1 July

Clara Gonzaga – noblewoman

Countess from Mantua founded European dynasties

Clara (Chiara) Gonzaga, the eldest daughter of Federico I Gonzaga and Margaret of Bavaria, was born on this day in 1464 in Mantua.  One of her six children became Charles III, Duke of Bourbon and led the imperial army sent by Emperor Charles V against Pope Clement VII in what was to become the Sack of Rome in 1527.  Clara was also to feature as one of the characters in The Heptameron, a collection of 72 short stories written in French by the sister of King Francis I of France, Marguerite of Angouleme, who had been inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron.  Clara had five siblings, including Francesco II Gonzaga, who married Isabella d’Este.  She was married at the age of 17 to Gilbert of Bourbon Montpensier. Four years later he succeeded his father as Count of Montpensier and Dauphin of Auvergne.  Clara and Gilbert had six children, but when she was just 32, Gilbert, who had also become Viceroy of Naples and the Duke of Sessa, died of a fever while in Pozzuoli near Naples, leaving her a widow.  Three years later, Clara acted as a mediator on behalf of her brother Francesco, who was trying to form an alliance with King Louis XII of France in order to protect Mantua.  Read more…

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Gino Meneghetti - career burglar

Pisa-born criminal became legend in Brazil

Gino Amleto Meneghetti, a small-time thief in Italy who became a romanticised figure for his criminal exploits after emigrating to Brazil, was born on this day in 1878 in Pisa.  His early days were spent in a fishing village outside Pisa, but his father could find only low-paid work and moved the family to a different neighbourhood so he could take a job in a ceramics factory.  It was there that Gino fell in with a gang of boys who regularly engaged in petty crime, stealing fruit or chickens or other objects of minimal worth.  The young Meneghetti was arrested for the first time at 11 years of age.  After teenage years spent largely thieving, he made an attempt to change his life, going back to the classroom to learn to be a mechanic and a locksmith.  He found work and saved money, but then decided to move to Marseilles in France to live with an uncle, who owned a restaurant.  It was not a wise move. Like most large commercial ports, there was a seamier side to Marseilles and Meneghetti again fell into bad company.  His next arrest was for a more serious offence - illegal possession of weapons.  Found guilty, he spent some time in prison before being deported to Italy.  To avoid compulsory military service, Meneghetti feigned madness.  Read more…

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Achille Varzi - racing driver

Death on track led to mandatory wearing of crash helmets

Italian motor racing fans were in mourning on this day in 1948 when it was announced that Achille Varzi, whose rivalry with fellow driver Tazio Nuvolari made frequent headlines during the 1930s, had been killed in an accident while practising for the Swiss Grand Prix.  Although the sun was shining, an earlier downpour had left parts of the Bremgarten circuit outside Berne very wet and Varzi’s Alfa Romeo 158 was travelling at 110mph (170kph) when he arrived at a corner that was both wet and oily.  The car spun several times and appeared to be coming to a stop but then flipped over. The helmetless Varzi was crushed beneath the car and died from his injuries at the age of 43.  His death was especially shocking because he was regarded as one of the more cautious drivers. Since beginning his career on two wheels in his teens he had suffered only one major accident, in stark contrast to Nuvolari, whose daredevil tactics led him to have several serious crashes.  Whether Varzi would have survived with better protection is unknown, but his death did prompt motor racing’s governing body, the FIA, to make the wearing of crash helmets by drivers mandatory rather than optional. Read more…

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Alberto Magnelli - abstract painter

Self-taught artist whose work became known as Concrete Art

The abstract painter Alberto Magnelli, who became a leading figure in the Concrete Art movement, was born on this day in 1888 in Florence.  Concrete Art is described as abstract art that is entirely free of any basis in observed reality and that has no symbolic meaning. It had strong geometric elements and clear lines and its exponents insisted the form should eschew impressionism and that a painting should have no other meaning than itself.  The movement took its name from the definition of concrete as an adjective rather than a noun, meaning ‘existing in a material or physical form’.  It became Magnelli’s focus after he moved to Paris in 1931. Until then, he had experimented in various genres.  He was born into a comfortable background in Florence, his father coming from a wealthy family of textile merchants.  He never studied art formally but would spend hours in museums and churches looking at paintings and frescoes. He particularly admired the Renaissance artists Andrea del Castagno, Paolo Uccello, and Piero della Francesca.  Magnelli’s first paintings were landscapes, which he began to produce while on holiday in the Tuscan countryside.  Read more…

