9 September

Roberto Donadoni - footballer and coach

Understated midfielder who helped AC Milan win six Serie A titles

The footballer and coach Roberto Donadoni, who was a key figure in an AC Milan side that dominated Italian football for the best part of a decade, was born on this day in 1963 in Cisano Bergamasco in Lombardy.  A winger or midfielder famed for his ability to create goalscoring opportunities for his team-mates, Donadoni was once described by the brilliant French attacker Michel Platini as ‘the best Italian footballer of the 1990s’. His collection of 21 winner’s medals includes six for winning the Serie A title with AC Milan and three for the European Cup or Champions League.  He was also part of the Italian national team that reached the final of the World Cup in 1994, losing to Brazil on penalties.  Donadoni was never a prolific goalscorer: in more than 500 league and international matches, he found the net only 34 times. Yet he had exceptional technical ability and great passing skills. Read more… 

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Allied troops land at Salerno

Operation that marked start of invasion of Italy

The first wave of an invasion force that would eventually take control of much of the Italian peninsula on behalf of the Allies landed on the beaches around Salerno in Campania on this day in 1943.  More than 450 ships carrying 190,000 troops assembled off the coast on the evening of September 8, shortly after news had broken that terms for the surrender of the Italian half of the Axis forces had been agreed.  The US 36th Infantry Division were in the vanguard of the invasion force, approaching the shore at Paestum at 3.30am on September 9, and there were other landings further up the coast near Battipaglia and Pontecagnano involving British troops.  After news of the Italian surrender, the invasion force, which consisted initially of 55,000 troops, were unsure how much resistance they would encounter.  Read more…

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Francesco Carrozzini - director and photographer

Famous for portraits of wealthy and famous

The American-based director and photographer Francesco Carrozzini was born on this day in 1982 in Monza, Italy.  The son of the late former editor-in-chief of the Italian edition of Vogue magazine, Franca Sozzani, Carrozzini has directed many music videos and documentary films and a small number of feature-length movies, including one about the life of his mother.  In photography, he has become best known for his portraits of the rich and famous, including actors such as Robert De Niro and Cate Blanchett, models including Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista, musicians such as Lana Del Ray and Kanye West, and artists including Jeff Koons and Andres Serrano.  Carrozzini has also photographed political leaders, including the former British prime minister Tony Blair, ex-Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg and former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.  Read more…

Cesare Pavese - writer and translator

Author introduced great American writers to Fascist Italy

Cesare Pavese, the writer and literary critic who, through his work as a translator, introduced Italy to the Irish novelist James Joyce and a host of great American authors of the 20th century, was born on this day in 1908 in Santo Stefano Belbo, a town in Piedmont about 60km from Turin.  Pavese would become an acclaimed novelist after the Second World War but was frustrated for many years by the strict censorship policies of Italy’s Fascist government.  It is thought he devoted himself to translating progressive English-language writers into Italian as the best way by which he could promote the principles of freedom in which he believed.  Pavese’s translations would have given most Italians they first opportunity to read writers such as Herman Melville, William Faulkner, Charles Dickens, Gertrude Stein, John Steinbeck and Daniel Defoe, as well as Joyce.  Read more…

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Oscar Luigi Scalfaro – President of Italy

Devout lawyer served the Republic all his life

The ninth President of the Italian Republic, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, was born on this day in 1918 in Novara.  After studying law and entering the magistrature he became a public prosecutor and is the last Italian attorney to have obtained a death sentence.  In 1945 he prosecuted the former Novara prefect Enrico Vezzalini and five servicemen, who were accused of collaborating with the Germans. All six were condemned to death and the sentence was carried out a few months later.  Subsequently Scalfaro obtained another death sentence, but the accused was pardoned before the execution could take place.  Scalfaro was brought up to be a devout Catholic and studied law at Milan’s Università Cattolica.  Before the war ended he lost his wife, Maria Inzitari, who died a few weeks after giving birth to their daughter. He never remarried.  Read more… 

Book of the Day: The Immortals: How My Milan Team Reinvented Football, by Arrigo Sacchi, with Luigi Garlando

When Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan destroyed Steaua Bucharest 4-0 in the 1989 European Cup final, everything changed. Studded with the world-class talents of their legendary three Dutchmen - Ruud Gullit, Marco Van Basten and Frank Rijkaard – they threw off the shackles of Italian football’s defensive traditions to pioneer a modern, high-pressing and boldly attacking approach. Sacchi revolutionised football and altered the DNA of the next generation of coaches, including Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. This is the story of the crowning achievement of one of football’s greatest-ever teams – told by the man who built it. This is the story of The Immortals.

Arrigo Sacchi is one of the most innovative and successful coaches in the history of football. His great AC Milan team of the late 1980s and early 90s won the Serie A title and back to back European Cups in 1989 and 1990. His high-pressing, attacking style is reflected in the philosophies of many leading modern coaches, including Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. Luigi Garlando is a sports writer and author of non-fiction books for children.

