Alessandro Antonelli – Architect

The creator of Turin’s striking Mole 

Turin at dusk, with the Alps in the background and
Antonelli's Mole towering above the skyline

Alessandro Antonelli, who became famous for designing what has become Turin’s most iconic building, died on this day in 1888 in the Piedmont capital.

Antonelli was the architect of the Mole Antonelliana, which was named after him. The Mole now houses the National Museum of Cinema. At 167.5 metres (550ft), it remains the tallest unreinforced brick building in the world, and is believed to be the tallest of any construction to house a museum.

Mole is an Italian word that is used to describe a building of monumental proportions. Turin’s impressive Mole is represented on the obverse side of the Italian two euro cents coin, which is the side that displays the nationality of the country that has issued the coin.

Antonelli was born in Ghemme, a town near Novara in Piedmont, in 1798. His father was a notary and he was one of 11 children. He studied architecture in Milan and Turin before taking a job in the state territorial planning offices. But after winning an architecture competition he moved to Rome in 1828 to study geometry.

Antonelli was renowned for the
ambitious nature of his projects

He developed a functional ideal of architecture, which inspired him to draw up an ambitious plan for the renovation of Turin’s historical centre.

Antonelli returned to his native city in 1836 and became a professor at the Albertina Academy, which was an institute of higher education in Turin. He also became a deputy in the Kingdom of Sardinia’s parliament and served as a councillor in both Turin and Novara.

Among the many villas, churches, and public buildings Antonelli designed during his career, he is particularly remembered for Novara Cathedral. ll Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, or Duomo di Novara, was designed in neoclassical style by Antonelli and was built between 1863 and 1869 to replace the original 11th century church that had previously occupied the site. The cathedral incorporated the original mosaic floor of the presbytery and a chapel dedicated to Saint Syrus from the structure that preceded it. 

Antonelli also designed the dome of the Basilica of San Gaudenzio in Novara, a 75m (246ft) structure which brought the total height of the basilica to 121m (397ft), dwarfing the adjoining campanile, built earlier to designs by Benedetto Alfieri.  It was a highly ambitious project that had to be modified and reinforced to stop it collapsing under its own weight, yet it survived and dominates the Novara skyline as the Mole does in Turin.

The Orphan’s Hospice at Alessandria, a villa at Romagnana Sesia, and churches in Bellinzago Novarese and Borgo Lavezzarro are other buildings designed by Antonelli.

However, Antonelli’s most famous work was undoubtedly the 167.5m (550ft) Mole Antonelliano, which has become the symbol of the city of Turin. 

The cupola of the Basilica of San
Gaudenzio in Novara

It was begun in 1863 as a Jewish synagogue and was not finished until after Antonelli had died, construction having been halted in 1876 because Antonelli’s frequent modifications meant that costs had risen well beyond his original estimates and the Jewish community decided they could no longer afford to fund the project.

It was completed after the city’s municipal authorities agreed to finance the remaining work, compensating the Jewish community by building another synagogue elsewhere.

Work was finished in 1897 with the exception of the statue of a winged angel with which Antonelli planned to top the spire. This was added after his death but has since been replaced after the original was twice dislodged by storms.

From 1908 until 1938, the Mole housed the city’s Museum of the Risorgimento. Although the uppermost part of the spire was destroyed during a burst of violent weather in 1953, it was rebuilt in 1961, according to Antonelli’s original drawings. The building has been home to the Museo Nazionale del Cinema since 2000.

Following Antonelli’s death in 1888, his body was taken to Maggiora in the province of Novara to be buried in his family’s tomb.

Ghemme DOCG
is a renowned wine

Travel tip:

Ghemme, where Antonelli was born, is a town of just over 3,000 inhabitants in the province of Novara situated on the River Sesia, about 80 km (50 miles) north east of Turin and about 25 km (16 miles) north west of Novara. The small town’s main attraction is the Ricetto Castle, which dates back to the 11th century.  It was there in 1467 that a peace treaty was signed between the Duchy of Milan and Duchy of Savoy, ending several years of conflict. The the town is also famous for its red wine, Ghemme DOCG, which is produced in the surrounding Colli Novaresi. Ghemme’s wine was awarded DOC status in 1969 and was classified DOCG in 1997. The wine is made primarily from the Nebbiolo grape and it has to be aged for at least three years. Ghemme is also synonymous with the production of honey, being home to more than 600 bee hives. The town's acacia honey is regarded as one of the finest honeys produced in all of Italy.

The facade of the Palazzo Madama was designed,
like the Basilica di Superga, by Filippo Juvarra

Travel tip:

Much of the architecture of Turin illustrates its rich history as the home of the Savoy Kings of Italy. In the centre of the city, Piazza Castello, with the royal palace, royal library, and Palazzo Madama, which used to be where the Italian senate met, showcases some of the finest buildings in ‘royal’ Turin. Some members of the House of Savoy are buried in Turin’s Duomo in Piazza San Giovanni, which is also famous for being the home of the Turin shroud. Many people believe that the cloth now preserved in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud was the actual burial shroud of Jesus Christ. As well as the Mole Antonelliana, Turin is home to another architectural wonder in the Filippo Juvarra's magnificent Basilica di Superga, which sits on a hill above the city topped by another colossal dome, rising to 75m (246 feet). 

