Pietro Nardini – violinist

Brilliant musician inspired the young Mozart

Violinist Pietro Nardini was praised for
the beauty and emotion of his playing

Pietro Nardini, who was one of the most celebrated violinists of the 18th century and was also a talented composer of violin music, died on this day in 1793 in Florence.

Nardini’s playing was praised by his contemporaries for its beauty and emotional power and his violin and flute compositions are still valued for their melodious qualities and technical skill.

He was a friend of Johann Georg Leopold Mozart, the father and teacher of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When the young composer first visited Italy with his father, he performed alongside Nardini in Tuscany.

Pietro Nardini was born in Livorno in 1722. At the age of 12 he became a pupil of the violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini. 

By the time he was 14, he was already playing the violin at festivals in Lucca, but he continued working with Tartini until 1740, when he became head instrumentalist in Lucca.

In 1762, Nardini moved to Stuttgart, where he joined the court of Charles Eugene, Duke of Wurtemberg as a violinist. He was later appointed orchestra conductor, succeeding Niccolo Jomelli in the post.

After moving back to Italy to support the ailing Tartini, Nardini was appointed as maestro di cappella in Florence and he remained at the court of Leopold II Grand Duke of Tuscany for the rest of his life, although he also sometimes performed in Pisa, Rome and Naples.

Nardini also had many successful pupils, including Thomas Linley Junior, who was a highly talented violinist and is sometimes referred to as ’the English Mozart.’

The young Mozart performed with Nardini
at the Villa Medicea di Poggio Imperiale

When the teenage Mozart visited Tuscany with his father in 1770, he performed alongside Nardini at the Grand Duke Leopold’s summer palace, the Villa Medicea di Poggio Imperiale.

The Mozart family had first met Nardini in Augsburg in 1763. Pietro Nardini was intrigued to meet the young Mozart again, because his student,  Thomas Linley, was almost exactly the same age. 

The next days the boys met for the first time at the home of the Medici court’s official poetess, who was known as Corilla Olimpica, and was herself a pupil of Nardini on the violin and often held musical evenings.

In 1768, Thomas Linley, at the age of 12, had been sent to Florence to study with Nardini. The Tommasino, as he was known, and the little Mozart, were both talked of in Italy as the most promising musicians of the age. 

That evening in Tuscany, they performed one after another,  constantly embracing each other between pieces of music

The boys spent the next day together as well and the following evening performed together at the home of the court finance minister. The Mozart family party were to leave Tuscany the next day and plans were discussed for a reunion, but sadly, Linley and Mozart were never to see each other again. 

The Mozart family were unable to go back to Florence, and Linley, who also became a promising composer, returned to England. He died eight years later at the age of 22 in a boating accident in Lincolnshire.

Manuscripts of Nardini’s compositions are preserved in many Italian cities and abroad. Much of his work has been recorded in the 20th and 21st centuries and is available on disc. 

Probably the best known among Nardini’s highly regarded compositions are his Sonata in D Major and Concerto in E Minor.

The canal district in the Quartiere Venezia is
one of Livorno's attractions
(Image by danielmanastireanu from Pixabay)

Travel tip:

Livorno, where Pietro Nardini was born, is a lively Tuscan port city dating back to the Renaissance, which features Medici fortresses and canal districts among its attractions. Planned by the Medici as an ideal Renaissance port, its cosmopolitan past as a free port created a tolerant, multicultural atmosphere that remains part of its identity.  The city’s most elegant promenade is the Terrazza Mascagni, a sweeping checkerboard terrace overlooking the Ligurian Sea.  The Livorno Aquarium sits at one end, while historic bathing establishments line the shore.  At the heart of the older part of the town lies Quartiere Venezia, a 17th‑century canal district of bridges, warehouses, and pastel façades. Nearby stands the city’s emblem, the Monumento dei Quattro Mori, a dramatic 1620s sculpture of four chained bronze figures supporting the statue of Grand Duke Ferdinando I.  Livorno has two major fortresses. The Fortezza Vecchia, guarding the Medici port, preserves medieval towers and later Renaissance additions.  Inland, the Fortezza Nuova rises above a green moat and park, offering peaceful walks amid red‑brick ramparts.  For a taste of daily life, the Mercato Centrale is one of Italy’s largest indoor markets, with stalls selling fish, bread and pastries, and many local specialties. 

