Italy enters the Second World War

Mussolini sides with Germany against Britain and France

A newspaper photograph of Mussolini announcing his
declaration of war from the Palazzo Venezia

One of the darkest periods of Italian history began on this day in 1940 when the country's Fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, declared war on Great Britain and France, ending the possibility that Italy would avoid being drawn into the Second World War.

Mussolini made the declaration from the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia in Rome, where he had his office. The balcony enabled him to address a large crowd in the Piazza Venezia and he ordered his Blackshirts to ensure that the square was full of enthusiastic supporters.

Italy had already signed a Pact of Steel with Germany but had been reluctant to enter the conflict. Mussolini had a strong navy but a relatively weak army and a lack of resources across the board.

By June 1940, however, Germany was on the point of conquering France and it was thought that Britain would soon follow. Historians believe Mussolini's decision to enter the conflict was an opportunistic attempt to win a share of French territory.

He told the Italian people that going to war was a matter of honour after his efforts to preserve peace had been rebuffed by 'treacherous' Western democracies, but many believe his motives were simply to pursue his expansionist ambitions at minimal cost.

The Italian Army's chief of staff, Marshall Badoglio, was said to be against Italy becoming involved before it was ready and for a week after the declaration there was no movement from Italian forces.

Mussolini and Hitler met in in Munich the
day before Italian troops attacked France

But German leader Adolf Hitler told Mussolini that France had agreed to enter negotiations for an armistice and that unless Italy made some contribution towards the campaign it would not be able to participate in negotiations and would have no claim in any settlement.

On June 20 Italian troops launched an offensive in south-eastern France.  It was quickly repelled but by June 24 France had formally surrendered and Mussolini's goal of winning territory was achieved, albeit at the cost of more than 1,200 dead or missing and more than 2,600 wounded.

United States President Franklin D Roosevelt condemned the invasion as "a dagger in the back of a neighbour" and there was a substantial backlash against Italians living in Britain, with Italian businesses attacked during riots in British cities. South Wales and Scotland, where there were large Italian communities, were particularly affected.  Italians in Liverpool also came under attack.

London's 10,000 Italians suffered relatively little trouble, although communities were swiftly torn apart when Britain's wartime leader, Winston Churchill, announced the day after the declaration of war that all Italians between 17 and 70 who had not been resident in Britain more than 20 years would be arrested and interned.  Some were even deported to Australia and Canada.

Travel tip:

The Palazzo Venezia, which housed Mussolini's office, is a palace in central Rome, just north of the Capitoline Hill. Originally a modest medieval house intended as the residence of the cardinals appointed to the church of San Marco, it became a residential papal palace. The palazzo faces Piazza Venezia and Via del Plebiscito and currently houses the National Museum of the Palazzo Venezia.

Piazza Venezia in Rome is dominated by the huge
monument to Victor Emmanuel II

Travel tip:

The Piazza Venezia is dominated by the vast Altare della Patria, otherwise known as the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, and sometimes 'the wedding cake' or Il Vittoriano, a monument built in honour of Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy. It features Corinthian columns, fountains, an equestrian sculpture of Victor Emmanuel and two statues of the goddess Victoria riding on quadrigas. Including the winged victories, it touches 81 metres (266 feet) tall. The base of the structure houses a small museum of Italian Unification.

(Photo of Il Vittoriano by Fczarnowski CC BY-SA 3.0)

More reading:

The death of Benito Mussolini

Italy rebuilds after the War

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Luigi Fagioli - racing driver

Man from Le Marche is Formula One's oldest winner

Luigi Fagioli in action in the 1928 Targa Florio
near Palermo in Sicily

Racing driver Luigi Fagioli, who remains the oldest driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix, was born on this day in 1898 at Osimo, an historic hill town in the Marche region.

Fagioli was a highly skilled driver but one who was also renowned for his fiery temperament, frequently clashing with rivals, team-mates and his bosses.

It was typical of his behaviour after recording his historic triumph at the F1 French Grand Prix at Reims in 1951 he announced in high dudgeon that he was quitting Formula One there and then.

He was furious that his Alfa Romeo team had ordered him during the race to hand his car over to Juan Manuel Fangio, the Argentine who would go on win the 1951 World Championship, which meant the victory was shared rather than his outright.

Nonetheless, at 53 years and 22 days, Fagioli's name entered the record books as the oldest F1 Grand Prix winner.

