Umberto I - King of Italy

Assassination attempts overshadow the reign of unpopular monarch

A portrait photograph, of unknown
origin, of a young Umberto I

The second king of the newly-unified Italy, Umberto I, was born on this day in 1844 in Turin, in the region of Piemonte, which was then in the Kingdom of Sardinia.

As king, Umberto I led Italy into the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Germany, and his support for nationalistic and imperialist policies during his reign led to disaster for his country and helped to create the atmosphere in which he was eventually assassinated.

The son of King Victor Emmanuel II and Archduchess Adelaide of Austria, Umberto was brought up with no love or affection from his parents, but was instead taught to be obedient and loyal.

His father, whose 24th birthday fell on the day Umberto was born, gave him no training in politics or government and entrusted Umberto’s education to some of his statesmen.

Umberto went into the Royal Sardinian Army as a captain and took part in the Italian Wars of Independence. He was present at the Battle of Solferino when he was still only 14. Seven years later, in the Third Italian War of Independence, he commanded a division.

At the age of 24, Umberto married his first cousin, Margherita Teresa Giovanna, Princess of Savoy. They had only one son, Victor Emmanuel, Prince of Naples.  

After the death of his father in 1878, when Umberto became king, he styled himself as Umberto I of Italy, rather than Umberto IV of Savoy, ignoring his three ancestral namesakes. This was even though his father, who had been the first king of Italy, had called himself Victor Emmanuel II, acknowledging his ancestor, Victor Emmanuel 1, King of Sardinia.

Umberto I and Queen Margherita
on a visit to Venice in 1895

While Umberto I was on a tour of Italy accompanied by Queen Margherita and the prime minister at the time, an anarchist tried to attack him in Naples. The prime minister, Benedetto Cairoli, was stabbed in the thigh while attempting to defend the king, but Umberto I was not injured himself.

The anarchist, Giovanni Passannante, was initially condemned to death, but his sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment because the monarch was not killed.

However, this sentence was served by Passannante in a cell less than one and a half metres high, without any sanitation, while being weighed down with heavy chains. Passannante was to die 30 years later in a psychiatric institution.

Umberto’s admiration for German military aggression and keenness on Italian colonial expansion into Africa outraged some Italians and, after a government crackdown on civil liberties, protesters again took to the streets. This led to an unemployed man trying, but failing, to stab Umberto when he was seen out in the street in Rome in 1897.

Italians became even more outraged after Umberto I sent a telegram to congratulate General Bava Beccaris for using artillery against rioters protesting about the cost of bread in Milan in 1897. There were claims afterwards that 400 people had been killed and 2000 people had been wounded because of the heavy-handed tactics of the general.

Finally, in July 1900, anarchist Gaetano Bresci shot Umberto I four times while he was out and about in Monza and killed him. Afterwards Bresci said he had wanted to avenge the people who had been killed by the army while protesting two years earlier in Milan.

Umberto's body was taken to Rome and buried in the Pantheon, by the side of his father. They were the last Savoys to be laid to rest at the Pantheon. A monumental chapel was built in Monza close to the place where the assassination occurred. 

The Pizza Margherita, with tomato, mozzarella and basil,
was supposedly created in honour of Queen Margherita

Travel tip:

Unlike her husband, Umberto I’s queen, Margherita of Savoy, to whom he had been married in Turin in 1868, was immensely popular. In another contrast with Umberto, she was a highly educated woman who was equally at home in the company of ordinary people as she was with aristocrats or intellectuals. Her salon became one of the most exclusive and famous in contemporary Europe yet during her many tours of Italy in her official role she made a point of wearing local folk costumes and showing enthusiasm for local customs, traditions and culture. She was particularly loved in Naples, where she visited schools and hospitals and organised collections of toys and clothes for the children of poor families. She was seen to hold the hands of cholera victims without wearing gloves. Although the story is disputed, it is said that the Pizza Margherita, a staple of most pizza restaurants across the world, was originally created in her honour by Neapolitan pizza maker, Raffaele Esposito, with its tomatoes, basil and mozzarella representing the colours of the Italian flag. Esposito and his wife, Giovanna Brandi, were the original proprietors of the Naples institution, Pizzeria Brandi.

The Cappella Espiatoria was built
close to the spot Umberto was killed

Travel tip:

The Cappella Espiatoria in Monza is a monumental chapel built in an act of atonement or expiation for the assassination of Umberto I by Gaetano Bresci. It was erected on Via Matteo da Campione, close to the entrance to the Royal Villa of Monza on Viale Regina Margherita, where Umberto was killed. The murdered monarch’s son, Vittorio Emanuele III, commissioned the architect Giuseppe Sacconi, and the work was completed by his pupil Guido Cirilli in 1910. Obelisk-like crosses emerge from a stone chapel, and are surmounted by bronze crown and royal symbols of the House of Savoy.  The city of Monza - famous for its Grand Prix motor racing circuit - is also home to the Iron Crown of Lombardy - the Corona Ferrea - a circlet of gold with a central iron band, which according to legend, was beaten out of a nail from Christ’s true cross and was found by Saint Helena in the Holy Land. The crown is believed to have been given to the city of Monza in the sixth century and is kept in a chapel in the 13th century Basilica of San Giovanni Battista, the city’s cathedral. During the ceremony to crown Napoleon Bonaparte as King of Italy in 1805, in the Duomo in Milan, Napoleon is reported to have picked up the Iron Crown, which he had ordered to be fetched from Monza beforehand, placed it on his own head and announced that God had given it to him. 

