26 September

Anna Magnani - Oscar-winning film star

Roman one of only three Italians to land best actor award

Anna Magnani, who found fame for her performance in Roberto Rossellini's neorealist classic movie Rome, Open City and went on to become one of only three Italian actors to win an Academy Award, died on this day in Rome in 1973.   She had been suffering from pancreatic cancer and her death at the age of just 65 shocked her fans and close friends.  Rossellini, with whom she had a tempestuous affair before he ditched her for the Swedish actress, Ingrid Bergman, was at her bedside along with her son, Luca.  The American playwright Tennessee Williams, who wrote the part of Serafina in his play The Rose Tattoo specifically with Magnani in mind, was so devastated he could not bring himself to attend her funeral.  Instead he sent 20 dozen roses to signify the bond they developed while working together.  When Williams was in Rome they would meet for cocktails on the roof-top terrace of her home, overlooking the city. Read more… 

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St Francis Basilica struck by earthquake

Historic art works damaged in double tremor

The historic Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi suffered serious damage on this day in 1997 when two earthquakes struck in the central Apennines.  The quakes claimed 11 lives in the Assisi area and forced the evacuation of 70 per cent of buildings in the Umbrian town, at least temporarily, because of safety fears.  Many homes were condemned as unsafe for occupation and residents had to be housed in makeshift accommodation.  The event also caused considerable damage to frescoes painted in the 13th century by Giotto and to other important works by Cimabue, Pietro Lorenzetti and Simone Martini.  The first quake, measuring 5.5 on the Richter Scale, struck shortly after 2.30am and was felt as far away as Rome, some 170km (44 miles) to the south.  A series of smaller tremors kept residents on edge through the night.  Yet the biggest quake was still to come. Read more… 

Enzo Bearzot - World Cup-winning coach

Led Italy to 1982 triumph in Spain

Enzo Bearzot, the pipe-smoking coach who plotted Italy’s victory at the 1982 World Cup in Spain and at the same time changed the way the national team traditionally played, was born on September 26, 1927 in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northwest Italy.  Italy had a reputation for ultra-defensive and sometimes cynical football but in 44 years had won only one major competition, the 1968 European championships, a much lower-key affair than the current four-yearly Euros, which Italy hosted.  But Bearzot was an admirer of the so-called ‘total football’ philosophy advanced by the Dutch coach Rinus Michels, with which the Netherlands national team reached two World Cup finals in the 1970s, albeit without winning.  Italy did not impress at the start of their Spain adventure, recording three fairly lacklustre draws in their group matches. Read more… 

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Book of the Day: The Rose Tattoo and Other Plays (Penguin Modern Classics), by Tennessee Williams

In these three exotic, steamy dramas Tennessee Williams portrays loss, faded lives and passionate love affairs.  The Rose Tattoo is set in a bustling, Sicilian-American community, where newly widowed Serafina is paralysed by grief, until she has her romantic illusions about her dead husband shattered and rediscovers her true nature as a fiery prima donna, in a life-affirming celebration of love and sex. Williams explores a new 'wild and unrestricted' theatrical form in the colourful tropical fantasy Camino Real, while Orpheus Descending, however, takes us into the dark territory of the Deep South: the corrupt hell of a small, brutal township, where a forbidden and tragic love affair sparks horrific violence.

Tennessee Williams was born in 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi. His most famous works include A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, all of which have become permanent fixtures in modern American theatre and film. Other notable plays include Summer and Smoke, The Rose Tattoo, and Suddenly, Last Summer. He died in 1983.

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Elio Germano - actor

Contemporary star has won multiple awards

Elio Germano has become one of Italy's most
popular and acclaimed movie actors

Elio Germano, one of Italy’s most acclaimed contemporary actors, was born in Rome on this day in 1980.

Germano has won six David di Donatello awards - Italy’s highest film honour - across a career in which he has won praise for the emotional depth of his performances in films often notable for their social realism. 

