Delia Scala - ballerina, actress and TV presenter

Much-loved star was pioneer of Italy’s musical comedy genre 

Delia Scala's versatility as an entertainer
gained her big roles in musical comedy

Delia Scala, a ballerina who became a stage and screen actress, helped popularise musical comedy in Italy in the 1950s and ‘60s and presented light entertainment shows on television, died on this day in 2004 in Livorno, in Tuscany.

Born Odette Bedogni in Bracciano, Lazio in 1929, she had suffered a recurrence of the breast cancer for which she had been successfully treated in the 1970s, passing away at the age of 74.

Her personal life was marred by tragedy. Her father and one of her three husbands died in road accidents, while the racing driver to whom she was engaged after her first marriage was annulled was killed on the track. Her third husband died from cancer.

Yet in her career she enjoyed considerable success and became hugely popular with Italian audiences.  After her death, the President of Italy at the time, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, described her as a "model of enthusiasm and rigorous professionalism" and said he rated her among "the most beloved and popular artists in the history of Italian entertainment".

As a child, Scala inherited a love of music and dance from her mother, Iolanda, who chose Odette as her name after the title of one her favourite songs. When her father, Aldo, a test pilot with the Italian air force, was transferred from Bracciano to Malpensa, near Milan, the family settled in Gallarate, near Varese and Lake Maggiore. 

Already showing talent, the eight-year-old Odette was given a place at the Ballet School of Teatro alla Scala, Milan’s prestigious opera house, where she would remain for seven years.  Her family moved again, when her father left the air force, relocating to Campagnola Emilia, some 168km (100 miles) away from Milan, but Odette was able to continue her nascent dance career by staying in Milan, at first with an aunt and later in lodgings.

She performed on stage at La Scala many times, her ballet credits including Ottorino Respighi's La bottega fantastica and Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty. Another highlight was appearing as a dancer in Ruggero Leoncavallo’s opera Zazà, starring the celebrated tenor, Beniamino Gigli.  

Her move into films came after she was chosen to play a leading role in a documentary about La Scala’s ballet school. Other opportunities to appear on screen soon followed, in which she first performed under her own name before adopting Lia Della Scala as a professional name. The change to Delia Scala was at the suggestion of Italo Calvino - later to become famous as a novelist - who was at the time head of the press office at Lux Films.

Scala had embarked on a career as a ballet
dancer before the big screen beckoned

From the late 1940s, having been spotted initially by the director Luigi Zampa, who gave her a part in his 1948 film, Anni difficili (Difficult Years), Scala was seldom not working. 

Important roles followed in Eduardo De Filippo’s Napoli milionaria (1950); Roma ore 11 (1952), a neorealist film by Giuseppe De Santis; Jacques Becker’s Grisbì (1954); and Beauties on a bicycle (1951) by Carlo Campogalliani, where she appeared alongside Silvana Pampanini.

The breadth of her acting skills was shown off further in Gran Varietà (1953), alongside Vittorio de Sica and Lea Padovani, where she impressively danced a Charleston, and in Signori si nasce (1960) by Mario Mattoli, alongside the comedy great, Totò.

It was in part as a consequence of those performances that she was chosen to make her theatre debut with Giove in doppiopetto (Double-breasted Jupiter) at the Teatro Lirico in Milan in 1954. The production is considered to be the first example of commedia musicale, an italian musical genre created by playwrights Pietro Garinei and Sandro Giovannini, with the collaboration of the musician and songwriter Gorni Kramer. 

As Scala’s stature in the genre grew, she found herself in demand and had roles alongside renowned performers such as Walter Chiari, Nino Manfredi, Paolo Panelli, Domenico Modugno, Gianrico Tedeschi, Mario Carotenuto and Renato Rascel.

Her popularity led also to Scala becoming one of the earliest of Italy’s television stars as the small screen began to play a part in the lives of Italians in the 1950s, co-hosting the TV show Lui e Lei with Nino Taranto, and Canzonissima with Manfredi and Paolo Panelli.

Scala shone in the world of television,
becoming a popular presenter

Away from her successful career, Scala’s quest for contentment in her personal life was repeatedly upended by tragedy. Her father was killed in 1947 at the age of 41, struck by a car near their home. A year later her first marriage, with a Greek soldier attached to a local partisan unit who was given shelter by her family, ended with separation. She was only 19.

The marriage was annulled, after which she became engaged to racing driver, Eugenio Castellotti. He died in 1957, losing control of his Ferrari while attempting a speed record at the Modena race track.

In 1967 she married Piero Giannotti, who died in 1982 when hit by a car while riding his motor scooter. Her third husband, the industrialist Arturo Fremura, died in 2001, from liver cancer.

Scala’s own health problems began in 1974 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 44. Happily, under the care of the distinguished oncologist Pietro Bucalossi and his assistant Umberto Veronesi, she underwent experimental radio and chemotherapy and recovered to live another 30 years.

Societal attitudes to cancer were much different then compared with today. When news of the diagnosis was leaked to the media - she had tried to keep it private - she lost some advertising contracts on the basis that being affected by cancer was perceived as “bad for her image.” 

