27 January

Giovanni Arpino - writer and novelist 

Stories inspired classic Italian films

The writer Giovanni Arpino, whose novels lay behind the Italian movie classics Divorce, Italian Style and Profumo di donna – later remade in the United States as Scent of a Woman – was born on this day in 1927 in the Croatian city of Pula, then part of Italy.  His parents did not originate from Pula, which is near the tip of the Istrian peninsula about 120km (75 miles) south of Trieste. His father, Tomaso, was a Neapolitan, while his mother, Maddalena, hailed from Piedmont, but his father’s career in the Italian Army meant the family were rarely settled for long in one place.  In fact, they remained in Pula only a couple of months. As Giovanni was growing up, they lived in Novi Ligure, near Alessandria, in Saluzzo, south of Turin, and in Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna. His father imposed a strict regime on Giovanni and his two brothers. Read more…

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Trajan - Roman emperor

Military expansionist with progressive social policies

Marcus Ulpius Traianus succeeded to the role of Roman Emperor on this day in 98 AD.  The 13th ruler of the empire and known as Trajan, he presided over the greatest military expansion in Roman history, the consequence of which was that in terms of physical territory the empire was at its largest during his period in office.  Despite his taste for military campaigns - he conquered Dacia (the area now called Romania), Armenia, Mesopotamia, and the Sinai Peninsula - Trajan was seen as the second of the so-called Five Good Emperors to rule during the years known as Pax Romana, a long period of relative peace and stability.  He was credited with maintaining peace by working with rather than against the Senate and the ruling classes, introducing policies aimed at improving the welfare of citizens, and engaging in massive building projects.  Read more…

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Giuseppe Verdi – composer

How Italy mourned the loss of a national symbol

Opera composer Giuseppe Verdi died on this day at the age of 87 in his suite at the Grand Hotel et de Milan in 1901.  The prolific composer, who had dominated the world of opera for a large part of the 19th century, was initially buried privately at Milan’s Cimitero Monumentale.  But a month later Verdi’s body was moved to its final resting place in the crypt of a rest home for retired musicians that he had helped establish in Milan.  An estimated crowd of 300,000 people are reported to have turned out to bid Verdi farewell and Va, pensiero, a chorus from his 1842 opera Nabucco, was performed by a choir conducted by Arturo Toscanini.  Verdi meant a great deal to the Italian people because his composition, Va, pensiero had been the unofficial anthem for supporters of the Risorgimento movement, which had sought the unification of Italy.  Read more…

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Nerva - Roman emperor

The first of the Five Good Emperors

The Roman emperor Nerva, who was considered by historians to be a wise and moderate ruler, died on this day in Rome in 98 AD, after just two years in power.  Nerva had ensured that there would be a peaceful transition after his death by selecting the military commander Trajan as his heir in advance. Trajan went on to be a great success as an emperor and adopted Hadrian as his son to secure his dynasty. Nerva is consequently regarded as the first of five ‘good’ Roman emperors.  Marcus Cocceius Nerva was born in 30 AD in Narni in Umbria, but he did not become emperor himself until he was nearly 66 years old, having spent most of his life serving under Nero and his successors.  Nerva was part of Nero’s imperial entourage and he played a big part in exposing a conspiracy against the emperor in 65 AD. He then achieved high office under the two subsequent emperors. Read more…

Italy elects its first parliament

1861 vote preceded proclamation of new Kingdom

Italians went to the polls for the first time as a nation state on this day in 1861 to elect a government in anticipation of the peninsula becoming a unified country.  The vote was a major milestone in the Risorgimento - the movement to bring together the different states of the region as one country - enabling there to be a parliament in place the following month and for deputies to declare Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia as the first King of Italy in March.  The first parliament convened in Turin as Rome remained under the control of the Papal States until it was captured by the Italian army in 1870.  The body comprised 443 deputies representing 59 provinces. Some provinces, such as Benevento, near Naples, elected just one deputy, whereas the major cities elected many more. Turin, for example, chose 19 deputies, Milan and Naples 18 each.  Read more…

