Nick Gentile - mafioso

Sicilian mobster defied code of silence by publishing memoirs

Nick Gentile was
rarely photographed

The mafioso Nicola Gentile, known in the United States as Nick, who became notorious for publishing a book of memoirs that revealed the inner workings of the American Mafia as well as secrets of the Sicilian underworld, was born on this day in 1885 in Siculiana, a small town on the south coast of the Sicily, in the province of Agrigento.

Gentile’s book, Vita di Capomafia, which he wrote in conjunction with a journalist, was published in 1963 and provided much assistance to the American authorities in their fight against organized crime.

As a result Gentile was sentenced to death by the mafia council in Sicily for having broken the code of omertà, a vow of silence to which all mafiosi are expected to adhere to protect their criminal activities.  Siculiana, in fact, was a mafia stronghold, where the code was usually enforced with particular rigour.

Yet the mobsters from the city of Catania who were tasked with carrying out the sentence declined to do so, for reasons that have not been explained. In the event, Gentile died in Siculiana in 1966 of natural causes, having spent his last years as an old, sick man who appeared to have very little money and was kept alive by the kindliness of neighbours.

The file the American FBI kept on Gentile's
criminal activity and personal details

The book was also a source of embarrassment for the American government, revealing how US forces collaborated with criminals across Sicily to help facilitate the invasion of the island in 1943 and the subsequent push up the Italian peninsula, helping the Sicilian Mafia rebuild after the damage it suffered during the Fascist era.

Gentile - known in his home country as 'Zio' or 'Zu Cola' (Uncle Nicola) - went to America as an illegal immigrant at the age of 19, having been invited there by a small crime clan made up of Sicilians from Siculiana, acting in New York as well as Philadelphia and Kansas City.

He developed a reputation for being able to mediate in disagreements between rival Mafia families and subsequently travelled regularly from state to state as a peacemaker, while at the same time capitalising on the respect he gained from others by forming strategic alliances.

In the 1920s. Gentile was the head of criminal smuggling cartels plus the mafia families of Kansas City, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

Gentile returned frequently to Sicily, sometimes to visit relatives, at other times to escape his enemies and the law. Ultimately, his criminal activities in America were based in New York, where he became involved with narcotics operations headed by Charles 'Lucky' Luciano.

He returned to Sicily permanently after being arrested in New Orleans in 1937 on drug charges, fleeing the country on $15,000 bail.

Charles "Lucky" Luciano was an associate of Gentile
both in the United States and in Sicily

Gentile then rose to a top-level position in the Sicilian Mafia and was one of the mob figures who collaborated with the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, helping the military set up a new civil administration in return for being appointed to prominent positions in local government.

He became involved with a Sicilian separatist movement and claimed to have been approached by a US special agent to rally support for the monarchy in the referendum on June 2, 1946.

When Lucky Luciano was extradited to Italy in 1946, he also is said to have been a collaborator with the US military. In Sicily he was again able to team up with Gentile and questions have been raised since over how he and Gentile had the freedom to organise drug trafficking routes to the US.

Quite why, in 1963, Gentile decided to write his memoirs, with the help of Italian journalist Felice Chilanti, is not clear.  In describing the internal organization of the Mafia, or l'onorata società - the Honoured Society - as Gentile called it, he ignored the code of omertà in a way not seen until the pentito Tommaso Buscetta began to reveal secrets more than 20 years later.

Ultimately, the American law enforcement agencies used the detail in Gentile’s book to corroborate the evidence of another repentant mobster, Joe Valachi, who told them that Gentile’s descriptions were accurate.

The marina area at Siculiana is part of an unspoilt stretch
of Sicilian coastline in the southeast of the island

Travel tip:

Siculiana, a town thought to have Greek and Arab roots, is situated on the south-facing coast of the island, about 24km (15 miles) from Agrigento. The Chiaramonte family built a castle, parts of which are still visible, on the ruins of an Arab fortress that was destroyed in 1087 during the conquest of Sicily by the Normans. A 13km (8 miles) stretch of unspoilt coastline northwest of Siculiana is now a protected nature reserve.

A view across the port of Porto Empedocle, where
Andrea Camilleri based his Montalbano novels

Travel tip:

Only 13km (8 miles) from Siculiana along the coast in the other direction, on the way to Agrigento, is Porto Empedocle, the birthplace of the author Andrea Camilleri and the port town on which he based Vigàta, the fictional home of his famous detective, Inspector Montalbano. Camilleri’s Montalbano books have become international best-sellers, with many of them turned into episodes of the crime drama TV series starring Luca Zingaretti as Montalbano. Many scenes from the TV series were filmed around Porto Empedocle, which has now changed its name to Porto Empedocle Vigàta to encourage Camilleri fans to visit the area.