Also on this day:

1665: The birth of painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi

1820: The birth of future king Victor Emmanuel II

1835: The birth of astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli

1972: The death of publisher and political activist Giangiacomo Feltrinelli

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Pino Aprile – journalist

Author wrote about unification from the point of view of the South

Pino Aprile has enjoyed a long
career as a writer and journalist

Writer Pino Aprile, who became internationally famous as the author of Terroni, a book outlining 'all that has been done to ensure that the Italians of the south became Southerners', was born on this day in 1950 in Gioia del Colle, in Puglia.

Terroni was first published in 2010, a year before Italy celebrated the 150th anniversary of becoming a unified country. Over 200,000 copies were sold in Italy and an English version of Terroni, translated by Ilaria Marra Rosiglioni, was published in 2011.

With the stage set for the tricolore to fly proudly over a year of celebrations in Italy, Terroni appeared just before the party started, to provide readers with stark examples of what Aprile claims happened to people living in the south of the country when troops fighting for Victor Emmanuel II arrived in their towns and villages.

The catalogue of alleged massacres, executions, rapes, and torture that Aprile details in Terroni are hard to read about. Aprile himself says that at times he was tempted to walk away from the whole project. But he persevered because he was determined to set out the South’s version of events during the Risorgimento in Italy for readers to consider. 

At the beginning of the book there is a publisher’s note explaining that the singular noun terrone is an offensive term used by people in northern Italy to describe those from southern Italy. The word is from the term terra, meaning dirt or land, and to call someone a terrone implies that they are ignorant, uneducated, lazy, unwilling to work, rude, and of poor hygiene. 

Giuseppe Garibaldi, whose
soldiers stand accused

Italy’s Corte di Cassazione (the equivalent of a Supreme Court) has upheld the decision of a lower court that the term terrone is derogatory and offensive.

Aprile says he grew up not realising what had really happened in the area he was born in during the Risorgimento, because the history was never taught in schools. He had not realised that the people in the South who were labelled as brigands and executed were in fact Bourbon soldiers defending their homeland and that their wives and children were allegedly killed by Giuseppe Garibaldi’s soldiers just because they were considered brigands by association.

He had also never known that the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was one of the most industrialised places in the world, only just behind England and France, before it was invaded by Garibaldi and his men. 

Aprile writes: “The South has been deprived of its institutions; it has been deprived of its industries, its riches and of its ability to react. It has also been deprived of its people, with an emigration that was induced or forced…”

He says that while we think of the North of Italy today as prosperous, and the South as poor, the reverse was the case when Garibaldi set out to unify Italy. And he claims large quantities of money and valuable items were taken from the South to pay off the debts of the North. 

For the reader, references to the war crimes he says were committed during the military campaign to unify Italy are disturbing to say the least. Millions were either killed or wounded and at the very least forced to abandon their homes and land, leading to mass emigration from the south of Italy to the United States and South America.

Terroni sold more
 than 200,000 copies

But Aprile ends Terroni on a hopeful note saying: "I believe that there is no other land in Europe today that has a more promising future, and as many riches to offer than our South."

Aprile is the author of numerous other books, some of which have been translated into English. During his career as a journalist, Aprile was deputy editor of the magazine, Gente, and editor of the magazine, Oggi and he worked for Tg1, the Rai news programme, and TV7.  He also worked with Sergio Zavoli on the investigative series, Journey South.

Although he was born in Gioia del Colle and brought up in the Puglian coastal city of Taranto, Aprile spent many years living and working in Milan. He now lives in the Castelli Romani region of Lazio.

Pino Aprile is celebrating his 75th birthday today.

The well-preserved throne room inside
Gioia del Colle's historic castle

Travel tip:

Gioia del Colle, where Pino Aprile was born, is a comune of Bari in Puglia. It is situated on top of a hill between the Adriatic and Ionian seas. The town’s castle dates from the Byzantine period but it was enlarged by the Normans and Swabians, who successively dominated the area. The main church, initially dedicated to Saint Peter when it was built in the 11th century, but later renamed Madonna della Neve, contains historic frescoes. Gioia del Colle is famous for its production of mozzarella and for its Gioia del Colle Primitivo wine.

Find accommodation in Bari with Expedia

The remains of the Greek
Temple of Poseidon

Travel tip:

The coastal city of Taranto in Puglia, where Pino Aprile grew up, is an important port as well as an Italian naval base. It was founded by the Greeks in the eighth century BC and had become one of the largest cities in the world with a population of about 300,000 by 500 BC. There are several ruined Greek temples, some dating back to the sixth century BC. The old city or Città Vecchia retains the same street layout as when the Byzantines rebuilt it after it had been damaged by the Saracens in 927AD. Taranto has a Big Sea, the natural harbour where the ships are moored, which is separated from its Little Sea, which is actually a lagoon, by a cape. Taranto is famous for its mussels, which are given their distinctive flavour by the special conditions of salinity of the Little Sea. It is also said to be where the Tarantella, a frenetic dance, originated as a response to being bitten by a supposedly venomous spider.