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The Villa Medicea di Poggio Imperiale, where Mozart
and Nardini performed, now houses a girls' school
(Picture by Sailko via Wikimedia Commons)

Travel tip:

The Villa Medicea di Poggio Imperiale, where Pietro Nardini performed with the young Mozart, is a grand, predominantly neoclassical Medici residence in Arcetri, in the hills just south of Florence.  The villa was originally the Baroncelli family’s country house and passed to the Pandolfini and Salviati families before being seized in 1565 by Cosimo I de’ Medici, who gave it to his daughter Isabella de’ Medici. Isabella transformed it into a refined retreat, hosting an intellectual court and enriching the interiors with art. In 1622, it was bought by Grand Duchess Maria Maddalena of Austria, who commissioned architect Giulio Parigi to double its size, create the monumental façade, and link the villa to Florence via a long, tree‑lined avenue. It was she who gave it the name Poggio Imperiale, reflecting her imperial Habsburg lineage. After further expansions followed under Vittoria Della Rovere, in the 18th century, Grand Duke Leopold II adopted the villa as a principal residence.  The villa’s present neoclassical appearance is largely down to Maria Luisa of Spain, Elisa Baciocchi (Napoleon’s sister), and Ferdinando III, who refined the façade and interiors into the elegant, symmetrical form seen today.  Today the building houses a prestigious girls’ boarding school, but guided tours can be booked.

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More reading:

Giuseppe Tartini, 18th century composer who changed technique of violin playing

Why Italian composer Antonio Salieri was dogged by Mozart murder rumours 

Opera composer Pietro Mascagni, another of Livorno’s famous musical sons

Also on this day: 

1917: The birth of cardinal and composer Domenico Bartolucci

1922: The birth of actor and TV host Raimondo Vianello

1976: The birth of rugby star Andrea Lo Cicero

1983: The birth of Olympic champion archer Marco Galiazzo

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6 May

Carlo Mollino - architect and polymath

A Renaissance man of the mid-20th century

The multi-talented architect Carlo Mollino, who designed buildings, interiors and furniture but whose talents also ran to writing and photography, racing car design, aerobatic flying and downhill skiing, was born on this day in 1905 in Turin.  Mollino, whose style has been described as an eclectic fusion of the modern and the surreal, was responsible for several notable public buildings, including the Turin Chamber of Commerce and the headquarters of the Horse Riding Club of Turin, as well as several striking private residences and apartment buildings.  He also designed the extraordinary Lago Nero Sled Station, at Sauze d'Oulx, the winter resort 50km (31 miles) north of Turin, and rebuilt the interior of the Teatro Regio opera house in Turin 40 years after a catastrophic fire left little behind the the 18th century facade intact.  Read more…

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The 1527 Sack of Rome

Mutinous army of Holy Roman Empire laid waste to city

An army loyal to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, laid siege to the city of Rome on this day in 1527, at the start of the Sack of Rome, a significant event in the conflict between Charles and the so-called League of Cognac that had profound implications for Rome’s wealth and power.  Rome at the time was part of the Papal States, who at the behest of Pope Clement VII had joined the League of Cognac – an alliance that included France, Milan, Florence and Venice – in an effort to stop the advance of the Empire, which had its centre of power in the Kingdom of Germany, into the Italian peninsula.  After the Imperial Army had defeated the French at Pavia in the Italian War of 1521-26, it would have been a logical step for Charles to march on Rome but the attack is said to have come about not through any planned strategy but after a mutiny among his troops. Read more…

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Alessandra Ferri – ballerina

Dancing star who believes age is a matter of attitude

Prima ballerina assoluta Alessandra Ferri, who retired in 2007 but then made a triumphant return to ballet in 2013, was born on this day in 1963 in Milan. She marked her 55th birthday in 2018 by dancing at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and the Hamburg Staatsoper, before performing at the Ravello Festival in Italy in July and in Tokyo in August.  In a newspaper interview, Ferri said she was happy to be breaking barriers as an older woman in a youth-dominated world. She said she still has full confidence in her abilities and believes ageing is largely an attitude and her advice to other women of her age is ‘to keep moving’.  Ferri began studying ballet at La Scala Theatre Ballet School. She moved to the upper school of the Royal Ballet School in London, where she won a scholarship that enabled her to continue studying there.  Read more…

Rudolph Valentino - star of silent films

Heart-throb actor who died tragically young

The man who would become Rudolph Valentino was born on this day in 1895 in Castellaneta, a small town in a rocky region of Puglia notable for steep ravines.  Born the second youngest of four children by the French wife of an Italian veterinary surgeon, he was christened Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla.  When he arrived in America as an immigrant in 1913, he was registered as Rodolfo Guglielmi. His first movie credit listed him as Rudolpho di Valentina and he appeared under nine different variations of that name before achieving fame as Rudolph Valentino in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in 1920.  During the silent movie boom, he enjoyed more success in The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and The Son of the Sheik and his smouldering good looks made him a 1920s sex symbol.  Read more…