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Claudio Saracini – musician

Baroque songs have survived till modern times

Composer Claudio Saracini was born on this day in 1586 in or close to Siena in Tuscany.  He is one of the most highly regarded composers of his time and is known also to have played the lute and been a singer.  He became famous for composing monody, which is secular music for a single voice, and 133 of the songs he wrote in this style have survived till today.  Some of Saracini’s compositions are still recorded, often in collections along with works by other composers of the same era, such as Monteverdi, who is said to have admired him.  Saracini travelled widely and seems to have established useful connections abroad as he dedicated a lot of his music to foreign aristocrats. He also appeared to have absorbed some of the musical styles of the lands he visited in his own compositions.  A unique feature of his work is the influence of folk music, particularly music from the Balkans, which is rarely heard in early Baroque music.  Saracini’s music was all published in Venice between 1614 and 1624, before his death in 1630.  During the 20th century there was renewed interest in his work after it had been neglected for a long time.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Renaissance in Italy: A Social And Cultural History Of The Rinascimento, by Guido Ruggiero

The Renaissance in Italy: A Social And Cultural History Of The Rinascimento offers a rich and exciting new way of thinking about the Italian Renaissance as both a historical period and a historical movement. Guido Ruggiero's work is based on archival research and new insights of social and cultural history and literary criticism, with a special emphasis on everyday culture, gender, violence and sexuality. The book offers a vibrant and relevant critical study of a period too long burdened by anachronistic and outdated ways of thinking about the past. Familiar, yet alien; pre-modern, but suggestively post-modern; attractive and troubling, this book returns the Italian Renaissance to center stage in our past and in our historical analysis.

Guido Ruggiero is a preeminent specialist in the history of Italy, from the 14th to 17th centuries. He is Emeritus Professor of History and Cooper Fellow of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami.

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30 June

NEW - Latina - Fascist architectural showcase

First stone laid in city that rose from a swamp

The project to build the city of Latina in Lazio began with the laying of the first foundation stone on this day in 1932.  Originally called Littoria, a name derived from the fascio littorio, an ancient Roman symbol of power adopted by Benito Mussolini, Latina was built on land that was previously part of the virtually uninhabitable Pontine Marshes, south of Rome.  The Pontine Marshes was a vast swampland that had covered an area of more than 180 square miles (446 sq km) between the Volscian Mountains, the Alban Hills and the Tyrrhenian Sea for more than two thousand years.  The area was totally infested with malaria-carrying mosquitoes, whose presence made the disease so rife that anyone who visited the area was almost certain to catch it.  The northern extremities of the area were little more than 70km (42 miles) from the capital and frequent outbreaks of malaria in Rome in the early 1930s forced the Fascist government to take action and implement a plan to drain the area, reclaim it as productive agricultural land and build new cities.  They recruited an army of workers to clear scrubland, build canals, dykes and pumping stations, and build five new cities. Read more…

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First Martyrs' Day

Nero blamed Christians for his own crimes

Christians martyred in Rome during the reign of Nero in AD 64 are remembered every year on this day in Italy.  The Catholic Church celebrates the lives of the many men and women put to death by Nero, who are now known as i Primi Martiri, first martyrs of the Church of Rome, with a feast day every year on 30 June.  In the summer of AD 64, Rome was devastated by fire. The unpopular emperor Nero, who wanted to enlarge his palace, was suspected of setting fire to the city himself but he accused the early Christians then living in Rome and had them executed.  Some were fed to wild animals, some crucified, while others were burnt to death to illuminate the sky and provide evening entertainment.  The feast of the First Martyrs came into the Church calendar in 1969 as a general celebration day for the early Roman martyrs. It falls the day after the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul, the patron saints of Rome.  After the fires had cleared the existing buildings away, Nero had an elaborate villa, his Golden House (Domus Aurea), built a short walk away from the Colosseum on Palatine Hill in Rome.   Read more…