The prestigious prize, named after the bronze statue of the biblical hero created by the Renaissance sculptor Donatello, is awarded each year by the  Academy of Italian Cinema. Only four actors have won the award more times since their inception in 1955. 

He won it five times as best actor, the first coming in 2007 in what was his breakthrough year, cast in one of the lead roles in Daniele Luchetti’s Mio fratello è figlio unico - My Brother Is an Only Child.

Four years later, Germano teamed up with Luchetti again to pick up the best actor award for a second time for his performance in La nostra vita - Our Life - for which he also shared a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.  

He was best actor again 2015 for his portrayal of the poet Giacomo Leopardi in Mario Martone’s Il giovane favoloso - The Fabulous Young Man, which was alternatively titled Leopardi. Further David di Donatello awards followed for Giorgio Diritti’s Hidden Away (best actor, 2020) and Andrea Segre’s Berlinguer - La grande ambizione (best actor, 2024) in which he played the Communist leader, Enrico Berlinguer.

Elio Germano's breakthrough came in
Mio Fratello è Figlio Unico 

Germano picked up the best supporting actor award in 2023, playing opposite Michele Riondino in Palazzina Laf, which Riondino also directed. All told, he won 28 awards, including the Silver Bear, another best actor prize, from the Berlin Film Festival for Hidden Away.

Born in Rome to a Molisan family from Duronia in the province of Campobasso, Germano made his screen debut at the age of just 12 in the directing duo Castellano e Pipolo's 1992 movie Ci hai rotto papà. He received formal acting training at the Teatro Azione in Rome. 

He had an opportunity to work in theatre but his career moved in a different direction after landing a part in Carlo Vanzina's 1999 comedy, Il cielo in una stanza, which launched him as a popular actor with Italian audiences.

His breakthrough year, though, was 2007, when he was cast as the lead in the successful movies Fallen Heroes as well as My Brother is an Only Child, both directed by Daniele Luchetti. 

The following year he received his first international recognition, winning the Shooting Stars Award at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival.

Germano’s success in winning over audiences and critics can be attributed to a number of characteristics in his acting style.

For example, he has consistently rejected the polished, romantic archetype of the Italian male lead, gravitating instead towards flawed, working-class, politically entangled characters, of which Accio in My Brother Is an Only Child was a prime example. His performances have been notable for psychological nuance and emotional realism, reshaping audience expectations of masculinity and heroism in Italian film.

Germano won plaudits for his animated portrayal
of the former Communist leader Enrico Berlinguer

In La nostra vita, he played a grieving construction worker navigating bureaucratic and emotional collapse, the role highlighting social inequality, the precariousness of working life and political disillusionment. 

He has shown himself to be equally at home portraying historical figures such as Leopardi and Berlinguer, which showcased his ability to humanise iconic individuals without flattening their complexity. 

For Germano, 2024 was a busy year. Apart from taking the lead role in Berlinguer - La grande ambizione, he collaborated again with Luchetti in the director’s 2024 movie, Confidenza - Trust - also starring Federica Rosselini, in which he plays a revered schoolteacher haunted by his past, and starred opposite Tony Servillo and Daniela Marra in Sicilian Letters, based on a true story, in which Germano plays the Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, who succeeded Bernardo Provenzano and Salvatore Riina as the unchallenged boss of all bosses within the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, spending three decades as a fugitive.

Away from acting, Germano says his passion is music. He writes songs and performs with a rap group, BestieRare, with whom he has so far recorded three albums.

