17 December

Rome falls to the Ostrogoths

Sacking in 546 left city a shadow of its former self

The Ostrogoths, the Germanic tribe that took over large parts of the Italian peninsula with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, achieved a symbolic victory on this day in 546 when an army under the leadership of King Totila captured and sacked Rome following a year-long siege of the Eternal City.  The event was part of the Gothic War between the Ostrogoths, who had originated on the Black Sea in the area now known as Crimea, and the Byzantine (Eastern) Empire, between 535 and 554.  Totila led a fightback by the Ostrogoths after the fall of the Gothic capital at Ravenna in 540 signalled the apparent reconquest of Italy by the Byzantines.  He had swept south with his forces and was based at Tivoli, east of Rome, as he plotted how he would recapture the region of Latium. In 545, he laid siege to the city.  Bessas, the commander of the imperial garrison charged with protecting the city, was stubborn but cruel to the Roman citizens.  Although he had a stock of grain, he would not let it be used to feed the population unless they paid for it, while at the same time refusing requests from citizens to leave the city.  Read more…

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Maria Luisa - Duchess of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalia

Marriage to Napoleon earned Austrian noblewoman an Italian Duchy

Austrian archduchess Maria Luisa d'Asburgo-Lorena reigned as Duchess of Parma from April 1814 until her death on this day in 1847. She was the eldest child of Francis I, the first Emperor of Austria and - as Francis II - the last Holy Roman Emperor. Despite being brought up to despise France, Maria Luisa agreed to marry Napoleon Bonaparte by proxy in 1810. When she was asked for her consent, she replied: ‘I wish only what my duty commands me to wish.’ Fortunately, when she met Napoleon for the first time, she remarked: ‘You are much better looking than your portrait.’  She bore him a son in 1811, Napoleon Francois Joseph Charles Bonaparte, who was styled King of Rome at his birth and who later became Napoleon II. After Napoleon’s failed invasion of Russia in 1812, the French ruler’s fortunes changed dramatically and he had to abdicate and go into exile on the island of Elba. The 1814 Treaty of Fontainebleau gave the Duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalia to Maria Luisa, who was to rule over them until her death. To prevent Maria Luisa from joining Napoleon in Elba, the Emperor Francis II sent Count Adam Albert von Neipperg to accompany his daughter to the spa town of Aix-les-Bains.  Read more…

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Ettore Tito - painter

Artist who captured life in Venice

The painter Ettore Tito, whose landscapes and scenes from contemporary life in Venice earned him a substantial following in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was born on this day in 1859 in Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples.  Despite his southern roots, Tito spent most of his life in Venice. His Campanian father captained merchant ships but his mother was Venetian and they moved to Venice when Ettore was still a child.  His prodigious talent for art emerged at an early age. He was taken under the wing of the Dutch artist Cecil van Haanen and was accepted by the Accademia di Belle Arti at the age of 12, graduating at 17 after studying under Pompeo Marino Molmenti, a distinguished professor.  Tito appreciated the beauty of Venice but wanted his paintings to capture the character of the city and its people. He earned the first important recognition of the quality of his work when his 1887 painting Pescheria vecchia a Venezia, a busy scene of traders and customers at the fish market by the Rialto bridge, won great praise at the Esposizione Nazionale Artistica in Venice and was subsequently bought by the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome.  Read more…

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Leopoldo Eleuteri - flying ace

World War I pilot claimed eight aerial victories

First World War pilot Leopoldo Eleuteri, who was credited with seven of the eight combat victories he claimed, was born in Castel Ritaldi, a small town in Umbria about 60km (37 miles) by road southeast of Perugia, on this day in 1894.  Eleuteri did not begin flying active combat sorties as a fighter pilot until February 1918 but progressed rapidly with the 70th Squadron of the Corpo Aeronautico Militare, the airborne arm of the Royal Italian Army.  He went on to fly more than 150 sorties and between April 1918 and October 1918 claimed eight enemy planes shot down, being eventually credited with seven successes in his own right.  Passionate about all forms of mechanised flight since he was a boy, Eleuteri volunteered for aeronautical service as soon as he was old enough.  He was a student in a technical school until he was conscripted in 1915. At first, he was assigned to duty in ordnance factories before being sent to join the 3rd Infantry Regiment of the Royal Italian Army.  There, he was allowed to begin aviation training. In October 1916, he qualified as a pilot at Gabardini's flying school at Cameri in Piedmont.  Read more…

Domenico Cimarosa – opera composer

Musician who developed the model for ‘comic opera’

A prolific composer of operas, Domenico Cimarosa was born on this day in 1749 in Aversa, between Naples and Caserta in Campania.  Cimarosa wrote more than 80 operas during his lifetime, including Il matrimonio segreto (The Secret Marriage), which is considered to be his finest work.  Other composers judge it to be among the greatest examples of opera buffa, the Italian term for comic opera and Verdi considered it to be the model for the genre.  Cimarosa attended a free school connected to a monastery in Naples where the organist taught him music and as a result obtained a scholarship to attend a musical institute in the city for 11 years. He wrote his first opera at the age of 23 and, after several successes in theatres in Naples, he was invited to Rome where he produced another comic opera, L’Italiano in Londra.  He travelled throughout Italy, writing operas for theatres in Naples, Rome and Florence until he was invited to St Petersburg by Empress Catherine II. He remained at her court for four years composing music for important occasions.  He then went to Vienna at the invitation of Leopold II where he produced his masterpiece, Il matrimonio segreto.  Read more...

