22 September

Andrea Bocelli - tenor

Singer's versatile voice at home with opera and pop

Tenor Andrea Bocelli was born on this day in 1958 in La Sterza, a hamlet or frazione of Lajatico in Tuscany.  Bocelli, who is blind, had poor eyesight from birth and was diagnosed with congenital glaucoma, but he lost his sight completely at the age of 12 after an accident while playing football.  He always loved music and started to learn the piano at the age of six. But after hearing a recording by opera singer Franco Corelli, he set his heart on becoming a tenor.  Bocelli won his first singing competition in Viareggio with ‘O sole mio’ at the age of 14.  He has since sold 150 million records worldwide and performed for four US presidents, three Popes and the British Royal family. His voice has been acclaimed by critics as perfect for either opera or pop.  Bocelli originally studied law and spent one year working as a lawyer. Read more…

______________________________________

Carlo Ubbiali - motorcycle world champion

Racer from Bergamo won nine GP titles

Carlo Ubbiali, who preceded Giacomo Agostini and Valentino Rossi as Italy’s first great motorcycling world champion, was born on this day in 1929 in Bergamo.  Between 1951 and 1960, he won nine Grand Prix titles, in the 250cc and 125cc categories, setting a record for the most world championships that was equalled by Britain’s Mike Hailwood in 1967 but not surpassed until Agostini won the 10th of his 15 world titles in 1971.  Until his death in 2020, Ubbiali was the second oldest surviving Grand Prix champion after Britain’s Cecil Sandford, who was his teammate in the 1950s. Ubbiali’s compatriot Agostini, who came from nearby Lovere, in Bergamo province, was born in 1942.  Ubbiali won a total of 39 Grand Prix races, all bar two of them for the MV Agusta team.  Three times – in 1956, 1959 and 1960 – he was world champion in both 125cc and 250cc classes. Read more…

___________________________________

Leonardo Messina - Mafia ‘pentito’

Sicilian who linked ex-premier with organised crime

The Mafia pentito or turncoat Leonardo ‘Narduzzo’ Messina, the first to accuse former prime minister Giulio Andreotti of links with organised crime, was born on this day in 1955 in San Cataldo, a town in the centre of the island of Sicily.  Messina, who decided to reveal what he knew to the authorities soon after the murder of the anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone, named Andreotti as part of extensive testimony that led to the arrest of more than 200 mafiosi in 1992.  A so-called ‘man of honour’ for more than a decade, Messina, who had been arrested for his part in a drugs racket, became a pentito - literally a ‘repentant’ - after Falcone was killed by a massive bomb placed under the highway linking the city of Palermo with its airport.  Falcone’s wife and three police escorts died with him when the bomb was detonated. Read more… 

Mario Berrino - painter

Artist who was also a popular entrepreneur 

The painter and entrepreneur Mario Berrino was born on this day in 1920 in Alassio, the coastal town in Liguria where he spent almost all his life.  Berrino took up painting full time in his 50s and his simple yet atmospheric and evocative works became sought after by collectors, often selling for hundreds of euros at auction.  Alassio has a gallery dedicated entirely to his work, as does the jet set playground of Monte Carlo, about 100km (62 miles) along the riviera coastline to the west, not far from Italy’s border with France.  Before that, Berrino had lived a colourful life in and around his home town, his entrepreneurial spirit shining through in many projects that left a lasting impression on Alassio.  As a young man, he helped his father and brothers run a bar and restaurant in Alassio, the Caffè Roma, which earned fame in the years between the First and Second World Wars. Read more…

____________________________________

Roberto Saviano - writer and journalist

Author of ‘Gomorrah’ who lives under police protection

The author and journalist Roberto Saviano, whose 2006 book Gomorrah exposed the inner workings of the Camorra organised crime syndicate in his home city of Naples, was born on this day in 1979.  Gomorrah was an international bestseller that was turned into a film and inspired a TV series, bringing Saviano fame and wealth.  However, within six months of the book’s publication, Saviano had received so many threats to his life from within the Camorra that the decision was taken on the advice of former prime minister Giuliano Amato to place him under police protection.  Some 19 years later, he remains under 24-hour police guard.  He travels only in one of two bullet-proof cars, lives either in police barracks or obscure hotels and is encouraged never to remain in the same place for more than a few days. Read more…

