Walter Chiari - actor

Talented star with taste for high life

Walter Chiari had the bonus of 
good looks on top of acting talent

The actor Walter Chiari, whose passionate affair with the American superstar Ava Gardner in 1950s Rome is said to have influenced Federico Fellini in the making of his landmark movie La dolce vita, was born on this day in 1924 in Verona.

Chiari was an accomplished stage and film actor when he met Gardner on the set of The Little Hut, a 1957 romantic comedy that was British made and with a Canadian director but was filmed largely at Cinecittà in Rome.

Gardner was still married to Frank Sinatra at the time but the pair were estranged and she was open to romance. She developed a taste for the Rome nightlife around the Via Vittorio Veneto and her relationship with the handsome Chiari soon began to dominate the gossip columns. They were constantly harassed by photographers, some of whom felt the rough edge of Chiari’s temper.

Fellini supposedly based Paparazzo, the photographer who relentlessly pursues Anita Ekberg’s character in La dolce vita, on the antics of some of the real-life snappers who followed Chiari and Gardner’s every move.

Chiari, who enjoyed much success on screen and in theatre, mostly in comedy roles, was already a high-profile figure in Rome’s glitzier clubs and bars, often stepping out with glamorous partners. Among those with whom he was romantically linked were actresses Elsa Martinelli, Silvana Pampanini and Lucia Bosè, and the pop star Mina. He reportedly had a brief fling with Ekberg herself.

In his professional life, he was best known for his film roles in the aforementioned The Little Hut (1957), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Chimes at Midnight (1966) and The Valachi Papers (1972), which brought him international acclaim. 

He appeared opposite Anna Magnani in Luchino Visconti's film Bellissima (1951), won much praise for the quality of his performances in the commedia all’italiana genre and worked with some of Italy’s leading directors, including Mario Soldati, Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Ettore Scola, Dino Risi, Alessandro Blasetti and Damiano Damiani.

Chiari's relationship with the American star
Ava Gardner (left) dominated the gossip columns

Fluent in English and as comfortable acting on stage as he was in front of the camera, he was an accomplished performer in musical comedy and enjoyed a long run on Broadway in The Gay Life, with lyrics by Howard Dietz and music by Arthur Schwartz. 

He starred in an Italian production of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple and, towards the end of his career, won critical approval for his performances in more serious stage roles, in plays such as Marc Terrier’s Six Heures au Plus Tard, Samuel Beckett’s Endgame and Richard Sheridan’s The Critic.

Born Walter Michele Armando Annicchiarico, Chiari spent the early part of his childhood in Via Quattro Spade in the heart of historic Verona, where his father, Carmelo, originally from Puglia, worked as a security officer for the local authority.

On finishing school he took a job as a warehouseman at a car factory in Milan, where the family had moved when he was nine. He subsequently found work as a radio technician and a bank, where - already showing a talent for acting - he was sacked after imitating Adolf Hitler while standing on a desk.

His break in acting came on a night out at the Teatro Olimpia in Milan, when the revue he had gone to see with a group of friends was on the point of being cancelled because one of the actors was absent. Urged to volunteer as a stand-in by his friends, he so impressed the director that he was invited to join the company.

Chiari had a brief marriage to the actress
Alida Chelli between 1969 and 1972

It opened the door into a career in revue theatre that flourished after he moved to Rome. He demonstrated his versatility by taking more serious roles, too, which in turn created opportunities to transfer his talents to the screen. In fact, his debut movie, in which he played the lead role in Giorgio Pastina’s Vanità (1947), won him a Nastro d’Argento award as best new actor.

Apart from his regular appearances in the gossip pages, Chiari was at the centre of other scandals. In 1970 he spent 98 days in the Regina Coeli prison in Rome after being arrested on charges of cocaine use and cocaine trafficking. He was released on payment of three million lire bail and acquitted of all but the possession charge at trial in 1971.

He received a suspended sentence for possession, but even though he had been cleared of the more serious charges the scandal severely damaged his career. The national TV channel Rai dropped him from a number of shows in which he had participated and until the late stages of his career his only television work was for minor, regional channels.

After his death, it was revealed that he had served for part of World War Two in the German army, who posted him to northern France with an anti-aircraft unit. He was captured by the Allies after being wounded soon after the D-Day landings and sent to an American prisoner of war camp in Tuscany.

