16 November

NEW - Anna Possi - bar owner

Centenarian still serving coffee 365 days a year

Anna Possi, the bar owner who in 2024 attracted the world’s media to her door when she celebrated her 100th birthday by opening for business as usual, was born on this day in 1924 in Vezzo in Piedmont.  Possi owns and manages the Bar Centrale in Nebbiuno, a village overlooking picturesque Lago Maggiore just a few kilometres from her place of birth. She has been brewing and serving coffee to visitors and regular customers there since the bar opened on May 1, 1958, and has been in sole charge since her husband, Renato, died in 1974.  She is known as the oldest bartender in Italy - perhaps in Europe - and proudly advertises her status with a sign on the wall outside the bar’s entrance on Via Torino, which reads “Qui si trova la barista più longeva d'Italia” - “Here you will find the longest-serving bartender in Italy”.  Read more… 

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Maurizio Margaglio - ice dancer

Multiple champion remembered for famous fall

The ice dancer Maurizio Margaglio, who enjoyed a prolifically successful partnership with Barbara Fusar-Poli from the mid-1990s to the early part of the new century, was born on this day in 1974 in Milan.  Margaglio and Fusar-Poli were national champions of Italy nine times and in 2001 they became the first Italian pair to become World champions, winning in Vancouver ahead of the defending champions Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France.  They were European champions the same year, during a remarkable season in which they won every event they entered.  Yet they never won an Olympic title in three attempts, and as well as their successes they are remembered as much for the calamity that befell them at their home Olympics in Turin in 2006, when Margaglio and Fusar-Poli were in the gold medal position. Read more…

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Sofonisba Anguissola – Renaissance artist

Portrait painter paved the way for other women artists

Painter Sofonisba Anguissola died on this day in 1625 in Palermo at the age of 93.  As a young woman Anguissola had been introduced to Michelangelo in Rome, who had immediately recognised her talent.  She served an apprenticeship with established painters, which set a precedent for women to be accepted as students of art in the 16th century. Her success later in life paved the way for other women to pursue serious careers as artists. Many of her paintings can still be seen in prestigious galleries all over the world.  Anguissola was born in Cremona in Lombardy in 1532 to noble parents who believed they had a connection to the ancient Carthaginians and named their first daughter after the tragic Carthaginian figure, Sophonisba.  Five of the daughters became painters, but Sofonisba was the most accomplished.  Read more…

Tazio Nuvolari – racing driver

Man from Mantua seen as greatest of all time

Tazio Nuvolari, the driver many regard as the greatest in the history not only of Italian motor racing but perhaps of motorsport in general, was born on this day in 1892 in Castel d’Ario, a small town in Lombardy, about 15km (9 miles) east of the historic city of Mantua.  Known for his extraordinary daring as well as for his skill behind the wheel, Nuvolari was the dominant driver of the inter-war years, winning no fewer than 72 major races including 24 Grands Prix.  He was nicknamed Il Mantovano Volante - the Flying Mantuan.  From the start of his career in the 1920s, Nuvolari won more than 150 races all told and would have clocked up more had the Second World War not put motor racing in hibernation.  As it happens, Nuvolari’s last big victory came on September 3, 1939, the day the conflict began, in the Belgrade Grand Prix.  Read more…

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San Giuseppe Moscati - doctor

Brilliant young doctor recognised for his kindness

Doctor and scientist Giuseppe Moscati was beatified by Pope Paul VI on this day in 1975.  Giuseppe was renowned for his kindness and generosity to his patients and even before his death people talked of ‘miracle’ cures being achieved by him.  He was canonised by Pope John Paul II in 1987 and his feast day is 16 November.  Moscati was born into a big family in Benevento in 1880. His father, a lawyer and magistrate, was active in the church and Giuseppe inherited his piety.  The family later moved to Naples and Giuseppe enrolled in the medical school of the University of Naples in 1897.  On graduating he went to work in a hospital but continued with his brilliant scientific research and attended Mass frequently.  When Vesuvius erupted in 1906 he helped evacuate all the elderly and paralysed patients before the roof collapsed on the hospital under the weight of the ash.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Thinking Space: The Café as a Cultural Institution in Paris, Italy and Vienna, by Leona Rittner, W Scott Haine and Jeffrey H Jackson

The café is not only a place to enjoy a cup of coffee, it is also a space - distinct from its urban environment - in which to reflect and take part in intellectual debate. Since the 18th century in Europe, intellectuals and artists have gathered in cafés to exchange ideas, inspirations and information that has driven the cultural agenda for Europe and the world. Without the café, would there have been a Karl Marx or a Jean-Paul Sartre? The café as an institutional site has been the subject of renewed interest amongst scholars in the past decade, and its role in the development of art, ideas and culture has been explored in some detail. However, few have investigated the ways in which cafés create a cultural and intellectual space which brings together multiple influences and intellectual practices and shapes the urban settings of which they are a part. The Thinking Space presents an international group of scholars who consider cafés as sites of intellectual discourse from across Europe during the long modern period, notably in Paris, Vienna and Italy. 