_____________________________________

Book of the Day: Andrea Bocelli: The Music of Silence

Andrea Bocelli is currently the world's most successful male singer. He has sold an astonishing 90 million albums worldwide and has sung for the Pope and Bill Clinton. His concerts sell out in every continent, and his album Sacred Arias has become the biggest-selling album of all time by a classical vocalist. His single Canto Della Terra was the BBC's official song of Euro 2000. Yet behind this man's extraordinary success lies a story of personal triumph more dramatic than any opera. Andrea Bocelli has been blind since the age of 12, yet not only did he overcome his sight loss to qualify as a lawyer, but continued to pursue his childhood dream to sing, using braille musical scores and lyric sheets. He was discovered singing in piano bars by the Italian star Zucchero, before Pavarotti took him under his wing. Bocelli's 1997 album, Romanza, rocketed him to international stardom and everything he has released since then has either gone Gold or Platinum. His recordings now outsell all of the Three Tenors - Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras and Plácido Domingo.  Andrea Bocelli: The Music of Silence is Bocelli's true story, told in his own words for the first time. 

Buy from Amazon

Home

21 September

Cigoli – painter and architect

First artist to paint a realistic moon

The artist Cigoli was born Lodovico Cardi on this day in 1559 near San Miniato in Tuscany.  He became a close friend of Galileo Galilei, who is said to have regarded him as the greatest painter of his time. They wrote to each other regularly and Galileo practised his drawing while Cigoli enjoyed making astronomical observances.  Cigoli painted a fresco in the dome of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome depicting the Madonna standing upon a pock-marked lunar orb, exactly as it had been seen by Galileo through his telescope.  This is the first example still in existence of Galileo’s discovery about the surface of the moon being portrayed in art. The moon is shown just as Galileo had drawn it in his astronomical treatise, Sidereus Nuncius, which published the results of Galileo’s early observations of the imperfect and mountainous moon.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Clara Calamai - actress

Star remembered for groundbreaking moments in Italian cinema history

The actress Clara Calamai, best known for two Italian cinema classics of the 1940s and for a cult 1970s horror film, died in the Adriatic resort of Rimini on this day in 1998, at the age of 89.  Calamai’s career is generally seen to have peaked with her appearances in Luchino Visconti’s 1943 crime drama Ossessione and, three years later, in Duilio Coletti’s melodrama L’adultera, for which she won a Nastro d’Argento award as best actress. She scaled down her career drastically after marriage but won fresh acclaim three decades later for her role as Marta, a murderous ageing actress in ‘Master of Horror’ Dario Argento’s box office smash Profondo Rosso. For many years, Calamai was also known as the first woman to bare her breasts in Italian cinema - in a 1942 movie that not surprisingly caused scandal at the time. Read more…

Giacomo Quarenghi - architect

Neoclassicist famous for his work in St Petersburg

The architect Giacomo Quarenghi, best known for his work in Russia, and in St Petersburg in particular, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, was born on this day in 1744 in Rota d’Imagna, a village in Lombardy about 25km (16 miles) northwest of Bergamo.  His extensive work in St Petersburg between 1782 and 1816, which followed an invitation from the Empress Catherine II (Catherine the Great), included the Hermitage Theatre, one of the first buildings in Russia in the Palladian style, the Bourse and the State Bank, St. George’s Hall in the Winter Palace, several bridges on the Neva river, and a number of academic buildings including the Academy of Sciences, on the University Embankment.  He was also responsible for the reconstruction of some buildings around Red Square in Moscow in neo-Palladian style.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Maurizio Cattelan - conceptual artist