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Frank Nitti - mobster

Barber who became Al Capone’s henchman

The mobster who achieved notoriety as Frank Nitti was born Francesco Raffaele Nitto it is thought on this day in 1881, although some accounts put the year of his birth as 1886.  Nitti, who was raised in Brooklyn, New York, where he and Al Capone - his cousin - grew up, would eventually become Capone’s most trusted henchman in the Chicago mob he controlled.  After Capone was jailed for 11 years for tax evasion, Nitti was ostensibly in charge of operations.  Unlike many of the American Mafia bosses in the early part of the 20th century, Nitti was not a Sicilian.  His roots were in the heart of Camorra territory in the shadow of Vesuvius, his birthplace the town of Angri, 8km (5 miles) from nearby Pompei.  Angri was also the home town of Capone’s parents.  Francesco’s father died while he was still a small child.  Read more…

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Marco Malvaldi – crime writer and chemist

Author has mastered the science of detective fiction

Novelist Marco Malvaldi, who has written a prize-winning mystery featuring the real-life 19th century Italian culinary expert Pellegrino Artuso as his fictional sleuth, was born on this day in 1974 in Pisa.  Malvaldi, who is a graduate in chemistry from Pisa University, has also written a travel guide about his home town with the title Scacco alle Torre (Checkmate to the Tower), which has been presented at the Pisa Book Festival. He began his writing career in 2007 with a mystery novel, La briscola in cinque (Game for Five), published by Sellerio Editore. The novel’s protagonist, Massimo, a barista, and the owner of a bar named BarLume, which is a play on the Italian word barlume, meaning flicker of light, is forced into the role of investigator in the fictional seaside resort town of Pineta on the Tuscan coast.  Read more…

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Roberto Paci Dalò – composer and film maker

Music maker coined the definition ‘media dramaturgy’

The award-winning contemporary musician and composer Roberto Paci Dalò was born on this day in 1962 in Rimini.  Paci Dalò is the co-founder and director of the performing arts ensemble Giardini Pensili and has composed music for theatre, radio, television and film.  After completing musical, visual and architectural studies in Fiesole, Faenza and Ravenna, Paci Dalò focused on sound and design and their use in film, theatre and collaborative projects.  He has been a pioneer in the use of digital technologies and telecommunication systems in art and has been particularly interested in performing arts as a meeting point of languages.  Since 1985 he has written, composed and directed more than 30 groundbreaking music-theatre works which have been presented worldwide.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Scent of a Woman, by Giovanni Arpino (Penguin Modern Classics). Translated by Anne Milano Appel

Two soldiers travel across Italy at the height of summer, passing through Genoa, Rome and Naples. One of the soldiers is blind, graceful, gleefully vicious and wears a prosthetic arm; the other, twenty years his junior, is his guide. But as these men drink their way through bars, brothels and train carriages, who is guiding who? Only as they reluctantly approach the blind man's destination, and a stifled love affair, does the purpose of the trip become tragically clear.  The inspiration for two acclaimed films, Scent of a Woman is a lyrical exploration of regret, defiance, and what it really means to see.

Giovanni Arpino was an Italian writer and journalist. Arpino’s debut novel was published in 1952, after which he took up sports journalism, bringing a literary quality to his writing on sport. Arpino also wrote plays, short stories, epigrams and stories for children. Anne Milano Appel is an American translator of Italian literature, who has translated the works of Arpino, Claudio Magris, Paolo Giordano and Goliarda Sapienza among others.  She was awarded the John Florio Prize in 2012 for her translation of Arpino's Scent of a Woman.

