Battle of Fornovo

League of Italian states band together to send the French army home

A 19th century painting of Charles VIII
of France (left) at the Battle of Fornovo

The first major open battle of the Italian Wars took place on this day in 1495 in Fornovo di Taro in the province of Parma in the region of Emilia-Romagna.

A French army took to the battlefield against combined troops from Venice, Milan, and Mantua. Soldiers were killed and wounded on both the French and the Italian sides, but the smaller French army claimed victory afterwards. However, it was also later celebrated as a victory against the French by Venice and Mantua.

After the battle, the French army were able to leave Italy safely, but they had to give up all the territory and valuables they had taken while they had been occupying the Italian peninsula.

It was just the start of a series of conflicts that were to take place in different parts of the peninsula between 1494 and 1559 between France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire, with various Italian states joining in on both sides. There was also some involvement from England, Switzerland, and the Ottoman Empire during the 150 years that the Italian Wars lasted.

The young King of France, Charles VIII, wanted to be a hero for the Christians in Europe and put a stop to the power of the Ottoman Turks. He decided that he would need to control the south of Italy in order to be able to do this and so he set out to claim the Kingdom of Naples.

He made agreements with his neighbouring countries by giving money to Henry VII of England and land to Ferdinand II of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian.

Helped by Swiss mercenaries, Charles VIII moved through Italy easily and entered Naples in February 1495.

However, worried by the speed of his advance, some Italian states formed a Holy League with Pope Alexander VI, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Kings of England and Spain.

After receiving news about the League being formed against him, Charles VIII left some of his troops behind to guard Naples, and marched north again with the rest of his army. 

A depiction of Charles VIII leading his
army into Florence in 1494

Meanwhile the Venetians and their allies set up camp near Fornovo di Taro in June and waited for the French army to arrive.

Knowing that his enemies were now growing in number and that he was running out of supplies, Charles decided on July 6 he would have to fight. 

The League was stationed on the right side of the Taro river with the French troops on the left bank.

The French started the battle near Parma on this day more than 500 years ago by firing their cannons to frighten their enemies and then sent their heavy cavalry to charge forward. After the French had managed to break through the Italian lines, Charles marched his troops into Lombardy and from there he was able to return to France safely.

Both sides said they had won the Battle of Fornovo after the event, and Francesco Gonzaga, the Marquess of Mantua, even commissioned a painting, Madonna della Vittoria, to commemorate the victory.

But the French had come up against a much larger army and had still been able to continue their march home.

King Ferdinand II returned to Naples with a Spanish fleet and quickly won back the city and Pope Alexander VI congratulated the Venetians on gaining ‘immortal fame’ by freeing Italy.

The main loser at the end of this battle was the Italian peninsula, because other countries in Europe now realised it was a rich land, divided into lots of small states that were easy to conquer. For the next 150 years, the peninsula was to become a battleground for the main European powers.

The Church of Santa Maria Assunta is the most
important religious building in Fornovo

Travel tip:

Fornovo di Taro is a town in the province of Parma, in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 100km (62 miles) west of Bologna and about 25km (16 miles) southwest of Parma.  It is situated where the Po Valley meets the Lunigiana Valley. Fornovo was an important stop in the Middle Ages on the pilgrims' road to Monte Bardone, along the Via Francigena. The town acquired a significant place in Italian military history for a second time in April, 1945 when it was liberated from Nazi occupation by soldiers from the Brazilian Expeditionary Force fighting with the Allies.  Under the command of General João Baptista Mascarenhas de Morais, the Brazilians marched into Fornovo at the conclusion of the four-day Battle of Collecchio. In the centre of the village one of the most important parish churches of the area, the church of Santa Maria Assunta, houses narrative friezes and sculptural pieces from the Antelami school.

