6 November

Giovanni Buitoni - entrepreneur

Turned family business into multinational company

Giovanni Buitoni, the entrepreneur who turned Buitoni pasta and Perugina chocolates into the international brands they are today, was born on this day in 1891 in Perugia.  The Buitoni family had been making pasta since 1827, when Giovanni’s great grandmother, Giulia, opened a small shop in the Tuscan town of Sansepolcro, in order to support the family after her husband, Giovan Battista Buitoni, had become ill.  She had her own recipe for pasta that used only high quality durum wheat.  Giulia had pawned her wedding jewellery in order to set up the shop but the business did so well that in 1856 two of the couple’s nine children, Giuseppe and Giovanni, opened a factory in Città di Castello, just over the border in northern Umbria, to manufacture pasta using a hard durum wheat they sourced in Puglia.  Giovanni’s sons, Antonio and Francesco, continued the company’s expansion. Read more…

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Cesare Lombroso – criminologist

Professor who first encouraged study of criminal mind

Cesare Lombroso, a university professor often referred to as ‘the father of criminology’ was born on this day in 1835 in Verona.  Although many of his views are no longer held to be correct, he was the first to establish the validity of scientific study of the criminal mind, paving the way for a generation of psychiatrists and psychologists to create a greater understanding of criminal behaviour.  In broad terms, Lombroso's theory was that criminals could be distinguished from law-abiding people by multiple physical characteristics, which he contended were throwbacks to primitive, even subhuman ancestors, which brought with them throwbacks to primitive behaviour that went against the rules and expectations of modern civilised society.  Read more…

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Antonio Landieri - Camorra victim

Family fought for 12 years to establish son’s innocence

A 12-year-fight to clear the name of an innocent victim of a Camorra clan war began on this day in 2004 when 25-year-old Antonio Landieri, a disabled resident of the notorious Vele di Scampia housing complex in Naples, was shot dead outside a recreation club where he had been playing table football with some friends.   Antonio and his friends were leaving the club, at the side of a square known to be frequented by drug dealers, when a car pulled up a short distance away from them in Via Labriola. A group of armed men emerged from the car and began shooting at them.  His friends instinctively ran away but Antonio, who could walk but only with severely restricted mobility - the consequence of complications at birth that left him partially paralysed - could not keep up and was hit several times in the back. He died in the arms of his mother. Read more…

Enzo Biagi - author and journalist

Much respected presenter taken off air by Berlusconi

Enzo Biagi, the distinguished print and television journalist and author of more than 80 books, died in Milan on this day in 2007, at the age of 87.  A staunch defender of the freedom of the press, Biagi himself was the victim of censorship from the highest level of the Italian government in 2002 when prime minister Silvio Berlusconi effectively sacked him from the public broadcaster RAI for what he called "criminal use" of the network.  In what became known as il Editto bulgaro - the Bulgarian Edict - because he made the pronouncement during a state visit to Sofia, Berlusconi named another journalist, Michele Santoro, and the satirical comedian, Daniele Luttazzi, as guilty of similar conduct and said it was his duty to "not to allow this to happen".  It meant that the last years of Biagi's life were marred somewhat by an absence from the screen that lasted five years.  Read more…

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Vino Novello

Raise a glass to autumn in Italy

Italy’s new wine from this year’s harvest - Vino Novello - goes on sale in the shops and will be served in bars and restaurants from around today.  The light, fruity, red wine, produced throughout Italy from different grape varieties, is enjoyable to drink and a bargain buy to take home with you.  Vino Novello is often similar in taste, body and colour to the French wine, Beaujolais Nouveau, which is exported to a number of other countries after its release in the third week of November.  Like Beaujolais Nouveau, Vino Novello has a low alcohol content and is meant to be drunk while it is still young. The wine should be consumed quickly after the bottle is opened and unopened bottles should be kept for only a few months. In some parts of Italy there is a tradition that the last days to drink it are i giorni della merla (the days of the blackbird), which are traditionally the coldest days at the end of January.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Italy by Ingredient: Artisanal Foods, Modern Recipes, by by Viola Buitoni. Photographs by Molly DeCoudreaux

