31 January

Bernardo Provenzano - Mafia boss

Head of Corleonesi clan dodged police for 43 years

Bernardo Provenzano, a Mafia boss who managed to evade the Sicilian police for 43 years after a warrant was issued for his arrest in 1963, was born on this day in 1933 in Corleone, the fabled town in the rugged countryside above Palermo that became famous for its association with Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather.  The former farm labourer, who rose through the ranks to become the overall head - il capo di tutti i capi - of the so-called Cosa Nostra, lived for years under the eyes of the authorities in an opulent 18th century villa in a prestigious Palermo suburb, although ultimately he took refuge in the hills, alternating between two remote peasant farmhouses.  He was finally captured and imprisoned in 2006 and died in the prisoners' ward of a Milan hospital 10 years later, aged 83.  Provenzano assumed power during one of the bloodiest periods in Mafia history.  Read more…

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Don Bosco – Saint

Father and teacher who could do magic tricks

Saint John Bosco, who was often known as Don Bosco, died on this day in 1888 in Turin.  He had dedicated his life to helping street children, juvenile delinquents and other disadvantaged young people and was made a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1934.  Bosco is now the patron saint of apprentices, editors, publishers, children, young delinquents and magicians.  He was born Giovanni Bosco in Becchi, just outside Castelnuovo d’Asti in Piedmont in 1815. His birth came just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars that had ravaged the area.  Bosco’s father died when he was two, leaving him to be brought up by his mother, Margherita.  Mama Margherita Occhiena would herself be declared venerable by the Catholic Church in 2006.  Bosco attended Church and grew up to become very devout. Although his family was poor, his mother would share what they had with homeless people who came to the door.  Read more…

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Daniela Bianchi - actress

James Bond’s love interest whose Italian accent was never heard

Daniela Bianchi, an actress best known for her role as a Bond girl in the film From Russia With Love, was born on this day in 1942 in Rome.  She played Russian agent Tatiana Romanova in the hit 1963 film starring Sean Connery as James Bond, although her voice had to be dubbed because of her Italian accent.  Daniela’s parents originally came from Sirolo in Le Marche. Her father was a retired Italian army colonel and one of her grandmothers was a marchesa. Daniela was raised in Rome, where she studied ballet for eight years, and she then went on to become a fashion model.  She was the winner of Miss Rome in 1960 and then runner-up in the Miss Universe contest the same year, where she was also voted Miss Photogenic by the press.  Daniela was chosen over 200 other actresses by the Bond producers for the role of Tatiana Romanova and, at the age of 21, was the youngest ever main Bond girl. Read more…

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Manuela Di Centa - Olympic skiing champion

Friulian won five medals at a single Winter Games

The Olympic skier, mountaineer and former politician Manuela Di Centa was born on this day in 1963 in the small town of Paluzza in the mountainous north of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, less than five miles (8km) from the Austrian border.  Di Centa made history at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, when she won a total of five medals, including two golds - the only cross-country skier to accumulate so many medals at a single Games.  Three times Italy’s national fell running champion, Di Centa went on to become the first Italian woman to climb Mount Everest when she scaled the world’s highest peak in 2003, planting the five-ringed Olympic flag at the summit.  A member of the International Olympic Committee from 1999 to 2010, Di Centa has also represented her region as a politician. Read more…

Ernesto Basile - architect

Pioneer of Stile Liberty - the Italian twist on Art Nouveau

The architect Ernesto Basile, who would become known for his imaginative fusion of ancient, mediaeval and modern architectural elements and as a pioneer of Art Nouveau in Italy, was born on this day in 1857 in Palermo.  His most impressive work was done in Rome, where he won a commission to rebuild almost completely the Palazzo Montecitorio, the home of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian parliament.  Yet his most wide-ranging impact was in Sicily, where he followed in the footsteps of his father, Giovan Battista Filippo Basile, in experimenting with the Art Nouveau style.  Basile senior designed the Villa Favaloro, in Piazza Virgilio off Via Dante, and with Ernesto and others, notably Vincenzo Alagna, taking up the mantle, it was not long before entire districts of the city were dominated by Stile Liberty, the Italianate version of the Art Nouveau. Read more…

