20 October

Claudio Ranieri - football manager

Title-winning former Leicester City boss 

Football manager Claudio Ranieri was born on this day in 1951 in Rome.  Ranieri, who won the English Premier League in 2016 with rank outsiders Leicester City, managed 18 clubs in four countries in a 39-year career in coaching, three of them more than once, before announcing his retirement in 2025.  He also had a stint in charge of the Greece national team.  Among the teams he has coached are a host of big names - Internazionale, Juventus, Roma, Napoli and Fiorentina in Italy, Atletico Madrid and Valencia in Spain, Monaco in France and Chelsea in England.  He has won titles in lower divisions as well as Italy's Coppa Italia and the Copa del Rey in Spain but until Leicester defied pre-season odds of 5,000-1 to win the Premier League, a major league championship had eluded him.  He had finished second three times, with Chelsea, Roma and Monaco.  Read more…

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Dado Moroni - jazz musician

Self-taught pianist recorded first album at 17

The renowned jazz musician Edgardo ‘Dado’ Moroni was born on this day in 1962 in Genoa.  Moroni, who learned at the feet of some of the greats of American jazz music in Italian clubs in the 1980s and 90s, has recorded more than 25 albums, having released his first when he was only 17.  He has appeared as a guest on many more albums and built such a reputation as a pianist and composer that he was able to become part of the American jazz scene himself in the 1990s, when he lived in New York.  Moroni attributes his love of jazz music to his father’s passion for the genre, which meant that he grew up listening to the likes of Earl Hines, Fats Waller and Count Basie.  Using a piano his parents had bought for his sister, Monica, he taught himself to play many of the songs he heard on the record player, receiving his first tuition from his mother, who played the accordion.  Read more…

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Jacopo della Quercia - sculptor

Innovative work said to have influenced Michelangelo

The sculptor Jacopo della Quercia, regarded as one of the most original artists in his field in the early 15th century and an influence on a number of leading figures in the Renaissance including Michelangelo, died on this day in 1438. Della Quercia’s most notable works include the Fonte Gaia in Piazza del Campo in Siena, the sculptures around the Porta Magna of the church of San Petronio in Bologna, the tomb of Ilaria del Carretto in Lucca Cathedral, and Zacharias in the Temple, a bronze relief for the baptismal font in the church of San Giovanni in Siena.  His attention to proportion and perspective gave his creations a particularly lifelike quality and his innovative work put him at the forefront of his generation.  Art historians consider that his work marked a transition in Italian art from Gothic to Renaissance style that was taken forward by Michelangelo and others. Read more…

Mara Venier - television presenter

Former actress became famous as face of Sunday afternoon

Mara Venier, a familiar face on Italian television for more than 40 years, was born on this day in 1950 in Venice.  The former actress, who made her big-screen debut in 1973, is best known for presenting the long-running Sunday afternoon variety show Domenica In, which has been a fixture on the public TV channel Rai Uno since 1976.  Venier, born Mara Povoleri, has hosted the show for 17 seasons in five stints between 1993 and 2025, overtaking Pippo Baudo, something of a legendary figure in Italian television, as its longest-serving presenter.  Fronting Domenica In, which used to be on air for an incredible six hours, was not only a test of stamina for the presenter but a patriotic duty, the show’s format having been conceived by the Italian government, faced with the global oil crisis in the 1970s, as a way to tempt citizens to stay at home rather than use precious fuel for their cars.  Read more…

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Bianca Cappello – noblewoman

Tragic end for the mistress who earned promotion to Grand Duchess 

Bianca Cappello, the mistress of Francesco I Grand Duke of Tuscany, who became his Grand Duchess after he married her in the face of widespread criticism, died on this day in 1587 in Poggio a Caiano.  Grand Duchess Bianca died just one day after her husband, and historians are still divided between the theories that either they were both poisoned, or that they each died of malarial fever.  Bianca had been born in Venice in 1548, the only daughter of a Venetian nobleman. As she grew up, she was acknowledged to be a great beauty.  At the age of 15, Bianca fell in love with a young Florentine clerk and she eloped with him to Florence, where they were married. She gave birth to a daughter one year later.  The Venetian government tried to have Bianca arrested and brought back to Venice, but Cosimo I, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, intervened on her behalf.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Hail, Claudio!: The Man, the Manager, the Miracle, by Gabriele Marcotti and Alberto Polverosi

