15 May

Salvatore Fisichella - operatic tenor

Singer was called the most outstanding interpreter of Bellini of his day

Opera singer Salvatore Fisichella, who won international acclaim for his interpretations of the leading roles in Bellini’s operas, was born on this day in 1943 in Catania in Sicily.  Recognised for the ease and vocal brilliance of his singing, Fisichella has specialised in performing in bel canto operas, especially those of Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini.  He began singing when he was a small child at family parties. He was taught music at the local seminary and from the age of ten sang solos during church services.  After leaving the seminary, Fisichella attended a secondary school that had a science-based curriculum and then studied to become a surveyor.  Once he had qualified as a surveyor, he had little time for singing, but one day he was invited to the wedding of one of his clients. Fisichella had drawn up the plans for the couple’s new home, but on the day of the wedding he found himself filling in for the tenor, who had been scheduled to perform but whose arrival was delayed.  The bride, who had specifically requested Ave Maria, was so upset she threatened to postpone the wedding. Read more… 

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Battle of Calatafimi

The Expedition of the Thousand gets off to a good start

Garibaldi won his first victory during his invasion of Sicily on this day in 1860 at Calatafimi near Trapani.  His army of Redshirts beat a larger number of Neapolitan troops representing The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, who had been sent from Palermo to block the roads to the Sicilian capital. Four days before the battle, Garibaldi’s ‘Thousand,’ known as I Mille in Italian, had landed at Marsala and set off on a direct route to Palermo.  A Neapolitan Brigadier General, Francesco Landi, was sent to intercept Garibaldi and his volunteer troops before they could get to Palermo.  Landi deployed 2,700 men, as well as cannons and horse artillery, on a terraced hill called Pianto dei Romani, forcing Garibaldi into having to attack them uphill to get past them and continue with his journey. The Neapolitan troops were better armed than Garibaldi’s men and had modern rifles, but the Redshirts made a series of determined bayonet charges, causing the Neapolitans to have to move back to the terraces above to avoid their opponents getting too close with their weapons.  The Neapolitans were pushed back to the top of the hill and Garibaldi’s men captured one of their cannons.  Read more…

Anna Maria Alberghetti - singer and actress

Child prodigy who rejected Hollywood to become Broadway star

The actress and operatic singer Anna Maria Alberghetti was born on this day in 1936 in the Adriatic resort of Pesaro.  She moved with her family to the United States in her teens and became a Broadway star, winning a Tony Award in 1962 as best actress in a musical for her performance in Bob Merrill’s Carnival, directed by Gower Champion.  Alberghetti was a child prodigy with music in her blood. Her father was an accomplished musician, an opera singer and concertmaster of the Rome Opera Company, who also played the cello. Her mother was a pianist.  They influenced the direction in which her talent developed and by the age of six she was singing with symphony orchestras with her father as her vocal instructor.  After success touring Europe, Anna Maria was invited to perform in the United States and made her debut at Carnegie Hall in New York at the age of 14. Given the state of Italy after the Second World War, the idea of settling permanently in America became too attractive for the family to resist.   At that time, Anna Maria’s focus was on a career as an opera singer but the American cinema industry was obsessed with European actresses.  Read more…

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Debut of Italy’s national football team

Illustrious history began with victory over France

The first official international football match involving Italy took place on this day in 1910 in Milan.  Officially formed four months earlier, the Azzurri made their debut at the Arena Civica in Milan, beating France 6-2 in front of a crowd said to number 4,000 spectators.  The match was refereed by Henry Goodley, an Englishman.  The team’s first goal was scored after 13 minutes by Pietro Lana, a forward with the AC Milan club, who went on to score a hat-trick, including a penalty kick.  In a team dominated by Milan-based players, the other goals were scored by Internazionale’s Virgilio Fossati, Giuseppe Rizzi of the Ausonia-Milano club and Enrico Debernardi, who played for Torino. Fossati, tragically, was killed six years later while fighting for the Italian Army in World War One.  Organised football had begun in Italy in 1898 with the founding of the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio - the Italian Football Federation - who arranged the first national championship, won by Genoa.  The FIGC was primarily concerned with domestic football and it was the newspaper La Stampa, a daily journal published in Turin, who first mooted the idea of a team to represent the nation.  Read more…

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Pippo Barzizza - band leader