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Sanremo Music Festival - song contest

Historic annual event that inspired Eurovision 

The first annual Sanremo Music Festival reached its conclusion on this day in 1951 with the song Grazie dei fiori - Thank You for the Flowers - announced as the winner, performed by the singer and actress Nilla Pizzi (pictured). The festival, which has taken place every year since its launch, is the world’s longest-running televised music contest, having been broadcast live by Italian state broadcaster Rai since 1955.  Compared with the 2024 edition - the 74th - which is due to be staged from February 6 to February 10 - the inaugural competition was very different. There were 20 songs to be judged by the committee of experts who determined the result, but only three participants - Pizzi, Achille Togliani and the Duo Fasano, which consisted of twin sisters Dina and Delfina Fasano.  All of the participants had to perform all of the songs over the course of the three nights.  Read more…

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Mariuccia Mandelli - fashion designer

'Godmother of Italian fashion' was immortalised by Warhol

Mariuccia Mandelli, the founder of the fashion house Krizia, was born on this day in 1925 in Bergamo in northern Italy.  Although Mandelli trained to be a primary school teacher on the advice of her mother and pursued a teaching career when she was in her 20s, she had a talent for sewing and had always been interested in fashion. It took just one lucky break to get her started. When a friend offered her the use of a flat rent-free for six months, Mandelli went to live there, bought an old sewing machine and started making clothes. She then launched her label, Krizia - a name by which she was sometimes known - by selling the clothes from her small car, a Fiat 500. She used to drive to shops in Milan with suitcases full of samples and by 1954 had established a ready-to-wear fashion house.  Mandelli also went on to establish a popular line of men’s wear. Read more…

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Charles Edward Stuart – royal exile

Bonnie Prince Charlie’s heart will forever be in Frascati 

The Young Pretender to the British throne, sometimes known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, died on this day in 1788 in Rome.  The man who would have been King Charles III was born and brought up in Italy where his father, James, the son of the exiled Stuart King James II, had been given a residence by Pope Clement XI.  Charles Edward Stuart was raised as a Catholic and taught to believe he was a legitimate heir to the British throne.  In 1745 Charles sailed to Scotland hoping to gather an army to help him place his father back on the thrones of England and Scotland.  He defeated a Government army at the Battle of Prestonpans and marched south. He had got as far as Derbyshire when the decision was made by his troops to return to Scotland because of the lack of English support for their cause.  They were pursued by King George II’s son, the Duke of Cumberland, who led troops against them at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Boss of Bosses: How One Man Saved the Sicilian Mafia, by Clare Longrigg

Bernado Provenzano, head of the Sicilian mafia, is Italy's most notorious criminal. But despite apparent sightings all over Europe, for 43 years he eluded the police, until, on April 11, 2006, a crack police team broke into a tiny shepherd's hut in the mountains above Corleone. At last they were able to capture Provenzano, just a few miles from his home.  A master of reinvention, he has been known variously as the Tractor, the Accountant, Uncle Bernie and even the Axe Man. He took over Cosa Nostra when it was on its knees, after the carnage of an all-out war with the state, and restored its power by going underground and infiltrating business, law and politics at the highest levels. In prison his human side emerged when his sole request was to marry his devoted companion, Saveria, who stood by him through years on the run.  Boss of Bosses ia a story of passion and betrayal, told by the investigators who tracked him down, the spies who worked for him, the officers who arrested him and his consigliere at the heart of Cosa Nostra.

Clare Longrigg is a London-based journalist, who has worked on the Guardian and the Independent. She has written widely about the Italian Mafia. 