Leicester City's Premier League victory was the 5,000-1 triumph that delighted the world.  But how did Claudio Ranieri pull off one of the greatest achievements in sport?  This is the inside story of the rise and rise of the butcher’s son from Rome, whose hard work, passion for the game and ability to learn from his mistakes have earned him the respect of players, fans and owners worldwide.  Gabriele Marcotti and Alberto Polverosi have known Claudio Ranieri since his early days as a professional footballer. They have closely followed his successes and his failures as he navigated the often topsy-turvy world of football and developed as a player and manager.  Hail, Claudio! takes an in-depth look into what sets Ranieri apart as a manager, into precisely how the Premier League was won, and what went wrong following that golden season.

London-based Gabriele Marcotti is a senior writer and analyst for ESPN, World Football Correspondent for The Times and UK correspondent for Corriere dello Sport. His previous books include The Italian Job: A Journey to the Heart of Two Great Footballing Cultures, co-authored with the late Gianluca Vialli, and Capello: Portrait of a Winner.  Alberto Polverosi, who lives in Florence, has been writing for Corriere dello Sport since 1977. 

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19 October

NEW - Adolfo Fumagalli - pianist and composer 

‘Virtuoso of the left hand’ had brief but influential career

The pianist and composer Adolfo Fumagalli, who is chiefly remembered for his extraordinary ability to play complicated pieces with only his left hand, was born on this day in 1828 in Inzago, a small town about 28km (17 miles) east of Milan.  Born into a family rich in musical talent, Fumagalli became known at a young age for his technical prowess and expressive style, a dazzling performer playing in the conventional two-handed fashion.  He studied piano at the Milan Conservatory from the age of nine to 19. It is noted that, as a 12 or 13-year-old, his performance playing variations on a march from Gioachino Rossini 's opera L'assedio di Corinto in the Conservatory hall created excitement.  Fumagalli made his public debut in Milan in 1848, at the age of 20. His talent was greeted with enthusiastic acclaim and he was soon captivating audiences across Europe. Read more… 

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Carlo Urbani – microbiologist

Infectious disease expert who identified SARS

The doctor and microbiologist Carlo Urbani, whose decisive action after discovering the deadly SARS virus saved millions of lives, was born on this day in 1956 in Castelplanio, near Ancona.  Dr Urbani himself died after contracting the condition, which had been given the name severe acute respiratory syndrome.  He identified it in an American businessman who had been taken ill in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, with suspected influenza.  Recognising quickly that what he was dealing with was not a straightforward case of ‘flu, Urbani, who was working in Vietnam as an infectious diseases specialist for the World Health Organisation, immediately alerted WHO headquarters in Geneva.  He convinced them that what he had discovered posed a grave threat to life and thus sparked the most effective response to a major epidemic in the history of medicine. Read more…

Fiorenzo Magni - cycling champion

Rider from Tuscany won Giro d'Italia three times

Italy lost one of its finest professional riders and its last link with the so-called golden age of Italian cycle racing when Fiorenzo Magni died on this day in 2012.  Tuscan-born Magni was a multiple champion, winning the Giro d'Italia three times, as well as three Italian Road Race Championships.  He had seven stage wins in the Tour de France, in which he wore the yellow jersey as race leader for a total of nine days.  His other major victories were in the demanding Tour of Flanders, in which he became only the second non-Belgian winner in 1949 and went on to win three times in a row, a feat yet to be matched.  Magni might have been even more successful had his career not coincided with those of two greats of Italian cycling, the five-times Giro champion Fausto Coppi, who was twice winner of the Tour de France, and Gino Bartali, who won three Giros and one Tour de France.  Read more…