Once she had recovered enough, she joined the tennis player Lea Pericoli, who had suffered a similar experience after being diagnosed with cancer while still competing, in campaigning to change attitudes. 

Scala herself presented a series of annual live shows entitled A Rose for Life at Lido di Camaiore on the Tuscan coast north of Pisa, together with Raimondo Vianello and Sandra Mondaini, a showbiz couple who had also faced cancer, in order to raise funds for cancer research and prevention.

Such was her commitment that, in 1982, she insisted on presenting the show on its planned date even though she had lost Piero, her second husband, only a few days earlier. 

Scala effectively retired from acting in the 1980s, her only subsequent part in a sitcom aired between 1996 and 1998. After marrying Fremura - a widower with four children - she spent the last two decades of her life in Livorno.

The monumental Orsini-Odescalchi Castle seems
to loom around every corner in Bracciano

Travel tip:

The town of Bracciano is situated about 40km (24 miles) northwest of Rome, rising above Lake Bracciano, a nearly circular volcanic lake. Bracciano’s centre retains a medieval feel, with narrow lanes, stone houses, and a skyline dominated by the great Orsini–Odescalchi Castle. The surrounding area is protected as the Bracciano-Martignano Natural Park, which keeps the lake pristine by limiting motorised boats and preserving the quiet, rural atmosphere. The earliest known structure was a 10th‑century watchtower, built to defend against Saracen raids, which became the heart of a fortified settlement of which the powerful Orsini family took control in 1234. They transformed Bracciano into a strategic stronghold, culminating in the late 15th century with the construction of the huge fortress today known as the Castello Orsini-Odescalchi, one of the best-preserved Renaissance fortresses in Italy. The Odescalchi family, who bought the castle from the Orsinis in 1696, still own it. With its towers, courtyards, frescoed halls, armouries, and sweeping views over the lake, it is easily Bracciano’s star attraction and a popular location for films and television dramas, as well as the backdrop for several high-profile celebrity weddings, including that of the Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. The Vigna di Valle airbase, where Delia Scala’s father was based at the time of her birth, now houses one of Italy’s most important aviation museums, housed in historic seaplane hangars.

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The canals of Livorno's popular Venezia Nuova
district come alive after dark

Travel tip:

Livorno, where Delia Scala spent the later years of her life, is the second largest city in Tuscany after Florence, with a population of almost 160,000, and the region’s great sea port. Ferries, cargo ships, cruise liners, fishing boats, and naval vessels all move through the harbour. Yet just beyond the cranes and docks you find a city shaped by centuries of immigration, free‑trade policies, and Medici ambition. Livorno, which began as a small coastal settlement, was for centuries overshadowed by nearby Pisa, whose republic controlled the area throughout the Middle Ages.  As it grew, the port was sold to Milan in 1399 and to Genoa in 1407 before it was purchased by Florence in 1421, bringing it under Medici rule for the next three centuries.  The Medici recognised Livorno’s strategic potential and rebuilt the harbour, fortified the town, and declared it a free port, attracting merchants from across Europe and the Mediterranean. As well as becoming a major commercial hub it became one of Italy’s most cosmopolitan cities, with significant Jewish, Greek, Armenian and Dutch Protestant minorities. The Medici legacy is visible in the 16th century red brick Fortezza Vecchia, that stands guard over the harbour. Other attractions include the Fortezza Nuova, also built by the Medici, which anchors Livorno’s popular Venezia Nuova district, with its network of canals, and the elegant Terrazza Mascagni, the seafront promenade, paved in a sweeping black‑and‑white checkerboard pattern, which carries the name of one of Livorno’s most famous sons, the opera composer Pietro Mascagni.

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More reading:

Raimondo Vianello, a big-screen star who conquered television

Why comic actor Totò is still seen as one of Italy’s funniest performers

How Umberto Veronesi pioneered new treatments for breast cancer

Also on this day:

1623: The death of Venetian writer and statesman Paolo Sarpi

1926: The death of songwriter Giambattista De Curtis

1935: The birth of football coach Gigi Radice

1971: The birth of rugby star Paolo Vaccari

1977: The birth of Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first female PM

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14 January

Leonardo Servadio - entrepreneur 

Tailor from Perugia whose Ellesse brand found global success

The tailor and businessman Leonardo Servadio, who founded the Italian sportswear company Ellesse, was born on this day in 1925 in Perugia.  Ellesse - the name is taken from Servadio’s initials as they are spelled in the Italian alphabet, elle and esse - was a groundbreaker in its field, the first manufacturer to display its brand name on the outside of a garment. Under Leonardo’s management, it grew to become one of the best known names in sportswear, particularly in the worlds of tennis and skiing, and acquired a glamorous image that enabled it to expand successfully into the  leisurewear market.  Now owned by the Pentland Group, a British company with a large portfolio of sportswear brands, at its peak Ellesse sponsored tennis stars such as Chris Evert and Boris Becker, the skier Alberto Tomba and the racing driver Alain Prost. Read more…

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Giulio Andreotti - political survivor

