9 January

NEW - Franca Viola – rape survivor

Sicilian heroine achieved a change in the attitude towards rape in Italy

Franca Viola, who survived a horrific kidnapping and a series of rapes and heroically resisted societal pressure to marry her attacker afterwards, was born on this day in 1948 in Alcamo in Sicily. She became famous throughout Italy in the 1960s for refusing to undergo what was called a matrimonio riparatore - a rehabilitating marriage - to her rapist, which would have enabled her to be accepted in Sicilian society despite having lost her virginity while still unmarried.  Franca was born in the rural town of Alcamo and was the oldest daughter of a farmer and his wife. At the age of 15, Franca became engaged to Filippo Melodia, who was 23 and the nephew of a Mafia member.  After Melodia was arrested for theft, Franca’s father insisted that she broke off the engagement with him and Melodia subsequently went to live in Germany.  Two years later, after Franca had become engaged to another man, Melodia returned to Alcamo and tried to get back into her life. He started stalking her and threatened her father, Bernardo, and her new fiancé.  In the early hours of Boxing Day in 1965, Melodia and a group of about 12 armed men broke into Franca’s family home and kidnapped her.  Read more…

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Marco Polo - merchant and explorer

Venetian trader who described travels in China 

The Italian explorer Marco Polo, who achieved a place in history as the first European to write in extensive detail about life in China, is thought by many historians to have died on or close to this day in 1324 in his home city of Venice.  Accounts of his final days say he had been confined to bed with an illness and that his doctor was concerned on January 8 that he was close to death. Indeed, so worried were those around his bedside that they sent for a local priest to witness his last will and testament, which Polo dictated in the presence of his wife, Donata, and their three daughters, who were appointed executors.  The supposition has been that he died on the same evening. The will document was preserved and is kept by the Biblioteca Marciana, the historic public library of Venice just across the Piazzetta San Marco from St Mark’s Basilica. It shows the date of the witnessing of Polo’s testament as January 9, although it should be noted that under Venetian law at the time, the change of date occurred at sunset rather than midnight.  Confusingly, the document recorded his death as occurring in June 1324 and the witnessing of the will on January 9, 1323. The consensus among historians, however, is that he probably reached his end in January, 1324.  Read more…

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Norberto Bobbio - political philosopher

Intellectual regarded as foremost 20th century commentator

Norberto Bobbio, a philosopher of law and political sciences who came to be seen as one of Italy’s most respected political commentators in the 20th century, died on this day in 2004 in Turin, the city of his birth.  He was 94 and had been in hospital suffering from respiratory problems. His funeral was attended by political and cultural leaders including the then-President of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.  He had been writing essays well into his 90s, despite for much of his life suffering from bouts of what was described as “fatigue and melancholy”.  His extensive catalogue of work spanned almost seven decades of Italian political life and societal change from the rise of Fascism in the 1930s to the second premiership of Silvio Berlusconi, of whom he was an outspoken critic.  For much of his career, Bobbio was a professor at the University of Turin, where he was chair of philosophy of law from 1948 and, from 1972, of the faculties of legal and political philosophy and political science.  He was made a Life Senator in 1984, although he stayed away from playing an active role in Italian politics after failing to gain election to the parliament of the new Republic in 1946.  Read more…

Massimiliano Fuksas – architect

Brilliant designs illuminate cities worldwide

The international architect Massimiliano Fuksas, whose work has influenced the urban landscape in more than a dozen countries across the globe, was born on this day in 1944 in Rome.  The winner of multiple awards, Fuksas sits alongside Antonio Citterio and Renzo Piano as the most important figures in contemporary Italian architectural design.  His Fuksas Design company, which has its headquarters in a Renaissance palace near Piazza Navona in Rome, also has offices in Paris and in Shenzhen, China, employing 140 staff.  Among more than 600 projects completed by the company in 40 years, those that stand out include Terminal Three at the Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport in China, the New National Archives of France at Pierrefitte sur Seine-Saint Denis, the Peres Peace House in Tel Aviv,  the Zenith Music Hall in Strasbourg, the Armani Ginza Tower in Tokyo, the Italian Space Agency headquarters in Rome and the FieraMilano Trade Fair complex on the outskirts of Milan.  Ongoing projects include the new EUR Hotel and Conference Centre in Rome and the Duomo metro station in Naples.  Read more…