Leona Rittner, who died in 2010, was an independent scholar based in New York and published widely on French and Italian literature;  W Scott Haine teaches at the University of Maryland University College; Jeffrey H Jackson is Associate Professor of History at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee.

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Anna Possi - bar owner

Centenarian still serving coffee 365 days a year

Anna Possi has been serving her customers at
the Bar Centrale in Nebbiuno for 67 years 

Anna Possi, the bar owner who in 2024 attracted the world’s media to her door when she celebrated her 100th birthday by opening for business as usual, was born on this day in 1924 in Vezzo in Piedmont.

Possi owns and manages the Bar Centrale in Nebbiuno, a village overlooking picturesque Lago Maggiore just a few kilometres from her place of birth. She has been brewing and serving coffee to visitors and regular customers there since the bar opened on May 1, 1958, and has been in sole charge since her husband, Renato, died in 1974.

She is known as the oldest bartender in Italy - perhaps in Europe - and proudly advertises her status with a sign on the wall outside the bar’s entrance on Via Torino, which reads “Qui si trova la barista più longeva d'Italia” - “Here you will find the longest-serving bartender in Italy”.

Opening even on Easter Sunday and Christmas Day, she wakes at 5.50am, eats a light breakfast while catching up with the news on the internet, and raises the shutters at 7am to be ready for her earliest customers, remaining open until 7-7.30pm.

On warm, summer evenings, she will stay open as late as 9.30pm, allowing her clientele to enjoy the splendid views across the lake on offer from her garden tables.

To mark her 100th birthday, she was awarded the honorary title of Commander of the Republic of Italy, yet has no plans to retire as long as she retains the gift of good health. She looks after her wellbeing by eating sparsely, taking a half-hour walk every evening and believes that her daily interaction with customers is the key to her sprightliness.

Universally known among her regular customers as Nonna Anna - or Anna Renè after her late husband - she makes few concessions to her advancing years apart from accepting some help from her daughter, Cristina, who lives with her in the rooms above the bar and works by day across the road at the local Municipale, the council offices.

Anna's unique status is proudly advertised
on a sign outside the Bar Centrale

Anna was born into the catering business. Her parents ran a guesthouse and trattoria at Vezzo, another hillside village just 10km (six miles) from Nebbiuno. She attended school and went to teacher training college but willingly helped out in the family business whenever she could, whether assisting in the kitchen or waiting at table.

During World War Two, she spent hours stirring a huge pot of polenta, which was given to partisans hiding from the occupying German army.

As a young woman, she moved first to Novara, the second largest city in Piedmont about 40km (25 miles) to the south, and then to Genoa, the coastal city in Liguria, working in bars and restaurants before returning home to buy the bar in Nebbiuno, with Renato. 

The bar’s peak years, according to Anna, were from the 1960s through to the 1980s. 

At first, equipped with pinball machines, a football table and a jukebox, and one of the first to offer video games, the Bar Centrale was a trendy meeting place for young people, who would spend their afternoons playing games and listening to hits.

Its clientele included footballers Gianni Rivera and Fulvio Collovati, who had homes nearby while playing for AC Milan, and even Angelo Moratti, the oil tycoon who owned Inter Milan from 1955 to 1968 and often visited the area.

Today’s customers have a different profile, made up mainly of pensioners from the village and of curious visitors attracted by Anna’s unique claim to fame. The jukebox, meanwhile, has made way for a book stand, where customers can exchange unwanted titles for books they want to read. Yet business remains brisk.

Anna has hinted that she may wind down, if not step aside completely, when Cristina retires from her job at the Municipale, perhaps breaking the habit of the last 50 years or so by actually taking a holiday. Until then, though, the Bar Centrale’s shutters will continue to open at 7am sharp, every day.