Duronia, perched on a hill in Molise, has a history
stretching back to the third century BC

Travel tip: 

Duronia, where Germano has his family roots, is a historic hilltop village in the Molise region of southern Italy, about 20km (12 miles) northwest of Campobasso, nestling in an area of wooded hills and steep-sided valleys. The name Duronia can be traced back to a Samnite settlement conquered by Rome in 293 BC, although the modern town adopted this name only after 1875, having previously been known as Civitavecchia. Above the town lie remnants of Stone Age megalithic structures, believed to have been used for funerary and commemorative rituals. Duronia today is a popular destination for Canadian descendants of emigrants who left the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, settling in particular in Montreal and Vancouver.  The annual Feast of San Rocco, a celebration dedicated to Duronia’s patron saint, which takes place every August, is another highlight. 

Find accommodation in Duronia with Hotels.com

Rome's Non-Catholic Cemetery, just a short distance
from the Teatro Azione, is well worth visiting

Travel tip:

The Teatro Azione, where Germano received his formal theatrical education, is one of Rome’s most respected acting schools, known for its rigorous training in both theatre and film. Founded in 1983 by Cristiano Censi and Isabella Del Bianco, its alumni apart from Elio Germano include Maya Sansa, Carolina Crescentini and Nicolas Vaporidi. It is located in Via dei Magazzini Generali in the Ostiense district, once an industrial area but now a vibrant and evolving area just south of the historic centre, notable for street art, nightlife, and contemporary culture. Attractions nearby include Rome’s Non-Catholic Cemetery (Cimitero Acattolico), also referred to as the Protestant Cemetery or the English Cemetery, a serene garden cemetery that is the resting place of John Keats, Percy Shelley and Antonio Gramsci among others, with a heavy emphasis on artists, writers and philosophers. Also look out for the Piramide Cestia, a striking 1st-century BC Egyptian-style pyramid built as a tomb for Gaius Cestius, and the Centrale Montemartini, a former power plant turned museum, where classical sculptures are dramatically displayed among turbines and industrial relics.

Rome hotels from Expedia

More reading:

The comic genius who won seven David di Donatello awards

Italy’s ultimate screen siren who is also an Oscar winner

The stage and screen star once dubbed ‘Italy’s Olivier’

Also on this day: 

1599: The birth of architect Francesco Borromini

1773: The birth of biologist Agostino Bassi

1930: The birth of fashion designer Nino Cerruti

1955: The birth of blues musician Zucchero

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25 September

NEW - Elio Germano - actor 

Contemporary star has won multiple awards

Elio Germano, one of Italy’s most acclaimed contemporary actors, was born in Rome on this day in 1980.  Germano has won six David di Donatello awards - Italy’s highest film honour - across a career in which he has won praise for the emotional depth of his performances in films often notable for their social realism.  The prestigious prize, named after the bronze statue of the biblical hero created by the Renaissance sculptor Donatello, is awarded each year by the  Academy of Italian Cinema. Only four actors have won the award more times since their inception in 1955. He won it five times as best actor, the first coming in 2007 in what was his breakthrough year, cast in one of the lead roles in Daniele Luchetti’s Mio fratello è figlio unico - My Brother Is an Only Child.  Four years later, Germano teamed up with Luchetti again to pick up the best actor award for a second time for his performance in La nostra vita - Our Life - for which he also shared a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.  Read more… 

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Nino Cerruti - fashion designer

Turn of fate led to a life in haute couture 

The fashion designer Nino Cerruti, who used the family textile business as the platform on which to build one of the most famous names in haute couture, was born on this day in 1930 in Biella in northern Piedmont.  At its peak, the Cerruti brand became synonymous with Hollywood glitz and the movie industry, both as the favourite label of many top stars and the supplier of clothing ranges for a string of box office hits.  Yet Cerruti might have lived a very different life had fate not intervened. Although Lanificio Fratelli Cerruti - the textile mills set up by his grandfather, Antonio, and his great uncles, Stefano and Quintino - had been the family firm since 1881, Nino wanted to be a journalist.  But when his father, Silvio, who had taken over the running of the business from Antonio, died prematurely, Nino was almost obligated to take over, even though he was only 20 years old. Read more… 

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Francesco Borromini - architect