A fresh approach to Italian cuisine through its most iconic ingredients, presented by Italian-born cooking instructor Viola Buitoni. From glossy drops of balsamic vinegar to flakes of parmigiano reggiano and spoonfuls of fresh ricotta to creamy grains of risotto the ingredients of Italian cuisine are beloved staples known the world over, available in specialty stores and served in restaurants across the globe. A native Roman raised in the Umbrian countryside, Viola Buitoni grew up with artisanal foods, learning about how they developed from centuries-old wisdom, tight-knit communities, and sustainable production. Now a US-based cooking instructor, Buitoni's passion is sharing the beloved flavours of her homeland. In Italy by Ingredient, she presents the history and geography of Italy’s most iconic ingredients, and with recipes organized according to a single ingredient, each chapter bursts with taste. Practical guidelines for seasonal eating, easy substitutes for hard-to-find items, and valuable shopping tips complement the approachable recipes.

Viola Buitoni, a San Francisco based chef instructor and food writer, was born in Rome and raised in Perugia. She is a descendant of the Buitoni family. With stories and knowledge from six generations, her recipes cross the best of local agriculture with Italian artisanal foods. Italy by Ingredient is her first cookbook. Molly DeCoudreaux is a San Francisco based photographer who explores food culture through photography.

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5 November

Giovanni Battista Belzoni – archaeologist

The Great Belzoni’s powerful physique helped him remove Egyptian treasures

Explorer and pioneer archaeologist of Egyptian antiquities, Giovanni Battista Belzoni was born on this day in 1778 in Padua, which was then part of the Republic of Venice.  He became famous for his height and strength and his discovery and removal to England of the seven-ton bust of Ramesses II. Belzoni was born into a poor family. At the age of 16 he went to find work in Rome and studied hydraulics. He was planning to take monastic vows but in 1798 French troops occupied the city and he moved to the Batavian Republic, now the Netherlands, where he earned his living as a barber.  He moved to England in 1803, allegedly to escape going to prison. He was six feet seven inches tall and had a powerful physique. For a while he earned his living as a circus strongman under the name, The Great Belzoni.  Read more…

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Francesco Chiarello - survivor of two World Wars

Calabrian veteran lived to be 109 years old

Francesco Domenico Chiarello, who would live to be one of the world's longest surviving veterans to serve in both World Wars, was born on this day in 1898.  Chiarello was 109 years old when he died in June 2008.  Of soldiers anywhere on the planet who were active in the 1914-18 conflict and were called up again after 1939, only the Frenchman Fernand Goux outlived him.  Goux, from the Loiret department of central northern France, died just five months later, aged 108.  Chiarello also died as one of the last two surviving Italian soldiers from the First World War, outlived only by Delfino Borroni, from just outside Pavia in Lombardy, who was a tram driver during the Second World War.  Borroni recovered from serious injuries sustained in an Allied bombing raid to be 110 years old when he died four months after Chiarello.  Read more…

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Filippo Taglioni - dancer and choreographer

Father of star ballerina was pioneer of Romantic ballet

The dancer and choreographer Filippo Taglioni, who choreographed the original version of the ballet classic La Sylphide for his ballerina daughter Marie Taglioni, was born on this day in 1777 in Milan.  La Sylphide was one of the earliest works to represent a new ballet genre, which became known as Romantic ballet, that gained popularity in the 19th century as an alternative to traditional classical ballet.  Romantic ballet was different in that the characters were recognisable as real people rather than the gods and goddesses and strange creatures from Roman and Greek mythology that populated classical ballet.  The work, which premiered at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opéra in 1832, cemented Marie Taglioni’s status as the prima ballerina of the Romantic movement, although the only version to survive was choreographed by the Danish master August Bournonville. Read more…

