Dario Fo – writer and actor

Prolific playwright put the spotlight on corruption

Playwright and all round entertainer Dario Fo celebrates his 90th birthday today. He was born in Leggiuno Sangiano in the Province of Varese in Lombardy on this day in 1926.

His plays have been widely performed and translated into many different languages. He is perhaps most well known for Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997.

Dario Fo
(Photo: Gorupdebesanez CC BY-SA 3.0)

Fo’s early work is peppered with criticisms of the corruption, crime, and racism that affected life in Italy at the time. He later moved on to ridicule Forza Italia and Silvio Berlusconi and more recently his targets have included the banks and big business.

He was brought up near the shores of Lago Maggiore but moved to Milan to study. During the war he served with several branches of the forces before deserting. He returned to Milan to study architecture but gave it up to paint and work in small theatres presenting improvised monologues.

In the 1950s Fo worked in radio and on stage performing his own work. He met and later married actress Franca Rame and they had a son, Jacopo, who also became a writer.

They moved to Rome, where Fo worked as a screenwriter, and for a while they lived next door to Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman.

When Fo and Rame returned to Milan they formed a theatre company and performed Fo’s plays at the Teatro Odeon in the city. His play Archangels Don’t Play Pinball was the first to bring them national and international fame.

Fo wrote and directed a popular television variety show, Canzonissima, but after one episode referenced the dangerous conditions faced by workers on building sites, it was censored. Fo and Rame walked out and were banned from Italian television for 14 years.

The writer has performed his most celebrated solo piece, Mistero Buffo, all over the world since he first introduced it in 1969, presenting it as though he is a travelling player in medieval times. The material he included relating to the life and times of Christ has been denounced as blasphemous by the Vatican.

Fo and Rame formed a theatre company operating outside the state system for which Fo wrote Accidental Death of an Anarchist, a play first performed in 1970 about the so-called 'accidental' fall from the window of a Milan police station of a man being questioned about a bomb attack on a bank.

Rame was subjected to a savage physical attack by fascists believed to be working on the orders of high-ranking Carabinieri officials, but she returned to the stage after two months to perform new anti-fascist monologues.

In 1974 Fo’s comedy Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay, about a consumer backlash against high prices, was first performed. Fo and Rame were later blocked from appearing in a festival of Italian Theatre in America. Fo’s play The First Miracle of the Infant Jesus was performed on television in 1987 but was condemned as blasphemous by the Vatican.

In the 1990s his plays addressed themes such as AIDS, the Gulf War and the economic scandal, Tangentopoli. More recently he ran, unsuccessfully, to be Mayor of Milan.

Fo continues to write and campaign about political and social issues and has also produced five novels. His wife, Franca Rame, died in Milan in 2013 at the age of 83.

UPDATE: Sadly, Dario Fo died a few months after this article was originally published. He contracted a serious respiratory illness and passed away in Milan in October, 2016, aged 90.

 

The Hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso at Leggiuno
(Photo: Mattana CC BY-SA 3.0)

Travel tip:

Leggiuno Sangiano, where Dario Fo was born, is close to the shores of Lago Maggiore in the province of Varese in Lombardy. The area is famous for the Hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso, a Roman Catholic monastery perched on a rocky ridge overlooking the lake, which dates back to the 14th century. It can be reached by boat or on foot by climbing down a winding stairway and was declared a national monument in 1914. The hermitage is a short distance from Reno di Leggiuno, which has a marina and a number of hotels.

Hotels in Reno di Leggiuno by Booking.com

Travel tip:

Milan, where Dario Fo lived for many years, has a wealth of theatres with a long tradition of staging a variety of entertainment. In north west Milan, Teatro Dal Verme in San Giovanni sul Muro opened in 1872, the Piccolo Teatro in Via Rivoli opened in 1947, the Teatro dell’Arte in Viale Alemagna was redesigned in 1960 and Teatro Litta next to Palazzo Litta in Corso Magenta is believed to be the oldest theatre in the city. The famous La Scala has a fascinating museum that displays costumes and memorabilia from the history of the theatre. The entrance is in Largo Ghiringhelli, just off Piazza Scala. It is open every day except the Italian Bank Holidays and a few days in December. Opening hours are from 9.00 to 12.30 and 1.30 to 5.30 pm.