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30 January

NEW - Ferdinando Fontana – journalist and playwright

Prolific writer produced the words for Puccini’s early operas 

The dramatist Ferdinando Fontana, who is remembered chiefly for being the writer of the libretti for the first two operas written by Giacomo Puccini, was born on this day in 1850 in Milan.  He became a journalist as a young man to help provide for his younger sisters, and while he was working for the newspaper Corriere di Milano he wrote two plays in Milanese dialect which were both successes.  Through his interest in the Scapigliatura artistic movement, Fontana became a versatile writer. The word scapigliato means ‘unkempt’ or ‘dishevelled’ and the movement was the equivalent of the French Bohemian idea. Fontana also produced poems, travel books, and articles for the Milanese daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.  After being introduced by the composer Amilcare Ponchielli to the young Giacomo Puccini, he agreed to write the libretti for his early operas Le Villi and Edgar.  Read more…

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Bernardo Bellotto – landscape painter

Venetian artist blessed with uncle Canaletto’s talent

The landscape artist Bernardo Bellotto, a nephew and pupil of the masterful view painter Canaletto, was born on this day in 1721 in Venice, the city that brought fame to his illustrious uncle.  Bellotto painted some Venetian scenes but travelled much more extensively than his uncle and eventually became best known for his work in northern Europe, and in particular his views of the cities of Vienna, Warsaw and Dresden.  His work was notable for his use of light and shadow and his meticulous attention to detail.  His paintings of Warsaw became a point of reference for architects involved with the reconstruction of the city after the Second World War, so precise was he in terms of perspective and scale and the intricacies of architectural features.  Born in the parish of Santa Margherita in Venice, Bellotto was related to Giovanni Antonio Canal – Canaletto’s birth name – through his mother, Canaletto’s sister, Fiorenza Canal.  Read more…

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Elsa Martinelli – actress

Tuscan beauty was spotted by Kirk Douglas

Actress and former model Elsa Martinelli was born Elisa Tia on this day in 1935 in Grosseto.  She moved to Rome with her family as a teenager and was discovered by designer Roberto Capucci in 1953 while working as a barmaid in the city.   Her stunning looks helped her to become a successful fashion model and she eventually began playing small parts in films.  As Elsa Martinelli she appeared in Claude Autant-Lara’s Le Rouge et Le Noir in 1954.  Her first important role came a year later when Kirk Douglas is said to have seen her on a magazine cover and told his production company to hire her to appear opposite him in the film, The Indian Fighter.  In 1956 she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival for playing the title role in Mario Monicelli’s Donatella.  Martinelli married Count Franco Mancinelli Scotti di San Vito and they had a daughter.  Read more…

Carlo Maderno - architect

Facade of St Peter's among most notable works

The architect Carlo Maderno, who has been described as one of the fathers of Italian Baroque architecture, died on this day in 1629 in Rome.  His most important works included the facades of St Peter’s Basilica and the other Roman churches of Santa Susanna and Sant’ Andrea della Valle.  Although most of Maderno's work was in remodelling existing structures, he had a profound influence on the appearance of Rome, where his designs also contributed to the Palazzo Quirinale, the Palazzo Barberini and the papal palace at Castel Gandolfo.  One building designed and completed under Maderno's full control was the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in the Sallustiano district.   Maderno was born in 1556 in the village of Capolago, on the southern shore of Lake Lugano in what is now the Ticino canton of Switzerland. Read more…

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Hyacintha Mariscotti – saint

Noblewoman gave up luxurious lifestyle to help the poor

Hyacintha Mariscotti, an Italian nun of the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis, died on this day in 1640 in Viterbo in Lazio.  Pope Pius VII canonised her in 1807 and her feast day is now celebrated on 30 January every year.  Hyacintha, known as Santa Giacinta Marescotti in Italian, was born in 1585 into a noble family living in the castle of Vignanello in the province of Viterbo and was baptised as Clarice.  Her father was Count Marcantonio Marescotti, her mother Countess Ottavia Orsini, whose father built the famous gardens of Bomarzo.  The young Clarice was sent with her sisters to the monastery of Saint Bernardino to be educated by the nuns of the Franciscan Third Order Regular. When their education was complete, her elder sister, Ginevra, chose to enter the community as a nun. Clarice had set her sights on marrying the Marchese Capizucchi, but he chose her younger sister, Ortensia, instead.  Read more…

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Feast of Saint Martina of Rome