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Remains of exiled monarch returned to Italy

Repatriation of Vittorio Emanuele III sparked anger

The remains of Italy’s wartime king, Vittorio Emanuele III, were returned to Italian soil on this day in 2017, 70 years after his death in exile in Egypt.  His body had been buried in St. Catherine’s Catholic Cathedral in Alexandria since 1947, when he died at the age of 78, a year and a half after abdicating in favour of his son, Umberto II.  His remains were flown to Italy by military aircraft for reburial at his family’s mausoleum at the Sanctuary of Vicoforte, a church in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont. At the same time, the body of his wife, Queen Elena, who had died in France in 1952, was flown to Italy from Montpelier, so that they could be buried side by side.  Vittorio Emanuele’s coffin, draped in a flag bearing the coat of arms of the Savoy family, was taken from the plane at Cuneo’s small Levaldigi airport and escorted to the Sanctuary solely by local officials, including the prefect vicar, the local village mayor and the president of Cuneo’s Chamber of Commerce. Only a handful of people were allowed in the church for the interment ceremony.  Read more…

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NATO boss seized by Red Brigades

Brigadier-General James L Dozier held for 42 days

Three years after the kidnap and murder of the former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro shocked Italy and the wider world, terrorists representing the ultra-left group Brigate rosse - the Red Brigades - returned to the headlines on this day in 1981 with the abduction of the high-ranking United States Army officer James L Dozier.  Brigadier-General Dozier, who was serving in Italy as deputy Chief of Staff of NATO's Southern European land forces, was seized and taken from his apartment in Verona and held for 42 days before being rescued by Italian special forces. The kidnap took place at between 5.30 and 6pm when four men turned up at the door of the apartment posing as plumbers.  The general was overpowered and then struck over the head before his wife, Judith, who was initially held at gunpoint, was tied up with chains and plastic tape.  According to his wife, 50-year-old General Dozier was then bundled into what she described as a "steamship trunk", which the men carried out to a waiting van.  Mrs Dozier was left in the apartment, alerting neighbours later by banging on the walls.  It was the first time the Red Brigades had held a member of the American military, or any foreign national.  Read more…

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Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII

The day a pontiff finally lost patience with the Tudor king

Pope Paul III announced the excommunication of King Henry VIII of England from the Catholic Church on this day in 1538 in Rome.  Henry had been threatened with excommunication by the previous pope, Clement VII, in 1533 after he married Anne Boleyn. However, Clement did not act on his threat straight away, hoping Henry might come to his senses.  Henry had been awarded the title of Defender of the Faith by a previous pope because he had written a defence of the seven sacraments of the Catholic church against the protestant leader Martin Luther.  But Clement died the following year and a new pope had to be elected.  Pope Paul III, who was born Alessandro Farnese, became pontiff in 1534 and took on the job of organising the Counter Reformation as well as using nepotism to advance the power and fortunes of the Farnese family.  When it became clear Henry was intent on demolishing the Catholic Church in England, Paul III issued the original papal bull - edict - drawn up by Clement VII.  He lost patience with Henry after he declared himself head of the Church of England and started ordering the execution of anyone who stood in his way.  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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16 December

NEW - Luisa Ranieri - actress

Naples-born star of The Hand of God

The actress Luisa Ranieri, who received a Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated 2021 movie The Hand of God, was born on this day in 1973 in Naples.  Ranieri, who is married to Inspector Montalbano actor Luca Zingaretti, was honoured with a prestigious Nastro d’Argento for her portrayal of Patrizia, the troubled aunt of The Hand of God’s central character, Fabietto.  Among more than 30 films in a big screen career that began with a leading role in Leonardo Pieraccioni’s Il principe e il pirata (The Prince and the Pirate) in 2001, Ranieri is also well known for her performances in Michelangelo’s Antonioni’s Eros in 2004, in Pupi Avati’s Gli amici del Bar Margherita (The Friends of the Bar Margherita) in 2009 and Gary Winick’s final film, Letters to Juliet (2010). Ranieri, whose latest movie, Diamanti, (Diamonds) directed by Ferzan Özpetek, premieres in Italy this week, also boasts a string of successes in television.  In 2005, she won plaudits for her portrayal of the opera singer Maria Callas in a Canale 5 miniseries Callas e Onassis, and for playing the entrepreneur Luisa Spagnoli in the Rai fiction of the same name in 2016. Read more… 

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Giovanni Agnelli – entrepreneur

Founder of Fiat had keen eye for a good investment

Giovanni Agnelli, the businessman who founded the Fiat car manufacturing company, died on this day in 1945 in Turin.  As soon as Agnelli heard about the idea of a ‘horseless carriage’, he recognised it as a business opportunity and in 1898 met up with an inventor looking for investors for his project.  In 1899 he became part of a group who founded the Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino. Within a year he had become managing director of the company and by 1903 the business was making a small profit.  Giovanni had been born in Villar Perosa, a small town near Pinerolo in Piemonte, in 1866.  He embarked on a military career after finishing his studies but returned to his home town to follow in his father’s footsteps and become Mayor.  Fiat continued to grow and went public before the start of the First World War. After the war the first Fiat car dealership was established in the United States and the company continued to expand internationally.  Although Giovanni Agnelli had many other business interests, he remained actively involved with Fiat until his death on 16 December 1945 at the age of 79.  Read more…

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Ivana Spagna – singer-songwriter

Dance track made 30 years ago still holds record

The singer and songwriter Ivana Spagna, whose single Call Me achieved the highest placing by an Italian artist in UK chart history when it reached number two in 1987, was born on this day in 1954 in the town of Valeggio sul Mincio, in the Veneto.  Often performing as simply Spagna, she has sold more than 10 million copies of her singles and albums in a career spanning 46 years, having released her first single in 1971 at the age of 16.  She began to sing professionally in the early 1980s, when she provided the vocals for a number of disco tracks lip-synched by other artists, and when she relaunched her recording career in her own right she met with immediate success.  The single Easy Lady, recorded in 1986 and which she tends to regard as her debut single as a professional artist, sold more than two million copies, as did Call Me, which was released the following year.  Spagna defied the expectations of her record company, who had misgivings about promoting an Italian singing in English under the stage name “Spain” but were pleasantly surprised by her popularity.  Call Me topped the European singles chart and reached No 13 in the Billboard dance chart in the United States.  Read more…