The skyline of Novara is dominated by the huge
cupola of the Basilica of San Gaudenzio

Travel tip:

Novara, where Anna Possi worked as a young woman, is the second biggest city in the Piedmont region after Turin. It is situated nearer to Milan than Turin, the Lombardy capital being around 50km (31 miles) east of Novara, while Turin is almost 100km (62 miles) to the southwest. Founded by the Romans, Novara was later ruled by the Visconti and Sforza families. In the 18th century it was controlled by the House of Savoy, who lost it to the Austrians in the 1849 Battle of Novara. This led to the abdication of Charles Albert, the King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard state and is seen as the beginning of the Italian unification movement.  The most imposing building in Novara is the Basilica of San Gaudenzio, which has a 121-metre high cupola designed by Alessandro Antonelli, the creator of Turin’s similarly towering Mole Antonelliana. Novara’s duomo, the cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, is the city’s most important church. It is built where the temple of Jupiter stood in Roman times, opposite the oldest remaining building in Novara, the Battistero. Also worth seeing is the Broletto, a medieval architectural complex made up of four historic buildings built in different eras, around a central courtyard. 

Find hotels in Novara with Expedia

Nebbiuno's hillside location offers visitors a
beautiful view over Lago Maggiore

Travel tip:

Vezzo and Nebbiuno, the two villages that have been central to Anna Possi’s life, both lie in the scenic Vergante area of Piedmont, on the western side of Lake Maggiore, which forms a natural border with the neighbouring Lombardy region.  Hilly terrain, lush forests and panoramic lake views are characteristic of the area, which contains notable peaks in Monte Cornaggia and Monte Toriggia, both of which climb to beyond 900m (2,950ft), the area being bordered in the west by Monte Mottarone, which reaches 1,492m (4,895ft) above sea level, part of the Alpi Biellesi e Cusiane. The Vergante area also includes the section of Lake Maggiore that contains three of the four Borromean Islands - Isola Madre, Isola Bella and Isola dei Pescatori. The area offers attractions all year round, including trekking along well-maintained paths in the summer months, gastronomic tours against the backdrop of autumn colours to enjoy dishes combining the products of the forest and the lake, skiing in the winter and a kaleidoscope of spring colours from an abundance of azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons.

Book accommodation in the Vergante area with Hotels.com

More reading:

How Antonio Todde became the oldest living man in the world

The World War One survivor who lived to be 110

The Inter Milan fan who for 10 months was Europe’s oldest living person

Also on this day:

1625: The death of portrait painter Sofonisba Anguissola 

1892: The birth of racing driver Tazio Nuvolari

1974: The birth of world champion ice dancer Maurizio Margaglio

1975: Doctor and scientist Giuseppe Moscati made a saint

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15 November

Enzo Staiola - actor

Child star of neorealist classic Bicycle Thieves

Enzo Staiola, who found international fame as an eight-year-old boy as one of the stars of the Oscar-winning neorealist drama Bicycle Thieves, was born on this day in 1939 in Rome.  Staiola’s character in Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 film was Bruno Ricci, the eldest child in a working class Roman family desperately trying to survive in the hard economic climate that followed the end of the Second World War.  The central character in the film is Bruno’s father, Antonio, who lands a job posting advertising bills around the city but is required to have a bicycle to transport himself, his ladder and bucket to wherever his services are required.  Antonio buys a bicycle after pawning some of the family’s few possessions of value only to have it stolen on his first day at work. The remainder of the film follows Antonio and Bruno as they try to find the bicycle.  Read more…

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The murder of Pellegrino Rossi

Political assassination opened way to creation of Roman Republic

One of the key events during the revolutionary upheaval of 1848 in Italy took place on this day in that year when the politician Count Pellegrino Rossi was murdered at the Palazzo della Cancelleria, the seat of the government of the Papal States in Rome.  The event precipitated turmoil in Rome and led eventually to the formation of the short-lived Roman Republic.  Rossi was the Minister of the Interior in the government of Pope Pius IX and as such was responsible for a programme of unpopular reforms, underpinned by his conservative liberal stance, which gave only the well-off the right to vote and did nothing to address the economic and social disruption created by industrialisation.  Street violence, stirred up by secret societies such as Giuseppe Mazzini’s Young Italy movement, had been going on for weeks in Rome.  Read more…

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Francesco Rosi - film director