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8 September

Ludovico Ariosto – poet

Writer led the way with spirituality and humanity

The man who coined the term humanism - umanesimo - Ludovico Ariosto, was born on this day in 1474 in Reggio Emilia.  He became famous after his epic poem, Orlando furioso, was published in 1516.  It is now regarded by critics as the finest expression of the literary tendencies and spiritual attitudes of the Italian Renaissance.  Ariosto chose to focus on the strengths and potential of humanity, rather than upon its role as subordinate to God, which led to the Renaissance humanism movement.  His family moved to live in Ferrara when he was just ten years old and the poet has said he always felt ferrarese.  His father insisted he studied law but afterwards Ariosto followed his natural instincts to write poetry.  When his father died in 1500, Ariosto had to provide for his four brothers and five sisters and took the post of commander of the Citadel of Canossa. Read more…

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Michelangelo’s David

Masterpiece emerged from an abandoned block of marble

A huge statue of the Biblical hero David, sculpted by Michelangelo, was unveiled in Piazza della Signoria in Florence on this day in 1504.  The 5.17m (17ft) high statue was placed outside the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of civic government in Florence. The sculpture symbolised the defence of civil liberties in the republic of Florence, which at the time was an independent city state threatened on all sides by rival states. It was thought that the eyes of David were looking towards Rome and seemed to have a warning glare.  David is regarded as one of Michelangelo’s masterpieces. He was sculpted from a block of Carrara marble originally designated to be one of a series of prophets for Florence Cathedral. The marble was worked on by two artists before being abandoned and left exposed to the elements in the yard of the Cathedral workshop.  Read more…

Matteo Strukul – writer

Author is published worldwide in 20 languages

Writer and journalist Matteo Strukul, best known for his best-selling historical novels about the powerful Medici family, was born on this day in 1973 in Padua (Padova) in the Veneto region.  Strukul’s first novel was a dark thriller set in the Veneto, which was published in 2011 in Italian as La ballata di Mila. The novel was translated into English and issued in 2014 as The Ballad of Mila.  He then wrote four historical novels set in Florence between the 15th and 17th centuries following the rise of the house of Medici, which all became best sellers in Italy and have sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide. The first novel, I Medici, una dinastia al potere, was awarded the Premio Bancarella in 2017. This prestigious award has been won in the past by Ernest Hemingway, Boris Pasternak, Umberto Eco, and Ken Follett.  Read more…

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Magda Olivero - soprano

Singer who performed into her 80s and lived to 104

The opera singer Magda Olivero, who became known as the last verismo soprano, died on this day in 2014. She was almost halfway through her 105th year, having been born in 1910.  Olivero became associated with the works among others of Francesco Cilea, Pietro Mascagni, Umberto Giordano and Franco Alfano, all of whom she actually worked with in person, her longevity providing a 21st century link with the world of 19th century Italian opera. She missed the chance to know and work with Giacomo Puccini only narrowly, the composer passing away at the age of 66 when Olivero was 14.  Born in Saluzzo in Piedmont, Olivero made her operatic debut eight years after Puccini’s death in a radio production in Turin in 1932. She gave her last stage performance 49 years later in 1981, although even that was not the end of her career.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Orlando Furioso, Part One, by Ludovico Ariosto. Introduced and translated by Barbara Reynolds

One of the greatest epic poems of the Italian Renaissance, Orlando Furioso is an intricate tale of love and enchantment set at the time of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne's conflict with the Moors. When Count Orlando returns to France from Cathay with the captive Angelica as his prize, her beauty soon inspires his cousin Rinaldo to challenge him to a duel - but during their battle, Angelica escapes from both knights on horseback and begins a desperate quest for freedom. This dazzling kaleidoscope of fabulous adventures, sorcery and romance has inspired generations of writers - including Spenser and Shakespeare - with its depiction of a fantastical world of magic rings, flying horses, sinister wizardry and barbaric splendour. Part Two is available from the same publisher.

Barbara Reynolds was an English scholar of Italian Studies, lexicographer and translator. She wrote and edited several books concerning Dorothy L Sayers and was president of the Dorothy LSayers Society. She died at the age of 100 in April 2015.

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7 September

NEW - Guido Bentivoglio - cardinal, historian and diplomat

17th century ambassador who set standards for modern statecraft

The cardinal, archbishop and papal nuncio Guido Bentivoglio, an important figure in the development of modern international diplomacy, died on this day in 1644 in Rome.  Born in 1579 in Ferrara, Bentivoglio’s life was notable for having helped reset the Vatican’s approach to international relations, both through his astute and pragmatic methodology and his influential writings. His most notable written work, Della Guerra di Fiandra, is regarded as setting a new standard for historical writing. Published between 1632 and 1639, it documented in great detail what Bentivoglio  had learned from his eight years as papal nuncio in Flanders after decades of civil war between Habsburg rebels and the region’s Spanish rulers.  Bentivoglio’s blend of political acumen and ecclesiastical authority enabled him to navigate the religious and political tensions of a region divided between Catholic and Protestant powers. Read more… 

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Genoa Cricket and Football Club

Italy's historic first football club

Italy's oldest surviving football club was founded on this day in 1893 in Genoa.  Originally named Genoa Cricket and Athletic Club, it was established by British Consular officials and for a number of years football was a minor activity.  Initially, Italians could not be members.  Football became more its focus after an English maritime doctor, James Spensley, arrived in Genoa in 1897 and organised a match against Football Club Torinese, which had been formed in Turin in 1894. Spensley insisted the club's rules be altered to allow Italians to play.  The match took place in January 1898 and although the attendance was only around 200 spectators, it was deemed a success by those who took part, particularly the Turin side, who won.  After a return match, plans were drawn up to form an Italian Football Federation and to organise a first Italian Championship. Read more… 

