22 October

Soave - an Italian classic wine

How the dry white from the Veneto earned its DOC status

Soave - at one time the world's most popular Italian wine - was officially granted a DOC classification on this day in 1968.  The DOC status - which stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata - was introduced midway through the 20th century as part of a series of laws designed to safeguard the quality and authenticity of Italian wines.  Winegrowers had been pushing for such regulation because the increasing popularity of Italian wines around the world was impacting on quality as more and more producers sprang up to meet demand.  Soave was a case in point.  Originally limited to a small area of just 2,720 acres (1,100 hectares) in the hills to the north of the small towns of Soave and Monteforte d'Alpone, roughly 25km (16 miles) east of Verona in the Veneto region, production spread rapidly to an area more than six times as large.  The biggest demand was from the United States, which developed a taste for Italian wines in the boom years that followed the end of the Second World War.  Of the huge volume of imported bottles that arrived on ships from Europe, Soave was the most popular.  Read more…

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Giovanni Martinelli – tenor

Singer made his fame abroad

One of the most famous tenors of the early 20th century, Giovanni Martinelli, was born on this day in 1885 in Montagnana in the province of Padua in the Veneto.  Martinelli began his career playing the clarinet in a military band and then studied as a singer with Giuseppe Mandolini in Milan. He made his professional debut at the Teatro del Verme in Milan in the title role of Giuseppe Verdi's Ernani in 1910.  Martinelli became famous for singing the role of Dick Johnson in Giacomo Puccini's La fanciulla del West, which he performed in Rome, Brescia, Naples, Genoa, Monte Carlo and also at La Scala in Milan.  He played Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca at the Royal Opera House in London and took on the same role for his first American engagement in 1913. That same year Martinelli portrayed Pantagruel in the world premiere of Jules Massenet’s Panurge in Paris.  He attracted favourable reviews when he played Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He went on to sing 36 different roles for the theatre over 32 seasons.  In 1937 Martinelli returned to London to sing opposite the English soprano Eva Turner at Covent Garden.  Read more…

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Ettore Boiardi - entrepreneur

Emilian immigrant who founded canned pasta brand

Ettore Boiardi, the former New York chef whose name lives on in the Chef Boyardee canned pasta products brand, was born on this day in 1897 in Piacenza, now part of the Emilia-Romagna region.  Boiardi, whose culinary skills first gained popularity when he was working in the kitchens of the iconic Plaza Hotel in New York, hit upon the idea of selling cook-at-home Italian food after opening his first restaurant while still in his 20s.  He and his brother, Paolo, built a company that employed 5,000 staff and filled 250,000 cans per day at its peak, making the Chef Boyardee brand a familiar sight in grocery stores across America.  They eventually sold the business for $6 million dollars in 1948 but the Chef Boyardee brand never went away. Today, Chef Boyardee products, which still carry Ettore Boiardi’s image on their packaging, are made and marketed by Chicago-based Conagra Brands.  Ettore and Paolo grew up in Piacenza.  Their parents, Giuseppe and Maria, inspired them to be interested in food from an early age and Ettore was working in a local restaurant, La Croce Bianca, by the time he was 11.  Read more…

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Valeria Golino - actress

Neapolitan starred with Hoffman and Cruise in Rain Man

The actress Valeria Golino, who found international fame when she played opposite Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise in the hugely successful movie Rain Man, was born on this day in 1965 in Naples.  Golino was cast as the girlfriend of Tom Cruise’s character, Charlie Babbitt, in Barry Levinson’s comedy, in which Babbitt’s estranged father dies and leaves most of his multi-million dollar estate to another son, an autistic savant named Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) whose existence Charlie knew nothing about. The 1988 movie won four Oscars and grossed more than $350 dollars. Although Golino was not nominated for her performance in Rain Man, she has won a string of other awards over a career so far spanning almost 35 years.  She is one of only three stars to win Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival on two occasions, for the 1986 drama Storia d’amore (A Tale of Love), directed by Francesco Maselli, and for Giuseppe M Gaudino’s 2015 drama Per amor vostro (For Your Love).  Golino was close to being selected to star opposite Richard Gere in another massive US hit, Pretty Woman, making it to the final audition stage for the 1990 romantic comedy. Read more…

