13 March

Bruno Conti - World Cup winner

Roma star was key figure for Azzurri in 1982 victory

The former footballer - now coach - Bruno Conti, who played a starring role as Italy won the World Cup in Spain in 1982, was born on this day in 1955 in Nettuno, a seaside resort south of Rome. A winger with extravagant skills, Conti became an increasingly influential figure as the Azzurri campaign in 1982 gathered momentum after a slow start. He scored Italy’s goal against Peru in the first group stage, before playing superbly as the Azzurri upset the odds in the second group stage by knocking out Argentina and Brazil. As Italy beat West Germany 3-1 in the final, the AS Roma star was one of the men of the match, playing a part in two of the three goals after earlier winning a penalty. Read more…

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Corrado Gaipa – actor and voice dubber

From The Godfather to voice of Alec Guinness

The respected character actor and voice dubber Corrado Gaipa was born on this day in 1925 in Palermo. His versatility as a voice actor brought him considerable work at a time when Italian cinema audiences much preferred to watch dubbed versions of mainstream English-language films rather than hear the original soundtrack with subtitles. Gaipa’s voice replaced that of Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy.  He was also heard dubbing Spencer Tracy in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Burt Lancaster in The Leopard, Telly Savalas in The Dirty Dozen and Lee J Cobb in The Exorcist. As an actor in his own right, he worked with many leading directors in Italian cinema, including Francesco Rosi and Vittorio Gassman. His most famous role was probably that of Don Tommasino in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. Read more...

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Ligabue - record-breaking rock star

Musician and writer once dubbed 'Italy's Springsteen'

Rock musician Luciano Ligabue - known simply as Ligabue - was born on this day in 1960. Once dubbed ‘Italy’s Springsteen’, he has been hugely successful in his own country but has never managed to achieve true international recognition. Yet such is his popularity in Italy that a Ligabue concert held on a stage erected on Reggio Emilia's airfield in 2005 attracted an audience of 180,000, a European record for a paid-for event headlined by a single artist. He has played before audiences of more than 110,000 at the Giuseppe Meazza football stadium in Milan -- the home of Internazionale and AC Milan -- and has twice repeated the so-called Campovolo event in Reggio Emilia. In September 2015, a concert to celebrate Ligabue's 25 years in the music business sold 150,000 tickets, setting another record as the most lucrative single music concert in Italian history, with proceeds of around €7 million. Read more...

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Flavia Cacace - dancer

Star of Strictly Come Dancing famous for Argentine Tango

The dancer Flavia Cacace, who found fame through the British hit television show, Strictly Come Dancing, was born on this day in 1980 in Naples. She and professional partner Vincent Simone, who is from Puglia, performed on the show for seven seasons from 2006 to 2012. The show, which has been mimicked in more than 50 countries across the world, including Italy and the United States, pairs celebrities with professional dancers, combining Latin and ballroom dances in a competition lasting several months. Cacace, who was runner-up in 2007 with British actor Matt d'Angelo, left the show as champion in 2012 after she and the British Olympic gymnast Louis Smith won the final, which was watched by an estimated 13.35 million viewers. Read more…

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Bruno Conti - World Cup winner

Roma star was key figure for Azzurri in 1982 victory

Bruno Conti played almost 400 times
for Roma over 18 years

The former footballer - now coach - Bruno Conti, who played a starring role as Italy won the World Cup in Spain in 1982, was born on this day in 1955 in Nettuno, a seaside resort south of Rome.

A winger with extravagant skills, Conti became an increasingly influential figure as the Azzurri campaign in 1982 gathered momentum after a slow start.

He scored Italy’s goal against Peru in the first group stage, a fine shot into the top right-hand corner from 20 yards (18m), although as a team Italy were not at their best and failed to win any of their opening three matches, scraping into the second group phase only by virtue of having scored more goals than Cameroon, who finished with the same number of points.

But the second phase saw a transformation as Italy defied the odds to beat the holders Argentina and the multi-talented Brazil team of Socrates, Zico and Falcao who had started the tournament as hot favourites.

Although the striker Paolo Rossi ultimately took the headlines with his hat-trick against Brazil, Conti played superbly in both matches, his runs and turns posing problems repeatedly for the opposition defence.

The Italy team which won the 1982 World Cup in Spain,
upsetting the odds by knocking out Argentina and Brazil

Italy defeated Poland in the semi-final before putting together another superb performance to beat West Germany 3-1 in the final in Madrid, after which Conti was proclaimed as man of the match by the great Brazilian Pele, who thought he had been the best player of the tournament.

In the final, he won a penalty in the first half, which Antonio Cabrini failed to convert, played a part in Marco Tardelli’s goal - the second of the Azzurri three, all in the second half - and created the third for Alessandro Altobelli when his run led a storming counter-attack.