Christian Democrat spent 45 years in government

Giulio Andreotti, who was Italy's most powerful politician for a period lasting almost half a century,  was born on this day in 1919 in Rome.  He was a member of almost every Italian government from 1947 until 1992, leading seven of them.  He would have certainly gone on to be president were it not for the scandals in which he became embroiled in the 1990s, when his Christian Democrat party collapsed as a result of the mani pulite - clean hands - bribery investigations.  Andreotti himself was accused of an historic association with the Mafia and of commissioning the murder of a journalist, although he was acquitted of the latter charge on appeal.  The youngest of three children, Andreotti was brought up in difficult circumstances by his mother after his father, who had taught at a junior school in Segni, about 60km (37 miles) south-east of the capital in Lazio, had died when he was only two years old. Read more…

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Battle of Rivoli

Napoleon defeats the Austrians and boosts his reputation

Napoleon won an important victory on Italian soil on this day in 1797 when, despite his troops being outnumbered, they defeated an attacking Austrian army. He triumphed in the Battle of Rivoli near the village of Rivoli Veronese, in what was then part of the Republic of Venice.  Austrian soldiers were attempting to move south to relieve a garrison of their men who were under siege from the French in Mantua. But their defeat at the Battle of Rivoli led to them having to surrender Mantua to their enemy a few weeks later.  Napoleon’s victory in the Battle of Rivoli effectively consolidated the position of the French in northern Italy and enhanced his reputation as a capable military commander.  Under the command of General Jozsef Alvinczi, the Austrian troops had planned to overwhelm the French soldiers serving under General Barthelemy Joubert. Read more…

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Nina Ricci – designer

Creative flair of Italian-born founder of famous fashion house

The prestigious fashion designer Nina Ricci was born Maria Nielli in Turin on this day in 1883.  Her designs enabled her to build a reputation for graceful, feminine clothes. Ricci was a near-contemporary of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel but in many ways they were polar opposites in that Ricci was neither a public personality nor a headline‐making designer.  Maria moved with her family to live in Florence at the age of five and then went to live with them in France when she was 12.  Her interest in fashion had begun in childhood, when she would dress her dolls. At the age of 13, having acquired the nickname Nina, she began working as a dressmaker’s apprentice.  She continued working in fashion, eventually joining the house of Raffin as a designer.  In 1904 she married an Italian jeweller named Luigi Ricci and they later had a son, Robert. Read more…

Franchino Gaffurio – composer

Musician whose name has lived on for centuries in Milan

Renaissance composer Franchino Gaffurio was born on this day in 1451 in Lodi, a city in Lombardy some 40km (25 miles) southeast of Milan.  He was to become a friend of Leonardo da Vinci later in life and may have been the person depicted in Leonardo’s famous painting, Portrait of a Musician.  The oil on wood painting, which Da Vinci is thought to have completed in around 1490, is housed in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. Gaffurio was born into an aristocratic family, who sent him to a Benedictine monastery, where he acquired musical training.  He later became a priest and lived in Mantua and Verona before settling in Milan, where he became maestro di cappella (choirmaster) at the Duomo in 1484. He was to retain the post for the rest of his life.  Gaffurio was one of Italy’s most famous musicians in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Read more…

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Alberico Gentili – international lawyer

Academic gave the world its first system of jurisprudence

Alberico Gentili, who is regarded as one of the founders of the science of international law, was born on this day in 1552 in San Ginesio in the province of Macerata in Marche.  He was the first European academic to separate secular law from Roman Catholic theology and canon law and the earliest to write about public international law.  He became Regius Professor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford in England and taught there for 21 years.  Gentili graduated as a doctor of civil law in 1572 from the University of Perugia but was exiled from Italy in 1579 and eventually went to live in England because he became a Protestant.  He taught at Oxford from 1581 until his death in 1608 and became well-known for his lectures on Roman law and his writing on legal topics.  In 1588 Gentili published De jure belli commentatio prima - First Commentary on the Law of War. Read more…

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Luca Longhi - artist

‘Quiet’ painter trained his children to follow in his footsteps

Luca Longhi, a portrait painter also known for his beautiful religious paintings who was working during the late Renaissance and Mannerist periods, was born on this day in 1507 in Ravenna in Emilia-Romagna.  He was the father of the painters Francesco Longhi and Barbara Longhi, who were both trained by him and worked in his workshop.  Little is known about Luca Longhi’s own artistic training, but it is thought he probably attended the Ravenna workshops of local artists Francesco Zaganelli and his brother, Bernardino Zaganelli.  The painter and art historian Giorgio Vasari visited Ravenna in 1548 and wrote about "Master Luca de Longhi" in his book, The Lives of the Artists. He says: “Luca de Longhi is a man of good nature, quiet and (a) scholar (who) has done in his homeland Ravenna, and outside, many beautiful oil pictures and portraits. He has done and still works with patience and study.” Read more…

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Book of the Day: Sport Brands (Routledge Sports Marketing Series), by Patrick Bouchet, Dieter Hillairet and Guillaume Bodet

Sport brands are a central element of modern sport business and a ubiquitous component of contemporary global culture. This groundbreaking book offers a complete analysis of the topic of sport brands from both a marketing management approach (strategy and implementation) and a psycho-sociological approach (consumption and wider society). In doing so it explores both supply and demand sides, offering a complete introduction to the nature, purpose and value of sport brands not found in any other sports marketing text. Sports Brands covers the whole heterogeneity of sport brands, going much further than the sport team and league brands covered in most other books. As well as teams and leagues, the book considers the brands of sports celebrities, events, media, computer games and governing bodies, as well as the ethical, professional and technological ‘label brands’ associated with sport. Richly illustrated with cases, examples and data, the book explores the tangible and intangible influence of sport brands, their economic and social value, and the subcultures and communities that grow up around them. 