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Benito Mussolini and the founding of the Italian Fascists

Milan rally in 1919 launched the National Fascist Party

Benito Mussolini pictured
in around 1914

Italy's notorious dictator Benito Mussolini officially formed what would become known as the National Fascist Party on this day in 1919 at a rally in Milan's Piazza San Sepolcro.

A war veteran and former socialist activist who had moved towards a more nationalist political stance, Mussolini initially drew his followers together as the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (Italian Combat Group).

This group evolved into the Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF) two years later, sweeping to power in 1922 when King Victor Emmanuel III, fearing civil war after 30,000 of Mussolini's supporters, the Blackshirts, marched on Rome, asked Mussolini to form a government.

Born the son of a blacksmith in Predappio, in Emilia-Romagna, Mussolini had been an active socialist, first in Switzerland, where he had moved as a 19-year-old to seek work and avoid military service, and again when he returned to Italy.  He became a leading figure in the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and edited the left-wing newspaper Avanti.

But he was expelled by the PSI because of his opposition to the party's neutral stance on the First World War, in which he saw intervention as an opportunity to further the revolutionary aims of the left, particularly by overthrowing the Habsburg monarchies in Germany and Austria-Hungary.

He began to lose faith in orthodox socialism, believing that national identity had become more important than class struggle in forging the kind of society that was central to his vision, one in which the removal of class divides was still key but which also recognised culture, tradition, language and race.

Italy in the early 20th century was a unified country but still a long way from unity in political terms, with an appetite for revolution still rife, particularly among those who disagreed with the monarchy. Different groups went under the name of fasci, the plural form of the word fascio, meaning bundle or sheaf, that had become a symbol of strength through unity.

After his shift away from conventional socialism, Mussolini became prominent in the Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria - Revolutionary Action Group -- whose followers were the first to refer to themselves as Fascisti (Fascists).

Mussolini's political activity was curtailed when he signed up for the Italian Army but resumed on his return following wounds suffered when a mortar bomb accidentally exploded in a trench.  He relaunched FAR as Fasci Italiani di Combattimento -- Italian Combat Group -- attracting support among war veterans and a variety of malcontents at the Milan rally in 1919, which he had promoted via his new newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia.

The group began with around 200 members and grew rapidly, Mussolini promoting a vision of Italy as a global power on a level with its Roman past while at the same time being a nation without social divisions.  They encountered violent opposition from communists, socialists and anarchists but Mussolini's attitude was to meet force with force.  Soon, squads of his followers, armed and wearing the black shirts that had become their uniform, began patrolling the streets to keep order.

Piazza San Sepolcro in Milan, looking
across to the church of the same name

It was a sign of things to come.  Although Mussolini retained many socialist principles, he believed authoritarian dictatorship was essential to effective government.  Once in office, he introduced changes to electoral law and by 1928 the PNF was effectively the only legally permitted political party.  He remained in power until 1943, at which point World War Two had left Italy on its knees and the Grand Council of Fascism finally threw him out.

Travel tip:

The Piazza San Sepolcro, where Mussolini staged the 1919 rally that led to the formation of his Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, is situated in central Milan, not far from the Duomo and immediately adjacent to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, which houses thousands of historic manuscripts and dates back to 1609.  The Ambrosiana's Sala Fredericiana reading room was open to the public at that time, which makes it the second oldest public library in Europe, after the Bodleian at Oxford.

The entrance to the Mussolini
mausoleum in Predappio

Travel tip:

Predappio, where Mussolini was born in 1883, is a small town in Emilia-Romagna situated around 18 kilometres south of Forli.  The former dictator was buried in a family mausoleum in a cemetery just outside the town, which has become a tourist attraction, albeit a somewhat macabre one. Controversially, Predappio has also been adopted as a pilgrimage site for neofascists, with some shops openly selling neofascist memorabilia.