Parma is the home of Parmigiano Reggiano, one
of Italy's most famous cheeses

Travel tip:

Parma is an historic city in the Emilia-Romagna region, famous for its Prosciutto di Parma ham and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, the true ‘parmesan’. In 1545 the city was given as a duchy to the illegitimate son of Pope Paul III, whose descendants ruled Parma till 1731. The composer, Verdi, was born near Parma at Busseto and the city has a prestigious opera house, the Teatro Regio, and a conservatory named in honour of Arrigo Boito, who wrote the libretti for many of Verdi’s operas.  An elegant city with an air of prosperity common to much of Emilia-Romagna, Parma’s outstanding architecture includes an 11th century Romanesque cathedral and the octagonal 12th century baptistery that adjoins it, the church of San Giovanni Evangelista, which has a beautiful late Mannerist facade and bell tower, and the Palazzo della Pilotta. The palazzo houses the Academy of Fine Arts, the Palatine Library, the National Gallery and an archaeological museum.

Also on this day:

1849: The death of Goffredo Mameli, writer of the Italian national anthem

1942: The death of Sicilian Mafia-buster Cesare Mori

2002: The death of wrongly imprisoned bombing suspect Pietro Valpreda

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5 July

Paolo Rossi's World Cup hat-trick

Spain 1982: Italy defeat Brazil in classic match

Italians were celebrating on this day in 1982 years ago as striker Paolo Rossi turned from villain to hero with a magnificent hat-trick to knock hot favourites Brazil out of the World Cup finals in Spain.  The Juventus forward had served a two-year suspension for his role in an alleged match-fixing scandal was controversially selected for the World Cup by Italy coach Enzo Bearzot.  He had returned to action late in the 1981-82 season after his ban was lifted less than six weeks before the finals were due to begin. Critics argued that with so little preparation time he could not possibly be match fit.  Boasting stars such as Zico, Falcão, Éder and Sócrates, the 1982 Brazil side was reckoned to be at least the equal of the team of Pelé, Rivellino, Tostão and Jairzinho that won the 1970 World Cup in such flamboyant, thrilling style.  Some say the 1982 vintage was even better. Read more…

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Giovanni Sforza – Lord of Pesaro and Gradara

Military leader was briefly married to Lucrezia Borgia

Giovanni Sforza d’Aragona was born on this day in 1466 in Pesaro in the region of Le Marche.  The illegitimate son of Costanzo I Sforza, Giovanni became part of the powerful Sforza family and inherited his father’s titles when he was just 17, as Costanzo I died leaving no legitimate children.  Giovanni Sforza is mainly remembered for being the first husband of Lucrezia Borgia, but he was also a condottiero who ruled over Pesaro and Gradara from 1483 until his death. After his first wife, Maddalena Gonzaga, had died, a marriage was arranged, with the help of Giovanni’s cousin, between Giovanni, who was by then in his twenties and Lucrezia, the 12-year-old illegitimate daughter of the Borgia pope, Alexander VI, giving the Borgia family an important link with the powerful Sforza family.  Read more…

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Diego Maradona joins Napoli

Argentina star hailed as a ‘messiah’ by Neapolitans

SSC Napoli, a club who had never won Italy’s Serie A since their formation in 1926 and lived in the shadow of the powerful clubs in the north of the country, stunned the football world on this day in 1984 by completing the world record signing of Argentina star Diego Maradona.  Maradona, who would captain his country as they won the World Cup in Mexico two years later, agreed to move to Napoli from Spanish giants Barcelona, who he had joined from Argentina club Boca Juniors in 1982.  Although the Catalan team had been keen to offload him after two years in which Maradona had never been far from controversy, his arrival in arguably the poorest major city in Italy, whose team had finished 10th and 12th in the previous two Serie A seasons, was still a sensation.  Maradona’s unveiling at the Stadio San Paolo on 5 July, 1984 attracted a crowd of 75,000 to the stadium. Read more… 

Italian aviators set distance flying record

Rome-Brazil flight makes history

Italian aviation enthusiasts were celebrating on this day in 1928 when two pilots of the Regia Aeronautica - the Italian Air Force - landed their aircraft in Brazil having set a world record for the longest straight-line non-stop flight.  The duo - Carlo Del Prete and Arturo Ferrarin - had taken off from a military airfield at Montecelio near Rome 49 hours and 19 minutes earlier, crossing northwest Africa and the South Atlantic in their Savoia-Marchetti S64 monoplane on a single tank of fuel.  They were credited with a distance of 7,188km (4,466 miles), that being the great-circle distance (the formula used to calculate the distance between points on the surface of a sphere) between Montecelio and the flight’s intended destination - after several changes of plan - at Natal on the northeastern tip of Brazil.  Read more… 