Patrick Bouchet is Professor of Sport Management and Marketing within the Sport Sciences Faculty at the University of Burgundy, France.  Dieter Hillairet is Lecturer in Sport Management and Marketing within the University of Clermont-Ferrand, France.  Guillaume Bodet is Lecturer of Sport Marketing and Management within the Institute of Sport and Leisure Policy and the Centre for Olympic Studies and Research, School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at the University of Loughborough, UK. 

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13 January

Marco Pantani - tragic cycling champion

Rider from Cesenatico won historic 'double'

Marco Pantani, who until Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar achieved the feat in 2024 was the last rider to have won cycling's Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same year, was born on this day in 1970.  Recognised as one of the sport's greatest hill climbers, Pantani completed the historic 'double' in 1998 and remains one of only seven riders to achieve the feat.  A single-mindedly fierce competitor, Pantani had won the amateur version of the Giro - the Girobio - in 1992, after which he turned professional.  Winner of the Young Rider classification at the Tour de France in 1994 and 1995, he might have enjoyed still greater success.  But Pantani's career was blighted by physical injuries and later by scandal after he was disqualified from the 1999 Giro d'Italia just two days from the finish - and with a clear lead - after a blood test revealed irregular results. He died tragically young in 2004.  Read more…

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Costa Concordia tragedy

Shipwreck off Tuscany coast cost 32 lives

A fatal accident involving the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia took place on this day in 2012, resulting in the loss of 32 lives.  The captain, Francesco Schettino, was ultimately prosecuted and found guilty of manslaughter, receiving a 16-year jail sentence.  The tragedy began to unfold at 9.45pm as the €450 million vessel, carrying 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew, struck rocks close to Isola del Giglio, off the coast of southern Tuscany.  The Costa Concordia, at 290m long Italy’s largest cruise ship when launched in 2005, was en route from the Tyrrhenian port of Civitavecchia to Savona in Liguria on the first leg of a seven-day Mediterranean cruise.  Its course along the Italian coastline involved passing between Isola del Giglio, an island of 23.80 sq km (9.19 sq mi), and the promontory of Monte Argentario, some 16km (10 miles) to the east.  Read more…

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Renato Bruson – operatic baritone

Donizetti and Verdi specialist rated among greats

The opera singer Renato Bruson, whose interpretation of Giuseppe Verdi’s baritone roles sometimes brought comparison with such redoubtable performers as Tito Gobbi, Ettore Bastianini and Piero Cappuccili, was born on this day in 1936 in the village of Granze, near Padua.  Bruson’s velvety voice and noble stage presence sustained him over a career of remarkable longevity. He was still performing in 2011 at the age of 75, having made his debut more than half a century earlier.  Since then he has devoted himself more to teaching masterclasses, although he did manage one more performance of Verdi’s Falstaff, which was among his most famous roles, at the age of 77 in 2013, having been invited to the Teatro Verdi in Busseto, the composer’s home town in Emilia-Romagna, as part of a celebration marking 200 years since Verdi’s birth.  Read more…

Veronica De Laurentiis - actress and author

Turned personal torment into bestselling book

The actress and author Veronica De Laurentiis, the daughter of legendary film producer Dino De Laurentiis and actress Silvana Mangano, was born on this day in 1950 in Rome.  Although she still works in film and TV, she is best known as a campaigner against domestic violence and the author of the bestselling book Rivoglio la mia vita (I Want My Life Back), which revealed details of the attacks she was subjected to in her first marriage. Her then-husband was subsequently jailed for 14 years.  Veronica De Laurentiis was cast in the blockbuster movie Waterloo - produced by her father - when she was just 18, alongside the great actors Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer.  She married young, and after the birth of her first child, Giada - now well known as a TV cook in the United States - decided to suspend her acting career in order to focus on parenthood.  Read more…

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Prince Emanuele Filiberto – Duke of Aosta

Savoy prince who became a brilliant soldier

Prince Emanuele Filiberto, who became the second Duca d'Aosta - Duke of Aosta - was born on this day in 1869 in Genoa.  The Prince successfully commanded the Italian Third Army during World War I, earning himself the title of the ‘Undefeated Duke.’ After the war he became a Marshall of Italy.  Emanuele Filiberto was the eldest son of Prince Amedeo of Savoy, Duca d'Aosta, and his first wife, Donna Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo della Cisterna, an Italian noblewoman.  In 1870 Prince Amedeo was elected to become King of Spain but he resigned after three years on the throne and returned to Italy, declaring Spain ‘ungovernable’. In 1890 Emanuele Filiberto succeeded his father to the title of Duca d'Aosta.  The Duke began his army career in Naples in 1905 as a Commander. His record while in command of the Italian Third Army led to his troops being nicknamed ‘armata invitta’ - undefeated army.  Read more…

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Carlo Tagliabue – opera singer

