Bruno Tonioli - dance show judge

Dancer and choreographer is star of Strictly Come Dancing

Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli

Dancer, choreographer and television dance show judge Bruno Tonioli was born on this day in 1955 in Ferrara in north-east Italy.

Tonioli is one of the judging panel of Strictly Come Dancing on British TV and on its US equivalent Dancing With the Stars, which requires him to divide his time between London and New York when seasons overlap.

He began his showbusiness career in the 1980s as a member of the Paris-based dance company La Grande Eugène before moving into the music industry as a choreographer.

Among the artists he has worked with are Tina Turner, Sting, Elton John, the Rolling Stones, Freddie Mercury, Sinitta, Boy George, Dead or Alive, and Duran Duran.

Tonioli has also worked on numerous films and television shows including Little Voice, The Gathering Storm, Dancin' thru the Dark and Enigma.

He also has a number of acting credits, including the role of Peppino, manservant to Michael Gambon's Oscar Wilde in the BBC production Oscar.  Tonioli appeared as himself in the movie version of the BBC comedy Absolutely Fabulous.

Renowned for his flamboyantly wild gestures and amusingly extravagant comments, Tonioli has been a member of the Strictly Come Dancing team since the show's launch in 2004 and is now into his 14th series alongside fellow ever-presents Len Goodman and Craig Revel-Horwood.  He was hired to judge on Dancing With the Stars when that show launched in 2005.

Bruno Tonioli is renowned for his wild gestures

The son of a bus driver, Werther Tonioli, and a seamstress mother, Fulvia, Tonioli was 12 before the family could afford their own apartment in Ferrara. Until then they had lived with his father's parents.

He knew from an early age that he was gay, although he said in a newspaper interview in 2005 that the subject of his sexuality was never discussed at home.  He believes his parents, who were strict Catholics, would not have wanted to contemplate the possibility at the time, although not out of shame but for fear of how others might judge him.

He said he was bullied and threatened at school but fought back by growing his hair long, smoking expensive cigarettes, wearing the latest in cool clothes and becoming friends with the best-looking girls among his peer group, after which he became popular and acceptable.

Tonioli's love of the theatre began when he the film version of the musical Cabaret, starring Liza Minnelli, came to Ferrara in 1972.  He saw it eight times and realised he wanted dance to be his career. Others boys of his age wanted to play football but he was much more interested in theatre and the arts.

His parents were keen for him to find a steady job, perhaps in a bank.  Instead, he left for Rome to enrol at ballet school, leaving Italy for Paris at the age of 18.  Both his parents are now dead but he says he was reconciled with them long before they passed away.

From Paris he moved to London, joining another dance company and finding work in television and the West End as a choreographer.  The English capital has been his home almost ever since.

The Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara

Travel tip:

Apart from the impressively well preserved Castello Estense right at the heart of the city, Ferrara - situated midway between Bologna and Venice in Emilia-Romagna - has many notable architectural gems, including many palaces from the 14th and 15th centuries.  Among them is the striking Palazzo dei Diamanti, so-called because the stone blocks of its facade are cut into the shape of diamonds. The palace holds the National Picture Gallery, which houses many works from the  masters of the 16th-century School of Ferrara, including Lorenzo Costa, Dosso Dossi, Girolamo da Carpi and Benvenuto Tisi.

Travel tip:

Rome's prestigious ballet school of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma was established in 1928 and is one of the oldest and most respected vocational schools in Italy. It can be found in Via Ozieri in a charming cottage set in a secluded and quiet street in the San Giovanni neighbourhood to the south-east of the city, near the ruins of the Felice Aqueduct. Director Luchino Visconti in 1951 chose it as the location for shooting some scenes of his film Beautiful, starring the Roman actress Anna Magnani.