Chiari was married - once and for just three years - to the singer and actress Alida Chelli. They had a son, Simone Annicchiarico, who became a TV presenter.  Chiari died from a heart attack in Milan in 1991, at the age of 67. His funeral, attended by more than 3,000 people, took place at the church of San Pietro in Sala, near Milan’s Teatro Nazionale.

His tombstone in Milan’s monumental cemetery famously is inscribed with the words: "Don't worry, I'm merely catching up with sleep".

The Via Quattro Spade in Verona,
where Walter Chiari was born

Travel tip:

Verona, where Walter Chiari was born, is the third largest city in the northeast of Italy, with a population across its whole urban area of more than 700,000. Among its wealth of tourist attractions is the Roman amphitheatre known as L’Arena di Verona, which dates back to AD30. Just a five-minute walk from Chiari’s home in Via Quattro Spade, the arena has a seating capacity of 22,000, often selling out for open air opera performances and pop concerts. Verona was chosen as the setting for three plays by William Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Taming of the Shrew - although it is unknown whether the English playwright ever actually set foot in the city.  Each year, thousands of tourists visit a 13th century house in Verona where Juliet is said to have lived, even though there is no evidence that Juliet and Romeo actually existed and the balcony said to have inspired Shakespeare’s imagination was not added until the early 20th century.

The church of San Pietro in Sala in the Wagner
district of Milan, which held Chiari's funeral

Travel tip:

The church of San Pietro in Sala is in the well-heeled Wagner district of Milan, which has some expensive apartments and upmarket shops but is also seen as a trendy neighbourhood. The main shopping streets, Corso Vercelli and Via Belfiore, are lined with quirky boutiques and shoe shops, while the area has a lively vibe in the evening. One attraction is the indoor food market in Piazza Riccardo Wagner, directly opposite the church. The largest food market in Milan, it stocks all manner of gourmet treats and is not to be missed by food-loving visitors to the city. Situated about 3km (1.9 miles) west of the centre of Milan, a 15-minute Metro ride from the station in Piazza Duomo.

Also on this day:

La Festa della Donna - International Women’s Day

1566: The birth of composer Carlo Gesualdo

1925: The birth of priest and politician Gianni Baget Bozzo

1949: The birth of singer-songwriter Antonello Venditti

Home

7 March

Alessandro Manzoni – novelist

Writer who produced the greatest novel in Italian literature

Italy’s most famous novelist, Alessandro Manzoni, was born on this day in 1785 in Milan.  Manzoni was the author of I promessi sposi (The Betrothed), the first novel to be written in modern Italian, a language that could be understood by everyone.  The novel caused a sensation when it was first published in 1825. It looked at Italian history through the eyes of the ordinary citizen and sparked pro-unification feelings in many Italians who read it, becoming a symbol of the Risorgimento movement.  I promessi sposi is now considered to be the most important novel in Italian literature and is still required reading for many Italian schoolchildren.  Manzoni spent a lot of his childhood in Lecco, on Lago di Lecco, where his father’s family originated, and he chose to set his great work there.  Lago di Lecco is an arm of Lago di Como and is surrounded by dramatic mountain scenery that is so stunning it is said to have inspired Leonardo da Vinci for settings for his paintings.   More than two centuries later, fans of Manzoni’s novel continue to visit Lecco to see the places he described and the buildings featured in the book that remain.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Saint Thomas Aquinas - philosopher

Theologian who synthesised Aristotle’s ideas with principles of Christianity

Saint Thomas Aquinas, known in Italian as Tommaso d’Aquino, died on this day in 1274 at Fossanova near Terracina in Lazio.  A Dominican friar who became a respected theologian and philosopher, D’Aquino was canonised in 1323, less than 50 years after his death.  He was responsible for two masterpieces of theology, Summa theologiae and Summa contra gentiles. The first sought to explain the Christian faith to students setting out to study theology, the second to explain the Christian faith and defend it in the face of hostile attacks.  As a poet, D'Aquino wrote some of the most beautiful hymns in the church’s liturgy, which are still sung today.  D’Aquino is recognised by the Roman Catholic Church as its foremost philosopher and theologian and he had a considerable influence on the development of Western thought and ideas. His commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle are an important part of his legacy and he is still regarded as the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood.  D’Aquino was born in Roccasecca in the province of Frosinone in about 1225 in the castle owned by his father, who was Count of Aquino.  Read more…

