Quintino Sella - economist, scientist and mountaineer

Statesman who laid financial foundations for unified Italy

Quintino Sella had a major
influence on the unified Italy 

Quintino Sella, a politician and economist widely credited with building the foundations for economic stability in post-unification Italy, was born on this day in 1827 in Mosso, a small town in the province of Biella in northern Piedmont.

Sella served as Minister of Finance under three governments between 1862 and 1872.

The newly unified Italy inherited an enormous budget deficit from the collection of disparate regional states that preceded it, but Sella was instrumental in steering the country toward fiscal stability by enforcing major public spending cuts, securing early land tax payments, and pushing through the controversial "grist tax" - a tax on flour - to balance the national budget. 

He also influenced the shape of the new nation by persuading the king, Victor Emmanuel II, to seize control of Rome in 1870 when the French garrison that was protecting the independence of the city under Pope Pius IX was withdrawn to fight in the Franco-Prussian War.

Piedmontese troops led by General Raffaele Cadorna broke through the city walls near Porta Pia, enabling Victor Emmanuel to take up residence in the Quirinale Palace and declare unification complete.

Away from politics, Sella was a passionate climber. He founded the Italian Alpine Club in Turin in 1863, helping to popularise mountaineering in Italy.

A scientist with a detailed knowledge of mining and minerals, he also  promoted and helped found the Italian Geological Society.

Sella was born in the hamlet of Sella di Valle Superiore in the municipality of Mosso, about 20km (12 miles) from the small city of Biella and just over 90km (54 miles) northeast of the regional capital of Turin.

He was the eighth of 20 children born to Maurizio and Rosa Sella. The Sella family had been active in the wool processing industry since the 17th century.  The family had a strong religious vocation and after Maurizio acquired some land on the bank of the Cervo stream in Biella in 1835, he opened silk and woolen mills which provided employment and a refuge for young women who found themselves in difficult circumstances. 

The Sella family had their own living quarters within the mill.

Quintino’s father earmarked him as a future head of the mechanical sector of the company and steered him towards the study of hydraulic engineering. After obtaining his degree with honours at the University of Turin, he furthered his education at the prestigious École des Mines in Paris.

Sella served as Minister of
Finance in three governments

He remained in the academic world as a distinguished professor of mathematics and mineralogy at the Polytechnic University of Turin, gaining an international reputation in crystallography.

Sella’s political career began with his participation in councils and commissions in the education sector before he was encouraged to stand for election to the Chamber of Deputies for Cossato, near Biella. 

Once elected, he quickly established himself as one of the most prominent figures aligned with the Historical Right. After a spell as secretary general at the Ministry of Education, he was appointed Minister of Finance on three occasions, in the governments of  Urbano Rattazzi (1862), Alfonso La Marmora (1864-65) and Giovanni Lanza (1869-7).

It was under Marmora that he devoted himself to balancing the state budget, implementing the necessary policy of economies and tax increases on consumption and income, sometimes resorting to unpopular measures. 

Easily the most controversial of these was the so-called grist tax - Tassa sul Macinato - introduced in 1868. A tax on milling grain, it applied to wheat, corn, rye, and oats.

However, the tax provoked a huge public backlash. It was labelled a tax on poverty, disproportionately harming the poor.  After violent protests erupted across Italy in 1869, the government deployed the military to crush the uprisings. More 250 protestors were killed, another 1,000 wounded and thousands arrested. 

Saluzzo in Piedmont, with the distinctive shape
of the Monviso peak in the background

The grist tax caused the fall of the La Marmora government but remained in force until it was abolished under the left-wing government of Agostino Depretis in 1883. Sella was ultimately credited with achieving his objective of pulling the newly unified Kingdom of Italy out of near-bankruptcy and putting it on a stable financial path.  

Despite his involvement in politics, Sella always made time for his mountaineering hobby. In 1863, he led the first all-Italian team to reach the summit of Mont Viso, also known as Monviso, the pyramid-shaped highest peak of the Cottian Alps in Piedmont at 3,841m (12,601ft). This feat proved Italian climbers could compete with British alpinists. 

In the same year as his Monviso success, Sella founded the Club Alpino Italiano (Italian Alpine Club) in Turin. It aimed to map the Alps and foster national pride. He used his climbs to study Alpine geology, mineralogy, and glaciers. 

Married with seven children, Quintino Sella died 1884 at the age of 56 in his home inside the wool mill and was buried in the monumental cemetery of Oropa, about 15km (nine miles) from Biella, in a monumental family tomb in the shape of a pyramid. 