Fagioli trained as an accountant but was always fascinated with the new sport of car racing and his background - he was born into a wealthy family of pasta manufacturers - gave him the financial wherewithal to compete.

Having made his debut in 1926, he achieved his first major victories after signing as a works driver for Maserati in 1930, finishing first in the Coppa Ciano and the Circuito di Avellino.  He then won the Monza GP of 1931 and the Rome GP in 1932.

The bust of Luigi Fagioli in Osimo

In 1933 Fagioli was taken on to race Alfa Romeos for Enzo Ferrari, winning in the Coppa Acerbo and the Italian GP, which in turn earned him a move to Mercedes-Benz.

However, his relationship with team-mates Manfred von Brauchitsch and Rudolf Caracciola was fraught with problems. When team manager Alfred Neubauer ordered Fagioli to move over for Brauchitsch in his very first race, the Italian simply dropped out, abandoning his car in disgust.

Despite winning three races for Alfa Romeo in 1934 and 1935, Fagioli quit to join Auto Union in 1937, becoming embroiled in an altercation with Caracciola during his first season in which he attacked his former colleague with a wheel hammer.

Struggling with rheumatism, which restricted him to the extent that at times he needed the aid of a stick to walk, he did not race again before the Second World War but in 1950, in much better health, he returned to the sport to race for the Alfa Romeo factory team, finishing on the podium in all but one race and finishing third in the inaugural F1 World Championship.

After his controversial exit from Formula One, he signed to drive in sportscar events for Lancia, taking great delight in finishing in front of Caracciola when he was third in the 1952 Mille Miglia.

His aggressive driving style sometimes bordered on the reckless and he had many accidents, one of which forced him out of a supporting race at the Monaco GP meeting in June of that year.

He broke a hand and a leg, which seemed relatively minor injuries, but he developed complications as he recovered in hospital and three weeks later, at the age of only 54, he died.

The Cathedral of San Leopardo in Osimo

Travel tip:

The town of Osimo, perched on top of a hill about 15 kilometres from the port of Ancona, can trace its origins to 200BC and parts if the city walls dating back to that time remain intact.  It is dominated by the Cathedral of San Leopardo, the main structure of which was built between the 12th and 13th centuries.

Stay in Osimo with Booking.com

Travel tip:

Luigi Fagioli is commemorated in a bronze statue which can be found in the Giardini Pubblici in Osimo

More reading:

Vittorio Jano - genius designer behind Italy's Formula One success

(Photo of Luigi Fagioli bust by Giorgio Gentili CC BY-SA 3.0)
(Photo of Catheral by Parsifall CC BY-SA 3.0)

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Tomaso Albinoni - Venetian composer

Prolific writer of operas and instrumental music

Tomaso Albinoni

The composer Tomaso Albinoni, perhaps best known for the haunting and powerful Adagio in G Minor, was born on this day in 1671 in Venice.

Albinoni was a contemporary of two other great Venetian composers, Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vivaldi, and was favourably compared with both.

It is his instrumental music for which he is popular today, although during his own lifetime he was famous for his operas, the first of which was performed in Venice in 1694.  He is thought to have composed some 81 operas in total, although they were not published at the time and the majority were lost.

His first major instrumental work also appeared in 1694. With the support of sponsorship from noble patrons, he published nine collections - in Italy, Amsterdam and London - beginning with Opus 1, the 12 Sonate a Tre, which he dedicated to his fellow Venetian, Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, the grand-nephew of Pope Alexander VIII.

It was this work that established his fame.  He followed it with an other collection of instrumental pieces, dedicated to Charles IV, Duke of Mantua, who may have employed him as a violinist. His Opus 3, a collection of  suites, was sponsored by Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

His career output numbered 99 sonatas, 59 concertos and nine symphonies.  By his seventh Opus he was writing regular pieces for the oboe and is regarded as the first composer to include the instrument in concertos. His ninth Opus was his last.

Albinoni came from a privileged background.  His family manufactured playing cards and owned several shops in Venice, allowing Tomaso to indulge his musical talents - he was a talented singer and violinist as well as a composer - as an amateur, known as a Dilettante Veneto.

A poster advertising the premiere
of an Albinoni opera in 1716

He would have expected, at some stage, to take over the running of the family business, but after the commercial success of his 12 Sonate a Tre, his father changed the terms of his will so that the business would be placed instead in the hands of his younger brothers.  This meant Tomaso could pursue a career in music.

