Giorgia - singer-songwriter

Sanremo victory first of multiple successes

Giorgia has become one of Italy's
most popular performers

The popular singer-songwriter Giorgia Todrani, who performs simply as ‘Giorgia’, was born on this day in 1971 in the Monteverde Vecchio neighbourhood of Rome.

Giorgia, whose vocal ability has seen her compared to the American superstar singer Whitney Houston, rocketed to fame after winning the prestigious Sanremo Music Festival in 1995, less than a year into her recording career.

She has since sold more than 25 million records worldwide. Of her 12 studio albums, five have reached No 1 in the Italian charts, as did a greatest hits compilation released in 2002.  Giorgia has also topped the Italian singles chart on five occasions.

Her 1995 Sanremo winner, Come saprei - How would I know? - which she co-wrote with three others, including the best-selling Italian male star, Eros Ramazzotti, was the first entry to win both the main competition and the critics’ award at the annual festival.

Thirty years later, in 2025, she was strongly tipped to win Sanremo again with La cura per me - The cure for me - from her No 1 album G. Ultimately, the song finished sixth, a result that sparked boos from the audience at the Teatro Ariston, the theatre in the Ligurian resort that has been home to the competition since 1977.

Giorgia was born into a musical household in that her father, Giulio Todrani, was half of the singing duo Juli & Julie, which enjoyed some success in the 1970s and ‘80s. Giulio is said to have chosen the name, Giorgia, for his daughter after a favourite Ray Charles song, Georgia on My Mind. 

After the Juli & Julie duo - in which he partnered with the female singer Angela Bini - went their separate ways in 1989, Giulio formed a soul and rhythm-and-blues group under the name Gli Io Vorrei La Pelle Nera. Giorgia is said to have performed on stage with the group.

Giorgia had some formal singing lessons from the lyric tenor, Luigi Rumbo, who was a member of the Sistine Chapel choir, but it was at Roman jazz clubs such as the Alexanderplatz in Prati, Big Mama in Trastevere and La Palma in Pigneto that she honed her vocal style.

Since winning Sanremo in 1995, Giorgia's
record sales have topped 25 million

The Sanremo Music Festival would play a significant part in her professional breakthrough in the early 1990s.

In 1993, she entered and won Sanremo Giovani, a section of the competition for young artists, with a song called Nasceremo, the prize for which included entry for the Newcomers section in 1994. The bonus for Giorgia was that the 1993 edition of Sanremo Giovani was the first to be televised.

Although her 1994 song, E poi - And Then - finished only seventh in the Newcomers section, it gained enough attention to become a hit single, reaching number two in the Italian chart, matched by the album from which it came, entitled simply Giorgia, which made No 2 in the album chart, selling 180,000 copies in Italy.

That success sparked an invitation to appear with the opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti on one of his famous Pavarotti & Friends charity concerts in Modena as part of a celebrity line-up that included Sting, Bryan Adams and the rising tenor Andrea Bocelli, who had won the Newcomers section at Sanremo in which she had finished seventh.

Giorgia and Bocelli then appeared together at a Christmas Eve concert at the Vatican in front of Pope Paul II, their performance creating enough interest for them to release a single together, Vivo per lei, in 1995.

Of course, it was winning the main Sanremo contest in 1995 that provoked the biggest surge in Giorgia’s popularity. Her second album, Come Thelma & Louise, which included Come saprei, sold eight million copies worldwide and remains her biggest-selling individual album. No less a star than Elton John described her voice as “one of the most beautiful in the world” and invited her to appear as a guest on his upcoming tour of Italy.

A particularly proud moment for her father, Giulio, came in 2000 when Ray Charles, the iconic American soul singer, invited Giorgia to sing Georgia on My Mind at one of his concerts, having heard the story of how she came to be named.

Over time, through collaborations with artists such as Pino Daniele and Herbie Hancock, Giorgia was able to broaden her repertoire away from the ballads of her early success to more up-tempo and experimental music, allowing her to explore the full range of her vocal skills and bring comparisons with some of the most versatile singers in jazz-pop history.

Away from performing, Giorgia has been in a relationship since 2004 with Emanuel Lo, a dancer and teacher on the TV talent show, Amici di Maria De Filippi. The two met during one of the singer's tours and have a son, Samuel, who was born in 2010. 

A previous relationship ended in tragedy when the singer Alex Baroni, her partner of four years, was killed in a motorcycle accident.

She still lives in the Monteverde district of Rome, not far from where she grew up. 

The Villa Pamphilj, with its surrounding park,
is one of the attractions of the Monteverde district

Travel tip:

Monteverde, the area of Rome where Giorgia was born and still lives, can be found to the southwest of the central part of the city, within the Municipio XII rione. It borders Trastevere to the north and sits across the Tiber from Testaccio. Divided into the older Montevecchio Vecchio, characterised by elegant early‑20th‑century villas, and the mainly post-war Monteverde Nuovo, the area is historically middle‑class and artistic, with a long association with musicians, actors and media professionals. Small theatres and music venues abound. Known as a green area, it is home to the Villa Pamphilj, Rome’s largest landscaped park, popular for jogging, walking and relaxing, as well as the smaller park around Villa Sciarra. To the north, the Gianicolo - Janiculum Hill - offers panoramic city views.  The film director Pier Paolo Pasolini often chose the neighbourhood for location shots. Though quieter than neighbouring Trastevere, its restaurants are popular in the evenings and an increasing number of visitors chose to stay in the area, picking it as a quiet escape from the crowds in central Rome, yet close enough to be a base for exploring.

