6 June

Maria Theresa - the last Holy Roman Empress

Italian noblewoman was first Empress of Austria

Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily, the last Holy Roman Empress and the first Empress of Austria, was born at the Royal Palace of Portici in Naples on this day in 1772.  She was the eldest daughter of Ferdinand IV & III of Naples and Sicily (later Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies) and his wife, Marie Caroline of Austria, through whom she was a niece of the last Queen of France, Marie Antoinette.  Named after her maternal grandmother, Maria Theresa of Austria, she was the eldest of 17 children. Her father was a son of Charles III of Spain and through her father she was a niece of Maria Luisa of Spain and Charles IV of Spain.  Although she had a reputation for pursuing a somewhat frivolous lifestyle, which revolved around balls, carnivals, parties and masquerades, she did have some political influence, advising her husband about the make-up of his government and encouraging him to go to war with Napoleon, whom she detested.  She assumed her titles after she married her double first cousin Archduke Francis of Austria on September 15, 1790.  Francis became Holy Roman Emperor at age 24 in 1792.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Giotto Bizzarrini - auto engineer

Took part in 1961 rebellion that left Ferrari on brink

The automobile engineer Giotto Bizzarrini, a key figure in the development of Ferrari’s 1960s sports car, the 250 GTO, was born on this day in 1926 in Quercianella, a seaside village on the coast of Tuscany.  Bizzarrini famously joined with two other key engineers and several more employees in quitting Ferrari in October 1961 after a colleague had been sacked by founder Enzo Ferrari following a row over Ferrari’s wife, Laura, interfering in how the company was run.  Their walk-out left Ferrari effectively with no engineers to further develop on-going projects. The marque was already at a low point following the deaths of five of their main drivers in crashes between 1957 and 1961, one of which, at Monza in 1961, saw 15 spectators also lose their lives.  Enzo Ferrari, who was accused of running his company like a dictator, is said to have considered winding it up after Bizzarrini and the others left. The episode is remembered in Ferrari’s history as ‘the Great Walkout’.  Bizzarrini was born into a wealthy family from Livorno. His father was a landowner.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Italo Balbo - Fascist commander

Blackshirt thug turned air commander was Mussolini’s ‘heir apparent’

Italo Balbo, who rose to such a position of seniority in the hierarchy of the Italian Fascists that he was considered the man most likely to succeed Benito Mussolini as leader, was born on this day in 1896 in Quartesana, a village on the outskirts of Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna.  After active service in the First World War, Balbo became the leading Fascist organiser in his home region of Ferrara, leading a gang of Blackshirt thugs who became notorious for their attacks on rival political groups and for carrying out vicious reprisals against striking rural workers on behalf of wealthy landlords.  Later, he was one of the leaders of the March on Rome that brought Mussolini and the Fascists to power in 1922.  As Maresciallo dell'Aria - Marshal of the Air Force - he rebuilt Italy’s aerial warfare capability. At the height of his influence, however, he was sent by Mussolini to be Governor of Italian Libya.  Many believed that Mussolini saw Balbo as a threat and when Balbo was killed when the plane in which he was travelling was shot down - seemingly accidentally - by Italian anti-aircraft guns over Tobruk, there were those among Balbo’s supporters who believed it was not an accident.  Read more…

Vecchietta – painter and sculptor

Early Renaissance craftsman left a rich legacy of work in Tuscany

The artist Lorenzo di Pietro di Giovanni, who later became known as Vecchietta, ‘the little old one,’ died on this day in 1480 in Siena.  Vecchietta was a renowned painter, sculptor, goldsmith, and architect of the Renaissance. He was born in Siena and baptised on 11 August, 1410 in the city. He is believed to have become the pupil of a Sienese artist and his name has been linked with those of Sassetta, Taddeo di Bartolo and Jacopo della Quercia.   Much of Vecchietta’s work has remained in Siena, some of it in the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, which caused him to be also known as ‘pittor della spedale', painter of the hospital. With branches in many other towns, the hospital was one of the largest and most famous of its kind in medieval Italy.  He painted a series of frescoes for the Pellegrinaio - Pilgrim Hall - at the hospital along with Domenico di Bartolo and Priamo della Quercia. These included The Founding of the Spedale and The Vision of Santa Sorore, which depicts a dream of the mother of the cobbler Sorore, the mythical founder of the hospital.  In about 1444, Vecchietta decorated the Cappella di Sacra Chiodo, the old sacristy, with his work.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour