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26 January

NEW - Corrado Augias - author, journalist and presenter

TV personality has devoted his life to writing

Veteran journalist and TV presenter Corrado Augias, who is also a best-selling author, was born on this day in Rome in 1935. He has become popular in Italy as the host of many TV programmes, including those featuring mysteries and crimes from the past, such as Telefono Giallo and Enigma. Augias is a prolific writer, his works ranging from crime novels set in the early 20th century, to a series of books about the hidden secrets of Italian and European cities, as well as religious works, and plays.  He was brought up in Rome as part of a family originally from Toulon in France, although his father’s family were of Sardinian ancestry. After studying at Sapienza University in Rome he became a journalist working for L’Espresso, La Repubblica and Panorama. He also worked as a foreign correspondent in Paris and New York for several years.  Read more… 

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Valentino Mazzola - footballer

Tragic star may have been Italy’s greatest player

The footballer Valentino Mazzola, captain of the mighty Torino team of the 1940s, was born on this day in 1919 in Cassano d’Adda, a town in Lombardy about 30km (19 miles) northeast of Milan.  Mazzola, a multi-talented player who was primarily an attacking midfielder but who was comfortable in any position on the field, led the team known as Il Grande Torino to five Serie A titles in seven seasons between 1942 and 1949. He scored 109 goals in 231 Serie A appearances for Venezia and Torino and had become the fulcrum of the Italy national team, coached by the legendary double World Cup-winner Vittorio Pozzo.  In just over a decade at the top level of the Italian game he achieved considerable success and some who saw him play believe he was the country’s greatest footballer of all time.  His life was cut short, however.  Read more…

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Giovanni Lanfranco - painter

Artist from Parma whose technique set new standards

The painter Giovanni Lanfranco, whom some critics regard as the equal of Pietro da Cortona and Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) among the leading masters of High Baroque painting in Rome, was born on this day in 1582 in Parma.  A master of techniques for creating illusion, such as trompe l'oeil and foreshortening, he had a major influence on 17th century painting in Naples also, inspiring the likes of Mattia Preti, Luca Giordano and Francesco Solimena.  Lanfranco is best known for his Assumption of the Virgin (1625-7) in the duomo of Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome, the altar fresco of the Navicella (1627-28) in St Peter’s Basilica, the cupola of the Gesù Nuovo church (1634-36) in Naples and the fresco of the Cappella del Tesoro, in Naples Cathedral (1643).  His St Mary Magdalen Transported to Heaven (c.1605), currently housed in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples, is another outstanding example of his work. Read more…

Gabriele Allegra – friar and scholar

Sicilian who learned Chinese to carry out his life’s work

The Blessed Gabriele Allegra, a Franciscan friar who translated the entire Catholic Bible into Chinese, is remembered on this day every year.  He was born Giovanni Stefano Allegra in San Giovanni la Punta in the province of Catania in Sicily in 1907 and he entered the Franciscan seminary in Acireale in 1918.  Gabriele Allegra was inspired to carry out his life’s work after attending a celebration for another Franciscan who had attempted a translation of the Bible into Chinese in the 14th century. For the next 40 years of his life the friar devoted himself to his own translation.  Gabriele Allegra was ordained a priest in 1930 and set sail for China. On his arrival he started to learn Chinese.  With the help of his Chinese teacher he prepared a first draft of his translation of the Bible in 1947 but it was not until 1968 that his one volume Chinese Bible was published for the first time.  Read more…

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Hebrew Bible in print for first time

Bologna printer makes history

The first printed edition of the Hebrew Bible was completed in Bologna on this day in 1482.  Specifically, the edition was the Pentateuch, or Torah, which consists of the first five books of the Christian and Jewish Bibles - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  Torah, in Hebrew, means 'instruction'.  The book was given that name because the stories within it, which essentially form the opening narrative of the history of the Jewish people, and the interpretations offered of them, were intended to set out the moral and religious obligations fundamental to the Jewish way of life.  The book was the work of the Italian-Jewish printer Abraham ben Hayyim dei Tintori, from Pesaro.  The text consisted of large, clear square letters, accompanied by a translation in the Jewish biblical language Aramaic and a commentary by Rashi, the foremost biblical commentator of the Middle Ages.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Secrets of Rome: Love and Death in the Eternal City, by Corrado Augias

