieval town with a network of steep, narrow streets, at the heart of which is a cathedral originally built in the 11th century.  The old town also boasts the 13th century Castello Svevo, built on the site of a Saracen fortification, which hosted the wedding of Louis III of Naples and Margaret of Savoy but which the Bourbons used as a prison.  The pedestrianized centre of the new city has sculptures by the likes of Dalí, De Chirico and Pietro Consagra.

Dante's tomb in Ravenna

Travel tip:

As well as being the former capital of the Western Roman Empire, Ravenna was also the city where the 13th century poet Dante Alighieri lived in exile until his death in 1321. Dante's tomb is in the church of San Pier Maggiore. The city is renowned for its wealth of well-preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture and eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. One of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture is the Basilica of San Vitale, which is famous for its fine Byzantine mosaics.

More reading:

How Rome was sacked by the Ostrogoths in 546

Mutinous troops sack Rome in 1527

The death of Dante Alighieri

Also on this day

1576: The death of the great Renaissance artist Titian

1707: The birth of actress Zanetta Farussi, mother of Casanova

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Battle of Ravenna

Thousands die in pointless conflict of the Italian Wars

The chaos of the Battle of Ravenna depicted in a
15th century woodcut

French forces inflicted appalling casualties upon a largely Spanish Holy League army on this day in 1512 at Molinaccio just outside Ravenna.

The French, under the command of their brilliant 21-year-old leader Gaston de Foix, had taken Brescia in Lombardy by storm in February and then marched on Ravenna intending to provoke the papal Holy League army into battle. They also had an Italian contingent of soldiers with them under the command of Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara.

Ramon de Cardona, Spanish viceroy of Naples and commander of the Holy League forces, led an army through the papal states of the Romagna to relieve Ravenna, passing Forlì and advancing north along the Ronco River.

Both sides had learned the new rules of warfare in the gunpowder age and were reluctant to assault well defended earthworks with cavalry or infantry.

They indulged in an artillery duel and had to manoeuvre unwieldy cannons to find effective lines of fire.

But after two hours they changed tactics and both cavalry and infantry threw themselves forward in assaults. The casualties were heavy as horsemen clashed in swirling melees and infantry swarmed over ramparts and ditches.

Alfonso I d'Este, who led a contingent of
Italian soldiers in the battle

The issue was decided when the French cavalry, having driven the opposing horsemen from the field, returned to attack the Spanish infantry.

While many of his soldiers were slaughtered, Cardona was taken prisoner.

Then, when the battle was effectively over, the French commander De Foix was killed during a pointless skirmish with the retreating Spanish infantry.

It was estimated that the French lost 4,500 men and the Holy League 9,000 in this battle, part of the War of the League of Cambrai, which took place during the long period of the Italian Wars.

The victory failed to help the French secure northern Italy and they were forced to withdraw from the region entirely by August of the same year.

Travel tip:

The Romagna, controlled by the Pope in the 16th century, was a region of Italy that approximately corresponds to the south eastern part of the present day region of Emilia-Romagna. It included the cities of Cesena, Faenza, Forlì, Imola, Ravenna and Rimini, where the Romagnola dialect is still spoken today.

The Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna

Travel tip:

Ravenna, in Emilia-Romagna, was the capital city of the western Roman empire in the fifth century. It is known for its well preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture and has eight UNESCO world heritage sites. The Basilica of San Vitale is one of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture in Europe.

More reading:

How the Treaty of Lodi brought peace to northern Italy

Ravenna, the Ostrogoths and the Sack of Rome

The murder of papal military leader Girolamo Riario

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