Aleardo Aleardi - poet and patriot

History-loving writer dreamed of a united Italy

Aleardo Aleardi became an important
figure in the Risorgimento movement

Patriotic poet Aleardo Aleardi was born on this day in 1812 in Verona.  

At the height of his success he was hailed as an important figure in the Risorgimento movement and there is now a school named after him in the city of his birth.

Aleardi’s poems are mostly about events in Italian history and his love for his home country, which was under Austrian occupation while he was growing up.

He was originally named Gaetano Maria but changed his name to Aleardi, the surname of his father, Count Giorgio Aleardi, when he started writing.

Aleardi studied law at Padova University but gradually became more interested in poetry, influenced by some of his fellow students who were involved in the romantic Risorgimento movement.

Risorgimento, which means resurgence, was the name for the political and social movement that led to the consolidation of the different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy during the 19th century. Most historians agree that the process began in 1815 with the end of Napoleonic rule in Italy and was completed in 1871 when Rome became the capital of the new united Italy and King Victor Emmanuel took up residence in the Palazzo Quirinale.

Aleardi’s first success came with Le Lettere a Maria (Letters to Mary), in which he expressed his belief in the immortality of the soul. He reached the height of his success with I Canti, a collection of poems published in 1864, which was reprinted eleven times.

Aleardi was sent to Paris in 1848 by Daniele Manin, a hero of the Risorgimento movement, to try to gather support for freeing Venice from the Austrians.

He was arrested and imprisoned by the Austrians twice, but survived the ordeals to become a member of parliament after Italian unification.

He became a senator in 1873 and then a professor of aesthetics in Florence, where he died in 1878.

The University of Padova, where Aleardi studied law
before devoting his time increasingly to poetry

Travel Tip:

The University of Padova, where Aleardi studied law, was established in 1222 and is one of the oldest in the world, second in Italy only to the University of Bologna. The main university building, Palazzo del Bo in Via 8 Febbraio in the centre of Padova, used to house the medical faculty. You can take a guided tour to see the pulpit used by Galileo when he taught at the university between 1592 and 1610.

The romantic so-called 'Juliet balcony' became an attraction
for visitors to visitors to Verona

Travel tip:

Verona, where Aleardi was born, is the second biggest city in the Veneto. It is home to the first-century Roman Arena, famous for staging open air opera productions, and Casa di Giulietta, which has a romantic marble ‘Juliet’ balcony, although there is little evidence that the real-life Romeo ever stood below it declaring his love for Juliet.


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Gioachino Rossini

Italian composer who found the fast route to wealth and popularity

The success of Rossini's early operas made him
wealthy and successful even as a young man 

One of Italy’s most prolific composers, Gioachino Rossini, died on this day in France in 1868.

He wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, songs and instrumental music. He is perhaps best remembered for, The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia), and Cinderella (La Cenerentola).

Rossini was born into a musical family living in Pesaro on the Adriatic coast in 1792. During his early years his mother earned her living singing at theatres in the area and he quickly developed musical talent of his own.

He made his first and only appearance on stage as a singer in 1805 but then settled down to learn the cello.

His first opera, The Marriage Contract (La cambiale di matrimonio), was staged at Teatro La Fenice opera house in Venice when he was just 18.

In 1813 his operas, Tancredi and L’italiana in Algeri, were big successes in Venice and he found himself famous at the age of 20.

The Barber of Seville was first produced in Rome in 1816 and was so successful that even Beethoven wrote to congratulate Rossini on it.

Rossini as an older man, in about 1865

The composer became wealthy and in big demand and travelled to Austria, France and England. In 1824 he accepted the post of musical director at a theatre in Paris and wrote Guillaume Tell (William Tell) during his time there.

Rossini came back to live quietly in Italy for about ten years, but returned to France in 1855, where he died at the age of 76 from pneumonia at his country house in Passy.

He was initially buried in Paris but because of his enormous popularity in Italy, his remains were moved to the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence at the request of the Italian Government in 1887.

The magnificent Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence, where
Rossini's remains were transferred from Paris

Travel tip:

Many famous Italians are buried in the magnificent 12th century Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence. Rossini’s remains were transferred here from France in 1887, leaving an empty tomb for people to visit at the cemetery in Paris.



Travel tip:

Pesaro is a beautiful, traditional seaside resort on the Adriatic coast renowned for its sandy beach. Rossini’s birthplace, at Via Rossini 34, is now a museum dedicated to the composer and there is also a theatre named after him. A Rossini opera festival is held in Pesaro every summer.



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Umberto Giordano - opera composer

Death of the musician remembered for Andrea Chenier

Umberto Giordano was a contemporary
of Mascagni and Puccini, among others

Composer Umberto Giordano died on this day in 1948 in Milan at the age of 81.

He is perhaps best remembered for his opera, Andrea Chenier, a dramatic work about liberty and love during the French revolution, which was based on the real life story of the romantic French poet, André Chenier.

The premiere of the opera was held at Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1896. At the time, its success propelled Giordano into the front rank of up-and-coming Italian composers alongside Pietro Mascagni, to whom he is often compared, and Giacomo Puccini.

Another of Giordano’s works widely acclaimed by both the public and the critics, is the opera, Fedora.