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Alberto Gilardino - World Cup winner

Prolific goalscorer now on coaching ladder

The footballer Alberto Gilardino, who was an important member of Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning squad and is one of the all-time top 10 goalscorers in Serie A, was born on this day in 1982 in the province of Biella in Piedmont.  A striker, Gilardino, who enjoyed his peak years as a player with Parma, AC Milan and Fiorentina, totalled 188 goals in Serie A matches, putting him ninth on the all-time list.  He had scored 100 Serie A goals by the age of 26, one of the youngest to achieve that milestone.  As an Italy international, he played under coaches Marcello Lippi, Roberto Donadoni and Cesare Prandelli, scoring 19 goals in 57 appearances, having made his mark previously in the country’s Under-21 team, for whom he was all-time top scorer with 19 goals in 30 games and was captain of the side that won the 2004 European Under-21 championships.  Read more… 

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Gianfranco Zola – footballer

Brilliant forward voted Chelsea’s all-time greatest player

Gianfranco Zola, a sublimely talented footballer whose peak years were spent with Napoli, Parma and Chelsea, was born on this day in 1966 in the Sardinian town of Oliena.  Capped 35 times by the Italian national team, Zola scored more than 200 goals in his club career, the majority of them playing at the highest level, including 90 in Italy’s top flight – Serie A – and 58 in the English Premier League.  He specialised in the spectacular, most of his goals resulting from his brilliant execution of free kicks or his dazzling ball control.  Zola went on to be a manager after his playing career ended, although he has so far been unable to come anywhere near matching his achievements as a player.  He was probably at his absolute peak during the seven years he spent playing in England with Chelsea, whose fans named him as the club’s greatest player of all time in a 2003 poll. Read more…

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Roberto Locatelli - motorcycle racer

World champion who survived horror crash

The former world 125cc motorcycling champion Roberto Locatelli was born on this day in 1974 in the Lombardy city of Bergamo.  Locatelli won the 125cc title in 2000, riding an Aprilia for the Vasco Rossi Racing team, winning the Grands Prix of Malaysia, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain and Japan to finish top of the standings, ahead of the Japanese rider Yoichi Ui.  He finished third in the standings in 2004, his next best performance, but because of the rule excluding riders over the age of 28 from competing in the 125cc class was obliged to focus on the 250cc category.  He enjoyed some success racing with the Toth team, obtaining two podium finishes in the 2006 season, including second place in Valencia, to finish fifth overall. The achievement won him a contract to ride for Gilera in 2007.  However, while practising for the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez in March 2007 Locatelli suffered an horrific crash. Read more… 

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Book of the Day: The Match: The Story of Italy v Brazil 1982, by Piero Trellini

The Match is a multi-award-winning book first published in Italy in 2019.  It tells the tale of an extraordinary sports event – a match described by Time magazine in 2010 as the most beautiful game in football history: Italy v Brazil at Spain 82.  Piero Trellini delves into the stories and lives of the many great players and characters who shone on that day and lit up that unforgettable match – from Paolo Rossi to Sócrates, from Enzo Bearzot to Zico – as well as some forgotten figures who all played their part.  The Match takes us on a fascinating journey through the 1982 World Cup, and includes fresh insight and fascinating anecdotes. Italy did not arrive in Spain as favourites, with widespread doubts about their chances, not least in the Italian press. This is one of the reasons why their triumph that summer is still celebrated in Italy above any others by the azzurri. 

Piero Trellini is an award-winning Italian writer whose journalistic work has appeared in La Repubblica and many other leading Italian newspapers. The Match won the 2020 Bancarella Sport Prize, the Mastercard Letteratura Prize, the Massarosa Jury Award, was named Book of the Year by TuttoSport and the book with the best narrative by Corriere della Sera. 