______________________________________

Luciano Spalletti - football manager

National coach has long record of success

The football manager Luciano Spalletti, who led Napoli to their first Serie A title since the Diego Maradona era before being appointed head coach to Italy’s national team, was born on this day in 1959 in the Tuscan town of Certaldo, just under 50km (31 miles) southwest of Florence.  A late starter as a professional player, at 64 Spalletti became the oldest winning coach in the history of the Italian championship when Napoli won the 2022-23 scudetto.  The achievement turned him into a hero in Naples, where fans celebrated in scenes not witnessed in the southern Italian city since Napoli won two titles in four years with the late Maradona as captain and talisman, the second of which was 33 years earlier in the 1989-90 campaign.  Having hinted before the season finished that he was thinking about taking time out of football, Spalletti confirmed ahead of the final fixture that he would be leaving the club to take a year’s sabbatical.  In the event, his break from the game lasted only three months. Following Roberto Mancini’s resignation, Spalletti was appointed head coach of the Italian national team, officially taking charge on September 1, 2023.  Read more…

Baldassare Peruzzi - architect and painter

Pupil of Bramante who left mark on Rome

The architect and painter Baldassare Peruzzi, who trained under Donato Bramante and was a contemporary of Raphael, was born on this day in 1481 in a small town near Siena.   Peruzzi worked in his home city and in Rome, where he spent many years as one of the architects of the St Peter’s Basilica project but where he was also responsible for two outstanding buildings in his own right - the Villa Farnesina and the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne.  The Villa Farnesina, a summer house commissioned by the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi in the Trastevere district, is unusual for its U-shaped floor plan, with a five-bay loggia between the arms.  Raphael and Sebastiano del Piombo were among those who helped decorate the villa with frescoes, but Peruzzi is acknowledged as the chief designer, possibly aided by Giuliano da Sangallo. Some of the frescoed paintings on the walls of the interior rooms are also by Peruzzi. One example is the Sala delle Prospettive, in which the walls are painted to create the illusion of standing in an open-air terrace, lined by pillars, looking out over a continuous landscape.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Filippo Juvarra – architect

Baroque designer influenced the look of ‘royal Turin’

Architect and stage set designer Filippo Juvarra was born on this day in 1678 in Messina in Sicily.  Some of his best work can be seen in Turin today as he worked for Victor Amadeus II of Savoy from 1714 onwards. The buildings Juvarra designed for Turin made him famous and he was subsequently invited to work in Portugal, Spain, London and Paris.  Juvarra was born into a family of goldsmiths and engravers but moved to Rome in 1704 to study architecture with Carlo and Francesco Fontana.  He was commissioned to design stage sets to begin with, but in 1706 he won a contest to design the new sacristy at St Peter’s Basilica.  He then designed the small Antamoro Chapel for the church of San Girolamo della Carità with his friend, the French sculptor, Pierre Le Gros. He was later to design the main altar for the Duomo in Bergamo in Lombardy.   One of his masterpieces was the Basilica of Superga, built in 1731 on a mountain overlooking the city of Turin, which later became a mausoleum for the Savoy family.  It was said to have taken 14 years to flatten the mountain top.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Book of the Day: The Betrothed: I Promessi Sposi (Penguin Classics), by Alessandro Manzoni. Introduced and translated by Bruce Penman

Set in Lombardy during the Spanish occupation of the late 1620s, The Betrothed tells the story of two young lovers, Renzo and Lucia, prevented from marrying by the petty tyrant Don Rodrigo, who desires Lucia for himself. Forced to flee, they are then cruelly separated, and must face many dangers including plague, famine and imprisonment, and confront a variety of strange characters - the mysterious Nun of Monza, the fiery Father Cristoforo and the sinister 'Unnamed' - in their struggle to be reunited. A vigorous portrayal of enduring passion, The Betrothed's exploration of love, power and faith presents a whirling panorama of seventeenth-century Italian life and is one of the greatest European historical novels.

Alessandro Manzoni was born in 1785. He wrote throughout his life, but suffered from a nervous disorder which grew progressively worse through his lifetime. He died in 1873.  The late Bruce Penman was a versatile linguist who had a good reading knowledge of 10 languages, four of which he spoke fluently. His translations from Italian won him a number of prizes and awards.