This had its premiere in 1898 at the Teatro Lirico in Milan. A rising young tenor, Enrico Caruso, played the role of Fedora’s lover, Loris. The opera was a big success and is still performed today.

Some of Giordano’s later works are less well-known but they have achieved the respect of the critics and music experts and are occasionally revived by opera companies.

The Teatro Argentina in Rome, which staged the first
production of Giordano's debut opera, Mala vita

Giordano was born in Foggia in Puglia in August 1867. He studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples.

He wrote his first opera, Marina, for a competition organised by the music publishers Casa Sonzogno for the best one-act opera. It was placed sixth of 73 entries. The competition, which is seen as marking the beginning of verismo movement in Italian opera, was won by Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana. 

There was much interest in Marina, nonetheless, and Sonzogno commissioned Giordano to develop the idea further. The result was Mala vita, a gritty verismo opera about a labourer who vows to reform a prostitute if he is cured of his tuberculosis. 

The audience at the Teatro Argentina in Rome were somewhat scandalised when it played there in February 1892 but it was greeted with acclaim by audiences in Vienna, Prague and Berlin.


Giordano tried a more romantic topic with his next opera, Regina Diaz, but this was a failure and was cancelled after just two performances.

He moved to Milan and it was there he returned to verismo with Andrea Chenier and Fedora.

The theatre in Piazza Cesare Battisti in Foggia, the town where Giordano was born, has been renamed Teatro Giordano in his memory. There is also a large statue of the composer in Piazza Umberto Giordano in Foggia.

Teatro alla Scala opened in 1778, having been built to replace
the Teatro Regio Ducale, which had been destroyed in a fire 

Travel tip:

Opera lovers should visit Teatro alla Scala in Milan and go round the theatre’s museum to see the fantastic costumes and memorabilia from the history of opera on display. The museum in Largo Ghiringhelli, just off Piazza Scala, is open every day except the Italian Bank Holidays and certain days in December. Opening hours are from 9.00 to 12.30 and 1.30 to 5.30 pm.  The theatre opened in 1778 as the Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala, having been commissioned by the Empress Maria Theresa of the House of Hapsburg, of which the Duchy of Milan was at the time a part, as replacement for the Teatro Regio Ducale following a fire in 1776.  It was built on the site of the former church of Santa Maria alla Scala.

The statue of Umberto Giordano in
Piazza Umberto Giordano

Travel tip:

Foggia, where Umberto Giordano was born in 1867, is an important city in Puglia in the south of Italy. As well as the Teatro Giordano and Piazza Umberto Giordano, which honour the composer, Foggia has a Cathedral dating back to the 12th century well worth visiting. The city was once known as the ‘granary of Italy’, thanks to its proximity to a large plain, known as the Tavoliere delle Puglie, which enabled the growing of wheat and other grain plants on a large scale. There are many pasta factories, although productivity in the area is not limited to grains, being a significant producer of olives, grapes and cheeses too.  The old centre of the city is a network of narrow streets, at the heart of which is the part-Romanic, part-Baroque cathedral of Santa Maria de Fovea.

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Victor Emmanuel III

Birth of the King who ruled Italy through two world wars

Italy’s longest reigning King, Victor Emmanuel III (Vittorio Emanuele III di Savoia), was born on this day in Naples in 1869.

The only child of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy, he was given the title of Prince of Naples.

The National Library, named after Victor Emmanuel III
is housed inside the Palazzo Reale

He became King of Italy in 1900 after his father was assassinated in Monza.

During the reign of Victor Emmanuel III, Italy was involved in two world wars and experienced the rise and fall of Fascism.

At the height of his popularity he was nicknamed by the Italians Re soldato (soldier King) and Re vittorioso (victorious King) because of Italy’s success in battle during the First World War. He was also sometimes called sciaboletta (little sabre) as he was only five feet (1.53m) tall.

Italy had remained neutral at the start of the First World War but signed treaties to go into the war on the side of France, Britain and Russia in 1915. Victor Emmanuel III enjoyed popular support as a result of visiting areas in the north affected by the fighting while his wife, Queen Elena, helped the nurses care for the wounded.

But the instability after the First World War led to Mussolini’s rise to power. Victor Emmanuel III was later to claim that it was fear of a civil war that stopped him moving against Mussolini right at the start. But his apparent weakness had dire consequences for the country and he lost support.

He finally dismissed Mussolini and had him arrested in 1943. To try to save the monarchy, Victor Emmanuel III transferred powers to his son, Umberto, and formally abdicated in 1946, hoping the new King, Umberto II, would be able to strengthen support for the monarchy.

Victor Emmanuel III went into exile in Alexandria in Egypt, where he died in 1947.

Travel tip:

The National Library in Naples is named after Italy’s longest reigning monarch. Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III in Piazza Plebiscito is one of the most important libraries in Italy with more than two million books, manuscripts and parchments and is well worth visiting. It is open daily from 8.30 to 7.30 pm,  but closed on Sundays.

Travel tip:

When in Naples, try an authentic Pizza Margherita, named after the mother of Victor Emmanuel III, Queen Margherita. It is claimed that the pizza, with its tomato, basil and mozzarella topping, was created to represent the Italian flag and was named after Queen Margherita in 1889 by Neapolitan pizza maker, Raffaele Esposito.

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