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The Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, which has been
home to the Sanremo Music Festival since 1977

Travel tip:

The resort of Sanremo in Liguria, which has figured prominently in Giorgia’s career, can be found 146km (91 miles) southwest of Genoa as the Italian Riviera extends towards France. Sanremo enjoyed particular prestige even before the music festival, first staged in 1951, put it on the cultural map. The town expanded rapidly in the mid-18th century, when the phenomenon of tourism began to take hold among the wealthy. Several grand hotels were established and the Emperor Nicholas II of Russia was among the European royals who took holidays there. The Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, who bequeathed money in his will to establish the prizes that take his name, was so taken with the elegance of the town after his holiday visits that he made it his permanent home. Known as the City of Flowers, it is characterised by its Stile Liberty architecture (the Italian variant of Art Nouveau), of which the Casinò di Sanremo in Corso degli Inglesi is a beautiful example.  The Casino, in fact, was home to the music festival until 1977, when its closure for renovations obliged the organisers to find an alternative venue. They chose the Teatro Ariston, the town’s largest theatre in Via Matteotti, which is where it has remained.

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More reading:

How Mina became Italy’s all-time top-selling female music star

Laura Pausini, Sanremo winner and first Italian woman to land Grammy

The history of the Sanremo Music Festival

Also on this day:

1538: The birth of painter Gian Paolo Lomazzo

1575: The birth of Maria de’ Medici

1925: The birth of chocolatier Michele Ferrero

1977: The birth of astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti 

1993: The birth of rugby player Tommaso Allan

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Simona Ventura - TV presenter

Star of sports and entertainment shows

Simona Ventura has been one of 
Italian TV's most familiar faces

The presenter Simona Ventura, whose career spanning forty years has showcased an outstanding versatility and made her one of Italian television’s most familiar faces, was born on this day in 1965 in Bentivoglio, a small town about 15km (nine miles) northeast of Bologna in Emilia-Romagna.

Ventura has made her mark in entertainment and reality TV but has also enjoyed a high-profile presence in sports broadcasting, especially football.

Her career highlights include hosting the live Sunday afternoon football show Quelli che il calcio for a decade and leading L’isola dei famosi - an Italian reality show similar to Survivor and the UK’s I’m a Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here - for eight editions.

Ventura also has the distinction of being one of only three women to be granted the role of main host of the Sanremo Music Festival, having fronted the prestigious annual song contest in 2004. 

Other highlights include covering the 1990 FIFA World Cup - hosted by Italy - plus UEFA Euro 1992 and the 1992 Olympics as a TV sports journalist.

At different times, she has been a staple of both national public broadcaster Rai and the commercially-owned Mediaset network, fronting major variety shows such as Mai dire gol, Le Iene, and Festivalbar.  She has also enjoyed a long-running relationship with X-Factor Italia as a judge. 

Although born in Bentivoglio, Ventura moved at an early age to Chivasso, just outside Turin in Piedmont. After studying physical education at high school, she became interested in television as a career. In common with many girls with ambitions in that direction, she found her looks opened doors. She entered and won a beauty pageant in the Liguria resort of Alassio and made her television debut in 1988 as an assistant to the host of a game show on Rai Uno.

With aspirations beyond being merely a showgirl - the term that described the such roles in Italian entertainment programmes - Ventura pursued her passion for sport, joining Telemontecarlo as a trainee sports journalist, which provided the chance to report for the station at the Italia ‘90 World Cup tournament, the European championships in Sweden in 1992 and the Olympic Games in Barcelona the same year. 

By the autumn of 1992, she was reporting on Serie A matches for the Sunday afternoon Rai magazine programme, Domenica In, which in turn persuaded the producers of Rai Due’s long-running Sunday night football highlights show La Domenica Sportiva, traditionally an all-male platform, to give her the role of host. 

Simona Ventura in 1988, at the
start of her media career

Moving to Mediaset in the mid‑1990s broadened her appeal: she became a familiar face on high‑profile variety shows such as Mai dire gol, Scherzi a parte, Festivalbar, Le Iene, Matricole, and Zelig. These programmes showcased her comedic timing and strong rapport with live audiences.

In 2001, Ventura returned to Rai to host Quelli che il calcio, a role she held until 2011. The programme blended football culture with entertainment in a format that suited her energetic style. She was chosen as the first host of L’isola dei famosi in 2003, keeping the position for the popular show’s first eight seasons.

Her most prestigious assignment came in 2004 when she became only the third woman to be appointed the main presenter of the Sanremo Music Festival, after Loretta Goggi (1986) and Raffaella Carrà (2001). She was scheduled to return to Sanremo in 2021 as co-host alongside Amadeus but had to withdraw after testing positive for COVID-19.

After a decade at Rai, Ventura signed an exclusive contract with Sky in 2011, serving as judge, presenter, and creative lead on projects including X Factor and Simona Goes to Hollywood. She later returned to Mediaset, appearing as a contestant on L’isola dei famosi in 2016.

Away from television, Ventura has appeared in acting roles in a number of films, including Fratelli Coltelli (1997), La fidanzata di papà (2008), and a cameo in Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere (2010). 

In 2023, she was a contestant in both Il Cantante Mascherano (The Masked Singer) and Ballando con le Stelle (Dancing with the Stars), finishing runner-up in the latter with partner Samuel Peron.

The winner of multiple awards in recognition of her longevity and impact on Italian television, Ventura has since 2024 been married to journalist Giovanni Terzi. She has three children - Niccolò, Giacomo, and adopted daughter Caterina - from her previous marriage to footballer Stefano Bettarini. 

The Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta, with its
striking facade, is one of the highlights of Chivasso

Travel tip:

Chivasso, where Simona Ventura grew up, is a town about 20km (12 miles) northeast of the centre of Turin, situated on the left bank of the Po river, close to where it is joined by the Orco. It is known for its medieval centre, late‑Gothic cathedral, and long history as a strategic crossroads in the Canavese region. Inhabited since the Neolithic period, the town is remembered in history for its heroic resistance against French troops during the War of the Spanish Succession. Chivasso’s architectural and cultural highlights include the Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta, a jewel of late Gothic architecture with a richly decorated terracotta façade and an octagonal tower, the last remnant of the town’s medieval castle, and the Palazzo Santa Chiara, originally intended as a convent, later transformed into the town hall. It includes a charming miniature 19th‑century horseshoe‑shaped theatre.  The historic centre features medieval arcades, elegant streets such as Via Torino and a number of lively squares with cafés and pastry shops. Chivasso is famous for its nocciolini - tiny hazelnut meringue biscuits made from Piedmont hazelnuts, sugar and egg white. 

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The remains of the Castello di Bentivoglio still bear
a red cross from its days as a military hospital

Travel tip:

Bentivoglio, northeast of Bologna, is a small town best known for its Renaissance‑era castle, the Navile Canal, and one of Italy’s most important museums of rural culture. Between Bologna and Ferrara, the town has been shaped to a large degree by the Navile Canal, which historically links Bologna with the Adriatic and runs through the town. The aforementioned castle, the Castello di Bentivoglio, was built in the late 15th century by Giovanni II Bentivoglio, lord of Bologna from 1463 to 1506, and incorporates an earlier 1390 fortress. Serving as a hunting and leisure retreat, it was named Domus Jocunditatis, or the House of Joy. During the First World War, it housed a military hospital for the Italian Red Cross. In 1945, during their retreat, the Nazis destroyed the 14th-century castle tower, as part of a policy of removing any elevated point from which the advancing Allies could track their progress. Bentivoglio’s Villa Smeraldi houses the Museo della Civiltà Contadina, one of Italy’s most significant museums of rural culture, set in a 19th‑century villa and English‑style park. The nearby Oasi La Rizza, a wetland area, is famous for the recent return of the white stork, which now nests there after centuries of absence.

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More reading:

Edda “Edy” Campagnoli, fifties showgirl who married a famous footballer

Raffaella Carrà - singer, dancer, television presenter and actress

How the historic Sanremo Music Festival inspired Eurovision

Also on this day:

1946: The birth of football coach Arrigo Sacchi

1953: The birth of football coach Alberto Zaccheroni

1954: The birth of footballer Giancarlo Antognoni

April Fool’s Day - Pesce d’Aprile

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Milly Carlucci - TV host

Former actress is the face of Ballando con le Stelle

Milly Carlucci is host and artistic director of the
hit Italian TV show Ballando con le Stelle

The television host and former actress Milly Carlucci was born on this day in 1954 in Sulmona, a picturesque town in central Abruzzo, about 52km (32 miles) inland from the coastal city of Pescara.

With a career spanning nearly five decades, Carlucci has been a well-known and popular personality on Italian television since the late 1970s, establishing a reputation for elegance and professionalism and a list of credits that grew rapidly through the ‘80s and ‘90s.

But it is in her current and most enduring role, as the presenter of the pro-celebrity dance contest Ballando con le Stelle - the Italian version of the US hit Dancing with the Stars and the UK’s Strictly Come Dancing - that she has established herself as a giant of small-screen entertainment.

Having fronted the show from its inception in 2005, Carlucci is also its artistic director and project manager. Now into its 20th season, Ballando con le Stelle has become a flagship for the state television network Rai and is currently its longest-running variety show still on air.

Born Camilla Patrizia Carlucci, she was brought up in a household in which discipline was a virtue instilled in her from an early age. Her father, Luigi Carlucci, reached the rank of General in the Italian Army. Her mother, Maria, was known for her cultural refinement and interest in the arts, which helped nurture Milly’s creative instincts.

Carlucci on the set of the 2025
edition of Ballando con le Stelle

The Carlucci family moved frequently due to her father’s military postings, and Milly spent much of her childhood in Udine, in the northwest of the country, before settling in Rome. 

She attended the Terenzio Mamiani high school in Rome’s Prati district, where he shone in her studies but also revealed a talent for roller skating, winning an Italian championship as a member of the successful Skating Folgore Roma team.

Carlucci enrolled at Sapienza University of Rome to study architecture, but her interest in performance and natural ability to command a stage gradually eclipsed her academic pursuits. Articulate as well as elegant, in 1972 she entered and won the Miss Teenager Italy beauty contest.

This victory opened doors into modelling and television. She also studied classical dance and took part in amateur theatre productions, honing the stagecraft and composure that would become her trademarks. 

At times required to join the ranks of the showgirls that at the time were ever-present backdrop in Italian variety shows, Carlucci soon began to land presenting roles, first at the local Rome television station, GBR, and then with Rai, for whom she fronted various light entertainment shows including the Italian version of Jeux Sans Frontières. It was this show that made her famous, and she presented it for four seasons.

Carlucci enjoyed a brief career
as a pop singer in the 1980s

For a while, Carlucci had a parallel career in acting, appearing in popular Italian films such as The Taming of the Scoundrel (1980), Pappa e ciccia (1983), and Tomorrow I'm Getting Married (1984). Her role as Urania in The Adventures of Hercules (1985) further cemented her status as a screen favourite.

Blessed also with a beautiful singing voice, she was briefly a recording artist as well, releasing a number of pop singles and two albums in the 1980s.

