Natale – Christmas Day

Celebrating Christmas the Italian way

A Christmas tree in Piazza Vecchia in the historic 
northern Italian city of Bergamo

Christmas Day in Italy is the culmination of a celebration that - officially, at least - begins on 8 December with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, at which point towns light up their Christmas illuminations and trees are erected in public squares.

It also sees nativity scenes - called presepi in Italian - unveiled in many towns and cities, a tradition that goes back to 1223, when St Francis of Assisi, inspired by being shown the birthplace of Jesus on a trip to the Holy Land, ordered the creation of a scene representing the birth as a focal point for worship. A local cave was the setting, with straw spread on the floor, a crib placed in the corner and a live donkey, ox and a dozen peasants representing the principles in the scene. 

Although living participants have been replaced by model figures for the most part, the stable scene remains at the heart of the idea.  Specialist model-makers have made an industry out of creating presepi figurines, with Naples a notable centre.

Just as in many other countries, Christmas itself is celebrated around food.

Large nativity scenes go on display in town
and city centres across Italy

La Vigilia di Natale - Christmas Eve - is marked by Cenone di Natale, a Christmas supper usually comprising several fish courses followed by a dessert of panettone, the Italian Christmas bread, or perhaps cannoli, which are pastries consisting of a tube of fried dough stuffed with a sweet, creamy made from ricotta cheese.  After the meal, many adults walk to the local church to welcome in Christmas at midnight mass. 

Likewise, Christmas Day itself is one of feasting, based around a lunchtime meal. While the children open their presents, the adults savour a glass of good Prosecco or uncork a special vintage bottle while they prepare the festive table.

Friends and relatives who drop in with presents or to exchange good wishes will be offered a glass of wine and nuts, biscuits or torrone (a type of nougat from Cremona).

Antipasti is likely to include Parma ham or bresaola, served with preserved mushrooms, olives or pickled vegetables.

Stuffed pasta is usually served as a first course, either in the shape of ravioli or tortellini, which are said to have been offered as Christmas gifts to priests and monks during the 12th century. In the south a baked pasta dish is often served.

For the main course, turkey or capon is likely to be served in the north of Italy, with potatoes and vegetables as side dishes. Veal, beef and chicken might be served in the south.

The traditional end to the meal is almost always panettone, served warm accompanied by a glass of sparkling wine or Prosecco. 

Salute e Buon Natale from Italy On This Day!

Torrone, the nougat made in Cremona

Travel tip:

Cremona in Lombardia is famous for producing confectionery. Negozio Sperlari in Via Solferino specialises in the city’s famous torrone (nougat). The concoction of almonds, honey and egg whites was created in the city to mark the marriage of Bianca Maria Visconti to Francesco Sforza in 1441, when Cremona was given to the bride as part of her dowry.

Panettone is believed to have
originated in Milan

Travel tip:

Milan, the main city in Lombardia, is believed to be where panettone originated.  It is said to have been concoted by a Milanese baker, Antonio (Toni), to impress his girlfriend at Christmas time in the 15th century. The result was so successful that ‘Pane de Toni’ has become a regular feature of the Christmas season all over Italy and now even abroad.

On this day:

800: Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor

1874: The birth of soprano Lina Cavalieri

1988: The birth of singer-songwriter Marco Mengoni

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25 December

Marco Mengoni - singer-songwriter

X-Factor victory was launchpad to stardom

The singer-songwriter Marco Mengoni, who rose to fame after winning the Italian version of the TV talent show The X-Factor, was born on this day in 1988 in Ronciglione in northern Lazio.  Mengoni triumphed in the 2009 edition - the third series of X-Factor on the public service channel Rai Due before it was bought up by subscription channel Sky Italia - during which he unveiled what would be his debut single, Dove si vola, which he sang for the first time at the semi-final stage.  The single, an example of the sophisticated pop-rock style that would become Mengoni’s trademark,  reached number one in the Italian downloads chart while a seven-track extended play album of the same name sold 70,000 copies, peaking at nine in the Italian albums chart.  Mengoni’s performances on The X-Factor had received favourable comments from both Mina and Adriano Celentano, the all-time bestselling artists in Italian popular music history.  The prize for winning The X-Factor was a recording contract with a value of €300,000 and automatic selection for the 2010, Sanremo Music Festival 2010, in which he finished third with Credimi ancora.   Read more…