See Hotels.com's selection of Taranto hotels

Also on this day: 

1339: The Battle of Parabiago

1549: The birth of Francesco Maria II della Rovere, last Duke of Urbino

1778: The death of groundbreaking scientist Laura Bassi

1816: Rossini’s Barber of Seville premieres in Rome

1993: The death of car maker Ferruccio Lamborghini

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Ulisse Dini – mathematician and politician

Patriotic professor was proud to serve the new Kingdom of Italy

Ulisse Dini went to Paris to further
his mathematical education

The mathematician Ulisse Dini, who wrote many books and papers based on his research and came up with original theories that advanced the knowledge in his field, died on this day in 1918 in Pisa.

Now regarded as one of the 19th century's most important contributors to the evolution of mathematics, Dini was also active as a politician and was elected to Pisa city council before becoming a member of the parliament of the new Kingdom of Italy. 

His political views were shaped by the changing landscape of Italy while he was growing up, as the country moved closer to unification, and he was always keen to help his local area and his country.

Originally intending to become a teacher, Dini, who was born in Pisa in 1845 when the city was part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, attended the Scuola Superiore in Pisa, a teachers’ college, where one of his teachers was the mathematician, Enrico Betti.

However, in 1865, Dini received a scholarship that enabled him to go to Paris to further his mathematical studies, where he was taught by the French mathematicians, Charles Hermite and Joseph Bertrand. He produced seven mathematical publications based on the research he was able to do while living in Paris.

The following year he was appointed by the University of Pisa to teach algebra and geodesy, the science of measuring and representing the geometry, gravity, and spatial orientation of the earth in temporally varying 3D. 

Dini succeeded Betti as professor for analysis and geometry at the university in 1871. He was rettore - rector - of Pisa University from 1888 until 1890, and of the Scuola Superiore in Pisa from 1908 until his death. One of his students at Pisa University was the Italian mathematician, Luigi Bianchi.

Enrico Betti was 
Dini's teacher

Professor Dini is particularly known for his contribution to the branch of mathematics known as real analysis, which studies the behaviours of real numbers, sequences and series of real numbers, and real functions. He collected his theories in his book, ‘Fondamenti per la teorica delle funzioni di variabili reali’, a collection of ideas that were entirely originated by himself. 

Despite his heavy academic workload, Dini had entered politics by the age of 25, when he was elected to the city council in Pisa.

When Dini was 13, the fight had begun to win back areas of the country from the Austrian occupying forces. Within a few years, forces representing the Kingdom of Sardinia had gained control of many areas in central Italy. Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia later assumed the title of King of Italy, and Giuseppe Garibaldi and his 1000 volunteers set out to unify the country, starting by invading Sicily. With his forces, Garibaldi gradually moved northwards up the peninsula and this led to the official proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

Ulisse Dini is remembered by historians and writers as an upright, honest, and kind man, and for being devoted to the well-being of his city and country. He divided his time between teaching and research and public service, and in 1892 he became a senator in the Italian parliament. 

In the field of mathematical analysis, he is remembered for being the originator of Dini criterion and Implicit function theorem. He was considered one of the most important European mathematicians of the 19th century and he was elected as an honorary member of the London Mathematical Society.

After his death, Dini was buried in Pisa’s monumental cemetery, Campo Santo, on the northern edge of the Campo dei Miracoli. There is a statue commemorating his life in Via Ulisse Dini in the city’s historic centre. 

The 15th century Palazzo della Sapienza, built by
the Medici family, remains the heart of the university

Travel tip: 

The University of Pisa, founded in 1343, is one of the oldest in Italy and rivals Rome’s Sapienza University for the title of the country’s best. Various scholars place its origins in the 11th century, although those claims have never been verified. What is certain is that the papal seal “In Supremae dignitatis”, issued by Pope Clement VI on 3 September 1343, granted the Studium in Pisa the title of Studium Generale. At the outset in Pisa, lessons in Theology, Civil Law, Canon Law and Medicine were established. In its early years, the university struggled to survive at times, but investment from the Medici family in the 15th century saw the construction of the Palazzo della Sapienza, still the centre of the present-day university. Cosimo I de’ Medici instituted programmes to improve the quality of teaching and later Galileo Galilei, universally seen as the founder of modern science, was initially a student and then a teacher of Mathematics at the university. Today, Pisa has a student population of around 50,000, who give the city a vibrant cafe and bar scene.

The bronze statue of Ulisse 
Dini was finished in 1927

Travel tip: 

The bronze sculpture of Ulisse Dini in Via Ulisse Dini was created in 1927 by Leonardo Bistolfi, a sculptor from Casale Monferrato in Piedmont, whose work was praised for its likeness to the subject.  Via Ulisse Dini goes from Borgo Stretto to Piazza dei Cavalieri and Dini’s statue stands beside the Church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri. Once a stream flanked by wooden houses belonging to the city’s higher social classes, the street subsequently became a centre for forges and metalworkers’ workshops. Some of the stone arches lining the modern street date back to the 12th century.  Aside from the Campo dei Miracoli, the biggest attraction of which is the city’s world famous leaning bell tower, Pisa offers visitors a wealth of well-preserved Romanesque buildings, Gothic churches and Renaissance piazzas.