Also on this day:

1634: The birth of painter Luca Giordano

1833: The birth of entrepreneur Cristoforo Benigno Crespi

1933: The birth of racing driver Ludovico Scarfiotti

1969: Caravaggio masterpiece stolen in Palermo

Feast Day of Luke the Evangelist

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17 October

The end of the Venetian Republic

Peace treaty saw Venice given away to Austria

A peace settlement signed in a small town in north-east Italy on this day in 1797 heralded a dark day for Venice as the Most Serene Republic officially lost its independence after 1,100 years.  The Treaty of Campo Formio, drawn up after the Austrians had sought an armistice when faced with Napoleon Bonaparte's advance on Vienna, included an exchange of territory that saw Napoleon hand Venice to Austria.  It marked the end of the First Coalition of countries allied against the French, although it was a short-lived peace.  A Second Coalition was formed the following year.  The Venetian Republic, still a playground for the rich but in decline for several centuries in terms of real power, had proclaimed itself neutral during the Napoleonic Wars, wary that it could not afford to sustain any kind of conflict.  But Napoleon wanted to acquire the city nonetheless, seeing it as a potential bargaining chip in his empire-building plans and had his eye on its vast art treasures.  In May 1797 he provoked the Venetians into attacking a French ship and used this as an excuse to declare war.  The reaction of the Venetian Grand Council and the last of its Doges, Ludovico Manin, was to vote the Republic out of existence.  Read more…

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Cristofano Allori – artist

Mannerist painter’s masterpiece was inspired by his mistress 

The artist Cristofano Allori, who is particularly remembered for his 1613 painting of Judith with the Head of Holofernes, which is now in the British Royal Collection, was born on this day in 1577 in Florence. Allori was a painter of the late Florentine Mannerist school who specialised in portraits and religious subjects. He is well regarded by experts because of the delicacy and technical perfection of his work. His skill was demonstrated by some copies he made of Correggio’s works, which for a time were thought to be duplicates that had been painted by Correggio himself. The artist was extremely fastidious about his work, which limited the number of paintings he executed, but there are still fine examples of his art to be seen in Florence. He received his first lessons in painting from his father, Alessandro Allori, who had many distinguished pupils, including the painter known as Cigoli, whose real name was Lodovico Cardi. Cristofano became dissatisfied with the anatomical drawing and use of colour that distinguished the work of his father and went into the studio of Gregorio Pagani, who was one of the leading artists of the late Florentine school. Read more…

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Bartolommeo Bandinelli - Renaissance sculptor

Career scarred by petty jealousies

The sculptor Bartolommeo Bandinelli, a contemporary and rival of Michelangelo and Benvenuto Cellini in Renaissance Italy, was born on this day in 1473 in Florence.  He left his mark on Florence in the shape of the monumental statue of Hercules and Cacus in the Piazza della Signoria and his statues of Adam and Eve, originally created for the Duomo but today housed in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello.  Also known as Baccio Bandinelli and Bartolommeo Brandini, he was skilled in small sculptures but became known and disliked for his antagonistic manner with other artists and his particular hatred of Michelangelo, of whom he was bitterly jealous.  Giorgio Vasari, the artist and sculptor who was the first to compile a written history of art and artists, and who was a student in Bandinelli’s workshop, recalled an occasion when Bandinelli was so enraged by the excitement that ensued when a Michelangelo drawing was uncovered in the Palazzo Vecchio that, as soon as an opportunity arose, he tore it up.  Where Michelangelo was revered for everything he did, Bandinelli’s critics said he lacked the skills required to tackle large sculptures.  Read more…

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The founding of Atalanta football club

Bergamo institution started by students of local high school

The football club now known as Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio - generally referred to as Atalanta - was founded on this day in 1907 in the Lombardy city of Bergamo.  The club was the idea of a group of students from the Liceo Classico Paolo Sarpi, one of the city’s oldest and most prestigious high schools.  They gave it the rather long-winded name of the Società Bergamasca di Ginnastica e Sports Atletici - the Bergamasca Society of Gymnastics and Athletic Sports - to which they attached the name Atalanta after the Greek mythological heroine famed for her running prowess.  For the first seven years of its life, the new club had no home and played friendly matches on whatever open space was available, but in 1914 found a home ground in Via Maglio del Lotto, adjoining the railway line just outside Bergamo station.  The ground had a small grandstand housing 1,000 spectators. It is said that the drivers of trains approaching the station on match days would slow down in order to enjoy a few moments of the action.  Read more…

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Giovanni Matteo Mario - operatic tenor

Disgraced nobleman became the toast of London and Paris

The operatic tenor Giovanni Matteo Mario, a Sardinian nobleman who deserted from the army and began singing only to earn a living after fleeing to Paris, was born on this day in 1810 in Cagliari.  He was baptised Giovanni Matteo de Candia, born into an aristocratic family belonging to Savoyard-Sardinian nobility. Some of his relatives were members of the Royal Court of Turin. His father, Don Stefano de Candia of Alghero, held the rank of general in the Royal Sardinian Army and was aide-de-camp to the Savoy king Charles Felix of Sardinia.  He became Giovanni Mario or Mario de Candia only after he had begun his stage career at the age of 28. He was entitled to call himself Cavaliere (Knight), Nobile (Nobleman) and Don (Sir) in accordance with his inherited titles, yet on his first professional contract, he signed himself simply ‘Mario’ out of respect for his father, who considered singing a lowly career.  Although he was one of the most celebrated tenors of the 18th century, Italy never heard Mario sing. Instead, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London and the Théâtre Italien in Paris witnessed most of his triumphs.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Venice: Pure City, by Peter Ackroyd