The day Pope Urban VIII’s own hymns are sung

The feast day of Saint Martina of Rome, who was martyred by the Romans in 228, is celebrated every year on this day.  Martina is now a patron saint of Rome and the patron saint of nursing mothers.  She was the daughter of an ex-consul, one of the chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, but became an orphan while still young.  Described at the time as a noble and beautiful virgin who was charitable to the poor, she openly testified to her Christian faith.  She was persecuted during the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus and arrested and commanded to return to idolatry, the worship of false gods.  When she refused she was whipped and condemned to be devoured by wild beasts in the amphitheatre. When she was miraculously untouched by the animals she was thrown on to a burning pyre from which she is also said to have escaped unhurt. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Puccini: His Life and Works, by Julian Budden

Blending astute musical analysis with a colourful account of Giacomo Puccini's life, this is an illuminating look at some of the most popular operas in the repertoire, including Manon Lescaut, La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot. Julian Budden provides an illuminating look at the process of putting an opera together, the cut-and-slash of 19th-century Italian opera - the struggle to find the right performers for the debut of La bohème, Puccini's anxiety about completing Turandot (he in fact died of cancer before he did so), his animosity toward his rival Ruggero Leoncavallo (whom he called Leonasino or "lion-ass"). Puccini: His Life and Works provides an informative analysis of the operas themselves, examining the music act by act. He highlights, among other things, the influence of Richard Wagner on Puccini - alone among his Italian contemporaries, Puccini followed Wagner's example in bringing the motif into the forefront of his narrative, sometimes voicing the singer's unexpressed thoughts, sometimes sending out a signal to the audience of which the character is unaware. Budden paints an intriguing portrait of Puccini the man - talented but modest, a man who had friends from every walk of life: shopkeepers, priests, wealthy landowners, fellow artists. Affable, well mannered, gifted with a broad sense of fun, he rarely failed to charm all who met him.

Julian Budden is one of the world's foremost scholars of Italian opera and author of a monumental three-volume study of Giuseppe Verdi's works. 

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Ferdinando Fontana – journalist and playwright

Prolific writer produced the words for Puccini’s early operas 

Ferdinando Fontana (left), with Puccini
in a photograph taken in around 1885

The dramatist Ferdinando Fontana, who is remembered chiefly for being the writer of the libretti for the first two operas written by Giacomo Puccini, was born on this day in 1850 in Milan.

He became a journalist as a young man to help provide for his younger sisters, and while he was working for the newspaper Corriere di Milano he wrote two plays in Milanese dialect which were both successes.

Through his interest in the Scapigliatura artistic movement, Fontana became a versatile writer. The word scapigliato means ‘unkempt’ or ‘dishevelled’ and the movement was the equivalent of the French Bohemian idea. Fontana also produced poems, travel books, and articles for the Milanese daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.

After being introduced by the composer Amilcare Ponchielli to the young Giacomo Puccini, he agreed to write the libretti for his early operas Le Villi and Edgar.

Fontana had been forced to abandon his studies after the death of his mother and had to go to work to keep himself and his sisters. After having a series of menial jobs, he got a job as a proof reader for Corriere di Milano, where he first became involved with journalism and literature.

He travelled from New York to San Francisco with a journalist colleague and while he was in America he met the editor of an Italian language newspaper, to which he later contributed features.

Fontana wrote a libretto for an opera, Odio, that was being planned by Ponchielli but never actually composed, after which he wrote two libretti for the composer Alberto Franchetti.

Puccini was studying under Ponchielli at the Milan Conservatory at the time and the composer invited the young Puccini to stay at his villa, where he introduced him to Ferdinando Fontana.

The music and libretto for Le Villi,
Puccini's debut operatic work

The writer’s first libretto for Puccini was for Le Villi, Puccini’s first stage work, which was a big success after its premiere at Teatro Dal Verme in Milan in 1884.

Fontana went on to have a prolific writing output, and an article in 1886 in La Stampa recorded that at that time, the music for 13 libretti by Fontana were in the process of being composed as operas by 12 different composers.