Buy from Amazon

Home

6 March

Giovanni Battista Bugatti - executioner

‘Mastro Titta’ ended 516 lives in long career

Giovanni Battista Bugatti, who served as the official executioner for the Papal States from 1796 to 1864, was born on this day in 1779 in Senigallia, a port town on the Adriatic coast about 30km (19 miles) northwest of the city of Ancona.  Bugatti, who became known by the nickname Mastro Titta - a corruption of the Italian maestro di giustizia - master of justice - in Roman dialect, carried out 516 executions in his 68-year career.  He was the longest-serving executioner in the history of the Papal States.  The circumstances of him being granted such an important role in Roman life at the age of just 17 are not known.  What is documented is that while not carrying out his grim official duties he kept a shop selling painted umbrellas and other souvenirs next to his home in the Borgo district, in Vicolo del Campanile, a short distance from Castel Sant’Angelo, which served as a prison during the time of the Papal States.  It seemed an incongruous day job for someone whose very name struck a chill among Rome’s criminal fraternity. Yet he treated his responsibilities with the utmost solemnity, leaving his home early in the morning on the days an execution was to take place, dressed in his scarlet executioner’s coat.  Read more…

_________________________________________

Francesco Guicciardini - writer and diplomat

Friend of Machiavelli among first to record history in context

The historian and statesman Francesco Guicciardini, best known for writing Storia d'Italia, a book that came to be regarded as a classic history of Italy, was born on this day in 1483 in Florence.  Along with his contemporary Niccolò Machiavelli, Guicciardini is considered one of the major political writers of the Italian Renaissance.  Guicciardini was an adviser and confidant to three popes, the governor of several central Italian states, ambassador, administrator and military captain.  He had a long association with the Medici family, rulers of Florence.  Storia d'Italia - originally titled 'La historia di Italia' - was notable for Guicciardini's skilful analysis of interrelating political movements in different states and his ability to set in context and with objectivity events in which sometimes he was a direct participant.  Born into a prominent Florentine family who were influential in politics and long-standing supporters of the Medici, Giucciardini was educated in the classics before being sent to study law at a number of universities, including Padua, Ferrara and Pisa.  He was interested in pursuing a career in the priesthood but his father, Piero, considered the church to have become decadent.  Read more…

________________________________________

La traviata - the world's favourite opera

Verdi's masterpiece performed for the first time

Giuseppe Verdi's opera, La traviata, was performed in front of a paying audience for the first time on this day in 1853.  The premiere took place at Teatro La Fenice, the opera house in Venice with which Verdi had a long relationship, one that saw him establish his fame as a composer.  La traviata would ultimately cement his reputation as a master of opera after the success of Rigoletto and Il trovatore.  La traviata has become the world's favourite opera, inasmuch as no work has been performed more often, yet the reception for the opening performance was mixed, to say the least.  Reportedly there was applause and cheering at the end of the first act but a much changed atmosphere in the theatre in the second act, during which some members of the audience jeered.  Their displeasure was said to be aimed in part at the two male principals, the baritone Felice Varesi and the tenor Lodovico Graziani, neither of whom was at his best.  There was also criticism of the soprano Fanny Salvini-Donatelli, the first to be given the role of Violetta, the opera's heroine.   Although an acclaimed singer, Salvini-Donatelli was 38 years old and somewhat overweight.  Read more…

Augusto Odone – medical pioneer

Father who invented ‘Lorenzo’s Oil’ for sick son

Augusto Odone, the father who invented a medicine to treat his incurably ill son despite having no medical training, was born on this day in 1933 in Rome.  Odone’s son, Lorenzo, was diagnosed with the rare metabolic condition ALD (Adrenoleukodystrophy) at the age of six. Augusto and his American-born wife, Michaela, were told that little could be done and that Lorenzo would suffer from increasing paralysis and probably die within two years.  Refusing simply to do nothing, the Odones, who lived in Washington, where Augusto was an economist working for the World Bank, threw themselves into discovering everything that was known about the condition and the biochemistry of the nervous system, contacting every doctor, biologist and researcher they could find who had researched the condition and assembled them for a symposium.  Drawing on this pooled knowledge, and with the help of Hugo Moser, a Swiss-born professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, they eventually came up with the idea of combining extracts of olive oil and rapeseed oil in a medicine that would break down the long-chain fatty acids in the human body that were considered a major cause of the nerve damage suffered by people with ALD.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Book of the Day: City of Echoes: A New History of Rome, its Popes and its People, by Jessica Wärnberg