Books: Bruno: My Story, by Bruno Tonioli (Headline)

More reading:

Antonio Carluccio - chef and restaurateur who settled in London

How Luca Zingaretti found fame as TV detective Montalbano

Pierina Legnani - Italian dancer who conquered St Petersburg

Also on this day:

1881: The Birth of Angelo Roncalli, the Bergamo farmer's son who became Pope John XXIII

(Picture credits: Bruno Tonioli pictures from YouTube; Palazzo dei Diamante by Sansa55 via Wikimedia Commons)

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Lucky Luciano - Mafia boss

Sicilian who brought order among warring clans

Charles 'Lucky' Luciano, pictured in Italy in 1948, after
he had been deported by the American authorities

Charles 'Lucky' Luciano, the mobster best known for shaping the structure of Italian-dominated organized crime in the United States, was born Salvatore Lucania on this day in 1897 in Lercara Friddi, a town about 70km (44 miles) south-east of the Sicilian capital, Palermo.

Raised in New York's Lower East Side after his family emigrated in 1906, it was Luciano who famously put the New York underworld into the control of the so-called Five Families and also set up The Commission, which served as a governing body for organized crime nationwide.

After he was jailed in 1936 on extortion and prostitution charges, Luciano is said to have struck a deal with the American authorities to use his criminal connections to help the Allies in their invasion of Sicily, a vital first step in driving the German forces and their supporters out of the Italian peninsula.

In return he was given parole and allowed to return to Sicily at the end of the Second World War.

Luciano, whose father, Antonio, had worked in a sulphur mine in Lercara Friddi, began his life in crime as a teenager, when he set up his own gang and became friends with Jewish gang members Meyer Lansky and his associate Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, who would become two of his most important allies.

He grew powerful during the prohibition era of the 1920s, which created opportunities for criminals to make a lot of money. By 1925, he was grossing $12 million dollars a year and had met many of New York's future Mafia leaders, including Vito Genovese and Frank Costello.  He had also begun working for another big hitter, the Lower Manhattan gang boss Joe Masseria.

Vito Genovese, an ally of Luciano

Caught up in the Castellammarese war - so-called because it involved Mafia bosses from the Castellammare del Golfo area of Sicily - he assumed control of one of the Five Families by eliminating both main protagonists, Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, after both tried to have him killed.

In doing so he took his place alongside such infamous figures as Joseph Bonanno, Joseph Profaci, Tommy Gagliano and Vincent Mangano - but it was Luciano whose 'family', later known as the Genovese family, had the greater reach.

Yet rather than seeking to make himself still more powerful, he was keen that the gangs stopped fighting among themselves and concentrated on maximising profits. To that end, Luciano sought to create a national organized-crime network to settle disputes and establish demarcation lines between the different operations.

He forged links with crime bosses in other cities, including Chicago's Al Capone, in what became known as The Commission.

Luciano's wealth enabled him to live at New York's luxurious Waldorf Towers, part of the Waldorf Astoria hotel, under the name Charles Ross.

But his luck ran out in 1936 when he was convicted on extortion and prostitution charges, sentenced to 30 to 50 years in jail and sent to a correctional facility in New York State which was known as "Siberia" because of its remote location near the Canadian border.

His appeals against conviction were rejected and it seemed he was destined to spend the rest of his life behind bars, but then came the opportunity to use his influence in New York and Sicily to help the Allied war effort in Europe.

He was contacted by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, who used Meyer Lansky as an intermediary, for help in stopping German and Italian agents entering the United States through the New York waterfront, which the mobs controlled.

Then, as the Allies prepared for the 1943 invasion of Sicily, Luciano is also said to have provided the Americans with Sicilian Mafia contacts.  In return, he was given parole and deported back to Sicily.

Carlo Gambino, the gang boss who delivered
the eulogy at Luciano's funeral in New York

It was not the end of his career in crime.  Although he remained in Sicily in the immediate post-war months, he secretly moved to Havana in Cuba in 1946, meeting up again with Lansky and Siegel in the hope that he could resume control of his operations in New York from a base closer to the United States.