More reading:

How Charles 'Lucky' Luciano became one of organised crime's most powerful figures

Andrea Camilleri - the creator of Inspector Montalbano

The story of anti-mafia crusader Giovanni Falcone


Also on this day:

1675: The death of Charles Emmanuel II, notorious Duke of Savoy

1922: The birth of astrophysicist Margherita Hack

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Giovanni Antonio Giay – composer

Opera composer also wrote religious music for the Savoy family

Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy, who invited Giay
 to become maestro di cappella at the royal chapel

Opera and music composer Giovanni Antonio Giay was born on this day in 1690 in Turin.

A protégée of Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy, Giay sometimes spelt Giai or Giaj, wrote 15 operas, five symphonies and a large quantity of sacred music for the royal chapel of Turin Cathedral.

Giay’s father, Stefano Giuseppe Giay, who was a chemist, died when Giovanni Antonio was just five years old.

At the age of ten, Giovanni Antonio became the first member of his family to study music when he entered the Collegio degli Innocenti at Turin Cathedral to study under Francesco Fasoli.

Giay’s first opera, Il trionfo d’amore o sia La Fillide, was premiered at the original Teatro Carignano during the Carnival of 1715.

At the invitation of Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy, Giay became maestro di cappella at the royal chapel in Turin in 1732, succeeding Andrea Stefano Fiore.

Charles Emmanuel III liked art and music and reintroduced feasting and celebrations in Turin that had previously been abolished by his predecessors.

Giay's son, Francesco Saverio, took
over his father's role in Turin

The composer produced a great deal of religious music for the chapel but continued to write opera as well.

His intermezzo, Don Chisciotte in Venezia, which was written in about 1748, had lyrics by Giuseppe Baretti, a controversial poet and writer from Turin, who was later tried for murder in London.

The lyrics feature Miguel Cervantes’ characters Don Quixote and Dulcinea, with the action taking place during the carnival of Venice.

Giay remained in the post of maestro di cappella for 26 years until his death in 1764 in Turin.

He was succeeded as maestro by his son, Francesco Saverio Giay, who went on to hold the post for the next 34 years.

Turin Cathedral, where Giay studied and was later
appointed maestro di cappella

Travel tip:

Turin Cathedral, where Giay studied music and was maestro di cappella, was built between 1491 and 1498 in Piazza San Giovanni in Turin. The Chapel of the Holy Shroud, where the Turin Shroud is kept, was added in 1668. Some members of the House of Savoy are buried in the Duomo while others are buried in the Basilica di Superga on the outskirts of the city.

Teatro Carignano is believed to be
 more than 300 years old

Travel tip:

Teatro Carignano in Turin, where Giay’s first opera had its premiere, is one of the oldest and most important theatres in Italy and is believed to date back to 1711, although it has been rebuilt several times over the centuries. Today it is owned by the city of Turin and is used mainly to stage plays. The main entrance is in Piazza Carignano in the heart of ‘royal’ Turin.

Also on this day:

1611: The birth of Baroque artist Antonio Cifrondi

1956: The death of Corrado Alvaro, award-winning writer and journalist

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Carlo Ancelotti - football manager

Four-times winner of the Champions League

Carlo Ancelotti in the Milan colours in which he twice won
European football's top prize as both a player and a manager

Carlo Ancelotti, a former top-level player who has become one of football’s most accomplished managers, was born on this day in 1959 in Reggiolo, a small town in Emilia-Romagna.

With Real Madrid's defeat of Liverpool in the 2022 final, he became the only manager to have won the UEFA Champions League four times - twice with AC Milan and twice with Real Madrid. He is also the only coach to have managed teams in five finals.

Ancelotti, who has managed title-winning teams in four countries, is also one of only seven to have won the European Cup or Champions League as a player and gone on to do so as a manager too.

As a boy, Ancelotti often helped his father, Giuseppe, who made and sold cheese for a living, in the fields on the family farm, which is where he claims he acquired his appreciation of hard work.

But despite the cheeses of Emilia-Romagna having international renown, especially the famous Parmigiana-Reggiano, he saw how his father struggled to make enough money to feed his family and vowed to make more of his own life.

Ancelotti is one of the most accomplished
coaches in world football

His talent for football, allied to that work ethic, enabled him to fulfil that promise.