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Mario Carotenuto - actor

Roman from theatrical family made more than 100 films

The actor Mario Carotenuto, who became one of the most familiar faces in the commedia all’italiana genre of Italian film, was born on this day in 1916 in Rome.  Carotenuto, who was active in the movie industry for more than 30 years having started in the theatre and on radio, played alongside some of the greats of Italian cinema, including Totò, Alberto Sordi, Vittorio De Sica, Sophia Loren and Monica Vitti.  More often than not, he was cast in supporting roles rather than as the star, yet became respected as one of Italy’s finest character actors in comedy, winning a Nastro d'argento award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of The Professor in Luigi Comencini’s 1973 comedy-drama Lo scopone scientifico - The Scientific Card Player - which starred Sordi, Silvana Mangano and the American Bette Davis.  Carotenuto was born into an acting family. His father, Nello, made a living in Italian silent movies, while his older brother, Memmo, also had a long career in films. His nephew, Bruno, and his niece, Nennella, also entered the acting profession.  He made his stage debut at the age of eight but is said to have had a rebellious nature as a child.  Read more…

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Gianrico Carofiglio - novelist

Ex anti-Mafia judge now bestselling author

The novelist Gianrico Carofiglio, whose books have sold more than five million copies, was born on this day in 1961 in Bari.  Carofiglio is best known for a series of thrillers featuring the character of lawyer Guido Guerrieri but he has also written a number of novels featuring other characters, still mainly in the crime thriller genre.  One of them, his 2004 novel Il passato è una terra straniera (The Past is a Foreign Country), was made into an acclaimed film, directed by Daniele Vicari and starring Elio Germano, who appeared in the multi award-winning TV series Romanzo Criminale, and Michele Riondino, who played Andrea Camilleri’s most famous detective in the TV series The Young Montalbano.  Carofiglio drew inspiration and much technical knowledge from his career as a magistrate, which culminated in him becoming deputy prosecutor in the Anti-Mafia Directorate of his home town, Bari.  He was an advisor to the anti-Mafia committee in the Italian parliament in 2007 and served as senator between 2008 and 2013. For many years, he was provided with a police bodyguard.  Read more…

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Allegra Versace – heiress

‘Favourite niece’ who inherited Gianni fortune

The heiress Allegra Versace, owner of half the Versace fashion empire, was born on this day in 1986 in Milan.  The daughter of Donatella Versace, the company’s chief designer and vice-president, she was the favourite niece of Gianni Versace, who founded the fashion house in 1978.  When Gianni was shot dead outside his mansion in Miami in July 1997, Allegra was just 11 years old but could look forward to becoming immensely rich after it was announced that her uncle had willed his share of the business, amounting to 50 per cent, to her when she reached her 18th birthday.  By the most recent valuation of the Versace group, this means Allegra has a personal fortune worth $800 million. The remainder of the empire is owned by her mother, who has 20 per cent, and Gianni’s older brother, Santo Versace, who has 30 per cent.  Yet the promise of wealth and privilege did not bring her happiness as a young woman.  The daughter of Paul Beck, a former Versace model to whom Donatella was briefly married, Allegra enjoyed a contented childhood in which she read books and played the piano given to her as a gift by Sir Elton John, a family friend, but her world was shattered when her uncle was killed.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Mussolini, Architect: Propaganda and Urban Landscape in Fascist Italy, by Paolo Nicoloso

During the Fascist years in Italy, architecture and politics enjoyed a close alliance. Benito Mussolini used architecture to educate the masses, exploiting its symbolic prowess as a powerful tool for achieving political consensus.  Mussolini, Architect examines Mussolini in Italy from 1922 to 1943 and expands the traditional interpretations of Fascism, advancing the claim that Mussolini devised and implemented architecture as a tool capable of determining public behaviour and influencing opinion. Paolo Nicoloso challenges the assertion that Mussolini was of minimal influence on Italian architecture and argues that in fact the fascist leader played a strong role in encouraging civic architectural development in order to reflect the totalitarian values of the period. Drawing on archival documents, Nicoloso lists the architects who gave Mussolini ideas and describes the times when the dictator himself sometimes picked up a pencil and suggested changes.  Examining the political, social, and architectural history of the fascist period, Mussolini, Architect gives careful attention to the final years of fascist rule in order to demonstrate the extent to which Mussolini was intent on shaping Italy and its citizens through architectural projects.