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Victor Emmanuel II dies

Christian burial for the King excommunicated by the Pope

Victor Emmanuel II, the first King of Italy, died on this day in 1878 in Rome.  He was buried in a tomb in the Pantheon in Rome and was succeeded by his son, who became Umberto I, King of Italy.  Victor Emmanuel II was allowed to be buried in the Pantheon by Pope Pius IX, even though he had previously excommunicated him from the Catholic Church.  Before becoming King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel, as King of Sardinia-Piedmont, had secretly encouraged Garibaldi in the conquest of Sicily and Naples. He had then led his Piedmontese army into papal territory to link up with Garibaldi, despite the threat of excommunication.  In his quest to become King of a fully united Italy, Victor Emmanuel achieved two notable military triumphs. He managed to acquire the Veneto after linking up with Bismark’s Prussia in a military campaign in 1866. Also, after the withdrawal of the French occupying troops, his soldiers were able to enter Rome through a breach in the walls at Porta Pia and take over the city.  This had antagonised Pius IX so much that he refused all overtures from the new King, when he attempted a reconciliation.  Read more…

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Umberto I – King of Italy

Anarchists made three attempts on monarch’s life

King Umberto I ascended the throne of Italy on this day in 1878.  Known by the Italian people as Il Buono (the Good) he succeeded on the death of his father, Victor Emmanuel II.  Umberto had already won popular support because of the way he had conducted himself during his military career and as a result of his marriage to Margherita of Savoy and the subsequent birth of their son, who was to become King Victor Emmanuel III.  But he was to become increasingly unpopular during his reign because of his imperialist policies and his harsh ways of dealing with civil unrest.  Queen Margherita was particularly loved in Naples, where she visited schools and hospitals and organised collections of toys and clothes for the children of poor families. She was seen to hold the hands of cholera victims without wearing gloves and to join the ordinary women in their processions to the Duomo.  As a result, Pizza Margherita, with its tomatoes, basil and mozzarella representing the colours of the Italian flag, was created in Naples and named after her.  However, her popularity didn’t help Umberto, who was attacked by an anarchist in Naples during the first year of his reign.  Read more…

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Book of the Day:  Women and the Reinvention of the Political: Feminism in Italy, 1968-1983, by Maud Anne Bracke

Women and the Reinvention of the Political is the first in-depth study of the feminist movement that swept Italy from 1968 through to the early 1980s, and one of the first to use a combination of oral history interviews and fresh archive sources to analyze the origins, themes, practices and impacts of "second-wave" feminism. While detailing the local and national contexts in which the movement operated, it sees this movement as transnationally connected.  Emerging in a society that was both characterised by traditional gender roles, and a microcosm of radical political projects in the wake of 1968, the feminist movement was able to transform the lives of thousands of women, shape gender identities and roles, and provoke political and legislative change. More strongly mass-based and socially diverse than its counterparts in other Western countries at the time, its agenda encompassed questions of work, unpaid care-work, sexuality, health, reproductive rights, sexual violence, social justice, and self-expression.

Maud Anne Bracke is Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Glasgow. She was educated in her native Belgium and in Italy.

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Franca Viola – rape survivor

Sicilian heroine achieved a change in the attitude towards rape in Italy

Franca Viola was kept
prisoner for eight days

Franca Viola, who survived a horrific kidnapping and a series of rapes and heroically resisted societal pressure to marry her attacker afterwards, was born on this day in 1948 in Alcamo in Sicily.

She became famous throughout Italy in the 1960s for refusing to undergo what was called a matrimonio riparatore - a rehabilitating marriage - to her rapist, which would have enabled her to be accepted in Sicilian society despite having lost her virginity while still unmarried.

Franca was born in the rural town of Alcamo and was the oldest daughter of a farmer and his wife. At the age of 15, Franca became engaged to Filippo Melodia, who was 23 and the nephew of a Mafia member. 

After Melodia was arrested for theft, Franca’s father insisted that she broke off the engagement with him and Melodia subsequently went to live in Germany.

Two years later, after Franca had become engaged to another man, Melodia returned to Alcamo and tried to get back into her life. He started stalking her and threatened her father, Bernardo, and her new fiancé.