Prime Minister died after creating a united Italy

The first Prime Minister of Italy, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, died on this day in 1861 in Turin.  A leading figure in the struggle for Italian unification, Cavour died at the age of 50, only three months after taking office as Prime Minister of the new Kingdom of Italy. He did not live to see Venice and Rome become part of the Italian nation.  Cavour was born in 1810 in Turin, the second son of the fourth Marquess of Cavour. He was chosen to be a page to Charles Albert, King of Piedmont, when he was 14. After attending a military academy he served in the Piedmont-Sardinian army but eventually resigned his commission and went to run his family’s estate at Grinzane in the province of Cuneo instead.  He then travelled extensively in Switzerland, France and England before returning to Turin where he became involved in politics.  Originally he was interested in enlarging and developing Piedmont-Sardinia economically rather than creating a unified Italy.  As Prime Minister he took the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia into the Crimean war hoping it would gain him the support of the allies for his plans for expansion.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Roberto De Zerbi - football coach

Left turmoil in Ukraine to achieve success in England

The football coach Roberto De Zerbi, who helped the English Premier League club Brighton and Hove Albion qualify for a European competition for the first time in their history, was born on this day in 1979 in Brescia.  De Zerbi, who was unknown to many British football fans before he arrived on the south coast of England in September, 2022, guided his new team to seventh place in the Premier League table, earning the club a place in the UEFA Europa League for the 2023-24 season.  The club had hired him to succeed Graham Potter, who left Brighton to take over at Chelsea. De Zerbi’s first win as the new man in charge was against Potter’s Chelsea.  De Zerbi, who retired as a player in 2013, did not find significant success as a coach until he took over at Sassuolo, a team from a town just outside Modena in Emilia-Romagna which became a Serie A club in 2013, having never previously played in the top division of Italian football in its 103-year history.  His club before he joined Brighton had been Shakhtar Donetsk, one of the two biggest clubs in Ukraine, but his time there ended abruptly because of the war between Ukraine and Russia.  Read more...

_____________________________________

Battle of Novara 1513

Many lives lost in battle between French and Swiss on Italian soil

Swiss troops defeated a French occupying army on this day in 1513 in a bloody battle near Novara in the Piedmont region of northern Italy.  The French loss forced Louis XII to withdraw from Milan and Italy and after his army were pursued all the way to Dijon by Swiss mercenaries, he had to pay them off to make them leave France.  The battle was part of the War of the League of Cambrai, fought between France, the Papal States and the Republic of Venice in northern Italy, but often involving other powers in Europe.  Louis XII had expelled the Sforza family from Milan and added its territory to France in 1508.  Swiss mercenaries fighting for the Holy League drove the French out of Milan and installed Maximilian Sforza as Duke of Milan in December 1512.  More than 20,000 French troops led by Prince Louis de la Tremoille besieged the city of Novara, which was being held by the Swiss, in June 1513.  However, a much smaller Swiss relief army arrived and surprised the French just after dawn on June 6.  German Landsknecht mercenaries, armed with pikes like the Swiss troops, put up some resistance to the attack.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Book of the Day: In the Shadow of the Empress: The Defiant Lives of Maria Theresa, Mother of Marie Antoinette, and Her Daughters, by Nancy Goldstone

In the Shadow of the Empress is the sweeping family saga of beautiful Maria Theresa, the only woman to inherit and rule the vast Habsburg empire in her own name, and three of her remarkable daughters: lovely, talented Maria Christina, governor general of the Austrian Netherlands; spirited Maria Carolina, the resolute queen of Naples; and the youngest, Marie Antoinette, the glamorous, tragic queen of France, perhaps the most famous princess in history. Unfolding against an irresistible backdrop of courts from Vienna to Versailles, this epic history of Maria Theresa and her daughters is a tour de force of desire, adventure, ambition, treachery, sorrow and glory.

Nancy Goldstone is the author of three works of non-fiction examining the role of high born women in the Middle Ages - The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc; Four Queens, about a family of four 13th century sisters who all became queens; and The Lady Queen, a biography of Joanna I, 14th century queen of Naples, Jerusalem and Sicily and countess of Provence.