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Roberto “Robertino” Loreti - singer and actor

Child prodigy who specialised in traditional Italian songs

The singer and actor Roberto Loreti, who performed under the stage name “Robertino”, was born on this day in 1946 in Rome.  Loreti, who sang live on Italian television earlier in 2022 at the age of 75, built popularity in many countries apart from Italy at his peak, his repertoire largely built on traditional Italian songs. He also appeared in acting roles in a number of films.  The fifth of eight children, he was only 10 years old when his father, Orlando, could not work for a long period because of illness. In order to help bring money into the household, Loreti had to give up school and find work.  He took a job as a delivery boy for a bakery which supplied pastries to restaurants. As he made his deliveries, he would amuse himself by singing folk songs.  The quality of his voice made an impression on people who heard him. One restaurant asked him to sing at a wedding and that led to others asking him to perform for their diners.  Because Rome was the heart of the Italian film industry, Loreti even landed small parts in films, such as The Return of Don Camillo in 1953, when as a six-year-old boy he was cast as the small son of one of the story’s main characters.  Read more…

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Salvatore Di Vittorio – composer and conductor  

Musician has promoted his native Palermo throughout the world

Salvatore Di Vittorio, founding music director and conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of New York, was born on this day in 1967 in Palermo in Sicily.  Also a composer, Di Vittorio has written music in the style of the early 20th century Italian composer, Ottorino Respighi, who, in turn, based his compositions on the music he admired from the 16th and 17th centuries.  Di Vittorio has been recognised by music critics as respectful of the ancient Italian musical tradition and also as an emerging, leading interpreter of the music of Ottorino Respighi.  He began studying music when he was a child with his father, Giuseppe, who introduced him to the operas of Verdi and Puccini. He went on to study composition at the Manhattan School of Music and Philosophy at Columbia University.  He has since worked with orchestras all over the world and composed music for them to perform and has also taught music in New York.  In 2007, Di Vittorio was invited by Elsa and Gloria Pizzoli, Respighi’s great nieces, to edit and complete several of the composer’s early works, including his first Violin Concerto, composed in 1903.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Vino: The Essential Guide to Real Italian Wine, by Joe Campanale and Joshua David Stein

Acclaimed Italian wine expert, sommelier, winemaker, and restaurateur Joe Campanale presents a comprehensive guide that is as transportive as it is deeply educational. Vino dives into the dynamic landscape of Italian wine today, where a new generation of winemakers is eschewing popular international styles, championing long-forgotten indigenous grapes, and adopting sustainable approaches best suited for their local climates.  In an epic quest through Italy's 20 regions that takes readers from the steep hills of Valle d'Aosta to the near-tropical climates of Sicily, Campanale uncovers and profiles the diversity of real Italian wine and the most exciting, game-changing producers in each area. Readers will leave with countless recommendations for exceptional winemakers and be armed with Campanale's empowering new rubric of quality (say goodbye to the Italian wine pyramid). Full of colourful stories, in-depth explorations of the modern craft, and stunning photography, Vino proves there's never been a better time to drink Italian wine.

Joe Campanale is a sommelier and restaurateur, having opened some of New York City's finest Italian dining destinations, including Dell'anima, L'Artusi, Anfora, Fausto, and LaLou. He is also the host of In the Drink, a podcast about wine. Joshua David Stein is a writer and illustrator whose books include Epicurean Journeys, Notes from a Young Black Chef and Il Buco Essentials: Stories and Recipes. 

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21 October

Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta

Cousin of Italy's wartime monarch died in a POW camp

Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, who died in a British prisoner-of-war camp after leading the defeated Italian Army in the East Africa Campaign of the Second World War, was born on this day in 1898 in Turin.  After distinguished military service in the First World War and seeing action as a pilot in the pacification of Italian Libya in the early 1930s, Amedeo had been appointed by Mussolini as Viceroy of Ethiopia and Governor-General of Italian East Africa in 1937, replacing the controversial Marshal Rodolfo Graziani.  Italy’s entry into the Second World War on the side of Germany in June 1940 meant the Duke of Aosta became the commander of the Italian forces against the British in what became known as the East African Campaign.  As such, he oversaw the Italian advances into the Sudan and Kenya and the Italian invasion of British Somaliland.  However, when the British launched a counter-invasion early the following year, the Italians were put on the defensive and after fighting desperately to protect their territory were beaten in the Battle of Keren. The rest of Eritrea, including the port of Massawa, fell soon afterwards.  Read more…