Pietro Longhi - painter

Painter who allowed us to see inside 18th century Venice

The painter Pietro Longhi, who was renowned for his accurate scenes of everyday life in Venice in the 18th century, was born on this day in 1702.  Longhi was originally called Pietro Falca and was the son of a silversmith in Venice, but he changed his name after he began painting.  He started with historical and religious scenes but his work evolved after a stay in Bologna where he encountered Giuseppe Maria Crespi, who was considered one of the greatest Italian painters at the time.  Longhi’s son Alessandro later wrote that his father had a ‘brilliant and bizarre spirit’, which led him to accurately paint people in conversation and show us the love and jealousy going on in the background.  His paintings vividly depict Venetian life and show wonderful details of the clothes and possessions of the upper and middle classes.  Read more…

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Alessandro Malaspina - explorer

Mapped Pacific on four-year epic journey

Alessandro Malaspina, an explorer not so well known as his compatriots, Amerigo Vespucci and Christopher Colombus, but whose contribution to mankind’s knowledge of the globe was no less important, was born on this day in 1754 in Mulazzo, a village now in the province of Massa-Carrara, about 120km (75 miles) northwest of Florence.  Like Vespucci and Columbus, Malaspina sailed under the flag of Spain, whose king, Charles III, was an enthusiastic supporter of scientific research and exploration.  He spent much of his life as an officer in the Spanish navy. It was after completing an 18-month circumnavigation of the world on behalf of the Royal Philippines Company that he proposed to the Spanish government that he make an expedition to the Pacific similar to those undertaken by the British explorer James Cook and the Frenchman Comte de la Pèrouse.  Read more…

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Attilio Ariosti – composer

Musical friar was once a rival of Handel

Baroque composer Attilio Malachia Ariosti, who in later life became a rival of Handel in London musical circles, was born on this day in 1666 in Bologna.  He became a Servite Friar, known as Frate Ottavio, when he was 22, but he quickly obtained permission to leave the order and become a composer at the court of the Duke of Mantua and Monferrato.  During his life, Ariosti composed more than 30 operas and oratorios as well as many cantatas and instrumental works.  Ariosti became a Deacon in 1692 and then obtained the post of organist at the Church of Santa Maria dei Servi in Bologna.  His first opera, Tirsi, was performed in Venice in 1697 and that same year he was invited to travel to Berlin by Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, the Queen of Prussia. She was a great-granddaughter of James I of England and the daughter of the Electress Sophia of Hanover. Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Great Belzoni: The Circus Strongman Who Discovered Egypt's Ancient Treasure, by Stanley Mayes

This is the truly extraordinary life story of Giovanni Belzoni - engineer, barber, monk, actor and circus strongman (where he earned his title, 'The Great Belzoni'), who became one of the giants of 19th century Egyptian archaeology. Sometimes maligned as a tomb robber, Giovanni Battista Belzoni is perhaps the most important and yet least remembered explorer and archaeologist of the last two hundred years. Giovanni Belzoni was the first person to penetrate the heart of the second pyramid at Giza and the first European to visit the oasis of Siwah and discover the ruined city of Berenice on the Red Sea. In 1823, at the age of 45, Belzoni died of fever trying to reach the mysterious city of Timbuktu. As The Great Belzoni outlines, there has never been a character quite like him in the history of exploration.

Stanley Mayes was a respected historian and biographer, highly regarded for his work on Egypt, archaeology and the history of the Ottoman Empire. He was also a broadcaster and political commentator for the BBC Overseas service and BBC World Service and freelance journalist.

