13 November

NEW - Roberto Boninsegna - footballer

Prolific striker who helped Italy reach 1970 World Cup final

The footballer Roberto Boninsegna, a prolific striker who scored 171 goals  in 14 years in Italy’s Serie A, was born on this day in 1943 in Mantua in Lombardy.  Boninsegna, whose relentlessly tenacious attacking style made him a fan favourite despite his relatively small physical stature, was at his peak during a seven-season spell with Inter Milan from 1969 to 1976, during which he scored 113 goals in 197 Serie A appearances.  He was also a prominent member of the Italy national team at the 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico, scoring the opening goal for the Azzurri in their epic 4-3 extra-time victory over West Germany in the semi-final.  Boninsegna was also responsible for Italy’s first-half equaliser against Brazil in the final, before the South Americans, universally acclaimed as one of the finest teams in football history, overwhelmed them in the second half, winning 4-1.  Read more…

__________________________________________

Alberto Lattuada – film director

Versatility and eye for talent made him leading figure

A leading figure in Italian cinema, Alberto Lattuada was born on this day in 1914 in Vaprio d’Adda in Lombardy.  Lattuada was the son of the composer Felice Lattuada, who made him complete his studies as an architect before allowing him to enter the film business.  As a student, Lattuada was a member of the editorial staff of the antifascist publication Camminare and also of Corrente di Vita, an independent newspaper. Corrente di Vita was closed by the Fascist regime just before Italy entered the Second World War. Lattuada, who is said to have detested fascism, helped to organise a screening of a banned anti-war film at about this time, which got him into trouble with the police.  In 1940 Lattuada started his cinema career as a screenwriter and assistant director on Mario Soldati’s Piccolo mondo antico (Old-Fashioned World).  Read more…

______________________________________

Giovanna of Italy - Tsaritsa of Bulgaria

Daughter of King of Italy who married Tsar Boris III

The girl who would grow up to be Ioanna, Tsarista of Bulgaria, was born Princess Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Maria of Savoy on this day in 1907 in Rome.  Giovanna’s father was King Victor Emmanuel III, who was Italy’s monarch through two world wars from 1900 until he abdicated in 1946 just as Italy was about to become a republic.  Her mother was Queen Elena of Montenegro.  At the age of 22, Princess Giovanna became Tsarista Ioanna - the last Tsarista - after marrying the Tsar of Bulgaria, Boris III, in the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi.  It was the hope of the Italian royal family that the marriage would strengthen their relationship with the Balkan states.  The marriage lasted until Boris’s death in 1943 at the age of just 49. The Tsar had fallen ill during a trip to Germany to discuss Bulgaria’s role in the Second World War as a member of the Axis bloc.  Read more…

Gioachino Rossini - composer

Italian musician who found the fast route to wealth and popularity

One of Italy’s most prolific composers, Gioachino Rossini, died on this day in France in 1868.  He wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, songs and instrumental music. He is perhaps best remembered for, The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia), and Cinderella (La Cenerentola).  Rossini was born into a musical family living in Pesaro on the Adriatic coast in 1792. During his early years his mother earned her living singing at theatres in the area and he quickly developed musical talent of his own.  He made his first and only appearance on stage as a singer in 1805 but then settled down to learn the cello.  His first opera, The Marriage Contract (La cambiale di matrimonio), was staged in Venice when he was just 18.  In 1813 his operas, Tancredi and L’italiana in Algeri, were big successes in Venice and he found himself famous at the age of 20.  Read more…

_________________________________________

Agostina Livia Pietrantoni - saint

Tragic sister’s simple virtue stopped the traffic in the capital

Nun Agostina Livia Pietrantoni died on this day in 1894 in Rome after being attacked by a patient at the hospital where she was working.  Her story touched Romans so deeply that her funeral brought the city to a standstill as thousands of residents lined the streets and knelt before her casket when it passed them.  The November 16 edition of the daily newspaper Il Messaggero reported that a more impressive spectacle had never before been seen in Rome.  ‘From one o’clock in the afternoon, the streets close to Santo Spirito, and all the roads it was believed that the funeral procession would pass, were crowded with people to the point of making the flow of traffic difficult.’  Sister Agostina was beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1972 and canonised by Pope John Paul II in 1999. Her feast day is celebrated each year on November 12.  Read more…