However, it was television hosting that has truly defined Carlucci’s legacy. Apart from a few years in the 1980s when she worked for Silvio Berlusconi’s Fininvest networks, she has been a fixture on Rai for the best part of five decades, with a long list of successes from the popular game show Scommettiamo che...? (Shall we bet that…?), which she co-hosted with the late Fabrizio Frizzi, to the more recent Il cantante mascherato, the Italian version of The Masked Singer.

She has also become established as Rai’s go-to host for special events in the entertainment world. Having proved herself on big occasions such as the Sanremo Italian Song Festival, on which she was a co-host with Pippo Baudo in 1992, she was the long-running host of the annual Pavarotti & Friends concerts (1995 to 2003), in which the great operatic tenor performed in duets with famous guests. She hosted the David di Donatello film awards in 1997 and 1998, as well as 17 editions of the prestigious Ischia International Journalism Award.

Milly Carlucci at the funeral of her friend,
Luciano Pavarotti, in Modena in 2007

Yet nothing has come close to the success of Ballando con le Stelle, in which celebrities and sports stars dance with professional partners over 12 episodes, with couples marked by judges in the studio and by the viewing public, and eliminated one-by-one until a champion emerges at the end of the series.

Carlucci has been the host for every series so far, until this year alongside co-host Paolo Belli, whose Big Band provides the musicians. Belli is starring in the 2025 edition as a competitor. The panel of judges includes the fashion and set designer Guillermo Mariotto, whom Carlucci has known since the 1990s and was one of the original panel in 2005. The head judge since 2007 has been Glasgow-born Carolyn Smyth, who has been a dance teacher based in Italy since 1982. 

Beyond entertainment, Carlucci has also been active in humanitarian work. In 1996, she was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, using her platform to advocate for children’s rights and global development initiatives.

She has been married since 1985 to engineer Angelo Donati, with whom she has two children. Her two younger sisters, Gabriella and Anna Carlucci, have also had careers in the entertainment industry, Gabriella as a presenter, Anna as an actress, writer and director.

Gabriella also served for 12 years as a member of the Chamber of Deputies in the Italian parliament, representing Puglia.

Sulmona's elegant Piazza Garibaldi includes a
section of the town's 13th-century aqueduct 

Travel tip:

Nestled in the heart of Abruzzo, Sulmona is an historic town renowned for its cultural heritage, dramatic mountain backdrop, and artisanal traditions. Surrounded by the Majella National Park, it offers sweeping views of rugged peaks and verdant valleys. The town’s origins trace back to Roman times, its history visible in ancient Roman ruins, medieval churches, and Renaissance palaces. The town’s centerpiece is the elegant Piazza Garibaldi, framed by arcades and overlooked by an imposing aqueduct built in the 13th century. Nearby, the Gothic-style Church of Santa Maria della Tomba and the Palazzo Annunziata showcase centuries of architectural evolution, the palace a rare example of early Renaissance architecture in Sulmona that survived the earthquake of 1706.  Sulmona is famously the birthplace of the Roman poet Ovid, whose legacy is honoured with a statue and museum. Equally famous is its production of confetti - sugar-coated almonds crafted into elaborate floral arrangements, an Italian  confectionery tradition that dates back to the 15th century. 

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Its tree-lined boulevards give Rome's Prati
district something of a Parisian feel

Travel tip:

Carlucci went to school in the Prati district of Rome, close to the Vatican and St Peter’s Basilica, which is now an affluent residential neighbourhood that is also popular with tourists for offering a relatively quiet place to stay that still provides easy access to the city’s historical centre. It has many authentic Roman trattorie as well as a host of bars and pubs.  Located just north of the Vatican and west of the Tiber River, the area was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was designed with wide boulevards and a grid layout - distinct from the winding alleys of Rome’s historic centre. This gives Prati a Parisian feel, its streets lined with stately buildings and Art Nouveau facades. Its main thoroughfare, Via Cola di Rienzo, is a hub for upscale shopping, featuring Italian fashion boutiques, gourmet food shops, and stylish cafés. Prati is also the home of the vast Palazzo di Giustizia in Piazza Cavour that houses the Supreme Court.

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More reading:

Pippo Baudo - record-breaking host of Sanremo song contest 

How Maria De Filippi became one of the most popular faces on Italian TV

The former actress who became the face of Sunday afternoons

Also on this day:

1450: The death of Leonello d’Este, Marquis of Ferrara

1910: The birth of Olympic cycling champion Attilio Pavesi

1931: The birth of composer and avant-garde artist Sylvano Bussotti

1961: The birth of football coach Walter Mazzarri

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Angelina Mango - singer-songwriter

2024 Sanremo winner whose parents both competed for coveted prize

Angelina Mango represented Italy at
Eurovision after winning at Sanremo

The singer-songwriter Angelina Mango, whose career reached its high point so far when she won Italy’s annual Sanremo Festival in 2024, was born on this day in 2001 in the town of Maratea in Basilicata.

Mango’s father, Pino Mango, who died in 2014, was a seven-times contestant at Sanremo between 1985 and 2007, achieving his highest finish on his final appearance, when Chissà se nevica - Who Knows if it Snows - placed fifth on the overall vote.

Her mother, Laura Valente, twice trod the famous stage at the Ariston Theatre - Sanremo’s host venue since 1977 - as the lead singer with the group Matia Bazar, finishing fourth in 1993 with Dedicato a te (Dedicated to You).

Angelina Mango’s victory came at the first attempt at the age of 22 when her song La noia (Boredom), which she co-wrote, won the most votes in a strong field.

She was the first female singer to win Sanremo since Arisa triumphed with Contravento (Against the Wind) in 2014.

Following a tradition whereby the winner of the Festival of Italian Song, to give Sanremo its official title, is invited to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest, Mango presented a shortened version of La noia in the final in Malmo in May, finishing a respectable seventh out of 25 contestants.