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4 November

NEW - Day of National Unity in Italy

When Italians celebrate First World War victory as well as their unification

Italians gather today in the main piazza of towns and cities throughout the country to celebrate il Giorno dell’Unità Nazionale – National Unity and Armed Forces Day.  The fourth day of November has been an Italian National Day since 1919, established to commemorate the country’s victory in World War I. This event was also considered to be the completion of the process of the Unification of Italy, finally ending Austrian occupation of the northern part of the country, which made it an even more important date in Italian history.  In Rome, the President of Italy and other important officers of the State, pay homage to the Italian unknown soldier, milite ignoto, buried in the Altare della Patria in the centre of the capital.  Close to this day they also visit the Redipuglia War Memorial in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, where the remains of 100,000 soldiers who died during World War I are buried.  Read more…

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Guido Reni - painter

Bolognese artist who idealised Raphael

The leading Baroque painter, Guido Reni, was born on this day in 1575 in Bologna, then part of the Papal States.  He was to become a dominant figure in the Bolognese school of painting, which emerged under the influence of the Carracci, a family of painters in Bologna. He was held in high regard because of the classical idealism of his portrayals of mythological and religious subjects.  Although his father, Daniele, wanted him to follow in his footsteps as a musician, Guido Reni passionately wanted to become an artist and was apprenticed to the Flemish painter Denis Calvaert when he was 10 years old. He focused on studying the works of Raphael, who, for the rest of his life, remained his ideal.  Reni went on to enter the academy led by Ludovico Carracci, the Accademia degli Incamminati - The academy of the newly-embarked - in Bologna. Read more…

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Florence's catastrophic floods

Tuscan capital devastated on same day six centuries apart

More than 3,000 people were believed to have been killed when the River Arno flooded the streets of Florence on this day in 1333.  More than six centuries later, 101 people died when the city was flooded on the same day in 1966, the event taking a staggering toll of priceless books and works of art. The 1333 disaster - the first recorded flood of the Arno - was chronicled for posterity by Giovanni Villani, a diplomat and banker living in the city.  A plaque in Via San Remigio records the level the water allegedly reached in 1333 and another plaque commemorates the level the water reached after the river flooded in 1966, exactly 633 years later.  Villani wrote in his Nuova Cronica (New Chronicle), ‘By noon on Thursday, 4 November, 1333, a flood along the Arno River spread across the entire plain of San Salvi.’  By nightfall, the flood waters had filled the city streets. Read more…

Sandrone Dazieri – crime writer

Best-selling novelist in Italy now published in English

Sandrone Dazieri, an Italian author and screenwriter whose first novel published in English received enthusiastic reviews, was born in Cremona on this day in 1964.  A former chef, Dazieri became a best-selling novelist in his mid-30s with Attenti al Gorilla (Beware of the Gorilla), which introduced a complex character, based on himself and even named Sandrone, who suffers from a personality disorder that makes his behaviour unpredictable yet who solves crimes and tackles injustices.  The book spawned a series featuring the same character that not only gained Dazieri enormous popularity among Italian readers but helped him get work as a screenwriter, especially in the area of TV crime dramas.  He is the main writer on the hugely popular Canale 5 series Squadra Antimafia, to which he contributed for seven seasons.  Read more…

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Alfonso II - King of Naples

Ruler forced to abdicate after one year

Alfonso II, who became King of Naples in 1494 but was forced to abdicate after just one year, was born on this day in 1448 in Naples.  Also known as Alfonso II of Aragon, as heir to Ferdinand I he had the title Duke of Calabria from the age of 10. Blessed with a natural flair for leadership and military strategy, he spent much of his life as a condottiero, leading the army of Naples in a number of conflicts.  He contributed to the Renaissance culture of his father’s court, building the splendid palaces of La Duchesca and Poggio Reale, although neither survived to be appreciated today.  Alfonso II also introduced improvements to the urban infrastructure of Naples, building new churches, tree-lined straight roads, and a sophisticated hydraulic system to supply the city’s fountains.  He became King of Naples with the death of his father in January 1494.  Read more…

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First night at Teatro San Carlo 