Controversial work softened by irreverent humour

The conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, known for the dark humour and irreverence of much of his work, was born on this day in 1960 in Padua.  Cattelan, probably best known for his controversial waxwork sculptures of Pope John Paul II and Adolf Hitler, has been described at different times as a satirist, a prankster, a subversive and a poet, although it seems to have been his aim to defy any attempt at categorisation.  His works are often interpreted as critiques of the art world and of society in general and while death and mortality are recurring themes there is more willingness among modern audiences to see how even tragic circumstances can give rise to comedic absurdities.  Although some of his work has provoked outrage, more viewers have been enthralled than angered by what he has presented, with some of his creations selling for millions of dollars. Read more…

_______________________________________

Book of the Day: Art of Renaissance Florence: A City and Its Legacy, by Scott Nethersole 

In this vivid account, Scott Nethersole examines the remarkable period of cultural, artistic and intellectual blossoming in Florence from around 1400 to 1520 - the period traditionally known as the Early and High Renaissance. He looks at the city and its art with fresh eyes, presenting the well-known within a wider context of cultural reference. In Art of Renaissance Florence: A City and Its Legacy, key works of art - from painting, sculpture and architecture to illuminated manuscripts - by artists such as Michelangelo, Donatello, Botticelli and Brunelleschi are showcased alongside the unexpected and less familiar.

Scott Nethersole is Senior Lecturer in Italian Renaissance Art, 1400–1500, at The Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

Buy from Amazon

Home

20 September

NEW - Sant’Eustachio – Roman saint

Christian convert martyred by Hadrian became world famous 

The feast day of Saint Eustace, Sant’Eustachio as he is known in Italian, is celebrated on this day every year in Rome, as well as throughout Italy, and elsewhere in the world.  Eustace is revered as a Christian martyr because he was killed by the Emperor Hadrian in AD 118 for refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods. He was thrown to the lions initially but the animals are said to have refused to eat him, so Hadrian ordered another unpleasant death for him and his family, using a brazen bull, a lifesize model of a bull cast in bronze, which was a particularly cruel torture and execution device of the day.  After Eustace and his family’s deaths, their bodies were secretly recovered and buried by Christians in Rome.  A church and minor basilica in Italy’s capital city is named after Eustace in Rione Sant’Eustachio, an area between Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.  Read more…

______________________________________

Capture of Rome

Troops enter the capital in final act of unification

Crack infantry soldiers from Piedmont entered Rome and completed the unification of Italy on this day in 1870.  Rome had remained under French control even after the first Italian parliament had proclaimed Victor Emmanuel of Savoy the King of Italy in 1861.  The Italian parliament had declared Rome the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy even though it had not yet taken control of the city.  A French garrison had remained in Rome on the orders of Napoleon III of France in support of Pope Pius IX.  But after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, Napoleon III had to withdraw many of his troops. Italian soldiers from the Bersaglieri regiments in Piedmont led by General Raffaele Cadorna seized their chance and after a brief bombardment were able to enter Rome through a breach in the Aurelian Walls near Porta Pia.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Sophia Loren – actress

Glamorous star one of just three Italian Oscar winners

The actress Sophia Loren, who came to be regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful women and is the most famous name in Italian cinema history, was born on this day in 1934 in Rome.  In a career spanning more than 60 years, Loren appeared in almost 90 films made for the big screen and several others for television.  Although she was often picked for her looks and box-office appeal, she proved her acting talent by winning an Oscar for her role in Vittorio De Sica’s gritty 1960 drama Two Women, released in Italy as La ciociara.  In doing so she became one of only three Italians to win the Academy Award for Best Actor or Actress and the first of either sex to win the award for an Italian-language film. She followed Anna Magnani, who had won in 1955 for The Rose Tattoo, as the second Italian Oscar winner in 1961. Read more…