In this magnificent vision of Venice, Peter Ackroyd turns his unparalleled skill at evoking place from London and the River Thames, to Italy and the city of myth, mystery and beauty. He leads us through the history of the city, from the first refugees arriving in the mists of the lagoon in the fourth century to the rise of a great mercantile state and a trading empire, the wars against Napoleon and the tourist invasions of today. There are wars and sieges, scandals and seductions, fountains playing in deserted squares and crowds thronging the markets. And there is a dark undertone too, of shadowy corners and dead ends, prisons and punishment.  We could have no better guide to this most exceptional of cities - reading Ackroyd's Venice: Pure City is, in itself, a glorious journey and the perfect holiday.

Peter Ackroyd is an award-winning historian, biographer, novelist, poet and broadcaster. He is the author of the acclaimed nonfiction bestsellers London: The Biography, Thames: Sacred River and London Under; biographies of figures including Charles Dickens, William Blake, Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock; and a multi-volume history of England. He holds a CBE for services to literature.

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16 October

Dorando Pietri - marathon runner

Athlete who made his fortune from famous disqualification

The athlete Dorando Pietri, who found fame and fortune after being disqualified in the 1908 Olympic marathon, was born on this day in 1885 in Mandrio, a hamlet near Carpi, in Emilia-Romagna.  In an extraordinary finish to the 1908 race in London, staged on an exceptionally warm July day, Pietri entered the White City Stadium in first place, urged on by a crowd of more than 75,000 who were there to witness the finish, only for his legs to buckle beneath him.  He was helped to his feet by two officials only to fall down four more times before he crossed the finish line.  Each time, officials hauled him to his feet and walked alongside him, urging him on and ready to catch him if he fell.  The final 350 yards (320m) of the event accounted for 10 minutes of the two hours, 54 minutes and 46 seconds recorded as his official time.  Eventually, a second athlete entered the stadium, the American Johnny Hayes, but Pietri had staggered over the line before he could complete the final lap.  The American team was already unpopular with the British crowd, partly because of a row about a flag at the opening ceremony. They lost even more support after they lodged an objection to the result.   Read more…

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Dino Buzzati - author

Novelist likened to Camus whose short stories remain popular

The multi-talented author Dino Buzzati, whose output included five novels, several theatre and radio plays, a children’s novel, five opera libretti, some poetry, a comic book in which he also drew the illustrations, and several books of short stories, was born on this day in 1906 in Belluno.  Buzzati’s most famous novel, Il deserto dei Tartari (1940), titled The Tartar Steppe in the English translation, saw Buzzati compared to Albert Camus and Franz Kafka as a work of existentialist style, but it is for his short stories that he still wins acclaim.  A new collection entitled Catastrophe and Other Stories, which showcases Buzzati’s talent for weaving nightmarish fantasy into ordinary situations, was published earlier this year.  Buzzati, who worked as a journalist for the whole of his adult life and also painted prolifically, was the second of four children born to Giulio Cesare Buzzati, a distinguished professor of international law, and Alba Mantovani, a veterinarian born in Venice.  The family’s main home was in Milan but they had a summer villa in San Pellegrino, a village just outside Belluno in the foothills of the Dolomites, which was where Dino was born.  Read more…

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Election of Pope John Paul II

How Karol Wojtyla became first non-Italian pope for 455 years

Pope John Paul II, who was to have a political and social influence unmatched by any pontiff since the Middle Ages, was elected to be the new leader of the Catholic Church on this day in 1978.  The result of the second Papal conclave in what became known as the Year of the Three Popes was announced after eight ballots. The new pontiff succeeded Pope John Paul I, who had died on September 28 after only 33 days in office, who had himself followed Pope Paul VI, who had passed away in August after reigning for 15 years.  The new man chosen was 58-year-old Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, then Archbishop of Kraków, the first non-Italian to hold office for 455 years since the Dutch Pope Adam VI, who served from 1522-23.  Wojtyla's stand against Poland's Communist regime had brought him respect but he was not seen as a Vatican favourite and his elevation to the highest office stunned the Catholic world.  Yet he would go on to become one of the most familiar faces in the world, remaining in post for almost 27 years, which made him the second longest-serving pope in modern history after Pope Pius IX.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The First London Olympics, by Rebecca Jenkins

In the summer that saw the first successful flight of the Zeppelin, a 140 acre site of scrubland in West London was transformed into the White City, which housed the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition - and a state-of-the-art stadium built to house the First London Olympics. The Olympics were organised by volunteers in just 18 months and at a fraction of the cost of the modern Olympics and yet, just as today, the sport was overshadowed by doping scandals and caused international uproar.  The ferocious competitiveness of a US team dominated by New York Irish-Americans led to a succession of 'scandals' culminating in the historic marathon when Italian confectioner baker Dorando Pietri's heroic efforts at the limits of exhaustion so entranced on-lookers that track officials helped him across the finish line.  Originally published to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of the first London Olympics, this delightful social and sporting history - illustrated with over 70 contemporary images - provided a thought-provoking contrast to the then-forthcoming 2012 London Olympics. 