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'La Castiglione' – model and secret agent

Beautiful woman helped the cause of Italian unification

Virginia Oldoini, captured in a
portrait painted in 1862

Virginia Oldoini, who became known as La Castiglione, was born on this day in 1837 in Florence.

She became the mistress of the Emperor Napoleon III of France and also made an important contribution to the early development of photography.

She was born Virginia Oldoini to parents who were part of the Tuscan nobility, but originally came from La Spezia in Liguria. At the age of 17 she married the Count of Castiglione, who was 12 years older than her, and they had one son, Giorgio.

Her cousin was Camillo, Count of Cavour, who was the prime minister to Victor Emmanuel II, the King of Sardinia, later to become the first King of a united Italy.

When the Countess travelled with her husband to Paris in 1855, Cavour asked her to plead the cause of Italian unity with Napoleon III.

Considered to be the most beautiful woman of her day, she became Napoleon III’s mistress and her husband demanded a separation. During her relationship with Napoleon III she influenced Franco-Italian political relations, mingled with European nobility and met Otto von Bismarck.

She became known both for her beauty and elaborate clothes, such as a Queen of Hearts costume she wore and was later photographed in.

When she returned to Italy she lived with her son at the Villa Gloria in Turin for a while, rejecting her husband’s appeals to her to resume their life together.

Napoleon III of France: Oldoini became
his mistress after they met in Paris

But even though her relationship with Napoleon III was over she eventually chose to return to France, where she lived for the rest of her life, forming liaisons with aristocrats, financiers and politicians while cultivating the image of a mysterious femme fatale. In 1871 she met Bismarck and explained to him how the German occupation of Paris wouldn’t be in his interests. She must have been persuasive because Paris was spared

She began sitting as a model for photographers and later directed Pierre–Louis Pierson to take hundreds of photographs of important moments of her life, wearing elaborate outfits such as the Queen of Hearts dress.

Some of the photographs showed her in risqué poses for the time, for example with her legs bare.

It was the Countess who decided on the expressive content of the images and chose the camera angles

She died in Paris in 1899 at the age of 62. Her biography, La Divine Comtesse, was written after her death by Robert de Montesquiou. It was published in 1913 with a preface by Gabriele d’Annunzio.

Her life featured in a 1942 Italian film, The Countess of Castiglione and a 1954 Italian-French film, La Contessa di Castiglione.

Travel tip:

The restored Castello San Giorgio is
among the attrractions of La Spezia

La Spezia, where the Countess of Castiglione’s family were originally from, is an important city in Ligura, second only to Genoa. It is a point of departure for visiting Lerici, Portovenere and the Cinque Terre by boat. The recently-restored Castle of San Giorgio, the 13th century Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and a number of Art Nouveau villas are all worth visiting.

Hotels in La Spezia by Booking.com

Travel tip:

Turin, where the Countess lived for a while on her return to Italy, has many buildings with royal connections to see. Piazza Castello, with the royal palace, royal library and Palazzo Madama, which used to house the Italian senate, is at the heart of royal Turin.

Look for a Turin hotel with Tripadvisor

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Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello – Educator

Nun who promoted the rights of girls to a quality education

Saint Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello

The Feast Day of Saint Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello, who founded the Benedictine Sisters of Providence, is celebrated on this day, the anniversary of her death in 1858.

Benedetta carried out pioneering work by rescuing poor and abandoned girls and promoting their rights to a good education. She was made a saint by Pope John Paul II in 2002.

Benedetta was born in 1791 in Genoa but her family later moved to Pavia. As a young girl she wanted to consecrate her life to God, but obeying her parents’ wishes, she married Giovanni Battista Frassinello when she was 24.