Powerful performer remembered for his Don Carlo

A leading Italian baritone in the middle of the 20th century, Carlo Tagliabue was born on this day in 1898 in Mariano Comense near Como in Lombardy.  He particularly excelled in Verdi roles at the height of his career and continued to perform on stage and make recordings when he was well into his fifties.  After studying in Milan, Tagliabue made his debut on stage at a theatre in Lodi in 1922 singing Amonasro, King of Ethiopia, in Aida.  He went on to sing in Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, when it was performed in Italian at theatres in Genoa, Turin , Milan , Rome and Naples. He later became known for his performances in Giuseppe Verdi operas, particularly La forza del destino, Rigoletto, La traviata, Nabucco and Otello and he was consistently praised for the power of his voice.  Tagliabue is also remembered for creating the role of Basilio in the world premiere of Ottorino Respighi’s La fiamma in 1934.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Death of Marco Pantani: A Biography, by Matt Rendell

On Valentine's day 2004, Marco Pantani was found dead in a cheap hotel. It defied belief: Pantani, having won the rare double of the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in 1998, was regarded as the only cyclist capable of challenging Lance Armstrong's dominance. Only later did it emerge that Pantani had been addicted to cocaine since 1999.  Drawing on his personal encounters with Pantani, as well as exclusive access to his psychoanalysts, and interviews with his family and friends, Matt Rendell has produced the definitive account of an iconic sporting figure.  An intimate biography of the charismatic champion, updated to include the 2014 and 2015 investigation into his death, The Death of Marco Pantani was a National Sporting Club Book of the Year winner and shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.  A book that pulls no punches, it has been described as a parable on modern sport and celebrity. 

Matt Rendell is an award-winning author and journalist. He is a member of ITV’s presentation team at the Tour de France and, as a translator, reporter, commentator and podcaster, he has contributed to British Tour coverage for over 25 years.  He has written for the Observer, New Statesman, Guardian and Financial Times, as well as the principal cycling magazines and websites.

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12 January

John Singer Sargent - painter

Celebrated portraitist had lifelong love for Italy

The painter John Singer Sargent, who was hailed as the leading portraitist of his era but was also a brilliant painter of landscapes, was born on this day in 1856 in Florence.  Although he became an American citizen at the first opportunity, both his parents being American, he spent his early years in Italy and would regularly return to the country throughout his life.  At his commercial peak during the Edwardian age, his studio in London attracted wealthy clients not only from England but from the rest of Europe and even from the other side of the Atlantic, asking him to grant them immortality on canvas.  His full length portraits, which epitomised the elegance and opulence of high society at the end of the 19th century, would cost the subject up to $5,000 - the equivalent of around $140,000 (€122,000; £109,000) today.  Read more…

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Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies

Despotic ruler presided over chaos in southern Italy

The Bourbon prince who would become the first monarch of a revived Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was born in Naples on this day in 1751.  Ferdinando, third son of King Carlos (Charles) III of Spain, was handed the separate thrones of Naples and Sicily when he was only eight years old after his father’s accession to the Spanish throne required him to abdicate his titles in Spanish-ruled southern Italy.  In a 65-year reign, he would preside over one of the most turbulent periods in the history of a region that was never far from upheaval, which would see Spanish rule repeatedly challenged by France before eventually being handed to Austria.  Too young, obviously, to take charge in his own right when his reign began officially in 1759, he continued to enjoy his privileged upbringing, alternating between the palaces his father had built at Caserta, Portici and Capodimonte.  Read more…

Charles Emmanuel I – Duke of Savoy

Rash ruler who led catastrophic attack on Geneva 

Charles Emmanuel I, who developed a reputation for being hot-headed, was born on this day in 1562 in the Castle of Rivoli in Piedmont.  Renowned for his rashness and military aggression in trying to acquire territory, Charles Emmanuel has gone down in history for launching a disastrous attack on Geneva in Switzerland.  In 1602 he led his troops to the city during the night and surrounded the walls. At two o’clock in the morning the Savoy soldiers were ordered to dismount and climb the city walls in full armour as a shock tactic.  However the alarm was raised by a night watchman and Geneva’s army was ready to meet the invaders.  Many of the Savoy soldiers were killed and others were captured and later executed.  The heavy helmets worn by the Savoy troops featured visors with the design of a human face on them. Read more…

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Revolution in Sicily

January revolt meant the beginning of the end for the Bourbons

The Sicilian uprising on this day in 1848 was to be the first of several revolutions in Italy and Europe that year.  The revolt against the Bourbon government of Ferdinand II in Sicily started in Palermo and led to Sicily becoming an independent state for 16 months.  It was the third revolution to take place on the island against Bourbon rule and signalled the end for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.  Naples and Sicily had been formally reunited to become the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1815. Back in medieval times they had both been part of a single Kingdom of Sicily.  The 1848 revolt was organised in Palermo and deliberately timed to coincide with King Ferdinand’s birthday.  News of the revolt spread and peasants from the countryside arrived to join the fray and express their frustration about the hardships they were enduring.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: John Singer Sargent: His Life and Works in 500 Images