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Massimiliano Alajmo – Michelin-starred chef

Innovative cook is carrying on a family tradition 

Massimiliano “Max” Alajmo, who at 28 years old became the youngest chef in history to be awarded a Michelin star, was born on this day in 1974 in Padua.  Along with his brother, Raffaele, and his sister, Laura, Alajmo is part of the fifth generation of his family to become chefs and restaurateurs and he now helps them run a group of 14 restaurants, mainly situated in the Veneto region of Italy, as well as in Paris and Marrakech.  After attending a hotel management school, Alajmo furthered his culinary education in the kitchens of Alfredo Chiocchetti of Ja Navalge in the comune - municipality - of Moena, which is in the heart of the Dolomites in Trentino Alto Adige.  He then moved on to work with Marc Veyrat and Michel Guerard at restaurants in Veyrier du Lac d'Annecy and Eugénie les Bains in France. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Carlo Mollino: The Sensuality of Form, by Paola and Rossella Colombari 

In 1981, two young gallery owners - Paola and Rossella Colombari - happened upon the furniture of Carlo Mollino, an enigmatic, unclassifiable, and then-unknown figure in Italian design. When they organized the first Mollino furniture auction in Venice in 1985, they never imagined the sale would trigger a massive international collectors’ market for Mollino’s pioneering works. The designer’s sought-after objects would soon sell for millions. This volume presents a wealth of iconographic material - vintage photos, drawings, sketches, and photomontages drawn from Mollino’s archives at the Turin Politecnico - and some previously unpublished documents and images.  The book includes a contribution by the architect Mario Cucinella, and a photographic portfolio by Uli Weber. It is not an exhaustive critical monograph, but instead bears witness with novelistic sweep. Carlo Mollino: The Sensuality of Form explores Mollino’s creative mindset, his architecture and design, his photography, his lifelong passion for speed, his eroticism, and the overlap of his personal and professional life from a childhood in Turin through his death in 1973. No one could portray Mollino, the man and the artist, more convincingly than the two women who brought his legacy to light.

Rossella Colombari is a leading expert in 20th-century Italian design, with over 40 years of experience. Born into a historic Turin antique-dealing family, together with her sister, Paola Colombari, a former competitive skier who opened her first gallery in Turin in 1981, she pioneered the market for designers like Carlo Mollino, Gio Ponti, and Ettore Sottsass. She founded her own gallery in Milan in 1991. 

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5 May

The Expedition of the Thousand

Garibaldi's Spedizione dei Mille launched from Genoa

The Expedition of the Thousand, the military campaign to unite Italy led by the soldier and revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi, was launched on this day in 1860.  The campaign, in some ways the climax of the Risorgimento movement, began in response to an uprising in Sicily, when Garibaldi set sail from Genoa, with a makeshift army of volunteers, hoping his support would enable the rebels to overthrow the Bourbon rulers of the island.  The greater purpose, though, was to achieve another step towards his ultimate goal, which he shared with his fellow nationalist revolutionary, Giuseppe Mazzini, and which was supported by King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia-Piedmont and his prime minister, Camillo Benso di Cavour, that of creating a united Italy.  The revolutionary leader in Sicily, Francesco Crispi, had all but guaranteed that substantial numbers of Sicilians would fight on the side of Garibaldi’s troops. Read more…

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Giovanni Gaeta - composer and songwriter

Post Office worker whose songs became famous

The poet, composer and lyricist Giovanni Gaeta, whose classic Neapolitan songs brought him fame under his pseudonym E A Mario, was born on this day in 1884 in Naples.  Gaeta’s compositions as E A Mario, such as Santa Lucia luntana and Balocchi e profumi, were performed by some of the world’s greatest voices, from Enrico Caruso to Luciano Pavarotti, and became staples in the repertoire of Neapolitan song specialists such as Peppino di Capri, Mario Abbate and Bruno Venturini.  He was also responsible for La canzone del Piave - the Song of the Piave - which he wrote to commemorate the bravery of Italian soldiers in repelling an attempt by the Austrian imperial army to inflict a decisive victory on the Piave front in northeast Italy in 1918, a show of resistance that hastened the end of the First World War.  Read more…