Piazza della Cisterna is a beautiful square in
Biella's elevated Biella Piazzo area 

Travel tip:

Biella, the nearest city to Sella’s home, is a well-established municipality of almost 45,000 inhabitants in the foothills of the Biellese Alps, about 85km (53 miles) northeast of Turin and slightly more than 100m (62 miles) west of Milan. The city is divided into two levels: Biella Piano (the lower, bustling plain) and Biella Piazzo (the elevated, medieval heart), the latter accessible by a free funicular railway, giving access to its cobbled streets, terraced panoramic views, and aristocratic palaces such as Palazzo La Marmora and Palazzo Gromo Losa. The lower town is not without attractions, which include a Roman baptistery from the early 1000s - Battistero di San Giovanni Battista - in Piazza Duomo, adjacent to the church and convent of San Sebastian. Wool and textiles have been associated with the town since the 13th century and it was once described as ‘the Manchester of Italy’. Although the best years of the industry have now passed, with many mills and factories closed, brands such as Cerruti 1881, Ermenegildo Zegna, Vitale Barberis Canonico and Fila still have a presence.

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One of the Ricetto di Candelo's
typical cobbled streets

Travel tip:

Cossato, where Quintino Sella stood for the Chamber of Deputies, is a prominent town in the province of Biella, the second-largest town in the province by both land area and population, housing roughly 14,000 residents. Over the centuries, Cossato’s identity became intertwined with Northern Italy's textile boom. The town evolved into a centre for wool and textile processing. While it has modernised over time - evidenced by a major recent architectural renovation of its central town square - it maintains traditional Piedmontese charm, with its town centre extending along major roadways and giving way to numerous historic hamlets scattered across the surrounding hills.  Cossato serves as a gateway to the unique landscapes of the Biellese territory, popular for mountain biking and hiking, characterized by dramatic, heavily-eroded orange-red rock formations. Located just five minutes away, the Ricetto di Candelo is a remarkably preserved 14th-century fortified medieval village, complete with pebbled streets, ancient turrets, and artisan shops. Cossato sits on the Biella-to-Novara railway line, which keeps the town well-connected for commuters and tourists. 

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More reading:

Why the Battle of Bezzecca was a significant victory in the push for unification

The general who founded the Italian army's famous Bersaglieri corps

The 1870 capture of Rome that completed Italian unification

Also on this day:

1573: The death of architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola

1806: The birth of Sicilian revolutionary Michele Amari

1901: The birth of actor and film director Vittorio De Sica

1911: The birth of composer and librettist Gian Carlo Menotti

1990: Italy beat England to finish third in 1990 World Cup

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Victor Emmanuel I - King of Sardinia

The first Victor Emmanuel ruled only part of Italy

Italian painter Luigi Bernero's 
portrait of Victor Emmanual I

King Victor Emmanuel, who was Duke of Savoy and ruler of the Savoy states in northern Italy, and King of the island of Sardinia, died on this day in 1824 in Turin. 

His namesake in Italian history, who was to become Victor Emmanuel II, the first King of Italy, was the son of one of his distant cousins.

When Victor Emmanuel I died, he left no heir. His surviving daughters were unable to inherit because of a law excluding women and their descendants from the line of succession. He was succeeded as King of Sardinia by his brother, Charles Felix in 1821. His brother also left no successors and he was in turn succeeded to the titles by his cousin, Charles Albert in 1831.

After Charles Albert died in 1849, his son, Victor Emmanuel, became King of Sardinia and took the title of King Victor Emmanuel II. Therefore, when Victor Emmanuel became King of the newly united Italy in 1861, he continued to style himself as King Victor Emmanuel II.

Some Italians may have preferred his title to have been King Victor Emmanuel I, marking a new start for the united country, but their first monarch chose to continue with the same title because of his Savoy ancestor, who had the same name.

This may have given the impression that the country was being taken over by Sardinia and Piedmont and caused resentment in the south of Italy, but to many Italians it was regarded as logical because this was their new king’s existing title.

Victor Emmanuel I had been born in 1759 at the royal palace in Turin. As the second son of King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia, he was known from birth as the Duke of Aosta. 

When his father died in 1796, Victor Emmanuel’s older brother became Charles Emmanuel IV, King of Sardinia.  

Charles Emmanuel was immediately faced with the threat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s French army occupying his territory and he withdrew with his wife to Sardinia. He took little interest in the running of Sardinia and subsequently lived with his wife in Naples and Rome. They were childless and so he abdicated in favour of Victor Emmanuel after his wife’s death in 1802.

Victor Emmanuel I ruled from Cagliari
after Napoleon's army occupied Piedmont

Victor Emmanuel I ruled Sardinia from Cagliari for the next 12 years. He founded the Carabinieri, which still exists as one of Italy’s main law and order agencies to this day alongside the Polizia di Stato and the Guardia di Finanza. 