Giuseppe Gioachino Belli – poet

Sonnet writer satirised life in 19th century Rome

The poet Giuseppe Gioachino Belli was born on this day in 1791 in Rome and was christened Giuseppe Francesco Antonio Maria Gioachino Raimondi Belli.  He was to become famous for his satirical sonnets written in Romanesco, the dialect of Rome.  After taking a job in Civitavecchia, a coastal town about 70km (44 miles) northwest of Rome, Belli’s father moved the family to live there, but after he died - of either cholera or typhus - his wife returned to Rome with her children and took cheap lodgings in Via del Corso.  Living in poor circumstances, Belli began writing sonnets in Italian at the suggestion of his friend, the poet Francesco Spada.  In 1816, Belli married a woman of means, Maria Conti, and went to live with her in Palazzo Poli, the palace that forms the backdrop to the Trevi Fountain. This gave him the freedom to develop his literary talents. Read more…

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Kidnapping of Pope Boniface VIII

When the Pope was slapped down by a disgruntled landowner

An army, representing King Philip IV of France and the anti-papal Colonna family, entered Anagni in Lazio and captured Pope Boniface VIII inside his own palace on this day in 1303.  The Pope was kept in custody for three days and was physically ill-treated by his captors until the local people rose up against the invaders and rescued him.  Boniface VIII returned to Rome, but he was physically and mentally broken after his ordeal and died a month later.  The Pope had been born Benedetto Caetani in Anagni in 1230. He became Pope Boniface VIII in 1294 after his predecessor abdicated. He organised the first Catholic Jubilee Year to take place in Rome in 1300 and founded Sapienza University in the city in 1303, the year of his death.  But Boniface VIII is mainly remembered for his conflicts with Philip IV of France.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Galileo, by John L Heilbron

Just over 400 years ago, in 1610, Galileo published the Siderius nuncius, or Starry Messenger, a 'hurried little masterpiece' in John Heilbron's words. Presenting to the world his remarkable observations using the recently invented telescope - of the craters of the moon, and the satellites of Jupiter, observations that forced changes to perceptions of the perfection of the heavens and the centrality of the Earth - the appearance of the little book is regarded as one of the greatest moments in the history of science. It was also a point of change in the life of Galileo himself, propelling him from professor to prophet.  But this is not the biography of a mathematician. Certainly he spent the first half of his career as a professor of mathematics and has been called 'the divine mathematician'. Yet he was no more (or less) a mathematician than he was a musician, artist, writer, philosopher, or gadgeteer. This fresh lively biography of the 'father of science' paints a rounded picture of Galileo, and places him firmly within the rich texture of late Renaissance Florence, Pisa, and Padua, amid debates on the merits of Ariosto and Tasso, and the geometry of Dante's Inferno - debates in which the young Galileo played an active role. Galileo's character and career followed complex paths, moving from the creative but cautious humanist professor to a 'knight errant, quixotic and fearless', with increasing enemies, and leading ultimately and inevitably to a clash with a pope who was a former friend.

John Lewis Heilbron was an American historian of science best known for his work in the history of physics and the history of astronomy. He was Professor of History and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Guido Bentivoglio - cardinal, historian and diplomat

17th century ambassador who set standards for modern statecraft

Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio, as painted in 
1623 by the Flemish artist, Anthony van Dyck

The cardinal, archbishop and papal nuncio Guido Bentivoglio, an important figure in the development of modern international diplomacy, died on this day in 1644 in Rome.

Born in 1579 in Ferrara, Bentivoglio’s life was notable for having helped reset the Vatican’s approach to international relations, both through his astute and pragmatic methodology and his influential writings.

His most notable written work, Della Guerra di Fiandra, is regarded as setting a new standard for historical writing. Published in multiple volumes between 1632 and 1639, it documented in great detail what Bentivoglio had learned from his eight years as papal nuncio in Flanders after decades of civil war between Habsburg rebels and the region’s Spanish rulers.

Bentivoglio’s blend of political acumen and ecclesiastical authority, enabling him to navigate the religious and political tensions of a region divided between Catholic and Protestant powers, came to the fore during this time.

Della Guerra di Fiandra and his earlier work, Relazioni in tempo delle sue nunziature, provided observations of his terms as papal nuncio in both Flanders and France. They became points of reference for historians and diplomats for many years to come and added considerably to the understanding of European politics.

Ironically, given his reputation for enlightened moderation, Bentivoglio is also remembered as having been a member of the panel of cardinals who in 1633 condemned the scientist Galileo Galilei to be burned at the stake - a sentence later commuted to indefinite house arrest - after the Inquisition had found him guilty of heresy.  

Born on September 4, 1579, Bentivoglio hailed from the Ferrara branch of the influential Bentivoglio family of Bologna, the younger son of the marchese, Cornelio Bentivoglio. His upbringing was steeped in humanist education, preparing him for a life of ecclesiastical service and cultural sophistication.

A Spanish edition of Bentivoglio's
seminal work, The War in Flanders

Bentivoglio attended university in Ferrara and Padua, where in 1598 he received a doctorate in both civil and canon law. During his time in Padua, it is thought Bentivoglio attended mathematics lessons in which, somewhat ironically, his tutor was Galileo, who was a professor at the University of Padua between 1592 and 1610. 