In 1705, Albinoni married an opera singer, Margherita Raimondi. He always lived in Venice but travelled extensively as his works were performed around Italy and later in northern Europe.  He died in Venice in 1751, apparently of diabetes.

Ironically, given his prolific output, his best loved work - the Adagio in G Minor - was written largely by someone else.

A good deal of Albinoni's work was damaged or destroyed in the bombing of Dresden towards the end of the Second World War when it was being kept in the Dresden State Library.  The ruins were visited in 1945 by a musicologist from Rome, Remo Giazotto, who was catalogueing the composer's output.

When Giazotto later published the adagio, copyrighted in his own name, he claimed it had been based on what remained of manuscript discovered in the ruins, which consisted of just the bass line and six bars of melody from a church sonata that was possibly included in Albinoni's Opus Four, written in about 1704.

Giazotto said he had constructed the piece as a complete movement based on that fragment of manuscript, although the claim was never corroborated and no one else saw the scrap of paper.  The consensus among musical scholars is that it should be seen as Giazotto's work, yet the piece continues to be referred to as Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor.

The former Chiesa San Vidal in Venice

Travel tip:

Performances of Albinoni's music form part of the season performed annually by the Interpreti Veneziani, a chamber music ensemble who specialise in Venetian music.  They perform at a former church, the Chiesa San Vidal, situated between the Accademia Bridge and Campo Santo Stefano, and sometimes at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, both in the San Marco district.  For more information, visit www.interpretiveneziani.com.

Travel tip:

The Scuola di San Rocco was established in 1478 by a group of wealthy Venetian citizens, next to the church of San Rocco. In 1564 the painter Tintoretto was commissioned to provide paintings for the Scuola, and his most renowned works are to be found in the Sala dell'Albergo and the Sala Superiore.

More reading:

Where to see Tintoretto's work in Venice

Success and sadness of Antonio Vivaldi

How Arcangelo Corelli's music influenced others

(Photo of Chiesa San Vidal by Didier Descouens CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Federico da Montefeltro – condottiero

Patron of the arts made money through war

Piero della Francesca's stark portrait
of Federico da Montefeltro

Federico da Montefeltro, one of the most successful of the Italian condottieri, was born on this day in 1422 in Gubbio.

He has been immortalised by the famous portrait painted of him by Piero della Francesca, where he was dressed in red and showing his formidable profile.

Federico ruled Urbino from 1444 until his death, commissioning the building of a large library where he employed his own team of scribes to copy texts.

He was the illegitimate son of Guidantonio da Montefeltro but he was legitimised by the Pope with the consent of Guidantonio’s wife.

Federico began his career as a condottiero - a kind of mercenary military leader - at the age of 16. When his half brother, who had recently become Duke of Urbino, was assassinated in 1444, Federico seized the city of Urbino.

To bring in money he continued to wage war as a condottiero. He lost his right eye in an accident during a tournament and later commissioned a surgeon to remove the bridge of his nose to improve his field of vision and make him less vulnerable to assassination attempts.

Subsequently, he refused to have his portrait painted in full face, hence he is depicted in profile by Piero della Francesca.

Federico fought on behalf of the Sforza family, the King of Naples and various Popes.

In 1482 he was asked to command the army of Ercole I of Ferrara in his war against Venice but he then caught a fever and died in Ferrara.

Federico imposed justice and stability on Urbino and supported up and coming artists such as Raphael.

He took care of his soldiers when they were killed or wounded by providing dowries for their daughters. As a result his soldiers remained loyal to him and he never lost a battle.

The Ducal Palace in Urbino, a Unesco World
Heritage Site

Travel tip:

Urbino, which is inland from the Adriatic resort of Pesaro, in the Marche region, is a majestic city on a steep hill. It was once a centre of learning and culture, known not just in Italy but also in its glory days throughout Europe. The Ducal Palace, a Renaissance building made famous by The Book of the Courtier, is one of the most important monuments in Italy and is listed as a Unesco World Heritage site.

Travel tip:

Gubbio, where Federico was born, is a small town in Perugia in the region of Umbria that still has many of its medieval buildings. It became absorbed into the territory of the Montefeltro family in the 15th century and Federico Montefeltro had the ancient Palazzo Ducale rebuilt in a similar style to his palace in Urbino.

(Photo of Ducal Palace at Urbino by Florian Prischi CC BY-SA 3.0)

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