By 1947, however, his presence in Cuba had been discovered by U.S. agents, who alerted the Cuban government, after which he was sent back to Italy.

He was thereafter kept under close surveillance, although still maintaining his criminal activities in New York via his lieutenant, Frank Costello, eventually helping Carlo Gambino, a fellow Sicilian and a longtime friend, to become the most powerful gang boss in New York.

Luciano died in January 1962 at Naples Airport, suffering a heart attack shortly after meeting an American producer to discuss a film about his life.

After a relatively small funeral in Naples, Luciano's body was returned to the United States. After a second funeral, attended by 2,000 mourners, at which Gambino delivered the eulogy, he was buried in the family's vault at St. John's Cemetery in Queens, New York, under his birth name of Salvatore Lucania.

Travel tip:

Lercara Friddi, which features some remains of a Greek colony dating back to the eighth century BC, was once notable for its sulphur mine, the only one in the province of Palermo.  As well as being the home town of Salvatore Lucania, it was the birthplace five years earlier of Saverio Antonio Martino Sinatra, who emigrated to the United States in 1903 and married Natalie Garaventa, from Liguria.  They settled in New Jersey where, in 1915, Natalie gave birth to their only child, Francis Albert Sinatra.

Hotels in Palermo by Hotels.com

The harbour at Castellammare del Golfo

Travel tip:

Castellammare del Golfo is a fishing town and tourist resort in the province of Trapani on the northern coast of Sicily, west of Palermo.  It is also noted for having been the birthplace of many American Mafia figures, including Salvatore Maranzano, Stefano Magaddino, Vito Bonventre, John Tartamella, and Joseph Bonanno.

More reading:

Carlo Gambino, the Sicilian mob boss thought to be the model for 'The Godfather' Vito Corleone in Mario Puzo's novel

Paolo di Lauro - Camorra boss captured in Carabinieri swoop

Joe Petrosino - Calabrian who became crime-fighting New York cop

Also on this day:

1826: Birth of Carlo Collodi, creator of Pinocchio

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Ludovico Einaudi – composer

Musician world famous for his unique blend of sounds

Ludovico Einaudi takes the applause after a
performance at the Palazzo del Quirinale 

Pianist and film music composer Ludovico Maria Enrico Einaudi was born on this day in 1955 in Turin.

Einaudi has composed the music for films such as The Intouchables and I’m Still Here and has released many solo albums for piano and orchestra.

His distinctive music, which mixes classical with contemporary rhythms of rock and electronic, is now played all over the world and has been used as background music and in television commercials.

Einaudi’s mother, Renata Aldrovandi, played the piano to him as a child and her father, Waldo Aldrovandi, was a pianist, opera conductor and composer, who went to live in Australia after the Second World War.

Einaudi's grandfather, Luigi Einaudi, was
President of Italy from 1948 to 1955

His father, Giulio Einaudi, was a publisher, who worked with authors Italo Calvino and Primo Levi, and his grandfather, Luigi Einaudi, was President of Italy between 1948 and 1955.

Einaudi started composing his own music and playing it on a folk guitar when he was a teenager.

He began his musical training at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, obtaining a diploma in composition in 1982. He took an orchestration class with the composer Luciano Berio, in which, according to Einaudi himself, he learnt to have a very open way of thinking about music.

He started by composing in traditional forms and some of his music was performed at Teatro alla Scala and the Arena in Verona.

Listen to Einaudi's beautiful Due Tramonti from his album Eden Roc

By the mid 1980s, Einaudi had begun to express himself more personally in the music he created for theatre, video, dance and film. 

He composed the music for Acquario in 1996, for which he won the Grolla D’Oro, an Italian film award, for the best sound track.

In 2000 his sound track for the film Fuori del mondo was nominated for an Oscar and he won the Echo Klassic award for it in Germany in 2002. Einaudi also won the award for best soundtrack at the 2002 Italian Music Awards for the film Luce dei miei occhi.