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Lina Cavalieri – soprano

Christmas Day baby became singing beauty

Singer and actress Lina Cavalieri was born Natalina - meaning 'Little Christmas' - Cavalieri on this day in 1874, in Viterbo in Lazio.  During her career she starred opposite Enrico Caruso in operas and earned the title of ‘the world’s most beautiful woman', while many of her female contemporaries tried to attain her hour-glass figure by using tight-laced corsetry.  Raised as one of five children in humble circumstances, she was expected to work to supplement the family income.  To this end, she sold flowers and sang on the streets of Rome.  After a music teacher heard her singing, she was offered some music lessons.  Subsequently, she found work as a café singer and then in theatres in Rome.  Increasingly popular both for her voice and her physical beauty, she made her way from Rome first to Vienna and then Paris where she performed in music halls including the Folies-Bergère and worked with singing coaches to develop her voice.  The progression to opera came in 1900, when she made her debut in Lisbon as Nedda in Pagliacci, by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It was in the same year that she married her first husband, the Russian Prince, Alexandre Bariatinsky, whom she had met in Paris.  Read more…

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Charlemagne – Holy Roman Emperor

Christmas Day crowning for the Pope’s supporter

Charlemagne, the King of the Franks and the Lombards, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor on this day in 800 in the old St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  He was the first recognised emperor in Western Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier and has been referred to as the ‘father of Europe’ because he united most of Europe for the first time since the days of the Roman Empire, including parts that had never been under Roman rule.  Charlemagne was the son of Pepin the Short and became King of the Franks when his father died in 768, initially as co-ruler with his brother Carloman I. When Carloman died suddenly in unexplained circumstances it left Charlemagne as the sole, undisputed ruler of the Frankish Kingdom.  He continued his father’s policy towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards in power from northern Italy and leading an incursion into Muslim Spain. He also campaigned against the Saxons, making them become Christians or face the death penalty. In 799, Pope Leo III was violently mistreated by the Romans and fled to the protection of Charlemagne in Germany.  Read more…

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24 December

NEW - Pier Giorgio Perotto - electronics engineer

Pioneer who designed world’s first personal computer

The engineer Pier Giorgio Perotto, whose Programma 101 machine is seen as the first example of a desktop personal computer, was born on this day in 1930 in Turin.  Perotto invented the Programma 101 in the early 1960s while working for Olivetti, which more than half a century earlier had opened Italy’s first typewriter factory.  The Programma 101, which itself had the appearance of an office typewriter, was really an electronic calculator, but was programmable via information stored on a magnetic strip, which meant it could be instructed to perform a series of calculations in accordance with the needs of the user.  For example, the machine could be programmed to work out tax and other payroll deductions for every employee at a company with the operator needing only to enter the employee’s earnings.  Launched in 1964 and put into production the following year at a price considerably lower than any other computer on the market, the Programma 101 was a great success. In 1969, it was used by NASA in the planning of the Apollo 11 space mission, which saw the first humans set foot on the surface of the moon.  Read more…

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Francesco Cirio - canning pioneer

Market trader whose name became known worldwide

Francesco Cirio, who pioneered the technique of canning food products to preserve their freshness, was born on this day in 1836 in the town of Nizza Monferrato in what is now Piedmont.  His father was a grain trader and Francesco developed entrepreneurial instincts at an early age.  By the age of 14 he was working at the fruit and vegetable market of Porta Palazzo in Turin.  He soon became aware that there was a demand for fresh Italian produce in London and Paris and set up a company to export fruit and vegetables to other cities in Europe.  At the same time he heard about the work of Nicolas Appert, the French confectioner and chef, whose attempts to find ways to preserve food led him to discover that heat could be used as a method of sterilisation and that foods treated in that way could be sealed in cans and would retain their fresh condition for many months.  The method, which became known as Appertisation, was taken up by Cirio, who set up his first canning factory in Turin in 1856 at the age of 20, concentrating first on peas and then achieving similar success with other vegetables.  Read more…

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Lazzaro Ponticelli – war veteran