It was while staying in an hotel in Caprino Bergamasco run by a fellow librettist that Fontana wrote the libretto for Puccini’s opera Edgar, which premiered in 1889. 

This, unfortunately, was not as successful as Le Villi. Puccini made several revisions but could not redeem the opera, which he eventually effectively disowned, although he blamed himself as much as Fontana.

The publisher Guilio Ricordi, who had commissioned a second opera from Puccini as a result of the success of his first, came under pressure to drop him after the disappointing reception for Edgar, which might have spelled the end of Puccini’s career. Happily, Ricordi stuck with him and was rewarded with Manon Lescaut, for which the libretto was written by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, which proved to be one of his most popular and enduring works. 

Fontana also translated foreign libretti for performances in Italy, including Franz Lehar’s Die lustige Witwe - The Merry Widow. 

Fontana was a committed socialist and took part in the demonstrations in Milan in 1889, which led to the massacre of protestors by troops led by General Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris.

The massacre was part of a crackdown on Milanese citizens protesting about rising food prices, particularly bread, which had become so expensive due to wheat shortages that it was unaffordable for many families.  Official government figures put the number of deaths at 80, although some estimates claimed up to 400 people may have been killed.

During the repressions that followed the massacres, Fontana fled to Switzerland where he settled in Montagnola, a small town near Lugano. He was supported by local Liberal radicals, but as his health deteriorated, he reduced his literary output.  He died in Lugano in 1919 at the age of 69.

Corriere della Sera's headquarters in Via Solferini,
its Milan offices since the early 20th century

Travel tip:

Corriere della Sera, one of Italy’s main daily newspapers with a circulation of around 250,000, has had its headquarters in the same buildings In Milan since the beginning of the 20th century, and therefore it is popularly known as "the Via Solferino newspaper", after the street where it is still located, which connects Porta Garibaldi with the Brera district, about 1.5km (1 mile) north of the city’s cathedral and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. When the newspaper was founded in 1876, it was produced in a building directly facing the Galleria. Its earliest editorial offices operated right beside the Galleria’s Piazza della Scala entrance. This proximity meant that the newspaper grew up literally on the edge of Milan’s most symbolic civic space, and the two became intertwined in the city’s cultural identity. As the name indicates, it was originally an evening paper. During the Fascist regime in Italy, it broadly supported Mussolini but tried to distance itself from the deposed dictator after World War Two, for a while going under the title of Il Nuovo Corriere della Sera, a name that it kept until 1959. Nowadays, its political agenda could be described as centre-right. 

The Chiesa di San Biagio in Caprino Bergamasco,
the town where Fontana wrote his libretto for Edgar

Travel tip:

Caprino Bergamasco, where Fontana was based when he wrote the libretto for Edgar, is a quiet hill town at the southern edge of the province of Bergamo in Lombardy, made up of clusters of old stone houses against a backdrop of of gentle slopes and cultivated fields, described as a town in which life moves at a measured pace, anchored by the rhythms of agriculture. The town has viewpoints that look towards the Adda valley on one side and the first foothills of the Bergamasque Alps on the other. It is the home of the Collegio Convitto Celana, an historic seminary that has long been associated with religious education and cultural life in the area. The parish church, the Chiesa di San Biagio, has some attractive frescoes and traditional Lombard religious architecture.  Nearby attractions include the Paderno d’Adda Iron Bridge - an engineering landmark spanning the Adda River, and Montevecchia - a hilltop village and nature reserve offering panoramic views and hiking trails.