Rebecca Jenkins is a cultural historian and novelist living in Teesdale, County Durham. A member of both the International Society of Olympic Historians and the Crime Writers’ Association, her non-fiction work includes a biography of the 19th-century actress Fanny Kemble entitled The Reluctant Celebrity. She has published two novels featuring the Regency detective F R Jarrett and two other crime novels.

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15 October

Virgil – Roman poet

Writer’s epic poem commemorates achievements and ideals of Rome

Regarded as the greatest of the Roman poets, Virgil, or Publius Vergilius Maro as he was originally named, was born on this day in 70 BC in the village of Andes near Mantua, in what is now Lombardy.  Virgil is famous for his work, The Aeneid, which told the story of Rome’s founder and the Roman mission to civilise the world under divine guidance. It is widely considered one of the most important poems in the history of Western literature.  Experts have high regard for Virgil’s poetry, not only for the music and diction of his verse and for his skill in constructing an intricate work on a grand scale, but also because of what it reveals about Roman life and behaviour.  Virgil was born of peasant stock and his love of the Italian countryside and the people who worked in it is well reflected in his poetry.  He was educated in Cremona, Milan and Rome and acquired a thorough knowledge of Greek and Roman authors and was trained in rhetoric and philosophy.  When Virgil was 20, Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and began the series of civil wars that did not end until Augustus’s victory at Actium in 31 BC.  Hatred and fear of civil war is powerfully expressed by Virgil in his poetry.  Read more…

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Giovanni Migliara – painter

19th century artist captured many beautiful views for posterity

Giovanni Migliara, who rose from working as a theatre set designer to becoming court painter to King Charles Albert of Sardinia, was born on this day in 1785 in Alessandria in Piedmont.  He was first apprenticed to the sculptor Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo, but then went on to study at the Brera Academy.in Milan with Giocondo Albertolli.  He began working as a set designer with Teatro Carcano in Milan in 1804 and then moved to La Scala in 1805, where he served under the direction of Alessandro Sanquirico until 1809. His theatre work enabled him to acquire skills as a landscape artist and a creator of perspective.  Migliara had to stop working while he was suffering from a serious lung problem but from about 1810 he started painting miniatures and then moved on to watercolours and then oils on canvas, silk and ivory, drawing inspiration from Venetian painters.  In 1812 he exhibited four views of Milan at the Brera Academy, officially signalling his return to the world of art.  Migliara specialised in painting views and romantic, historical subjects. Because of the high quality of his work he became a favourite of the aristocracy living in Milan at the time.  Read more…

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Gibbon's moment of inspiration

Walk around the Forum sparked idea for epic work 

The English writer and historian Edward Gibbon claimed that the inspiration to write the book that - unbeknown to him - would grant him literary immortality came to him while exploring the ruins of the Forum in Rome on this day in 1764.  Gibbon, who had enjoyed modest success with his first book, entitled Essay on the Study of Literature, was in Rome after deciding to embark on the Grand Tour, taking in the Italian cities of Florence, Naples and Venice as well as the capital.  Later, in his memoirs, Gibbon wrote that:  "It was at Rome, on the fifteenth of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing Vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the City first started to my mind."  In the event, the book expanded to cover rather more than the city of Rome.  The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ran to six volumes and as many as 5,000 pages in the original version and saw Gibbon, whose second work - Mémoires Littéraires de la Grande Bretagne - had been dismissed as having little merit by fellow writers and historians, eventually recognised as in the forefront of historians in Europe.  Read more…

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Angelo Schiavio - footballer

Scored goal that won Italy's first World Cup

Angelo Schiavio, the hero of the Italian football team’s first World Cup victory in 1934, was born on this day in 1905 in Bologna.  The centre forward, a prolific goalscorer for his home-town club in Serie A, scored the winning goal in the final against Czechoslovakia to hand victory to the Azzurri in the 16-team tournament, of which the Italians were hosts.  In the final at the Stadio Flaminio in Rome, the Azzurri had gone behind to a goal by the Czech winger Antonin Puc with 19 minutes remaining, but equalised 10 minutes later through Raimundo Orsi, the Argentina-born forward from Juventus, taking the match into extra time.  Schiavio struck the decisive goal, driven home with his right foot from a pass by Enrique Guaita, another Argentine – one of 12 to represent Italy and Argentina in the days before playing for more than one nation was outlawed.  It was his fourth goal of the tournament, sparking massive celebrations in Rome and across Italy, albeit in a mood of triumph hijacked by Benito Mussolini and his Fascist regime.  Rumours circulated, almost inevitably, that match officials had been bribed to make decisions favouring the Italians.  Read more…

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Roberto Vittori – astronaut

High-flying Colonel contributed to space research

Roberto Vittori, the last non-American to fly on board the US Space Shuttle, was born on this day in 1964 in Viterbo.  An Italian air force officer, Vittori was selected by the European Space Agency to be part of their Astronaut Corps and has participated in three space flights.  In 2011 Vittori was on board the Space Shuttle that travelled to the International Space Station to install the AMS-02 cosmic ray detector to examine dark matter and the origin of the Universe.  Vittori had to grapple the six-tonne AMS-02 with the Space Shuttle’s robotic arm and move it to the station for installation. This was to be the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour.  He is one of five Italians to have visited the International Space Station. The others are Umberto Guidoni, who was the first European to set foot on board when he flew on Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2001, Paolo Nespoli, who visited as recently as 2017 and at 61 is the European Space Agency’s oldest active astronaut, Luca Parmitano and Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian woman in space.  Nespoli, who has participated in three International Space Station missions, was coming to the end of a 159-day stay when Vittori visited.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Aeneid, by Virgil. Translated by David West