In 2004, his soundtrack for Sotto falso nome won a prize at the Avignon Film Festival. Einaudi has written the scores for, or had his music included, in many other films.

Le Onde, Ludovico Einaudi's first solo piano album

His first solo piano album, Le Onde was released in 1996 and has been followed by a string of successes. Divenire, in 2007, considered the most musically ambitious, has been his greatest commercial success to date. The latest, Elements, featuring piano, electronic and orchestral music was released in 2015.

Einaudi has travelled all over the world performing his own music. His concerts in Birmingham last night and in Glasgow tonight, the evening of his birthday, have both sold out in advance of the performance and his concerts in Milan from December 8 to13 are already sell-outs.

In 2005, Einaudi was awarded the Ordine al Merito della Repubblic Italiana (OMRI), a senior order bestowed by the Italian Republic, which is the equivalent of a Knighthood.

Turin's Piazza Castello

Travel tip:

Turin, where Einaudi was born, is the capital city of the region of Piedmont in the north of Italy. It is an important business centre, particularly for the car industry, and has a rich history linked with the Savoy Kings of Italy. Piazza Castello, with the royal palace, royal library and Palazzo Madama, which used to house the Italian senate, is at the heart of royal Turin.



Travel tip:

Einaudi followed in the footsteps of many famous Italian composers by receiving a musical education at Milan’s Conservatory of Music (Conservatorio di Musica ‘Giuseppe Verdi’), which is in Via Conservatorio, just off Via Pietro Mascagni, behind the Duomo. It is just a short walk from there to Teatro alla Scala in Piazza della Scala, with its fascinating museum focusing on the history of opera. 

More reading:

Ennio Morricone - the maestro of the film soundtrack

How The Godfather turned Nino Rota into a household name

Eros Ramazotti - bestselling singer-songwriter

Also on this day:

1553: Born: Prospero Alpini - the botanist who told Europe about coffee 

(Picture credits: pictures of Ludovico Einaudi and Luigi Einaudi courtesy of Presidenza della Repubblica; Piazza Castello by cheniyuan; all via Wikimedia Commons)

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Nevio Scala - footballer and coach

Led Parma to success in golden era of 1990s

Nevio Scala led Parma to unprecedented
success after taking charge in 1989

Nevio Scala, a European Cup winner with AC Milan as a player and the most successful coach of Parma's golden era in the 1990s, was born on this day in 1947 in Lozzo Atestino, a small town in the Euganean Hills, just south of Padua.

A midfielder who also played for Roma, Vicenza and Internazionale at the top level of Italian football, Scala was never picked for his country but won a Serie A title and a European Cup-Winners' Cup in addition to the European Cup with AC Milan.

But his achievements with Parma as coach arguably exceeded even that, given that they were a small provincial club that had never played in Serie A when Scala was appointed.

He had given notice of his ability by almost taking the tiny Calabrian club Reggina to Serie A in 1989 only a year after winning promotion from Serie C, and needed only one season to take Parma to the top flight for the first time.

With the massive financial backing of Calisto Tanzi, the founder and chairman of the local dairy giants Parmalat, Scala then led Parma into a period of sustained success no one could have predicted.

With a galaxy of top international players at his disposal, including Tomas Brolin, Antonio Benarrivo, Gianfranco Zola and Faustino Asprilla, Scala coached his side to play a swashbuckling brand of football that took the established big hitters by surprise.

Gianfranco Zola, one of the stars of the
Parma team of the 1990s

Between 1991 and 1995, Parma won the Coppa Italia, the European Cup-Winners' Cup, the European Super Cup and the UEFA Cup and the team Scala handed over when he was replaced by Carlo Ancelotti in 1996 went on to finish runners-up in Serie A in 1997.

He went on to enjoy more success as a coach, but outside Italy, winning trophies in Germany with Borussia Dortmund, in the Ukraine with Shakhtar Donetsk and in Russia with Spartak Moscow.