Francesco Graziani - World Cup winner

Forward injured seven minutes into 1982 final

The footballer Francesco Graziani, who played in all of Italy’s matches in the 1982 World Cup in Spain but had the misfortune to be reduced to the status of a spectator when injury struck just seven minutes into the final, was born on this day in 1952 in Subiaco, in Lazio.  Graziani, a striker with Fiorentina who had made his name with Torino, scored a vital goal in Italy’s final match of the opening group phase against Cameroon, securing the draw that was enough to take the azzurri through to the second stage of the competition.  He played in Italy’s epic victories over Argentina and Brazil in the second group phase and in the thumping semi-final win over Poland but was replaced by Alessandro Altobelli after damaging a shoulder in the opening moments of the final against West Germany.  Altobelli went on to score Italy’s third goal as they overcame the Germans 3-1 to lift the trophy for a third time.  With 23 goals in 64 appearances for the national team, Graziani - nicknamed ‘Ciccio’ - achieved a strike rate in international football similar to his goals-per-game ratio in his career at domestic level, which brought him 142 goals in 413 league appearances.  Read more…

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The founding of AC Milan

English roots of one of Italy’s football giants

The football club that would eventually become known as AC Milan was founded on this day in 1899.  Although Juventus have won twice as many domestic Serie A titles - 36 to their 18 - AC Milan have been Italy’s most successful club in international club football, winning 18 trophies, including the European Cup/Champions League on seven occasions.  Yet the club owes its existence largely to five expatriate Englishmen, who conceived the idea of forming a football club - a cricket and football club, to be more accurate - during an evening at the Fiaschetteria Toscana bar, a few steps from the Duomo in the centre of Milan, where they would meet frequently to socialise.  The group comprised Alfred Edwards, a businessman from Shropshire, players Samuel Davies, from Manchester, David Allison and Edward Nathan Berra, both English but born in France, and Herbert Kilpin, who is remembered as the club’s driving force.  Kilpin, a butcher’s son from Nottingham, was both a footballer and a businessman. He had been a founder-member of the Garibaldi Reds, the amateur team in which Nottingham Forest has its roots.  Read more…

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Santo Versace - businessman and politician

Entrepreneurial brain behind Versace fashion empire

Santo Versace, sometime politician and the business brain behind Italy's world famous luxury fashion label, was born on this day in 1944 in Reggio Calabria.  Along with his brother and sister, Gianni and Donatella, Santo grew up in Italy's southernmost major city, which is situated right on the "toe" of the Italian peninsula and separated from the island of Sicily by barely 10km of the Strait of Messina.  Unlike his younger siblings, who were inspired by their mother, Francesca, a dressmaker who owned a small clothes shop, to become designers, Santo took after their father, Antonio, a coal merchant who in time became an interior decorator, in wishing to become a business entrepreneur.  He helped his father hump sacks of coal while still a child and learned the basics of running a business as a teenager before attending the University of Messina, from which he graduated in 1968 with a degree in economics.  At first, Santo worked in banking for Credito Italiano in Reggio Calabria before switching to teaching economics and geography to high school students. In 1972, after completing his military service, he set up as an accountant and management consultant in Reggio Calabria.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Maradona: Once Upon a Time in Naples, by John Ludden

It began on July 5, 1984. A most beautiful day in the Italian south. With 70,000 screaming Neapolitans awaiting him and roaring out his name in the San Paolo stadium, Diego Armando Maradona arrived under the shadow of Mount Vesuvius in Naples, and for seven years all hell was let loose. For so long the ailing giant SSC Napoli underachieved, bringing deep frustration to a fanatical fan base unequalled in both passion and size across Italy. No fans had ever been more feared or hated, but they ached for success.  Then came Maradona. Blessed with a ball at his feet on the field, hopelessly cursed off it. When in the mood unplayable, but then there was a dark side. He mixed openly with the city’s most feared and notorious gangsters, the Camorra’s feared Giuliano clan. Untouchable, beyond reproach, he slipped into a decadent lifestyle fuelled by cocaine. Maradona believed for a while he was a God - Scarface in football boots. When not enjoying all the excesses of this Babylon by the sea, there was magic to be made on the field as the charismatic Argentinian inspired Napoli to their first ever Scudetto title. As the Napoli tifosi fell in worship at his dancing feet, Maradona continued to party on unabated. Sheltered from all prying eyes until the magic faded and he was tossed out like garbage. Once Upon a Time in Naples vividly describes the era in which Paolo Sorrentino set his movie The Hand of God, an unforgettable era of when Diego left his inestimable mark on Italian football and Neapolitan’s hearts. Whom he raised to the stars only to ultimately break them. An alluring tale of wonderful football, glory, despair, betrayal, corruption and, many years later, of redemption. 

John Ludden is an independent author from Manchester who has written many books, mainly about football, others about the life and culture of his home city. First published in 2004, Once Upon a Time in Naples has been updated a number of times, most recently in 2022.

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Luisa Ranieri - actress

Naples-born star of The Hand of God

Luisa Ranieri in a scene from The Hand of God,
which won her a Best Supporting Actress award

The actress Luisa Ranieri, who received a Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated 2021 movie The Hand of God, was born on this day in 1973 in Naples.

Ranieri, who is married to Inspector Montalbano actor Luca Zingaretti, was honoured with a prestigious Nastro d’Argento for her portrayal of Patrizia, the troubled aunt of The Hand of God’s central character, Fabietto.

Among more than 30 films in a big screen career that began with a leading role in Leonardo Pieraccioni’s Il principe e il pirata (The Prince and the Pirate) in 2001, Ranieri is also well known for her performances in Michelangelo’s Antonioni’s Eros in 2004, in Pupi Avati’s Gli amici del Bar Margherita (The Friends of the Bar Margherita) in 2009 and Gary Winick’s final film, Letters to Juliet (2010).

Ranieri, whose latest movie, Diamanti, (Diamonds) directed by Ferzan Özpetek, premieres in Italy this week, also boasts a string of successes in television. 