Musician was an Italian pioneer of jazz and swing

The musician and bandleader Giuseppe ‘Pippo’ Barzizza, who helped popularise jazz and swing music in Italy during a long and successful career, was born on this day in 1902 in Genoa.  Barzizza was active in music for eight decades but was probably at the peak of his popularity in the 1930s and 40s, when he led the Blue Star and Cetra orchestras.  He continued to be a major figure in popular music until the 1960s and thereafter regularly came out of retirement to show that his talents had not waned.  He died at his home in Sanremo in 1994, just a few weeks before his 93rd birthday.  As well as arranging the music of others, Barzizza wrote more than 200 songs of his own in his lifetime, and helped advance the careers of such singers as Alberto Rabagliati, Otello Boccaccini, Norma Bruni, Maria Jottini and Silvana Fioresi among others.  In addition to his skills as a writer, conductor and orchestra leader, Barzizza was an accomplished player of a range of instruments, including violin, piano, saxophone, banjo and accordion.  A child prodigy on the violin, Barzizza was able to play a Mozart symphony almost before he could read.  Read more…

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Claudio Monteverdi – composer

Baroque musician who gave us the first real opera

The composer and musician Claudio Monteverdi was baptised on this day in 1567 in Cremona in Lombardy.  Children were baptised soon after their birth in the 16th century so it is likely Monteverdi was born on 15 May or just before.  He was to become the most important developer of a new genre, the opera, and bring a more modern touch to church music.  Monteverdi studied under the maestro di cappella at the cathedral in Cremona and published several books of religious and secular music while still in his teens.  He managed to secure a position as a viola player at Vincenzo Gonzaga’s court in Mantua where he came into contact with some of the top musicians of the time. He went on to become master of music there in 1601.  It was his first opera, L’Orfeo, written for the Gonzaga court, that really established him as a composer.  In the early 17th century, the intermedio, the music played between the acts of a play, was evolving into the form of a complete musical drama, or opera. Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo was the first fully developed example of this and is the earliest opera still being regularly staged.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Life of Bellini: Musical Lives, by John Rosselli

'A sigh in dancing pumps' was Heine's view of Bellini. His physical beauty, boundless success and untimely death at the age of thirty-three combined to give Bellini instant mythical status. But both the facts and the fantasies were to be embroidered by Bellini's close friend and eventual biographer Francesco Florimo, who distorted the posthumous image of the composer to the extent of altering or destroying letters in his possession. In John Rosselli's The Life of Bellini, a new picture of the composer emerges. He provides a more accurate view of Bellini's personality, his relationships and his short but dazzling career in Naples, Milan and Paris. He introduces the operatic world of the early 19th century, the singers of Bellini's roles, and, above all he explains the writing and performance of the operas themselves.

John Rosselli was an Italian-born British historian, academic, journalist, music critic, and writer on music. He worked as a features writer, editor, and critic for The Guardian before leaving to teach history at the University of Sussex. His books include several about the history of Italian opera and the lives of composers. 

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14 May

Marco Zanuso - architect and designer

Innovative ideas put Italy at the forefront of contemporary style

Marco Zanuso, the architect and industrial designer whose innovative ideas helped revolutionise furniture and appliance design in Italy after the Second World War, was born in Milan on this day in 1916.  Influenced by the Rationalist movement that emerged in the 1920s, he was one of the pioneers of the Modern movement, which brought contemporary styling to mass-produced consumer products.  His use of sculptured shapes, bright colours, and modern synthetic materials helped make Italy a leader in furniture fashion.  Italy had for many years been something of a trendsetter in interior design but during the post-War years, with the fall of fascism and the rise of socialism, there was a sense of liberation among Italian creative talents.  With the recovery of the Italian economy there was a substantial growth in industrial production and mass-produced furniture. By the 1960s and 1970s, Italian interior design reached its pinnacle of stylishness.  Zanuso was at the forefront, producing designs that used tubular steel, acrylics, latex foam, fibreglass, foam rubber, and injection-moulded plastics.   Read more…