After playing for his local youth team in Reggiolo, Ancelotti was snapped up as a teenager by Parma, making his debut in Serie C - the third tier in Italian football - in the 1976–77 season, at the age of 18. His two goals in the decisive play-off earned the gialloblu promotion to Serie B the following year.

He joined Roma in 1979, staying in the capital for eight trophy-laden seasons, winning the Coppa Italia four times and his first Serie A title in 1983, under the great Swedish coach Nils Liedholm.

Then came six seasons with Arrigo Sacchi’s magnificent AC Milan team, which won the Scudetto - the Serie A title - in 1988, and the European Cup in both 1989 and 1990. He won his third Scudetto when Fabio Capello replaced Sacchi as manager.

An efficient and assiduous midfield player, he could create goals and score them, which earned him a place in the Italian national team, although injuries restricted him to 26 senior caps and caused him to miss the 1982 and 1986 World Cups as well as the Olympics in Seoul in 1988.  He did win a bronze medal as part of the Azzurri squad at the 1990 World Cup on home soil.

As a mentor to several future top-class players, including Giuseppe Giannini, Demetrio Albertini and Andrea Pirlo, Ancelotti displayed burgeoning man-management skills even while still a player.

Ancelotti with the Champions League trophy after winning
it for the third time with Real Madrid in 2014

Persistent knee injuries forced him to quit at the age of 33. He moved immediately into coaching with the Italian Football Federation at the national training headquarters at Coverciano, near Florence, where he rose to be assistant to his former Milan manager Arrigo Sacchi on the Azzurri coaching staff as Italy reached the final of the 1994 World Cup.

Ancelotti stepped on to the club management ladder in familiar territory with Reggiana in Serie B in 1995. He had to wait seven years for his first major trophy, but claimed the biggest prize first as AC Milan, his fourth club after Reggiana, Parma and Juventus, won the 2002-03 Champions League final, defeating Juventus in the final on penalties.

Now major trophies came thick and fast: a Serie A title with Milan in 2004 and a second Champions League in 2007, when victory over Liverpool in the final in Athens made up for the catastrophe of losing the 2005 final to the same opponents in Istanbul after being 3-0 up at half-time.

The Stadio San Paolo in Naples, where Ancelotti takes
up his next management position in July

Moving to England, he led Chelsea to a Premier League-FA Cup double in 2009-10, won the French Ligue 1 title with Paris St Germain in 2013, followed by a third Champions League with Spanish giants Real Madrid in 2014.

After taking some time off for a back operation, Ancelotti resurfaced at Bayern Munich, where he succeeded Pep Guardiola and led the German giants to their fifth consecutive Bundesliga title. But lack of success in the Champions League led to his dismissal in September 2017.

He later had spells with Napoli back in Italy and Everton in England, before returning to Real Madrid in 2021.

Having been with his first wife, Luisa, for 25 years before they divorced in 2008, Ancelotti is now married to the Canadian businesswoman Barrena McClay, whom he met while they were both working in London. He has two children, Katia and Davide, from his first marriage. Davide was on his father’s coaching staff at Bayern Munich.

(Updated on 09-06-22)

The Rocca di Reggiolo in Ancelotti's home town

Travel tip:

Ancelotti’s home town of Reggiolo is close to the border of Emilia-Romagna and Veneto, about 32km (20 miles) north of Reggio Emilia in the Padana plain. It is the same distance from Mantua in the Veneto and was the frequent target of attacks between the 12th and 14th centuries, when Mantua and Reggio disputed possession. This led to the construction of the impressive walled castle that remains the town’s main feature.

Piazza San Prospero in Reggio Emilia often hosts a market

Travel tip:

Although the city of Reggio Emilia is often described as the home of Italy's world famous hard cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano - known in English as Parmesan - is thought to have originated in the commune of Bibbiano, in the Reggio Emilia province, about 15km (9 miles) to the southeast.  The province is also believed to have given Italy its tricolore national flag, with evidence that a short-lived 18th century republic, the Repubblica Cispadana, had a flag of red, white and green.  The city lacks the cultural wealth of neighbouring Parma and is consequently less visited but it has an attractive historic centre with a number of notable buildings, including the Basilica della Ghiara and the 10th century Basilica di San Prospero, which overlooks the elegant Piazza of the same name.

More reading:

How Arrigo Sacchi started a tactical and technical revolution in Italian football

The genius of Andrea Pirlo

Coaching veteran Fabio Capello has won Serie A five times

Also on this day:

1918: The death of writer and composer Arrigo Boito

1940: Italy enters the Second World War

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The death of Nero

Brutal emperor killed himself with help of aide

The bust of Nero in the Capitoline
Museum in Rome

The Roman emperor Nero, whose rule was associated with extravagance and brutality, died on this day in 68 AD in what would now be described as an assisted suicide.