Buy from Amazon

Home

5 June

Ludovico III Gonzaga – Marquis of Mantua

Condottiero fought to improve the town of his birth

Ludovico Gonzaga, who ruled his native city for 34 years, was born on this day in 1412 in Mantua.  He grew up to fight as a condottiero - a military leader for hire - and in 1433 he married Barbara of Brandenburg, the niece of the Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund.  After Ludovico entered the service of the Visconti family in Milan, he and his wife were exiled from Mantua by his father, Gianfrancesco I.  But father and son were later reconciled and Ludovico became Marquis of Mantua in 1444, inheriting territory that had been reduced in size and was impoverished after years of war.  He continued to serve as a condottiero, switching his allegiance between Milan, Florence, Venice and Naples, to gain territory and secure peace for Mantua.  The high point of his reign came when Pope Pius II held a Council in Mantua between 1459 and 1460 to plan a crusade against the Ottoman Turks. Although the Pope was unimpressed with Mantua and criticised the food and wine afterwards, the event earned prestige for Ludovico, whose son, Francesco, was made a Cardinal.  During Ludovico’s reign, he paved the streets of Mantua, built a clock tower and reorganised the city centre.  Read more…

______________________________________

Carmine Crocco - soldier and brigand

Bandit seen by peasants as Italy’s ‘Robin Hood’

Carmine Crocco, whose life of brigandry was driven by a hatred of what he saw as the bourgeois oppressors of the poor, was born on this day in 1830 in the town of Rionero in Vulture, in Basilicata.  Crocco fought in the service of Giuseppe Garibaldi in the Expedition of the Thousand but was no supporter of Italian Unification and spent much of his life thereafter fighting on the side of the ousted Bourbons and of the peasant people of the south, many of whom were as poor after unification as they had been before, if not poorer.  He assembled his own private ‘army’, including many other fearsome brigands, which at one point numbered more than 2,000 men.  For this reason, he is regarded as something of a folk hero in southern Italy, where there is a popular belief that he robbed the rich to give to the poor in the manner of the legendary English outlaw, Robin Hood.  Nonetheless, when he was arrested for the final time he was tried and convicted of 67 murders and seven attempted murders among many crimes, having led a life of violence.  His initial death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment with hard labour. Read more…

Salvatore Ferragamo - shoe designer

From humble beginnings to giant of the fashion industry

Salvatore Ferragamo, the craftsman once dubbed 'Shoemaker to the Stars' after his success in creating made-to-measure footwear for movie stars and celebrities, was born on this day in 1898 in Bonito, a small hill town in Campania, in the province of Avellino.  Although in time he would become a prominent figure in the fashion world of Florence, Ferragamo learned how to make shoes in Naples, around 100km (62 miles) from his home village.  He was apprenticed to a Neapolitan shoemaker at the age of just 11 years and opened his first shop, trading from his parents' house, at 13.  When he was 16 he made the bold decision to move to the United States, joining one of his brothers in Boston, where they both worked in a factory manufacturing cowboy boots.  Salvatore was impressed at how modern production methods enabled the factory to turn out large numbers of boots but was concerned about compromises to quality.  This led him to move to California and to set up shop selling his own hand-made shoes in Santa Barbara, where he made his first contacts in the burgeoning American film industry.  Read more…

______________________________________

Braccio da Montone - condottiero

Soldier of fortune briefly ruled Perugia

Military leader Braccio da Montone, who is considered one of the greatest of the Italian condottieri who fought in the 14th and 15th centuries, died on this day in 1424.  He had a lifelong rivalry with another condottiero, Muzio Attendolo Sforza, and during the first quarter of the 15th century all the major Italian cities either hired Braccio or Sforza to carry out their military action.  The rapid movements of Braccio’s troops became legendary and he founded a military school, which became known as ‘the Braccesca’. This had a major impact on Italian warfare. Braccio’s men employed tactics such as speed, shock and the rapid rotation of small units on the battlefield.  Braccio was born Andrea Fortebraccio into a wealthy family in Perugia in 1368. He began his military career as a page, but after his family were exiled from Perugia and they lost the castle of Montone, he entered the company of the condottiero Alberico da Barbiano, which was where he first encountered Muzio Attendolo Sforza.  He fought for the Malatesta and Montefeltro families in Romagna and was injured during the siege of the castle of Fossombrone in 1391.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Book of the Day: Blue Guide: Lombardy, Milan & the Italian Lakes, by Alta Macadam and Annabel Barber

Blue Guides have been published continuously since 1918 and are the most comprehensive travel guides concentrating on history, architecture and art. This guide to Lombardy, Milan & the Italian Lakes also takes in Lakes Maggiore, Como and Garda as well as the historically and artistically rich towns of Cremona, Bergamo, Mantua, Brescia and Pavia. The depth of information and quality of research make this 300-page book the best guide for the independent cultural traveller. With high-quality maps from Blue Guides' award-winning cartography series, numerous plans and photos, and full coverage of places to stay and eat.