Oldest opera house in the world opens its doors in Naples

Teatro di San Carlo in Naples was officially opened on this day in 1737, way ahead of La Scala in Milan and La Fenice in Venice.  Built in Via San Carlo, close to Piazza del Plebiscito, the main square in Naples, Teatro di San Carlo quickly became one of the most important opera houses in Europe and renowned for its excellent productions. The theatre was designed by Giovanni Antonio Medrano for the Bourbon King of Naples, Charles I, and took just eight months to build.  The official inauguration was on the King’s saint’s day, the festival of San Carlo, on the evening of 4 November. There was a performance of Achille in Sciro by Pietro Metastasio with music by Domenico Sarro, who also conducted the orchestra for the music for two ballets.  This was 41 years before La Scala and 55 years before La Fenice opened.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Shortest History of Italy, by Ross King

From Michelangelo to Mussolini, Nero to Meloni, Galileo to Garibaldi, here is the sparkling story of the world’s most influential peninsula.  The calendar, the university, the piano; the Vespa, the pistol and the pizzeria… It’s easy to assume that inventions like these could only come from somewhere sure of its place in the world. Yet these pages reveal a land rife with uncertainty even as its influence spread.  From the rise of the Roman Republic to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, from the glories of Renaissance Florence to the long struggle for unification, from Europe’s first operas to the world’s first ghettos, Ross King nimbly charts the checkered course of Italian history. In the last hundred years, film, fashion and Fiat – once bigger than Volkswagen – emerge from the horrors of fascism and world war. The Shortest History of Italy is a majestic sweep across three millennia of history that not only shaped Europe but the wider world.

Ross King is the author of many bestselling and acclaimed books about Italian history and culture, including The Bookseller of Florence, Brunelleschi’s Dome and Leonardo and the Last Supper. He lives just outside Oxford.

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Day of National Unity in Italy

When Italians celebrate First World War victory as well as their unification

Sergio Mattarella, the Italian President, pictured in 2022
paying his respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider

Italians gather today in the main piazza of towns and cities throughout the country to celebrate il Giorno dell’Unità Nazionale – National Unity and Armed Forces Day.

The fourth day of November has been an Italian National Day since 1919, established to commemorate the country’s victory in World War I. This event was also considered to be the completion of the process of the Unification of Italy,  finally ending Austrian occupation of the northern part of the country, which made it an even more important date in Italian history.

In Rome, the President of Italy and other important officers of the State, pay homage to the Italian unknown soldier, milite ignoto, buried in the Altare della Patria in the centre of the capital. 

Close to this day they also visit the Redipuglia War Memorial in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, where the remains of 100,000 soldiers who died during World War I are buried, and the small town of Vittorio Veneto in the Veneto, which was the site of the last decisive battle between the Royal Italian Army and the Austro-Hungarian Army.

The President and his colleagues send a message of gratitude, on behalf of the whole country, to the Italian Armed Forces on this day, and celebrations also take place in individual comuni, provinces, and regions throughout Italy.

When the change of the guards happens on November 4 at Rome's Palazzo del Quirinale, the presidential palace, the 4th Carabinieri cavalry regiment wear high uniform, which happens on only two other occasions during the year. 

Army and navy barracks throughout Italy are open to the public to visit, there are concerts by military bands, and commemoration ceremonies take place in front of the monument to the fallen in each individual comune.

Quattro Novembre is the only Italian national day that has lasted throughout decades of Italian history, through the years of the Kingdom of Italy, the Fascist period, and the republican era. 

In 1922, after the March on Rome that resulted in the Fascists coming into power in Italy, the name of the day was changed to Anniversario della Vittoria - Victory Day - to emphasise Italy’s military power. 

But in 1949, after the end of World War II, the original name was restored to celebrate the country’s armed forces and national unity.