______________________________________

Dacia Maraini – writer

Long career of a feminist novelist and playwright

Novelist and short story writer Dacia Maraini was born on this day in 1936 in Fiesole in Tuscany.  An Italian writer who is widely recognised abroad, Dacia Maraini is also a respected critic, poet, journalist and playwright. She established la Maddalena, the first Italian theatrical group composed exclusively of women.  The themes of limitation and oppression in Maraini’s writing have their roots in her childhood years, which she spent in a concentration camp in Japan. She then went to live in Sicily, which she has also described as an oppressive setting.  Her writing expresses the concerns of the Italian feminist movement, focusing on issues such as abortion, sexual violence, prostitution and the mother/daughter relationship. Many of her works are autobiographical and are written in the form of diaries and letters.  Maraini lived with the writer Alberto Moravia from 1962 until 1983. Read more…

______________________________________

Book of the Day: The Power and the Glory: A New History of the World Cup, by Jonathan Wilson

By 1930, football had outgrown the Olympic Games. A new competition, run by Fifa, would take international football to the next level. After a shambolic start to the first tournament in Uruguay - an incomplete stadium, shoddy refereeing and physios accidentally injuring players - the thrilling final saw Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2.  From those chaotic beginnings grew the modern World Cup, a cultural phenomenon that draws the world together like nothing else. Ask a random person to name a moment in the history of Senegal and they may well say Pape Bouba Diop's winner against France in the 2002 World Cup, defeating his country's former colonial masters. The World Cup has political significance. West Germany's success in 1954 was a moment of reintegration into global society, while progress to the semi-finals in 1998 boosted Croatia's sense of national self. At the other end of the scale, in the so-called Soccer War of 1969, tensions between El Salvador and Honduras were ignited by a World Cup qualifier. More recently, hosting the tournament has been a vehicle for governments seeking political gain, the World Cups in Russia and Qatar being clear examples of sportswashing, staging a tournament to project an image of a thriving society. The story of the World Cup is also the story of the world. The Power and the Glory tells its definitive history.

Jonathan Wilson is the editor of The Blizzard and a freelance writer for the Guardian, World Soccer and Sports Illustrated. He is the author of 11 books, including Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics, Behind the Curtain: Football in Eastern Europe, Angels with Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina, The Barcelona Legacy and The Names Heard Long Ago.

Buy from Amazon

Home

Roberto Boninsegna - footballer

Prolific striker who helped Italy reach 1970 World Cup final

Roberto Boninsegna in the colours of Inter Milan, 
the club he dreamed of playing for as a child

The footballer Roberto Boninsegna, a prolific striker who scored 171 goals  in 14 years in Italy’s Serie A, was born on this day in 1943 in Mantua in Lombardy.

Boninsegna, whose relentlessly tenacious attacking style made him a fan favourite despite his relatively small physical stature, was at his peak during a seven-season spell with Inter Milan from 1969 to 1976, during which he scored 113 goals in 197 Serie A appearances.

He was also a prominent member of the Italy national team at the 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico, scoring the opening goal for the azzurri in their epic 4-3 extra-time victory over West Germany in the semi-final. 

Boninsegna was also responsible for Italy’s first-half equaliser against Pele's Brazil in the final, before the South Americans, universally acclaimed as one of the finest teams in international football history, overwhelmed them in the second half, winning 4-1.

His aerial prowess, which saw him regularly outjump taller defenders to ensure his head was first to the ball, earned him the nickname Bonimba from the celebrated football writer Gianni Brera. It stuck with fans, even though the player himself did not care for it because it drew on an obsolete word used to describe circus dwarfs.