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Umberto Boccioni - painter

Artist who died tragically young was key figure in Futurism

The painter Umberto Boccioni, who became arguably the leading artist of Italian Futurism before the First World War, was born on this day in 1882 in Reggio Calabria.  Futurism was an avant-garde artistic, social and political movement that was launched by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909.  Its ethos was to embrace modernity and free Italy from what was perceived as a stifling obsession with the past. The Futurists admired the speed and technological advancement of cars and aeroplanes and the new industrial cities, all of which they saw as demonstrating the triumph of humanity over nature through invention. Their work attempted to capture the dynamism of life in a modern city, creating images that convey a sense of the power and energy of industrial machinery and the passion and violence of social change.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: A Brief History of Piano Music: Essential Music History for Pianists: Baroque Through Present Day, by Jennifer Boster

Explore the rich history of piano literature from the Baroque era to the present day. Learn briefly about historical factors in each era that affected music's evolution, the characteristics of the music of each period, and the composers throughout history who made important contributions to piano literature. Meet 63 incredible composers and listen to their piano works with the accompanying playlist, accessible via a QR code. A Brief History of Piano Music is filled with beautiful historical paintings that add insight into the style of art and music during each period. It makes a beautiful gift to give to piano students, piano teachers and music lovers.

Jennifer Boster has been playing the piano since she was a young girl and has been giving piano lessons for more than 20 years. She has a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance. 

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Adolfo Fumagalli - pianist and composer

‘Virtuoso of the left hand’ had brief but influential career

Adolfo Fumagalli was hailed as a 'first-rate'
pianist by Hungarian great Franz Liszt

The pianist and composer Adolfo Fumagalli, who is chiefly remembered for his extraordinary ability to play complicated pieces with only his left hand, was born on this day in 1828 in Inzago, a small town about 28km (17 miles) east of Milan.

Born into a family rich in musical talent, Fumagalli became known at a young age for his technical prowess and expressive style, a dazzling performer playing in the conventional two-handed fashion.

He studied piano at the Milan Conservatory from the age of nine to 19. It is noted that, as a 12 or 13-year-old, his performance playing variations on a march from Gioachino Rossini 's opera L'assedio di Corinto in the Conservatory hall created excitement.

Fumagalli made his public debut in Milan in 1848, at the age of 20. His talent was greeted with enthusiastic acclaim and he was soon captivating audiences across Europe at recitals in Turin, Paris, Belgium and Denmark. A letter written in 1853 by the great Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, described Fumagalli as a 'first-rate' pianist.

His switch to playing with one hand came not out of necessity, as was the case, for example, with the Austrian-born virtuoso Paul Wittgenstein after losing his right arm during World War One, but as part of a Romantic-era tradition among pianists to dazzle audiences with feats of technical brilliance.

Fumagalli saw playing with his left hand only as a daring artistic challenge to push the boundaries of what could be achieved with a single hand on the keyboard.

He composed pieces of his own but it was for his adaptation - for the left-hand only - of existing pieces that he became widely known and admired.

Of these so-called fantasie - fantasies - perhaps his most famous work, the “Grande Fantaisie sur Robert le Diable” by Meyerbeer, became a benchmark of virtuosity. 

Fumagalli in caricature, smoking
a cigar while playing left-handed

There is a caricature drawing of Fumagalli standing beside a piano, playing with his left hand while holding a cigar in his right hand, which might leave the impression that he was merely a novelty act, rather than a serious performer. 

In fact, apart from showcasing his technical ingenuity and staggering dexterity, he left an important legacy, having demonstrated for the benefit of aspiring pianists with injuries or other limitations that their handicaps could be overcome.

Other notable pieces in Fumagalli’s repertoire included operatic fantasies on Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma, Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and Giuseppe Verdi’s I Puritani, which critics applauded for his imaginative reworking and interpretive depth. 

Fumagalli, whose brothers Carlo, Disma, Polibio, and Luca also became accomplished musicians and composers, would almost certainly have enjoyed a long career playing before audiences around the world had he been blessed with better health. 

However, after returning to Italy in 1854 following a period on tour, he developed tuberculosis and his health began to falter markedly. He continued to perform but on May 3, 1856, just two days after he had given a concert in Florence, he died.

He was just 27 years old and his death shocked the musical world, cutting short a career that many believed was on the cusp of greatness. 

Much of Fumagalli’s work has been lost but some pieces exist. Ferruccio Busoni, an Italian pianist popular in Europe and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, included some of Fumagalli’s works in his active repertoire.