In the early hours of Boxing Day in 1965, Melodia and a group of about 12 armed men broke into Franca’s family home and kidnapped her. They dragged her into a car after injuring her mother.  They also abducted her eight-year-old brother, Mariano, because he refused to let go of his sister.

Mariano was released a few hours later, but Franca was kept prisoner for eight days, during which she was raped many times. Melodia told her that she would now be forced to marry him so that she did not become a dishonoured woman in the eyes of the community, but she still refused him.

Pope Paul VI with Franca Viola
soon after she was married

Melodia eventually contacted Franca’s father to try to strike a deal with him. He wanted her father to agree to an arrangement that was sometimes made between two Sicilian families after a couple had eloped together. 

Franca’s father, Bernardo, pretended to negotiate with him, but all the while he was secretly collaborating with the Carabinieri, who were preparing an operation to rescue his daughter.

After Franca was freed and her kidnappers had been arrested, her father asked her if she wanted to marry Melodia. When she told him she did not want to marry him, her father said he would do everything he could to help her.

By refusing a so-called ‘rehabilitating marriage’, Franca was challenging what was common practice in Sicily at the time. If she remained unmarried, having lost her virginity, she would become ‘una donna svergognata’ - a shameless woman.

At the time, the Italian Penal Code regarded rape as a crime against public morality, rather than as a violent attack on a person. A rehabilitating marriage meant that a rapist’s crime was automatically expunged.

Viola pictured during a police
interrogation in Sicily

After Franca refused to marry her attacker, her family were threatened and persecuted by some of the local people and their vineyard and barn were set on fire.

The resulting trial attracted a lot of media and public attention. Melodia’s lawyers claimed Franca had consented to an elopement, rather than having been kidnapped in violent circumstances.

However, when the trial finished in 1966 Melodia was found guilty and sentenced to 11 years in prison. This sentence was later reduced to ten years, with a two-year period of compulsory residence in Modena imposed upon him. Some of his fellow gang members were acquitted and the rest received brief sentences.

Two years after Melodia was released from prison, he was killed in a Mafia-style execution before he could return to Sicily.

The article of Italian law that stipulated a rapist could vacate his crime by marrying his victim was not abolished until 1981, and sexual violence did not become a crime against the person instead of a crime against public morality in Italy until 1996. This was 30 years after Melodia was found guilty of raping Franca Viola.

In 1968, when Franca was nearly 21, she married Giuseppe Ruisi, an accountant, who she had known and liked since childhood. It is claimed he was threatened and that he had to request a firearms licence after applying for the marriage licence, to protect himself and his bride-to-be from harm.

Italian President Giuseppe Saragat sent the couple a wedding gift and Pope Paul VI received them in a private audience soon after their wedding. They went on to have three children together. 

Three films have been made based on Franca’s story and a book about her case was written by Sicilian author Beatrice Monroy. Franca is now 77 years old and still lives in Sicily.

The Basilica di Santa Maria
Assunta in Alcamo

Travel tip:

Alcamo, the birthplace of Franca Viola, is a town of almost 45,000 residents in the province of Trapani in Sicily, located about 50km (31 miles) north of the city of Trapani and the same distance from the capital of the island, Palermo. To the north of Alcamo is the Tyrrhenian Sea and to the west, the town of Castellammare del Golfo, a beautiful seaside town that has been used as a location in several films and was also featured in an episode in the Inspector Montalbano television series, entitled A Sense of Touch. Strategically important in both the Roman and Byzantine empires and an important Arab settlement, Alcamo has many historic buildings. These include the restored Castello Conti di Modica, which dates back to the 14th or 15th centuries and now houses a museum, and some good examples of Baroque architecture in the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, which contains columns of red marble extracted from Monte Bonifato and frescoes and paintings by the Flemish artist Guglielmo Borremans, and the Chiesa dei Santissimi Paolo e Bartolomeo.

Trapani, now a popular tourist destination,
is notable for its curving harbour

Travel tip:

Trapani is a large city with ancient origins situated on the west coast of Sicily. Its Mediterranean climate of long summers and mild winters along with its nearby airport have made it an attractive destination for tourists. It has some beautiful historic buildings, including the Basilica and Sanctuary of Maria Santissima Annunziata. The city has a big fishing industry and produces its own pesto, a sauce made alla trapanese - using Sicilian almonds instead of pine nuts. The port is notable for a curving harbour, where Peter of Aragon landed in 1282 to begin the Spanish occupation of Sicily.  Well-placed strategically to trade with Africa as well as the Italian mainland, Trapani was once the hub of a commercial network that stretched from Carthage in what is now Tunisia to Venice. Nowadays, the port is used by ferries serving Tunisia and the smaller islands, as well as other Italian ports.  