Scala returned to live in his home town of Lozzo Atestino, where he served on the local council and ran unsuccessfully as mayor in 2007.

He moved into football punditry on radio and TV with state broadcaster Rai, making regular appearances on the Sunday evening TV review of the Serie A programme, Domenica Sportiva. 

He was linked with a return to coaching, first at the Scottish club Motherwell and later with AS. Roma.  When he did return to football in 2015 it was as president of Parma, although a very different Parma from the one he coached.

Since he left the Stadio Ennio Tardini, Parma has twice been made bankrupt, first in 2004 in the wake of the catastrophic collapse of Calisto Tanzi's Parmalat empire, which saw the business tycoon jailed for fraud and criminal association, and again in 2015, when the relaunched club folded with debts of €218 million.

In July 2015, with the support of pasta makers Barilla, the club made another fresh start as SSD Parma Calcio 1913, taking its name from the year of foundation of the original club and was granted entry to Serie D.

Scala was appointed president and former player Luigi Apolloni as head coach.  The new club sold more than 9,000 season tickets, more than doubling the Serie D record and won promotion at the first attempt into professional football league Lega Pro.

The 13th century Valbona Castle at Lozzo Atestino

Travel tip:

The Colli Euganei, to give the Euganean Hills their Italian name, was the first regional park to be established in the Veneto when it was mapped out in 1989, enclosing 15 towns, including Lozzo Atestino, and the 81 hills - rising to between 300 and 600m - that make up the area, a volcanic outcrop in an otherwise flat terrain. Lozzo Atestino is situated at the foot of Monte Lozzo.  Of particular interest to visitors is the 13th century Valbona Castle, an imposing fort that now houses a restaurant.


Travel tip:

Despite the damage done to its economy by the Parmalat collapse, one of the biggest financial scandals in Italian history, Parma remains an elegant city with the air of prosperity common to much of Emilia-Romagna, famous for Prosciutto di Parma and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and boasting some outstanding architecture, including the 11th century Romanesque cathedral and the octagonal 12th century baptistery that adjoins it.

More reading:

Antonio Conte - former Juventus coach now in charge at Chelsea

The birth of Italy's first football club

The story of Italy's World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi

Also on this day:

1710: The death of composer Bernardo Pasquini


(Picture of Nevio Scala by Anastasiya Fedorenko; Gianfranco Zola by Hilton1949; Valbona Castle by Milazzi; all via Wikimedia Commons)

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Festival of Madonna della Salute

Venetians celebrate their deliverance from the plague

The church of Santa Maria della Salute
stands at the entrance to the Grand Canal

Venice has held a festival on this day every year since 1681 to give thanks to Santa Maria della Salute for delivering the city from the plague.

A terrible epidemic hit Venice in 1630 during the war against Austria and in just 15 months 46,000 people died from the disease.

The epidemic was so bad that all the gondolas were painted black as a sign of mourning and they have remained like that ever since.

The Doge had called for people to pray to the Madonna to release the city from the grip of the plague and had vowed to dedicate a church to her if their prayers were answered.

When the plague ceased, in order to thank the Virgin Mary, the Senate commissioned Baldassare Longhena to design Santa Maria della Salute, a splendid baroque church on Punta della Dogana, a narrow finger of land between the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal.

Venice's gondolas were painted black to mourn the victims
of the plague and have remained black ever since

Construction of the magnificent church began in 1631 and took 50 years to complete.

On the occasion of the inauguration in 1681, a bridge of galleys and ships was formed across the Grand Canal to allow a mass procession of the faithful to the Church.

It was decided that the Senate would visit the church each year on November 21, the date of the feast of the presentation of the Virgin in the Catholic calendar.

For the Festa of Madonna della Salute, the city’s officials parade from San Marco to Santa Maria della Salute for a service over a temporary pontoon bridge formed across the Grand Canal. The solemn procession crosses it to reach the Church, where in the presence of the icon of the Virgin, thousands of votive candles are lit.