Boninsegna is said to have entered the world during adversity, his mother, Elsa, giving birth during an Allied bombing raid on Mantua during World War Two.

Always an Inter Milan fan - he wore the blue and black nerazzurri shirt under his club colours while playing youth football for his local team - Boninsegna suffered the heartbreak of rejection when he joined Inter’s youth programme only to be discarded at an early stage in his development.

The Tuscan club Prato eventually gave him his start in the professional game in 1963. His next move took many miles from home to Basilicata, spending a season with Potenza before returning north to join Varese, where he made his Serie A debut in 1965. 

Boninsegna's reputation soared after he
teamed up with Luigi Riva at Cagliari

His breakthrough came after he joined Cagliari in 1966. Forming a deadly partnership with the azzurri great, Luigi Riva, he scored 23 goals in 83 appearances for the Sardinian team, showcasing his knack for finding space and converting chances. Cagliari finished runners-up in Serie A in 1968-69.

Boninsegna missed out on Cagliari’s great triumph of the following campaign, when they lifted the scudetto for the only time in the club’s history, having achieved the dream previously dashed when Inter signed him in 1969 for a fee of 600 million lire, equivalent roughly to €13.7 million today and a colossal sum in terms of football transfers at the time.

With Inter, Boninsegna enjoyed considerable success, helping the nerazzurri win the scudetto in 1970-71, a season in which he was Serie A’s capocannoniere - top scorer - with 24 goals. In total, across his time at San Siro, he made 281 appearances (197 in Serie A , 55 in the Coppa Italia and 29 in Europe) and delivered 171 goals (113 in Serie A, 36 in the Coppa Italia and 22 in Europe).

Yet his spell with Inter also included controversy after his part in what would be dubbed La partita della lattina - the Match of the Can.  This was the first leg of the European Cup round-of-16 match between Inter Milan and Borussia Mönchengladbach in Germany.

In the 29th minute, with Inter trailing 2–1, Boninsegna was about to take a throw-in when he collapsed to the ground after appearing to be hit on the head by a Coca-Cola can thrown from the stands. 

Boninsegna was stretchered off. Inter officials demanded the match be abandoned but the Dutch referee, Jef Dorpmans, allowed play to continue. However, the Inter team effectively refused to compete, and Mönchengladbach went on to thrash them 7–1, a result that shocked European football.

Boningsegna helped Italy reach the
final of the 1970 World Cup in Mexico

When Inter lodged a formal protest with UEFA, arguing that the incident had unfairly disrupted the match and endangered player safety, a furious row developed, with some German fans and even club officials claiming that Boninsegna had exaggerated the extent to which he was hurt. 

There was also confusion over whether the can that hit Boninsegna was full, as the Italian team’s officials said, or empty, which some on the German side believed.  With no TV cameras capturing the incident on film, it was not possible to review what had happened.

Inter’s vice-president, lawyer Giuseppe Prisco, failed in his argument that the match should be awarded to Inter, UEFA deciding instead that it be replayed. However, in another controversial twist, the European governing body allowed the scheduled second leg in Milan to go ahead before the first leg was replayed. Inter won it 4-2. 

When the sides met again on neutral ground at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Inter simply had to protect their lead to progress to the quarter-finals and the contest ended goalless. Inter went on to reach the final but were beaten 2-0 by Ajax, for whom Johann Cruyff scored both goals.

Boninsegna’s Inter career ended with a transfer to Juventus in 1976 in a deal that saw Juventus striker Pietro Anastasi switch to San Siro. Inter judged that, at nearly 34, Boninsegna had his best years behind him, yet he went on to enjoy a renaissance in Turin, helping his new club win Serie A twice, a Coppa Italia and the UEFA Cup - the famous club’s first European trophy - before ending his professional career with Verona.

For the Italian national team, he won 22 caps between 1967 and 1974, scoring nine goals.

