7 November

NEW - Antonella Bellutti - cycling champion

Versatile athlete who excelled in several sports

Olympic cycling champion Antonella Bellutti, one of Italy’s most versatile and pioneering athletes, was born on this day in 1968 in Bolzano, the principal city of Trentino-Alto Adige, also known as Südtirol.  At the peak of her track cycling career, Bellutti won Olympic gold medals in the individual pursuit at the Atlanta Games of 1996 and in the points race at the Sydney Games four years later.  She was also a medallist in pursuit at the 1996 and 1995 world championships and won gold in the omnium at the 1998 European championships in Berlin.  Yet her cycling career may well not have happened but for a knee injury that curtailed her career as a track and field athlete. As a teenager, she had excelled as a hurdler and in combined events such as heptathlon, winning seven youth titles and setting the Italian junior record at 100m hurdles.  Read more… 

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Niccolò Machiavelli - statesman and diplomat

Dismissal gave public servant time to write about his ruthless ideas

Statesman and diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli, whose name has become synonymous with the words "cunning" and "duplicity", was dismissed from office in Florence on this day in 1512 by a written decree issued by the Medici rulers.  Machiavelli was forced to withdraw from public life and retired to his home in the Chianti region of Tuscany, where he wrote his most famous work, The Prince, which was to give the world the political idea of ‘the ends justify the means’.  Had the Medici not distrusted him, Machiavelli might have continued to serve in Florence as a diplomat and military leader.  He may never have passed on to mankind the ideas he had learnt from his work during the turbulent period in Italian history when popes and other European countries were battling against Italy’s city states for power.  Read more…

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Luigi Riva - an Azzurri great

Italy's record goalscorer and hero of Cagliari

Luigi 'Gigi' Riva, who was born on this day in 1944, is widely regarded as one of the finest strikers in the history of Italian football.  Despite playing in an era when football in Italy was notoriously defensive, he scored more than 200 goals in a 16-year club career, 156 of them in Serie A for Cagliari, with whom he won the scudetto (shield) as Italian League champions in 1970.  Nicknamed "Rombo di tuono" - thunderclap - by the football writer Gianni Brera, Riva is also the all-time leading goalscorer for the Italian national team with 35 goals, his record having stood since 1974.  After his playing career, Riva spent 23 years as part of the management team for the Azzurri and was a key member of the backroom staff when Italy won the World Cup for a fourth time in 2006.  Born in Lombardy, not far from Lake Maggiore, Riva spent virtually his whole football career with Cagliari and made his home in Sardinia.  Read more…

Gaspare Tagliacozzi - surgeon

Professor invented rhinoplasty procedure

Pioneering plastic surgeon Gaspare Tagliacozzi died on this day in 1599 in Bologna.  During his career, Tagliacozzi had developed what became known as ‘the Italian method’ for nasal reconstruction.  He improved on the procedure that had been carried out by the 15th century Sicilian surgeons, Gustavo Branca, and his son, Antonio.  Tagliacozzi wrote a book, De Curtorum Chirugia per Insitionem - On the Surgery of Mutilation by Grafting - which described in great detail the procedures carried out in the past to repair noses amputated during battle.  Surgeons who came after him credit him with single-handedly revolutionising the procedure and inventing what is today referred to as a rhinoplasty procedure.  Tagliacozzi was born in Bologna in 1545. He studied medicine, natural sciences and anatomy at the University of Bologna.  Read more…

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Feast day of Ercolano – patron saint of Perugia

Bishop was martyred after trying to save city

Today sees the Umbrian city of Perugia celebrate one of the two annual feast days of its patron saint, Ercolano, who according to legend was martyred on this day in 549 at the hands of the Ostrogoths, who ruled much of Italy at that time and had placed the city under siege.  Herculanus, as he is also known, was the Bishop of Perugia and as such was charged with trying to bring comfort to his flock in the face of inevitable capture by the Ostrogoths, the tribe, thought to have originated in Scandinavia, which had swept into Italy at the beginning of the sixth century.  They had a large, well-equipped army – more powerful than the army Perugia possessed, although it had enough soldiers to deter an advance – and the Ostrogoth leader, Totila, was prepared to wait outside the walls of the city for as long as it would take to starve the population into surrender.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Sport Italia: The Italian Love Affair with Sport, by Simon Martin