The pontoon bridge across the Grand Canal constructed
each year to mark the Festival of Madonna della Salute

The candles are sold to the local people by stalls surrounding the Campo della Salute, along with balloons, cakes, sweets and hot food to contribute to the festive fun.

Several thousand Venetians will make the pilgrimage across the temporary bridge today to light a candle to thank the Virgin Mary and pray to her for continued good health.

On the day of the festa it is also traditional for Venetians to eat a special soup known as Castradina, which is made from cabbage, dried spiced mutton and rosemary.

Travel tip:

The great baroque church of Santa Maria della Salute standing at the entrance to the Grand Canal is supported by more than a million timber piles. It is one of the most imposing architectural landmarks in Venice and has inspired painters such as Canaletto, Turner and Guardi. The interior consists of a large octagonal space below a cupola with eight side chapels. There are paintings by Titian and Tintoretto and a group of statues depicting the Virgin and Child expelling the plague by the Flemish sculptor, Josse de Corte.

The Grand Canal, looking towards Santa Maria della Salute

Travel tip:

The Grand Canal - Canal Grande - sweeps through the heart of Venice, following the course of an ancient river bed. Since the founding days of the Venetian empire it has served as the city’s main thoroughfare. It was once used by great galleys and trading vessels but nowadays is teeming with vaporetti, water taxis, private boats and gondolas. The palaces bordering the winding waterway bear the names of the old Venetian aristocratic families and represent the finest architecture designed for the republic over its many centuries of history. The ambassador to Charles VIII of France visited Venice in 1495 and called the Grand Canal ‘the most beautiful street in the world.’

More reading:

How the genius of Tintoretto still adorns Venice

Titian - Venice's giant of Renaissance art

Why the Festival of San Gennaro is celebrated around the world

Also on this day:

1854: Birth of the Pope who tried to stop the First World War

(Picture credits: Santa Maria della Salute main picture by Higinoa; pontoon bridge by Unofeld781 via Wikimedia Commons)



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Emilio Pucci – fashion designer

The heroic, sporting, creative genius behind the Pucci label

Emilio Pucci

Don Emilio Pucci, Marchese di Barsento, who became a top fashion designer and politician, was born on this day in 1914 in Florence.

Pucci was born into one of the oldest families in Florence and lived and worked in the Pucci Palace in Florence for most of his life. His fashion creations were worn by such famous women as Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren and Jackie Kennedy.

A keen sportsman who swam, skied, fenced, played tennis and raced cars, Pucci was part of the Italian team at the 1932 Winter Olympics in New York, although he did not compete.

He studied at the University of Milan, the University of Georgia, and Reed College in Oregon, where he designed the clothes for the college skiing team.

Pucci was awarded an MA in social science from Reed, where he was known to be a staunch defender of the Fascist regime in Italy. He was also awarded a doctorate in political science from the University of Florence.

It was his success as a fashion designer that would in time make his name but before that came some wartime experiences that were extraordinary to say the least.

In 1938 Pucci joined the Italian air force and served as a torpedo bomber, rising to the rank of captain and being decorated for valour.

Mussolini's daughter, Edda, who was helped by Pucci
in her bid to secure clemency for her husband, Ciano

He became a confidant of Mussolini’s eldest daughter, Edda, whom he had known as a child and met again by chance on the island of Capri, where he was sent to recuperate after being struck down with a tropical fever.

He played a key role in a plan to save her husband, Mussolini’s former foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, who was put on trial for his part in removing Mussolini from power in 1943.

Pucci and Edda planned to deliver some of Ciano’s papers, which were highly critical of Mussolini, to the Gestapo, so that they could be bartered for Ciano’s life. After Hitler vetoed the scheme, Pucci drove Edda to the Swiss border in January 1944 and helped her to escape.

Edda had written last-minute pleas to Hitler, Mussolini and General Willhelm Harstner, the German commander in Italy, to spare her husband.