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Battle of Agnadello

The day Venice lost most of its mainland territory

Venetian forces were defeated by troops fighting on behalf of France, Spain and the Pope on this day in 1509 at Agnadello in Lombardy.   As a result, the Republic of Venice was forced to withdraw from much of its territory on the mainland of Italy. The writer Niccolò Machiavelli later wrote in his book, The Prince, that in one day the Venetians had ‘lost what it had taken them 800 years of exertion to conquer.’  Louis XII of France, the Emperor Maximilian, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Pope Julius II had formed the League of Cambrai with the aim of dismantling the mainland empire of Venice as they all had their own claims to areas held by the Venetians.  The French army left Milan on April 15 and invaded Venetian territory. Venice had organised a mercenary army near Bergamo commanded by the Orsini cousins, Bartolomeo d’Alviano and Niccolò di Pitigliano, who had been ordered to avoid direct confrontation with the advancing French but just to engage them in light skirmishes.  By May 9 Louis had crossed the Adda river at Cassano d’Adda and the Orsini cousins decided to move south towards the River Po in search of better positions.  Read more…

Aurelio Milani - footballer

Centre forward helped Inter win first European Cup

Aurelio Milani, who helped Inter-Milan become the second Italian football club to win the European Cup, was born on this day in 1934 in Desio, about 25km (15 miles) north of Lombardy’s regional capital.   Inter beat Real Madrid 3-1 in the final in Vienna in 1964 to emulate the achievement of city rivals AC Milan, who had become the first European champions from Italy the previous year.  Milani, a centre forward, scored the all-important second goal in the 61st minute after his fellow attacker Sandro Mazzola had given Inter the lead in the first half, receiving a pass from Mazzola before beating Real goalkeeper Vicente Train with a shot from outside the penalty area.  Madrid, whose forward line was still led by the mighty Alfredo di Stefano with Ferenc Puskas playing at inside-left, pulled a goal back but Mazzola added a third for Inter.  But this was the so-called Grande Inter side managed by the Argentinian master-tactician Helenio Herrera, who coached them to three Serie A titles in four years and retained the European Cup by defeating Eusebio’s Benfica 12 months later, when the final was played in their home stadium at San Siro in Milan.  Read more…

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Ludovico Manin - the last Doge of Venice

Surrender to Napoleon ended La Serenissima’s independence 

The man who would become the last of Venice’s 120 Doges, Ludovico Giovanni Manin, was born on this day in 1725. The Doge was the highest political office in Venice, its history going back to the seventh century, when the Venetian Lagoon was a province of the Byzantine (Eastern) Roman Empire and, in common with other provinces, was governed by a Dux (leader).  By the 11th century, when Venice had become an independent republic, the Doge was more of a figurehead, the head of a ruling council, and the title tended to be given to one of the oldest and most respected members of Venetian nobility.  Manin was 64 by the time he was elected but his eight years in post were significant in that they ended with the fall of La Serenissima - as the Venetian Republic was grandly known - its 1,100 years of independence ending with surrender to the French army of Napoleon Bonaparte, who subsequently handed control of the city to Austria.  The eldest of five sons of Lodovico III Alvise and Lucrezia Maria Basadonna, the great-granddaughter of cardinal Pietro Basadonna, Ludovico went straight into public life after completing his studies at the University of Bologna.  At 26 he was elected captain of Vicenza, then of Verona and finally Brescia, before being appointed ultra prosecutor of Saint Mark's Basilica in 1764.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Design: A Concise History, by Thomas Hauffe

Design is everywhere. In recent years, design has become a subject of general interest - hardly confined to “serious journals”, it is commonly covered by the general press and even on television, which regularly reports on outstanding exhibits, new designs and “the designer scene”. Books on special themes, glitzy articles in lifestyle magazines, exhibition catalogues, and books that are themselves objects of design flood the market. This popular aspect of design is in addition to exhibitions of individual epochs, such as Art Deco, the “swinging fifties”, and even the “wild eighties”. Aiming to place design developments in their broader context, Design: A Concise History describes the history of design from its emergence as a separate discipline around 1750 to the present. Arranged chronologically, and with colour-coded pages for ease of reference, the book includes time-lines and designers' biographies, as well as feature spreads on notable designers and companies. There is also a detailed list of major design museums and collections.  

Dr Thomas Hauffe is an art historian. He wrote his doctorate on the "New German Design" of the 1980s and has published numerous articles on the history of design and art.