An American who spent most of his life in Europe, a portraitist who painted landscapes, a family man who never married, and an accomplished pianist who often entertained his sitters, John Singer Sargent (1856 to 1925) was one of the most influential portrait painters of his time, but he is also an enigma. Despite his huge body of work, we know little about Sargent the man. Truly international, he was acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic, and was close friends with many of the leading artists, writers, actors and musicians of his generation. Over the course of his career, Sargent created roughly 900 oil paintings, more than 2,000 watercolours and a vast number of sketches and charcoal drawings. He travelled extensively, to Venice, the Tyrol, Capri, Corfu, Spain, France, England, Holland, the Middle East, Canada and across America. Sargent was in constant demand for his portraits, and during his lifetime he was perceived as a far more significant artist even than contemporary avant-garde painters such as Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. Yet during his life, as well as attracting acclamation from across Europe and America, he also provoked both scandal and condemnation. The first part of John Singer Sargent: His Life and Works in 500 Images explores the life of Sargent and the times he lived in; the second part is a magnificent gallery of his work, with details about each painting and its context. 

Susie Hodge, MA, FRSA, is an award-winning author, art historian, artist and journalist. After teaching in secondary, further and higher education, she now writes books, magazine articles, web resources and booklets for museums and galleries, runs workshops, and gives talks and lectures at schools, universities, museums, galleries, businesses, festivals and societies around the world including the V&A, the Museum of London, Tate and the Royal Academy.

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11 January

The 1693 Sicily earthquake

Devastation that led to architectural rebirth

A huge earthquake destroyed or severely damaged scores of towns and cities in Sicily on this day in 1693, killing more than 60,000 people.  Records say the tremor struck at around 9pm local time and lasted about four minutes.  It was mainly confined to the southeast corner of the island, with damage also reported in Calabria on the Italian mainland and even on Malta, 190km (118 miles) away.  Although it is an estimate rather than a verifiable figure, the earthquake has been given a recorded magnitude of 7.4, which makes it the most powerful in Italian history, although in terms of casualties it was eclipsed by the earthquake that destroyed much of Messina and Reggio Calabria in 1908, with perhaps up to 200,000 killed.  At least 70 towns and cities - including Catania, Syracuse (Siracusa), Noto and Acireale - were either very badly damaged or destroyed. Read more…

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The Giannini sextuplets

The multiple birth that made history

History was made on this day in 1980 when a schoolteacher from the Casentino valley in Tuscany gave birth to sextuplets in a hospital in Florence.  The babies – four boys and two girls – delivered between 4.17am and 4.22am at the Careggi Hospital, on the northern outskirts of the Tuscan capital, grew to become the first sextuplets in Europe to survive beyond infancy and only the second set in the world.  Their arrival turned the Giannini family - mum Rosanna and dad Franco - into instant celebrities and their house in Soci, a village in the municipality of Bibbiena, 60km (37 miles) east of Florence, was besieged by the world’s media, seeking pictures and interviews.  In Italy, the event was celebrated with particular enthusiasm, heralded as the good news the nation craved after a year of tragedies, including the Ustica plane crash, the bombing of Bologna railway station and the Irpinia earthquake. Read more…

Fabrizio De André - singer-songwriter

‘Poet of music’ who remains a hero of the Italian left

The singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André, whose songs often celebrated the lives of the marginalised in Italian society and gained him a popularity that has already outlived him by a quarter of a century, died on this day in 1999 in the Città Studi district of Milan.  De André, who was a month short of his 59th birthday, had been diagnosed with lung cancer six months earlier. After his death at the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, his body was returned to his native Genoa, where a crowd estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000 gathered for his funeral at the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta in Carignano.  His impact on Italian culture has been such that streets, squares and schools in many towns and cities bear his name. A three-hour tribute to him broadcast on a relatively obscure Italian TV channel to mark the 10th anniversary of his death attracted an audience of almost eight million viewers. Read more…

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Galeazzo Ciano - ill-fated Fascist politician

The son-in-law Mussolini had shot as a traitor

Galeazzo Ciano, part of the Fascist Grand Council that voted for Benito Mussolini to be thrown out of office as Italy faced crushing defeat in the Second World War, was killed by a firing squad in Verona on this day in 1944 after being found guilty of treason.  The 40-year-old former Foreign Minister in Mussolini's government was also his son-in-law, having been married to Edda Mussolini since he was 27.  Yet even his position in the family did not see him spared by the ousted dictator, who had been arrested on the orders of King Victor Emmanuel III but, after being freed by the Nazis, later exacted revenge against those he felt had betrayed him.  Ciano, a founding member of the Italy's National Fascist Party whose marriage to the Duce's daughter certainly helped him advance his career, had largely been supportive of Mussolini and was made Foreign Minister in part for his role in the military victory over Ethiopia. Read more…

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Matteo Renzi – politician

Italy's youngest Prime Minister was inspired by the scout movement

Matteo Renzi, the former Prime Minister of Italy, was born on this day in 1975 in Florence.  When he became Prime Minister in February 2014, he was the youngest person to hold the office since Italian unification in 1861. His father, Tiziano Renzi was a Christian Democrat local councillor in Rignano sull’Arno, where Renzi was brought up as part of an observant Catholic family.  He went to school in Florence and was a scout in the association of Catholic Guides and Scouts of Italy.  On Renzi’s personal website he carries a quote from Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout Movement: “Lasciare il mondo un po’ migliore di come lo abbiamo trovato - Leave the world a bit better than how you found it.”  In government, Renzi reformed labour and employment laws to boost economic growth and abolished some small taxes.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Sicily: A Short History, from the Ancient Greeks to Cosa Nostra, by John Julius Norwich