In Rome the echoes of the past resound clearly in its palaces and monuments, and in the remains of the ancient imperial city. But another presence has dominated Rome for 2,000 years - the pope, whose actions and influence echo down the ages. In this epic tale, historian Jessica Wärnberg tells, for the first time, the story of Rome through the lens of its popes, illuminating how these remarkable (and unremarkable) men have transformed lives and played a crucial role in deciding the fate of the city.  Emerging as the anonymous leader of a marginal cult in the humblest quarters of the city, less than 300 years later the pope sat enthroned in a gilt basilica, endorsed by the emperor himself. Eventually, the Roman pontiff would supplant even the emperors, becoming the de facto ruler of Rome and preeminent leader of the Christian world.  Shifting elegantly between the panoramic and the personal, the spiritual and the profane, City of Echoes is a fresh and often surprising take on a city, a people and an institution that is at once familiar and elusive.

Jessica Wärnberg is a historian of the religious and political history of Europe, with a background in the history of art. She has written for academic journals and popular magazines. In Rome, the city she knows best, she has worked extensively in the archives of the Vatican and the Jesuits. 

Buy from Amazon

Home

5 March

NEW - Launch of Corriere della Sera

Italy’s biggest-selling daily newspaper

Corriere della Sera, one of Italy’s oldest daily newspapers, began its unbroken production run on this day in 1876.  Of the 22 newspapers with a countrywide circulation, only Il Sole 24 Ore, which made its first appearance in 1865, and La Stampa, which launched in 1866, have a longer continuous history than Corriere della Sera.  Based in Milan, Corriere once sold more than one million copies each day. In common with newspapers across the globe, daily sales have tumbled as readers switch to online sources for news coverage. Yet, even though daily sales have slipped to below 250,000 today, it outstrips nearest rival La Repubblica by around 90,000.  Corriere’s founding-editor was Eugenio Torelli-Viollier, a Naples-born Milan journalist who envisaged a newspaper that would establish a reputation for objective analysis, with a centre-right stance in its political standpoint.  Initially, the ‘Evening Courier’, as the name translates, consisted of just four pages, each of five columns, including an editorial written by Torelli-Viollier and the first instalment of a serial novel. Remarkably, the design of the newspaper’s title masthead has never been changed. Read more…

_______________________________________

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo – artist

Painter’s decorative work can be seen all over Venice

Painter and printmaker Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was born on this day in 1696 in Venice.  Also sometimes known as Gianbattista or Giambattista Tiepolo, his output was prolific and he enjoyed success not only in Italy, but in Germany and Spain as well.  Highly regarded right from the beginning of his career, he has been described by experts as the greatest decorative artist of 18th century Europe. Although much of his work was painted directly on to the walls and ceilings of churches and palaces in his native Venice, many of Tiepolo’s paintings on canvas are now in art galleries all over the world.  Tiepolo was the youngest child of a Venetian shipping merchant who died a year after his birth leaving his mother to struggle to bring up her six children alone.  In 1710 he became a pupil of Gregorio Lazzarini, a successful established painter, but Tiepolo quickly developed a style of his own.  His earliest known works are depictions of the apostles, which form part of the decoration of the interior of the Church of Santa Maria dei Derelitti at Ospedaletto in Venice, painted in 1717.  Tiepolo was commissioned to produce portraits for the Doge and he started painting frescoes directly on to the walls of churches in 1717.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Pier Paolo Pasolini - writer and film director

Controversial figure who met violent death

The novelist, writer and film director Pier Paolo Pasolini was born on this day in 1922 in Bologna.  Pasolini's best-known work included his portrayal of Jesus Christ in The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), his bawdy adaptations of such literary classics as Boccaccio’s Decameron (1971) and Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1972), and and his brutal satire on Fascism entitled Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975).   He also wrote novels and poetry, made documentaries, directed for the theatre and was an outspoken columnist for the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera, expressing political views that would regularly spark heated debate.  A former member of the Communist Party and openly homosexual, Pasolini died in violent circumstances in Ostia, near Rome, in November 1975, supposedly murdered by a young man he had picked up at the city’s Termini railway station, although there was some mystery around the incident and speculation over motives continues to this day.  The son of an army lieutenant, Pasolini lived in various northern Italian towns in his childhood, determined by his father’s postings. Family life was somewhat turbulent.  Read more…