Documentary style put him among greats of Italian cinema

The film director Francesco Rosi, one of Italy's most influential movie-makers over four decades, was born on this day in 1922 in Naples.  Rosi, who made his directing debut in 1958 and filmed his last movie in 1997, built on the fashion for neorealism that dominated Italian cinema in the immediate post-war years and his films were often highly politicised.  Many of his works were almost pieces of investigative journalism, driven by his revulsion at the corruption and inequality he witnessed in the area in which he grew up, and the dubious relationships between local government and figures from the crime world.  His film Hands Over the City, for example, starring Rod Steiger as an unscrupulous land developer, sought to show how the landscape of Naples was shaped by greed and political interests. Read more…

Roberto Cavalli – fashion designer

Florentine who conceived the sand-blasted look for jeans

The designer Roberto Cavalli was born on this day in 1940 in Florence.  Cavalli has become well-known in high-end Italian fashion for his exotic prints and for creating the sand-blasted look for jeans. From an artistic family, Cavalli has a grandfather, Giuseppe Rossi, who was a talented painter whose work is on show in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.  As a student, Cavalli attended an art institute where he learnt about printing textiles and in the early 1970s he invented and patented a printing process for leather and began creating patchworks of different materials.  When he took samples of his work to Paris he received commissions from such fashion houses as Hermes and Pierre Cardin. At the age of 32, Cavalli presented the first collection in his name in Paris and then showed it in Florence and Milan.  Read more…

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Annunzio Mantovani - conductor

Orchestra leader brought light relief during World War Two

Conductor and composer Annunzio Paolo Mantovani - best known simply as Mantovani - was born on this day in Venice in 1905.  The music produced by his orchestras, which became known as ‘the Mantovani sound', brought pleasure to millions and his recordings were best sellers in Britain and the US before the Beatles came on the scene.  Mantovani’s father, Benedetto Paolo Mantovani, who was known as ‘Bismarck’, was a violinist and leader of the orchestra of Teatro alla Scala opera house in Milan, at the time Arturo Toscanini was conductor.  The Mantovani family moved to England in 1912 after Bismarck was appointed conductor of the orchestra at Covent Garden.  Young Annunzio Mantovani studied the violin and piano in London before joining a touring orchestra. He quickly became a violin soloist and then a conductor.  Read more…

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Bernardino Nogara - Vatican financial advisor

Former engineer laid foundations for financial strength of the Papacy

The engineer-turned-investment manager Bernardino Nogara, who in 1929 was appointed by Pope Pius XI to look after the financial dealings of the newly-independent Vatican City, died on this day in 1958 in Milan.  Nogara had returned to his homeland - he was born in Bellano, around 80km (50 miles) north of Milan on the shore of Lake Como - upon retiring from his position as Director of the Special Administration of the Holy See in 1954, at the age of 84. Although details of the Vatican’s finances have traditionally been secret, Nogara is thought to have swelled the papal coffers by hundreds of millions of dollars over 25 years.  Yet he is regarded by many commentators as a controversial figure because of the nature of some of his investments. He was alleged to have put money into companies whose businesses could be seen to be incompatible with Catholic Church doctrines.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Italian Neorealism: Rebuilding the Cinematic City, by Mark Shiel

Part of Wallflower Press's Short Cuts series, Italian Neorealism: Rebuilding the Cinematic City is a valuable introduction to one of the most influential of film movements. Exploring the roots and causes of neorealism, particularly the effects of the Second World War, as well as its politics and style, Mark Shiel examines the portrayal of the city and the legacy left by filmmakers such as Rossellini, De Sica, and Visconti. Films studied include Rome, Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), Bicycle Thieves (1948), and Umberto D (1952).

Mark Shiel is lecturer in film studies at King's College, London. He is the author of Cinema and the City and Screening the City.

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14 November

Giuseppina Strepponi – soprano

Death of the woman who inspired Donizetti and Verdi

Opera singer Giuseppina Strepponi died on this day in 1897 at the village of Sant’Agata in the province of Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna.  She was the second wife of the composer Giuseppe Verdi and is often credited with helping him achieve his first successes, having starred in several of his early operas.  Strepponi was born Clelia Maria Josepha Strepponi in Lodi, a little over 40km (26 miles) southeast of Milan, in 1815.  Her father was the organist at Monza Cathedral and also a composer and he gave her piano lessons when she was very young. At the age of 15 she was enrolled at the Milan Conservatory and she won first prize for singing in her final year.  Strepponi made her professional debut in 1834 at the Teatro Orfeo in Taranto and enjoyed her first success the following spring in Trieste, singing the title role in Rossini’s Matilde di Shabran. Read more…