Election of Pope Clement VII

Appointment that sparked split in Catholic Church

The election of Robert of Geneva as Pope Clement VII by a group of disaffected French cardinals, prompting the split in the Roman Catholic Church that became known as the Western Schism or the Great Schism, took place on this day in 1378.  The extraordinary division in the hierarchy of the church, which saw two and ultimately three rival popes each claiming to be the rightful leader, each with his own court and following, was not resolved until 1417.  It was prompted by the election in Rome of Urban VI as the successor to Gregory XI, who had returned the papal court to Rome from Avignon, where it had been based for almost 70 years after an earlier dispute.  The election of Cardinal Bartolomeo Prignano as Urban VI followed rioting by angry Roman citizens demanding a Roman be made pope. Prignano, the former Archbishop of Bari was not a Roman. Read more…

_____________________________________

Asia Argento - actress and director

Twice winner of Italian ‘Oscar’ with turbulent private life

The actress and director Asia Argento, whose father is the influential horror movie director Dario Argento, was born on this day in 1975 in Rome.  Argento’s mother was the actress Daria Nicolodi, granddaughter of the composer Alfredo Casella. She appeared in her first movie at the age of nine and turned out to have such a talent for acting she had won two David di Donatello best actress awards - the Italian equivalent of an Oscar - by the time she was 21.  As well as appearing in around 50 movies, some of which she also wrote and directed, and a number of television productions, Argento’s artistic talents have ranged to writing short stories and novels and recording solo albums as a singer.  Her private life has been somewhat turbulent. Married for five years to the director Michele Civetta, she was previously in a long-term relationship with the Italian rock musician Morgan. Read more…

____________________________________

Book of the Day: The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, by David Farmer

Far more than a dry hagiographical account of the lives of saints, this entertaining and authoritative dictionary breathes life into its subjects and is as browsable as it is informative.  First published in 1978, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints offers more than 1,700 fascinating and informative entries covering the lives, cults, and artistic associations of saints from around the world, from the famous to the obscure, the rich to the poor, and the academic to the uneducated. From all walks of life and from all periods of history and from around the world, the wide varieties of personalities and achievements of the canonized are reflected. An updated introduction explains the steps towards becoming a saint, the processes of beatification and canonisation.  This revised fifth edition includes appendices containing five maps of pilgrimage sites, a list of saints' patronages and iconographical emblems, and a calendar of principal feasts, as well as a new appendix on pilgrimages.

David Hugh Farmer, formerly Reader in History at Reading University, is the author or editor of nine books. One of these was Magna Vita Sancti Hugonis: The Life of St Hugh of Lincoln by Adam of Eynsham, which he edited with Decima L Douie.

Buy from Amazon

Home

Sant’Eustachio – Roman saint

Christian convert martyred by Hadrian celebrated across world

 Tommaso Cagnola's Vision of Saint Eustace in the
Oratorio di Santa Maria in Garbagna Novarese, Piedmont

The feast day of Saint Eustace, Sant’Eustachio as he is known in Italian, is celebrated on this day every year in Rome, as well as throughout Italy, and elsewhere in the world.

Eustace is revered as a Christian martyr because he was killed by the Emperor Hadrian in AD 118 for refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods. He was thrown to the lions initially but the animals are said to have refused to eat him, so Hadrian ordered another unpleasant death for him and his family, using a brazen bull, a lifesize model of a bull cast in bronze, which was a particularly cruel torture and execution device of the day. 

After Eustace and his family’s deaths, their bodies were secretly recovered and buried by Christians in Rome.

A church and minor basilica in Italy’s capital city is named after Eustace in Rione Sant’Eustachio, an area between Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.

Sant’Eustachio is also honoured on this day in Tocco da Casauria in the province of Pescara in the Abruzzo region, where the 12th century church is dedicated to him, and on an island in the Caribbean belonging to the Netherlands, which is named Sint’Eustatius after the saint. There are also two churches in India dedicated to him and a church bearing his name in County Kildare in Ireland.

Eustace was a pagan Roman general who converted to Christianity after he had a vision of the cross while out hunting. As a result, he lost all his wealth, was separated from his wife and sons and went into exile in Egypt.