Also on this day:

312: The Battle of Ponte Milvio

1639: The death of composer Stefano Landi

1922: Mussolini’s Fascists march on Rome

1963: The birth of singer-songwriter Eros Ramazzotti

1973: The death of actor and illustrator Sergio Tòfano

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Pope Pius IX

Pontiff who regarded himself as a prisoner

Pope Pius IX's reign was the longest in
history but ended in controversy

Pope Pius IX, who died on this day in 1878 in the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City in Rome, had the longest verified papal reign in history, having been head of the Catholic Church since 1846.

He is also remembered for permanently losing control of the Papal States, which became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1870. Afterwards he refused to leave Vatican City and often referred to himself as ‘a prisoner of the Vatican’.

Pius IX was born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti in 1792 in Senigallia in Le Marche which was then part of the Papal States.

While studying theology, Mastai Ferretti met Pope Pius VII when he was visiting his hometown and afterwards, he entered the Papal Noble Guard. He was dismissed after he suffered an epileptic seizure, but Pius VII supported him continuing with his theological studies and he was ordained a priest in 1819.

Pope Leo X chose him to support the Apostolic Nunzio on a mission to Chile and although it ended in failure the Pope gave him new roles and appointed him Archbishop of Spoleto in 1827, where he gained the reputation of being both efficient and liberal.

Mastai Ferretti became Cardinal Priest of Santi Marcellino e Pietro, where he was known for visiting prisoners, devising programmes to help street children and sympathising with the nationalist movement in Italy.

The murder of Pellegrino Rossi sparked an 
angry uprising against the papal government

After he was elected Pope in 1846, Mastai Ferretti chose the name Pius IX to honour Pope Pius VII, who had helped him at the beginning of his career. Pius IX was a popular choice at the time, because he was expected to be a reforming liberal who supported the movement to unify Italy.

But after the revolutions of 1848, Pius IX changed his position. He had appointed Pellegrino Rossi, an economist and politician as his Interior Minister and put him in charge of a programme of unpopular reforms. He also withdrew the support of the Papal Army from the First Italian War of Independence against the Austrian Empire.

On November 15 1848, when Rossi arrived at the Palazzo della Cancelleria to present his plans for a new constitutional order, he was stabbed in the neck while climbing the stairs to the assembly hall.

The murder of Rossi encouraged an uprising against the papal government and Pius IX was besieged inside the Palazzo del Quirinale by an unruly mob. Pius IX was forced to negotiate with the revolutionaries and to appoint a more liberal ministry.

Victor Emanuel II was
excommunicated by Pius IX

However, on the evening of 24 November, helped by his close allies, he was able to escape from the palace disguised as an ordinary priest and flee to Gaeta, in the Kingdom of Naples, where the King of the Two Sicilies had promised him refuge.

A Roman Republic was declared in February 1849 and Pius IX responded form his exile by excommunicating all those taking part.

When the Pope returned to Rome in 1850, he decided to move from the Quirinale to the Vatican, where popes have resided ever since.

After defeating the papal army in 1860, Victor Emanuel II of Sardinia seized all the papal territories and took the title King of Italy. Pius IX refused to recognise the new Italian kingdom and excommunicated all the leaders, including the King.

Pius IX absolved Victor Emanuel II of all excommunications and punishments before the King died in January 1878 and gave permission for him to be buried in the Pantheon. The Pope died himself one month later on 7 February, aged 85. Although tradition holds that Saint Peter was Pope for 37 years, this can’t be verified, so Pius IX is on record as having had the longest, verified papal reign, at almost 32 years.

He was originally buried in St Peter’s grotto, but his body was moved in a night procession in 1881 to the Basilica of St Lawrence outside the Walls. As the procession approached the river, soldiers had to prevent a group of protesting Romans from throwing the coffin into the Tiber.

Pius IX was beatified in 2000 by Pope John Paul II, who gave him a more elaborate tomb in the Basilica rather than the simple grave where he was originally laid to rest. The annual liturgical commemoration for Pius IX was declared to be 7 February, the date of his death.

The 1930s Liberty-style Rotonda a Mare is 
an attraction of modern-day Senigallia

Travel tip:

Senigallia, where Pope Pius IX was born, is a port town on the Adriatic coast in the province of Ancona in Le Marche. Senigallia was captured and recaptured many times by opposing sides in the Guelph and Ghibelline wars. In 1503, Cesare Borgia carried out a raid on Senigallia to punish some of his disloyal supporters. The port was then ruled by the Della Rovere family and Medici family in turn before being annexed to the papal states. The town was damaged during World War I, by a powerful earthquake in 1930, and during World War II. It is now a popular summer holiday destination.

Gaeta is built on a promontory jutting
out into the Gulf of Gaeta

Travel tip:

Gaeta, where Pope Pius IX fled after being besieged in Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome, is a city in the province of Latina in Lazio, 120 km (75 miles) south of Rome, set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta. Today it is a fishing and oil seaport and a popular resort with tourists. It has a huge Aragonese-Angevine Castle, which dates back to the sixth century and the Cathedral of Assunta e Sant’Erasmo, which was built over a more ancient church and consecrated by Pope Paschal II in 1106. 

Also on this day:

1497: The Bonfire of the Vanities

1622: The birth of Vittoria della Rovere, Grand Duchess of Tuscany

1909: The birth of army horseman Amedeo Guillet

1941: The birth of pop singer Little Tony

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Nabucco premieres in Milan

Verdi opera that became a symbol of the Risorgimento

The bill advertising the first staging
of Nabucco at La Scala in Milan

The opera Nabucco, with music by Giuseppe Verdi and a libretto by Temistocle Solera, was first performed on this day in 1842 at Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

The opera contains the famous chorus Va, pensiero, a lament for a lost homeland that many Italians now regard as their unofficial national anthem.