Paolo Nicoloso is an associate professor of architectural history at the University of Trieste.  His books include Marcello Piacentini: Architettura e potere.

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Latina - Fascist architectural showcase

First stone laid in city that rose from a swamp

Crowds gather in front of the Torre Civica
for the inauguration of the new city

The project to build the new city of Latina in Lazio began with the laying of the first foundation stone on this day in 1932.

Originally called Littoria, a name derived from the fascio littorio, an ancient Roman symbol of power adopted by Benito Mussolini, Latina was built on land that was previously part of the virtually uninhabitable Pontine Marshes, south of Rome.

The Pontine Marshes was a vast swampland that had covered an area of more than 180 square miles (446 sq km) between the Volscian Mountains, the Alban Hills and the Tyrrhenian Sea for more than two thousand years. 

The area was totally infested with malaria-carrying mosquitoes, whose presence made the disease so rife that anyone who visited the area was almost certain to catch it.

The northern extremities of the Marshes were little more than 70km (42 miles) from the capital and frequent outbreaks of malaria in Rome in the early 1930s forced the Fascist government to take action and implement a plan to drain the area, reclaim it as productive agricultural land and build new cities.

An aerial view of the city during the early stages of
construction, with Piazza del Popolo the centrepiece

They recruited an army of workers to clear scrubland, build canals, dykes and pumping stations, and build new cities, with Latina the showpiece. Conditions were grim for the workers involved in the project, and many quit soon after starting, yet others were brought in to take their place and the project was completed remarkably quickly.

Latina was built to a design commissioned from the Roman architect Oriolo Frezzotti. Architects and urban designers such as Marcello Piacentini, Angiolo Mazzoni and Duilio Cambellotti contributed to the creation of a modern city with broad thoroughfares, wide squares, and monumental buildings, mainly built along rationalist, neo-classical lines.

The city’s inauguration took place in December, 1932. Notable buildings constructed in the 1930s include the Cattedrale di San Marco, the Palazzo del Municipio with its 32m (105ft) Torre Civico overlooking the Piazza del Popolo, the Palazzo M in Corso della Republic - built in the shape of the letter ‘M’ after Mussolini - and the fountain in Piazza Libertà.

The first inhabitants were farmers from the north of Italy, mainly from Veneto and Friuli, who were promised land, houses and livestock in return for agreeing to relocate. Some 2,000 families had settled in Littoria by the time building work was completed in 1935.

Latina's duomo, the Cattedrale di
San Marco, which was built in 1932

Given that the surrounding area was transformed from a inhospitable boggy wasteland to one of the most productive areas of agricultural territory in Italy, and its mosquito population vastly reduced, the project was undeniably a success, which Mussolini’s propaganda machine was only too keen to exploit.

Nonetheless, after World War Two and the fall of Fascism, Littoria was renamed Latina. Although the fascio littorio - an axe enclosed within a  bundle of wooden sticks tied together with leather strips - had its roots in ancient Rome, its adoption by Mussolini somewhat tarnished its history.

The word fascio became part of the language of Italian politics in the late 19th century, when it was normally applied to radical, social-revolutionary groups, the bundle symbolising unity. Mussolini’s Fasci italiani di combattimento evolved into the National Fascist Party.

Nowadays, Latina is a city of more than 120,000 inhabitants, making it the second largest city in Lazio after Rome itself.

It has a modern economy based on pharmaceutical, chemical and cheese exports. Yet the town's Fascist past is still perfectly preserved and the fascio littorio is displayed in many architectural features.