The Redipuglia War Memorial in Friuli-Venezia Giulia
is another site of commemoration on November 4

In 1946, after the birth of the Republic, the national anthem was changed from the Marcia Reale, brought in before Italian unification by the Savoy family in 1831, to il canto degli italiani. 

This is better known by Italians as L’inno di Mameli, or Fratelli d’Italia, and is recognised by sports fans all over the world because it is played before matches involving the Italian national team. 

Goffredo Mameli, who was a fervent patriot, wrote the text for the anthem in 1847 and it was set to music by the composer Michele Novaro.

This was officially played as the Italian national anthem for the first time on the occasion of the National Unity and Armed Forces day on November 4, 1946.

Il Giorno dell’Unità Nazionale remained a public holiday until 1976, but then the calendar of public holidays was reformed because of austerity in Italy and it became a moveable feast, to be celebrated on the first Sunday of November.

But thanks to former president Carlo Ciampi, who worked to encourage Italians to value their symbols and traditions, the holiday has been celebrated more widely this century, although November 4 is now a national day in the Italian calendar, rather than a public holiday, so that it does not affect the working life of the population.

This year, 2025, for the third consecutive year, Italy marks the annual day by opening state-run museums and archaeological sites free of charge.

The Altare della Patria is part of the Monument
to Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of Italy

Travel tip

The foundation stone of the Altare della Patria - originally designed to commemorate King Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy - was laid in 1885 in the presence of his son and successor Umberto I and his family.  The monument, officially opened in 1911 on the 50th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, occupies a site on the northern slope of the Capitoline (Campidoglio) Hill, a few steps from the ruins of the Forum, the heart of ancient Rome. Built in white Botticino marble, the multi-tiered monument is 135m (443 ft) wide, 130m (427 ft) deep, and 70m (230 ft) high, rising to 81m (266ft) including the two statues of a chariot-mounted winged goddess Victoria on the summit of the two propylaea.  The Altare della Patria is actually just one part of the monument, at the front and in the centre, consisting of an inset statue of the goddess Roma and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where two soldiers guard an eternal flame.  Above it is a large bronze horse-back statue of Vittorio Emanuele II himself on a central plinth in front of the broad upper colonnade.  A national symbol of Italy, the monument has an important ceremonial role. On three occasions each year - on Liberation Day (April 25), Republic Day (June 2) and Armed Forces Day (November 4) - the President of the Republic lays a laurel wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to honour those who sacrificed their lives in the service of the country. 

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Piazza Flaminio shows off the Renaissance charm
of the Serravalle section of Vittorio Veneto

Travel tip

Vittorio Veneto is a picturesque town in the province of Treviso north of Venice. It was formed in 1866 by the merging of two towns - Serravalle. Ceneda, with Roman and ecclesiastical roots, and Serravalle, known for its medieval architecture and mercantile past. The name honours Vittorio Emanuele II, Italy’s first king, and the region of Veneto. The town became well known for its proximity to the decisive moment of Italy’s World War One campaign, the Battle of Vittorio Veneto in October-November 1918, when Italian forces under the command of General Armando Diaz defeated the Austro-Hungarian army. The victory is commemorated in museums and monuments throughout the town. The districts of Ceneda and Serravalle retain distinct identities, linked by the elegant Viale della Vittoria. Visitors are drawn to its cultural heritage, wine traditions, and proximity to Venice and the Dolomites. The 15th century buildings surrounding Serravalle’s Piazza Flaminio were used by the director Franco Zeffirelli to represent the city of Verona in his adaptation of Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, a film known for its authentic Italian Renaissance atmosphere.

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More reading:

Armado Diaz, the Neapolitan general who led decisive victory over Austria-Hungary

The history of the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument 

The Festa della Liberazione

Also on this day:

1333: Florence devastated as River Arno floods

1448: The birth of Alfonso II, King of Naples

1575: The birth of Baroque painter Guido Reni

1737: The inauguration of Teatro di San Carlo in Naples

1964: The birth of crime writer Sandrone Dazieri

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