After retiring as a player in 1981, Boninsegna had a number of coaching roles, including at his home town club, Mantua, where he also served as technical director and vice-president. However, his post-playing career never reached the heights he touched as a player. 

Nonetheless, his legacy as a player remains intact. He is remembered not only for his goals but for his resilience, having risen from wartime hardship to become a symbol of Italian footballing excellence.

Boninsegna, now 82, still lives in Mantua. Even decades after his retirement, his name evokes memories of powerful strikes, dramatic goals, and unwavering determination.

Mantua's Palazzo Ducale, the seat of the city's
powerful Gonzaga family for almost 400 years

Travel tip:

Mantua, where Roberto Boninsegna was born and still lives, is an atmospheric and historic city in Lombardy, just over 130km (81 miles) southeast of Milan. In the Renaissance heart of the city is Piazza Mantegna, where the 15th century Basilica of Sant’Andrea houses the tomb of the artist, Andrea Mantegna, arguably the city’s most famous son, although the Roman poet Virgil was born in what is now Pietole, just a few kilometres outside the city. The basilica was originally built to accommodate the large number of pilgrims who came to Mantua to see a precious relic, an ampoule containing what were believed to be drops of Christ’s blood mixed with earth. This was claimed to have been collected at the site of his crucifixion by a Roman soldier.  Mantua was also the seat between 1328 and 1707 of the powerful Gonzaga family, who significantly expanded the city’s Palazzo Ducale, transforming it into their official residence and one of the largest palatial complexes in Europe.  The palace’s Camera degli Sposi is decorated with frescoes by Andrea Mantegna, depicting the life of Eleonora’s ancestor, Ludovico Gonzaga, and his family in the 15th century. The beautiful backgrounds of imaginary cities and ruins reflect Mantegna’s love of classical architecture.

Hotels in Mantua by Hotels.com

Milan's famous Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in the
San Siro district is earmarked for demolition

Travel tip:

During his Inter Milan career, Roberto Boninsegna became one of the many legendary players to have graced the colossal Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, in the San Siro district of northwest Milan. The stadium, which can accommodate almost 80,000 spectators, was completed in its original form in 1926. A number of extensive renovations, the last of which was completed ahead of the 1990 World Cup finals, gave the stadium its distinctive appearance, with its top tier supported by 11 cylindrical towers which incorporate spiral walkways. Giuseppe Meazza, from whom the stadium takes its name, spent 14 years as a player and three terms as manager at Inter.  Since 1947, Inter and their city rivals AC Milan have shared the stadium but its days are numbered in its present iconic form. The two Milan clubs have jointly purchased the stadium and surrounding land from the Municipality of Milan for €197 million, ending nearly 80 years of public ownership. The clubs plan to demolish most of the existing stadium to make way for a new, state-of-the-art arena with a capacity of 71,500 seats. It is planned that the new venue will be ready in time for the 2032 European Championships finals, which Italy will host jointly with Turkey. 

Find accommodation in Milan with Expedia

More reading:

Giuseppe Meazza, the Inter striker who gave his name to the San Siro stadium

Luigi Riva, Italy's record goalscorer and hero of Cagliari

Sandro Mazzola, the Inter great whose father perished in the Superga disaster

Also on this day:

1868: The death of composer Gioachino Rossini

1894: The death of Sister Agostina Livia Pietrantoni, a nurse murdered by a patient later made a saint

1907: The birth of Princess Giovanna of Italy - Tsaritsa of Bulgaria

1914: The birth of film director Alberto Lattuada

1936: The birth of novelist and short story writer Dacia Maraini

Home

12 November

Giulio Lega – First World War hero

Flying ace survived war to look after health of Italy’s politicians

Credited with five aerial victories during the First World War, the pilot Giulio Lega was born on this day in 1892 in Florence.  After the war he completed his medical studies and embarked on a long career as physician to Italy’s Chamber of Deputies.  Lega had been a medical student when he was accepted by the Italian army for officer training in 1915.  Because he was unusually tall, he became an ‘extended infantryman’ in the Grenadiers. He made his mark with them at the Fourth Battle of the Isonzo, for which he was awarded the War Merit Cross for valour. The following year he won a Bronze Medal for Military Valour in close-quarters combat, which was awarded to him on the battlefield.  Lega volunteered to train as a pilot in 1916. After gaining his licence he was sent on reconnaissance duty during which he earned a Silver Medal for Military Valour.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Giro di Lombardia - historic cycle race