After Napoleon was defeated, he was able to return to Turin and he abolished many of the freedoms that had been granted to the people while under French rule, restoring a stricter regime, refusing to grant a liberal constitution, and entrusting education to the church.

In 1821, when revolutionary fever was threatening to sweep through Italy, Victor Emmanuel I was still unwilling to grant a liberal constitution to the people and so he abdicated in favour of his brother, Charles Felix. 

Because his brother was in Modena at the time, Victor Emmanuel I made Charles Albert, who was second in line to the throne, the Regent of the Kingdom.

In 1824, he went to live in the Castle of Moncalieri, where he died. He was buried in the Basilica of Superga in Turin.

As a descendant of Princess Henrietta, the youngest child of King Charles I of England, Victor Emmanuel I carried the Jacobite claim to the thrones of England and Scotland during his lifetime.

The colourful port city of Cagliari is the
capital of the island of Sardinia

Travel tip:

Sardinia is a large island off the coast of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. It has sandy beaches and a mountainous landscape. The southern city of Cagliari, from where Victor Emmanuel I ruled, has a medieval quarter called Castello, which has narrow streets, palaces and a 13th century Cathedral.  It came under Savoy control as part of the settlement following the War of the Spanish Succession, which became a battle for power in Europe between 1701 and 1714.  Victor Amadeus II, who was the Duke of Savoy and ruler of Piedmont, was originally given Sicily, but was persuaded by the victorious Allies - Britain, France, Austria and the Dutch Republic - to accept Sardinia instead, which appealed to the Savoys because, as a Spanish kingdom, it came with a crown. Thus, the Duchy of Savoy and the Principality of Piedmont effectively merged with the island to form the new Kingdom of Sardinia, although ruled from the Piedmont capital, Turin.

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The Castello di Moncalieri, the Savoy palace
where Victor Emmanuel I spent his last days

Travel tip:

Moncalieri, where Victor Emmanuel I spent his final days living in the castle originally built by his ancestor, Thomas I of Savoy, in 1100, is a town with a population of almost 58,000 people situated about 8km (5 miles) south of Turin, within the city’s metropolitan area. At one time principally a summer resort for the Savoy family, Moncalieri is now essentially a suburb of Turin, and home to many technology companies.  The castle, which Thomas I constructed on a hill as a fortress to command the main southern access to Turin, evolved in the mid-15th century as a pleasure residence at the behest of Yolanda of Valois, wife of Duke Amadeus IX, who employed the architect Carlo di Castellamonte to enlarge and redesign it. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the castle became a favourite residence of King Victor Emmanuel II and subsequently his daughter, Maria Clotilde. Today it houses a prestigious training college for the Carabinieri, Italy’s quasi-military police force, founded by Victor Emmanuel I.

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More reading: 

The ruler nicknamed “iron head” who made Turin the capital of Savoy

Victor Emmanuel II proclaimed first King of Italy

The founding of the Carabinieri

Also on this day:

49BC: Julius Caesar leads army across the Rubicon river, sparking civil war

987: The death of Venetian Doge Pietro Orseolo

1834: The birth in Naples of historian and politician Lord Acton

1890: The birth of silent movie star Pina Menichelli

1903: The birth of car designer Flaminio Bertoni

1922: The birth of footballer Aldo Ballarin

1959: The birth of football manager Maurizio Sarri

2009: The death of publisher Giorgio Mondadori

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Urbano Rattazzi – prime minister

Unpopular politician had anticlerical views

Urbano Rattazzi twice served
as prime minister of the new Italy

Urbano Pio Francesco Rattazzi, the third prime minister of the newly unified Kingdom of Italy, who is remembered for his clashes with the Italian people’s hero, Giuseppe Garibaldi, was born on this day in 1808 in Alessandria in the region of Piedmont.

Rattazzi became prime minister in 1862, succeeding Bettino Ricasoli, and he held the office for nine months until his behaviour towards Garibaldi led to him being driven from office. 

He served as prime minister again in 1867 from April to October, but was forced by King Victor Emmanuel II to resign again because of the Italian people’s reaction to his treatment of Garibaldi.

Rattazzi was married to the French novelist, Laetitia Marie Wyse Bonaparte, who was the great niece of the Emperor Napoleon I, and they had one daughter, Romana, who was born in 1871. He also had a nephew, Urbano Rattazzi Iuniore, who was appointed Minister of the Royal House during the reign of Umberto I.

As a young man, Urbano Rattazzi studied law in Turin and ran a successful legal practice in Turin and in Casale, in Piedmont.