Also on this day:

1324: The death of explorer Marco Polo

1878: The death of Victor Emmanuel II, the first King of Italy

1878: Umberto I succeeds Victor Emmanuel II

1944: The birth of architect Massimiliano Fuksas

2004: The death of political philosopher Norberto Bobbio

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8 January

Giotto – Renaissance artist

Florentine genius was first to paint realistic figures

The brilliant 14th century painter Giotto di Bondone, who was known simply as Giotto, died on this day in 1337 in Florence.  Although much of his work is no longer in existence, he is remembered as one of the greatest artists of the early Renaissance period.  It is believed Giotto was born in about 1267 in Florence but it is not known how he learned to paint with such a sense of space, naturalism and drama. His work represented a crucial turning point in the history of art because he painted lifelike, solid figures and put in fascinating background details.  He is believed to be the first artist to make a decisive break with the Byzantine style of painting and draw figures accurately from life.  Giotto’s revolutionary style was followed by many other painters later in the 14th century and it is said that he was actually paid a salary by the commune of Florence because of his excellence.  Some of his work can be seen in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, such as his altarpiece, The Ognissanti Madonna, painted in 1310, which is a good example of his ability to paint lifelike people.  But Giotto’s most stunning surviving work is the interior of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padova.  Read more…

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Leonardo Sciascia – writer

Books mercilessly expose Italian politics and role of the Mafia

Leonardo Sciascia, novelist, playwright and politician, was born on this day in 1921 in Racalmuto in Sicily.  Many of his novels looked at Sicilian life and how the Mafia operates as part of society, and some have since been made into films.  He also wrote a book analysing the kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro, the prominent Christian Democrat politician and former prime minister.  Sciascia was part of an investigation into Moro’s kidnapping and criticised Giulio Andreotti, the prime minister at the time, for his lack of action and for failing to deal with Brigate Rosse, the Red Brigades.  When Sciascia was a teenager his family moved to Caltanissetta in Sicily, where he studied writing and literature.  He married Maria Andronico, a local school teacher, in 1944 and he himself held teaching positions for the early part of his career, retiring to write full time in 1968.  In 1954 he published an autobiographical novel inspired by his experiences as an elementary school teacher.  In 1948 his brother committed suicide, which was to have a profound effect on Sciascia’s life.  His first work was a collection of poems satirising fascism, which was published in 1950.  Read more…

Maria Teresa de Filippis – racing driver

Pioneer for women behind the wheel

The racing driver Maria Teresa de Filippis, who was the first woman to compete in a Formula One world championship event and remains one of only two to make it on to the starting grid in the history of the competition, died on this day in 2016 in Gavarno, a village near Bergamo in Lombardy.  De Filippis, a contemporary of the early greats of F1, the Italians Giuseppe Farina and Alberto Ascari and the Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio, qualified for the Belgian Grand Prix in June 1958 and finished 10th.  She made the grid for the Portuguese and Italian Grands Prix later in the year but had to retire from both due to engine problems.  She managed only six laps in the former but was unlucky not to finish in the latter event at Monza, where she completed 57 of the 70 laps. Although she was at the back of the field, 13 other cars had retired earlier in the race and she would therefore have finished eighth.  These were her only F1 races. The following year she turned her back on the sport following the death of her close friend, the French driver Jean Behra, in a crash in Germany. Only a year earlier, her former fiancé, the Italian driver Luigi Musso, had also been killed.  Read more…

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Manuela Arcuri - actress and model