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4 July

Giuseppe ‘Nuccio’ Bertone – car designer

The man behind the classic Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint

Automobile designer Giuseppe Bertone, who built car bodies for Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Lamborghini, Ferrari and many other important names in the car industry, was born on this day in 1914 in Turin.  Nicknamed ‘Nuccio’ Bertone, he was regarded as the godfather of Italian car design. His career in the automobile industry spanned six decades.  His father Giovanni was a skilled metalworker who made body parts for cars in a workshop he founded two years before Giuseppe was born.  Giovanni had been born in 1884 into a poor farming family near the town of Mondovi, in southern Piedmont. He had moved to Turin in 1907 and became gripped by the automobile fever that swept the city.  It was under the direction of his son that the company – Carrozzeria Bertone – was transformed after the Second World War into an industrial enterprise. Read more…

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Luigi Guido Grandi – monk, philosopher and mathematician

Man of religion who advanced mathematical knowledge

Luigi Guido Grandi, who published mathematical studies on the cone and the curve, died on this day in 1742 in Pisa.  He had been court mathematician to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III de’ Medici, and because he was also an engineer, he was appointed superintendent of water for the Duchy.  Grandi was born in 1671 in Cremona and joined the Camaldolese monks at Ferrara when he was 16 and a few years later he was sent to the monastery of St Gregory the Great in Rome to complete his studies in philosophy and theology in preparation for taking holy orders.  Having become a professor in both subjects at a monastery in Florence, he became interested in mathematics, which he studied privately.  Grandi soon developed such a reputation in the field of mathematics that he was appointed court mathematician by Cosimo III.  Read more…

Giambettino Cignaroli - painter

Artist celebrated in home city of Verona

The painter and writer Giambettino Cignaroli was born on this day in 1706 in Verona, where he spent much of his career and became the city’s leading painter in the Rococo era.  Primarily a painter of religious scenes, he became known also for spiritual images and celebratory historical painting.  His most famous works include Death of Cato and Death of Socrates, two canvases of Greco-Roman episodes which he painted for the Austrian governor of Lombardy, Count Karl von Firmian; his Virgin and Child With Saints Jerome and Alexander, for the Chiesa di San Giovanni XXIII in Bergamo; and the Death of Rachel for the Scuola Grande della Carità.  He was thought to have painted a portrait of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the age of 13, although some experts attribute this work to Cignaroli’s nephew, Saverio Dalla Rosa.  Read more…

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Gina Lollobrigida – actress

Movie star who became photojournalist

Film star Gina Lollobrigida was born Luigina Lollobrigida on this day in 1927 in Subiaco in Lazio.  At the height of her popularity as an actress in the 1950s and early 1960s she was regarded as a sex symbol all over the world. In later life she worked as a photojournalist and has supported Italian and American good causes. In 2013 she sold her jewellery collection and donated the money she raised, in the region of five million dollars, to fund stem cell therapy research.  One of four daughters of a furniture manufacturer and his wife, as a young girl, Lollobrigida did some modelling, entered beauty contests and had minor roles in Italian films. She studied painting and sculpture at school and claimed in later life that she became an actress "by mistake". When she was 20 she entered the Miss Italia competition and came third. Read more… 

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Book of the Day: How to Design Cars Like a Pro, by Tony Lewin and Ryan Borroff

This comprehensive updated edition of How to Design Cars Like a Pro provides an in-depth look at modern automotive design. Interviews with leading automobile designers from Ford, BMW, GM Jaguar, Nissan and others, analyses of past and present trends, studies of individual models and concepts, and much more combine to reveal the fascinating mix of art and science that goes into creating automobiles. This book is a must-have for professional designers, as well as for automotive enthusiasts.

Tony Lewin is a lifelong automotive commentator and industry analyst and has spent most of his career testing cars, analysing them, and reporting on the ups and downs of the global enterprises that build them. Ryan Borroff has been writing about the future of automotive design and technology for more than 30 years.