Mango grew up in Lagonegro, a small town in the northern part of Basilicata where her father was born. She wrote her first song at the age of six, entitled Mi sono innamorata di me (I Fell in Love with Myself). Growing up close to her older brother, Filippo, she was performing for audiences even before entering her teens, singing in a band called Black Lake, in which Filippo played the drums. 

Angelina Mango's father, Pino, performing at his
first Sanremo Festival, 39 years before his daughter

Her voice was good enough for her to sing backing vocals on some of her father’s recordings and even record a duet with him, a version of The Beatles hit Get Back, which featured on what proved tragically to be his final studio album, L’amore e invisibile (Love is Invisible), in May 2014.

In December of the same year, while performing in a charity concert, Pino - generally known simply as Mango - suffered a fatal heart attack on stage at the age of 60.

Pino’s death had a profound effect on Angelina’s life. She quit high school and in 2016 moved with her mother and brother to Milan, her mother’s home city. She enrolled to study modern literature at another high school but dropped out after a month.

When Filippo, who is five years older, began to play the drums in a band in Milan, she joined as a singer.  Audiences began to appreciate her vocal talent and in 2020 she released her first single and EP. In 2021 she performed in Milan Music Week and entered Sanremo Giovani, a competition for up-and-coming young artists that runs parallel to the main festival, although she did not make the televised final rounds.

After signing a contract with Sony Music, her first major break came in 2022 when she participated in Amici di Maria De Filippi, a talent show on Canale 5, Italy’s biggest commercial television channel, in which she won the singing section and finished second overall.

Eyecatching costumes are part of
Angelina Mango's performing style

The appearance provided the platform for a series of successful singles and she was invited to perform at a number of important concerts, including the New Year’s Eve special - Capodanno in musica - on Canale 5.

More singles followed, with Che t’o dico a fa’ (What Did I Tell You to Do?) climbing to No 2 in the Italian singles charts, followed by a sell-out tour.

Success at Sanremo came in February 2024, her performances at the festival, which spans five nights and is broadcast live on Rai Uno, including an emotional interpretation of La rondine - The Swallow - a song written by her father.

Three months after Sanremo, Mango released her first album, Poké melodrama. She was invited to perform the single Melodrama during the final of Amici di Maria De Filippi. The album’s songs became part of the soundtrack of the Italian summer and Poké Melodrama reached No 1 in the Italian album charts.  Another single from the album, Per due come noi - For Two Like Us - a duet performed with Olly, the singer-songwriter and rapper who would win Sanremo 2025, climbed to No 1 in the singles chart.

The only downside of an otherwise highly successful 2025 came right at the end, when a major new tour of Italy had to be cancelled after just three performances when Angelina developed inflammation of the pharynx, which meant she was unable to sing.

The enormous statue of Christ the Redeemer 
looms over Maratea and the surrounding area

Travel tip:

Maratea, the town where Angelina Mango was born, today refers to a collection of settlements near the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea of which the most interesting is Maratea itself, an historic hilltop village of steep, narrow streets and 44 churches around a charming central square, Piazza Buraglia, which has an elegant fountain at its centre and a variety of shops, bars and restaurants. Lively in the evenings, it has been likened to the famous Piazzetta di Capri, but without the hordes of visitors. The coastline below the village, a natural paradise of fine sandy beaches interspersed with rocky cliffs, has seen Maratea referred to as the Pearl of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Looming above the area is the enormous statue of Christ the Redeemer, a structure made from a mixture of concrete, white cement and marble from Carrara that was erected at the summit of nearby Monte San Biagio in 1965. At 21 metres (69ft) high and with an arm span of 19m (62ft), it is second in size only to the Christ of Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro. 

The church of St Nicholas sits atop a promontory
in the mediæval village of Lagonegro in Basilicata

Travel tip: 

Situated in the valley of the Noce river some 27km (17 miles) northeast of Maratea, Lagonegro, where Angelina Mango grew up and the birthplace of her father, Pino, is a picturesque mediæval village that probably took its name from the dark waters of an Apennine lake once located nearby. The village is divided into two parts: the old village, which clings to a promontory around the ruins of the feudal castle, in which the Church of St. Nicholas, dating back to the 10th century, is the most prominent feature, and the new part, characterised by a large tree-lined square known locally as the "Piano". The old village, enclosed by the remains of the medieval towers and walls, is accessed via a scenic flight of steps leading to an entrance gate known as the Porta di Ferro.  Lagonegro attracts tourists in the winter, thanks to the ski slopes of nearby Mount Sirino, and in summer for its walking trails among the cool forests.

Also on this day:

1598: The death of philosopher Jacopo Mazzoni

1762: The birth of physicist and professor Giovanni Aldini

1886: The death of physician and Garibaldi strategist Agostino Bertani

1920: The birth of politician Nilde Iotti

1926: An airship leaves Rome to make the first flight over the North Pole

1991: Moby Prince car ferry disaster

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Chiara Iezzi - singer and actress

One half of popular duo Paola e Chiara

Chiara Iezzi has enjoyed success both
as a singer and in tv and film roles

The actress and singer Chiara Iezzi, who with sister Paola forms half of the top-selling Paola e Chiara pop duo, was born on this day in 1973 in Milan.

The sisters performed together for seven years between 1996 and 2013, selling more than five million records, before breaking up, Chiara deciding to focus increasingly on acting and enjoying some success in the United States.

The duo were reunited in 2023, when they took part in the Sanremo Music Festival for the sixth time, having made their debut at the celebrated Italian song contest 26 years earlier.