From 1848, he represented Alessandria in the Sardinian Chamber of Deputies in Turin. He had allied himself to the Liberals, and using his debating powers, he contributed to the defeat of Cesare Balbo, who was then prime minister of Sardinia.

Under Sardinian Prime Minister Vincenzo Gioberti, Rattazzi became Minister of the Interior and his first act was to send a ministerial circular to all the bishops of the Kingdom, threatening them with arrest if they did not stop preaching against the new institutions. 

Garibaldi, whose popularity with the 
people was not shared by Rattazzi

After the fall of Gioberti, Rattazzi was asked to form a new cabinet, but he lasted in office for only a few weeks because the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia was beaten by the Austrians at the Battle of Novara in 1849 and he had to resign.

With the Moderate Liberals, Rattazzi formed a coalition with the centre right, who were backed by Count Camillo Cavour, which brought about the fall of the cabinet led by Massimo d’Azeglio in 1852.

Rattazzi benefited from his alliance with Cavour and became Minister of Justice and Minister of the Interior. He suppressed monastic orders and restricted the influence of religious associations, demonstrating his anticlerical views. He had to resign in 1858 because of public opinion, but he later served in the cabinet of Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora before retiring in 1860.

After Italian unification in 1861, Rattazzi became president of the lower chamber in the first parliament of the newly unified kingdom. He then succeeded Ricasoli as prime minister, retaining for himself the portfolios of foreign affairs and the interior. He delivered the funeral eulogy for Cavour, after he died in 1861.

Rattazzi's government experience lasted a few months during which emerged the ‘Roman question’ - the conflict between the Papacy and the Italian government over the status of Rome and the Papal States following unification. 

In the summer of 1862, Garibaldi tried to promote an expedition of volunteers to occupy Rome and put an end to the power of the Pope. Rattazzi, who was initially in favour of Garibaldi's action, changed his mind and called in the army. 

In the resulting Battle of Aspromonte, the army dispersed the volunteers and arrested Garibaldi, who had been wounded during the clashes. Rattazzi was condemned by public opinion, which was on the side of Garibaldi and he was forced to resign. He was succeeded by Luigi Carlo Farini. 

Rattazzi held the office of prime minister again for a few months in 1867. But then Garibaldi penetrated the Papal States with a contingent of volunteers and was later defeated by the Pope’s troops and a French expeditionary force. This led to the collapse of Rattazzi's majority, and Rattazzi was forced by King Victor Emmanuel II to resign. He was succeeded by Luigi Federico Menabrea. 

Urbano Rattazzi died of liver cancer at his villa at Frosinone in Lazio in 1873. He was 64 years old. After ceremonies in Rome and Alessandria, Rattazzi's embalmed body was buried in the monumental cemetery in his home town.

The commemorative plaque that marks Urbano
Rattazzi's place of birth in Alessandria

Travel tip:

Alessandria, where Rattazzi was born and is buried, is an historic city in Piedmont, situated about 90km (56 miles) to the southeast of Turin. There is a plaque above the entrance door to Rattazzi’s birthplace in the street now called Via Urbano Rattazzi, at number 43. After Napoleon won the Battle of Marengo in 1800, Alessandria became part of French territory and was made the capital of the area by the French. It became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia again in 1814 and later part of the Kingdom of Italy. One of its most important buildings is the Cittadella di Alessandria, a star fort and citadel built in the 18th century. Today it is one of the best preserved fortifications of that era and one of the few fortifications in Europe still in their original environment, with no buildings blocking the views of the ramparts, or a road that surrounds the ditches.  Alessandria suffered extensive Allied bombing in World War Two but many areas have been rebuilt. The city is now a major Italian railway hub. 

The facade of the Cathedral of
Santa Maria Assunta in Frosinone

Travel tip:

Frosinone, where Urbano Rattazzi died, is about 75 kilometres (47 miles) southeast of Rome in Lazio. It is the main city of the Valle Latina that extends from south of Rome to Cassino, the site of the Abbey of Monte Cassino and the famous battle in World War II. The city of Frosinone remained part of the Papal States and did not become part of the new Kingdom of Italy until as late as September 1870, three days before Italian troops were finally able to enter Rome at Porta Pia and install Victor Emanuel II in the Quirinale Palace. The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, located at the highest point of the hill on which the historic centre of the city stands, is the most important church in Frosinone. With a marble facade, it has a 63m (207ft) bell tower which has been adopted as an emblem of the city.

Also on this day:

First Martyrs’ Day

1916: The birth of actor Mario Carotenuto

1932: The laying of the first stone of the Fascist city of Latina

1961: The birth of novelist Gianrico Carofiglio

1986: The birth of Allegra Versace, niece of Gianni

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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.

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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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