TV drama star who portrayed woman who killed Mafia boss

The actress and former model Manuela Arcuri, who received accolades for playing the lead role in a truth-inspired drama about a grieving widow who shot dead a gang boss, was born on this day in 1977 in Anagni, an ancient town in southern Lazio.  Arcuri portrayed a character based on Assunta ‘Pupetta’ Maresca, who made headlines in 1955 when she walked into a bar in Naples and shot dead the Camorra boss who had ordered the killing of her husband, just three months after they were married.  The four-episode drama, aired in 2013 on the Italian commercial TV channel Canale 5, was called Pupetta: Il coraggio e la passione (Pupetta: Courage and Passion). Directed by Luciano Odorisio and also starring Tony Musante, Eva Grimaldi and Barbara De Rossi, the series confirmed Arcuri’s standing as a television actress of note, winning her the award of best actress at the 2013 Rome Fiction Fest.  She had appeared by then in leading roles in a number of TV dramas and mini-series, including Io non dimentico (I Don’t Forget), Il peccato e la vergogna (The Sin and the Shame) and Sangue caldo (Hot Blood).   Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Cambridge Companion to Giotto, edited by Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona

The Cambridge Companion to Giotto serves as an introduction to one of the most important masters of early Italian art. Providing an overview of his life and career, this 2003 volume offers essays by leading authorities on the critical reception of the artist, an analysis of workshop practices of the period, the complexities of religious and secular patronage, Giotto's innovations in painting and architecture, and close readings of his most celebrated work, the frescoes of the Arena Chapel in Padua. Designed to serve as an essential resource for students of late mediæval and early Renaissance Italy, The Cambridge Companion to Giotto also provides a chronology of the artist's life and a select but comprehensive bibliography.

Anne Derbes is Professor of Art History at Hood College, Maryland. She is also the author of Picturing the Passion in Late Medieval Italy: Narrative Painting, Franciscan Ideology, and the Levant. Mark Sandona is Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English at Hood College. 

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7 January

ll tricolore

Flag represented people’s hopes for a united Italy

The Italian flag, with its panels of green, white and red, was first hoisted on this day in 1797 in Reggio Emilia.  Long before Italy became a united country, an early form of the tricolore was being flown in a part of the country then known as the Cispadane Republic, where it had been agreed to make universal “the standard or flag of three colours, green, white and red”.  The Cispadane Republic (Repubblica Cispadana) was founded with the protection of the French Army in 1796 in what is now Emilia-Romagna. The republic organised a congress on 7 January in Reggio Emilia and adopted the first ever tricolore as its flag.  But it was many years and many battles later before the flag as we know it now was formally adopted by the Italian republic in 1948.  It is thought the Cispadane republic chose panels of red and white because they were the colours of the flag of Milan and green because it was the colour of the uniform of the Milan civic guard.  Some believe the green panel (on the hoist side of the flag as it is used now) represents Italy’s plains and hills, the white panel the snow-capped alps and the red panel the blood spilt in Italy’s fight for independence from foreign domination.  Read more…

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Pope Gregory XIII

Pontiff used his power to change the date overnight

Pope Gregory XIII was born Ugo Boncompagni on this day in 1502 in Bologna.  Gregory XIII is chiefly remembered for introducing the Gregorian calendar, which is still the internationally accepted calendar today.  As Ugo Boncompagni, he studied law in Bologna and graduated in 1530. He later taught jurisprudence and among his students were the Cardinals Alessandro Farnese and Carlo Borromeo.  Before he took holy orders, Ugo had an affair with Maddalena Fulchini, who gave birth to his illegitimate son, Giacomo Boncompagni.  Pope Paul III summoned Ugo to Rome in 1538 to work for him in a judicial capacity. He went on to work for Pope Paul IV and Pope Pius IV. Ugo was made Cardinal Priest of San Sisto Vecchio and sent to the Council of Trent by Pius IV.  He was also sent to be legate to Phillip II of Spain and formed a close relationship with the Spanish King.  In 1572, after the death of Pope Pius V, the 70-year-old Cardinal Boncompagni was chosen to be the next pope and assumed the name of Gregory XIII, in homage to Pope Gregory I, who is remembered as a great church reformer.   Read more…

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Vincent Gardenia - TV and film actor