Interested in music, acting and fashion since she was in her teens, Chiara graduated in fashion design, simultaneously taking acting lessons, but it was music that initially provided her with a career.

After seeing her perform in jazz and funk groups, in 1994 the record producer and television presenter Claudio Cecchetto hired her together with Paola to join singer Max Pezzali as backing vocalists in a group called 883, who were popular in Milan in the 1990s.

Paola (left) and Chiara with the trophy they won
at the Sanremo Music Festival in 1997

Two years later, the sisters began to perform as Paola e Chiara, signing a recording contract with Sony Music Italia. Aged 21 and 22 respectively, they made their debut at the 1996 edition of Sanremo Giovani - a special contest for young artists, held separately from the main event - making the final with their song, In viaggio.

The following year, they entered Sanremo proper, performing the song Amici come prima, with which they won the New Proposals category.

The song featured on their debut studio album for Sony, Ciriamo Bambine, which would be the first of eight studio albums. They also released three collections of hits and 35 singles, the most successful of which was Vamos a bailar (Esta vida nueva), sung in Spanish and released in 2000.

Performing Vamos a bailar, which featured on their album Television, they won two song contests, Festivalbar and Un disco per l'estate. The single contributed substantially to their more than five million records sold.

Alongside her career with Paola, Chiara released a number of singles and EPs as a solo performer before turning her attention increasingly to acting, her ambitions not at all harmed by being invited in 2010 to collaborate on the soundtrack of the film Maledimiele, directed by Marco Pozzi, for which she sang the main theme, L'altra parte di me. 

Chiara Iezzi starred in the Disney Channel 
television series Alex & Co in 2015

It prompted her to resume her study of acting, for which she spent increasing amounts of time in America, attending seminars in New York and Los Angeles. After the break-up of the Paola e Chiara partnership, she announced her intention to limit her singing career to projects connected to the film industry.

She had a number of successes in acting, notably playing the role of Victoria Williams in the 2015 TV series Alex & Co, produced by Disney Channel.

In 2016, she landed a role in the film Il ragazzo della Giudecca (The Boy from the Giudecca), directed by Alfonso Bergamo and starring Giancarlo Giannini and Franco Nero, and in 2017 was picked for Louis Nero's film The Broken Key alongside Rutger Hauer, William Baldwin, Geraldine Chaplin and Michael Madsen.

The possibility that she and her sister might reform their partnership arose in 2022. Chiara appeared at a DJ set hosted by her sister, for whom deejaying had become the focus of her career, and they surprised the audience by performing a number of their songs together. The clip of their performance was downloaded so many times it became a viral hit, after which they agreed to make an appearance as guests at a concert in Bibione, on the Adriatic coast of the Veneto, which was part of a Max Pezzali tour, and alongside Jovanotti at Fermo, further down the Adriatic in Marche. 

They were so well received by the audiences that talk of a Paola e Chiara revival soon gathered pace. In December of the same year it was announced that they would participate in the 2023 edition of the Sanremo Festival, their first appearance there for 15 years.

Their song, Furore, finished only 17th, yet was a hit nonetheless, prompting them to embark on a first tour in 12 years and to release their first album since 2015, a reworked collection of their best work entitled Per Sempre (Forever).

The duo returned to Sanremo in 2024 as guests, reprising Furore on the third evening and performing alongside veteran entrants Ricchi e Poveri on the fourth evening, as well as presenting some of the accompanying broadcasts as national TV channel Rai dedicated hours of airtime to the festival and peripheral activities.

Bibione's wide expanse of golden, sandy beach
makes it an attraction for thousands of tourists

Travel tip:

Bibione, where Paola e Chiara reunited alongside former professional partner Max Pezzali at a 2022 concert, is a seaside resort in the Veneto region of northern Italy, about 50km (31 miles) from Venice as the crow flies, although about twice that distance by road. It is a popular destination for tourists from Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, and Slovakia, as well as Italy, who enjoy its golden sand beach, pine wood, and water park. The area used to be uninhabited marshland until land reclamation work began in the early part of the 20th century and it was not until the 1950s that the first holiday accommodation was built. Nowadays, in the summer months, Bibione can offer up to 100,000 beds for tourists, yet in the winter is largely deserted, with many shops and beach facilities closed.

Stay in Bibione with Expedia

Fermo sits atop the Sabulo hill, the cathedral of
Santa Maria Assunta in Cielo at its highest point

Travel tip:

Fermo, where Paola e Chaira performed at a Jovanotti concert in 2022, is a charming and lively town in the Marche region, with a population of about 37,000. It is located on a hill, the Sabulo, some 319m (1,050ft) above sea level, about 7km (4.34 miles) inland from the Adriatic resort of Porto San Giorgio. A former Roman colony, it was owned by a succession of prince-bishops and powerful families, including the Visconti and Sforza, before becoming part of the Papal States in 1550, all of whom contributed to its impressive monuments, buildings and fortifications. The Roman cisterns, the 13th century cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Cielo, the Palazzo dei Priori, built between the 13th and 16th centuries, the Pinacoteca Civica and the Teatro dell’Aquila are among its noteworthy attractions. The town hosts diverse cultural events, from an August palio (horse race) and festival of mediaeval games, the Cavalcata dell’Assunta, to an annual film festival.  The town is also famed for its culinary specialities, which include a type of lasagna with meat sauce, olives, and cheese, called vincisgrassi, a fish soup with tomatoes, saffron, and vinegar known as brodetto, and frustingo, a cake made with dried fruits, nuts, honey, and chocolate.