More recently, the Milanese pianist Adalberto Maria Riva has revived interest in Fumagalli’s music through both recordings and performances.

The sumptuous Villa Rey is one of several villas
lining the banks of the Martesana Canal in Inzago 

Travel tip:

With a population of around 11,000 today, Inzago is perhaps three times the size it was at the time of Adolfo Fumagalli’s birth, when it was a small town halfway between Milan and Bergamo surrounded by farmland. Today it is part of the Milan metropolitan area, although some 28km (11 miles) from the centre of the Lombardy capital. Its farming roots are still strong and a cattle fair is held in the town every Monday.  The town is divided in two by the Martesana Canal, which has a number of elegant villas – once the summer residences of noble Milanese families – along its banks. Many of these have returned to their former splendour in recent decades thanks to some private individuals who have renovated them. Among the most notable are Villa Aitelli, Villa Magistretti, Villa Rey and Villa Facheris. 

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The historic Milan Conservatory boasts an impressive
roll call of celebrated former pupils 

Travel tip:

The Milan Conservatory - also known as Conservatorio di musica “Giuseppe Verdi” di Milano - was established by a royal decree of 1807 in Milan, capital of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. It opened the following year with premises in the cloisters of the Baroque church of Santa Maria della Passione in Via Conservatorio. Though Verdi famously failed his entrance exam here in 1832, the conservatory was later named in his honour, reflecting his towering influence on Italian music. By the 19th century, the conservatory had become a hub for public performances and contemporary music programs, embracing both tradition and innovation. More recently, it has become the first Italian conservatory to offer education across all musical languages, from classical to jazz and experimental forms.  The largest institute of musical education in Italy, its alumni as well as Adolfo Fumagalli include Giacomo Puccini, Amilcare Ponchielli, Arrigo Boito, Pietro Mascagni, Riccardo Muti and Ludovico Einaudi.

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More reading:

The 19th century violin virtuoso considered to be Paganini’s successor

Giuseppe Verdi, the composer who became a national symbol

The Italian jazz pianist who learned at the feet of American greats

Also on this day:

1882: The birth of Futurist painter Umberto Boccioni

1956: The birth of Carlo Urbani, the microbiologist who identified SARS virus

2012: The death of three-times Giro d’Italia champion Fiorenzo Magni 

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18 October

Alessandro Antonelli – architect

The creator of Turin’s striking Mole 

Alessandro Antonelli, who became famous for designing what has become Turin’s most iconic building, died on this day in 1888 in the Piedmont capital.  Antonelli was the architect of the Mole Antonelliana, which was named after him. The Mole now houses the National Museum of Cinema. At 167.5 metres (550ft), it remains the tallest unreinforced brick building in the world, and is believed to be the tallest of any construction to house a museum.  Mole is an Italian word that is used to describe a building of monumental proportions. Turin’s impressive Mole is represented on the obverse side of the Italian two euro cents coin, which is the side that displays the nationality of the country that has issued the coin.  Antonelli was born in Ghemme, a town near Novara in Piedmont, in 1798. His father was a notary and he was one of 11 children.  Read more… 

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Theft of Caravaggio masterpiece

Fate of Nativity taken from Palermo church remains a mystery

One of the most notorious art crimes in history was discovered on this day in 1969 when a housekeeper at the Oratory of Saint Lawrence in Palermo arrived for work to find that the Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence, painted by the Renaissance master Caravaggio in 1609, had been stolen. The painting sat above the altar in the Oratory, which is situated in Via Immacolata in the centre of the Sicilian capital, adjacent to the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, but when the housekeeper, Maria Gelfo, opened up with her sister on the morning of 18 October, they were confronted with an empty frame.  Worth an estimated £20 million (€23.73 million; $27.52 million), the painting has never been found, leaving half a century’s worth of theories about its fate to remain unproven.  Most of the theories link the theft to the Sicilian Mafia.  Read more…

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Cristoforo Benigno Crespi - entrepreneur