'I discovered Sicily almost by mistake,” John Julius Norwich writes. “We drove as far as Naples, then put the car on the night ferry to Palermo. There was a degree of excitement in the early hours when we passed Stromboli, emitting a rich glow every half-minute or so like an ogre puffing on an immense cigar; and a few hours later, in the early morning sunshine, we sailed into the Conca d'Oro, the Golden Shell, in which the city lies. Apart from the beauty of the setting, I remember being instantly struck by a change in atmosphere. The Strait of Messina is only a couple of miles across and the island is politically part of Italy; yet somehow one feels that one has entered a different world . . . This book is, among other things, an attempt to analyse why this should be”  The stepping stone between Europe and Africa, the gateway between the East and the West, at once a stronghold, clearing-house and observation post, Sicily has been invaded and fought over by Phoenicians and Greeks, Carthaginians and Romans, Goths and Byzantines, Arabs and Normans, Germans, Spaniards and the French for thousands of years. It has belonged to them all - and yet has properly been part of none. Sicily: A Short History covers everything from erupting volcanoes to the assassination of Byzantine emperors, from Nelson's affair with Emma Hamilton to Garibaldi and the rise of the Mafia. Taking in the key buildings and towns, it is packed with fascinating stories and unforgettable characters. 

John Julius Norwich was inspired to become a writer by his first visit to Sicily in 1961. A former diplomat, he gave up that career to write more than 20 books. He was a chairman of the Venice in Peril Fund and the honorary chairman of the World Monuments Fund. He died in 2018.

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10 January

NEW - Victor Emmanuel I - King of Sardinia

The first Victor Emmanuel ruled only part of Italy

King Victor Emmanuel, who was Duke of Savoy and ruler of the Savoy states in northern Italy, and King of the island of Sardinia, died on this day in 1824 in Turin.  His namesake in Italian history, who was to become Victor Emmanuel II, the first King of Italy, was the son of one of his distant cousins.  When Victor Emmanuel I died, he left no heir. His surviving daughters were unable to inherit because of a law excluding women and their descendants from the line of succession. He was succeeded as King of Sardinia by his brother, Charles Felix in 1821. His brother also left no successors and he was in turn succeeded to the titles by his cousin, Charles Albert in 1831.  After Charles Albert died in 1849, his son, Victor Emmanuel, became King of Sardinia and took the title of King Victor Emmanuel II.  Read more…

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Pina Menichelli – silent movie star

Screen diva who enjoyed worldwide fame

The actress Pina Menichelli, who became one of the most celebrated female stars of the silent movie era, was born on this day in 1890 in Castroreale, a village in northeast Sicily.  Menichelli’s career was brief – she retired at the age of just 34 – but in her last eight or nine years on screen she enjoyed such popularity that her films played to packed houses and she commanded a salary that was the equivalent of millions of euros in today’s money.  Without words, actors had to use facial expressions and body movements to create character in the parts they were playing and Menichelli, a naturally beautiful woman, exploited her elegance and sensuality to the full, at times pushing the limits of what was acceptable on screen.  In fact, one of her films, La Moglie di Claudio (Claudio’s Wife) was banned by the censors for fear it would offend sensitivities, particularly those of the Catholic Church.  Read more…

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Flaminio Bertoni - sculptor and car designer

Visionary ideas turned Citroën into style icon

The sculptor and automobile designer Flaminio Bertoni, the creative genius behind the groundbreaking Citroën cars of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, was born on this day in 1903 in what is now the Masnago district of Varese.  Bertoni, who lived in or near Paris from 1931 until his death in 1964, designed bodies for the stylish Traction Avant luxury executive car and the enduring workhorse 'Deux Chevaux' - the 2CV - which became almost a symbol of France.  Yes both of these were eclipsed, some would say, by the brilliance of Bertoni's aerodynamic, futuristic Citroën DS - also known as 'the Goddess' - which was named the most beautiful car of all time by the magazine Classic and Sports Car and was described by the Chicago Institute of Design soon after its launch as among the '100 most beautiful things in the world'.  Read more…

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San Pietro Orseolo – Doge of Venice and monk

Rich and powerful Doge made a life-changing decision

Pietro Orseolo, a former Venetian Doge who joined the Benedictine order, died on this day in 987.  He was canonised by Pope Clement XII in 1731 and his feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death on 10 January each year.  Pietro Orseolo became Doge of Venice in 976 but after just two years in office he left his palace in the middle of the night to go to France to become a monk.  Orseolo was originally from a powerful family in Udine and at the age of 20 became commander of the Venetian fleet waging successful campaigns against pirate ships.  He was elected Doge after the previous ruler of Venice had been killed in a revolt. Orseolo restored order to the city, built much needed hospitals and cared for widows and orphans.  He started to rebuild the Doge’s palace and St Mark’s Basilica using his own money.  Read more…