Find accommodation in Fermo with Booking.com

More reading:

The history of the Sanremo Music Festival

The singer whose Sanremo disqualification produced his biggest hit

The tenor who became known as ‘the King of Sanremo’

Also on this day:

1950: The birth of fashion designer Franco Moschino

1935: The birth of opera singer Mirella Freni

1964: Italy appeals for help to save Pisa’s leaning tower

1978: The birth of dancer Simone Di Pasquale

(Picture credits: Bibione beach by Tiesse; Fermo skyline by Daniele Pieroni; via Wikimedia Commons)

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Sanremo Music Festival - song contest

Historic annual event that inspired Eurovision 

Nilla Pizzi won the first two
editions of the Sanremo Festival

The first annual Sanremo Music Festival reached its conclusion on this day in 1951 with the song Grazie dei fiori - Thank You for the Flowers - announced as the winner, performed by the singer and actress Nilla Pizzi.

The festival is the world’s longest-running televised music contest, having been broadcast live by Italian state broadcaster Rai every year since 1955.  The Eurovision Song Contest, which was staged for the first time in 1956, was modelled on Sanremo.

Compared with the 2024 edition - the 74th - which is due to be staged from February 6 to February 10 and in which the public vote is crucial - the inaugural competition was very different. There were 20 songs to be judged by a committee of experts who determined the result, but only three participants - Pizzi, Achille Togliani and the Duo Fasano, which consisted of twin sisters Dina and Delfina Fasano.

All of the participants had to perform all of the songs over the course of the three nights with the judges having to decide on both the merits of the song and the quality of the three different renditions before settling on their winner. They were so impressed with Pizzi that the following year she not only was their choice to win the competition but took second and third places too.

The first contest had a different venue. From 1951 until 1977 its home was the beautiful Liberty-style Casinò di Sanremo, situated a street or two back from the resort’s waterfront. In 1977, however, the casino was closed for renovations and the festival was switched to the Teatro Ariston, the biggest theatre in the town with an audience capacity much larger than the casino. With the exception of one year, the Ariston has hosted the competition ever since.

The Casinò di Sanremo, a fine example of Stile
Liberty architecture, was the Festival's first home

Had history unfolded differently, the annual festival might have had not only a different venue but a different location entirely. The original Festival della Canzone Italiana - the Italian Song Festival, which remains the competition’s official name - took place in Viareggio on the Tuscan coast rather than the Ligurian resort with which it is synonymous. 

After successfully staging the competition in 1948 and 1949, however, the Viareggio organisers ran into financial difficulties and the planned 1950 edition was cancelled.

Help was at hand. In Sanremo, which in common with Viareggio and other resorts was looking for ways to revive economies left in tatters by World War Two, Piero Bussetti, administrator of the Casino di Sanremo, met with Giulio Razzi, the conductor of the Rai orchestra, to discuss relaunching the competition in Sanremo, to showcase previously unreleased songs.

It was through their initiative that the 1951 event, the last night of which was broadcast on the Rai radio station Rete Rossa, came to fruition.

Over the years the festival rules have been changed multiple times, allowing more participant singers, involving international artists and some high profile guests.  Different categories were added to the main competition, including a section for newcomers that has been the launching pad for many illustrious careers, with Eros Ramazzotti, Laura Pausini and Andrea Bocelli among the list of past winners.

A youthful Eros Ramazzotti,
best newcomer in 1984

Zucchero and Vasco Rossi are two other Italian stars who can thank Sanremo for launching their careers, while the roll call of big-name winners - in Italy, at least - includes Claudio Villa, Domenico Modugno, Adriano Celentano, Peppino Di Capri, Toto Cutugno, Gianni Morandi and, more recently, Il Volo.

Villa and Modugno each won the competition four times. Il Volo, winners in 2015 with Grande Amore, are competing again in 2024 among 27 artists bidding for the crown of champions.

At its most prestigious peak, guest performers at the festival have included Queen, Elton John, Tina Turner, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and Whitney Houston. 

As well as providing the inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest, which was launched in 1956 with a similar format, the link between Sanremo and Eurovision has been maintained by the Italian tradition of picking the winner of Sanremo as nation’s entry for Eurovision.  Two of the three Italian successes at Eurovision - Gigliola Cinquetti in 1964 with Non ho l'età and the rock group Maneskin in 2021 with Zitti e buoni were Sanremo victors.

Sanremo was a holiday
destination for the wealthy

Travel tip:

The resort of Sanremo in Liguria, which can be found 146km (91 miles) southwest of Genoa as the Italian Riviera extends towards France, enjoyed particular prestige even before the Music Festival put it on the cultural map. The town expanded rapidly in the mid-18th century, when the phenomenon of tourism began to take hold among the wealthy. Several grand hotels were established and the Emperor Nicholas II of Russia was among the European royals who took holidays there. The Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, who bequeathed money in his will to establish the prizes that take his name, was so taken with the elegance of the town after his holiday visits that he made it his permanent home. Known as the City of Flowers, it is characterised by its Stile Liberty architecture (the Italian variant of Art Nouveau), of which the Casinò di Sanremo in Corso degli Inglesi is a beautiful example.

The Viareggio Carnival is famous for its huge
and often highly symbolic floats

Travel tip:

Viareggio, which might have remained home to the contest now synonymous with Sanremo had the organisers of the first editions of the Italian Song Festival not run into financial difficulty, is a popular seaside resort in Tuscany, about 26km (16 miles) from the city of Lucca and a similar distance north of the port city of Pisa. It has beautiful sandy beaches and, like Sanremo, some fine examples of Liberty-style architecture, which include the Grand Hotel Royal. It may not have a music festival to compare with Sanremo but it does have the Viareggio Carnival, which is the most famous in Italy after the Venice Carnival. Dating back to 1873, the carnival is famous for its enormous papier-mâché floats, which parade along the resort’s promenade. Often sending up well-known figures from politics and entertainment in giant caricatures mounted on the floats, the carnival has a more humorous side than its better-known counterpart, contributing to a lively atmosphere around the town. 