After two years of marriage, during which they had no children, they decided to live a celibate life and stay together as brother and sister. They both later joined religious orders but Benedetta was forced to leave and return to live in Pavia again because of ill health.

When she was well again she dedicated herself to the education of the many young girls who had been abandoned or who were at risk in the area. There was so much work that the local Bishop asked her husband to leave his religious order to help her.

She was helped by young women volunteers to teach the poor girls domestic skills such as cooking and sewing as well as giving them religious instruction, with the aim of turning them into models of Christian life.

Her work was well regarded and she was appointed as Promoter of Public Instruction in Pavia.

She moved to Ronco Scrivia near Genoa where she opened a school for girls. She later founded the Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of Providence, which concentrated on the education of young girls.

She also opened a house of the order in Voghera near Pavia.

Benedetta died at the age of 66 on 21 March 1858 in Ronco Scrivia. 

Today the Benedictine Nuns of Providence are present in Italy, Spain, Burundi, the Ivory Coast, Peru and Brazil.

The pretty covered bridge that links Pavia
 with the Borgo Ticino

Travel tip:

Pavia, where Benedetta lived from an early age, is a city in Lombardy, south of Milan, known for its ancient university, which was founded in 1361, and its famous Certosa, a magnificent monastery complex north of the city that dates back to 1396. A pretty covered bridge over the River Ticino leads to Borgo Ticino, where the inhabitants claim to be the true people of Pavia and are of Sabaudian origin, traceable back to the House of Savoy.

Pavia hotels by Booking.com

Travel tip:

Voghera, where Benedetta opened a second house for the Benedictine sisters of Providence, is south of Pavia. It has a 14th century castle, and an 11th century Cathedral. The town’s Museum of History has among its exhibits the car of General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, who was killed by the Mafia in 1982 and the weapon that allegedly killed Benito Mussolini. ‘The housewife from Voghera’ (casalinga di Voghera) is a phrase used by Italians to describe the average housewife.

Search for a Voghera hotel with Tridavisor

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Azeglio Vicini - 1990 World Cup coach

Semi-final heartbreak ended dream of victory on home soil

Azeglio Vicini

Azeglio Vicini, the coach who led Italy to the semi-finals when the nation hosted the 1990 World Cup finals, celebrates his 83rd birthday today.

Born in the city of Cesena in Emilia-Romagna, on this day in 1934, Vicini worked for the Italian Football Federation for an unbroken 23 years in various roles, having joined their technical staff in 1968 after less than one season as a coach at club level.

He was head coach of the Italy Under-23 and Italy Under-21 teams before being succeeding World Cup winner Enzo Bearzot as coach of the senior Italy side in 1986.

Vicini's brief with the senior team was an onerous one.  When Italy won the right to host the 1990 World Cup finals there was an expectation among Italian football's hierarchy that a nation with such a proud history should be capable of winning the tournament on home soil.

Responsibility for producing a team good enough rested squarely on Vicini's shoulders but he was well prepared, having guided his under-21 team to the later stages of the European Championships consistently and brought through the likes of Roberto Mancini, Giuseppe Giannini, Roberto Donadoni, Walter Zenga and Gianluca Vialli, all of whom played in the 1986 European Under-21 Championships final.

Vicini is credited with helping Bearzot devise the defensive strategy behind Italy's triumph at the 1982 World Cup in Spain and his plans for the 1990 finals were built around one of the best defences in the history of the tournament, comprising the AC Milan players Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini, and the Internazionale duo Giuseppe Bergomi and Riccardo Ferri.

He brought through some fine creative talent, too. Roberto Baggio, the brilliant playmaker from Fiorentina, scored one of the goals of the tournament against Czechoslovakia in the group stages, while Salvatore 'Toto' Schillaci, an inspired choice with only one international appearance before the finals, famously scored within two minutes of being sent on as a substitute in Italy's opening group match against Austria and went on to win the Golden Boot as the tournament's leading goalscorer.