Alessandro Volta – scientist

Invention sparked wave of electrical experiments

Alessandro Volta, who invented the first electric battery, died on this day in 1827 in Como.  His electric battery had provided the first source of continuous current and the volt, a unit of the electromotive force that drives current, was named in his honour in 1881.  Volta was born Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta in 1745 in Como.  He became professor of physics at the Royal School of Como in 1774. His interest in electricity led him to improve the electrophorus, a device that had been created to generate static electricity. He discovered and isolated methane gas in 1776, after finding it at Lake Maggiore and was then appointed to the chair of physics at the University of Pavia.  Volta was a friend of the scientist Luigi Galvani, a professor at Bologna University, whose experiments led him to announce in 1791 that the contact of two different metals with the muscle of a frog resulted in the generation of an electric current.  Galvani interpreted that as a new form of electricity found in living tissue, which he called animal electricity.  Volta felt that the frog merely conducted a current that flowed between the two metals, which he called metallic electricity.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Lucio Battisti - singer-songwriter

Musician credited with writing ‘the soundtrack of Italian life’

Lucio Battisti, who was one of the most influential figures in Italian pop and rock music in a career spanning four decades, was born on this day in 1943 in Poggio Bustone, a hillside village in the province of Rieti in Lazio, about 100km (62 miles) northeast of Rome.  A songwriter, singer and composer, his work has been described as defining popular music in Italy in the late 1960s and the 1970s in particular, although his popularity continued right up to his death, at the age of just 55, in 1998.  Some music critics and music historians have credited Battisti with writing ‘the soundtrack of our lives’ for several generations of young people, citing songs such as Emozioni (Emotions), Acqua azzurra, acqua chiara (Blue Water, Clear Water), Il mio canto libero (My Free Song) and La canzone del sole (The Song of the Sun) as his most memorable, although there were many more that made their mark.  Of Battisti’s 18 studio albums, 13 reached number one in the Italian charts, while he had at least 10 number one singles, of which his 1971 recording Pensieri e parole (Thoughts and Words) remained in top spot for 14 weeks.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Marietta Piccolomini – soprano

Popular star who found fame as Violetta

The operatic soprano Marietta Piccolomini, who was most famous for her performances as Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata, was born on this day in 1834 in Siena.   Her career was relatively brief, spanning just 11 years. Yet she managed to achieve unprecedented popularity, to the extent that crowds of fans would gather outside her hotel and men would volunteer to take the place of horses in pulling her carriage through the streets.  Some critics said that the adulation she enjoyed was more to do with her youthful good looks and her acting ability than her voice, who they argued was weak and limited.  Nonetheless, she was seldom short of work and she was the first Violetta to be seen by opera goers in both Paris and London.  She had a particularly enthusiastic following in England, where she undertook several tours of provincial theatres as well as appearing in the capital.  Born Maria Teresa Violante Piccolomini Clementini, she came from a noble Tuscan family. Her musical mother, a talented amateur, would sing duets with her. However, while her family were happy to arrange lessons for her with Pietro Romani, one of Italy’s first professional singing teachers, her father was reluctant to allow her to make opera singing a career.  Read more…

______________________________________

Book of the Day: La storia nelle prime pagine del Corriere della Sera (1876-2013) - History on the Front Pages of the Corriere della Sera (1876-2013), edited by Angelo Varni 

Through almost 500 front pages of the largest Italian news newspaper, La storia nelle prime pagine del Corriere della Sera - written in Italian - retraces the great events of Italian and world history, from the end of the 19th century to Fascism, from the post-war period to the fall of the Berlin Wall, up to the founding moments of today's complex reality. The most important events are engraved in the memory through a wide selection of "historical" front pages. A unique record that offers an overview of Italy's past and food for thought on the new digital ways of information. 

Angelo Varni is Emeritus Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Bologna, where he teaches the History of Journalism and the History of the Risorgimento at the Faculty of Humanities. 

Buy from Amazon

Home