The opera and Verdi himself have become synonymous with the Risorgimento, the period in the 19th century when people worked to free the Italian states of foreign domination and unite them under the leadership of Victor Emmanuel, the King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy.

It is said that during the last years of the Austrian occupation of Lombardia and the Veneto, for example, that Italian patriots adopted Viva Verdi as a slogan and rallying call, using the composer’s name as an acronym for 'Vittorio Emanuele Re d’Italia' - 'Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy'.

On the day of the composer’s funeral in Milan in 1901, a crowd of 300,000 people filled the streets and sang Va, pensiero, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, a moving event that showed how Verdi’s music had helped unite the Italian nation.

But Verdi nearly didn’t take up the offer to compose the music for Nabucco.

Verdi took up the offer to write the
music for Nabucco with reluctance

After a terrible two-year period, during which his young wife and two children had all died as a result of illnesses, Verdi had vowed never to compose music again.

During a chance meeting with Bartolomeo Merelli, La Scala’s impresario, Verdi was given a copy of Solera’s libretto, which had been rejected by another composer.

Verdi later recalled in his memoirs how he took the libretto home, threw it on the table with a violent gesture and it opened up in front of him. Verdi’‘s eye fell on the phrase, ‘Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate’  - 'Fly, thought, on golden wings'.

He tried to ignore the libretto but eventually found himself sitting at the piano and setting the words to music.

It is claimed he was still reluctant about working on the score and tried to take the manuscript back to Merelli, but the impresario stuffed the libretto back in Verdi’s pocket, threw him out of his office and locked the door.

Verdi went home and continued to work on the music and by the autumn of 1841 the opera was complete.

The opening performance at La Scala on 9 March 1842 was an immediate success, establishing Verdi as a major composer. The opera is still regularly performed all over the world today.

Verdi's future wife, Giuseppina Strepponi,
was a member of the original cast

The original cast included the soprano Giuseppina Strepponi, who would later become Verdi's second wife.

Nabucco is named after King Nebuchadnezzar, who featured in the books of Jeremiah and Daniel in the Bible, and the opera follows the plight of the Jews he conquered and exiled. The chorus Va, pensiero - also known as the 'Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves' - captured the feeling of national pride among Italians at the time who were still living under Austrian domination.

In 1981 a journalist proposed replacing Italy’s official national anthem with Va, persiero. This never happened, but the political party Lega Nord - now La Lega - adopted it as its official hymn and the chorus is now sung at all party meetings.

In 2011, after conducting Va, pensiero at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, the conductor Riccardo Muti made a speech protesting about cuts in Italy’s arts budget and then invited the audience to sing along in support of culture and patriotism.

Milan's Teatro alla Scala, one of the world's most prestigious
opera houses, is right in the centre of the city

Travel tip:

Teatro alla Scala is in Piazza della Scala in the centre of Milan across the road from the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, an elegant arcade lined with cafes, shops and restaurants which was built to link Piazza della Scala with Piazza del Duomo, Milan’s cathedral square. La Scala has a fascinating museum that displays costumes and memorabilia from the history of opera. The entrance is in Largo Ghiringhelli. It is open every day except the Italian Bank Holidays and a few days when it is closed in December. Opening hours are from 9.00 to 12.30 and 1.30 to 5.30 pm.

Rome's Teatro dell'Opera, rebuilt in the 1920s by the
architect Marcello Piacentini, seats 1600 spectators

Travel tip:

The Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, where conductor Riccardo Muti invited the audience to join in the chorus Va, pensiero in 2011, is a 1600-seat opera house in Piazza Beniamino Gigli. It was originally opened in 1880 as the Costanzi Theatre and has undergone several changes of name and many improvements over the years.

Rome hotels by Booking.com

Also on this day:

1454: The birth of explorer Amerigo Vespucci

1809: The birth of statesman and winemaker Bettino Ricasoli

1908: The founding of the Milan football club Internazionale

1948: The birth of politician Emma Bonino


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Charles Ferdinand - Prince of the Two Sicilies

The heir presumptive whose marriage earned him exile

Charles Ferdinand with his wife, the
Irishwoman Penelope Smyth

Charles Ferdinand, the Bourbon Prince of the Two Sicilies and Prince of Capua and heir presumptive to the crown of King Ferdinand II, was born on this day in 1811 in Palermo.

Prince Charles, the second son of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies and Maria Isabella of Spain, gave up his claim to the throne when he married a commoner, after his brother, King Ferdinand II, issued a decree upholding their father’s insistence that blood-royal members of the kingdom did not marry beneath their status.

In 1835, at which time Ferdinand II had not fathered any children and Charles therefore held the status of heir presumptive, Charles met and fell in love with a beautiful Irish woman, Penelope Smyth, who was visiting Naples.

Penelope Smyth was the daughter of Grice Smyth of Ballynatray, County Waterford, and sister of Sir John Rowland Smyth. Ferdinand II forbade their union, in accordance with his father’s wishes, but the lovers would not be parted.