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13 May

NEW - Luciano Benetton - entrepreneur

Co-founder of iconic clothing and accessories brand

The entrepreneur Luciano Benetton, co-founder of a family clothing company that became a worldwide success story in the 1980s and 1990s, was born in Treviso on this day in 1935.  Along with his sister, Giuliana, and their brothers, Carlo and Gilberto, Luciano launched the Benetton Group in 1965, specialising at first in colourful knitwear. From its original store in Belluno, a town in the northern part of the Veneto region, opened in 1965, the group enjoyed a rapid expansion in the 1970s and 80s and at the peak of its success had as many as 6,000 outlets around the world.  Although it has faced tougher trading conditions in more recent years, the group continues to preside over more than 3,500 stores.  Since 1989, the Benetton empire has traded under the name United Colors of Benetton, a brand adopted as part of a long-running collaboration with photographer Oliviero Toscani, who masterminded the group’s provocative and often controversial advertising campaigns.  The Benetton story began in 1955 when Luciano, who had left school at age 14 to work in a clothing store after the death of his father, was working as a knitwear salesman.  Read more… 

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The first Giro d'Italia

Tour of Italy cycle race ran from Milan to Naples and back

A field of 127 riders left Milan on this day in 1909 as Italy's famous cycle race, the Giro d'Italia, was staged for the first time.  Those who lasted the course returned to Milan 13 days later having covered a distance of 2,447.9 kilometres (1,521 miles) along a route around Italy that took them through Bologna, Chieti, Naples, Rome, Florence, Genoa and Turin.  The winner was Luigi Ganna, an Italian cyclist from Lombardy who had finished fifth in the Tour de France in 1908 and won the Milan-San Remo race earlier in 1909.  Only 49 riders finished.  Second and third places were also filled by Italian riders, with Carlo Galetti finishing ahead of Giovanni Rossignoli.  The race was run in eight stages with two to three rest days between each stage. It was a challenge to the riders' stamina. The stages were almost twice as long as those that make up the Giro today, with an average distance of more than 300 km (190 miles). The modern Giro covers a greater distance in total at 3,481.8 km (2,163.5 miles).  Thankfully, the route was primarily flat, although it did contain a few major ascents, particularly on the third leg between Chieti in Abruzzo and Naples, which took the race across the Apennines.  Read more…

Daniele Manin - Venetian leader

Lawyer who led fight to drive out Austrians

The Venetian patriot Daniele Manin, a revolutionary who fought to free Venice from Austrian rule and thereby made a significant contribution to the unification of Italy, was born on this day in 1804 in the San Polo sestiere.  Manin had Jewish roots. His grandfather, Samuele Medina,  from Verona, had converted to Christianity in 1759 and took the name Manin because Lodovico Manin, the last Doge of Venice, had sponsored his conversion.  He studied law at the University of Padua and then took up practice in Venice. As his practice developed, he gained a reputation as a brilliant and profound jurist.  He harboured a deep hatred and resentment towards the Austrians, to whom control of the city passed after the defeat of Napoleon in 1814. The city became part of the Austrian-held Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia.  Manin's first physical act to advance the cause of liberation was the presentation of a petition in 1847 to a body called the Venetian Congregation, an advisory assembly that had no actual powers. The petition listed the grievances of the Venetian people but Manin’s frankness was not to the liking of the Austrians, who arrested him in January 1848 on charges of treason.  Read more…

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Francesco Pistocchi – singer and composer

Child prodigy who wrote many operas and also taught

Francesco Pistocchi, a singer who became known to audiences as Pistocchino, died on this day in 1726 in Bologna.  Pistocchi left the world many operas, oratorios and cantatas he had composed, which are now highly regarded for their melodic elegance and colourful harmony.  Born Francesco Antonio Mamiliano Pistocchi in Palermo in 1659, Pistocchi became a child prodigy because of his beautiful soprano voice. He began performing as a singer in public at the age of three and the first music he composed, Capricci puerili, was published when he was just eight years old.  Believed to have become a castrato, Pistocchi made regular appearances as a singer in Bologna’s cappella musicale at the Basilica of San Petronio, where his father was a violinist, from 1670 onwards.  He later had a brilliant opera career as a contralto, touring in Italy and Germany and serving at the court in Parma in the 1680s.  His opera, Il leandro, was premiered at Teatro alle Zattere in Venice in 1679.  In 1696 Pistocchi became Court Kapellmeister for the Duke of Ansbach in Germany. His operas, Il narciso and Le pazzie d’amore e dell’interesse, were presented in Ansbach in the late 1690s.  Read more…

