9 August 2016

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Poor foundations created tourist attraction by accident


The Leaning Tower has been declared  stable for the first time in its history
The Leaning Tower has been declared
stable for the first time in its history 
Work began on the construction of a freestanding bell tower for the Cathedral in Pisa on this day in 1173.

The tower’s famous tilt began during the building process. It is believed to have been caused by the laying of inadequate foundations on ground that was too soft on one side to support the weight of the structure.

The tilt became worse over the years and restoration work had to be carried out at the end of the 20th century amid fears the tower would collapse.

At its most extreme the tower leaned at an angle of 5.5 degrees but since the restoration work undergone between 1990 and 2001 the tower leans at about 3.99 degrees.

The identity of the architect responsible for the design of the tower is not clear but the problem with the structure began after work had progressed to the second floor in 1178.

It is thought the tower would have toppled had construction not been halted for almost a century while Pisa, a Tuscan seaport, fought battles with Genoa, Lucca and Florence. This allowed time for the soil beneath the tower to settle.

When construction resumed in 1272, the upper floors were built with one side taller than the other to compensate for the tilt. The seventh floor was completed in 1319 and the bell chamber added in 1372.

In 1987, the 60-metre high tower was included in the Piazza del Duomo Unesco World Heritage site along with the neighbouring cathedral and baptistery.

The tower was closed to the public in 1990 while work was carried out to straighten it. The tower was effectively returned to its position in 1838.

It was reopened to the public in 2001 when it was declared that it would be stable for another 300 years.  In 2008, engineers announced that the tower had stopped moving for the first time in its history.

The Leaning Tower -- in Italian the Torre Pendente di Pisa -- has made Pisa famous and is a popular tourist attraction.

Pisa's Duomo, with the bell tower in the background
Pisa's Duomo, with the bell tower in the background
Travel tip:

The tower is one of the four buildings that make up the cathedral complex in the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) in Pisa. The Duomo was the first to be constructed, followed by the Baptistery. While work on the tower was being carried out, a cemetery (Campo Santo) was added.

Travel tip:

During the summer the tower is open to visitors from 08.30 to 22.00. Tickets to climb the tower are limited and booking in advance is recommended if you want to avoid queueing. For more details, visit www.towerofpisa.org/tickets.

(Photo of Leaning Tower by medajancik CC BY-SA 3.0)

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The collapse of the campanile in St Mark's Square

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8 August 2016

Dino De Laurentiis – film producer

Campanian pasta seller helped make Italian cinema famous 


Dino de Laurentiis, pictured in about 1950, shortly before he produced the Oscar-winning movie La Strada
Dino De Laurentiis, pictured in about 1950
The producer of hundreds of hit films, Agostino ‘Dino’ De Laurentiis was born on this day in 1919 at Torre Annunziata, near Naples in Campania.

He made Italian cinema famous internationally, producing Federico Fellini’s Oscar- winning La Strada in 1954 in Rome.

After moving to the US he enjoyed further success with the film Serpico in 1973.

De Laurentiis was the son of a pasta manufacturer for whom he worked as a salesman during his teens.

While selling pasta in Rome in the 1930s he decided on impulse to enrol at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in the city as an actor.

He quickly realised he had more talent for producing and after gaining experience in the different sectors of the industry made his first film, L’Amore Canta - 'Love Song' - in 1941 when he was just 22.

After serving in the army during the second world war, De Laurentiis became an executive producer at one of Rome’s emerging film companies, Lux.

Among the films he produced for Lux was Riso Amaro - 'Bitter Rice' - starring Silvana Mangano, whom he later married and had four children with. The film was a box-office success both at home and abroad.

An early publicity poster for the De  Laurentiis production La Strada
An early publicity poster for the De
 Laurentiis production La Strada
Proud of his Campanian origins, De Laurentiis made Napoli Milionaria, - 'Naples Millionaire' - a comedy presenting a slice of life in Naples during and after the war.

In 1950 De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti formed their own film company and produced Fellini’s La Strada which won the Oscar for best foreign language feature in 1957.

The soundtrack was written by Nino Rota, who scored many of Fellini's films and is also known for the music that accompanied the first two Godfather films.

He moved to the US in the 1970s where he made Serpico starring Al Pacino and Conan the Barbarian, which helped launch the career of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Although De Laurentiis became an American citizen, he returned to Italy frequently, shooting scenes in Florence for Hannibal in 2001 starring Anthony Hopkins.

De Laurentiis and Silvana Mangano divorced shortly before her death in 1989 and he married Martha Schumacher in 1990, with whom he had another two daughters.

De Laurentiis died in 2010 at the age of 91 at his residence in Beverly Hills.

The harbour at Torre Annunziata, just outside Naples
The harbour at Torre Annunziata, just outside Naples
Travel tip:

Torre Annunziata, where De Laurentiis was born, is a city near Naples in Campania. Close to Mount Vesuvius, it was destroyed in the eruption of 79 AD and was rebuilt over the ruins. Its name derives from a watch tower - torre - built to warn people of imminent Saracen raids and a chapel consecrated to the Annunziata (Virgin Mary). It became a centre for pasta production in the early 19th century. The Villa Poppaea, also known as Villa Oplontis, believed to be owned by Nero, was discovered about ten metres below ground level just outside the town and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Travel tip:

The Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Film Centre) was established in 1935 in Rome to promote the art and technique of film making. It is located near Cinecittà, the hub of the Italian film industry, to the south of the city. Cinecittà was bombed during the Second World War but rebuilt and used again in the 1950s for large productions, such as Ben-Hur. A range of productions, from television drama to music videos, are filmed there now and it has its own dedicated Metro stop.