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Giorgio Mondadori - publisher

Helped launch La Repubblica after family split

The publisher Giorgio Mondadori, who was president of the famous publishing house set up by his father, Arnoldo Mondadori, until an acrimonious split in 1976, died on his 92nd birthday on this day in 2009 in a clinic in Tuscany.  Mondadori commissioned the Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer, to build the company’s eye-catching headquarters in Segrate, near Milan, in 1975, which remains his legacy to the family business.  At around the same time that he left the company, for whom he had worked for 38 years, he set up a joint venture with another publishing group, L’Espresso, that resulted in the launch of La Repubblica, a new, centre-left national newspaper that was to grow into one of the most popular daily newspapers in Italy, with a circulation topped only by the long-established Corriere della Sera.  Read more…

Maurizio Sarri - football manager

Former coach of Juventus and Chelsea

The football coach Maurizio Sarri, former manager of Chelsea in the English Premier League, was born on this day in 1959 in Naples.  Sarri, who has an unusual background for a professional football coach in that he spent more than 20 years in banking before devoting himself to the game full-time, took over as Chelsea manager in the summer of 2017, succeeding another Italian, Antonio Conte.  Previously, he had spent three seasons as head coach at SSC Napoli, twice finishing second and once third in Serie A.  He never played professionally, yet he has now held coaching positions at 20 different clubs.  Sarri was born in the Bagnoli district of Naples, where his father, Amerigo, a former professional cyclist, worked in the sprawling but now derelict Italsider steel plant.  It was not long, however, before the family moved away.  Read more…

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John Dalberg-Acton – historian, politician and writer

Gladstone’s friend and adviser became an Italian Marquess

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, better known as Lord Acton, was born on this day in 1834 in Naples, which was then part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.  He was brought up as a Roman Catholic and was later denied entry to the University of Cambridge because of his religion. He is best remembered for the quote, ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’, which he once wrote in a letter to an Anglican bishop.  Dalberg-Acton’s grandfather was Sir John Francis Edward Acton, who had been appointed by Queen Maria Carolina of Naples to reorganise the Neapolitan navy. His ability impressed her so much that she made him commander-in-chief of both the army and the navy of the Kingdom of Naples and he became Minister of Finance and eventually Prime Minister.  His father was Sir Ferdinand Richard Acton, who had the Villa Pignatelli built on the Riviera di Chiaia in Naples. Read more…

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Aldo Ballarin - footballer

Brilliant defender who died in Superga tragedy

Aldo Ballarin, one of the 18 Torino players who were killed in the 1949 Superga plane crash, was born on this day in 1922 in the fishing port of Chioggia, at the southern tip of the Laguna di Venezia.  Ballarin, whose brother, Dino, also died in the accident, played at right-back in the Torino team, making more than 150 appearances and winning the scudetto - the Serie A championship title - four seasons in a row between 1945 and 1949.  A defender who was renowned for his tackling and heading ability but who also used the skills he had learned as a winger in his youth to be an effective attacker, Ballarin won nine international caps in the azzurri of Italy.  He remains the only player born in Chioggia to play for the Italian national team.  One of six children in his family, Aldo would play football for hours in the street near his home as he was growing up. Read more…

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Caesar crosses the Rubicon

Act of defiance that started a civil war and coined a phrase

The Roman general Julius Caesar led his army across the Rubicon river in northern Italy in an act of military defiance that would plunge the Roman Republic into civil war on this day in 49BC.  The course of the Rubicon, which can still be found on maps of Italy today, entering the Adriatic between Ravenna and Rimini in northeast Italy, represented the border between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul, over which Caesar had command, and what was by then known as Italia - the area of the peninsula south of the Alps directly governed by Rome.  One of the most powerful politicians in the Roman Republic after forming an alliance with Pompey and Crassus known as the First Triumvirate, Caesar had spent much of the previous decade expanding his territory through the Gallic Wars, taking control of much of modern-day France and northern Italy.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions and their Peoples, by David Gilmour

The Pursuit of Italy traces the whole history of the Italian peninsula in a wonderfully readable style, full of well-chosen stories and observations from personal experience, and peopled by many of the great figures of the Italian past, from Cicero and Virgil to Dante and the Medici, from Cavour and Verdi to the controversial political figures of the 20th century. The book gives a clear-eyed view of the Risorgimento, the pivotal event in modern Italian history, debunking the influential myths which have grown up around it. Gilmour shows that the glory of Italy has always lain in its regions, with their distinctive art, civic cultures, identities and cuisine and whose inhabitants identified themselves not as Italians, but as Tuscans and Venetians, Sicilians and Lombards, Neapolitans and Genoese. This is where the strength and culture of Italy still comes from, rather than from misconceived and mishandled concepts of nationalism and unity. This wise and enormously engaging book explains the course of Italian history in a manner and with a coherence which no one with an interest in the country could fail to enjoy.

David Gilmour is one of Britain's most admired and accomplished historical writers and biographers. His previous books include The Last Leopard: A Life of Giuseppe di Lampedusa (winner of the Marsh Biography Award); Curzon (Duff Cooper Prize); and Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling (Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography).

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