The Opera Nazionale Combattenti building, which
now houses a museum of the area's history

Travel tip:

The historic headquarters of the Opera Nazionale Combattenti, the body that was responsible for the reclamation of the Pontine countryside,  located in Piazza del Quadrato in Latina, now houses a museum, the Museo della Terra Pontina. The museum traces the history of the Agro Pontino - the Pontine Plain - in the 20th century and displays around 1,000 artefacts. The building, built in 1932 in common with the rest of ​​the piazza, was one of the first creations in Littoria by the architect Oriolo Frezzotti. Some of the rooms in the museum are set out as they would have been in a typical farmhouse occupied by the settlers from northern Italy who helped to turn the reclaimed land into a thriving agricultural area.

The Fontana del Grano in
Piazza della Libertà

Travel tip:

Latina’s Piazza della Libertà is a good example of the wide squares characteristic of the look Mussolini's architects were trying to achieve in the new city. It features a fountain in the centre of the square, characterized by a double system of basins, surmounted by a bundle of ears of corn, which serves as a symbol of the redemption of the Agro Pontino and the victory of the reclamation of the marshlands.  Around the square are Carabinieri Barracks, built in 1932 and remodelled in the 1970s and 1980s, and various office buildings in the rationalist style, housing branches of the Compagnia Assicuratrice Milano and of the Riunione Adriatica Sicurtà, complete with Venetian lion, plus the Istituto Nazionales delle Assicurazione (INA) building and the former seat of the Bank of Italy.

Also on this day:

First Martyrs’ Day

1916: The birth of actor Mario Carotenuto

1961: The birth of novelist Gianrico Carofiglio

1986: The birth of heiress Allegra Versace

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29 June

Elizabeth Barrett Browning dies in Florence

Romantic poet produced some of her best work after fleeing to Italy

English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning died on this day in 1861 in Florence.  She had spent 15 years living in Italy with her husband, the poet Robert Browning, after being disinherited by her father who disapproved of their marriage.  The Brownings’ home in Florence, Casa Guidi, is now a memorial to the two poets.  Their only child, Robert Weidemann Barrett Browning, who became known as Pen, was born there in 1849.  Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era and was popular in both Britain and the United States during her lifetime.  From about the age of 15 she had suffered health problems and therefore lived a quiet life in her father’s house, concentrating on her writing.  A volume of her poems, published in 1844, inspired another writer, Robert Browning, to send her a letter praising her work.  He was eventually introduced to her by a mutual acquaintance and their legendary courtship began in secret.  They were married in 1846 and, after she had continued to live in her father’s home for a week, they fled to Italy. They settled in Florence, where they continued to write.  Read more…

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Masaniello - insurgent

Fisherman who led Naples revolt 

The 17th century insurgent known as Masaniello was born on this day in 1620 in Naples.  A humble fishmonger’s son, Masaniello was the unlikely leader of a revolt against the Spanish rulers of his home city in 1647, which was successful in that it led to the formation of a Neapolitan Republic, even though Spain regained control within less than a year.  The uprising, which followed years of oppression and discontent among the 300,000 inhabitants of Naples, was sparked by the imposition of taxes on fruit and other basic provisions, hitting the poor particularly hard.  Masaniello - real name Tommaso Aniello - was a charismatic character, well known among the traders of Piazza Mercato, the expansive square that had been a centre of commerce in the city since the 14th century.  Born in a house in Vico Rotto al Mercato, one of the many narrow streets around the market square, situated close to the city’s main port area, he followed his father, Ciccio d’Amalfi, into the fish trading business.   He had his own clients among the Spanish nobility, with whom he traded directly to avoid taxation. He was a smuggler, too, although he was frequently caught.  Read more…

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Giorgio Napolitano – 11th President of Italy