Effectively deposed as emperor when simultaneous revolts in the Gallic and Spanish legions coincided with the Praetorian Guard rising against him, with Galba named as his successor, Nero fled Rome, seeking refuge from one of his few remaining loyalists.

Phaon, an imperial freedman, gave him the use of a villa four miles outside Rome along Via Salaria, where he hastened, under disguise, along with Phaon and three other freedmen, Epaphroditos, Neophytus, and Sporus.

Nero had hoped to escape to Egypt but realised there was no one left to provide the means and asked the four freedmen to begin digging his grave, in readiness for his death by suicide.

In the meantime, the Senate had declared Nero a public enemy. As well as ordering the executions of numerous rivals, real or perceived, and even having his mother and two wives killed, Nero made many enemies through unpopular policies and confiscation of property.

He was suspected of starting the great fire that destroyed much of Rome in 64 AD in order to create space to build the vast Domus Aurea - a complex of palaces and pavilions in a landscaped park with an artificial lake and a gigantic bronze statue of himself. Nero blamed the fire on the small community of Christians, many of whom were put to death.

This bust of Nero can be found in the
Summer Garden in St Petersburg, Russia

Nero had been unable to keep his hiding place a secret and soon a courier arrived with news of the Senate’s declaration and their intention to have him beaten to death in the Forum. Armed men had been despatched to apprehend him.

Nero was famous for his love of the theatre, which largely involved him performing on the stage quite literally in front of a captive audience, with the doors of the theatre locking the audience in.  But, according to legend, when it came to the ultimate drama of taking his own life he was found wanting and begged one of his freedmen to help. Out of loyalty, Epaphroditos obliged and plunged a knife into the emperor’s chest.

It had the desired effect. When soldiers arrived, Nero was dying and attempts to stop his bleeding so that he could be returned alive to meet his fate failed.

Ironically, after the soldiers had been despatched, the debate in the Senate had continued and Nero might have been spared.

He was the last member of the revered Julio-Claudian dynasty and many of the senators felt a loyalty to the bloodline, if not to Nero himself, who had no heir. There was talk of a compromise that would preserve Nero's life, at least so a future heir to the dynasty could be produced.

Thus the line ended after 95 years. In the interests of maintaining public order, the Senate did posthumously declare Nero a public enemy.

Galba was proclaimed the new emperor, precipitating the chaos of what became known as the year of the Four Emperors.

Nero was buried in the Mausoleum of the Domitii Ahenobarbi, in what is now the Pincian Hill area of Rome, where the Villa Borghese stands.

The small side arches of the Ponte Salario are thought to
be part of the original Roman structure

Travel tip:

The Via Salaria ran from Porta Salaria in Rome’s Aurelian Walls to what was then Castrum Truentinum - Porto d'Ascoli today - on the Adriatic coast, a distance of 242 km (150 miles), passing through Reate (Rieti) and Asculum (Ascoli Piceno). It was originally built for the transportation of salt. Today, Via Salaria (SS4) is a state highway that runs more or less on the same path from Rome to the Adriatic sea. The remains of a number of Roman bridges along the route still exist, including the Ponte Salario, which crosses the Aniene, a tributary of the Tiber, just outside Rome. The bridge has been rebuilt and altered over the years but there are visible side arches which are thought to be from the original structure, built in the first century BC.

Hotels in Rome by Booking.com

One of the rooms in the rediscovered and
partially restored Domus Aurea

Travel tip:

After Nero’s death, the Domus Aurea - Golden House - was stripped of its treasures, with its marble, jewels and ivory removed. The vast complex was filled with earth and built over. The Baths of Titus, the Flavian Amphitheatre, the Colossus Neronis, the Baths of Trajan and the Temple of Venus and Rome were all built on the site, obliterating all visible trace of the Golden House. It was rediscovered during the Renaissance, when a young man fell down a hole on the site and found himself in the cavernous, subterranean rooms of Nero’s palace. It was discovered that beautiful, intricate frescoes remained, preserved from dampness by the buildings above. Since then, various restoration projects have taken place and are ongoing, with guided tours of parts of the complex now available.

Also on this day:

1311: Duccio's Maestà altarpiece in the Cathedral of Siena is unveiled

1898: The birth of Luigi Fagioli, the oldest driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix

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