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Giuliano Amato – politician

‘Doctor Subtle’ worked into his 80s

Giuliano Amato, who has twice served as prime minister of Italy and today sits in Italy’s Constitutional Court, was born on this day in 1938 in Turin.  During his first period as prime minister, for 10 months between 1992 and 1993, a series of corruption scandals rocked Italy, sweeping away the careers of many leading politicians. Amato was never implicated, despite being close to Bettino Craxi, the leader of the Italian Socialist party, who was investigated by Milan judges in the probe into corruption that became known as Mani pulite, which literally means ‘clean hands’. Craxi was eventually convicted of corruption and the illicit financing of his party.  Amato has earned the nickname ‘dottor sottile’ the sobriquet of the medieval Scottish philosopher John Duns Scotus, which is a reference to his perceived political subtlety.  Born into a Sicilian family living in Turin at the time, Amato spent his early years growing up in Tuscany.  He attended the Collegio Medico Giuridico, which is today the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, part of Pisa University, and obtained a degree in law. He also received a Masters degree in comparative law from Columbia Law School.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Benetton: The Family, the Business and the Board, by Jonathan Mantle

Benetton is the story of an extraordinary family and the business they built from humble origins to a skilfully orchestrated worldwide phenomenon. For no family and business arouse such controversy and embody so many apparently contradictory qualities. No other team name has such an ability to charm and shock, to subvert and yet preach conformism, to blend radicalism with capitalism, as Benetton. Behind the united colours and the seamless brand, there are also darker shades and looser threads. These include marginalised members of the family, aggrieved franchise holders and banks. This is a success story from the frontline of the retail company, where soft fabrics mix with the smell of high-octane petrol and Grand Prix motor racing, and coloured condoms combine with Catholicism and capitalism in their most red-blooded forms.

Jonathan Mantle is the author of the best-selling For Whom the Bell Tolls: Lessons of Lloyd's of London, Benetton: The Family, the Business and the Brand, as well as biographies of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jeffrey Archer. He lives in London.

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Luciano Benetton - entrepreneur

Co-founder of iconic clothing and accessories brand

Luciano Benetton, who turns 90 today, has
been active in the business much of his life

The entrepreneur Luciano Benetton, co-founder of a family clothing company that became a worldwide success story in the 1980s and 1990s, was born in Treviso on this day in 1935.

Along with his sister, Giuliana, and their brothers, Carlo and Gilberto, Luciano launched the Benetton Group in 1965, specialising at first in colourful knitwear. From its original store in Belluno, a town in the northern part of the Veneto region, opened in 1965, the group enjoyed a rapid expansion in the 1970s and 80s and at the peak of its success had as many as 6,000 outlets around the world.

Although it has faced tougher trading conditions in more recent years, the group continues to preside over more than 3,500 stores.

Since 1989, the Benetton empire has traded under the name United Colors of Benetton, a brand adopted as part of a long-running collaboration with photographer Oliviero Toscani, who masterminded the group’s provocative and often controversial advertising campaigns.

The Benetton story began in 1955 when Luciano, who had left school at age 14 to work in a clothing store after the death of his father, was working as a knitwear salesman. He had the idea to launch his own business, selling sweaters based on the colourful garments that his sister, Giuliana, designed and knitted for friends and family.

To raise the money needed to buy a knitting machine, he and Giuliana reportedly sold Luciano's accordion and a bicycle belonging to Carlo.  Giuliana was responsible for making the sweaters, which Luciano sold to shops in and around Treviso, using his own bicycle to deliver them.

The subtext of much of Benetton's advertising has
reflected the company's embrace of diversity

As the business grew, they were joined by Carlo and Gilberto. Together, they launched the Benetton Group and opened the company’s first factory in 1965 in Ponzano Veneto, a small town about 6.5km (four miles) north of Treviso, where the group still has its headquarters at the historic Villa Minelli.

The first Benetton shop was opened shortly afterwards, about 70km (43 miles) further north in the beautiful and prosperous town of Belluno in the Eastern Dolomites.  

More outlets were opened in Italy and in 1969 Benetton ventured outside their home country to open a store in Paris. By the early 1970s, the company had a network of 200 shops around Europe. 