2021 edition was 115th since inception

The Giro di Lombardia cycle race - now known simply as Il Lombardia - was contested for the first time on this day in 1905.  The last of the cycling calendar’s five ‘Monuments’ - the races considered to be the oldest, hardest and most prestigious of the one-day events in the men's road cycling programme - the Giro di Lombardia is has also been called the Autumn Classic or la classica delle foglie morte - the classic of the dead (falling) leaves.  It is a particular favourite with cyclists who excel on hill climbs, its changing route normally featuring five or six notable ascents, of which the Madonna del Ghisallo, the site of a church that has become a sacred place in the cycling world, is a permanent fixture.  The race was the idea of journalist Tullio Morgagni, well known as the founder of the Giro d’Italia, although the Giro di Lombardia predated the former by three years.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Piero Terracina - death camp survivor

Roman lived to be 91 after being freed from Auschwitz

Piero Terracina, the man thought to be the longest survivor among the Jews rounded up for deportation in Rome after Nazi occupation during World War Two, was born on this day in 1928 in the Italian capital. Terracina was taken to the notorious Auschwitz death camp in Poland, where almost one million Jewish prisoners were killed, but was spared death and eventually liberated in 1945.  After a long and difficult recovery he returned to Rome and lived to be 91. For the last almost 30 years of his life, so long as his health allowed, he devoted himself to maintaining awareness of the Holocaust in the hope that such horrors would never be repeated.  Terracina enjoyed a relatively uneventful early childhood. Many of Rome’s Jews still lived in the area of Rione Sant’Angelo, to which they had been originally confined by papal decree in the 16th century.  Read more…

Umberto Giordano - opera composer

Death of the musician remembered for Andrea Chenier

Composer Umberto Giordano died on this day in 1948 in Milan at the age of 81.  He is perhaps best remembered for his opera, Andrea Chenier, a dramatic work about liberty and love during the French Revolution, which was based on the real life story of the romantic French poet, André Chenier.  The premiere of the opera was held at Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1896. At the time, its success propelled Giordano into the front rank of up-and-coming Italian composers alongside Pietro Mascagni, to whom he is often compared, and Giacomo Puccini.  Another of Giordano’s works widely acclaimed by both the public and the critics is the opera Fedora.  This had its premiere in 1898 at the Teatro Lirico in Milan. A rising young tenor, Enrico Caruso, played the role of Fedora’s lover, Loris. The opera was a big success and is still performed today.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Treaty of Rapallo 1920

Agreement solves dispute over former Austrian territory

The Treaty of Rapallo between Italy and the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was signed on this day in 1920 in Rapallo near Genoa in Liguria.  It was drawn up to solve the dispute over territories formerly controlled by Austria in the upper Adriatic and Dalmatia, which were known as the Austrian Littoral.  There had been tension between Italy and the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes since the end of the First World War when the Austro-Hungarian empire was dissolved.  Italy had claimed the territories assigned to it by the secret London Pact of 1915 between Italy and the Triple Entente.  The Pact, signed on 26 April 2015, stipulated that in the event of victory in the First World War, Italy was to gain territory formerly controlled by Austria in northern Dalmatia.  These territories had a mixed population but Slovenes and Croats accounted for more than half.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Silvio Berlusconi resigns as PM