After completing his doctorate, Bentivoglio returned to Ferrara, where he met Pope Clement VIII, who was visiting the city. Clement saw in him an individual of enormous potential and asked him to return to Rome with him as his private chamberlain.

Clement VIII died in 1605 but his successor, Pope Paul V, was similarly impressed with Bentivoglio and appointed him titular archbishop of Rhodes in May 1607, despite not having yet received the sacred orders. The appointment was to give him appropriate credentials to be nuncio at the court of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella in the Netherlands, a position to which he was appointed a month later. 

After nine years in Flanders, Bentivoglio was transferred to Paris as nuncio in France, where he witnessed the volatile regency of Marie de’ Medici, the supposed assassination of the powerful Italian-born politician Concino Concini, and the rise of Louis XIII. His reports provided Rome a clear-eyed view of French politics, balancing ecclesiastical interests with diplomatic realism.

In both positions, in Flanders and France, Bentivoglio’s style was marked by restraint, observation, and cultural sensitivity. He navigated Protestant-Catholic tensions with tact, often prioritizing long-term influence over short-term victories.

Elevated to cardinal by Pope Gregory XV, Bentivoglio became Protector of France at the Vatican, a role that positioned him as a key intermediary between the French crown and the Holy See and which he kept from 1621 to 1641. 

The Inquisition hearing in 1633 that found the
great scientist, Galileo Galilei, guilty of heresy

He also served as a patron of the arts, commissioning works from painters such as Anthony van Dyck, and collecting tapestries and manuscripts.

Particularly enthusiastic about supporting northern European artists  working in Rome, he commissioned Van Dyck to paint his portrait, while his portrait bust was sculpted by François Duquesnoy, known as Il Fiammingo,  a Flemish sculptor active in Rome.

In the middle of this period came his part in the condemnation of Galileo, who was found guilty of heresy for writing a book that supported the view - for which, he claimed, there was scientific proof - that the sun rather than the earth was the centre of the solar system, as had been put forward by the Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus. In orthodox Roman Catholic doctrine, it was regarded as an indisputable fact of scripture that the opposite was true, that the sun moved around the earth. 

In a later collection of his works, Memorie, Bentivoglio expressed sympathy for Galileo's plight, brought on "all by his own fault, for having wanted to bring into print the new opinions about the motion of the Earth against the true accepted sense of the Church". 

It seems possible, given the Catholic Church’s struggle with emerging science, that Bentivoglio was torn between his intellectual leanings and his institutional loyalties. Nonetheless, his signature was on the decree.

Some may be tempted to believe, though, that Bentivoglio might have been an influence in the comparative leniency extended to Galileo. 

The astronomer, mathematician, philosopher and engineer – often described as ‘the father of modern science’ - could have been burned at the stake but was given the option of life imprisonment provided he recanted his findings as “abjured, cursed and detested”, to which he agreed with great reluctance.

The following day, his sentence of imprisonment was commuted to house arrest, after which Galileo was allowed to live at his villa at Arcetri, near Florence, for the remaining nine years of his life.

The 14th century Estense Castle dominates the
central part of the city of Ferrara

Travel tip:

Bentivoglio’s home city of Ferrara, about 50 km (31 miles) northeast of Bologna, was ruled by the Este family between 1240 and 1598. Building work on the magnificent Estense Castle in the centre of the city began in 1385 and it was added to and improved by successive rulers of Ferrara until the end of the Este line.  The castle was purchased for 70,000 lire by the province of Ferrara in 1874 to be used as the headquarters of the Prefecture.   Ferrara is also notable for Palazzo dei Diamanti, a palace in Corso Ercole I d’Este, that takes its name from the 8500 pointed diamond shaped stones that stud the façade, diamonds being an emblem of the Este family. It was designed by Biagio Rossetti and completed in 1503. The palace now houses the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Ferrara on its first floor.

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The anatomical theatre at the University
of Padua attracts curious visitors

Travel tip:

The founding of the University of Padua is officially recorded to have taken place in 1222 but this was actually the first time it was mentioned in an historical document, which means it is certainly older. Only the University of  Bologna, founded in 1088, is older. Padua’s university was formed, in fact, when a large group of students and professors left the University of Bologna in search of more academic freedom. The first subjects to be taught were law and theology. The main university building, Palazzo del Bò in Via VIII Febbraio in the centre of Padua, used to house the medical faculty. You can take a guided tour to see the lectern used by Galileo when he taught at the university between 1592 and 1610. The university buildings also house nine museums, a botanical garden and the oldest surviving permanent anatomical theatre in Europe, built in around 1595 and which used to hold public dissections, which attracted scientists and artists in large numbers, keen to enhance their knowledge of the human body.