Roberto Baggio, one of Italy's
stars at Italia '90

Yet Italy ultimately failed, going out at the semi-final stage to Argentina after a penalty shoot-out at the Sao Paolo Stadium in Naples.

Italy had reached the last four without conceding a goal and when Schillaci gave them the lead after only 17 minutes in the semi-final it seemed their destiny was to reach the final at least.

But, in classic Italian style, the team's instinct was to defend their lead rather than go all out for a second goal and ultimately Argentina found a way back. When Claudio Caniggia levelled the scores midway through the second half, it mattered little that Italy's 517 minutes without conceding a goal was a record for the finals.

The match went into extra time, during which Argentina's Ricardo Giusti was sent off, but neither side could score again and when it came down to the pressure of taking penalties to determine the winner, the South Americans kept their nerve.

After Baresi, Baggio and Luigi de Agostini had scored, Roberto Donadoni and Aldo Serena both saw their kicks saved.  In between, Diego Maradona - then playing his club football in the same stadium for Napoli - scored what would be the winning penalty.

Vicini's team finished third, beating England in the play-off match after England had similarly been eliminated in the semi-finals on penalties, and Vicini initially remained in the job. He was sacked after failing to qualify for the 1992 European Championship finals, giving way to Arrigo Sacchi.

Subsequently, he spent two seasons in Serie A as manager of Cesena and then Udinese before returning to the Italian Federation as head of the technical sector until his retirement in 2010.

Piazza del Popolo in the centre of Cesena
Photo: Lorenzo Gaudenzi (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Travel tip:

Cesena, where Azeglio Vicini was born, is an historic city in Emilia-Romagna, south of Ravenna and north west of Rimini. It is famous as the site of the ‘Cesena bloodbath’ in 1377 when Pope Gregory’s legate ordered the murder of thousands of citizens for revolting against the papal troops. The city recovered and prospered under the rule of the Malatesta family in the 14th and 15th centuries, who rebuilt the castle, Rocca Malatestiana, and founded a beautiful library, Biblioteca Malatestiana, which has been preserved in its 15th century condition and still holds valuable manuscripts.

Cesena hotels by Booking.com

The Stadio San Paolo in Naples hosted the 1990
World Cup semi-final between Italy and Argentina 
Photo: Gaetano Capaldo (CC BY 4.0)

Travel tip:

Stadio San Paolo in Naples has become famous for hosting the 1990 World Cup semi-final between Italy and Argentina. Situated in Piazzale Vincenzo Tecchio in the suburb of Fuorigrotta, it is the home of the Serie A club Napoli and is the third largest football stadium in Italy. The stadium takes its name from St Paul, who is said to have landed on Italian soil in the area of Fuorigrotta.

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Mario Monti – Prime Minister

‘Super Mario’ steps in during debt crisis

Mario Monti was Prime Minister of Italy
from 2011 to 2013

Economist Mario Monti, who was Prime Minister of Italy from 2011 to 2013, was born on this day in 1943 in Varese in Lombardy.

Monti was invited by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano to form a new Government after the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi in November 2011 in the middle of the European debt crisis.

Monti, who was the 54th Prime Minister of Italy, led a Government of technocrats, who introduced austerity measures in Italy.

Monti was born in Varese and, after attending a private school, went to Bocconi University in Milan, where he obtained a degree in Economics.

He was a European Commissioner from 1994 to 1999, where he obtained the nickname ‘Super Mario’ from his colleagues and the Press.

In 1999 the Prime Minister at the time, Massimo D’Alema, appointed him to the new Prodi Commission, giving him responsibility for Competition.

Silvio Berlusconi

He was made a lifetime senator by Giorgio Napolitano in November 2011 and a few days later he was invited to form a new Government following Berlusconi’s resignation.

He appointed a technocratic cabinet composed entirely of unelected professionals.

They introduced austerity measures to try to stem the worsening economic conditions in Italy. He announced that he would be giving up his own salary as part of the reforms.

