San Giuseppe Moscati - doctor

Remembering the kindness of a brilliant young doctor

Doctor and scientist Giuseppe Moscati was beatified by Pope Paul VI on this day in 1975.

Giuseppe was renowned for his kindness and generosity to his patients and even before his death people talked of ‘miracle’ cures being achieved by him. 

He was canonised by Pope John Paul II in 1987 and his feast day is 16 November.

The saint was born into a big family in Benevento in 1880. His father, a lawyer and magistrate, was active in the church and Giuseppe inherited his piety.

The family later moved to Naples and Giuseppe enrolled in the medical school of the University of Naples in 1897.

On graduating he went to work in a hospital but continued with his brilliant scientific research and attended Mass frequently.

When Vesuvius erupted in 1906 he helped evacuate all the elderly and paralysed patients before the roof collapsed on the hospital under the weight of the ash.

He worked tirelessly to research ways to eradicate cholera in Naples and personally cared for many of the soldiers wounded in the First World War.

He was compassionate to the poor and often gave them money as well as free medical treatment and a prescription.

Giuseppe died suddenly in 1927 at the age of 46 having been on duty at the hospital only that morning.

After his death, a young man dying from leukaemia was suddenly and inexplicably cured, after his mother dreamed of a doctor in a white coat. She was able to identify the doctor as Blessed Giuseppe after her priest showed her a photograph of him. The young man who was cured was able to attend the canonisation ceremony of Giuseppe Moscati by the Pope.

The Santuario del Carmine
overlooks Piazza Tasso

Travel Tip:

In ancient times, Benevento was one of the most important cities in southern Italy and there are many Roman remains there, including a triumphal arch erected in honour of Trajan and an ampitheatre. In the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta there is a marble statue of Saint Giuseppe Moscati in the chapel of the Holy Sacrament.

Travel Tip:

Overlooking Sorrento’s main square, Piazza Tasso, the yellow-painted, 16th century Sanctuary of the Madonna del Carmine has a shrine to Giuseppe Moscati in a little side chapel where people can pray to the sainted doctor for comfort and relief.

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Annunzio Mantovani - conductor

Orchestra leader brought light relief during World War Two

Mantovani moved to England as
a child and made his career there

Conductor and composer Annunzio Paolo Mantovani - best known simply as Mantovani - was born on this day in Venice in 1905.

The music produced by his orchestras, which became known as ‘the Mantovani sound', brought pleasure to millions and his recordings were best sellers in Britain and the US before the Beatles came on the scene.

Mantovani’s father, Benedetto Paolo Mantovani, who was known as ‘Bismarck’, was a violinist and leader of the orchestra of Teatro alla Scala opera house in Milan, at the time Arturo Toscanini was conductor.

The Mantovani family moved to England in 1912 after Bismarck was appointed conductor of the orchestra at Covent Garden.

Young Annunzio Mantovani studied the violin and piano in London before joining a touring orchestra. He quickly became a violin soloist and then a conductor.

Mantovani's popularity was based on light
orchestral 'easy listening' music

He went on to form his own orchestra, which toured the country, made radio broadcasts and recorded albums for Columbia and Decca.

His music was popular with the troops, who danced to it with their sweethearts when they came home on leave during the Second World War. It became known as ‘light orchestral’ or ‘easy listening’ music.

After the war, Mantovani concentrated on recording and developed his trademark ‘cascading strings’, or ‘tumbling strings’ effect with arranger Ronald Binge. The sound was used for the first time on the 1951 single, Charmaine, which sold more than one million copies.

Mantovani's father was orchestra leader at Teatro alla Scala under Arturo Toscanini.

More than 40 of his albums had also registered in the US pop charts before his recording career came to an end in 1972.

Annunzio Mantovani died in 1980 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, aged 74.

Mantovani's father played in the orchestra at La Scala
under conductor Arturo Toscanini

Travel tip:

Visitors can have a look inside Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where Mantovani’s father played in the orchestra, by touring the theatre’s museum. Costumes and memorabilia from the history of the theatre are kept on display there. The museum entrance is in Largo Ghiringhelli, just off Piazza Scala. It is open every day except the Italian Bank Holidays and certain days in December. Opening hours are from 9.00 to 12.30 and 1.30 to 5.30 pm.