Pucci delivered these letters to an intermediary and then attempted to flee to Switzerland himself but was arrested by the Germans. The Gestapo tortured him to extract information about the location of the rest of Ciano’s papers in Italy.

They then sent Pucci to Switzerland to tell Edda that she would be killed if she published any part of the diaries. After he had delivered the message he remained in Switzerland for the rest of the war.

Pucci made ends meet after the war by teaching Italian and giving ski lessons in Zermatt. He designed ski wear for himself and his friends and in 1947 one of his female friends was photographed wearing his ski wear by the magazine, Harper’s Bazaar.

He was then asked to design ski wear for a spread on European fashion which was featured in the 1948 winter edition of the magazine.

Marilyn Monroe was a fan
of Pucci's designs

Pucci set up his first boutique on Capri. He used his knowledge of stretch fabrics to produce a swimwear line, but moved on to design boldly-patterned silk scarves in bright colours, later using the designs for blouses and dresses.

He opened a boutique in Rome and by the 1950s was getting international recognition and winning awards.

Marilyn Monroe became a fan of his designs in the 1960s and was wearing his creations in some of the last photographs ever taken of her.

Subsequently, his designs were worn by celebrities such as Sophia Loren and Jackie Kennedy and, even Madonna, by the early 1990s.

Pucci designed six complete collections for Braniff Airways, to be worn by their air hostesses, pilots and ground crew, between 1965 and 1974.

In 1959 he was introduced to Baronessa Cristina Nannini at his boutique on Capri and they were later married.

Still keenly interested in politics, in the elections of 1963 Pucci contested the Florence-Pistoia district for the Liberal party. He came second on that occasion but won a seat in parliament later in the same year.  He retained his seat in 1968 but lost it in 1972.

Pucci set up his first workshop in the family's
ancestral home in Florence's San Lorenzo district

After his death in Florence in 1992 at the age of 78, his daughter, Laudomia Pucci, continued to design under the Pucci label.

The French Louis Vuitton-Moet Hennessy Group acquired 67 per cent of Pucci in 2000, with Laudomia becoming Image Director for the company.

Emilio Pucci clothes and accessories, featuring the designer’s distinctive colourful prints, are still being sold in Pucci boutiques and high-end department stores around the world.

Travel tip:

Palazzo Pucci, the ancestral home of Emilio Pucci, is in Via dè Pucci in the San Lorenzo district of Florence. The Pucci family were friends and allies of the Medici family and their palace, designed by Bartolomeo Ammannati, was built in the 16th century.

The Via Camerelle on Capri, where a
new Pucci boutique opened this year

Travel tip:

A new Pucci boutique opened earlier this year in Via Camerelle on the island of Capri. The cobblestone street in the centre of the fashionable shopping district is where Emilio Pucci himself used to stroll with his friends while living on Capri in the 1950s. He set up his first boutique, La Canzone del Mare, in 1951 at Marina Piccola, the bay opposite the huge pointed rocks known as I Faraglioni, which have become an iconic symbol of the island.

More reading:

Giorgio Armani - former army medic who forged brilliant career

Guccio Gucci - from equestrian leather shop to fashion 
empire

Salvatore Ferragamo - shoemaker to the stars

Also on this day:

1851: Birth of a Queen who had a pizza created in her honour

(Photo of Via Camerelle by Averain by Wikimedia Commons; workshop picture from emiliopucci.com)

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Luigi Beccali - Olympic athlete

Milanese runner brought home Italy's first track gold

Luigi Beccali, Olympic
champion in 1932

Luigi Beccali, the first Italian to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field events, was born on this day in 1907 in Milan.

Although Italy had won gold medals in fencing and gymnastics in previous Games, Beccali's victory in the 1,500 metres at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles was the first time an Italian had won gold in a running event.

His victory came out of the blue since the field included several runners with top credentials, including New Zealand’s Jack Lovelock and America's Glenn Cunningham.  Beccali had a reputation as a determined competitor but his results were relatively modest next to those of the favourites.