After a century of civil strife in Rome and Italy, Virgil wrote The Aeneid to honour the emperor Augustus by praising his legendary ancestor Aeneas. As a patriotic epic imitating Homer, The Aeneid also set out to provide Rome with a literature equal to that of Greece. It tells of Aeneas, survivor of the sack of Troy, and of his seven-year journey: to Carthage, where he falls tragically in love with Queen Dido; then to the underworld; and finally to Italy, where he founds Rome. It is a story of defeat and exile, of love and war, hailed by Tennyson as 'the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man'. More recently, The Times called this edition 'the most truthful translation ever, conveying as many nuances and whispers as are possible from the original'.

Virgil studied rhetoric and philosophy in Rome where he became a court poet. As well as The Aeneid, his Eclogues earned him the reputation as the finest Latin poet.  Before his retirement, David West taught Classics at the University of Newcastle.

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14 October

Palma Giovane - painter

Mannerist took the mantle of Tintoretto 

The Venetian artist Jacopo Negretti, best known as Jacopo Palma il Giovane - Palma the Younger - or simply Palma Giovane, died in Venice on this day in 1628.  Essentially a painter of the Italian Mannerist school, Palma Giovane's style evolved over time and after the death of Tintoretto in 1594 he became the most revered artist in Venice.  He became in demand beyond Venice, too, particularly in Bergamo, the city in Lombardy that was a dominion of Venice, and in central Europe.  He received many commissions in Bergamo and was often employed in Prague by the Habsburg Emperor, Rudolph II, who was a noted art connoisseur.  Palma had been born into a family of painters. His great uncle, also called Jacopo, was the painter Palma Vecchio - Palma the Elder - while his father, Antonio Negretti, was a pupil of the elder Palma’s workshop manager, Bonifacio Veronese, whose shop and clientele he inherited after the latter’s death.  The younger Palma is said to have developed his skills making copies in the style of Titian, although the claim in some biographies that he worked in Titian's workshop in Venice is now thought to be incorrect.  Read more…

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Alesso Baldovinetti - painter

One of first to paint realistic landscapes

The early Renaissance painter Alesso Baldovinetti, whose great fresco of the Annunciation in the cloister of the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence is still intact, was born on this day in 1425 in Florence.  Baldovinetti was among a group described as scientific realists and naturalists in art which included Andrea del Castagno, Paolo Uccello and Domenico Veneziano. Influenced by Uccello’s use of visual perspective, he had a particular eye for detail and his views of the Arno river in his Nativity and Madonna and Child are regarded as among Europe’s earliest paintings of accurately reproduced landscapes.  Veneziano’s influence is reflected in the pervasive light of his earliest surviving works, and he was also greatly influenced by Fra' Angelico. Historians believe that in the 1460s Baldovinetti was the finest painter in Florence, although some argue that he did not fulfil all his initial promise.  Born into the family of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Baldovinetti rejected the chance to follow his father’s trade in favour of art.  In 1448, he became a member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. It is thought that he assisted with decorations in the church of Sant’ Egidio in Trastevere.  Read more…

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Alessandro Safina – singer

Tenor who has blended opera and rock

Alessandro Safina, a singer trained in opera who has expanded the so-called ‘crossover’ pop-opera genre to include rock influences, was born on this day in 1963 in Siena.  A household name in Italy, the tenor is less well known outside his own country but has recorded duets with international stars such as Sarah Brightman, South Korean soprano Sumi Jo, Rod Stewart, former Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde, Scottish actor and singer Ewan McGregor and the superstar Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.  Safina’s biggest album to date is Insieme a Te, which has sold more than 700,000 copies.  It was written in collaboration with the Italian pianist and composer Romano Musumarra, who helped realise Safina’s ambition of creating soulful rock-inspired music for the tenor voice.  He first performed songs from the album at the Olympia theatre in Paris in 1999.  Safina was born into an opera-loving family and earned money to pay for singing lessons by working in his father’s stationery business.  Set on becoming a professional singer from the age of nine, he began attending a music academy at 12 and was accepted for a place at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence at 17.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Venice: City of Pictures, by Martin Gayford

Venice was a major centre of art in the Renaissance: the city where the medium of oil on canvas became the norm. The achievements of the Bellini brothers, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese are a key part of this story. Nowhere else has been depicted by so many great painters in so many diverse styles and moods. Venetian views were a speciality of native artists such as Canaletto and Guardi, but the city has also been represented by outsiders: J M W Turner, Claude Monet, John Singer Sargent, Howard Hodgkin, and many more. Then there are those who came to look at and write about art. The reactions of Henry James, George Eliot, Richard Wagner and others enrich this tale. Since the advent of the Venice Biennale in the 1890s, and the arrival of pioneering modern art collector Peggy Guggenheim in the late 1940s, the city has become a shop window for the contemporary art of the whole world, and it remains the site of important artistic events. In Venice: City of Pictures, Gayford – who has visited Venice countless times since the 1970s, covered every Biennale since 1990, and even had portraits of himself exhibited there on several occasions – takes us on a visual journey through the past five centuries of the city known as La Serenissima - the Most Serene. It is a unique and compelling portrait of Venice that will delight lovers of the city and lovers of its art. 