In 2005, she won plaudits for her portrayal of the opera singer Maria Callas in a Canale 5 miniseries Callas e Onassis, and for playing the entrepreneur Luisa Spagnoli in the Rai fiction of the same name in 2016. Since 2021 she has filled the title role in the Rai crime series, Le indagini di Lolita Lobosco, (The Investigations of Lolita Lobosco) in which she plays a deputy commissioner of police in the southern Italian city of Bari. 

Ranieri won acclaim for her
portrayal of Maria Callas

It was while making another Rai miniseries, Cefalonia, in 2005 that she became romantically involved with co-star Zingaretti. The couple married in Sicily in 2012 and have two children. 

Ranieri spent her early years in the Vomero district of Naples, an upmarket suburb which occupies an elevated position that offers commanding views over the city. She enrolled in the Faculty of Law in the city’s university but gave up her studies to devote herself to acting, building the foundations of a career as a theatre actress before quickly landing the part in Il principe e il pirata in 2001, in which she also gained considerable exposure thanks to a starring role on a TV advertising campaign for Nestea, a major player in Italy’s lucrative iced tea market.

She quickly established her reputation as an actress of considerable talent, gaining significant recognition through TV roles, including playing Assunta Goretti, the mother of the child saint, Maria Goretti, who was murdered at the age of 11, in Giulio Base’s 2003 miniseries, and two years later Maria Callas opposite the Aristotle Onassis of French actor Gérard Darmon under Giorgio Capitani’s direction.

In 2009, the same year that Avati’s Gli amici del bar Margherita brought more critical acclaim, she demonstrated her versatility with a return to the stage, acting in the theatrical production of L'oro di Napoli (the Gold of Naples), directed by Gianfelice Imparato and Armando Pugliese, based on the stories of Neapolitan life by Giuseppe Marotta.

The terrace at the Castello di Donnafugata will
be familiar to fans of the Montalbano TV series

Back on screen, Letters to Juliet further solidified her reputation in the film industry, which was taken to another level by The Hand of God - È stata la mano di Dio in Italian - in which her performance as Patrizia, the voluptuous aunt for whom main character Fabietto has an adolescent crush, and who escapes an abusive husband by admitting herself to a psychiatric hospital, attracted much acclaim and turned her into something of an icon for many Italian women.

As a further recognition of her standing in the acting profession, Ranieri was chosen to host the opening and closing nights of the 71st Venice International Film Festival in 2014.

Her marriage to Zingaretti caught the public imagination. After living together for several years, the couple tied the knot at the Castello di Donnafugata, a castle near Ragusa in Sicily where scenes were filmed in several episodes of the long-running Inspector Montalbano series. 

The Castel Sant'Elmo and the Certosa di San
Martino tower above Naples on Vomero hill

Travel tip:

The Vomero district of Naples is widely-regarded as the most upmarket area of the city in which to live. Perched on a hill overlooking the city and the Bay of Naples, it is known for its elegant architecture, beautiful parks, and a more relaxed atmosphere compared to the sometimes chaotic nature of the southern Italian city’s centre.  Highlights include Castel Sant'Elmo, a mediaeval fortress offering stunning panoramic views of the city and the bay; the adjoining Certosa di San Martino, a former monastery that now houses a museum; the lively Piazza Vanvitelli, Vomero’s central square; and the Villa Floridiana, a beautiful park with gardens, fountains and another museum. Three funicular railways connect Vomero to the city centre. The district boasts a mix of high-end and local shops and a similar variety of restaurants. 

The magnificent Duomo di San Giorgio is one
of the main attractions of Ragusa Ibla

Travel tip:

The city of Ragusa, at the centre of the area of southeastern Sicily where Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano mysteries were filmed, is set in a rugged landscape with a mix of mediaeval and Baroque architecture. It has two parts - Ragusa Ibla, a town on top of a hill rebuilt on the site of the original settlement destroyed in a major earthquake in 1693, and Ragusa Superiore, which was built on flatter ground nearby in the wake of the earthquake.  A spectacular sight in its own right and affording wonderful views as well, Ragusa Ibla attracts visitors to its maze of narrow streets and to see the Duomo di San Giorgio, the magnificent 18th century Sicilian Baroque church that stands at the top of a wide flight of steps at the head of the sloping Piazza Duomo, the wide square that, with Corso XXV Aprile, comprises Ragusa Ibla’s central thoroughfare. Designed by Rosario Gagliardi, the cathedral is characterised by a monumental façade which incorporates the bell tower beneath a bulbous spire.

Also on this day:

1899: The founding of AC Milan football club

1944: The birth of businessman Santo Versace

1945: The death of Fiat founder Giovanni Agnelli

1952: The birth of footballer Francesco Graziani

1954: The birth of pop singer Ivana Spagna

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15 December

John Paul Getty III released

Heir to world’s biggest fortune held by kidnappers for 158 days

A story that dominated the Italian press and newspapers around the world ended on this day in 1973 when police responding to a tip-off found a shivering, malnourished and deeply traumatised American teenager inside a disused motorway service area in a remote part of southern Italy.  John Paul Getty III, grandson of the richest man in the world, the oil tycoon John Paul Getty, had been held in captivity for more than five months by a kidnap gang who had demanded $17 million for his safe return.  The boy’s 80-year-old grandfather, whose personal fortune would equate today to almost $9 billion but who was notoriously mean, at first refused to pay a penny and stuck to that position until late November, when a letter containing a lock of hair and a human ear arrived at the offices of a daily newspaper in Rome.  After a further letter arrived containing a photograph of John Paul Getty III minus one ear, the octogenarian’s representatives made contact with the kidnappers and negotiated his release for $3 million.  Even then, John Paul Getty Senior refused to pay more than $2.2 million, which his lawyers allegedly told him was the maximum he could claim as a tax-deductible expense.  Read more…

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Comunardo Niccolai - footballer