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3 July

Ulisse Stacchini - architect

Designer behind two famous Milan landmarks

Ulisse Stacchini, the architect who designed two of Milan's most famous 20th century landmarks, was born on this day in 1871 in Florence.  A champion of Liberty-style Art Nouveau designs, Stacchini's defining work was the gargantuan Stazione di Milano Centrale - the city's main railway terminal.  He also designed the stadium that evolved into the city's iconic Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, joint home of Milan's two major football clubs, Internazionale and AC Milan.  Stacchini studied in Rome and moved to Milan soon after graduating, setting up a partnership with the engineer Giulio de Capitani, building houses, offices and shops for private clients.  Among his early projects was the Savini Caffè in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.  His style can be seen in a number of town houses commissioned by wealthy patrons. Read more…

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Flavio Insinna - actor and presenter

Star of TV dramas turned game show host

The actor and presenter Flavio Insinna, who is the host of Italy’s popular television game show L’eridità and was formerly the face of Affari tuoi - the Italian version of Deal or No Deal - was born on this day in 1965 in Rome. In a broad-ranging career, Insinna has run up an impressive list of credits in cinema, theatre and television as well as publishing an autobiography and a novel. He is also known for his philanthropy after donating his 49-foot boat Roxana to humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières to help rescue Syrian refugees.  In a substantial catalogue of television drama and comedy appearances, notable was Insinna’s portrayal of the Carabinieri captain Flavio Anceschi in the popular Rai Uno series Don Matteo, with Terence Hill and Nino Frassica.  Ironically, Insinna’s ambition had been to become a Carabinieri officer.  Read more…

Alessandro Blasetti - film director

Reputation tarnished by links with Mussolini

Alessandro Blasetti, the film director sometimes referred to as ‘the father of Italian cinema’ for the part he played in reviving the film industry in Italy in the late 1920s and 30s, was born on this day in 1900 in Rome.  In his directing style, Blasetti was seen as ahead of his time, even in his early days.  His films were often shot on location, used many non-professional actors and had the characteristics of the neorealism that would make Italian cinema famous in the post-War years.  Yet he will forever be seen by some critics as an apologist for Fascism, a charge which stems mainly from his support for at least part of the ideology of Benito Mussolini, which led to a number of his films being interpreted as Fascist propaganda, although the evidence in some cases was rather thin.  Read more… 

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Walter Veltroni - politician

Popular former communist twice elected Mayor of Rome

The politician Walter Veltroni, who was the first leader of Italy’s centre-left Democratic Party (Partito Democratico) and was twice elected Mayor of Rome, was born on this day in 1955 in Rome.  A popular figure, Veltroni helped the PD reach a level of influence in Italian politics that enabled them to provide the leaders of three consecutive governments in Enrico Letta, Matteo Renzi and Paolo Gentiloni before the centre-left were routed at the 2018 general election.  Veltroni had such charisma and broad appeal that he was often tipped as a future prime minister, but his star began to wane after he lost the April 2008 general election in a head-to-head with Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom party.  He had stepped down as Mayor of Rome in order to focus on winning the election so defeat was a crushing blow.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Modern Architectures in History: Italy, by Diane Yvonne Ghirardo

Throughout the 20th century, architects in Italy have attempted to define the role of architecture under diverse political systems, from the monarchy of the first 70 years since Italian unification, to the 21 years of Fascist control, to the post-Second World War parliamentary republic. At the same time, Italy holds some of the most prized architecture and art in the world, from antiquity to the Baroque, packed into its dense historic city centres, which planners and politicians have negotiated as they struggled to cope with massive migration from the countryside to the city. Diane Ghirardo addresses these and other issues by considering modern architectural production in Italy from the late 19th century to the present day within a clear presentation of the larger historical, social and political contexts.  From the post-unification efforts to identify a distinctly Italian architectural language to the transformation of the urban environment in Italian cities undergoing industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Modern Architectures in History: Italy offers a new way of understanding the history of modern Italy.

Diane Ghirardo is Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California and also teaches at the Politecnico di Torino. She has published widely on Italian architecture.

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