Financial crisis brings down 'untouchable' premier 

Silvio Berlusconi resigned as prime minister of Italy on this day in 2011. A controversial, polarising figure, he had dominated Italian politics for 17 years.  With Italy in the grip of the economic crisis that had brought severe consequences to other parts of the Eurozone, Berlusconi lost his parliamentary majority a few days earlier and promised to resign when austerity measures demanded by Brussels were passed by both houses of the Italian parliament.  The Senate had approved the measures the day before. When the lower house voted 380-26 in favour, Berlusconi was true to his word, meeting president Giorgio Napolitano within two hours to tender his resignation.  His last journey from the Palazzo Chigi to the Palazzo Quirinale, the respective official residences of the prime minister and the president, was not a dignified one.  Read more…

____________________________________

Book of the Day: The Italian Army and the First World War, by John Gooch

The Italian Army and the First World War was published in 2014 as a major new account of the role and performance of the Italian army during the first global conflict of the 20th century. Drawing from original, archival research, it tells the story of the Royal Italian Army's bitter three-year struggle in the mountains of Northern Italy, including the eleven bloody battles of the Isonzo, the near-catastrophic defeat at Caporetto in 1917 and the successful, but still controversial defeat of the Austro-Hungarian army at Vittorio Veneto on the eve of the Armistice. Setting military events within a broader context, the book explores pre-war Italian military culture and the interactions between domestic politics, economics and society. In a unique study of an unjustly neglected facet of the war, John Gooch illustrates how General Luigi Cadorna, a brutal disciplinarian, drove the army to the edge of collapse, and how his successor, general Armando Diaz, rebuilt it and led the Italians to their greatest victory in modern times.

John Gooch is one of the world's leading writers on Italy and the two world wars. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Leeds. In 2010 the President of Italy appointed him Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Stella della Solidarieta' Italiana.

Buy from Amazon

Home

11 November

Luca Zingaretti - actor

Found fame as TV detective Inspector Montalbano

The actor Luca Zingaretti, best known for his portrayal of Inspector Montalbano in the TV series based on Andrea Camilleri's crime novels, was born on this day in 1961 in Rome.  The Montalbano mysteries, now into a 15th series, began broadcasting on Italy's RAI network in 1999 and has become a hit in several countries outside Italy, including France, Spain, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.  Zingaretti has played the famously maverick Sicilian detective in all 37 feature-length episodes to date, each one based on a novel or short story collection by the Sicilian-born author Camilleri.  Although he had established himself as a stage actor and had appeared in a number of films, it was the part of Montalbano that established Zingaretti's fame.  Yet he had hoped to become a star on another kind of stage as a professional footballer. Read more…

________________________________________

Victor Emmanuel III

Birth of the King who ruled Italy through two world wars

Italy’s longest reigning monarch, Victor Emmanuel III (Vittorio Emanuele III di Savoia), was born on this day in Naples in 1869.  The only child of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy, he was given the title of Prince of Naples. He became King of Italy in 1900 after his father was assassinated in Monza.  During the reign of Victor Emmanuel III, Italy was involved in two world wars and experienced the rise and fall of Fascism.  At the height of his popularity he was nicknamed by the Italians Re soldato (soldier King) and Re vittorioso (victorious King) because of Italy’s success in battle during the First World War. He was also sometimes called sciaboletta (little sabre) as he was only five feet (1.53m) tall.  Italy had remained neutral at the start of the First World War but signed treaties to go into the war on the side of France, Britain and Russia in 1915. Read more…

_____________________________________

Filippo Buonarroti – revolutionary conspirator

Writer paved the way for the 1848 revolutions in Europe

Filippo Buonarroti, whose political writing inspired many other famous socialists, including Karl Marx, was born on this day in 1761 in Pisa.  Sometimes referred to as Philippe Buonarroti because he spent many years living in France, working to further the cause of the revolution there, the writer was born into a noble family. His father was a direct descendant of the brother of the artist Michelangelo Buonarroti.  Filippo Buonarroti studied Law at the University of Pisa, where he founded what was seen at the time as a subversive newspaper, the Gazetta Universale. It is thought that he joined a Masonic Lodge at about the same time.  Although he was kept under surveillance by the authorities in Italy, Buonarroti expressed support for the French Revolution and travelled to Corsica to spread the revolutionary message through a newspaper, Giornale Patriottico di Corsica. Read more…