Art historian Alta Macadam is a resident of Fiesole, on the hillside above Florence. Annabel Barber, co-author of Blue Guide: Rome, is Blue Guides editor-in-chief.

Buy from Amazon

Home

4 June

Cecilia Bartoli – opera singer

Soprano put the spotlight back on ‘forgotten’ composers and singers

Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli was born on this day in 1966 in Rome. Bartoli is renowned for her interpretations of the music of Mozart and Rossini and for her performances of music by some of the lesser-known Baroque and 19th century composers.  Her parents were both professional singers and gave her music lessons themselves and her first public performance was at the age of eight when she appeared as the shepherd boy in Tosca.  Bartoli studied at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome and made her professional opera debut in 1987 at the Arena di Verona.  The following year she earned rave reviews for her portrayal of Rosina in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville in Germany and Switzerland.  Bartoli made her debut at La Scala in 1996, followed by the Metropolitan Opera in 1997 and the Royal Opera House in 2001.  She has performed and recorded Baroque music by composers such as Gluck, Vivaldi, Haydn and Salieri.  She has sold more than ten million copies of her albums, received numerous gold and platinum certificates and been given many awards and honours.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Claudia de’ Medici – Archduchess of Tyrol

Medici daughter who was born to rule

Claudia de’ Medici, who ruled the Tyrol region of Austria while her son was still a minor, was born on this day in 1604 in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence.  Claudia was the daughter of Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his wife Christina of Lorraine.  She was destined for a marital alliance with someone equally aristocratic and became engaged at just four years old to Federico Ubaldo della Rovere, Duke of Urbino.  She was educated in a convent where, in addition to piety, she learned to play the harp and paint pictures.  At the age of 16, she married Federico, Duke of Urbino and was initially disappointed when she found out he had his mistress installed in the ducal palace.  But two years later she had a daughter with him, Vittoria della Rovere. Her husband died a year later in 1623 leaving her a widow at the age of 19.  Claudia remarried in 1626 to Leopold V, Archduke of Austria, and became the Archduchess consort of Austria. She had five children by Leopold before his death six years later in 1632.  She assumed the regency of Tyrol in the name of her son, Ferdinand Charles, and held it until 1646 when Ferdinand became 18.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Dino Grandi - politician

Fascist who ultimately turned against Mussolini

The Fascist politician Dino Grandi was born on this day in 1895 in Mordano, a small town near Imola in Emilia-Romagna.  Although Grandi was an active member of Benito Mussolini’s Blackshirts and a staunch advocate of using violence to suppress opponents of Mussolini’s National Fascist Party, he ultimately became central to the Italian dictator’s downfall.  During his time as the Italian Ambassador in London, Grandi tried to forge a pact between Italy and Britain that would have prevented Italy entering World War Two.  Under pressure from the German leader Adolf Hitler, Mussolini removed him from the post of ambassador and appointed him Minister of Justice.  Grandi had also opposed the antisemitic Italian racial laws of 1938. He enjoyed a good relationship with the Italian king, Victor Emmanuel III, who gave him the title Count of Mordano.  His increasing criticism of Italy’s war effort saw him dropped from the Cabinet in February 1943 but remained chairman of the Fascist Grand Council. In this role, he colluded with others to remove Mussolini as leader.  Read more…

Flavio Biondo – historian and archaeologist

Writer reconstructed ancient Roman topography

Flavio Biondo, the first historian to write about the concept of the Middle Ages, died on this day in 1463 in Rome.  Biondo, who is also sometimes referred to as Flavius Biondus, his Latin name, wrote Historiarum, which ran to 32 volumes. It was a comprehensive treatment of both Europe and Christendom from the sack of Rome by the Goths in AD 410 to the rise of Italian cities in the 15th century.  His work provided a definite chronological scheme, from ancient Rome up to his own time, which started the idea of the 1000 year period we now refer to as the Middle Ages. It is known that the writer Niccolò Machiavelli often consulted this work.  Biondo was born in 1392 in Forlì in Romagna, which is now part of the region of Emilia-Romagna. He was educated well and during a brief stay in Milan he discovered, and was able to transcribe, the only existing manuscript of Cicero’s dialogue, Brutus.  Biondo trained as a notary before moving to Rome, where he was appointed as an apostolic secretary.  After embarking on diplomatic missions throughout Italy, he wrote De Roma instaurata (Rome Restored), a three-volume work that reconstructed ancient Roman topography.  Read more…