Also on this day:

1788: The death of exiled British royal Charles Edward Stuart

1857: The birth of architect Ernesto Basile

1888: The death of Saint Don Bosco

1925: The birth of fashion designer Mariuccia Mandelli

1933: The birth of Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano

1942: The birth of actress Daniela Bianchi 

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Roberto “Robertino” Loreti - singer and actor

Child prodigy who specialised in traditional Italian songs

Robertino Loreti pictured in 1964, when 
he was 17 and already a star

The singer and actor Roberto Loreti, who performed under the stage name “Robertino”, was born on this day in 1946 in Rome.

Loreti, who sang live on Italian television earlier in 2022 at the age of 75, built popularity in many countries apart from Italy at his peak, his repertoire largely built on traditional Italian songs. He also appeared in acting roles in a number of films.

The fifth of eight children, he was only 10 years old when his father, Orlando, could not work for a long period because of illness. In order to help bring money into the household, Loreti had to give up school and find work.

He took a job as a delivery boy for a bakery which supplied pastries to restaurants. As he made his deliveries, he would amuse himself by singing folk songs.

The quality of his voice made an impression on people who heard him. One restaurant asked him to sing at a wedding and that led to others asking him to perform for their diners. 

Because Rome was the heart of the Italian film industry, Loreti even landed small parts in films, such as The Return of Don Camillo in 1953, when as a six-year-old boy he was cast as the small son of one of the story’s main characters.

At the age of eight, the operatic quality of his voice won him a place in the choir at a production of Ildebrando Pizzetti’s opera, Assassinio nella cattedrale - Murder in the Cathedral - performed at the Vatican in the presence of Pope John XXIII.

Loreti was just five years old when he won a 
part in the film, The Return of Don Camillo

His big break came some years later as a 14-year-old, in 1960, when he was singing for clients at the Caffè Grand'Italia in the Piazza della Repubblica, not far from Rome’s Termini station. Sitting at a table were the Neapolitan actor Totò, a Danish TV producer called Volmer Sørensen and his wife, singer Grethe Sønck, who drew their attention to the boy’s melodic voice.

Sørensen invited Roberto and his father to travel to Copenhagen. The prodigy sang on a number of TV shows and his father was persuaded to sign a contract with Sørensen to perform at concerts in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe, taking him to the age of 17.

Robertino, as he was now known, would spend months at a time on tour, singing up to three concerts a day, as well as recording albums of his songs. In 1962, he underwent a successful trip to the United States, where he performed at Carnegie Hall in New York.

By focussing his talents on classics such as Mamma, Arrivederci Roma and O sole mio, he appealed to audiences for whom such songs were the essence of Italian music. For a while he was nicknamed ‘Little Caruso’.

Loreti pictured during his appearance on the
talk show Oggi è un altro giorno in April 2022

Still only 17, Loreti returned to Italy in 1964, signing a record deal and enjoying more popularity through appearances at the major song festivals such as Sanremo and the Neapolitan Song Festival, winning the latter in 1966 with a song called Bella.

These festivals, enormously popular in Italy and screened on television, provided the platform for many songs that went on to be top-selling singles.

His voice now matured and described as a “baritenor” - defined as a baritone voice with the range of a tenor - he continued to give live performances for many years, although his peak years probably ended in the early 1970s.

According to some accounts of his life, Loreti retired from performing and for a time opted for a quieter life running a grocery store. After about 10 years out of the limelight, he decided to perform again.

In April 2022, six years after he last performed before an audience, Loreti was persuaded to sing on the Rai Uno talk show Oggi è un altro giorno - Today is Another Day - giving a rendition of Un bacio piccolissimo - A Tiny Kiss - which he had performed at Sanremo in 1964 at the age of 17.

A panoramic view of the Ligurian resort of 
Sanremo, home of the eponymous song festival

Travel tip:

The resort of Sanremo in Liguria expanded rapidly in the mid-18th century, when the phenomenon of tourism began to take hold, albeit primarily among the wealthy. Several grand hotels were established and the Emperor Nicholas II of Russia was among the European royals who took holidays there. The Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel was so taken with the elegance of the town after his holiday visits that he made it his permanent home. Known as the City of Flowers, it is characterised by its Stile Liberty architecture (the Italian variant of Art Nouveau), of which the Casinò di Sanremo in Corso degli Inglesi is a beautiful example.  The Sanremo Festival has been an annual event since 1951, making its first appearance on Italian television in 1955. It is the longest-running televised song contest in the world.

The Fountain of the Naiads, with the Basilica di
Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri beyond

Travel tip:

Piazza della Repubblica, where Loreti was singing at the Caffè Grand'Italia when he was spotted by the Danish TV producer who would change hie life, is a circular piazza in Rome at the of the Viminal Hill, the smallest of Rome’s seven hills, next to the Termini station. Its features include the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, which was built inside part of the ruins of the Roman Baths of Diocletian and the Fountain of the Naiads - nymphs of Greek mythology - sculpted by the Sicilian Mario Rutelli in 1901. The square marks the start of Via Nazionale, one of the city’s main commercial streets, more than a kilometre in length and linking the Repubblica almost with Piazza Venezia.

Also on this day:

1885: The birth of tenor Giovanni Martinelli

1965: The birth of actress Valeria Golino

1967: The birth of composer and conductor Salvatore Di Vittorio

1968: The popular Soave wine earns the prestigious DOC status

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