Alessandro Mussolini - socialist activist

Father whose politics were Fascist leader’s early inspiration

Alessandro Mussolini, the father of Italian Fascist founder and leader Benito Mussolini, was born on this day in 1854, in Montemaggiore di Predappio, a hamlet in Emilia-Romagna, then still part of the Papal States in pre-unification Italy.  A blacksmith by profession, he was a revolutionary socialist activist who had a profound influence on his son’s early political leanings.  Although his embrace of nationalism was not as full as that of his son, Mussolini senior nonetheless greatly admired Italian nationalist figures such as Carlo Pisacane, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Giuseppe Garibaldi, whom he perceived as having socialist or humanist tendencies.  Regularly in trouble with the police for acts of criminal damage and sometimes violence against opponents, Alessandro was eventually held under house arrest and granted his release only when he announced he wished to marry his girlfriend, a local schoolteacher who was a devout Catholic.  Read more…

___________________________________

Andrea Zani – violinist and composer

Musician who ushered in the new classical era

Andrea Teodora Zani, one of the earliest Italian composers to move away from the Baroque style, was born on this day in 1696 in Casalmaggiore in the province of Cremona.  Casalmaggiore was a breeding ground for musical talent at this time and Zani was an exact contemporary of Giuseppe Guarneri, the most famous member of the Guarneri family of violin makers in Cremona, and only slightly younger than the composers  Francesco Maria Veracini, Giuseppe Tartini and Pietro Locatelli.  Zani’s father gave him his first violin lessons and he later received instruction from Giacomo Civeri, a local musician, and Carlo Ricci, who was at the time court musician to the Gonzaga family at their palace in Guastalla.  After Zani played in front of Antonio Caldara, capellmeister for the court of Archduke Ferdinand Charles in Mantua, he was invited to go to Vienna. Read more… 

______________________________________

Germano Mosconi – sports writer and presenter

Short-tempered journalist who became the news

Germano Mosconi, who became a well-known television personality, was born on this day in 1932 in San Bonifacio in the Veneto.  Mosconi became notorious for his short temper and swearing on air and was regarded as a bit of a character on local television. But he became known all over Italy and throughout the world after a sweary video of him someone posted anonymously on the internet went viral.  In the 1980s Mosconi delivered sports reports on Telenuovo in Verona and in 1982 he received the Cesare d’Oro international award for journalistic merit.  But he later became known for his excessive swearing and blaspheming. The anonymous video showed his irate reactions to various problems he encountered while broadcasting, such as people unexpectedly entering the studio, background noises and illegible writing on the news sheets he received.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Book of the Day: Inspector Montalbano: The first three novels,  by Andrea Camilleri 

Inspector Montalbano: The first three novels from Andrea Camilleri's bestselling Inspector Montalbano series features: The Shape of Water: On a waste ground in Vigàta, the Sicilian town's dark underbelly flourishes: drug dealers and prostitutes plying their trade. But when the body of Silvio Luparello, one of the local movers and shakers, is discovered there, Inspector Montalbano must investigate; and despite pressure from his commissioner, a local judge and bishop - he is determined to unearth the truth; The Terracotta Dog: When two lovers, dead for over 50 years, are discovered in a mountain cave watched over by a life-size terracotta dog, Inspector Montalbano's investigation will take him on a journey through Sicily's past and into a family's dark heart amid the horrors of World War II; The Snack Thief: When an elderly man is stabbed to death in an elevator and a crewman on an Italian fishing trawler is machine-gunned by a Tunisian patrol boat off Sicily's coast, only Inspector Montalbano suspects a link between the two incidents.

Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano series, which has sold over 65 million copies worldwide, has been translated into thirty-two languages and was adapted for Italian television, with Luca Zingaretti in the lead role. Camilleri died in Rome in 2019.

Buy from Amazon

Home