However, in May of 1932 he had posted a mile time of four minutes 11.5 seconds in Milan which was only four tenths of a second slower than Cunningham's time in winning the 1932 National Collegiate Athletics Association championships.

The three heats at Los Angeles were won by Lovelock, Beccali, and Cunningham, who posted the best time of 3:55.8 in winning the first heat.

In the final, Lovelock led the field through the first 400m but Cunningham took the lead on the second lap only to be overtaken by Canada's Phil Edwards, who led at 800m.

Cunningham tried to forge ahead on the third lap, but Edwards stayed with him and started to pull away over the last lap.

Beccali storms home to win the gold
medal at Los Angeles in 1932

At that stage, Cunningham looked beaten but Beccali, Lovelock, and Britain’s John “Jerry” Cornes went after Edwards. Beccali passed Lovelock and then Cunningham to be second at the final curve before rushing past Edwards with 100m remaining. Cornes went through to take silver with Edwards holding off Cunningham for bronze.

On the victory podium, Beccali gave a fascist salute, although the incident passed with only brief mentions in newspaper reports and acquired notoriety for him only later, after Adolf Hitler had hijacked the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a political platform.

As a youth, Beccali enjoyed cycling as well as athletics but choose the latter when he met Dino Nai, a university lecturer in veterinary science, who would become his coach.

He made his debut at the Amsterdam Games in 1928 but was eliminated after finishing only fourth in his 1500m heat.  It was not until four years later that he would make the world take notice of him.

Beccali attributed his success to having a job that allowed him the opportunity to train twice a day. He worked as a council surveyor responsible for road maintenance in Milan but was unsupervised and no one would question his movements during the day so long as he completed the work required.

Therefore he was able to sneak in a training session in the morning as well as after work.

His victory at the Los Angeles Games turned him into a national hero overnight and he enjoyed a period of further success.

Jack Lovelock gained his revenge at
the Berlin Games in 1936

In 1933, Beccali equalled the 1,500m world record of 3 mins 49.2 seconds then lowered it to 3:49.0. He also set the 1,000 yd (910 m) world record at 2:10.0.

He won the 1,500m at the first European Championships in 1934, but was overwhelmed by Lovelock in the defence of his 1,500m crown at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, settling to the third place.

After finishing third at 1,500m at the European Championships in 1938 and winning his fifth Italian championships, he moved to the United States, where he continued to compete until 1941.

Beccali, who had a son, Gene, by his wife, Aida, settled in Long Island and ran a wine merchants' business for many years, doing well enough to buy a holiday home in Daytona Beach in Florida.

Some accounts of his life say that he was in Florida when he died in 1990 at the age of 92 but a report in the New York Times insisted he was in Italy at the time of his death, staying at the Ligurian coastal resort of Rapallo.

Travel tip:

Beccali's name is commemorated in Milan in the Via Luigi Beccali, an approach road to the Milanosport complex near Parco Nord, about 10km to the north-east of the centre of Milan. Milanosport has 24 facilities across the city dedicated to providing opportunities for participation in sport. Parco Nord is a large public park built on the site of a former industrial complex.

Rapallo: villas nestle among the trees above the waterfront
at the attractive resort on the Ligurian Riviera

Travel tip:

Rapallo is an attractive resort on Liguria's Riviera di Levante and offers a cheaper alternative to the smaller and more fashionable Portofino, situated less than 10km away along the same stretch of coastline.  It has a pretty harbour notable for a castle that sits right at its edge and a grid of streets just behind the waterfront that reflects the town's past as a Roman settlement.

More reading:

How cyclist Attilio Pavesi won Italy's first Olympic gold on the road

Why the 1960 Olympics in Rome was an historic moment for African athletics

Also on this day:

1877: The birth of Giuseppe Volpi, founder of the Venice Film Festival

(Photo of Rapallo by Davide Paplini via Wikemedia Commons)



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