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Enzo Cucchi - artist

Enjoyed prominence as part of Transavanguardia movement

The artist Enzo Cucchi, who was a prominent member of the Italian Transavanguardia movement, was born on this day in 1949 in Morro d'Alba, a walled town set among hills about 10km (6 miles) inland from the Adriatic and 24km (15 miles) west of Ancona in the Marche region.  The Transavanguardia, which peaked during the 1980s, was part of an international revival of expressionist painting. Other Italians who could be considered part of the movement included Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Nicolo de Maria and Mimmo Paladino.  Cucchi’s most important works include the frescoes of the Chapel of Monte Tamaro near Lugano, designed by the architect Mario Botta, which he painted between 1992 and 1994, and the design of the curtain for the theatre La Fenice of Senigallia (1996). Read more…

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Maria Cristina of Savoy

Pious princess was beatified by Pope Francis

Princess Maria Cristina Carlotta Giuseppina Gaetana Elisa of Savoy was born on this day in 1812 in Cagliari on the island of Sardinia.  She was the youngest child of King Victor Emmanuel I of Piedmont-Sardinia and his wife Queen Maria Teresa of Austria-Este.  Maria Cristina was described as beautiful, but she was also modest and pious and in 2014 she was beatified by Pope Francis.  As a Savoy princess she had been expected to make an advantageous marriage alliance and when she was just 20 years of age she was married to Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, in an attempt to keep southern Italy on friendly terms, at a ceremony in Genoa.  Modest and reserved, she was never comfortable at the royal court in Naples and she was unhappy with Ferdinand. But she was said to be loved by the ordinary people of the Two Sicilies, who were charmed by her beauty and kindness.  Read more…

Carlo Emilio Gadda - writer and novelist

Author who drew comparisons with Levi and Joyce

The essayist and novelist Carlo Emilio Gadda, whose work has been compared with the writings of Primo Levi, James Joyce and Marcel Proust, was born on this day in 1893 in Milan.  His novels and short stories were considered outstanding for his original and innovative style, moving away from the rather staid language of Italian literature in the early 20th century, adding elements of dialect, technical jargon and wordplay.  It has been said that Gadda opted for his experimental style because he thought that only through the use of a fragmentary, incoherent language could he adequately portray what he considered a disintegrated world.  Born into an upper middle-class family living on Via Manzoni in the centre of Milan, Gadda lost his father when he was only a child, after which his mother had to bring up the family on limited means, although she refused to compromise with her lifestyle. Read more…

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Aleardo Aleardi - poet and patriot

History-loving writer dreamed of a united Italy

Patriotic poet Aleardo Aleardi was born on this day in 1812 in Verona.  At the height of his success he was hailed as an important figure in the Risorgimento movement.  Aleardi’s poems are mostly about events in Italian history and his love for his home country, which was under Austrian occupation while he was growing up.  He was originally named Gaetano Maria but changed his name to Aleardi, the surname of his father, Count Giorgio Aleardi, when he started writing.  Aleardi studied law at Padova University but gradually became more interested in poetry, influenced by some of his fellow students who were involved in the romantic Risorgimento movement.  Risorgimento, which means resurgence, was the name for the political and social movement that led to the consolidation of the different states of the Italian peninsula into the Kingdom of Italy.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Verdi: The Man Revealed, by John Suchet

Giuseppe Verdi remains the greatest operatic composer that Italy, the home of opera, has produced. Yet throughout his life he claimed to detest composing and repeatedly rejected it. He was a landowner, a farmer, a politician and symbol of Italian independence; but his music tells a different story.  An obsessive perfectionist, Verdi drove collaborators to despair but his works were rightly lauded as dazzling feats of composition and characterisation. From Rigoletto to Otello, La Traviatato to Aida, Verdi's canon encompassed the full range of human emotion. His private life was no less complex: he suffered great loss, and went out of his way to antagonise many erstwhile supporters, including his own family. An outspoken advocate of Italian independence and a sharp critic of the church, he was often at odds with 19th-century society. In Verdi: The Man Revealed, John Suchet attempts to get under his skin. Unpicking his protestations, his deliberate embellishments and disingenuous disavowals, Suchet reveals Verdi’s contradictory and sometimes curmudgeonly character, conflicted throughout much of his life but ultimately unable to walk away from the art for which he will be forever known.

John Suchet presented Classic FM's flagship morning programme, from 2011 to 2020. Before turning to classical music, he was one of the UK's best-known television journalists.  His books include Beethoven: The Man Revealed; The Last Waltz: The Strauss Dynasty and Vienna; and Mozart: The Man Revealed.

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