______________________________________

Deborah Compagnoni - Olympic skiing champion

Alpine ace won gold medals in 1992, 1994 and 1998

The three-times Olympic skiing champion Deborah Compagnoni was born on this day in 1970 in Bormio, northern Lombardy.  Regarded as the greatest Italian female skier of all-time, she won gold medals at the 1992, 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics.  Despite suffering two serious cruciate ligament injuries, she also won multiple events at the Alpine Skiing World Cup between 1992 and 1998.  Born in Bormio but raised in Santa Caterina di Valfurva, in Valtellina, Compagnoni’s talent became obvious at a young age but she began suffering injuries also at an early age.  At just 16 years old she won the bronze medal in the downhill at the World junior championships in 1987, and the following year won the junior title in giant slalom and achieved her first podium in the World Cup.  However, shortly afterwards she broke her right knee at Val d'Isére downhill, the first of a number of major injuries, but for which she could have attained even greater success.  Compagnoni won her first race in the World Cup in 1992, in the super-G. She also won the gold medal at the Winter Olympics of the same year, again in the super-G, at Albertville in France.  Read more…

______________________________________

Book of the Day: Cinderella & Company: Backstage at the Opera with Cecilia Bartoli, by Manuela Hoelterhoff

Manuela Hoelterhoff's biography of Cecilia Bartoli offers a personal account of the mezzo-soprano's rise to fame and life in the opera world. Hoelterhoff accompanied Bartoli on her travels, documenting her performances, rehearsals, and interactions with other opera luminaries. The book provides insights into Bartoli's musical talents, personality, and the behind-the-scenes aspects of opera. As well as providing a personal and intimate look at Bartoli's life and career, offering insights beyond the typical biographical details, Cinderella & Company offers a glimpse into the world of opera, from rehearsals and backstage preparations to opening nights and galas.  The book explores Bartoli's remarkable vocal abilities, her passion for music, and her personality as a performer.  It features encounters with other prominent opera singers and figures, such as Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, providing a broader perspective on the opera world. The book uses Rossini's La Cenerentola (Cinderella) as a recurring metaphor to frame the story, highlighting Bartoli's journey from humble beginnings to international stardom.

Manuela Vali Hoelterhoff is a German-born American cultural journalist, who was the executive editor of Muse, the arts and culture section of Bloomberg News until 2015. This followed a 20-year stint at The Wall Street Journal, where she wrote reviews and served as arts editor, books editor and member of the editorial board, and where she received a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Buy from Amazon

Home

Boldrino da Panicale - condottiero

Fierce fighter murdered in act of treachery

Boldrino da Panicale grew up
in violent times in Italy

The soldier of fortune known as Boldrino da Panicale, one of the most feared yet respected of Italy’s many condottieri in the second half of the 14th century, was killed on this day in 1391 near the town of Macerata in what is now the Marche region.

He had been lured to a banquet, thought to have been staged at the Castello della Rancia, a castle about 13km (8 miles) west of Macerata, by Andrea Tomacelli, brother of Pope Boniface IX and Rector of the Duchy of Spoleto.

During an era when towns and neighbouring land changed hands regularly as rival leaders fought for territorial gains, Boldrino had been employed by Boniface IX to retake some captured parts of the Marche for the Papal States.

He handed back some of the papal territory but decided to keep other areas for himself, using the threat of violence to extract payments from local governors and hoping that he would be allowed to rule the area and be granted a marquisate.

Boniface IX had sent Tomacelli to bring peace to the region. While there was no love lost between him and Tomacelli, Boldrino accepted the invitation to the banquet, perhaps hoping that the occasion would be some sort of investiture, giving him the title he craved. Tomacelli had already agreed to impose a new tax on the area Boldrino controlled, essentially to enrich Boldrino himself.

But the occasion was not what Boldrino expected, far from it. During a break between courses, when washing his hands, he was attacked from behind and repeatedly stabbed, perhaps by Tomacelli himself, or somebody acting on his behalf. Some accounts say Boldrino was also beheaded.