Throughout the tournament, Conti had been given the nickname Mara-Zico by his fans, who said that he had the skills of both Argentina’s Diego Maradona and Brazil’s Zico.

Conti took a while to be accepted
because of his small stature

His more familiar nickname, coined by his supporters at home, was ‘Mayor of Rome’, which was a reflection of his loyalty to AS Roma, the club he joined as a boy and for whom he still works today, as head of the youth development section.

The son of a bricklayer and one of seven children, Bruno excelled at baseball as well as football as a child but grew up as a Roma fan, following the example of his father, Andrea, who declared himself to be “the happiest man in the world” when his boy became a Roma player.

After shining with Roma’s youth teams, he made his senior debut in Serie A at the age of just 18.

His career with the giallorossi was not always plain sailing.  Because of his small stature - he is only 5ft 7ins (1.69m) tall - there were doubts about whether he was physically strong enough. He was selected for the first team only a handful of times in his first two seasons before being sent away to play for Genoa in Serie B, on loan, winning his first medal as the Ligurian team won the Serie B title.

The experience helped him nail a place in the Roma team for the 1976-77 season, although not firmly enough not be sent out on loan to Genoa for a second time.

Bruno Conti is now in charge of AS Roma's
youth development programmes

However, when he came back, Roma had recently appointed Nils Liedholm as their manager and Conti became an integral part of the Swede’s team. The winger thrived with the confidence shown in him and his consistently outstanding form not only made him a favourite with the Roma fans, helping them win the Coppa Italia in consecutive seasons, but a player the national coach Enzo Bearzot identified as integral to his plans for the World Cup in Spain.

Returning to domestic football after Italy’s triumph, he helped Roma win the 1982-83 scudetto - their first domestic title for more than 40 years - and reach the final of the European Cup the following year.

By coincidence, the Stadio Olimpico - the stadium Roma share with SS Lazio - had been chosen to host the final that year. Hopes of a giallorossi victory on home soil were dashed, however, when Roma were unable to beat opponents Liverpool in either normal or extra time and the trophy was decided on a penalty shoot-out, won by the English team with Conti, who had been one of Roma’s better players, being one of the unfortunate ones who missed his kick.

In total, Conti made almost 400 appearances in a Roma shirt and 47 for the azzurri, playing also in the 1986 World Cup finals, when Italy were knocked out in the round of 16. When he retired from playing in 1991 he remained with Roma on the coaching staff, including a stint as first-team coach in the 2004-05 season, during which the team reached the Coppa Italia final.

Conti and his wife Laura have two sons Daniele and Andrea, who are both professional footballers. Inducted into the AS Roma Hall of Fame in 2012, he is regarded by fans as one of the club’s all-time greats.

The beach at Nettuno, Conti's home town, with the
historic 500-year-old Forte Sangallo in the foreground

Travel tip:

Nettuno is a resort town on the coast of Lazio, about 68km (42 miles) southwest of Rome, almost adjoining the port of Anzio, where Allied forces famously landed in 1944 during the invasion that precipitated the end of the Second World War in Italy. Nettuno itself has a large harbour for private boats, plus a well-preserved historic centre, the Borgo Medievale, with charming streets and small squares, and the Forte Sangallo, a castle built in 1503 by Renaissance architect Antonio da Sangallo the Elder on behalf of the Borgia pope Alexander VI.

Search Booking.com for a selection of Nettuno hotels

The Stadio Olimpico in Rome has hosted four finals of
the European Cup and Champions League

Travel tip:

Rome's Stadio Olimpico - the Olympic Stadium - was built between 1928 and 1938 as part of the Foro Mussolini (now Foro Italico), a sports complex Mussolini hoped would enable Rome to host the 1944 Olympics had they taken place.  Originally named Stadio dei Cipressi and later Stadio dei Centomila, it was renamed when Rome won the bidding process for the 1960 Games, pipping the Swiss city of Lausanne.  Rebuilt for the 1990 football World Cup, in which it hosted the final, it has also hosted four European Cup and Champions League finals.

More reading:

How the pipe-smoking Enzo Bearzot plotted Italy's unlikely triumph in the 1982 World Cup

Marco Tardelli - immortalised for that celebration

Francesco Graziani - the other Roma player who missed his penalty against Liverpool

Also on this day:

1925: The birth of Godfather actor Corrado Gaipa

1960: The birth of rock star Luciano Ligabue

1980: The birth of dancer Flavia Cacace


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12 March

Gianni Agnelli - business giant

Head of Fiat more powerful than politicians

The businessman Gianni Agnelli, who controlled the Italian car giant Fiat for 40 years until his death in 2003, was born on this day in 1921 in Turin. Under his guidance, Fiat - Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino, founded by his grandfather, Giovanni Agnelli, in 1899 - became so huge in the 1990s that literally every other car on Italy's roads was produced in one of their factories. The company diversified into newspapers and publishing, insurance companies, food manufacture, engineering and construction with such success that at one time Agnelli controlled more than a quarter of the companies on the Milan stock exchange. With a personal fortune estimated at between $2 billion and $5 billion, he became one of the most influential figures in Italy, arguably more powerful than any politician.  Read more…