The Italian love affair with sport is passionate, voracious, all-consuming. It provides a backdrop and a narrative to almost every aspect of daily life in Italy and the distinctively pink-coloured newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport is devoured by almost half a million readers every day. Narrating the history of modern Italy through its national passion for sport, Sport Italia provides a completely new portrayal of one of Europe's most alluring, yet contradictory countries, tracing the highs and lows of Italy's sporting history from its Liberal pioneers through Mussolini and the 1960 Rome Olympics to the Berlusconi era. By interweaving essential themes of Italian history, its politics, society and economy with a history of the passion for sport in the country, Simon Martin tells the story of modern Italy in a fresh and colourful way, illustrating how and why sport is so strongly embedded in both politics and society, and how it is inseparable from the concept of Italian national identity. Showing sport's capacity to both unite and deeply divide, this fascinating book reveals a novel and previously unexplored element of the history of a society and its state.  Winner of the Lord Aberdare Literary Prize for Sports History in 2012.

Simon Martin is the author of Football and Fascism: The National Game under Mussolini, which won the Lord Aberdare Prize in 2004. He holds a PhD from University College, London and has taught there, as well as at the University of Hertfordshire, the University of California, Rome programme, the New York University in Florence and the American University of Rome.

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Antonella Bellutti - cycling champion

Versatile athlete who excelled in several sports

Antonella Bellutti celebrates after winning her
second Olympic Gold medal in Sydney in 2000

Olympic cycling champion Antonella Bellutti, one of Italy’s most versatile and pioneering athletes, was born on this day in 1968 in Bolzano, the principal city of Trentino-Alto Adige, also known as Südtirol.

At the peak of her track cycling career, Bellutti won Olympic gold medals in the individual pursuit at the Atlanta Games of 1996 and in the points race at the Sydney Games four years later.  She was also a medallist in pursuit at the 1996 and 1995 world championships and won gold in the omnium at the 1998 European championships in Berlin.

Yet her cycling career may well not have happened but for a knee injury that curtailed her career as a track and field athlete. As a teenager, she had excelled as a hurdler and in combined events such as heptathlon, winning seven youth titles and setting the Italian junior record at 100m hurdles.

She was preparing to make her Olympic hurdling debut in Barcelona in 1992 when the injury occurred. She took up cycling as part of what initially began as a rehabilitation process. In the event was never able to resume her career as a track athlete, yet revealed such talent on wheels that it opened a path to a whole new career.

As further evidence of Bellutti’s all-round sporting prowess, since retiring from competition as a cyclist she has returned to Olympic competition in bobsleigh, agreeing to be brakewoman to former luge gold medallist Gerda Weissensteiner - another native of Bolzano - as they finished seventh in the women’s two-man bob at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

Unlike many athletes, Bellutti did not emerge from a sporting family. Her father had been a factory worker whose passion was organ music and while her brother was a cyclist and her sister played basketball, neither continued beyond their teenage years. It was a gym teacher at elementary school who noticed in her a natural athleticism and introduced her to her first coach.

At Salt Lake City, Bellutti teamed up
with Gerda Weissensteiner in the bob

After her success as a junior, the injury to her knee - a persistent pain and weakness even after being treated for a suspected cyst - came as a blow. Yet cycling came as naturally to her as running and jumping. By chance, out on a recreational ride, she overtook two executives from a local cycling club in Bolzano, who then pursued her until she stopped at a drinking fountain and invited her to join.

Her rise in cycling was meteoric. Just four years after taking up the sport, she won a silver medal in the individual pursuit at the 1995 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Bogotá.  She followed this with a bronze medal in the same event at the 1996 World Championships in Manchester. 

The key to reaching the next level was her decision to adopted the so-called “Superman” riding position pioneered by the Scottish cyclist  Graeme Obree, which allowed for greater aerodynamic efficiency and helped her break the world record twice in the lead-up to the 1996 Olympics.

In 1996 in Atlanta, Bellutti delivered a commanding performance in the individual pursuit, winning gold and becoming the first Italian woman to do so in track cycling.

Four years later, at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she returned to the velodrome and added a second Olympic gold, this time in the points race.