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Giuseppe Pinelli - anarchist

His 'accidental death' inspired classic Dario Fo play

Giuseppe 'Pino' Pinelli, the railway worker from Milan who inspired Dario Fo to write his classic play, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, was born on this day in 1928.  Pinelli fell to his death from a fourth floor window of the Milan Questura - the main police station - on December 15, 1969, three days after a bomb exploded at a bank in Piazza Fontana in Milan, killing 17 people and wounding 88.  A known anarchist during a period of growing political and social tension in Italy, Pinelli had been picked up for questioning, along with a number of other activists, over the Piazza Fontana bomb.  The story put out first by police was that Pinelli had jumped, willing to take his own life rather than face prosecution. Yet three police officers who had been interrogating Pinelli were put under investigation.  No action was taken against them and later a judge ruled that Pinelli's death had been accidental. This time the suggestion was that he had fainted, lost his balance and fallen through the open window, which seemed to many to be somewhat far-fetched.  It did not convince his supporters and when one of his interrogators, Commissioner Luigi Calabresi, was shot dead on his way to work in May 1972, two left-wing activists were convicted of his murder. Read more…

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Domenichino - Baroque master

Artist whose talents rivalled Raphael

The painter Domenico Zampieri, in his era spoken of in the same breath as Raphael, was born on this day in 1581 in Bologna.  Better known as Domenichino (“Little Domenico”), the nickname he picked up early in his career on account of his small stature, he painted in classical and later Baroque styles in Rome, Bologna and Naples.  Noted for the subtle, almost serene lighting and understated colours of his compositions, he painted portraits, landscapes, religious and mythological scenes and had a prolific output. Among his most notable works were significant frescoes commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese for the Badia (monastery) at Grottaferrata, outside Rome, and for Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini at the Villa Belvedere (also known as the Villa Aldobrandini) in nearby Frascati, as well as Scenes from the Life of Saint Cecilia at the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, not far from Piazza Navona, in Rome itself.  Domenichino’s paintings can be seen in art galleries in many countries, with the largest single collection held by the Louvre in Paris.  One of his most celebrated paintings, the depiction of St John the Evangelist that he worked on between 1621 and 1629, has been described as a “masterpiece epitomising the grandeur and nobility of Roman Baroque". Read more…

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Book of the Day: Air War in East Africa 1940-41: The RAF Versus the Italian Air Force, by Jon Sutherland and Diane Canwell

This little known campaign against the Italian invasion of British Somalia was bravely fought by a small force of elderly RAF and Commonwealth aircraft against almost overwhelming odds. This, against a backdrop of Britain's meagre assets being in demand in the much more prominent and important theatres such as Egypt and, of course, at home during the height of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.  The history starts with the Italian's use of airpower and gas against the spear-armed Abbysinnians in 1936. In August 1940 the Italians attacked and overwhelmed British Somalia and under air cover the British evacuated to Aden. The Allies fought many air battles with the better equipped invaders and flew dangerous reconnaissance missions in preparation for the major offensives in 1941. On the Northern Front, the first phases see aggressive air patrols and Allied reinforcements arriving from Egypt. They attacked towards Agordat pushing deep into Eritrea from the Sudan. Meanwhile to the south the South African Air Force and ground forces attacked into Italian Somalia during January and February 1941. In March the allies attacked Keren and the Italians finally surrendered. The final allied air strikes against Asmara and Massawa led to the final collapse of Italian resistance in May 1941. The campaign in Ethiopia saw General Cunningham's force advance 1,725 miles from Kenya in 53 days to reach the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and liberate it on April 6 1941. However, the conflict was still not over - there was continued resistance from 7,000 Italian troops and air operations continued against them until their surrender in September 1943. Air War in East Africa 1940-41 includes the experiences of the men who flew the outdated aircraft of the RAF and the SAAF in the campaign and includes many quotes and incidents from both Allied and Italian pilots. 