From one of Italy's best-known writers comes an exploration of the Eternal City from a fresh and intriguing new angle. Corrado Augias moves perceptively through 27 centuries of Roman life, shedding new light on a cast of famous, and infamous, historical figures and uncovering secrets and conspiracies that have shaped the city without our ever knowing it. From Rome's origins as Romulus's stomping ground to the dark atmosphere of the Middle Ages; from Caesar's unscrupulousness to Caravaggio's lurid genius; from the notorious Lucrezia Borgia to the seductive Anna Fallarino, the marchioness at the centre of one of Rome's most heinous crimes of the post-war period, Secrets of Rome creates a sweeping account of the passions that have shaped this complex city: at once both a metropolis and a village, where all human sentiment-bravery and cowardice, industriousness and sloth, enterprise and laxity-find their interpreters and stage. If the history of humankind is all passion and uproar, then, as the author notes, for centuries Rome has been the mirror of this history, reflecting with excruciating accuracy every detail, even those that might cause you to avert your gaze.

Corrado Augias is a celebrated author and journalist who has worked as a correspondent for L'Espresso and La Repubblica.

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Corrado Augias - author, journalist and presenter

TV personality has devoted his life to writing

Corrado Augias has enjoyed a long career
as a writer, journalist and TV presenter

Veteran journalist and TV presenter Corrado Augias, who is also a best-selling author, was born on this day in Rome in 1935. He has become popular in Italy as the host of many TV programmes, including those featuring mysteries and crimes from the past, such as Telefono Giallo and Enigma.

Augias is a prolific writer, his works ranging from crime novels set in the early 20th century, to a series of books about the hidden secrets of Italian and European cities, as well as religious works, and plays.

He was brought up in Rome as part of a family originally from Toulon in France, although his father’s family were of Sardinian ancestry. After studying at Sapienza University in Rome he became a journalist working for L’Espresso, La Repubblica and Panorama. He also worked as a foreign correspondent in Paris and New York for several years.

In the 1960s, Augias became involved with the Roman avante garde movement and wrote plays for the theatre. More recently, he wrote a play, L’onesto Jago, for the Teatro Stabile di Genova.

His early crime novels for the Rizzoli publishing house, feature the protagonist Commissario Giovanni Sperelli, an imaginary brother of Andrea Sperelli, who was a character in Piacere, a novel by Gabriele D’Annunzio.

The first novel in a trilogy, Quel treno da Vienna - That Train from Vienna -  published in 1981, was set in Rome in 1911, when the capital was about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Kingdom of Italy.

It was the first of three novels featuring Sperelli, a Commissario of Public Security, and was followed by Il fazzoletto azzuro - The Blue Handkerchief - which was set in Rome in 1915, when Italy was about to enter World War I, and L’ultima primavera - The Last Spring - which begins just before the March on Rome by Mussolini’s Fascists in 1922.

Three films based on these novels were later made for television and shown on Rai, Italy’s national television network.

Augias is well known for his popular series of books, ‘I Segreti di….’, which covers many Italian and European cities, in which he unveils their peculiar features. His 2010 publication of I Segreti del Vaticano focused on issues of power in the Vatican state.

I segreti di Roma has been one
of Augias's most popular books

An atheist, Augias wrote Inchiesta su Gesù, looking at the Gospel’s description of the life of Jesus. This book became a bestseller in Italy.

However, it provoked two other Italian authors to write another book in reply, Risposta a Inchiesta su Gesù, which claimed to offer informed and constructive defence, explanation, and justification for what was written in the Gospel about Jesus.

Augias is married to the journalist and writer Daniela Pasti and he collaborated with her to write Newspapers and Spies, a book about secret societies and corrupt journalists during the Great War.

In 2023, Augias left Rai to go to the commercial channel LA7 to host La Torre di Babele, an in-depth, cultural television programme.

Now in his 90s, he continues to write novels and non-fiction books and his recent autobiographical book, La vita s’impara, about his adventurous life and what he has learnt, was published in 2024.

Between 1994 and 1999 Augias served in the European Parliament as MEP for Southern Italy. He was awarded The Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2006.