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More reading: 

What led Galileo Galilei to be convicted of heresy by the Catholic Church

How Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V, used his position to acquire wealth to buy art

Pope Gregory XV, the last pontiff to issue a papal ordinance against witchcraft 

Also on this day: 

1303: Pope Boniface VIII captured by King Philip IV of France

1791: The birth of poet Giuseppe Gioachino Belli

1893: The founding in Genoa of Italy’s oldest surviving football club

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6 September

Nino Castelnuovo - actor

Starred in sumptuous French musical and TV adaptation of literary classic

The actor Nino Castelnuovo, best known for playing opposite a young Catherine Deneuve in a Palme d’Or-winning French musical and as the star of a celebrated TV adaptation of Alessandro Manzoni’s classic novel I promessi sposi (The Betrothed), died on this day in 2021 at the age of 84.  Castelnuovo’s talent came to the fore during a golden age of Italian cinema, working with leading directors such as Luchino Visconti, Vittorio De Sica, Pietro Germi, Luigi Comencini and Pier Paolo Pasolini, and starring opposite such luminaries as Alberto Sordi, Monica Vitti and Claudia Cardinale.  Yet it was the visually beautiful, deeply sentimental French musical, Le parapluies de Cherbourg - The Umbrellas of Cherbourg - that had catapulted him to fame in 1964. Castelnuovo played the handsome Guy, a mechanic, who is in love with Deneuve’s character, Geneviève. Read more…

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Giovanni Fattori - painter

Landscape artist who painted Risorgimento battle scenes 

The painter Giovanni Fattori, who campaigned to free Italy from Austrian domination and captured Risorgimento battle scenes on canvas, was born on this day in 1825 in Livorno.  Fattori became a leading member of a group of Tuscan painters known as the Macchiaioli, who have been described as the Italian equivalent of the French Impressionists but whose images were more sharply defined.  The group, largely comprising painters from a working class background, saw themselves more as a social movement who expressed themselves through art.  Born into a modest household in Livorno, Fattori’s family hoped he would seek a qualification in commerce that would equip him to prosper in the city’s trade-based economy.  But his skill in sketching persuaded them instead to apprentice him in 1845 to Giuseppe Baldini, a local painter of religious themes.  Read more…

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Andrea Camilleri – author

Creator of Inspector Montalbano

Writer and film producer Andrea Camilleri, who died in 2019, was born on this day in 1925 in Porto Empedocle in Sicily.  Famous for creating the fictional character Inspector Montalbano, Camilleri is a prolific, best-selling novelist who has generated worldwide interest in the culture and landscapes of Sicily.  Camilleri studied literature and although he never completed his course he began to write poems and short stories. He became a director and a screenwriter. He worked on several television productions for RAI, including the Inspector Maigret series.  He wrote his first novel in 1978 but it was not until 1992 that one of his novels, La stagione della caccia - The Hunting Season - became a bestseller.  In 1994 Camilleri published La forma dell’acqua - The Shape of Water - which was the first novel to feature the character of Inspector Montalbano. Read more…

Francesco I d’Este – Duke of Modena

Military leader left legacy of fine architecture

Francesco I, Duke of Modena, who was to be immortalised in a bust by the sculptor, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, was born on this day in 1610 in Modena in Emilia-Romagna.  He is remembered as a skilful military commander, who enriched Modena with the building of the Ducal Palace.  Francesco was the eldest son of Alfonso III d’Este and Isabella of Savoy and became Duke of Modena in 1629 after the death of his mother had prompted his grieving father to abdicate in order to take religious vows and become a Capuchin Friar in Merano.  During the next two years about 70 per cent of the inhabitants of Modena were killed by the plague.  The Duke’s father, now known as Fra’ Giambattista da Modena, tried to help the dying and went about preaching during the outbreak of plague, before retiring to a convent built by Francesco for him in Castelnuovo in Garfagnana.  Read more…

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Isabella Leonarda – composer

Devout nun wrote an abundance of Baroque music

Isabella Leonarda, a nun who was one of the most productive women composers of her time, was born on this day in 1620 in Novara.  Leonarda’s published work spans a period of 60 years and she has been credited with more than 200 compositions.  She did not start composing regularly until she was in her fifties, but noted in the dedication to one of her works that she wrote music only during time allocated for rest, so as not to neglect her administrative duties within the convent.  Leonarda was the daughter of Count Gianantonio Leonardi and his wife Apollonia. The Leonardi were important people in Novara, many of them church and civic officials.  Leonarda entered the Collegio di Sant’Orsola, a convent in Novara, when she was 16 and rose to a high position within the convent.  Her published compositions began to appear in 1640. Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Betrothed, by Alessandro Manzoni. Translated by Michael F Moore

Italy's greatest novel and a masterpiece of world literature, The Betrothed chronicles the unforgettable romance of Renzo and Lucia, who endure tyranny, war, famine, and plague to be together.  Published in 1827 but set two centuries earlier, against the tumultuous backdrop of 17th-century Lombardy during the Thirty Years' War, The Betrothed is the story of two peasant lovers who want nothing more than to marry. Their region of northern Italy is under Spanish occupation, and when the vicious Spaniard Don Rodrigo blocks their union in an attempt to take Lucia for himself, the couple must struggle to persevere against his plots - which include false charges against Renzo and the kidnapping of Lucia - while beset by the hazards of war, bread riots, and a terrifying outbreak of bubonic plague. First and foremost a love story, the novel also weaves issues of faith, justice, power, and truth into a sweeping epic. Groundbreakingly populist in its day and hugely influential to succeeding generations, Alessandro Manzoni's masterwork has long been considered one of Italy's national treasures.