Rival of Bernini and Da Cortona was pioneer of Roman Baroque

The architect Francesco Borromini, who was a pivotal figure alongside Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona in the development of the Roman Baroque style in the 17th century, was born on this day in 1599 in the village of Bissone, now in Switzerland but at that time part of the Duchy of Lombardy.  Borromini, who was born Francesco Castelli, gained widespread recognition for his innovative design of the small San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane church on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, which was his first independent commission and is regarded by some historians as one of the starting points for Italian Baroque.  His other major works include the church of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, which was part of Rome’s Sapienza University, the Re Magi Chapel, the Palazzo Spada and the church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte.  Read more…

Agostino Bassi – biologist

Scientist who rescued the silk industry in Italy

Bacteriologist Agostino Bassi, who was the first to expound the parasitic theory of infection, was born on this day in 1773 at Mairago near Lodi in Lombardy.  He developed his theory by studying silkworms, which helped him discover that many diseases are caused by microorganisms.  This was 10 years in advance of the work of Louis Pasteur.  In 1807 Bassi began an investigation into the silkworm disease mal de segno, also known as muscardine, which was causing serious economic losses in Italy and France.  After 25 years of research, Bassi was able to demonstrate that the disease was contagious and was caused by a microscopic parasitic fungus.  He concluded that the organism, at the time named botrytis paradoxa, but now known as beauvaria bassiana in his honour, was transmitted among the worms by contact and by infected food.  Read more…

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Zucchero Fornaciari – singer

Sweet success for writer and performer

The singer-songwriter now known simply as Zucchero was born Adelmo Fornaciari on this day in 1955 in Roncocesi, a small village near Reggio Emilia.  In a career lasting more than 30 years, he has sold more than 50 million records and has become popular all over the world.  He is hailed as ‘the father of the Italian blues’, having introduced blues music to Italy, and he has won many awards for his music. He has also been given the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.  As a young boy, Zucchero lived in the Tuscan seaside resort of Forte dei Marmi, where he sang in the choir and learned to play the organ at his local church.  He became fond of soul music and began to write his own songs and play the tenor saxophone. He started playing in bands while studying veterinary medicine but gave up his studies to follow his dream of becoming a singer.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Nino Cerruti: Fashion Icon of the Century, by Cindi Cook

With a text in English and German, this book is an entertaining and gorgeously illustrated homage to the great Italian fashion designer, whose deconstructed jackets and supple fabrics revolutionised menswear in the 1960s. Cerruti took over the family business, which his father established in 1881, at the age of 20 and immediately began to make his mark. In 1965, he opened a boutique in Paris where he launched women's fashion, being the first designer to focus on pants (this at a time when many restaurants in Paris denied women entry if they were wearing pants). He dressed generations of movie stars, both on and off-screen, including Jean-Paul Belmondo, Yves Montand, Catherine Deneuve, Richard Gere (wearing a Cerruti suit in Pretty Woman), Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, Tom Hanks, and Kathleen Turner, among others. Nino Cerruti: Fashion Icon of the Century showcases the elegant nonchalance and uncompromising creativity that went into his designs, and follows his career as one of the great pioneers of 20th century fashion.

Cindi Cook is a writer and editor currently working as a Paris correspondent for an international news agency. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, New York Post, Women's Wear Daily, Hamptons, and numerous other newspapers and magazines.