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Mudslides in Campania

Towns and villages destroyed in natural disaster

A series of mudslides brought devastation in Campania on this day in 1988, destroying or badly damaging more than 600 homes and killing 161 people. Almost 2,000 people were left with nowhere to live.  The mudslides were set off by several days of torrential rain and blamed on the increasingly unstable landscape caused by the deforestation and unregulated construction of roads and buildings.  Torrents of mud coursed down mountainsides in several areas between Avellino and Salerno to the east of Naples.  The town of Sarno bore the brunt of the damage but the villages of Quindici, Siano and Bracigliano were also badly hit.  The accumulation of large quantities of volcanic ash deposited by historic eruptions of the nearby Mount Vesuvius is thought to have made the mudslides particularly fast moving and the affected communities were quickly overwhelmed. Read more…

Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola – condottiero

Adventurous soldier lived on in literature

The soldier of fortune, Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola, who has been featured in poetry, books and an opera, was executed on this day in 1432 in Venice.  The military leader had been seized, imprisoned and brought to trial for treason against La Serenissima, the Most Serene Republic of Venice, and was beheaded between the columns of San Marco and San Todaro at the entrance to the Piazzetta.  Francesco Bussone had been born at Carmagnola near Turin into a peasant family. He began his military career at the age of 12, serving under the condottiero, Facino Cane, who was in the service of the Marquess of Monferrat at the time, but later fought for Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan.  After the death of Gian Galeazzo, the duchy was divided up, but his son Filippo Maria was determined to reconquer it by force. Read more…

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Montagna Longa air disaster

Italy’s deadliest plane crash

Italy was in shock on this day in 1972 after an Alitalia Douglas DC-8 en route from Rome to Palermo crashed into a mountainside on its approach to the Sicilian airport.  Alitalia Flight 112, which was carrying 115 passengers and crew, was 5km (3 miles) from touching down at Palermo International Airport at around 10.24pm when it struck a 935m (1,980ft) crest of Montagna Longa, part of the Monti di Palermo range.  The aircraft slid along the ground for some distance but broke up after striking rocks, spreading burning kerosene over a wide area. Witnesses described seeing the aircraft on fire before it crashed.  The crash remains Italy’s deadliest accident involving a single aeroplane. Only the 2001 disaster at Milan’s second airport, Linate, when an airliner and a business jet collided on the ground, killing 114 passengers plus four people on the ground, claimed more casualties.  Read more…

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Book of the Day:  Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero, by Lucy Riall

Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian revolutionary leader and popular hero, was among the best-known figures of the 19th century. This book seeks to examine his life and the making of his cult, to assess its impact, and understand its surprising success. For 30 years Garibaldi was involved in every combative event in Italy. His greatest moment came in 1860, when he defended a revolution in Sicily and provoked the collapse of the Bourbon monarchy, the overthrow of papal power in central Italy, and the creation of the Italian nation state. It made him a global icon, representing strength, bravery, manliness, saintliness, and a spirit of adventure. Handsome, flamboyant, and sexually attractive, he was worshipped in life and became a cult figure after his death in 1882. Lucy Riall shows that the emerging cult of Garibaldi was initially conceived by revolutionaries intent on overthrowing the status quo, that it was also the result of a collaborative effort involving writers, artists, actors, and publishers, and that it became genuinely and enduringly popular among a broad public. Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero demonstrates that Garibaldi played an integral part in fashioning and promoting himself as a new kind of “charismatic” political hero. It analyses the way the Garibaldi myth has been harnessed both to legitimise and to challenge national political structures. And it identifies elements of Garibaldi’s political style appropriated by political leaders around the world, including Mussolini and Che Guevara.

Lucy Riall is an Irish historian. She was a professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London, and is currently a professor in the Department of History and Civilisation at the European University Institute in Florence. Her publications include The Italian Risorgimento: State, Society and National Unification and Sicily and the Unification of Italy: Liberal Policy and Local Power (1859-66).

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4 May

NEW - Enrico Caviglia - military general

Capable commander played key role in decisive WW1 victory

The military general Enrico Caviglia, who rose to the rank of Marshal of Italy after his innovative tactics on the World War One battlefield helped defeat the Austro-Hungarians at Vittorio Veneto in 1918, was born on this day in 1862 in Finale Ligure, a resort on the Italian Riviera.  In addition to his role in Italy’s successes in WW1, which included orchestrating a key victory in the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo and important damage limitation after the disastrous Battle of Caporetto, Caviglia also distinguished himself in colonial campaigns and in the Italo‑Turkish War. He developed a reputation for humane, adaptive leadership, operational flexibility and a refusal to waste lives.  He was scornful of the conduct of other generals, in particular Luigi Cadorna, who was eventually removed as chief of staff following the heavy Italian defeat at Caporetto.  Read more…