Apart from leaving his indelible mark on Italian literature, Alessandro Manzoni also wrote poems (his most famous, The Fifth of May, on the occasion of Napoleon's death), essays, and two tragedies, The Count of Carmagnola and Adelchi. Manzoni was committed to the cause of Italian independence. Michael F Moore's published translations range from 20th-century classics such as Agostino by Alberto Moravia and The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi, to contemporary novels, including Live Bait by Fabio Genovesi and Lost Words by Nicola Gardini.

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5 September

Tommaso Campanella – poet and philosopher

Friar had utopian dream to banish poverty

Writer Tommaso Campanella was born on this day in 1568 at Stilo in Reggio Calabria and was baptised Giovanni Domenico Campanella.  As a friar who was also a philosopher, Campanella tried to reconcile humanism with Roman Catholicism. He is best remembered for his work, La città del sole (The City of the Sun), written in 1602, which was about a utopian commonwealth where every man’s work contributed to the good of the community and there was no poverty.  Campanella spent almost half of his life in prison after becoming involved with a plot to overthrow Spanish rule in Calabria.  The son of a poor cobbler, Campanella was an infant prodigy who joined the Dominican order before he was 15, taking the name Fra Tommaso.  He was influenced by the work of philosopher Bernardino Telesio, who opposed Aristotle’s ideas.  Read more… 

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Francesca Porcellato - Paralympian

Life of sporting excellence born of horrific accident

Francesca Porcellato, one of Italy’s most enduring Paralympians, was born on this day in 1970 in Castelfranco Veneto.  She competed in eight summer Paralympics as an athlete and cyclist and three winter Paralympics in cross-country skiing, winning a total of 14 medals, including three golds.  At the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver, Canada, she was flag-bearer for the Italian team.  She is also a prolific wheelchair marathon competitor, sharing with America’s Tatyana McFadden the distinction of having won the London Marathon wheelchair event four times.  In 2018, she won both the road race and time trial golds in the H3 category for the third time at the Paracycling road world championships. The H3 category involves competitors riding in a lying position, using their arms to turn the wheels.  Read more…

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Renzo Rivolta - engineer 

Entrepreneur who invented the ‘bubble car’

Renzo Rivolta, the businessman and engineer behind the ‘bubble car’ phenomenon of the 1950s, was born in Desio, a town in Lombardy about 20km (12 miles) north of Milan, on this day in 1908.  A visionary entrepreneur, Rivolta conceived the three-wheeled vehicle as a crossover between a motorcycle and a car, to bridge the gap in the market between conventional motorcycles and scooters and Italy’s cheapest car, the Fiat Topolino.  Named the Isetta, the car was essentially egg-shaped with just about room for two adults on the one seat. The nose section was also the access door, with a rack attached to the rear to carry a small amount of luggage. Because of its shape and bubble-like windows, it became known as a bubble car.  In the event, it was not particularly successful in Italy, yet it was a hit with buyers in other parts of Europe and in South America. Read more… 

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Mario Scelba – prime minister 

Tough interior minister worked for social and economic reform

Mario Scelba, a Christian Democrat who would become Italy’s 33rd prime minister, was born on this day in 1901 in Caltagirone in Sicily.  He earned the nickname ‘the Iron Sicilian’ while serving as Interior Minister because of his repression of both left-wing protests and neo-Fascist rallies.  Scelba had been born into a poor family that worked on land owned by the priest Don Luigi Sturzo, who was to become one of the founders of the Italian People’s Party (PPI).  As his godfather, Sturzo paid for Scelba to study law in Rome. When the Fascists suppressed the PPI and forced Sturzo into exile, Scelba remained in Rome as his agent.  He wrote for the underground newspaper, Il Popolo, during the Second World War. He was once arrested by the Germans but freed after three days as he was considered to be ‘a worthless catch’.  Read more…

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Giacomo Zabarella – philosopher

Scholar devoted his life to explaining Aristotle’s ideas

The leading representative of Renaissance Aristotelianism, Giacomo Zabarella, was born on this day in 1533 in Padua in the Veneto.  His ability to translate ancient Greek enabled him to understand the original texts written by Aristotle and he spent most of his life presenting what he considered to be the true meaning of the philosopher’s ideas.  He had been born into a noble Paduan family who arranged for him to receive a humanist education.  After entering the University of Padua he was taught by Francesco Robortello in the humanities, Bernardino Tomitano in logic, Marcantonio Genua in physics and metaphysics and Pietro Catena in mathematics. All were followers of Aristotle.  Zabarella obtained a Doctorate in Philosophy from the university in 1553 and was offered the Chair of Logic in 1564.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The City of the Sun, by Tommaso Campanella

First published in 1602, this is an independently-published translation of the philosophical work by the Italian Dominican friar Tommaso Campanella. The book is presented as a dialogue between 'a Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller and a Genoese Sea-Captain'. Inspired by Plato's Republic and the description of Atlantis in Timaeus, The City of the Sun describes a theocratic society where goods, women and children are held in common. It also resembles the City of Adocentyn in the Picatrix, an Arabic grimoire of astrological magic.

Tommaso Campanella produced much of his most significant work in jail. These include The Monarchy in Spain (1600), Political Aphorisms (1601), Metaphysica (1609-1623), Theologia (1613-1624), Apology for Galileo (1616), and The City of the Sun (1623).