A year later he was awarded the Knight (Chevalier) of the Legion of Honour by France, but he renounced the honour in 2020 when the same award was given to Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The Calling of St Matthew is the first work
in Caravaggio's Cappella Contarelli cycle

Travel tip:

The book for which Corrado Augias is perhaps best known, I segreti di Roma (The Secrets of Rome), includes discourse about the great Renaissance painter, Caravaggio, who spent much of his working life in Rome and left a legacy of outstanding work, some of which is on public view in churches around the city. These include the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, a short distance from Piazza Navona, where the Cappella Contarelli includes a cycle of Caravaggio paintings on the theme of Saint Matthew - The Calling of Saint Matthew, The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, and The Inspiration of Saint Matthew. Augias believes the content of each, with many of the figures portrayed inspired by the ordinary Romans the painter would encounter in his daily life, perfectly illustrates the contradictions found in Rome, where piety co-exists with vice, poverty with power, light with shadow.  The paintings, completed between 1599 and 1602, were Caravaggio's first major public commission and one that cemented his reputation as a master artist. The church of San Luigi dei Francesi, which was designed by Giacomo della Porta and built by Domenico Fontana between 1518 and 1589, is dedicated to the patron saints of France: Virgin Mary, Denis of Paris, and King Louis IX of France. The chapel commemorates the French cardinal, Matthieu Cointerel.

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The present day campus of Sapienza University,
designed in the 1930s by Marcello Piacentini

Travel tip:

The University of Rome, where Corrado Augias studied, is often referred to as the Sapienza University of Rome or simply La Sapienza, meaning 'knowledge'. It was founded in 1303 by Pope Boniface VIII, as a place for  ecclesiastical studies over which he could exert greater control than the already established universities of Bologna and Padua. The first pontifical university, it expanded in the 15th century to include schools of Law, Medicine, Philosophy and Theology. Money raised from a new tax on wine enabled the University to buy a palace, which later housed the Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza church. The University was closed during the sack of Rome in 1527 but reopened by Pope Paul III in 1534. In 1870, La Sapienza ceased to be the papal university and as the university of the capital of Italy became recognised as the country's most prestigious seat of learning. A new modern campus was built in 1935 under the guidance of the architect Marcello Piacentini.

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More reading:

Gabriele D’Annunzio and his place in Italian history

The left-leaning aristocrat who founded L’Espresso and La Repubblica

The rags-to-riches story of publisher Angelo Rizzoli

Also on this day:

1482: The first printed edition of the Hebrew Bible

1582: The birth of painter Giovanni Lanfranco

1919: The birth of footballer Valentino Mazzola

1976: The death of Franciscan friar Gabriele Allegra

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25 January

Antonio Scotti - baritone

Neapolitan singer who played 35 seasons at the Met

The operatic baritone Antonio Scotti, who performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York for a remarkable 35 consecutive seasons, was born on this day in 1866 in Naples.  Scotti's career coincided with those of many fine baritones and experts did not consider his voice to be among the richest. Yet what he lacked in timbre, he compensated for in musicality, acting ability and an instinctive grasp of dramatic timing.  Later in his career, he excelled in roles that emerged from the verismo movement in opera in the late 19th century, of which the composer Giacomo Puccini was a leading proponent, drawing on themes from real life and creating characters more identifiable with real people.  For a while, Scotti's portrayal of the chief of police Baron Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca, for example, was the yardstick against which all performances were measured, at least until Tito Gobbi's emergence in the 1930s. Read more…

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Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza - explorer

Italian whose name is commemorated in an African capital

The explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, from whom Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo took its name, was born on this day in 1852 in Castel Gandolfo, a town 25km (16 miles) southeast of Rome.  His birth name was Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazzà but he became a French citizen in 1874 after obtaining sponsorship from the French government to help fund his African expeditions, and adopted a French version of his name.  Although it was because of de Brazza that much of Congo became a French colony, the transference of sovereignty took place without bloodshed and de Brazza was well liked for his friendly nature and commitment to peace. Its capital, founded in 1880, was named Brazzaville in his honour and the name was retained even after the Republic of Congo became fully independent in 1960.  Read more…