‘King of own goals’ was also a champion

The footballer Comunardo Niccolai, a central defender with a propensity for scoring calamitous own goals, was born on this day in 1946 in Uzzano, a beautiful hill town in Tuscany.  Niccolai scored six own goals in his Serie A career, which contributed to his standing as something of a cult figure in Italian football.  He was actually an exceptionally talented player - good enough to be picked for the Italian squad for the World Cup in 1970, where the azzurri finished runners-up, as well as a key figure in the Cagliari team that won the Serie A title in 1970.  But he seemed unable to avoid moments of freakish bad luck and he acquired such unwanted notoriety as a result that people outside the game still reference his name when describing someone doing something to their own disadvantage.  For example, during the course of one of the regular political crises in Italy in the late 1990s, the right-wing politician Francesco Storace said of a policy decision taken by prime minister Massimo D’Alema, “Ha fatto un autogol alla Niccolai” - meaning that he had “scored an own goal Niccolai-style”.  Read more…

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Spaghetti western has steadily gained critical acclaim

The film, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, was released on this day in Italy in 1966.  It was the third and final instalment in the Dollars Trilogy, following A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More.  Despite mixed reviews to begin with, it was a financial success, grossing more than $25 million at the box office.  The film has gained respect over the years and is now seen as a highly influential example of the Western film genre and has been acclaimed as one of the greatest films of all time.  Directed by Sergio Leone, the film, known in Italian as Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, was made partly at the Cinecittà studio in Rome and partly on location.  It became categorised as a 'spaghetti western' and was distinctive because of Leone’s film–making style, which involved juxtaposing close-ups with lengthy long shots.  Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach star in the title roles. They are three gunslingers out to find buried gold against the backdrop of the violence of the American Civil War.  The score for the film was composed by Ennio Morricone and the iconic main theme for the film became a popular hit in 1968.  Read more…

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Frankie Dettori - champion jockey

Milan-born horseman among all-time greats

Lanfranco "Frankie" Dettori, the three-times British champion jockey, was born on this day in 1970 in Milan.  As well as winning the UK jockeys' title in 1994 and 1995 and again in 2004, Dettori has won more than 500 Group Races around the world, including 23 British Classics.  He won his first Classic in 1994 on Balanchine in the Oaks. He won his first St Leger in 1995 on Classic Cliche, his first 2,000 Guineas in 1996 on Mark of Esteem and his first 1,000 Guineas in 1998 on Cape Verdi, finally completing the set at the 15th attempt when Authorized won the Derby at Epsom in 2007. Dettori won the Derby for a second time in 2015 on Golden Horn, which he rates as the best horse he has ever ridden.  English-bred and owned by the diamond dealer Anthony Oppenheimer, Golden Horn won the Derby, the Eclipse Stakes, the Irish Champion Stakes and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe for Wiltshire trainer John Gosden during the 2015 season, each time with Dettori in the saddle.  Apart from his big-race successes, which also include 24 Group Race wins in Italy and all of the Irish Classics, Dettori is best known for his unprecedented and so-far unequalled achievement of riding the winners of all seven races on a single day at Ascot in 1996.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Kidnapped: The Tragic Life of J Paul Getty III, by Charles Fox

Grandson of Getty Oil founder J Paul Getty, 'Little Paul's' life may have been cursed by money and privilege from the moment he was born. Falling in with the wrong people and abandoned by his famous family, Getty was a child of his international jet set era, moving from Marrakesh to Rome, nightclubs to well-appointed drug dens. His was one of the trio of high-profile kidnappings that defined the decade - along with Frank Sinatra Jr and Patty Hearst - and permanently memorable for the ear that was mailed to his mother back in the States as evidence of the kidnappers' intentions. Kidnapped: The Tragic Life of John Paul Getty III is richly reported - including many interviews with Getty himself ranging from the late 1970s to the early 1990s - that raise new angles about the case, such as: how much did Getty acquiesce to the kidnappers and why wouldn't his rich-as-Croesus grandfather pay the ransom, which began at the equivalent of $550,000 in lire and bulged to 3.6 million as the months dragged on. In Kidnapped, Charles Fox has captured the voices of models and maids, carabinieri and club-owners, drug dealers and drivers alongside the Getty family members themselves to paint an evocative portrait of an era and one of its most misunderstood participants.

Charles Fox began reporting on the Getty kidnapping in 1973 and was contacted by J Paul Getty III himself in the early 1990s to work on his autobiography, leading to much of the reporting in Kidnapped. Fox's award-winning journalism has been published in a variety of publications, including Esquire, Harper's, and Playboy.

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14 December

Fabrizio Giovanardi – racing driver

Touring car specialist has won 10 titles

One of the most successful touring car racers in history, the former Alfa Romeo and Vauxhall driver Fabrizio Giovanardi, was born in Sassuolo, not far from Modena, on this day in 1966.  Giovanardi has won the European Championship twice, the European Cup twice, the British Championship twice, the Italian Championship three times and the Spanish touring car title once.  His best season in the World Championship came in 2005, when he finished third behind the British driver Andy Priaulx.  At the peak of his success, Giovanardi won a title each season for six consecutive years. Like many drivers across the motor racing spectrum, Giovanardi had his first experience of competition in karting, winning Italian and World titles in 125cc karts in 1986, before graduating to Formula Three and Formula 3000.  He was hoping from there to step up to Formula One but although he won a number of races the opportunity to drive competitively for an F1 team did not come about.  It was during the 1991 season that he tried his luck in touring cars and met with immediate success.  Read more…

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Luciano Bianciardi - novelist and translator

Writer who brought contemporary American literature to Italian audiences

The journalist, novelist and translator Luciano Bianciardi, who was responsible for putting the work of most of the outstanding American authors of the 20th century into Italian, was born on this day in 1922 in Grosseto in Tuscany.  Bianciardi translated novels by such writers as Saul Bellow, Henry Miller, William Faulkner and Norman Mailer, who were read in the Italian language for the first time thanks to his understanding of the nuances of their style.  He also wrote novels of his own, the most successful of which was La vita agra (1962; published in English as It’s a Hard Life), which was made into a film, directed by Carlo Lizzani and starring Ugo Tognazzi.  Bianciardi, whose father, Atide, was a bank cashier, developed an appreciation for learning from his mother, Adele, who was an elementary school teacher.  At the same time he acquired a lifelong fascination with Garibaldi and the Risorgimento, after his father gave him a book by a local author, Giuseppe Bandi, about Garibaldi’s Expedition of the Thousand.  Bianciardi’s university education was interrupted by the Second World War.   Read more…

