Bruno Vespa – television journalist

TV host opened the door to late night political debate

Television presenter Bruno Vespa

Bruno Vespa, the founding host of the television programme Porta a Porta, was born on this day in 1944 in L’Aquila in Abruzzo.

Vespa, who celebrates his 72nd birthday today, has fronted the late night television talk show, which literally means ‘Door to Door’ in English, since Italy's state broadcaster RAI launched the programme in 1996.

Vespa became a radio announcer with RAI when he was 18 and began hosting the news programme Telegiornale RAI a few years later.  He had begun his career in journalism by writing sports features for the L’Aquila edition of the newspaper, Il Tempo, when he was just 16 years old.

On television, he became well known for interviewing influential world figures just before they became famous, an example being his programme featuring Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, the year before he was elected as Pope John Paul II.

In June 1984, Vespa was official commentator for the live televised broadcast of the state funeral for Enrico Berlinguer, the former leader of the Italian Communist party.

Italian Prime Minster Matteo Renzi has appeared on
Vespa's Porta a Porta show on a number of occasions

Vespa has won awards for his journalism and television programmes and has also written many books.

Since he began presenting Porta a Porta, much of Italy’s political debate has taken place on the programme. The late night slot on RAI Uno is sometimes referred to sarcastically as ‘the third house’ after the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

Travel tip:

L’Aquila, where Bruno Vespa was born, is the capital city of the Abruzzo region. The city is set within medieval walls on a hill and has many fascinating, narrow streets lined with Baroque and Renaissance buildings and churches to explore.

The Piazza Duomo in L'Aquila

Travel tip:

RAI, which is short for Radio- televisione Italiana, is Italy’s national public broadcasting company. RAI’s main headquarters are in Viale Giuseppe Mazzini, just north of Vatican City in Rome.

(Photo of Bruno Vespa by Roberto Vicario CC BY-SA 3.0)
(Photo of L'Aquila by Ra Boe CC BY-SA 2.5)

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Napoleon becomes King of Italy

French Emperor places Iron Crown of Lombardy on his own head

Portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte by the Italian
artist Andrea Appiani in 1805

Napoleon Bonaparte was declared King of Italy on this day in 1805 in Milan.

He crowned himself at a ceremony in the Duomo using the Iron Crown of Lombardy.

The title King of Italy signified that Napoleon was the head of the new Kingdom of Italy, which was at that time a vassal state of the French Empire. The area controlled by Napoleon had previously been known as a republic, with Napoleon as its president.

But Napoleon had become the Emperor of France the year before and had decided Italy should become a Kingdom ruled by himself, or a member of his family.

Before the ceremony, the Iron Crown had to be fetched from Monza. The crown consisted of a circlet of gold with a central iron band, which according to legend was beaten out of a nail from Christ’s true cross, 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.

During his coronation, Napoleon is reported to have picked up the precious relic, announced that God had given it to him, and placed it on his own head.

After the coronation there were celebratory fireworks in Milan and over the next few days there were horse races, public amusements in the streets and parks, and a grand concert and ball.

The new King appointed his stepson, Eugene de Beauharnais, as his viceroy in Italy. De Beauharnais was Josephine’s son from her previous marriage. Napoleon also later gave him the title of Prince of Venice.

The new Kingdom of Italy lasted till 1814 when Napoleon had to abdicate from the thrones of both France and Italy and go into exile on the island of Elba.

The magnificent Duomo in Milan, where Napoleon
proclaimed himself as King of Italy in 1805

Travel tip:


Construction of the Duomo in Milan began in 1386 using marble brought into the city along the Navigli canals. Although it was consecrated as a Cathedral in 1418, building work was not finally completed until the 19th century when Napoleon had the façade finished before his coronation.

Travel tip:

The Iron Crown of Lombardy is kept in a chapel in the Cathedral of Saint John in Monza, a city about nine miles to the north east of Milan. Monza is now also famous for its Grand Prix motor racing circuit, the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, which hosts the Formula One Italian Grand Prix.

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Enrico Berlinguer - Communist politician

Popular leader turned left-wing party into political force

Enrico Berlinguer

Enrico Berlinguer, who for more than a decade was Western Europe's most powerful and influential Communist politician, was born on this day in 1922 in the Sardinian city of Sassari.

As secretary-general of the Italian Communist Party from March 1972 until his death in 1984, he led the largest Communist movement outside the Eastern Bloc, coming close to winning a general election in 1976.

He achieved popularity by striving to establish the Italian Communists as a political force that was not controlled from Moscow, pledging a commitment to democracy, a parliamentary system, a mixed economy, and Italian membership of the Common Market and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

At its peak, Berlinguer's Westernized brand of Communism appealed to nearly a third of Italian voters.  His policies were adopted by other left-wing parties in Europe under what became known as Eurocommunism. 