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4 September

Giacinto Facchetti - footballer

The original - and best - attacking full back

The footballer Giacinto Facchetti, who captained Italy at two World Cups and won four Serie A titles plus two European Cups for Inter Milan, died on this day in 2006 in Milan at the age of 64.  He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer. When his funeral took place at the Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio in Milan, more than 12,000 fans joined the mourners marking his life. His remains were then taken back to his home town of Treviglio in the province of Bergamo.  Apart from being regarded as the model professional and a pillar of moral decency, Facchetti was seen as a player ahead of his time, the first attacking full back who was a master in both disciplines of his game.  Under the coaching of Internazionale’s great Argentine-born coach, Helenio Herrera, he became integral to the defensive system known as catenaccio. Read more…

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Rita Atria - witness of justice

Tragic teenager who broke Mafia code of omertà

Rita Atria, the girl from a Mafia family in southwest Sicily who famously went to the police after her father and brother were both killed by criminal rivals, was born on this day in 1974 in Partanna, in the province of Trapani. She was just 11 years old when her father, Vito, ostensibly a shepherd but in reality a local Mafia boss, was shot dead by a hit man hired by a rival family. The killing took place in 1985, nine days before her brother, Nicolò, was due to be married. He vowed to avenge his father’s death and spoke openly about knowing who was responsible.  He and his bride, Piera Aiella, a local girl, were both 18 at the time of their marriage. Piera, who had known Nicolò since he was 14, did not wish to marry him but Vito had thought she would make his son a suitable wife, and had made it clear to her that she had little choice in the matter.  Read more…

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Luigi Cadorna – Marshall of Italy

Tough military leader was blamed for losing crucial battle

Luigi Cadorna, a military General who was made a Marshall of Italy, was born on this day in 1850 in Verbania, on the shore of Lake Maggiore in the Piedmont region.  Cadorna is most remembered for his role as Chief of Staff of the Italian Army during the first part of the First World War.  His father was General Raffaele Cadorna, the Piedmontese military leader whose capture of Rome in 1870 completed the unification of Italy.  Sent by his father to a military school in Milan from the age of 10, he entered the Turin Military Academy when he was 15 and, after graduating at the age of 18, was commissioned as a second lieutenant of artillery.  He participated in the occupation of Rome in 1870 as part of the force commanded by his father.  After becoming a Major, Cadorna was appointed to the staff of General Pianelli and became Chief of Staff of the Verona Divisional Command.  Read more…

Amadeus - TV presenter

Former DJ now one of Italian TV’s most familiar faces

The entertainment and game show presenter Amedeo Sebastiani - known professionally as Amadeus - was born on this day in 1962 in Ravenna.  In a small screen career spanning almost 35 years, Amadeus has fronted several major shows for both national broadcaster Rai and for the channels of the privately-owned Mediaset network.  He was the original face of the hit game show L'eredità - The Inheritance - which has been a fixture on Rai Uno since 2002 - and more recently he has become the regular host of Rai Uno’s annual New Year’s Eve variety show L’anno che verrà - The Coming Year.  Amadeus has also presented two of Italy’s biggest song contests, Festivalbar, and the Sanremo Music Festival, of which until 2024 he was host and artistic director.  Sebastiani’s parents were both Sicilian, his father Corrado an accomplished horseman who taught his son to ride. Read more…

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Saint Rosalia

'Little Saint' ended the plague in Palermo

The Feast Day of Saint Rosalia is being celebrated today in Sicily, throughout the rest of Italy, in America, Venezuela and in many other countries.  Saint Rosalia, also known as La santuzza, or the Little Saint, is the patron saint of Palermo as well as three towns in Venezuela.  Centuries after Rosalia’s death, the people of Palermo believed she ended the plague when what they thought were her remains were carried in a procession through the city.  Rosalia was born in Palermo in about 1130 into a noble Norman family that claimed to descend from Charlemagne.  She became devoutly religious and eventually went to live as a hermit in a cave on Mount Pellegrino in Sicily.  There is a story that she was led by two angels to live in the cave and that she wrote on the wall that she had chosen to live there out of her love for Jesus.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Power and the Glory: A New History of the World Cup, by Jonathan Wilson

By 1930, football had outgrown the Olympic Games. A new competition, run by Fifa, would take international football to the next level. After a shambolic start to the first tournament in Uruguay - an incomplete stadium, shoddy refereeing and physios accidentally injuring players - the thrilling final saw Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2.  From those chaotic beginnings grew the modern World Cup, a cultural phenomenon that draws the world together like nothing else. Ask a random person to name a moment in the history of Senegal and they may well say Pape Bouba Diop's winner against France in the 2002 World Cup, defeating his country's former colonial masters. The World Cup has political significance. West Germany's success in 1954 was a moment of reintegration into global society, while progress to the semi-finals in 1998 boosted Croatia's sense of national self. At the other end of the scale, in the so-called Soccer War of 1969, tensions between El Salvador and Honduras were ignited by a World Cup qualifier. More recently, hosting the tournament has been a vehicle for governments seeking political gain, the World Cups in Russia and Qatar being clear examples of sportswashing, staging a tournament to project an image of a thriving society. The story of the World Cup is also the story of the world. The Power and the Glory tells its definitive history.