But he was called back to lead the Roman army by a subsequent emperor, Trajan, and he was happily reunited with his family and restored to high social standing.

Under the regime of Hadrian, who came afterwards, however, Eustace and his family were martyred for refusing to adhere to paganism.

The Chiesa di Sant'Eustachio in Tocco da Casauria,
in the shadow of the Maiella massif in Abruzzo

Many versions of the legend of Saint Eustace were written in verse and prose in medieval times in France and in Italy. In one French version, Eustace became a Christian after he is awestruck by a deer when he was out hunting. When the deer turned to look at him, Eustace saw the deer had a cross between its antlers

In Italy, a church dedicated to Saint Eustace in Rome is mentioned in a letter by Pope Gregory II who was pontiff from 731 to 741.

An early depiction of Eustace in Europe was carved on a Romanesque capital at an abbey in Burgundy, and Philip II of France rededicated a church to Saint Eustace in the 12th century.

Because Eustace is reputed to have converted to Christianity while out stag hunting, there are depictions of him kneeling before a stag in a wall painting in Canterbury Cathedral, and in stained glass windows at the Cathedral of Chartres in France.

Eustace became known as a patron saint of hunters and firefighters, and also of anyone facing adversity. He is the patron saint of hunters in Bavaria and Austria, and one of the patron saints of Madrid in Spain.

His feast day of September 20 is remembered by both the Roman Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. It was removed from the Roman calendar in 1969 because of the lack of definite information about the saint, but it is still observed around the world by Roman Catholics who follow the pre-1970 Roman Calendar.

The Basilica Sant'Eustachio
dates back to the 8th century

Travel tip:

The Basilica of Saint Eustace, (Basilica Sant’Eustachio) is in Via di Sant’Eustachio to the west of the Pantheon. It had been founded by the end of the eighth century as it was mentioned in documents as being a centre for helping the poor and the sick during the reign of Pope Gregory II, which ended in 731. The church was restored and had a new campanile added by Celestine III, who was Pope between 1191 and 1198, and who ordered the relics of Eustace and his family to be placed in the church. The church was almost completely rebuilt in Roman baroque style during the 17th and 18th centuries, with only the campanile from the old structure remaining. On top of the pediment on the façade of the church there is a deer head with a cross between the antlers, which is a reference to one of the legends about how Saint Eustace became a Christian. 

Find accommodation in Rome with Expedia

Caravaggio's painting, The Calling of Saint Matthew,
can be seen in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi

Travel tip:

Sant’Eustachio gives his name to the eighth Rione of Rome, whose coat of arms also depicts the head of a stag with a cross between the antlers. The Rione Sant'Eustachio lies between the Pantheon and Piazza Navona and extends to the Largo di Torre Argentina archaeological site. As well as the Basilica of Sant’Eustachio, the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi is within the Rione, its Contarelli Chapel containing a cycle of paintings by the Baroque master Caravaggio, painted in 1599-1600, about the life of Saint Matthew. This includes the three world-renowned canvases of The Calling of Saint Matthew (on the left wall), The Inspiration of Saint Matthew (above the altar), and The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (on the right wall). The district is also home to one of Rome’s most famous and popular coffee houses, Sant' Eustachio Il Caffè, in Piazza Sant’Eustachio, opened in 1938 and said to be the oldest coffee roastery in central Rome. It occupies the premises that formerly housed another café, established in 1800 under the name Caffè e Latte. 

Rome hotels by Hotels.com

More reading:

The Caravaggio altarpiece on display in a church in Siracusa, Sicily

Nero’s mass slaughter of Christians in Rome

Trajan, the military expansionist with progressive social policies

Also on this day:

1378: Election of Robert of Geneva’s election as Pope Clement VII sparks split in Catholic Church

1870: Capture of Rome completes unification

1934: The birth of Oscar-winning actress Sophia Loren

1975: The birth of actress and director Asia Argento

Home