Jon Sutherland and Diane Canwell have written widely on historical subjects, in particular on military and aviation history, and have long been fascinated by the history of Norfolk and its military heritage. Among their many books are The RAF Air Sea Rescue Service 1918-1986, The Battle of Jutland and Air War Malta.

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20 October

NEW - Bianca Cappello – noblewoman

Tragic end for the mistress who earned promotion to Grand Duchess 

Bianca Cappello, the mistress of Francesco I Grand Duke of Tuscany, who became his Grand Duchess after he married her in the face of widespread criticism, died on this day in 1587 in Poggio a Caiano.  Grand Duchess Bianca died just one day after her husband, and historians are still divided between the theories that either they were both poisoned, or that they each died of malarial fever.  Bianca had been born in Venice in 1548, the only daughter of a Venetian nobleman. As she grew up, she was acknowledged to be a great beauty.  At the age of 15, Bianca fell in love with a young Florentine clerk and she eloped with him to Florence, where they were married. She gave birth to a daughter one year later.  The Venetian government tried to have Bianca arrested and brought back to Venice, but Cosimo I, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, intervened on her behalf and she was allowed to stay in Florence. However, she found that she did not get on well with her husband’s family, who, because they had little money, made Bianca do menial work. Because of her beauty, Bianca attracted the attention of the Grand Prince Francesco, the son and heir apparent of Tuscany’s Grand Duke Cosimo I.  Read more…

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Mara Venier - television presenter

Former actress became famous as face of Sunday afternoon

Mara Venier, a familiar face on Italian television for more than 35 years, was born on this day in 1950 in Venice.  The former actress, who made her big-screen debut in 1973, is best known for presenting the long-running Sunday afternoon variety show Domenica In, which has been a fixture on the public TV channel Rai Uno since 1976.  Venier, born Mara Povoleri, hosted the show for nine seasons in four stints between 1993 and 2014. Only Pippo Baudo, something of a legendary figure in Italian television, has presented more editions.  Fronting Domenica In, which was on air for an incredible six hours, was not only a test of stamina for the presenter but came with a huge sense of responsibility. In fact, holding the attention of the viewers was a patriotic duty, the show’s format having been conceived by the Italian government, faced with the global oil crisis in the 1970s, as something to tempt citizens to stay at home rather than use precious fuel for their cars.  Venier had been a movie actress, known largely to audiences in Italy, for two decades before she was invited to host Domenica In.  Read more…

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Dado Moroni - jazz musician

Self-taught pianist recorded first album at 17

The renowned jazz musician Edgardo ‘Dado’ Moroni was born on this day in 1962 in Genoa.  Moroni, who learned at the feet of some of the greats of American jazz music in Italian clubs in the 1980s and 90s, has recorded more than 25 albums, having released his first when he was only 17.  He has appeared as a guest on many more albums and built such a reputation as a pianist and composer that he was able to become part of the American jazz scene himself in the 1990s, when he lived in New York.  Moroni attributes his love of jazz music to his father’s passion for the genre, which meant that he grew up listening to the likes of Earl Hines, Fats Waller and Count Basie.  Using a piano his parents had bought for his sister, Monica, he taught himself to play many of the songs he heard on the record player, receiving his first informal tuition from his mother, who played the accordion.  Formal piano lessons were arranged for him with the Genoa jazz pianist Flavio Crivelli, who introduced him to the music of Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Dizzy Gillespie and contemporary pianists like Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal and Oscar Peterson.  Read more…

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Claudio Ranieri - football manager

Title-winning former Leicester City boss 

Football manager Claudio Ranieri was born on this day in 1951 in Rome.  Ranieri, who won the English Premier League in 2016 with rank outsiders Leicester City, has managed 21 clubs in four countries in a 37-year career in coaching.  He also had a stint in charge of the Greece national team.  Among the teams he has coached are a host of big names - Internazionale, Juventus, Roma, Napoli and Fiorentina in Italy, Atletico Madrid and Valencia in Spain, Monaco in France and Chelsea in England.  He has won titles in lower divisions as well as Italy's Coppa Italia and the Copa del Rey in Spain but until Leicester defied pre-season odds of 5,000-1 to win the Premier League, a major league championship had eluded him.  He had finished second three times, with Chelsea, Roma and Monaco.  Before turning to coaching, Ranieri was a player for 14 seasons. He began in Serie A with home-town club Roma, but enjoyed more success in the lower divisions, enjoying promotion twice with the Calabrian club Catanzaro, where he spent the biggest part of his career, and once each with the Sicilian teams Catania and Palermo.  Read more…