Martin Gayford writes about art and jazz. His previous books include Michelangelo: His Epic Life and A History of Pictures: From the Cave to Computer Screen, which he co-wrote with David Hockney. 

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Learco Guerra - racing cyclist

“Human Locomotive” set record for most wins in one season

Learco Guerra's speed in races led to him
being nicknamed the "Human Locomotive"

The racing cyclist Learco Guerra, who won the Giro d'Italia in 1934 and was world champion in 1931, was born on this day in 1902 in San Nicolò Po, a hamlet on the banks of the Po river in Lombardy, about 15km (9 miles) south of Mantua.

He gained the nickname of "Human Locomotive" by the editor of Gazzetta dello Sport, organisers of the Giro d’Italia, for his ability to maintain high speeds over long periods.

Guerra’s single Giro d’Italia victory came in a year when he won 18 races, including 10 stages of the Giro d’Italia, the Giro di Lombardia and four rounds of the national championships. It was a record by an individual rider in a single season that would stand until the 1970s.

His fame was exploited by the Fascist government, which profited from his heroic status. Benito Mussolini praised his 'manly Italian virtues' of strength, stamina and determination.

Guerra himself became a member of the National Fascist Party, which prompted conspiracy theories among some of his rival cyclists, who noted that the route chosen for the 1934 Giro d’Italia, with notably few hill stages, suited Guerra’s qualities perfectly. 

Until the age of 25, Guerra worked as a bricklayer with his father, who was a master builder in a construction company in Mantua.

Guerra's rival, the five-times Giro
d'Italia winner Alfredo Binda

His dreams of becoming a cycle racer came true thanks to a friend, who obtained a bicycle for him and helped him enter the historic Milan-Sanremo race. He competed in a jersey belonging to the powerful Maino racing team, although he was not a member.

In the event all the real members of the Maino team retired, while Guerra finished 17th, even though his bike was not only old but was designed for track competition rather than road racing.

The significance of that performance did not escape the notice of team boss Giovanni Maino, who saw Guerra as someone who might take on the great Alfredo Binda, the five-times Giro winner from the Legnano team. Guerra thus turned professional at the age of 27. 

In 1930, Guerra won the first of what would be five consecutive Italian National Road Race Championships, finishing second in the Tour de France the same year, ahead of Binda, who proved in poor form. 

In the 1931 Giro, in which he won four stages, his victory in the opening Milan-Mantua stage gave him the honour of being the first rider to wear the pink jersey, which was being awarded for the first time as a symbol of primacy in the standings. Pink was chosen as the colour because the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper was printed on pink paper. 

In the same year, Guerra also won the Road World Championships in Copenhagen. In what were the best years of his career, he also triumphed in the Milan-Sanremo in 1933 and was again second in the 1933 Tour de France. 

Guerra set a record for the most road
race victories in a single season

His stupendous form of 1934 carried over into 1935, when he numbered another five stages of the Giro d’Italia among eight race victories. Overall, in the course of his career he numbered 31 stage wins in the Giro, a tally bettered only by Binda (41) and Mario Cipollini (42). 

Guerra retired from racing in 1945 but stayed in cycling as a successful team boss. His Faema and Emi teams provided many champions in the 1950s, including the four-times Giro d’Italia winner Charly Gaul, a native of Luxembourg.

Sadly, Guerra died in 1963 at the age of just 60, having undergone two operations in the hope of overcoming Parkinson’s disease. Binda was one of the pallbearers at his funeral, which was preceded by a procession through streets lined with fans. He was laid to rest in the family tomb in the Monumental Cemetery of Mantua.

In 1994 a museum dedicated to Learco Guerra was opened in Piazza Broletto in Mantua, thanks to his cousin Otello Giovanni Pozzi. Among the memorabilia on display are that first pink jersey from the Giro and his world champion jersey 1931.  A museum dedicated to his friend and fellow Mantuan sportsman, the racing driver Tazio Nuvolari, is in the same building.

The Po river close to where Learco Guerra was 
born. It is the widest and longest river in Italy

Travel tip:

The Po, which flows past the hamlet where Learco Guerra was born, is the longest river in Italy, rising in Cottian Alps in the far west of the country and reaching the Adriatic Sea in the east over a meandering course of 652km (405 miles). Its 70,000 sq km (27,000 sq ml) drainage basin forms Italy’s widest and most fertile plain, but one that has suffered a number of devastating floods, the majority in the 20th and 21st centuries. The Po’s principal tributaries include the Sesia, Ticino, Adda, Oglio, and Mincio rivers. The Po is navigable from its mouth to Pavia. The Venetian Republic built dikes to control floods and canals to divert silt, and in the area between Ferrara and the Adriatic numerous undertakings have reclaimed thousands of acres during the past three centuries. The Po valley produces a variety of crops, including rice, corn, wheat, and grapes for wine production. It is home to the industrial cities of Milan, Turin, and Bologna but also the historical cities of Verona and Mantua. The valley’s cuisine is renowned for its delicious pasta dishes, cured meats, and cheeses.

The Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, which was for
four centuries the seat of the Gonzaga family

Travel tip:

Mantua is an atmospheric old city in Lombardy, to the southeast of Milan, famous for its Renaissance Palazzo Ducale, the seat of the Gonzaga family between 1328 and 1707. The Camera degli Sposi is decorated with frescoes by Andrea Mantegna, depicting the life of Ludovico III Gonzaga and his family, who ruled Mantua for 34 years in the 15th century. The nearby 15th century Basilica of Sant’Andrea was originally built to accommodate the large number of pilgrims who came to Mantua to see a precious relic, an ampoule containing what were believed to be drops of Christ’s blood mixed with earth, while the Palazzo Te is a fine example of the Mannerist school of architecture, the masterpiece of the architect Giulio Romano. The name for the palace came about because the location chosen had been the site of the Gonzaga family stables at Isola del Te on the edge of the marshes just outside Mantua’s city walls. 

Also on this day: 

1425: The birth of painter Alesso Baldovinetti

1628: The death of painter Palma Giovane

1963: The birth of singer Alessandro Safina

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13 October

Execution of former King of Naples

Joachim Murat, key aide of Napoleon, shot by firing squad

Joachim Murat, the French cavalry leader who was a key military strategist in Napoleon's rise to power in France and his subsequent creation of an empire in continental Europe, was executed on this day in 1815 in Pizzo in Calabria.  The charismatic Marshal was captured by Bourbon forces in the coastal town in Italy's deep south as he tried to gather support for an attempt to regain control of Naples, where he had been king until the fall of Napoleon saw the throne returned to the Bourbon king Ferdinand IV in May 1815.  Murat was held prisoner in the Castello di Pizzo before a tribunal found him guilty of insurrection and sentenced him to death by firing squad. The 48-year-old soldier from Lot in south-west France had been an important figure in the French Revolutionary Wars and gained recognition from Napoleon as one of his best generals, his influence vital in the success of Napoleon's campaigns in Egypt and Italy and in victories against the numerically superior Prussians and Russians.  He was a flamboyant dresser, going into battle with his uniform bedecked in medals, gold tassels, feathers and shiny buttons.  Yet for all his peacock tendencies, he was renowned as a bold, brave and decisive leader. Read more…

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Giorgio Massari - architect

Work in 18th century Venice had echoes of Palladio

The architect Giorgio Massari, who designed a number of significant churches and palaces in Venice in the 18th century, was born on this day in 1687.  Massari’s legacy in Venice includes the imposing Palazzo Grassi on the Grand Canal and the church of Santa Maria del Rosario, commonly known as the Gesuati, on the Giudecca Canal, which is acknowledged as his masterpiece.  He redesigned Santa Maria della Visitazione - known as the Pietà - the church on the Riva degli Schiavoni famous for its association with the great Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi, who wrote some of his most famous music while working as a violin teacher at the adjoining orphanage.  Outside Venice, Massari designed villas and churches around Brescia, Treviso and Udine.  His designs, especially his churches and villas, were often influenced by the work of the 16th century Classical architect Andrea Palladio and by Massari’s fellow Venetian, the Baroque sculptor and architect Baldassare Longhena.   Massari was born in the San Luca parish of the San Marco sestiere. His father, Stefano, was a carpenter from a village near Brescia in Lombardy.  Read more…

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Francesca Bertini - silent movie actress

Diva described as Italy’s first film star

The actress Francesca Bertini, one of the three so-called divas of Italy’s silent movie era, died on this day in 1985 in Rome at the age of 93. Between her screen debut in 1907 and her effective retirement in 1935, Bertini appeared in 139 titles. Her last appearance came in 1976, at the age of 84, when the director Bernardo Bertolucci persuaded her to accept a cameo in his epic historical drama, Novecento (1900).  Bertini, Lyda Borelli and Pina Menichelli were regarded as Italy’s three biggest female stars of the silent movie years and though Borelli came to be seen as the most talented of the three, there is no doubt that Bertini was a woman of outstanding ability. She has been described as Italy's first film star.  Her most famous film, Assunta Spina, a 1915 production, not only saw her take the title role but write scripts and direct many of the scenes, introducing a level of realism into the performances that was ahead of its time.  Bertini’s birth was registered in 1892 at an orphanage in Florence as Elena Taddei, although it is unclear whether Taddei was the name of her father. Her mother was said to be Adelina di Venanzio Fratiglioni, an unmarried woman who was thought to have been an actress herself.  Read more…

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Eugenio Barsanti - engineer

Created world’s first working internal combustion engine

The engineer Eugenio Barsanti, whose internal combustion engine was the first working example of the technology to be produced anywhere in the world, was born on this day in 1821 in Pietrasanta, a town in northern Tuscany.   The Belgian-French engineer Étienne Lenoir and the German Nicolaus Otto are credited with the first commercially successful internal combustion engines, but Barsanti’s machine, which he developed with partner Felice Matteucci, was unveiled in 1853 - six years before Lenoir’s and eight years ahead of Otto’s.  Barsanti might have achieved commercial success himself but shortly after reaching an agreement with a company in Belgium to produce his machine on a commercial scale he contracted typhoid fever, from which he never recovered.  A rather sickly child, known by his parents as Nicolò, Barsanti took the name Father Eugenio after entering the novitiate of the Piarists, the oldest Catholic religious order dedicated to education.  He took a teaching position at Collegio San Michele in Volterra. It was there, while lecturing on the explosive energy created by mixing hydrogen and air that he realised the potential of using combustible gases to lift the pistons in a motor.   Read more…