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Anthony Martin Sinatra - father of Frank

Sicilian who became a professional boxer in New York

Saverio Antonino Martino Sinatra, who at various times was a fireman, a professional boxer and the owner of a bar, was born on this day in 1894 in Lercara Friddi, a mining town in Sicily, about 70km (44 miles) south-east of the island’s capital, Palermo.  Usually known as Antonino, after emigrating to the United States he married Natalie Garaventa, a girl from near Genoa who lived in his neighbourhood in New York City.  They set up home in New Jersey and had a son, whom they christened Francis Albert, who would grow up to be better known as Frank Sinatra, one of the most popular entertainers of all time.  Lercara Friddi today is a town of between 7,000 and 8,000 inhabitants, which at the time of Antonino’s birth was an important centre for the mining of sulphur.  His father, Francesco, worked there as a shoemaker and married Rosa Saglimini. Read more…

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Osbert Sitwell – English writer

Baronet’s love for a Tuscan castle

Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell died on this day in 1969 at the Castello di Montegufoni near Florence in Tuscany.  Like his famous elder sister, Edith Sitwell, who was a poet, and his younger brother, Sacheverell, an art and music critic and writer, Osbert devoted his life to art and literature.  His father, Sir George Reresby Sitwell, had purchased the Castle of Montegufoni, 20 km from Florence, in 1909 when it was derelict and restored it beautifully to become his personal residence.  Osbert inherited the castle after his father’s death in 1943 along with the baronetcy and he reigned over Montegufoni for the rest of his life.  Osbert was born in 1892 and grew up at the family homes in Derbyshire and Scarborough. In 1911 he joined the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry but soon transferred to the Grenadier Guards and was based at the Tower of London, enabling him to go to the theatre and art galleries when he was off duty.  Read more…

Bartolomeo Cristofori - inventor of the piano

Instrument maker adapted harpsichord to play soft and loud notes

Bartolomeo Cristofori, the man widely credited with inventing the piano, was born on this day in 1655 in Padua.  He came up with the idea while working for the Grand Prince Ferdinando de' Medici in Florence, who had hired him to look after his collection of harpsichords and other instruments. It is thought that Cristofori, who was assumed to have been an established maker of musical instruments when Ferdinando invited him to Florence in around 1690, wanted to create a keyboard instrument similar to a harpsichord but capable of playing notes of varying loudness.  An inventory of Medici instruments from 1700 described an "arpi cimbalo", which resembled a harpsichord but which created sounds through hammers and dampers rather than the plucking mechanism employed by the harpsichord. Read more…

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Marella Agnelli - noblewoman and socialite

Married for 50 years to Fiat patriarch Gianni Agnelli

Donna Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto, the noblewoman from an old Neapolitan family who married the jet-setting chairman of car giants Fiat, Gianni Agnelli, was born on this day in 1927 in Florence.  Simply known as Marella Agnelli, she was propelled by marriage into a world in which she became a socialite and style icon, devoting her life to collecting art, decorating the numerous homes she and her husband kept, and attending and hosting lavish, exclusive parties.  The couple would eventually have homes in Rome, Paris, New York,  Corsica and Saint-Moritz, as well as several houses in and around Agnelli’s home city of Turin, including the Agnelli estate in the foothills of the Italian Alps.  As a member of the House of Caracciolo, she was regarded as high Italian nobility. Read more…

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Book of the Day:  The Italian Army and the First World War (Armies of the Great War), by John Gooch

The Italian Army and the First World War examines the role and performance of the Italian army during the First World War. Drawing from original, archival research, it tells the story of the army's bitter three-year struggle in the mountains of Northern Italy, including the eleven bloody battles of the Isonzo, the near-catastrophic defeat at Caporetto in 1917 and the successful, but still controversial defeat of the Austro-Hungarian army at Vittorio Veneto on the eve of the Armistice. Setting military events within a broader context, the book explores pre-war Italian military culture and the interactions between domestic politics, economics and society. In a unique study of an unjustly neglected facet of the war, John Gooch illustrates how General Luigi Cadorna, a brutal disciplinarian, drove the army to the edge of collapse, and how his successor, general Armando Diaz, rebuilt it and led the Italians to their greatest victory in modern times.

John Gooch is one of the world's leading writers on Italy and the two world wars. His books include Mussolini and His Generals and The Italian Army and the First World War. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Leeds.

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