Textile boss created industrial village of Crespi d’Adda

The entrepreneur Cristoforo Benigno Crespi, who became famous for creating a company-owned village around his textile factory in Lombardy, was born on this day in 1833 in Busto Arsizio, about 34km (21 miles) northwest of Milan.  A textile manufacturer, in 1869 Crespi bought an area of land close to where the Brembo and Adda rivers converge, about 40km (25 miles) northeast of Milan, with the intention of building a cotton mill on the banks of the Adda.  The factory he built was substantial, with room for 10,000 spindles, but as well the capacity to produce textiles on a large scale, Crespi recognised that it was essential to his plans to have a contented workforce. Consequently, following the lead of other manufacturers in the textile industry outside Italy, he set about providing on site everything to meet the daily needs of his employees.  Read more…

Luca Giordano – artist

Talented Neapolitan was renowned for being a fast worker

Luca Giordano, the most celebrated and prolific Neapolitan painter of the late 17th century, was born on this day in 1634 in Naples.  His nicknames were Luca Fa Presto - "Luca work faster" - said to derive from the way his father, the copyist Antonio Giordano, used to admonish him, Fulmine (the Thunderbolt) because of his speed, and Proteus, because he was reputed to be able to imitate the style of almost any other artist.  Giordano’s output both in oils and in frescoes was enormous and he is said to have once painted a large altarpiece in just one day.  He was influenced at the start of his career by Jose de Ribera, who he was apprenticed to, and he also assimilated Caravaggio’s style of dramatic intensity.  But after Giordano had travelled to Rome, Florence and Venice, his style underwent a profound change.  Read more…

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Ludovico Scarfiotti - racing driver

Last Italian to win ‘home’ Grand Prix

The racing driver Ludovico Scarfiotti, whose victory in the 1966 Italian Grand Prix at Monza is the last by an Italian, was born on this day in 1933 in Turin.  His success at Monza, where he came home first in a Ferrari one-two with the British driver Mike Parkes, was the first by a home driver for 14 years since Alberto Ascari won the last of his three Italian Grand Prix in 1952.  It was Scarfiotti’s sole victory - indeed, his only top-three finish - in 10 Formula One starts. His competitive career spanned 15 years, ending in tragic circumstances with a fatal crash in 1968, little more than a month after he had come home fourth in the Monaco Grand Prix in a Cooper-BRM.  Scarfiotti in some respects was born to race. His father, Luigi, a deputy in the Italian parliament who made his fortune from cement, had raced for Ferrari as an amateur.  Read more…

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Luke the Evangelist

Scientists believe Saint is buried in Padua

The feast day of St Luke the Evangelist - la festa di San Luca - is celebrated in Padua and throughout Italy on this day every year.  Luke the Evangelist is believed to be one of the four authors of the Gospels in the New Testament. Both the Gospel According to St Luke and the book of Acts of the Apostles have been ascribed to him.  Luke is believed to have been a doctor who was also a disciple of St Paul. It has been claimed he was martyred by being hung from an olive tree, although other sources say he worked as a doctor until his death at the age of 84.  He is regarded as the patron saint of artists, physicians, surgeons, students and butchers and it is strongly believed that his body lies in the Basilica of Santa Giustina in Prato della Valle in Padua.  It is thought that Luke was a Greek physician who lived and worked in the city of Antioch in ancient Syria.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Architecture of Modern Italy: Volume One - The Challenge of Tradition, 1750-1900, by Terry Kirk

A groundbreaking and authoritative two-volume survey - the first truly comprehensive history of modern Italian architecture and urbanism to appear in any language. Told in lively prose, The Architecture of Modern Italy recounts more than 250 years of experimentation, creativity, and turmoil that have shaped the landscape of contemporary Italy. The Challenge of Tradition, 1750-1900 , explores the dynamic balancing of forces demanded by a reverence for Italy's unparalleled architectural patrimony and a desire for new means of expression and technological innovation. From the neoclassical fantasies of Giovanni Battista Piranesi to the spectacular steel-and-glass gallerie of Milan and Naples, it reveals an underappreciated history of richness and complexity. The book is exhaustively illustrated with rare period images, new photography, maps, drawings, and plans. Alongside Colin Rowe's Italian Architecture of the 16th Century, it provides almost a complete overview of the history of Italian architecture.

Terry Kirk was a professor of architectural history at the American University of Rome. Around 500 students a year benefitted from his wisdom, enjoying lectures that sometimes consisted of walking tours around the Eternal City.

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