Wounded soldier survived to set records for longevity

Lazzaro Ponticelli, who became the oldest living man of Italian birth and the oldest man living in France, was born on this day in 1897 in a frazione of Bettola in Emilia-Romagna.  Before his death at the age of 110 years and 79 days, Ponticelli was the last surviving officially recognised veteran of the First World War from France and the last infantry man from its trenches to die.  He had moved to France at the age of eight to join his family who had gone there to find work. At the age of 16, he lied about his age to join the French army in 1914.  Ponticelli was transferred against his will to the Italian army when Italy entered the war the following year. He enlisted in the 3rd Alpini regiment and saw service against the Austro-Hungarian army at Mount Pal Piccolo on the Italian border with Austria.  At one stage he was wounded by a shell but continued firing his machine gun although blood was running into his eyes.  He spoke of a period when fighting ceased for three weeks and the two armies swapped loaves of bread for tobacco and took photographs of each other, as many of them could speak each other's language.  Read more…

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Domenico Sarro – composer

Court choirmaster wrote several important operas

Opera composer Domenico Sarro was born on this day in 1679 in Trani, a seaport north of Bari in Apulia.  He was given the middle name, Natale, which is the Italian word for Christmas.  Sarro is famous for being the composer of Achille in Sciro, the opera chosen for the opening night of the new Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1737.  He studied music from the age of six at Sant’Onofrio, a church near Porta Capuana, one of the ancient city gates of Naples, which at the time was the location of the city’s music conservatory. His first opera, L’opera d’amore, was performed in Naples in 1702.  Sarro was appointed assistant choirmaster to the Neapolitan court in 1702 and by 1706 was having his religious music performed in churches in Naples. He wrote several of what were then referred to as three-act musical dramas, which were performed in theatres and private palaces throughout the city.  Sarro’s opera, Didone abbandonata, was premiered on February 1, 1724 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples. It was the first setting of a major libretto by the writer Pietro Metastasio, who would become the most celebrated librettist of the 18th century.  Read more…

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Vigilia di Natale – Christmas Eve

Feasting on fish the night before Christmas

The day before Christmas, la Vigilia di Natale, is also referred to as ‘the feast of the seven fishes’ in Italy.  It is a tradition that no meat is served on Christmas Eve, but families in many areas will follow the tradition of serving seven fish courses for the evening meal.  Afterwards, many people will go to midnight mass to celebrate the coming of Christ and, in Rome, some will head to St Peter’s Square.  Fish dishes regularly served at the beginning of the meal include baccalà  (salt cod) and frutti di mare (shellfish). In Naples, a popular dish to start the meal is broccoli fried with frutti di mare.  For the pasta course, lasagne with anchovies is popular in the north, while vermicelli with clams (vongole) is often served in the south.'  There are traditionally seven different fish dishes, representing the seven sacraments, on the menu on Christmas Eve. In some areas of southern Italy, in the midnight between 24 and 25 December it is customary for families to stage a procession, at home, led by a candle-bearer followed by the youngest family member carrying a figurine of the baby Jesus, with the rest of the family members following. This procession ends with the placing of the “baby” in the cradle of the family nativity scene.  Read more…

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Pier Giorgio Perotto - electronics engineer

Pioneer who designed world’s first personal computer

Pier Giorgio Perotto spent
many years with Olivetti

The engineer Pier Giorgio Perotto, whose Programma 101 machine is seen as the first example of a desktop personal computer, was born on this day in 1930 in Turin.

Perotto invented the Programma 101 in the early 1960s while working for Olivetti, which more than half a century earlier had opened Italy’s first typewriter factory.

The Programma 101, which itself had the appearance of an office typewriter, was really an electronic calculator, but was programmable via information stored on a magnetic strip, which meant it could be instructed to perform a series of calculations in accordance with the needs of the user.

For example, the machine could be programmed to work out tax and other payroll deductions for every employee at a company with the operator needing only to enter the employee’s earnings.

Launched in 1964 and put into production the following year at a price considerably lower than any other computer on the market, the Programma 101 was a great success. In 1969, it was used by NASA in the planning of the Apollo 11 space mission, which saw the first humans set foot on the surface of the moon.

Although born in Turin, Perotto’s family roots were in Cavaglià, a small town in Piedmont about 55km (34 miles) northeast of Turin in the province of Biella.

