Revolution in Sicily

January revolt meant the beginning of the end for the Bourbons

The Sicilian uprising on this day in 1848 was to be the first of several revolutions in Italy and Europe that year.

King Ferdinand II

The revolt against the Bourbon government of Ferdinand II in Sicily started in Palermo and led to Sicily becoming an independent state for 16 months.

It was the third revolution to take place on the island against Bourbon rule and signalled the end for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Naples and Sicily had been formally reunited to become the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1815. Back in medieval times they had both been part of a single Kingdom of Sicily.

The 1848 revolt was organised in Palermo and deliberately timed to coincide with King Ferdinand’s birthday.

News of the revolt spread and peasants from the countryside arrived to join the fray and express their frustration about the hardships they were enduring.

Sicilian nobles revived the liberal constitution based on the Westminster system of parliamentary government, which had been drawn up for the island in 1812.

The Bourbon army took back full control of Sicily by force in May 1849 but the revolt proved to be only a curtain raiser for the events to come in 1860 when Giuseppe Garibaldi ended Bourbon rule once and for all.

The island of Sicily became part of the new Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

Travel tip:

Palermo's magnificent Teatro Massimo
Photo: Bjs (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Palermo,  the capital of Sicily, is famous for its history, culture, architecture, food and wine. It has examples of Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque churches and palaces. Palazzo dei Normanni, a marvellous example of Norman architecture, is the seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly. The Teatro Massimo, the biggest theatre in Italy, has staged operas starring Enrico Caruso.


Travel tip:

Naples has been subjected to persistent foreign domination over the centuries. After the Spanish came the Austrians and in 1734 the Bourbon King, Charles I, renovated the city, building the Villa di Capodimonte and the Teatro di San Carlo. Napoleon conquered Naples in 1806 and made his brother the King, but the Bourbon King, Ferdinand, regained Naples in 1815. In 1861, Garibaldi’s army conquered the city and handed it over to the King of Sardinia, who later became King Victor Emanuel II, the ruler of the newly united Italy.

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Matteo Renzi – politician

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

Matteo Renzi, the current Prime Minister of Italy, was born on this day in 1975 in Florence.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi

When he became Prime Minister in February 2014, he was the youngest person to hold the office since Italian unification in 1861.

Celebrating his 41st birthday today, Renzi is still the youngest leader in the G7, the group of seven countries with the most advanced economies.

His father, Tiziano Renzi was a Christian Democrat local councillor in Rignano sull’Arno, where Renzi was brought up as part of an observant Catholic family.

He went to school in Florence and was a scout in the association of Catholic Guides and Scouts of Italy.

On Renzi’s personal website he carries a quote from Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout Movement: “Lasciare il mondo un po’ migliore di come lo abbiamo trovato - Leave the world a bit better than how you found it.”

Since forming a Government nearly two years ago, Renzi has reformed labour and employment laws to boost economic growth and has abolished some small taxes.

Renzi became interested in politics while still at school. He graduated from the University of Florence with a degree in Law and at the age of 21 joined the Italian People’s Party. In 2001 he joined The Daisy Party, formed by members of the disbanded People’s party. Three years later he was elected as President of Florence Province.

He then joined the Democratic Party and was elected as Mayor of Florence in 2009. 

He was elected Secretary of the Democratic Party in 2013 and under his leadership the party joined the Party of European Socialists.

Renzi had stated publicly that Italy badly needed a new government with a radical programme of reforms and, after the Prime Minister tendered his resignation in 2014, he was tasked with forming a new government by President Giorgio Napolitano.

After taking up residence in Palazzo Chigi, Renzi appointed his Cabinet, Italy’s youngest ever, with an equal number of male and female ministers.

The author of several books on politics, Renzi is married with three children.

The Palazzo Chigi in Rome, official residence
of the Prime Minister of Italy
Photo: Geobia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Travel Tip:

Palazzo Chigi, the official residence of the Prime Minister of Italy, is a 16th century palace in Piazza Colonna in Rome. It is just off Via del Corso and is close to the Pantheon.

Travel Tip:

The University of Florence can trace its origins back to the 14th century, but the modern University, where Matteo Renzi studied Law, dates back to 1859, when a number of higher studies institutions were grouped together. The resulting Institute was officially recognised as a University by the Italian parliament in 1923. The Law faculty is in the Novoli district in the north west of Florence, near the courts.

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San Pietro Orseolo – Doge of Venice and monk

Rich powerful Doge made a life-changing decision

Pietro Orseolo, a former Venetian Doge who joined the Benedictine order, died on this day in 987.

Piazza della Libertà in Udine, birthplace of  Pietro Orseolo.  