Monti resigned as Prime Minister after the 2012 Budget was passed, as he had always pledged he would do.

Since January 2014, Monti has been Chairman of the High Level group on Own Resources, a consultative committee of the European Union that will propose new forms of revenue for the European Union’s budget.

A view over the beautiful Lake Varese
Photo: Idéfix (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Travel tip:

Varese is a city in Lombardy, 55 kilometres north of Milan and close to Lago Maggiore. It is rich in castles, villas and gardens, many connected with the Borromeo family, who are from the area. Lake Varese is 8.5 kilometres long, set in low rolling hills just below Varese.

Hotels in Varese by Booking.com

Travel tip:

Bocconi University is a private university in Milan that provides education in the fields of economics, management, finance, law and public administration. It was founded in 1902 by Ferdinanado Bocconi and was originally located in Via Statuto near the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.

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Mount Vesuvius – the 1944 eruption

The last time the volcano was seen to blow its top

A dramatic picture of American B-25 Mitchell bombers
circling Vesuvius during the 1944 eruption

Mount Vesuvius, the huge volcano looming over the bay of Naples, last erupted on this day in 1944.

Vesuvius is the only volcano on mainland Europe to have erupted during the last 100 years and is regarded as a constant worry because of its history of explosive eruptions and the large number of people living close by.

It is most famous for its eruption in AD 79, which buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and is believed to have killed thousands of people.

An eyewitness account of the eruption, in which tons of stones, ash and fumes were ejected from the cone, has been left behind for posterity by Pliny the Younger in his letters to the historian, Tacitus.

There were at least three larger eruptions of Vesuvius before AD 79 and there have been many since. In 1631 a major eruption buried villages under lava flows and killed about 300 people and the volcano then continued to erupt every few years.

Smoke billows from Vesuvius in this picture taken from
San Sebastiano al Vesuvio, a village destroyed by lava

The eruption which started on 18 March 1944 and went on for several days destroyed three villages nearby and about 80 planes belonging to the US Army Air Forces, which were based at an airfield close to Pompeii. Some of the American military personnel took photographs of the eruption, which have been useful for today’s experts to analyse.

Since 1944 Vesuvius has been uncharacteristically quiet although it is constantly monitored for activity and an evacuation plan is in place. Experts believe seismic activity would give them between 14 and 20 days' notice of an impending eruption. 

The area was officially declared a national park in 1955. The crater is now open to visitors and there is access by road to within 200 metres of it, but after that the ascent is on foot only.

The crater is about 200 metres deep and has a maximum diameter of about 600 metres. The climb is said to be well worth it because the view from up there takes in the entire coastline from the Gulf of Gaeta to the Sorrento peninsula.

Travel tip:

The excavated ruins of Pompeii, gli scavi, are among the most popular tourist attractions in Italy and many important artefacts have been dug up. When Vesuvius started rumbling in August AD 79 and a sinister cloud began to form above it, some people left the area immediately. It is believed those who stayed died from the effects of the heat and their bodies were buried under the stones and ash for hundreds of years. Engineers rediscovered them while digging an acqueduct. The first organised excavations began in 1748 and the site soon became an attraction for wealthy Europeans on the Grand Tour.  Trains from the Circumvesuviana railway station in Naples run to Sorrento every half an hour, stopping at Pompei Scavi station. From the station it is a short walk to the main entrance to the archaeological site in Piazza Porta Marina. The ruins are open daily from 8.30 to 19.30 during the summer and from 8.30 to 17.00 between November and April.

Pompei hotels by Booking.com

The ruins of the forum at Pompeii with a now
dormant Vesuvius visible in the distance

Travel tip:

Highlights of the excavations at Pompeii include Casa dei Vettii, where there are well preserved wall paintings, Via dell’Abbon- danza, where you will see the remains of shops, a tavern and a brothel, the main amphitheatre and the Villa dei Misteri, which is outside the walls of the city and has some colourful wall paintings depicting the myth of Dionysis.

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