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Jacopo della Quercia - sculptor

Innovative work said to have influenced Michelangelo

The sculptor Jacopo della Quercia, regarded as one of the most original artists in his field in the early 15th century and an influence on a number of leading figures in the Renaissance including Michelangelo, died on this day in 1438. Della Quercia’s most notable works include the Fonte Gaia in Piazza del Campo in Siena, the sculptures around the Porta Magna of the church of San Petronio in Bologna, the tomb of Ilaria del Carretto in Lucca Cathedral, and Zacharias in the Temple, a bronze relief for the baptismal font in the church of San Giovanni in Siena.  His attention to proportion and perspective gave his creations a particularly lifelike quality and his innovative work put him at the forefront of his generation.  Art historians consider that his work marked a transition in Italian art from Gothic to Renaissance style that was taken forward by Michelangelo and contemporaries such as Francesco di Giorgio and Niccolò dell’Arca.  Born, it is thought, in 1374, he was baptised as Jacopo di Pietro d’Agnolo di Guarnieri.  He took his working name from his home village, Quercia Grossa - now Quercegrossa - situated a few kilometres outside Siena.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Medici, by Mary Hollingsworth

Wealthy bankers, wise politicians, patrons of the arts, glittering dukes... so runs the traditional telling of the story of the Medici, the family that ruled Florence for two hundred years and inspired the birth of the Italian Renaissance.  In this definitive account of their rise and fall, Mary Hollingsworth argues that the idea that the Medici were wise rulers and enlightened fathers of the Renaissance is a fiction. In truth, she says, the Medici were as devious and immoral as the Borgias: tyrants loathed in the city they illegally made their own and which they beggared in their lust for power. A forensic study of the Renaissance banking dynasty that conjures up a world of art, literature, philosophy - and brutality, the Times Literary Supplement commented that The Medici is 'likely to become the standard work of reference on the members of the family that dominated Florence'.

Mary Hollingsworth is a British author and has published widely on Renaissance Europe, dealing with topics from art to everyday life.

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Bianca Cappello – noblewoman

Tragic end for the mistress who earned promotion to Grand Duchess 

Bianca Cappello became the
mistress of Francesco I

Bianca Cappello, the mistress of Francesco I Grand Duke of Tuscany, who became his Grand Duchess after he married her in the face of widespread criticism, died on this day in 1587 in Poggio a Caiano.

Grand Duchess Bianca died just one day after her husband, and historians are still divided between the theories that either they were both poisoned, or that they each died of malarial fever.

Bianca had been born in Venice in 1548, the only daughter of a Venetian nobleman, and as she grew up, she was acknowledged to be a great beauty.

At the age of 15, Bianca fell in love with a young Florentine clerk and she eloped with him to Florence, where they were married. She gave birth to a daughter one year later.

The Venetian government tried to have Bianca arrested and brought back to Venice, but Cosimo I, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, intervened on her behalf and she was allowed to stay in Florence. However, she found that she did not get on well with her husband’s family, who, because they had little money, made Bianca do menial work. 

Because of her beauty, Bianca attracted the attention of the Grand Prince Francesco, the son and heir apparent of Tuscany’s Grand Duke Cosimo I.

Even though Francesco was married to Joanna of Austria, he seduced Bianca, and as a reward, he gave her money and jewellery as presents. Bianca’s own husband was given employment at the Medici court for a while, until he was murdered in a street in Florence in 1572.

After Francesco became Grand Duke on the death of his father in 1574, he installed Bianca in her own palace, which is now known as Palazzo Bianca Cappello, and he flaunted his mistress in front of his wife.