More reading:

How Puccini took the baton from Giuseppe Verdi as Italy’s most celebrated composer

Giulio Ricordi, the music publisher who took the credit for ‘discovering’ Puccini

How Milan’s bread riots led to the assassination of Umberto I

Also on this day:

228: The death of Saint Martina of Rome

1629: The death of architect Carlo Maderno

1640: The death of Saint Hyacintha Mariscotti

1721: The birth of Venetian painter Bernardo Bellotto

1935: The birth of actress Elsa Martinelli

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29 January

Fire at La Fenice

Oldest theatre in Venice keeps rising from the ashes

La Fenice, the world famous opera house in Venice, was destroyed by fire on this day in 1996.  It was the third time a theatre had been burnt down in Venice and it took nearly eight years to rebuild.  The theatre had been named La Fenice - the Phoenix - when it was originally built in the 1790s, to reflect that it was helping an opera company rise from the ashes after its previous theatre had burnt down.  Disaster struck again in 1836 when La Fenice itself was destroyed by fire but it was quickly rebuilt and opened its doors again in 1837.  The American writer, Donna Leon, chose La Fenice to be the main location in her first novel featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti, published in 1992.  But in January 1996, approximately four years after Leon’s novel, Death At La Fenice, was published, the theatre burnt down again, making front page news all over the world.  Read more…

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Bomb destroys Archiginnasio anatomical theatre

Historic facility hit in 1944 air raid

The historic anatomical theatre of the Palazzo Archiginnasio, the original seat of the University of Bologna, was almost completely destroyed in a bombing raid on the city by Allied forces on this day in 1944.  The northern Italian city was a frequent target during the final two years of the conflict because of its importance as a transport hub and communications centre.  The wing of the palazzo housing the anatomical theatre, built between 1636 and 1638, took a direct hit on the night of January 29.  Although it is unlikely that the university - the oldest in the world - was a specific target, bombing was much less precise 75 years ago and collateral damage was common and often widespread.  As well as its importance in the history of medical research, the anatomical theatre was notable as an art treasure. Read more…

Luigi Nono - avant-garde composer

Venetian used music as a medium for political protest

The Italian avant-garde composer Luigi Nono, famous for using music as a form of political expression, was born in Venice on this day in 1924.  Nono, whose compositions often defied the description of music in any traditional sense, was something of a contradiction in that he was brought up in comfortable surroundings and had a conventional music background.  His father was a successful engineer, wealthy enough to provide for his family in a large house in Dorsoduro, facing the Giudecca Canal, while his grandfather, a notable painter, inspired in him an interest in the arts.  He had music lessons with the composer Gian Francesco Malipiero at the Venice Conservatory, where he developed a fascination for the Renaissance madrigal tradition, before going to the University of Padua to study law.  Read more…

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Felice Beato – war photographer

Venetian-born adventurer captured some of first images of conflict

Felice Beato, who is thought to be one of the world’s first war photographers, died in Florence on this day in 1909.  He was 76 or 77 years old and had passed perhaps his final year in Italy, having spent the majority of his adult life in Asia and the Far East.  Although he was from an Italian family it was thought for many years that he had been born on the island of Corfu and died in Burma. However, in 2009 his death certificate was found in an archive in Florence, listing his place of birth as Venice and his place of death as the Tuscan regional capital.  Beato photographed the Crimean War in 1855, the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion in 1857 and the final days of the Second Opium War in China in 1860, later travelling with United States forces in Korea in 1871 and with the British in the Sudan. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Death at La Fenice (A Commissario Brunetti Mystery), by Donna Leon

The twisted maze of Venice's canals has always been shrouded in mystery. Even the celebrated opera house, La Fenice, has seen its share of death ... but none so horrific and violent as that of world-famous conductor, Maestro Helmut Wellauer, who was poisoned during a performance of La traviata. Even Commissario of Police, Guido Brunetti, used to the labyrinthine corruptions of the city, is shocked at the number of enemies Wellauer has made on his way to the top - but just how many have motive enough for murder? The beauty of Venice is crumbling. But evil is one thing that will never erode with age. Death at La Fenice saw Donna Leon introduce her detective hero Guido Brunetti in what was described as a “ripping first mystery, as beguiling and secretly sinister as Venice herself.” Brunetti has since appeared in 33 novels, the latest of which, A Refiner's Fire, was released in 2024.

A New Yorker of Irish/Spanish descent, Donna Leon first went to Italy in 1965, returning regularly over the next decade or so while pursuing a career as an academic.  Leon has received both the CWA Macallon Silver Dagger for Fiction and the German Corrine Prize for her novels featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti. 

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