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(Photo of movie poster by Pabloglezcruz CC BY-SA 3.0)


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7 August 2016

Alfredo Catalani - composer

Music from Loreley and La Wally lives on 


Alfredo Catalani, composer of the opera La Wally
Alfredo Catalani, composer of the opera La Wally
Opera composer Alfredo Catalani died on this day in 1893 in Milan at the age of just 39.

He is best remembered for his operas, Loreley, written in 1890, and La Wally, written in 1892, which are still to this day passionately admired by music experts.

Catalani was born in Lucca in Tuscany in 1854 and went to train at the Milan Conservatoire.

His work is said to show traces of Wagner and his style sometimes resembled that of Massenet and Puccini but his early operas were not successful.

Loreley premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1890. Later it was performed at Covent Garden in London in 1907 and in Chicago in 1919.

La Wally was first performed at Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1892 to great acclaim.  The opera is best known for its aria, ‘Well then, I’ll go far away’ (Ebben? Ne andro lontana), sung when Wally decides to leave her home forever.

American soprano Wilhelmenia Fernandez sang this aria in the 1981 film, Diva, in which a young Parisian is obsessed with an American soprano.

Hariclea Darclée, the Romanian soprano
who starred in the premiere of La Wally
In the opera, the heroine throws herself into an avalanche at the end, a scene which is difficult to stage in the theatre and therefore the opera is not performed regularly, but Wally’s principal aria is still sung frequently.

Catalani died before he reached the age of 40 of tuberculosis and was interred in the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan.  The composer Amilcare Ponchielli and the conductor Arturo Toscanini also lie there.

Toscanini greatly admired Catalani’s music and named one of his daughters Wally.

He recorded the prelude to Act IV of La Wally and the Dance of the Water Nymphs from Loreley in Carnegie Hall in 1952 with the NBC symphony orchestra for RCA Victor.

The walls of Lucca are intact all around the Tuscan city
The walls of Lucca are intact all around the Tuscan city
Travel tip:

Lucca, the birthplace of Alfredo Catalani, is a city in Tuscany, famous for its Renaissance walls, which have remained intact over the centuries. A promenade now runs along the top of the walls, providing a popular place to walk round the city, enjoying the views.

Travel tip:

Milan’s Teatro alla Scala was officially inaugurated in 1778. Known to Italians simply as La Scala, the theatre has become the leading opera house in the world and many famous artists have appeared there. The theatre was designed by neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini. The theatre has hosted the premieres of operas by Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini and Catalani.

(Photo of Lucca walls by JoJan CC BY-SA 3.0)

More reading:


Opening night at La Scala

The Genius of Puccini



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6 August 2016

Domenico Modugno – singer and song writer

Artist who gave us a song that conjures up Italy


Domenico Modugno, who co-wrote the iconic Italian pop song Volare
Domenico Modugno, who co-wrote the iconic
Italian pop song Volare
Domenico Modugno, who was one of the writers of the iconic Italian song, Volare, died on this day in 1994 in Lampedusa, the island off Sicily.

Modugno wrote Volare with Franco Migliacci and performed it in the San Remo music festival in 1958 with Johnny Dorelli.

Sometimes referred to as 'Nel blu dipinto di blu', the song won San Remo and became a hit all over the world.

It was the Italian entry in the 1958 Eurovision song contest. It came only third, yet received two Grammy Awards and sold more than 22 million copies.

Modugno was born in 1928 at Polignano a Mare near Bari in Apulia. After completing his military service he enrolled in drama school and had a number of parts in films while still studying.

The success of Volare proved to be the turning point in his career. He won the San Remo music festival again in 1959 and came second in 1960.

Watch an historic recording of Modugno's performance at Eurovision 




He also represented Italy in the Eurovision song contest for a second time in 1959.

Modugno at the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest with the conductor Alberto Semprini
Modugno at the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest with the
conductor Alberto Semprini
In 1962 he won San Remo for a third time and represented Italy at Eurovision again in 1966 with his song 'Dio come ti amo'. It was recorded in Italian and also in English as Oh How Much I Love You by other artists.

In 1984, Modugno suffered a severe stroke which left him partially paralysed and from 1986 onwards he worked to promote the rights of disabled people.

In 1987, Modugno was elected to the Italian Parliament as a Radical. He spoke out against the conditions in a psychiatric hospital in Sicily and held a concert to raise money for the patients.

His last song, Delfini, was written in 1993 in collaboration with one of his sons.

Modugno died on 6 August 1994 after a heart attack while he was staying at his seaside home in Lampedusa.

Polignano a Mare, where Modugno was born, is built on rocky promontories overlooking the Adriatic sea
Polignano a Mare, where Modugno was born, is built on rocky
promontories overlooking the Adriatic sea
Travel tip:

Polignano a Mare, where Modugno was born, is in the province of Bari and looks out over the Adriatic sea. The resort benefits from tourism, agriculture and fishing. It is believed to be the site of the ancient Greek city of Neapolis.

Travel tip:

Lampedusa, where Modugno had a seaside home, is a large island in the Mediterranean sea that is part of the Sicilian province of Agrigento. It is the southernmost part of Italy. The nearest land to it is Tunisia, which is about 113 kilometres away.

(Photo of Polignano a Mare by Martin Stiburek CC BY-SA 4.0)

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