Francesco I de' Medici succeeded
Cosimo I as Grand Duke of Tuscany

Francesco had no legitimate son to inherit the Duchy from him and he thought that a child by Bianca could be a potential heir for him, even though it would be illegitimate.

But after Bianca gave birth to his son, Antonio, in 1576, Francesco refused to acknowledge him, because he was still hoping to have a legitimate heir with his wife, Joanna.

Joanna succeeded in producing a son, Grand Prince Philip de’ Medici, in 1577, crushing Bianca’s hopes of becoming anything more than a mistress who was favoured by Francesco.

However, after Joanna’s death in 1578, Francesco secretly married Bianca, only a few months later.

The marriage was announced publicly in 1579 and Bianca’s son, Antonio, was finally acknowledged as the Duke’s son. Two days later, Bianca was crowned Grand Duchess of Tuscany at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.

The Venetian government sent a representative to the magnificent, official wedding festivities that were held, because they realised that Bianca Cappello could be useful to them as an instrument for cementing good relations with Tuscany.

But Bianca’s position was still insecure because her son, Antonio, was illegitimate, and he was therefore barred from inheriting the Duchy. She was also aware that if her husband died before she did, she would be lost, because his family all disliked her and regarded her as an interloper.

Bianca and Francesco's son,
Antonio, was born in 1576

Then, in 1582, Francesco’s heir, Grand Prince Philip, died, and so Francesco had Antonio legitimised, and declared him to be the heir apparent to the Duchy, making Bianca’s position stronger. In the event, Antonio never succeeded his father, whose title was instead taken by his brother, Ferdinando.

But on 19 October that year, at the Villa Medicea in Poggio a Caiano, Francesco died. The following day, Bianca also died. Both deaths were believed to be either the result of poisoning, or of malarial fever.

Francesco’s brother did not allow Bianca to be buried in the Medici family tomb, and it is thought that she may have been buried in an unmarked, mass grave under the church of San Lorenzo in Florence.

Bianca’s sad story was used as the basis for a tragic drama, Women Beware Women, written  by Thomas Middleton, which was staged for the first time in 1621. She has also been used as a main character in three different novels. 

The historic figure of Bianca Cappello was also a main protagonist in The Venetian, a play written by Clifford Vax, which opened in London’s West End in 1931, before moving on to be staged in venues in America. 

The Palazzo Bianca Cappello can be
found in Via Maggio in Florence

Travel tip:

The Palazzo Bianca Cappello in Florence's Via Maggio was renovated by Bernardo Buontalenti between 1570 and 1574 at the direction of Grand Duke Francesco I in order to install his lover, Bianca Cappello, in a location close to the Grand Ducal residence of Palazzo Pitti, which was less than 200m (220 yards) away. After Bianca had become Grand Duchess and moved permanently to the Palazzo Pitti, she ceded the palace to the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova.  The palace was linked to the Palazzo Pitti by an underground corridor so that Bianca and Francesco could meet secretly during the time they were lovers. Thanks to this corridor, numerous artworks in the Vasari corridor, the elevated enclosed passageway connecting the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti, were kept out of the hands of German occupiers in World War Two. Notable for a facade decorated using the sgraffito technique, with images scratched into layers of different coloured plaster, the palace today houses an hotel.

The Ponte Leopoldo was one of the earliest 
suspension bridges to be built in Italy

Travel tip:

A settlement since Roman times, Poggio a Caiano is a town of almost 10,000 residents on the banks of the river Ombrone in the Montalbano area northwest of Florence. First the Strozzi and then the Medici families populated the area, an important point of reference for trade and communication. The town is home to the magnificent Villa Medicea, the mansion commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent. Built between the 15th and 16th centuries by the architect Giuliano da Sangallo, the Villa Medicea is considered a masterpiece and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The villa was the scene of the sudden and mysterious death of Francesco I de' Medici and his second wife Bianca Cappello. Between Poggio and neighbouring Poggetto, the Torrente Ombrone river is crossed by the Ponte Leopoldo, built in 1833 and one of Italy's first suspension bridges.

Also on this day:

1438: The death of sculptor Jacopo della Quercia

1950: The birth of television presenter Mara Venier

1951: The birth of football manager Claudio Ranieri

1962: The birth of jazz musician Dado Moroni

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