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Gabriele D’Annunzio – writer and patriot

Military hero influenced Mussolini with his distinctive style

Poet, playwright and political leader Gabriele D’Annunzio was born on this day in 1863 in Pescara in Abruzzo. He is considered to be the leading writer in Italy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as being a military hero and a political activist. Some of his ideas and actions were believed to have influenced Italian Fascism and the style of the dictator, Benito Mussolini. His first poetry was published when he was just 16 and the novels that made him famous came out in his twenties. His extravagant lifestyle once meant he had to flee to France because of his debts but he returned when Italy entered the First World War, lost an eye in combat while serving with the air force and in 1919 to popular acclaim took about 300 supporters to claim the port of Fiume - now in Croatia and which the Allies were proposing to incorporate into the new state of Yugoslavia - on behalf of Italy. Read more…

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Pietro Andrea Mattioli – doctor

The first botanist to describe the tomato

Doctor and naturalist Pietro Andrea Mattioli was born on this day in 1501 in Siena. As the author of an illustrated work on botany, Mattioli provided the first documented example of an early variety of tomato that was being grown and eaten in Europe. He is also believed to have described the first case of cat allergy, when one of his patients was so sensitive to cats that if he went into a room where there was a cat he would react with agitation, sweating and pallor. After receiving his medical degree at the University of Padua in 1523, he practised his profession in Siena, Rome, Trento and Gorizia. Later, he became the personal physician to Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, in Prague and to Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, in Vienna. Read more…

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11 March

Franco Basaglia - psychiatrist

Work led to closure of mental hospitals by law

The psychiatrist Franco Basaglia, whose work ultimately led to changes in the law that resulted in the closure and dismantling of Italy’s notorious psychiatric hospitals, was born on this day in 1924 in Venice. As the founder of the Democratic Psychiatry movement and the main proponent of Law 180 - Italy's Mental Health Act of 1978 - which abolished mental hospitals, he is considered to be the most influential Italian psychiatrist of the 20th century. His Law 180 - also known as Basaglia’s Law - was passed in the Italian parliament after Basaglia had convinced law makers that many psychiatric patients could be treated in the community rather than be detained in barbaric institutions. It had a worldwide impact as other countries took up the Italian model and reformed their own way of dealing with the mentally ill. Read more...

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Torquato Tasso – poet

Troubled Renaissance writer came back to Sorrento

Torquato Tasso, who has come to be regarded as the greatest Italian poet of the Renaissance, was born on this day in 1544 in Sorrento. Tasso’s most famous work was his epic poem La Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) in which he gives an imaginative account of the battles between Christians and Muslims at the end of the first crusade during the siege of Jerusalem. He was one of the most widely read poets in Europe and his work was later to prove inspirational for other writers who followed him, in particular the English poets Spencer and Byron. The house where Tasso was born is in Sorrento’s historic centre and now forms part of the Imperial Hotel Tramontano, where the words for the beautiful song, Torna a Surriento, were written by Giambattista De Curtis in 1902. Read more…

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Rigoletto debuts at La Fenice

Verdi opera staged after battle with censors

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto was performed for the first time on this day in 1851 in Venice. It enjoyed a triumphant first night at La Fenice opera house, where the reaction of the audience was particularly gratifying for the composer and his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, after a long-running battle to satisfy the censors. Northern Italy was controlled by the Austrian Empire at the time and a strict censorship process applied to all public performances. Verdi had to make substantial changes to his narrative, based on a play by Victor Hugo's play, Le roi s'amuse, which depicted King Francis I of France as a licentious womaniser and was banned after just one night when it had premiered in Paris, in order to be granted the Austrians’ approval. Read more…

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Sidney Sonnino – politician

Minister who pushed Italy to switch sides in World War One

Sidney Sonnino, the politician who was Italy’s influential Minister of Foreign Affairs during the First World War, was born on this day in 1847 in Pisa. Sonnino led two short-lived governments in the early 1900s but it was as Foreign Affairs Minister in 1914 that he made his mark on Italian history, advising prime minister Antonio Salandra to side with the Entente powers – France, Great Britain and Russia – in the First World War, abandoning its Triple Alliance partnership with Germany and Austria-Hungary. His motives were entirely driven by self-interest. A committed irredentist who saw the war as an opportunity to expand Italy's borders by reclaiming former territory, he reasoned that Austria-Hungary was unlikely to give back parts of Italy it had seized previously. Read more…

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