On January 12, 1836 the couple eloped. Two months later, Ferdinand II issued the decree that forbade their marriage but three weeks after that Charles and Penelope reached Gretna Green, the town just over the border between England and Scotland, a few miles north of Carlisle, where under Scottish law young lovers needed no parental consent to be married, merely to declare their wish to be joined in matrimony in front of witnesses.

Charles's father, Francis I of the Two Sicilies,
set the family's roles of marriage

Charles sought approval from the Archbishop of Canterbury for a further ceremony at St George's, Hanover Square, in the hope that this would give the marriage legitimacy. However, the Master of the Faculties, Dr John Nicholl, refused to grant the licence on the grounds that the royal succession might be affected by the non-recognition of the marriage in Naples.

Ferdinand II never forgave Charles, who was forced to live for the rest of his life in exile. All his estates were confiscated except the county of Mascali in Sicily, which he had inherited from his father. Mascali provided him with only a small income and his life in London, though without major extravagance, still caused him to run up debts.

His pleas with his brother to be allowed to return to Naples fell on deaf ears, as did requests from the United Kingdom government of Lord Palmerston that the exile be lifted.  Charles eventually moved to Turin, but was pursued constantly by creditors and could not remain in the same place long.

For someone who had been made a vice-admiral at 19 and was a candidate at around that time to be made king of Greece or Belgium, it had been a spectacular fall from grace.

When Ferdinand II died in 1859, the new King Francis II, his nephew, ordered the restoration of Charles's estates. However, before Charles could see any of the funds promised him, the Bourbons were overthrown by Giuseppe Garibaldi and his Piedmontese army.

The king of the new united Italy, Victor Emmanuel II, offered him an allowance. But Charles turned it down, fearing that it would affect his legal claims. He died in Turin in 1862, aged 50.

The town of Mascali was largely destroyed by the eruption
of Sicily's volcanic Mount Etna in 1928

Travel tip:

The town of Mascali, which can be found on the eastern coastline of the island of Sicily, midway between Messina and Catania, sits in the shadow of Mount Etna. It has suffered as a consequence, needing to be almost completely rebuilt after the volcano erupted in November 1928 and destroyed a significant part of the historic town. Mascali was rebuilt a few years later with an urban checkerboard layout influenced by towns in Sicily dating between the 16th and 18th centuries.  The town’s cathedral, dedicated to the patron saint San Leonardo, was consecrated in 1935.

The extraordinary Byzantine mosaics that decorate
the interior of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo

Travel tip:

The Palermo of today, the capital of Sicily, is an attractive tourist destination, a vibrant city with a wealth of history, culture, art, music and food. It has many outstanding restaurants as well as fine examples of Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque churches, palaces and buildings.  Top attractions include the extraordinary Cappella Palatina, featuring Byzantine mosaics decorated with gold leaf and precious stones, and the Teatro Massimo, the largest opera house in Italy and the third biggest in Europe after the Opéra National de Paris and the K. K. Hof-Opernhaus in Vienna.

Also on this day:

1816: The arrival of the English poet Lord Byron in Venice

1869: The birth of Gaetano Bresci, the assassin who killed King Umberto I

1928: The birth of film music composer Ennio Morricone

1990: The birth of world champion gymnast Vanessa Ferrari


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Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta

Cousin of Italy's wartime monarch died in a POW camp

As Governor-General, the Duke of
Aosta led the East Africa Campaign

Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, who died in a British prisoner-of-war camp after leading the defeated Italian Army in the East Africa Campaign of the Second World War, was born on this day in 1898 in Turin.

After distinguished military service in the First World War and seeing action as a pilot in the pacification of Italian Libya in the early 1930s, Amedeo had been appointed by Mussolini as Viceroy of Ethiopia and Governor-General of Italian East Africa in 1937, replacing the controversial Marshal Rodolfo Graziani.

Italy’s entry into the Second World War on the side of Germany in June 1940 meant the Duke of Aosta became the commander of the Italian forces against the British in what became known as the East African Campaign.

As such, he oversaw the Italian advances into the Sudan and Kenya and the Italian invasion of British Somaliland.

However, when the British launched a counter-invasion early the following year, the Italians were put on the defensive and after fighting desperately to protect their territory were beaten in the Battle of Keren. The rest of Eritrea, including the port of Massawa, fell soon afterwards.

Amedeo pictured with Umberto, Prince
of Piedmont, the future King

Amedeo attempted to save such resources as he still had by deploying his remaining troops to defend a number of strongholds, putting himself in charge of 7,000 Italians at the mountain fortress of Amba Alagi.

He was forced to surrender on May 18, his forces besieged by 9,000 British and Commonwealth troops and more than 20,000 Ethiopian irregulars, although their gallant resistance was noted by the British, who allowed them to lay down their arms with dignity.

The Duke was sent to a prison camp in Nairobi, Kenya but died there the following March, reportedly from complications caused by tuberculosis and malaria.

Born Amedeo Umberto Isabella Luigi Filippo Maria Giuseppe Giovanni di Savoia-Aosta, he was the third Duke of Aosta and a first cousin, once removed, of the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III.

His parents were Prince Emanuele Filiberto, second Duke of Aosta, and Princess Hélène, who was the daughter of Prince Philippe of Orléans. His great-grandfather was King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, making him a member of the House of Savoy.

An exceptional tall man, standing at 6ft 6ins (1.98m), he towered over the king, who was barely 5ft 0ins (1.53m).