The business steadily grew throughout the decade, expanding its range beyond simply sweaters. In 1974, the French fashion company, Sisley, became part of the Benetton Group. 

The first Benetton store in New York opened in 1980, followed by a store in Tokyo in 1982. By the mid-1980s, a Benetton store was opening almost daily. This decade, and the early ‘90s, saw the business at its peak.

United Colors of Benetton was adopted as the
company's brand name from the late 1980s

Apart from the quality and originality of its clothing ranges, the Benetton name maintained its high profile thanks to the controversial advertising campaigns devised by Toscani, appointed by Luciano as his creative director.

Luciano wanted his advertising to reflect the company’s values, namely having a social conscience and being advocates of tolerance and diversity, but much of it was designed to shock, particularly after Toscani became involved. Billboard images such as those showing a duck drenched with crude oil, a naked man with “HIV Positive” branded on his buttock, and an unwashed new-born baby with umbilical cord still attached, all labelled with United Colors of Benetton, became the company’s stock in trade. 

The campaigns prompted a number of lawsuits in different countries but at the same time ensured the Benetton brand remained in the public eye. 

Luciano also identified sports sponsorship as a way to consolidate public awareness of the company name. After first sponsoring Treviso’s rugby team, AS Rugby Treviso, which became a major force in Italian rugby, Benetton became an even bigger influence in motor racing.

Benetton took their colourful image into the world
of Formula One racing with considerable success

Benetton sponsored Formula One teams starting with Tyrrell in 1983, then Alfa Romeo, and eventually set up their own Benetton F1 team, which competed from 1986 to 2000 and achieved significant success under the management of Flavio Briatore. Michael Schumacher won the first two of his seven world championships driving for Benetton. 

As the clothing market became more challenging, Benetton’s success began to wane in the 2000s and Luciano and the other family members stepped back from management roles, although Luciano would twice return to the boardroom out of concern for the company’s ailing fortunes, resigning from his latest stint only in 2024, at the age of 89.  

Away from business, Luciano Benetton served as a senator for the Italian Republican Party from 1992 to 1994, while his Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche has developed the Imago Mundi Collection, a vast collection of contemporary art.

In Treviso, where he still lives, his Gallerie delle Prigioni - so called because it is housed in an historic prison from the Habsburg era - provides an exhibition space dedicated to contemporary culture. 

Piazza dei Signori is the beautiful square
at the centre of the city of Treviso

Travel tip:

For many visitors to Italy, Benetton’s home town of Treviso in the Veneto is no more than the name of the airport at which they might land en route to Venice, yet it is an attractive, historic city worth visiting in its own right, rebuilt and faithfully restored after the damage suffered in two world wars. Canals are a feature of the urban landscape – not on the scale of Venice but significant nonetheless – and the Sile river blesses the city with another stretch of attractive waterway, lined with weeping willows. The arcaded streets fanning out from the central square, Piazza dei Signori, have an air of refinement and prosperity and there are plenty of restaurants, as well as bars serving prosecco from a number of vineyards. The prime growing area for prosecco grapes in Valdobbiadene is only 40km (25 miles) away to the northeast.  Treviso also claims to be the birthplace of the famous Italian dessert, tiramisu. 

Benetton's headquarters remains the Villa Minelli in
Ponzano Veneto, which the family bought in 1968

Travel tip:

The Benetton Group headquarters is located in Villa Minelli, in Via Villa Minelli in Ponzano Veneto. It is a building complex built in the 17th century by a family of merchants, which includes a central villa, two colonnades and a small church. After the Minelli family, the villa was abandoned for over 150 years until the Benetton family purchased it in 1968. The renovation project was granted to Afra and Tobia Scarpa, the same architects responsible for the construction of the company’s first factory, the Maglierie Benetton, also in Ponzano Veneto. The renovation took over 15 years to complete. The architects won praise for preserving the solemnity of the villa while also transforming it into an efficient working place, with offices and meeting rooms. The villa is surrounded by vineyards and the park.

Also on this day:

1726: The death of singer and composer Francesco Pistocchi

1804: The birth of Venetian revolutionary leader Daniele Manin

1909: The first Giro d’Italia cycle race

1938: The birth of politician Giuliano Amato 

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