Antonella Bellutti has become
an advocate of the vegan lifestyle 

Beyond the Olympics. Bellutti won 13 World Cup races, 16 Italian national titles, and a European Championship gold in 1997. 

Since retiring from competition, Bellutti has remained deeply involved in sport. She served on the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) from 2000 to 2004 and was Technical Director of Italy’s national track cycling teams from 2002 to 2003. 

She has also worked in sports education and sports journalism, writing a column for the Gazzettino di Venezia for six years and often contributing to TV and radio broadcasts.  She published a book, La vita è come andare in bicicletta - Life is like riding a bicycle - in 2017, which among other things outlined her reasons for taking up a vegan diet. 

For a while, she ran a bed-and-breakfast offering a vegan menu in Andogno, a tiny hamlet of the municipality of San Lorenzo Dorsino in the Adamello Brenta Natural Park, about 30km (19 miles) west of Trento and 30km north of Riva del Garda.

The business was opened after Bellutti had restored a former inn she had inherited from her great-grandparents. Unfortunately, it was forced to close because of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Today, Bellutti lives in Rovereto, in another part of the Trentino-Alto Adige region, and continues to inspire as a speaker, consultant, and advocate for equality in sport. She has taken a strong position in her opposition to doping in sport and has also spoken about depression among athletes and former athletes, having herself faced some mental health challenges following retirement. 

She still leads an active lifestyle, listing cycling, running, mountain climbing and alpine skiing among her activities, yet participates now solely for enjoyment rather than to compete. 

Bolzano's main square, Piazza Walther, was named
after medieval poet Walther von der Vogelweide

Travel tip:

Bolzano, Antonella Bellutti’s home town, is the capital of the South Tyrol region of what is now northern Italy, also known as Trentino-Alto Adige in Italian, or Südtirol in Austrian.  Occupying a valley flanked by hills covered in lush vineyards, it has a population of 108,000, swelling to 250,000 with all the surrounding communities. One of the largest urban areas in the Alpine region, it has a medieval city centre famous for its wooden market stalls, selling among other things Alpine cheeses, hams and bread. Places of interest include the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, the imposing 13th-century Mareccio Castle, and the Duomo di Bolzano with its Romanesque and Gothic architecture. Other places of interest include Piazza Walther (Waltherplatz), the central square named after medieval poet Walther von der Vogelweide, and the Via dei Portici (Laubengasse), and historic shopping street lined with arcaded walkways. Three languages - Italian, German and a local language called Ladin - are spoken in the area, which consistently polls high among the Italian cities reckoned to have the best standard of living.  The nearest airport to Bolzano is at Verona, about 150km (93 miles) to the south and accessible in approximately an hour and a half by train, although some visitors arrive from Innsbruck in Austria, just over two hours by train in the opposite direction.

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A sweeping panorama over the city of Rovereto in
the Trentino-Alto Adige region, close to Lake Garda

Travel tip:

The picturesque small city of Rovereto, 23km (14 miles) east of Riva del Garda and about 28km (17 miles) south of Trento, is notable for its Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto - one of Italy’s most important modern art museums - as well as for a 14th century castle, which contains the Italian War Museum, and for the Maria Dolens (Mary Grieving) bell, also known as the Campana dei Caduti (the Bell of the Fallen) and the Bell of Peace. The second largest swinging bell in the world, it was originally the idea of a local priest, Father Antonio Rossaro, to honour the fallen of all wars and to invoke peace and brotherhood. Cast in 1924, since 1965 it has been located on Miravale Hill outside the town and sounds 100 times at nightfall each evening.  Nestled in the Vallagarina valley, it was originally a Roman outpost guarding trade routes to the Brenner Pass. It enjoyed substantial growth during the medieval and Renaissance eras, flourishing under Venetian rule and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Rovereto is part of the Marzemino wine region, known for its deep red varietals praised by Mozart.

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More reading:

How Trebisonda ‘Ondina’ Valla became the first Italian woman to win an Olympic gold medal 

The brilliance of high jumper Sara Simeoni

The bobsleigh champion honoured for sportsmanship

Also on this day:

549: Death of Saint Ercolano of Perugia

1512: Dismissal from office of statesman and diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli

1599: The death of pioneer surgeon Gaspara Tagliacozzi

1944: The birth of footballer Luigi ‘Gigi’ Riva

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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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