Prince Amedeo and Princess Anne of Orléans in the
Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples on their wedding day

Educated in England at St David's College, Reigate, Surrey - about 40km (25 miles) south of central London - he cultivated British mannerisms, spoke Oxford English, and even enjoyed the pastimes of fox hunting and polo.

He joined the Italian Royal Army after attending the Nunziatella military academy in Naples.  He travelled widely in Africa after leaving the army in 1921, which gave him knowledge of the area he would later govern.

Widely known and respected for the gentlemanly way in which he conducted himself, Amedeo became Duke of Aosta on the death of his father

Count Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Foreign Minister under his father-in-law Mussolini, said that with the Duke's death “the image of a Prince and an Italian - simple in his ways, broad in outlook, and humane in spirit - died with him."

Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia applauded the respect and care shown by the Duke to the exiled Emperor's personal property left behind in Addis Ababa.

Amedeo was married in November 1927 in Naples, to his first cousin HRH Princess Anne of Orléans (1906–1986).  They had two daughters and although both married royal princes - Margherita married Robert, Archduke of Austria-Este and Maria Cristina wed Prince Casimir of Bourbon-Two Sicilies - the lack of a male heir to Amedeo meant the title Duke of Aosta passed to his younger brother, Aimone.

The Nunziatella complex in the Pizzofalcone
district if Naples, near the city centre

Travel tip:

The Nunziatella Military School of Naples, founded in November 1787 under the name of Royal Military Academy, is the oldest military school in the world among those still operating. Located in Via Generale Parisi in Pizzofalcone, it takes its name from the adjacent church of the Santissima Annunziata. In addition to Prince Amedeo and King Vittorio Emanuele III, the alumni include one former director of the European Union military committee, two chiefs of defence staff, four army chiefs of staff, two navy chiefs of staff, one air chief of staff, two commanders general of the Guardia di Finanza and two commanders general of the Carabinieri, as well as three prime ministers.

The beautiful Castello di Miramare near Trieste, where
Prince Amedeo's daughter Maria Christina was born

Travel tip:

Prince Amedeo’s younger daughter, Maria Christina of Savoy-Aosta, was born at the Castello di Miramare, near Trieste, in 1933. Located on the end of a rocky spur jutting into Gulf of Trieste, about 8km (5 miles) from Trieste itself, the Habsburg castle was built between 1856 and 1860 for Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, based on a design by Carl Junker.  The castle's grounds include an extensive cliff and seashore park of 22 hectares (54 acres) designed by the archduke, which features many tropical species of trees and plants.  Legend has it that Ferdinand chose the spot to build the castle after taking refuge from a storm in the gulf in the sheltered harbour of Grignano that sits behind the spur.

More reading:

Umberto II, the last King of Italy

King Victor Emmanuel III abdicates

Why Galeazzo Ciano died in front of a firing squad

Also on this day:

1581: The birth of the Baroque master Domenichino

1928: The birth of the anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli



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Battle of Custoza

Austrians thwart Italy’s hopes of unifying the peninsula

The Polish painter Juliusz Kossak's depiction of the Austrian
13th regiment attacking Italian bersaglieri during the battle.

An army of the recently unified Kingdom of Italy was driven out of Custoza in the Veneto region by Austrian troops on this day in 1866.

Although the Italians had twice the number of soldiers, the Austrians were victorious strategically and drove the Italians back across the Mincio river and out of the area then known as Venetia.

King Victor Emmanuel II’s younger son, Amadeo, was severely wounded in the battle but he survived his injuries and went on to reign briefly as King of Spain from 1870 to 1873.

The German Kingdom of Prussia had declared war on the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy seized the opportunity to join forces with Prussia, with the intention of annexing Venetia and uniting the Italian peninsula. The Austrian Imperial army joined up with the Venetian army.

The Italians divided their troops into two armies, one led by General Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora, accompanied by the King, and the other led by Enrico Cialdini.

The Italian General Alfonso Ferrero La Mormora

La Marmora’s troops crossed the Mincio river and invaded Venetia. The Austrians led by Archduke Albrecht of Habsburg marched west from Verona to the north of the Italian position, so as to cut them off from the rear.

But on June 24, La Marmora changed the direction of his front and ended up colliding head on with the Austrians.

When the Austrians reacted by attacking them, the Italians panicked and took up a defensive position. By the middle of the day La Marmora had ordered a retreat, little realising that by then another Italian division had captured Belvedere Hill, overlooking Custoza. The troops on the hill found themselves isolated and after a bombardment by Austrian guns were driven out of Custoza.

However, for a number of reasons the Austrian did not pursue the Italians, squandering the chance to destroy their army. Only a month later the Austrians were forced to surrender to the Prussians and give up Venetia.

Scenes from the Italian side of the Battle of Custoza were recreated in the 1954 Luchino Visconti film, Senso.

The Ossario di Custoza

Travel tip:

Custoza is a village in the province of Verona in the Veneto. In memory of the two famous battles fought there during the wars for Italian independence, a memorial building, the Ossuary of Custoza - Ossario di Custoza - was built on the Belvedere Hill in 1879. Today, June 24, a ceremony will be held there to remember the soldiers who died on this day in the Battle of Custoza. For more information about the memorial, visit www.ossariodicustoza.com.