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Mario Buda - anarchist

Prime suspect in Wall Street Bombing 

Mario Buda, the anarchist suspected but never convicted of the 1920 Wall Street bombing, was born on this day in 1884 in Savignano sul Rubicone, a town in the Emilia-Romagna region, about 90km (56 miles) southeast of Bologna.  Some 38 people were killed, with hundreds more injured, when a horse-drawn cart packed with explosives exploded close to the New York Stock Exchange building on the famous thoroughfare. Buda was identified by a blacksmith who had rented him the horse and Federal agents began an investigation.  The Italian, who had emigrated to the United States in 1907, was known to the police after being arrested previously in connection with a double-murder in the town of Braintree, Massachusetts. He had escaped from custody on that occasion and evaded detection again, boarding a ship to return to Italy before he could be questioned over the bombing. Born into a family of modest means, Buda led an unsettled youth. He was arrested for robbery at the age of 15 and later served a jail term after being indicted on a charge of noise pollution at night. On his release, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker but remained restless.  Read more... 

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Claudius - Roman emperor

Suspicious death of leader who conquered Britain

The Roman emperor Claudius, whose reign was notable among other things for turning Britain into a province of the Empire, died on this day in 54 AD.  It is a widely held view that he was murdered, by poisoning, on the orders of his scheming fourth wife, Julia Agrippina, the mother of his successor, Nero, in one of the power struggles that at the time were ever present.  It is thought he ingested some poisonous mushrooms that his taster, the eunuch Halotus, had assured him were safe to eat, either at an official banquet on the evening of October 12 or at his first meal of the following day.  When Claudius began to show signs of distress, one version of the story is that his physician, Xenophon, pushed a feather into his throat, ostensibly to make him vomit, but actually to ensure that he did not recover by administering more poison, with which he had coated the feather.  There have been arguments that the poisoning story was nonsense and that, at 63, Claudius died from natural causes related to ageing. Yet Agrippina - sometimes referred to as Agrippina the Younger - seemed to have had a clear motive.  Read more…

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Piero Dusio - sportsman and entrepreneur

His Cisitalia company revolutionised automobile design

The footballer, racing driver and businessman Piero Dusio was born on this day in 1899 in Scurzolengo, a village in the hills above Asti, in Piedmont.  Dusio made his fortune in textiles but it is for his postwar venture into car production that he is most remembered. Dusio’s Cisitalia firm survived for less than 20 years before going bankrupt in the mid-1960s but in its short life produced a revolutionary car - the Cisitalia 202 - that was a gamechanger for the whole automobile industry.  Dusio played football for the Turin club Juventus, joining the club at 17 years old, and was there for seven years before a knee injury forced him to retire at the age of only 24, having made 15 appearances for the senior team, four of them in Serie A matches.  He kept his connection with the club and from 1942 to 1948 was Juventus president. In the short term, though, he was forced to find a new career. He was offered a job with a Swiss-backed textile firm in Turin as a salesman. He took to the job immediately and made an instant impression on his new employers, selling more fabric in his first week than his predecessor had in a year.  Within a short time he had been placed in charge of sales for the whole of Italy.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Death of Joachim Murat: 1815 and the Unfortunate Fate of One of Napoleon's Marshals, by Jonathan North

Joachim Murat, son of an innkeeper, had won his spurs as Napoleon’s finest cavalry general and then won his throne when, in 1808, Napoleon appointed him king of Naples. He loyally ran this strategic Italian kingdom with his wife, Napoleon’s sister Caroline, until, in 1814, with Napoleon beaten and in retreat towards ruin and exile, the royal couple chose to betray their imperial relation and dramatically switched sides. This notorious betrayal won them temporary respite, but just a year later Murat engineered his own dramatic fall. A series of blunders took the cavalier king from thinking he had secured his dynasty to fleeing his kingdom. His native France did not welcome him, initially because Napoleon had not forgiven him, then, after Napoleon’s fall following Waterloo, because the restored Bourbons were offering a reward for Murat’s head. Fleeing again, fate brought him to Corsica where, welcomed at last, Murat turned to plotting the reversal in his fortunes he so felt he deserved. Murat soon resolved to bet everything on a hare-brained plan to return to Naples as a conquering hero and king. His aim was to take a small band of followers, land near his capital, organise regime change and reclaim his throne. In September 1815, he set off with his small band of followers. What happened next forms the core of this part-tragic, part-ridiculous story and a lesson in how not to stage a coup. Just five days after landing in Calabria, King Joachim was hauled before a firing squad and executed. The fall of Joachim Murat is the final act of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe as well as being a dramatic story in its own right. Based on research in the archives of Paris and Naples, Jonathan North’s aim with The Death of Joachim Murat is to restore some history to a tale that, until now, lay smothered under two centuries of fable and neglect.

Jonathan North is a historian specialising in Napoleonic history. His books on the subject include With Napoleon in Russia: The Illustrated Memoirs of Faber du Faur; In the Legions of Napoleon: The Memoirs of a Polish Officer in Spain and Russia, 1808-1812; and Napoleon’s Army in Russia: The Illustrated Memoirs of Albrecht Adam, 1812.

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