Boldrino is thought to have been murdered
during a banquet at Castello della Rancia

Boldrino, originally named Giacomo Paneri, came from a lower middle class family in Panicale, a town in what is now Umbria, near Lago Trasimeno. The Panieri were said to be bakers, in the service of the Tarlati of Arezzo and the Casali of Cortona, two important and rich Ghibelline families.

He was born in around 1331, when fighting between rival factions in the area around Panicale was common. Boldrino was used to witnessing bloodshed from an early age. Nonetheless he looked set to have a life in farming until everything changed when his father, Ambrogio, was murdered. 

Determined to take revenge, Boldrino abandoned farming and embarked on a path of violence and warfare. He moved to Perugia to train at a military college. In 1351, he learned the names of his father’s killers, returned to Panicale, found where they lived and killed them both. 

Convicted in absentia for the crime by the municipal authorities in Panicale, he was forced to flee. He initially found refuge in the small church of Santa Maria La Querciolana, just outside the town, before encountering a  company of mercenaries who were looking for recruits, and deciding to join them. 

Quickly emerging as a highly-skilled condottiero both in combat and strategy, Boldrino’s prowess earned him a place in the company of the legendary Sir John Hawkwood, also known as Giovanni Acuto, an English mercenary who dominated Italian warfare at the time. 

Boldrino fought for many years
alongside Sir John Hawkwood

Boldrino fought in numerous battles, including the Battle of Cascina, where Hawkwood’s forces, representing Pisa, were outnumbered and defeated by an army defending Florence, but from which Hawkwood and Boldrino both escaped.

In 1376, after about 14 years of service alongside Hawkwood, Boldrino established himself as an independent leader, commanding his own forces and securing territories. 

He became Lord of Civitanova Marche, Arquata del Tronto, and other feudal holdings. His reputation as a ruthless yet effective commander grew, and he was frequently employed by powerful factions, including the Papal States under Pope Urban VI. His campaigns left devastation in their wake, particularly in Tuscany and the Marche region. He accumulated great wealth in the process.

His own soldiers became fiercely loyal to him, responding to his death by mounting a campaign of massacre against the people of Macerata, which ended following the intervention of mediators from Florence only when the body of Boldrino was returned to them, along with a sum of 12,000 florins as compensation.

His troops had the body embalmed and placed in an artistically made coffin, around which the troops swore never to disband. The company went on to fight successfully under the leadership of the Perugian condottiero, Biordo Michelotti.

Panicale is notable for its layout of streets in
concentric ovals leading to the main square

Travel tip:

Panicale, in Umbria, is a mostly medieval walled town. Located on the eastern slope of Monte Petrarvella, in the southeast of Valdichiana, it overlooks Lago di Trasimeno and is about 35km (22 miles)from Perugia. It is notable in that its streets form concentric ovals that lead to the main square, Piazza Umberto I, at the centre of which is the 15th century fountain, the Fontana Maggiore. For such a small town - it has fewer than 6,000 inhabitants - Panicale has some remarkable art including two works by Pietro Perugino, one a magnificent fresco, The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, in the church of San Sebastiano. The 18th century Teatro Cesare Caporali is one of the smallest in Umbria. Just off Piazza Umberto I, in a small square at the start of Via Paolo Corsetti, is a 13th century building which was the birthplace of Boldrino Paneri. It carries a plaque bearing words which translate to “Boldrino, very proud leader, always crowned by victory, generous to friends, ominous to enemies.”

Macerata's 16th century
Loggia dei Mercanti

Travel tip:

The city of Macerata, home to about 43,000 people, is situated in an inland area of Marche, about 48km (30 miles) south of Ancona and 30km (19 miles) from the coastal town of Civitanova Marche. Not a well-known tourist destination, its older part nonetheless has a charming hill town feel, with a maze of narrow cobblestone streets and one of Italy’s oldest universities, dating back to 1290. It is the setting each summer for a month-long opera festival at the atmospheric Arena Sferisterio, which has attracted some of the world’s biggest stars.  Other notable attractions are the Torre Civica, which offers panoramic views, and Piazza della Libertà, the heart of the historic centre, with its 16th century Loggia dei Mercanti, where travelling merchants once sold their wares. The Basilica della Misericordia and the church of Santa Maria della Porta are also worth visiting.

Also on this day: 

1603: The birth of painter Pietro Paolini

1678: The birth of painter, sculptor and architect Domenico Antonio Vaccaro

1751: The birth of Naples priest the Blessed Vincent Romano

1977: The death of film director Roberto Rossellini

Home