As support for the previously dominant Christian Democrats waned in the 1970s, he proposed a ''historic compromise'' with other parties, rejecting the traditional left-wing vision of violent revolution, and declared that the Italian Communists would be happy to enter into a coalition with Christian Democrats and others.

In fact, in the elections of 1976, at a time when Italy faced economic collapse, Berlinguer's Communists came close to winning power in their own right, polling 34 per cent of the vote.  The Christian Democrats prevailed with 38 per cent but needed the support of some groups on the extreme right to do so.

The result sent shock waves across the Atlantic.  Political leaders in America, in particular Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, regarded Italy as a bulwark against the Eastern Bloc and were alarmed that the Italian Communists had been so close to power.

This cover of Time magazine reflected disquiet
 in the United States at Berlinguer's success

Despite his failure to become Prime Minister, Berlinguer remained one of Italy's foremost politicians. The Christian Democrats had to rely on Communist support to pass legislation and Berlinguer was thereby in a position to influence policy.

His party membership grew to 1.7 million and its success in local elections meant the Communists effectively governed nearly half of the Italian population anyway, controlling Rome and many of the major northern cities, including Turin, Milan, Bologna, Florence and Venice.

Berlinguer was born into a middle-class Sardinian family of noble descent yet the politics of his father Mario, a lawyer, leaned heavily towards the left. A socialist deputy and later senator, he was acquainted with a number of Communist leaders, including Antonio Gramsci and Palmiro Togliatti. The latter became Enrico Berlinguer's political mentor.

Having become a Communist Party member in 1943, Berlinguer was put in charge of the Young Communists in his home town of Sassari. He was arrested and jailed in 1944 after taking part in demonstrations against the Fascist regime.

Released after three months, he resumed his role as an organizer of communist youth, first in Milan and then Rome. He became a member of the party’s Central Committee in 1945 and the party executive in 1948.

He was elected to the Italian parliament in 1968, becoming the party's deputy secretary-general a year later and replacing Luigi Longo, an old-style Communist who had become the party leader after Togliatti's death in 1964, as secretary-general in March 1972.

Married with three children and fiercely protective of his private life, Berlinguer died in June 1984 aged only 62, having suffered a stroke while delivering a speech in Padua and never regaining consciousness.

Sassari's Piazza d'Italia is an example of the city's
elegant neoclassical architecture

Travel tip:

The second largest city in Sardinia, with a population of more than 125,000, Sassari is rich in art, culture and history.  It is well known for beautiful palazzi, the Fountain of the Rosello, and its elegant neoclassical architecture, such as Piazza d'Italia and the Teatro Civico.

Travel tip:

Padua - Padova in Italian - is a city in the Veneto region of northern Italy, best known for the frescoes by Giotto that adorn the Scrovegni Chapel and for the vast 13th-century Basilica of St. Anthony.

(Photo of Piazza d'Italia in Sassari by Gianni Careddu CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Gian Gastone de' Medici – Grand Duke of Tuscany

The last Medici to rule Florence

A portrait of Gian Gastone de' Medici,
the last in a line of Florentine rulers

Gian Gastone de' Medici, the seventh and last Grand Duke of Tuscany, was born on this day in 1671 in the Pitti Palace in Florence.

He was the second son of Grand Duke Cosimo III and Marguerite Louise d’Orleans.

Because his elder brother predeceased him he succeeded his father to the title in 1723.

He had an unhappy arranged marriage and the couple had no children so when he died in 1737 it was the end of 300 years of Medici rule over Florence.

He spent the last few years of his reign confined to bed, looked after by his entourage.

One of his final acts was to order the erection of a statue to Galileo in the Basilica of Santa Croce.

He was buried in the Basilica of San Lorenzo and Francis Stephen of Lorraine succeeded to the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Travel tip:

The Palazzo Pitti, known in English as the Pitti Palace, is on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. It became the main residence of the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and is now the largest museum complex in Florence.

The Museo Galileo in Piazza dei Giudici houses one of the
world's biggest collections of scientific instruments

Travel tip:

There is a museum dedicated to Galileo in Florence, the Museo Galileo in Piazza dei Giudici close to the Uffizi Gallery. It houses one of the biggest collections of scientific instruments in the world in Palazzo Castellani, an 11th century building. The museum is open Mondays to Sundays from 9.30 to 18.00, closing at 13.00 on Tuesdays.

(Photo of the museum courtesy of Museo Galileo CC BY-SA 3.0)

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