Jonathan Wilson is the editor of The Blizzard and a freelance writer for the Guardian, World Soccer and Sports Illustrated. He is the author of 11 books, including Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics, Behind the Curtain: Football in Eastern Europe, Angels with Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina, The Barcelona Legacy and The Names Heard Long Ago.

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3 September

NEW - Armistice of Cassibile

Document hastened end of World War II for Italy

A secret agreement to end hostilities between Italy and the Allies during World War II was signed at Cassibile in Sicily on this day in 1943.  The Armistice of Cassibile was approved by both King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Prime Minister Pietro Badoglio. It was signed by Brigade General Giuseppe Castellano for Italy, and Major-General Walter Bedell Smith for the Allies.  The signing took place at a Sicilian military camp that had been occupied by the Allies, but the news about the agreement was not announced by Italy for another five days.  Germany responded to the announcement when it was made on September 8 by immediately attacking Italian forces in Italy, southern France, and the Balkans.  Four days after the news of the armistice was made public, the Germans freed dictator Benito Mussolini from his captivity in the Gran Sasso mountain range in Abruzzo.  Read more…

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Pietro Locatelli – musician

Violinist astonished his listeners with his ability

Virtuoso violinist and Baroque composer Pietro Antonio Locatelli was born on this day in 1695 in Bergamo.  He showed an astonishing talent for playing the violin while he was still a young boy and began playing with the orchestra at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo when he was 14.  In 1711, when he was 16 years old, he left to go to Rome and although it is not known whether he studied with Arcangelo Corelli before the composer’s death in 1713, he would have absorbed a lot of his influence by studying with the other eminent musicians in the city.  In 1714 Locatelli wrote to his father, telling him that he was a member of the band of household musicians working for Prince Michelangelo I Caetani, a notable political figure and scholar. While in Rome he made his debut as a composer, producing his XII Concerto Grossi Op I in 1721. Read more…

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Giuseppe ‘Nino’ Farina – racing driver

The first Formula One world champion

Emilio Giuseppe Farina, driving an Alfa Romeo, became the first Formula One world champion on this day in 1950.  The 43-year-old driver from Turin - usually known as Giuseppe or 'Nino' - clinched the title on home territory by winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.  He was only third in the seven-race inaugural championship going into the final event at the Lombardy circuit, trailing Alfa teammates Juan Manuel Fangio, of Argentina, by four points and his Italian compatriot, Luigi Fagioli, by two.  Under the competition’s complicated points scoring system, Fangio was hot favourite, with the title guaranteed if he was first or second, and likely to be his if he merely finished in the first five, provided Farina did not win.  He could have been crowned champion simply by picking up a bonus point for the fastest lap in the race, provided Farina was no higher than third.  Read more…

Giuseppe Bottai - Fascist turncoat

Ex-Mussolini minister who fought with Allies

Giuseppe Bottai, who served as a minister in the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini but finished the Second World War fighting with the Allies against Germany, was born on this day in 1895 in Rome.  Bottai helped Mussolini establish the National Fascist Party and served as Minister of National Education under Mussolini between 1936 and 1943. He supported Mussolini’s anti-semitic race laws and founded a magazine that promoted the idea of a superior Aryan race.  However, in 1943, following Italy’s disastrous fortunes in the Second World War, he was among the Fascist Grand Council members who voted for Mussolini to be arrested and removed from office.  Later, after Mussolini was freed from house arrest by German paratroopers and established as head of the Italian Social Republic, Bottai was handed a death sentence and hid in a convent before escaping to join the French Foreign Legion. Read more…

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San Marino - world's oldest sovereign state

Republic founded in 301 as Christian refuge

The Most Serene Republic of San Marino, an independent state within Italy, was founded on this day in 301.  Situated on the north east side of the Apennine mountains, San Marino claims to be the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world.  Of the world's 196 independent countries, it is the fifth smallest, covering an area of just 61 square kilometres or 24 square miles.  It is also the sole survivor of Italy's once all-powerful city state network, having outlasted such mighty neighbours as Genoa and Venice.  San Marino grew from a monastic community, taking its names from Saint Marinus of Alba in Croatia, a Christian who had been working as a stonemason in Rimini when he was forced to flee Roman persecution and escaped to Mount Titano, where he built a church and founded both the city and state of San Marino.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Battle for Italy: One of the Second World War's Most Brutal Campaigns, by John Strawson

It could have all been over much quicker. In a gripping account, bestseller John Strawson analyses how the slow, bloody and fiercely fought Italian campaign delayed the end of the Second World War after the tide had turned against Hitler and the Germans. Here was a point of dogged resistance; and also indomitable advance and eventual victory from a huge Allied push up the peninsula. What was the justification for opening up a major new front against Hitler? What were the effects of doing so, the consequences of the important tactical decisions made by politicians and generals, the hostility between Patton and Montgomery, and the larger disagreement between the US and Britain? In answering them Strawson gets to the heart not only of this too-often overlooked struggle, but the entire War. The Battle for Italy is military history at its finest, full of unforgettable detail and grand strategy - perfect for readers of Max Hastings or James Holland.

Major-General John Strawson CBE was a British Army officer, best known for his service during the Second World War in the Middle East and Italy, and afterwards in Germany and Malaya. He was a prolific author, writing around a dozen books of military history and biography.

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