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Noemi - singer-songwriter

Debut album topped Italian charts

The singer-songwriter Noemi - real name Veronica Scopelliti - was born in Rome on this day in 1982.  Noemi’s first album, Sulla mia pelle, released in 2009, sold more than 140,000 copies, topping the Italian album charts.  It followed her appearance in the second series of the Italian version of The X-Factor, the television talent show. Although she did not win the competition, Noemi proved to be the most popular singer, finishing fifth overall.  Soon afterwards, she released a single, Briciole, which reached number two in the Italian singles chart.  Heavily influenced by soul music, Noemi established immediately the style that has seen her nicknamed the ‘lioness of Italian pop’.  The elder of two daughters of Armando and Stefania Scopelliti, Noemi - Veronica as she was then - had early experience of appearing in the spotlight - at 19 months she was chosen to model nappies in a TV commercial for Pampers.  Read more…

Giangiacomo Ciaccio Montalto - magistrate

Brave investigator murdered by the Sicilian Mafia

The fearless magistrate Giangiacomo Ciaccio Montalto was assassinated by Mafia gunmen in Valderice, a small town near the Sicilian city of Trapani, on this day in 1983.  Ciaccio Montalto, a state prosecutor who had been involved in every major organised crime investigation in western Sicily over the previous 12 years, was a short distance from his home in the early hours of the morning when his Volkswagen Golf was forced off the road.  Three men armed with machine guns and pistols opened fire, hitting Ciaccio Montalto multiple times, leaving his bullet-ridden body slumped in the driver’s seat. Used to hearing gunshots, none of the nearby residents ventured out to see what had happened and it was not until 7.15am that a passing carabinieri patrol came across the car and discovered the magistrate’s body. He was 41 years old.  Read more…

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Friuli earthquake

First of two disasters to rock Italy in the same year

A devastating earthquake hit the area now known as Friuli-Venezia Giulia on this day in 1348.  With a seismic intensity believed to be the equivalent of 6.9 on the Richter scale, the effects of the quake were felt right across Europe.  According to contemporary sources, houses and churches collapsed and there were numerous casualties. It was recorded that even as far away as Rome, buildings had been damaged.  The epicentre is believed to have been north of Udine. The earthquake happened on 25 January early in the afternoon and its effects were immediately felt in Udine, where the castle and cathedral were both damaged.  In Austria the town of Villach was later hit by a landslide caused by the earthquake. Buildings in Carniola, part of present day Slovenia, and in Vicenza, Verona and Venice were also damaged.  Read more…

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Paolo Mascagni – physician

Scientist was first to map the human lymphatic system

The physician Paolo Mascagni, whose scientific research enabled him to create the first map of the complete human lymphatic system, was born on this day in 1755 in Pomarance, a small town in Tuscany. Mascagni described his findings in a book with detailed illustrations of every part of the lymphatic system he had identified, which was to prove invaluable to physicians wanting to learn more about a part of the human body vital to the regulation of good health. He also commissioned the sculptor Clemente Susini to create a full-scale model in wax of the lymphatic system, which can still be seen at the Museum of Human Anatomy at the University of Bologna.  His book, Anatomia Universa, which comprises 44 enormous copperplate illustrations, sets out to bring together the full extent of human knowledge about the anatomy of the human body.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Italians, by John Hooper

Sublime and maddening, fascinating yet baffling, Italy is a country of endless paradox and seemingly unanswerable riddles.  John Hooper's marvellously entertaining and perceptive book is the ideal companion for anyone seeking to understand contemporary Italy and the unique character of the Italians. Looking at the facts that lie behind - and often belie - the stereotypes, his revealing analysis of The Italians sheds new light on many aspects of Italian life: football and Freemasonry, sex, symbolism and the reason why Italian has twelve words for a coat hanger, yet none for a hangover. The Daily Telegraph said 'Hooper has written a fascinating, affectionate and well-researched study that delivers the tantalising flavour of a country as hot, cold, bitter and sweet as an affogato' while the Financial Times reckoned 'This portrait of a nation is required reading for anyone heading to a Tuscan villa or Puglian beach this summer'. 

John Hooper is the Italy and Vatican correspondent for The Economist and author of two bestselling books about Spain as well as The Italians. He has reported from Italy for more than 30 years and has been a lecturer at Stanford University’s campus in Florence.

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