Perotto's Programma 101 electronic calculator 
has become a design classic

After graduating in electrical engineering and aeronautical engineering at the Polytechnic of Turin, he joined Fiat, working in the car manufacturer’s  aeronautical research group, performing stress calculations for supersonic aircraft design. These were complex calculations but were still performed largely on hand-operated mechanical calculators. 

In 1957, Perotto left Fiat to join Olivetti, the groundbreaking Italian firm who had launched the country’s first typewriter factory in 1908 and were eager to be pioneers again after watching the development of the first electronic computers in the United States and Britain.

Based at Olivetti’s electronic research laboratory in Barbaricina, near Pisa, Perotto collaborated in the production of the Elea 9003, one of the first fully transistorised mainframe computers in the world, which launched in 1959.

In 1962, he was appointed head of the team working on Programma 101, which was also known as the Perottina, after its owner. Launched in 1964, it took pride of place in Olivetti's stand at the New York business equipment trade show in 1965. Compared with regular electronic computers, which cost from $25,000 upwards, the Programma 101 was a bargain, retailing at just $3,200. By the early 1970s, some 44,000 machines had been sold, mainly on the US market. 

Perotto won the Leonardo da
Vinci Award in 1991

The Programma 101 has since become seen as a design classic. Styled by Marco Bellini, Olivetti's chief design consultant, the machine, which measured about 2ft (61cm) in length and width and 8ins (20cm) in height, is as likely to be seen in a design museum as a technology museum. 

Perotto remained with Olivetti until 1993, having been appointed head of the company’s research and development division in Ivrea in 1967, in which role he led the transformation of the company from a manufacturer of mechanical devices to a major player in electronics and systems. 

Among his subsequent designs was the Olivetti P6060, the first personal computer with integrated floppy-disk drive.

Later, as well as lecturing at the Polytechnic of Turin, Perotto turned to writing, producing numerous books and articles on strategic management and business information technology.   In 1995 he published Programma 101: l'invenzione del personal computer, which was reprinted in 2015, on the 50th anniversary of the project’s fruition. 

Programma 101 also won him the coveted Leonardo da Vinci Award from the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, with which he was presented in 1991.

Married with two sons, Perotto settled in Liguria after his retirement. He died in Genoa in 2002 at the age of 71.

The Sanctuary of Oropa is a UNESCO World
Heritage site on the outskirts of Biella

Travel tip:

The Perotto family’s roots were in Cavaglià, which lies just under 20km (12 miles) south of Biella, an attractive town of almost 45,000 inhabitants in the foothill of the Alps. Its attractions include a Roman baptistery from the early 1000s and the church and convent of San Sebastian. Wool and textiles have been associated with the town since the 13th century and although many of the town’s factories have closed, brands such as Cerruti 1881, Ermenegildo Zegna, Vitale Barberis Canonico and Fila still have production facilities there. The nearby Bo mountain range is an area rich in springs and lakes fed by glaciers. Nearby attractions include the Panoramica Zegna, a mountain road known for its spectacular views, the Bielmonte ski resort and the Burcina nature reserve. The Sanctuary of Oropa, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is a destination for religious pilgrimages.

Ivrea's Duomo, with is neoclassical facade, is
built on the site of a pagan temple

Travel tip:

Ivrea, where Camillo Olivetti established his business that took his name and where Perotto was based for many years, is another Piedmont town, about 20km (12 miles) northwest of Cavaglià, is notable for its 14th century castle and the ruins of a 1st century Roman theatre that would have been able to hold 10,000 spectators. The town’s cathedral, which originated from a church built on the same site in the 4th century, itself at the site of a pagan temple, was reconstructed in around 1000 AD in Romanesque style and, in 1785, rebuilt again in a Baroque style. The current neoclassical facade was added in the 19th century. Ivrea hosts an annual carnival before Easter, which includes the Battle of the Oranges, where teams of locals on foot throw oranges at teams riding in carts.

More reading:

How Camillo Olivetti founded Italy's first typewriter factory

Gianni Agnelli, the Fiat boss more powerful than politicians

The Italian engineer who pioneered alternating current (AC) system

Also on this day:

Vigilia di Natale - Christmas Eve

1679: The birth of composer Domenico Sarro

1836: The birth of canning pioneer Francesco Cirio

1897: The birth of supercentenarian Lazzaro Ponticelli

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