US sitcom star with Neapolitan roots

The actor Vincent Gardenia, one of the most recognisable faces on American television in the 1960s and 1970s and twice nominated for an Oscar for his film roles, was born on this day in 1920 in what is now Ercolano, a town that forms part of the Naples metropolitan area.  Gardenia starred as the father of Cher's character in the film Moonstruck, was the detective Frank Ochoa alongside Charles Bronson in Death Wish and was Mr Mushnik in the musical film adaptation of Little Shop of Horrors.  On television, he portrayed J Edgar Hoover in the mini-series Kennedy,  starring Martin Sheen as the murdered former president, but was perhaps best known as Archie Bunker's neighbour Frank Lorenzo in the '70s comedy hit All in the Family, which was the American version of the iconic British comedy Till Death Us Do Part.  Born Vincenzo Scognamiglio, he spent only the first two years of his life in Italy before his family took the decision to emigrate to the United States, settling in New York in the borough of Brooklyn.  His father, Gennaro, had worked as an actor and theatre manager in Naples and soon after arriving in New York established an Italian-language acting troupe.  Read more…

Ruggiero Giovannelli – composer

Church musician wrote popular madrigals and songs

Ruggiero Giovannelli, a religious composer who also wrote a surprising number of light-hearted madrigals, died on this day in 1625 in Rome.  He may have been a pupil of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, the most famous of the Roman School composers of the 16th century. Even though there is no documentary evidence to support this, there are stylistic similarities in their music.  On Palestrina’s death in 1594, Giovannelli was chosen to replace him as maestro di cappella at the Julian Chapel in St Peter’s Basilica.  Giovannelli was born in Velletri near Rome and not much is known about his life until 1583 when he became maestro di cappella at the church of San Luigi dei Francesi near the Piazza Navona in Rome. He moved on to become maestro di cappella at the Collegio Germanico, a pontifical college in Rome, in 1591.  His most important appointment was when he was chosen to replace Palestrina at St Peter’s in 1594, a position he held until 1599 when he became a singer at the Sistine Chapel, a position he held until he became maestro di cappella there in 1614.  Giovannelli composed church music in the style of Palestrina.  Read more…

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Pope Innocent X

Political pontiff dominated by sister-in-law

A politically charged and controversial period in papal history ended on this day in 1655 with the death in Rome of Pope Innocent X.  Described by some historians as a scheming and bitter pontiff, Innocent X’s tenure was notable for his malicious attack on a rival family, his destruction of the ancient city of Castro, a squabble with France that almost ended in war, his interference in the English Civil War and his refusal to recognise the independence of Portugal.  It was also overshadowed by rumours of an immoral relationship with his sister-in-law, Olimpia Maidalchini, the widow of his late brother. Historians generally agree that these were unfounded, yet Innocent X was dominated by her to the extent that she became the most powerful figure in his court, her influence so strong that ambassadors, cardinals and bishops knew that the pope would defer to her before making any decision and consequently would address any issues directly to her.  Born in Rome in 1574 and baptised as Giovanni Battista Pamphili, he came from a wealthy and well-established family who originally came from Gubbio in Umbria.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796, by Christopher Duggan

The greatness of Italy's culture and way of life have had a powerful attraction for many generations of visitors. This has created an overwhelming sense that Italy is a fundamentally benign and easy going country. The Force Of Destiny, Christopher Duggan's immensely enjoyable book, lays waste to this idea. While sharing everyone's enthusiasm for Italy as a place, he strongly distinguishes this from its political role over the past two centuries, which has been both vicious and ruinous for Europe as a whole.  Verdi's great opera, The Force Of Destiny, one of the key works celebrating Italy's wish for independence, also points to Italy's fundamental problem. Throughout the 19th century Italy struggled to unite under one rule all Italian speakers, throwing aside a multitude of corrupt old rulers and colonial occupiers. Through all these struggles, the politicians of Italy felt impelled by a 'force of destiny' hideously at odds with Italian reality. After immense struggle and with endless sacrifices, a united Italy was at last created which proved to be as impoverished, backward and marginal as it had been before. The resentments this created fed into Italy's overwhelmingly destructive role, as colonial predator, as a faithless and ruinous element in the First World War: these resentments in turn led to the rise of Mussolini who, far more than Hitler, wrecked the European order in the '20s and '30s. It was only the humiliation and disaster of the Second World War that, at last, made Italy into a reasonably 'normal' and constructive country.

The late Christopher Duggan was a world-leading historian of Modern Italy. Professor of Italian History at the University of Reading when he died in 2015. His books include A Concise History of Italy, Francesco Crispi: 1818-1901 and Fascist Voices: Mussolini’s Italy 1919-1945. 

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