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Errico Malatesta - anarchist

Middle-class boy who became notorious revolutionary

Errico Malatesta, one of the most prominent figures in the anarchist movement that flourished in Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was born on this day in 1853 in the province of Caserta, in what is now Campania.  A committed revolutionary who was arrested for the first time at the age of 14, he spent more than 10 years of his life in prison and about 35 years in exile.  Apart from his activity in his own country, Malatesta helped organise anarchist revolutionary groups in several European countries, as well as in Egypt, and in North and South America, including Argentina, where he helped bakers form the country's first militant workers' union.  Born into a family of middle-class landowners in Santa Maria Capua Vetere in what was then the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Malatesta was arrested aged 14 for sending an "insolent and threatening letter" to King Victor Emmanuel II.  Although he would become closely associated with the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, Malatesta drew his first inspiration from Giuseppe Mazzini, the Italian revolutionary who was a driving force in the Risorgimento movement.  Read more…

Guarino da Verona – Renaissance scholar

Humanist who lost Greek manuscripts went grey overnight

Professor of ancient Greek, Guarino da Verona, who dedicated his life to learning the language and educating others to follow in his footsteps, died on this day in 1460 in Ferrara.  Da Verona studied ancient Greek in Constantinople for more than five years and returned to Italy with two cases full of rare Greek manuscripts that he had collected. It is said that when he lost one of the cases during  a shipwreck, he was so distraught that his hair turned grey in a single night.  Da Verona, who was also sometimes known as Guarino Veronese, was born in 1374 in Verona. He studied in Italy and established his first school in the 1390s before going to Constantinople.  After returning to Italy, he earned his living by teaching Greek in Verona, Venice and Florence.  Da Verona taught the philosophy of humanism to Leonello, Marquis of Este, who then became his patron and employed him to teach Greek in Ferrara. Da Verona’s method of teaching became renowned and he attracted students from all over Italy and Europe, even from as far away as England. He supported poor students using his own money and many of them became well known scholars themselves.  Read more…

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Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily

Sad, short life of a Neapolitan princess

The youngest daughter of Ferdinand, King of Naples and Sicily, Princess Maria Antonia, was born on this day in 1784 at the Royal Palace in Caserta.  Princess Maria Antonia was named after her aunt, Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France, who was executed by guillotine in Paris in 1793.  Marie Antoinette was the favourite sister of the Princess’s mother, Maria Carolina of Austria, who became opposed to the military expansion of the new French republic as a result of her sister’s horrific death.  Princess Maria Antonia’s own fate was sealed when she became engaged to Infante Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias, who later became King Ferdinand VII of Spain.  She married him in Barcelona in 1802.  When she failed to provide Ferdinand with an heir, suffering two miscarriages, there were rumours that Maria Antonia, whose title was now Princess of Asturias, was plotting to poison both her mother in law, the Queen of Spain, and the Spanish Prime Minister. This was allegedly to avenge her aunt, Marie Antoinette, because Spain was becoming increasingly dominated by Napoleon.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Touring Car Racing: The history of the British Touring Car Championship, by Matt James

Touring Car Racing: The history of the British Touring Car Championship is a feast of nostalgia, celebrating the championship's 60-year heritage. Anyone who has ever enjoyed touring car racing as a participant, spectator or television viewer will treasure this book. The British Saloon Car Championship was inaugurated in 1958 and from the start it was super-competitive, ending in a tie that was resolved by a shoot-out in favour of Jack Sears. In the 1960s, there were three Mini champions but mainly this was a Ford era, epitomised by Lotus Cortinas (with Jim Clark ever spectacular) and big Falcons, Galaxies and Mustangs from America. The 1970s saw smaller classes come to the fore, with three drivers sharing seven titles - Bill McGovern took three in Sunbeam Imps while two apiece went to Bernard Unett (Chrysler Avenger GT) and Richard Longman (Mini 1275GT). Three drivers also bestrode the 1980s, but in a wider range of cars, including Mazda RX-7, Alfa Romeo GTV, Rover Vitesse and Ford Sierra XR4i; Win Percy and Andy Rouse each took three titles, Chris Hodgetts two.  The 1990s featured overseas drivers arriving in force to mix it with home-grown stars, the decade’s champions including Joachim Winkelhock (BMW 318is), Frank Biela (Audi A4 quattro), Alain Menu (Renault Laguna), Rickard Rydell (Volvo S40) and Laurent Aïello (Nissan Primera). Vauxhalls were the star cars of the 2000s, taking six titles, while the decade brought three double champions in the form of James Thompson (Vauxhall Astra), Matt Neal (Honda Integra) and Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall Vectra VXR). Yet more variety and brilliant racing characterised the 2010s, with Gordon Shedden becoming the winningest driver with three titles in Honda Civics.

Matt James, a former local newspaper journalist from Tunbridge Wells, has been with Motorsport News since joining in 1995. He has has covered more than 400 British Touring Car Championship races. His reports and news stories are carried across Motorsport News, Autosport and autosport.com.