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24 September

Marco Tardelli - footballer

Joyous celebration is lasting image of Italy's 1982 World Cup win

Marco Tardelli, the footballer whose ecstatic celebration after scoring a goal in the final became one of the abiding images of Italy's victory in the 1982 World Cup, was born on this day in 1954.  The midfield player, who spent much of his club career with one of the best Juventus teams of all time, ran to the Italian bench after his goal against West Germany gave the Azzurri a 2-0 lead, clenching both fists, tears flowing as he shook his head from side to side and repeatedly shouted "Gol! Gol!" in what became known as the Tardelli Scream.  Italy went on to complete a 3-1 win over the Germans in the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid with Paolo Rossi and Antonio Altobelli scoring Italy's other goals.  Tardelli, who was part of Italy's squad for three World Cups, had earlier scored against Argentina in the second group phase.  Read more… 

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Riccardo Illy - businessman

Grandson of Illy coffee company founder who became firm’s chairman

Riccardo Illy, whose paternal grandfather, Hungarian-born Francesco Illy, founded the world-famous illy coffee company, was born on this day in 1955 in Trieste.  Illy is president and former chairman of Gruppo illy and vice-chairman of illycaffè. Under his leadership, the company has expanded to include Domori chocolate, Dammann Frères teas, Agrimontana - which makes fruit preserves, jams and confectionery -  and Mastrojanni, a winery located in southern Tuscany.  It also holds a stake in the ice cream parlor chain Grom. The company now has a presence in 140 countries and as well as coffee shops the company also operates ice cream stores in Italy, as well as in New York, Malibu, Los Angeles, Paris, Dubai, Osaka, and Jakarta.  Although the company’s roots are in Trieste, where Francesco began in 1933, Gruppo illy Spa is based in Rome.  Read more…

Vincenzo da Filicaja – poet

Patriotic writer was inspired by victory against the Turks

Vincenzo da Filicaja, a writer and a politician whose poetry has been compared with that of the great Italian poet Petrarch, died on this day in 1707 in Florence.  Da Filicaja’s six celebrated odes inspired by a famous battle victory led to scholars placing him on a level with some of the greatest Italian poets.  He was also a respected politician and was named governor of Volterra and Pisa by Cosimo III, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who later appointed him to serve in the Tuscan Senate.  Born into an aristocratic family in Florence in 1642, Da Filicaja was educated by Jesuits before going to Pisa University to study law. In Pisa, he was inspired by the historical associations he saw that were linked with the former glory of the republic of Pisa.  The banners and emblems of the Order of St Stephen, which had its seat in Pisa, had great significance for the young student. Read more…

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Girolamo Cardano - doctor and mathematician

Polymath was also a gambler and womaniser

The Renaissance polymath Girolamo Cardano, whose range of talents included mathematics and medicine but who also invented a number of mechanical devices still in use today, was born on this day in 1501 in Pavia, then part of the Duchy of Milan.  Cardano, also known as Gerolamo, Hieronymus Cardanus in Latin and Jerome Cardan in English, is notable for writing Ars Magna which was the first Latin treatise devoted solely to algebra.  Far from being a stuffy academic, however, Cardano led a controversial life, practising as a physician without a licence and becoming proficient at gambling to keep himself solvent, while as a university professor being regularly accused of sexual impropriety with students.  In his wide range of interests, he seemed to be inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, who was a close friend of his father.  Read more…

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Maria Pia of Bourbon-Parma - exiled princess

Vote for republic forced King's daughter to leave

Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Parma was born into the Italian royal family on this day in 1934, the grand-daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III.  Her father, Umberto of Savoy, would himself become King on her grandfather’s abdication but reigned for just 34 days in 1946 before Italy voted to become a republic and the royals were effectively thrown out of the country.  Italians could not forgive Victor Emmanuel III for not doing enough to limit the power of the Fascists and for approving Benito Mussolini’s anti-semitic race laws. The constitution of the new republic decreed that no male member of the House of Savoy could set foot in Italy ever again.  It meant that Princess Maria Pia, the eldest of Umberto’s four children, had to leave Italy immediately along with her brother and two sisters and all the other members of the family.  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. The book 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 on the historical and sporting links between the two countries. Italy, a nation historically at the forefront of football, 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. He has spent most of his life researching and reliving the Italy-Brazil match of 1982, collecting stories, anecdotes and memorabilia, including the referee’s whistle used that day. 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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