Neapolitan was concerned about the development of southern Italy

Giorgio Napolitano, who served as the 11th President of the Republic of Italy, was born on this day in 1925 in Naples. He was the longest serving president in the history of the republic and the only Italian president to have been re-elected.  He graduated in law from Naples University in 1947, having joined a group of young anti-fascists while he was an undergraduate.  At the age of 20, Napolitano joined the Italian Communist Party. He was a militant and then became one of the leaders, staying with the party until 1991 when it was dissolved. He then joined the Democratic Party of the Left.  Napolitano was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in 1953 and continued to be re-elected by the Naples constituency until 1996.  His parliamentary activity focused on the issue of southern Italy’s development and on national economic policy.  As a member of the European parliament between 1989 and 1992, he regularly travelled abroad giving lectures.  In 2005 he was appointed life Senator by the President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.  The following year he was elected as President of the Republic and he served until 2015.  Read more…

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Oriana Fallaci - journalist

Writer known for exhaustively probing interviews

Oriana Fallaci, who was at different times in her career one of Italy’s most respected journalists and also one of the most controversial, was born in Florence on this day in 1929.  As a foreign correspondent, often reporting from the world’s most hazardous regions in times of war and revolution, Fallaci interviewed most of the key figures on both sides of conflicts.  Many of these were assembled in her book Interview with History, in which she published accounts of lengthy conversations, often lasting six or seven hours, with such personalities as Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, Yasser Arafat, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Willy Brandt, Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Henry Kissinger and the presidents of both South and North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.  Others she interviewed included Deng Xiaoping, Lech Wałęsa, Muammar Gaddafi and the Ayatollah Khomeini.  She seldom held back from asking the most penetrating and awkward questions. Henry Kissinger, the diplomat and former US Secretary of State, later described his meeting with Fallaci for a piece published in Playboy magazine as "the single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press".  Read more…

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Federico Peliti - catering entrepreneur and photographer

Italian became important figure in British Colonial India

Federico Peliti, whose skills as a chef and pastry-maker led him to spend a large part of his life in India under British colonial rule, was born on this day in 1844 in Carignano, a town in Piedmont about 20km (12 miles) south of Turin.  He was also an accomplished photographer and collections of his work made an important contribution to the documentary history of the early years of British rule in India.  The restaurant Peliti opened in Shimla, the so-called summer capital of the British Empire in India, became a favourite with colonial high society and was mentioned in the writings of Rudyard Kipling and others.  Peliti’s family hailed from Valganna, near Varese in Lombardy. They had mainly been surveyors and Peliti initially studied sculpture at the Accademia Albertina in Turin.  He was diverted from a career in sculpture by the Third Italian War of Independence, in which he participated as a cavalryman in the 1st Nizza regiment of the Italian army. By chance, during his active service, he made friends with a group of confectioners and pastry-makers, who taught him some of their skills.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Browning: A Private Life, by Iain Finlayson

A major biography of the most modern and the most underrated of English literature’s great Victorians.  Henry James called Robert Browning (1812–89) ‘a tremendous and incomparable modern’, and the immediacy and colloquial energy of his poetry has ensured its enduring appeal. Browning: A Private Life sets out to do the same for his life, animating the stereotypes (romantic hero, poetic exile, eminent man of letters) that have left him neglected by modern biographers. He has been seen primarily as one half of that romantic pair, the Brownings; and while the courtship, elopement and marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning remains a perennially seductive subject (and one Finlayson evokes vividly, quoting extensively from their daily letters and contemporary accounts) there is far more to Browning than that.  Chronological in structure, this book is divided into three sections which deal with his life’s major themes: adolescence and ambition, marriage and money, paternity and poetry. It explores the many experiences that inspired his writing, his education and passions, his relationships with family and friends, his continual financial struggles and revulsion at being seen as a fortune-hunter, his most unVictorian approach to marriage (sexual equality, his helping wean Elizabeth off morphine and nursing her through various illnesses), fatherhood and fame (inviting a leading member of the Browning Society to watch him burn a trunk of personal letters): all of which contribute to a fascinating portrait of a highly unconventional Victorian. At once witty and moving, this critical biography will revolutionise perceptions of the poet - and of the man.

Acclaimed author and journalist Iain Finlayson is the author of several books including Writers in Romney Marsh and a life of Boswell. He lives in Hay on Wye.

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