The Palazzo della Ragione in the centre of Mantua

Travel tip:

The surname Mantovani originates from the Italian name given to people from Mantova in northern Italy. Mantova (in English, Mantua) is an atmospheric old city, to the southeast of Milan, in Lombardia. It is well known for its renaissance Palazzo Ducale, the seat of the Gonzaga family, which has a famous room, Camera degli Sposi, decorated with frescoes by Andrea Mantegna. 

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Aleardo Aleardi - poet and patriot

History-loving writer dreamed of a united Italy

Aleardo Aleardi became an important
figure in the Risorgimento movement

Patriotic poet Aleardo Aleardi was born on this day in 1812 in Verona.  

At the height of his success he was hailed as an important figure in the Risorgimento movement and there is now a school named after him in the city of his birth.

Aleardi’s poems are mostly about events in Italian history and his love for his home country, which was under Austrian occupation while he was growing up.

He was originally named Gaetano Maria but changed his name to Aleardi, the surname of his father, Count Giorgio Aleardi, when he started writing.

Aleardi studied law at Padova University but gradually became more interested in poetry, influenced by some of his fellow students who were involved in the romantic Risorgimento movement.

Risorgimento, which means resurgence, was the name for the political and social movement that led to the consolidation of the different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy during the 19th century. Most historians agree that the process began in 1815 with the end of Napoleonic rule in Italy and was completed in 1871 when Rome became the capital of the new united Italy and King Victor Emmanuel took up residence in the Palazzo Quirinale.

Aleardi’s first success came with Le Lettere a Maria (Letters to Mary), in which he expressed his belief in the immortality of the soul. He reached the height of his success with I Canti, a collection of poems published in 1864, which was reprinted eleven times.

Aleardi was sent to Paris in 1848 by Daniele Manin, a hero of the Risorgimento movement, to try to gather support for freeing Venice from the Austrians.

He was arrested and imprisoned by the Austrians twice, but survived the ordeals to become a member of parliament after Italian unification.

He became a senator in 1873 and then a professor of aesthetics in Florence, where he died in 1878.

The University of Padova, where Aleardi studied law
before devoting his time increasingly to poetry

Travel Tip:

The University of Padova, where Aleardi studied law, was established in 1222 and is one of the oldest in the world, second in Italy only to the University of Bologna. The main university building, Palazzo del Bo in Via 8 Febbraio in the centre of Padova, used to house the medical faculty. You can take a guided tour to see the pulpit used by Galileo when he taught at the university between 1592 and 1610.

The romantic so-called 'Juliet balcony' became an attraction
for visitors to visitors to Verona

Travel tip:

Verona, where Aleardi was born, is the second biggest city in the Veneto. It is home to the first-century Roman Arena, famous for staging open air opera productions, and Casa di Giulietta, which has a romantic marble ‘Juliet’ balcony, although there is little evidence that the real-life Romeo ever stood below it declaring his love for Juliet.


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Gioachino Rossini

Italian composer who found the fast route to wealth and popularity

The success of Rossini's early operas made him
wealthy and successful even as a young man 

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 at Teatro La Fenice opera house 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.

The Barber of Seville was first produced in Rome in 1816 and was so successful that even Beethoven wrote to congratulate Rossini on it.

Rossini as an older man, in about 1865

The composer became wealthy and in big demand and travelled to Austria, France and England. In 1824 he accepted the post of musical director at a theatre in Paris and wrote Guillaume Tell (William Tell) during his time there.

Rossini came back to live quietly in Italy for about ten years, but returned to France in 1855, where he died at the age of 76 from pneumonia at his country house in Passy.

He was initially buried in Paris but because of his enormous popularity in Italy, his remains were moved to the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence at the request of the Italian Government in 1887.

The magnificent Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence, where
Rossini's remains were transferred from Paris

Travel tip:

Many famous Italians are buried in the magnificent 12th century Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence. Rossini’s remains were transferred here from France in 1887, leaving an empty tomb for people to visit at the cemetery in Paris.



Travel tip:

Pesaro is a beautiful, traditional seaside resort on the Adriatic coast renowned for its sandy beach. Rossini’s birthplace, at Via Rossini 34, is now a museum dedicated to the composer and there is also a theatre named after him. A Rossini opera festival is held in Pesaro every summer.



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