He was canonised by Pope Clement XII in 1731 and his feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death on 10 January each year.

Pietro Orseolo became Doge of Venice in 976 but after just two years in office he left his palace in the middle of the night to go to France to become a monk.

Orseolo was originally from a powerful family in Udine and at the age of 20 became commander of the Venetian fleet waging successful campaigns against pirate ships.

He was elected Doge after the previous ruler of Venice had been killed in a revolt. Orseolo restored order to the city, built much needed hospitals and cared for widows and orphans.

He started to rebuild the Doge’s palace and St Mark’s Basilica using his own money. But he suddenly left Venice to travel to southern France with three other Venetians to join a Benedictine abbey. It is believed he told no one about his decision in advance, not even his wife and family.

After some years living as a monk performing menial tasks at the abbey, Orseolo went to live in the surrounding forest as a hermit. He continued to live like this for seven years until he died in 987.

Orseolo funded a rebuilding project on St Mark's Basilica
in Venice before leaving for France.

Forty years after his death he was beatified and 700 years later he was made a saint.

Travel tip:

Udine, the birthplace of San Pietro Orseolo, is a city in the region of Friuli Venezia-Giulia not far from Italy’s border with Slovenia. In the principal square, Piazza della Libertà, there are beautiful 15th century Venetian-style buildings, such as the town hall, Loggia del Lionello, and clock tower, Torre dell’Orologio, which resembles the one in Piazza San Marco in Venice. 

Travel tip:

Bacino Orseolo in Venice, a wide stretch of water where gondolas are moored near Piazza San Marco, is named after Doge Pietro I Orseolo, who established a hospice for pilgrims there in 977, one of the good works he accomplished before he left Venice to become a monk.

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Umberto I – King of Italy

Anarchists made three attempts on monarch’s life

King Umberto I ascended the throne of Italy on this day in 1878.

Umberto I, depicted in a
portrait painted in 1878

Known by the Italian people as Il Buono (the Good) he succeeded on the death of his father, Victor Emmanuel II.

Umberto had already won popular support because of the way he had conducted himself during his military career and as a result of his marriage to Margherita of Savoy and the subsequent birth of their son, who was to become King Victor Emmanuel III.

But he was to become increasingly unpopular during his reign because of his imperialist policies and his harsh ways of dealing with civil unrest.

Queen Margherita was particularly loved in Naples, where she visited schools and hospitals and organised collections of toys and clothes for the children of poor families. She was seen to hold the hands of cholera victims without wearing gloves and to join the ordinary women in their processions to the Duomo.

As a result, Pizza Margherita, with its tomatoes, basil and mozzarella representing the colours of the Italian flag, was created in Naples and named after her.

However, her popularity didn’t help Umberto, who was attacked by an anarchist in Naples during the first year of his reign.

Umberto was making a tour of the kingdom accompanied by Queen Margherita, and the Prime Minister, Benedetto Cairoli.

While saluting the crowd from his carriage, Umberto was attacked by a young man, Giovanni Passanante, who was employed as a cook but was later described as an anarchist.

Passanante jumped on the carriage and attempted to stab the King. Umberto warded off the blow with his sabre but the Prime Minister, who came to his aid, was wounded in the thigh.

In 1897 Umberto was attacked again, this time by an unemployed ironworker who tried, but failed, to stab him in Rome.

But in July 1900 the anarchists were finally successful. Umberto was shot and killed in Monza by Gaetano Bresci, who later claimed he wanted to avenge the people killed in a recent massacre in Milan, when military force had been used against ordinary people protesting about rising bread prices.

Umberto was buried in the Pantheon in Rome next to the tomb of his father, Victor Emmanuel II.

The Pantheon in Rome, which houses the tombs
of Umberto I and his father, Victor Emanuel II

Travel tip:

The Pantheon in Piazza della Rotonda is Rome’s best preserved ancient building. It was built in AD 118 on the site of a previous building dating back to 27 BC. The building, which has a huge dome, was consecrated as a church in the seventh century. Victor Emanuel II, Umberto I and his wife, Queen Margherita, are the only members of the Italian royal family buried there.

Travel tip:

The Duomo in Naples, in Via Duomo, off Via Tribunali, was built over the ruins of two earlier Christian churches for Charles I of Anjou at the end of the 13th century. The Duomo is in the spotlight in May and September each year when a vial containing the dried blood of the city’s patron saint, San Gennaro is brought out to liquefy in front of the congregation. It is believed that whenever the blood fails to liquefy disaster is going to befall Naples. The Duomo is open to the public from 8.30 to 1.30 and 2.30 to 8 pm Monday to Saturday and 8.30 to 1.30 and 4.30 to 7.30 pm on Sundays.

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