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13 December

NEW - Caravaggio masterpiece is unveiled in Siracusa

Great work of art was created by a desperate painter wanted for murder 

A magnificent altarpiece by Caravaggio depicting The Burial of Saint Lucy, was displayed for the first time on this day in 1608 at the Santuario Santa Lucia al Sepolcro in Siracusa - Syracuse - in Sicily.  The largest known work by Caravaggio, The Burial of Saint Lucy was painted by the artist while he was on the run accused of murder and in fear of arrest and execution. He created this important work of art in a few precious weeks while he was afforded some protection from the church authorities who had commissioned it.  The altarpiece measures 408 by 300 centimetres and is his largest known canvas painted in oils. It depicts the fragile body of Santa Lucia - Saint Lucy - bearing the wounds she had suffered during her execution, about to be interred in the Roman catacombs on which the Sanctuary now stands.  After arriving in Sicily from Malta in October 1608, having escaped from prison there,  Caravaggio had taken a circuitous route to Siracusa to seek help from a former apprentice, Mario Minniti, who he knew had a thriving studio in the city.  At the time there was a programme of renovation taking place in churches in Siracusa. Read more…

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Pope Sixtus V

Pontiff who cleaned up and rebuilt Rome and reformed church

Pope Sixtus V, whose five-year reign was one of the most effective of any pontiff in history, was born Felice Peretti on this day in 1521 in Grottammare, a coastal resort in the Marche region that was then part of the Papal States.  Succeeding Pope Gregory XIII in 1585, Sixtus V inherited an administration that was riddled with corruption and a city of Rome that to a large extent fallen into the hands of thieves and criminal gangs.  He responded with a series of measures that brought about profound change with far-reaching consequences for the city and the wider country, making his mark on a scale that few pontiffs had matched before or since.  As well as tackling crime with brutal ruthlessness, he introduced significant reforms in the administration of the Catholic Church and commissioned lavish building projects that changed Rome from a mediaeval city to one of Baroque grandeur.  The son of a poor farm hand in Grottammare, the future pope entered a monastery when he was nine years old and joined the Order of Friars Minor three years later. His familiarity with adversity made him resourceful and strong.  Read more…

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La Festa di Santa Lucia

Much loved saint was immortalised in song

La festa di Santa Lucia - St Lucy’s Day - will be celebrated all over Italy today.  According to tradition, Santa Lucia comes down from the sky with a cart and a donkey and distributes gifts to all the children who have been good, while all the naughty children receive only a piece of coal.  Santa Lucia is the patron saint of the city of Siracusa - Syracuse - in Sicily. Today, a silver statue of the saint containing her relics will be paraded through the streets before being returned to the Cathedral.  In Sicilian folklore there is a legend that a famine ended on Santa Lucia’s feast day when ships loaded with grain entered the harbour.  Santa Lucia is also popular with children in parts of northern Italy. In Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona, Lodi and Mantua in Lombardy, and also parts of the Veneto, Trentino, Friuli and Emilia-Romagna, the children will have been expecting the saint to arrive with presents during the night.  According to tradition she arrives with her donkey and her escort, Castaldo. Children leave coffee for Santa Lucia, a carrot for the donkey and a glass of wine for Castaldo and they believe they must not watch the saint delivering her gifts.  Read more…

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Carlo Gozzi – playwright

Noble Venetian who fought to preserve commedia dell’arte

Count Carlo Gozzi, the poet and playwright, was born on this day in 1720 in Venice.  He was a staunch defender of the traditional Italian commedia dell’arte form of drama and his plays were admired throughout Europe.  Commedia dell’arte was a theatrical form that used improvised dialogue and a cast of masked, colourful stock characters such as Arlecchino, Colombina and Pulcinella.  Gozzi was against the dramatic innovations made by writers such as Pietro Chiari and Carlo Goldoni. He attacked Goldoni in a satirical poem and then wrote a play, L’amore delle tre melarance - The Love of Three Oranges - in which he portrayed Goldoni as a magician and Chiari as a wicked fairy.  The play was first performed by commedia dell’arte actors, who had been out of work due to the dwindling interest in the genre following the innovations of Goldoni and Chiari. It was a great success and revived the fortunes of the company of actors.  Having been born into a noble but poor family, Gozzi initially had to go into the army to make a living because his parents could not support him.  Read more…

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Enrico Rastelli – juggler

Performer whose juggling record has never been surpassed

Enrico Rastelli, who is thought to have been the greatest juggler of all time, died on this day in 1931 in Bergamo in Lombardy.  Rastelli began his career in the circus ring and practised his juggling skills constantly until he was able to achieve levels of skill beyond those of any of his contemporaries. By the 1920s he had become a star, touring Europe and America, amazing audiences with his skill and amassing large earnings.  Eventually he made the move to performing in vaudeville shows in theatres where he would appear in full football strip and juggle up to five footballs at a time.  Rastelli had been born in Russia in 1896, into a circus family originally from the Bergamo area of Lombardy. Both his parents were performers and trained him in circus disciplines including acrobatics, balancing, and aerial skills. He made his debut at the age of 13 as part of his parents’ aerial act.  He practised juggling diligently and by the age of 19 was performing his own solo juggling act. He started by manipulating sticks and balls in Japanese style. While many jugglers at the time would throw and catch plates, hats, and canes, Rastelli restricted himself to working with balls and sticks and achieved higher technical skills than any other juggler of this period. Read more…

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Donatello – Renaissance sculptor

Work by prolific artist still on display for all to see

Early Renaissance sculptor Donatello died on this day in Florence in 1466.  Generally acknowledged as the greatest sculptor of the 15th century, Donatello left a legacy of wonderful statues in marble and bronze, some still out in the open and delighting visitors to Italy free of charge today.  He was born Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi in Florence in about 1386. He studied classical sculpture, which later influenced his style, and then worked in a goldsmith’s workshop and in the studio of artist Lorenzo Ghiberti.  One of his most famous early works is a statue of David, originally intended for the Cathedral, but which stood instead for many years in Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.  Donatello’s work also shows influences of the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, a friend with whom he often travelled to Rome.  Brunelleschi’s style can be seen in Donatello’s statues of St Mark and St George, executed for the exterior of the Church of Orsanmichele in Florence, which represent the first translation into sculpture of the architect’s laws on perspective.  Donatello was invited to Padua in 1443, where he was to produce one of his greatest works, the bronze equestrian statue of Gattamelata.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane, by Andrew Graham Dixon

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio lived the darkest and most dangerous life of any of the great painters. The worlds of Milan, Rome and Naples through which Caravaggio moved and which Andrew Graham-Dixon describes brilliantly in this book, are those of cardinals and whores, prayer and violence. On the streets surrounding the churches and palaces, brawls and swordfights were regular occurrences. In the course of this desperate life Caravaggio created the most dramatic paintings of his age, using ordinary men and women - often prostitutes and the very poor - to model for his depictions of classic religious scenes. Andrew Graham-Dixon's exceptionally illuminating readings of Caravaggio's pictures, which are the heart of Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane, show very clearly how he created their drama, immediacy and humanity, and how completely he departed from the conventions of his time.