The village of Custoza in the Veneto

Travel tip:

Custoza is also famous for producing the prestigious white wine, Bianco di Custoza, which is sometimes referred to as the white equivalent of the red wine, Bardolino, produced nearby in the town of Bardolino on the shores of Lake Garda. Bianco di Custoza is dry and smooth with flowery and fruity notes, with hints of apples, lemon peel and peaches that linger on the tongue. The wine is best drunk within a year of the grape harvest.

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Francesco Faà di Bruno - advocate for poor

Entered priesthood after appeal to pope

Francesco maintained his faith
through difficult times in Italy

The blessed Francesco Faà di Bruno, a talented academic from a wealthy family who devoted much energy to helping the poor, disadvantaged and elderly, was born on this day in 1825 near Alessandria in Piedmont.

He was a supporter of Italian unification and indeed was wounded in the cause as a commissioned lieutenant in the Piedmontese Army during the First Italian War of Independence. Yet he could not accept the anti-Catholic sentiments of many of the movement’s leaders.

At the age of 51 he became a priest, although only after the intervention of Pope Pius IX, who stepped in to overrule the Archbishop of Turin, who had rejected Francesco’s credentials on the grounds that he was too old.

He was beatified 100 years after his death by Pope John Paul II.

Francesco was the youngest of 12 children born to Lady Carolina Sappa de' Milanesi of her husband, Luigi, a wealthy landowner whose various titles included Marquis of Bruno, Count of Carentino, Lord of Fontanile, and Patrizio of Alessandria.

His family were of a strong Catholic faith and encouraged a concern for the poor among all their children. Two of his sisters became nuns and one of his brothers built the church of St Peter in Hatton Garden for Italian immigrants living in London.

Francesco was wounded at the Battle
of Novara in 1849

Francesco, whose mother died when he was nine years old, was educated at home until he was 11 and entered the Royal Military Academy of Turin in 1840. One of the skills he developed was topography, which he used to draw up battlefield maps.

He was wounded during the Battle of Novara in 1849, where the Piedmontese were defeated by the Austrians. Afterwards, Victor Emmanuel, who had been his commander in the battle and succeeded his father, Charles Albert, as King of Sardinia, invited Francesco to become tutor to his two young sons but was forced to withdraw the offer because his supporters, including the revolutionary leader Giuseppe Garibaldi and the future prime minister of Italy, Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, were opposed to the influence of Catholics in education and put him under pressure to make a secular appointment.

Francesco then sought his release from the army and moved to Paris to study mathematics and astronomy at the Sorbonne, where his tutors included Augustin Cauchy and Urbain Le Verrier, who jointly discovered the planet Neptune.

Returning to Italy, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the University of Turin and at the same time began to devote increasing amounts of his time and money to helping the poor and disadvantaged. Despite it being a difficult time for the Catholic Church, he worked closely with the priest Giovanni Bosco, who set up a church grammar school, and also founded a society to promote Sunday observance and protect workers forced to work on Sundays.

The huge number of initiatives Francesco took up began with providing food for the poor during the icy cold Turin winters. Later he founded the Society of Saint Zita for maids and domestic servants, later expanding it to include unmarried mothers.

Pope John Paul II beatified Francesco
in 1988, 100 years after his death

He helped establish hospitals and boarding houses for the elderly, poor and disabled and, profoundly moved by the death of his brother Emilio in 1866 in the Third Italian War of Independence, he oversaw the construction of the church of Nostra Signora del Suffragio in Turin, completed in 1869 and dedicated to the memory of Italian soldiers who had lost their lives in the struggle for the unification of Italy.

Wishing to broaden and deepen his commitment to the poor, Francis studied for the priesthood, although his bid to be ordained was at first blocked by the Archbishop of Turin on the basis that he was too old. Traditionally, men began their preparation for Holy Orders in their teens.

However, after appealing directly to Pope Pius IX, he was ordained at the age of 51. As a priest, he continued to work on behalf of the disadvantaged and among his achievements was to create a refuge for prostitutes.

Remarkably, he still had the energy to pursue academic activities, contributing many articles to mathematics periodicals, designing several scientific instruments, writing a book about Catholic beliefs aimed at non-Catholics, and even composing a number of sacred melodies.

He died suddenly in Turin in 1888, two days before what would have been his 63rd birthday, from an intestinal infection.

Travel tip:

The village of Bruno in Piedmont is situated just over 20km (12 miles) southwest of Alessandria and a similar distance southeast of Asti. Formerly the seat of Francesco Faà di Bruno’s family, it falls within the area of Piedmont best known for the production of Nizza wine, a DOCG red made from the Barbera grape.

The church's bell tower is the
fifth tallest building in Turin

Travel tip:

The neo-Romanesque church of Nostra Signora del Suffragio e Santa Zita, the church that Francesco built in part to honour the Italians killed in the struggle for independence, is located in the San Donato district of Turin. It is notable for its bell tower, which at 83 metres is the fifth tallest structure in the city, after the Mole Antonelliana, the Intesa SanPaolo skyscraper, the Lingotto skyscraper and the Littoria Tower. Adjoining the church is a museum dedicated to the life of the priest.

More reading:

The death of unification leader Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Mazzini - hero of the Risorgimento

The inspirational figure of Giovanni (John) Bosco

Also on this day:

1888: The birth of Enea Bossi, disputed creator of the world's first human-powered aeroplane

1939: The birth of Don Matteo actor Terence Hill


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