Andrew Graham-Dixon is a British art historian, art critic, author and broadcaster. A former chief art critic of the Independent and later the Sunday Telegraph, he has presented numerous art documentaries on BBC television and is the author of several books, including Howard Hodgkin; A History of British Art; Paper Museum: Writings About Painting, Mostly; Renaissance; and In the Picture.

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Caravaggio masterpiece is unveiled in Siracusa

Great work of art was created by a desperate painter wanted for murder 

Caravaggio's The Burial of Saint Lucy
can be viewed free of charge

A magnificent altarpiece by Caravaggio depicting The Burial of Saint Lucy, was displayed for the first time on this day in 1608 at the Santuario Santa Lucia al Sepolcro in Siracusa - Syracuse - in Sicily.

The largest known work by Caravaggio, The Burial of Saint Lucy was painted by the artist while he was on the run accused of murder and in fear of arrest and execution. He created this important work of art in a few precious weeks while he was afforded some protection from the church authorities who had commissioned it.

The altarpiece measures 408 by 300 centimetres and is his largest known canvas painted in oils. It depicts the fragile body of Santa Lucia - Saint Lucy - bearing the wounds she had suffered during her execution, about to be interred in the Roman catacombs on which the Sanctuary now stands.

After arriving in Sicily from Malta in October 1608, having escaped from prison there,  Caravaggio had taken a circuitous route to Siracusa to seek help from a former apprentice, Mario Minniti, who he knew had a thriving studio in the city.

At the time there was a programme of renovation taking place in churches in Siracusa and the city authorities were commissioning new altarpieces and trying to boost the cults of their local saints.

Minniti succeeded in convincing the church authorities to commission Caravaggio to paint the altarpiece at the Santuario Santa Lucia al Sepolcro, arguing that his former master was considered the best painter In Italy. 

The subject of the painting, Saint Lucy - Santa Lucia - was a young girl who had lived in 4th century Siracusa. She had converted to Christianity during the period of persecution of Christians by the Emperor Diocletian. She had taken a vow of chastity and decided not to marry. But the man lined up to be her future husband had suspected her of being unfaithful rather than devout and had exacted his revenge by denouncing her as a Christian to the authorities. 

Caravaggio was on the run
when he arrived in Sicily

Lucia had been condemned to a terrible death to take place in a brothel, but soldiers had been unable to move her from the spot where she had been arrested. They poured burning oil on her while she was seemingly immobile and set her alight, but she continued to pray even while burning. Therefore, they drove a sword into her throat, but she still did not die immediately. It was only after she had received the sacrament from a priest that she passed away.

A statue had been erected to Saint Lucy in Siracusa and it had been agreed to purchase a silver reliquary to house her remains, which the authorities were hoping to retrieve from Venice who had taken them. An altarpiece depicting her death in the catacombs on which the church was built was to be their next purchase.

Caravaggio’s picture is considered remarkable for the way he shows Santa Lucia’s frail body framed by two burly gravediggers, who tower over her, their veins bulging in their muscly arms. Watching the burial are a group of mourners, whose faces Caravaggio modelled on people he met while he was working on the painting at the church, one of which is believed to have been the sexton of the church. Among the faces in the background, it is also thought there may be a self-portrait of Caravaggio.

Experts think Caravaggio would have seen hasty burials in real life during an outbreak of the plague in Milan in 1576. The background for the painting was modelled on the actual catacombs in Siracusa where Santa Lucia had been put in the ground originally, which had been visited by Caravaggio during his stay in the city.

To complete the painting in time for the deadline of the Saint’s Feast Day on December 13, Caravaggio had to work at a fast pace, despite being distracted by his own problems and having to be armed with a dagger day and night for his own protection.

But he did not feel safe enough to stay in Siracusa for the unveiling of the painting and slipped away before the big day. Within 18 months, he had died himself in mysterious circumstances at Porto Ercole in Tuscany, where it is thought he was buried without ceremony in a mass grave.

The Santuario Santa Lucia al Sepolcro is
the home of Caravaggio's altarpiece

Travel tip

Caravaggio’s magnificent painting of The Burial of Saint Lucy still hangs proudly over the altar of the Santuario Santa Lucia al Sepolcro and can be seen free of charge by visitors to the church - one of just a small number of Caravaggio paintings on free public display in their original settings, rather than in a museum or gallery. Visitors to the Santuario can pay a small amount for a light to come on for a few minutes to illuminate the painting. The church staff and volunteers will explain the history of the painting to visitors and they have information booklets and Santa Lucia souvenirs available. The Santuario is in Piazza Santa Lucia in Siracusa in a part of the city known as Borga Santa Lucia.

The Duomo di Siracusa is one of the main 
attractions of the island of Ortigia

Travel tip

Siracusa is situated on the south east corner of Sicily next to the gulf of Siracusa and beside the Ionian Sea. It is famous for its Greek and Roman ruins and amphitheatres, and as the birthplace of the Greek mathematician and engineer Archimedes. It is now listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The patron saint of Siracusa is Saint Lucy (Santa Lucia) who died there in about 304. She is also the patron saint of virgins. Her feast day is celebrated worldwide on December 13 each year. The historic centre of Siracusa - the Città Vecchia (Old City) - is the part of the city that occupies the island of Ortigia. The central attraction of Ortigia is the magnificent cathedral, built in the seventh century but rebuilt in High Sicilian Baroque style after the 1693 earthquake that destroyed much of Sicily’s southeastern corner.

Also on this day:

1466: The death of sculptor Donatello

1521: The birth of Pope Sixtus V

1720: The birth of playwright Carlo Gozzi

1931: The death of juggler Enrico Rastelli

The Feast of Santa Lucia

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