3 April

Alcide de Gasperi - prime minister who rebuilt Italy

Christian Democrat founder was jailed by Mussolini

Born on this day in 1881, Alcide de Gasperi was the Italian prime minister who founded the Christian Democrat party and led the rebuilding of the country after World War II. An opponent of Benito Mussolini who survived being locked up by the Fascist dictator, he was the head of eight consecutive governments between 1945 and 1953, a record for longevity in post-War Italian politics. Although Silvio Berlusconi has spent more time in office - nine years and 53 days compared with De Gasperi's seven years and 238 days - the media tycoon's time in power was fragmented, whereas De Gasperi served continuously until his resignation in 1953. Read more...

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Maria Redaelli - supercentenarian

Inter fan who was the oldest living person in Europe

Maria Angela Redaelli, a supercentenarian who for 10 months was the oldest living person in Europe and for 14 months the oldest living person in Italy, was born on this day in 1899 in Inzago in Lombardy. She died in 2013 on the eve of what would have been her 114th birthday, at which point she was the fourth oldest living person in the world, behind the Japanese supercentenarians Jiroemon Kimura and Misao Okawa, and the American Gertrude Weaver. Kimura died two months later at the age of 116 years and 54 days, which is the most advanced age reached by any male in the history of the human race, according to verifiable records. Read more…

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Alessandro Stradella – violinist and composer

Talented musician lived for romance and adventure

Baroque composer Alessandro Stradella, who led a colourful life courting danger while producing more than 300 highly regarded musical works, was born on this day in 1639 at Nepi in the province of Viterbo, north of Rome in the Lazio region. He worked in Rome composing sacred music for Queen Christina of Sweden, who had abdicated her throne to go and live there, but left for Venice under suspicion of attempting to embezzle money from the Roman Catholic Church. After surviving at attack in the street in Venice, thought to be linked to his affair with the mistress of a Venetian nobleman, five years later he was stabbed to death in Genoa, but the identity of his killers was never confirmed. Read more…

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2 April

Achille Vianelli - painter and printmaker

Artist from Liguria who captured scenes of Naples

The painter and printmaker Achille Vianelli, whose specialities were landscapes and genre pictures, notably in his adopted city of Naples, died on this day in 1894 in Benevento in Campania. For a while he worked at the French court, giving painting lessons to King Louis Philippe. Some of his works have sold for thousands of euros. Achille spent his youth in Otranto in the province of Lecce before moving to Naples, where he became close friends with Giacinto Gigante, with whom he shared an interest in painting. Both were members of the Posillipo School, a group of landscape painters, based in the Posillipo area of Naples, a stretch of coastline extending from Mergellina to the headland at Parco Virgiliano. Read more…

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Giacomo Casanova – adventurer

Romantic figure escaped from prison in a gondola 

Author and adventurer Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was born on this day in 1725 in Venice.  He is so well known for his affairs with women that his surname is now used as an alternative word for ‘womaniser’. But Casanova’s autobiography, ‘Story of My Life’, has also become regarded as one of the most authentic sources of information about European social life produced during the 18th century. The Venice into which he was born was the pleasure capital of Europe, a required stop on the Grand Tour for young men coming of age, because of the attractions of the Carnival, the gambling houses and the courtesans.  Casanova was widely travelled, had several different professions and was a prolific writer but he spent a lot of his time having romantic liaisons and gambling. Read more…

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Gelindo Bordin - marathon champion

First Italian to win Olympic gold in ultimate endurance test

Gelindo Bordin, the first Italian to win the gold medal in the Olympic Marathon, was born on this day in 1959 in Longare, a small town about 10km (six miles) south-east of Vicenza. Twice European marathon champion, in 1986 and 1990, he won the Olympic competition in Seoul, South Korea in 1988. Until Stefano Baldini matched his achievements by winning the marathon at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and claiming his second European title in Gothenburg in 2006, Bordin was Italy’s greatest long-distance runner. He attained that status somewhat against the odds, too, having been sidelined for a year with a serious intestinal illness at the age of 20 and then being hit by a car while on a training run. Read more…

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Francesca Cuzzoni - operatic soprano

Diva who came to blows with rival on stage

Francesca Cuzzoni, an 18th century star whose fiery temper earned her a reputation as one of opera’s great divas, was born on this day in 1696 in Parma. Described rather unkindly by one opera historian of the era as “short and squat, with a doughy face” she was nonetheless possessed of a beautiful soprano voice, which became her passport to stardom. However, she was also notoriously temperamental and jealous of rival singers, as was illustrated by several incidents that took place while she was in the employment of George Frederick Handel, the German composer who spent much of his working life in London. Read more…

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Achille Vianelli - painter and printmaker

A painting by Achille Vianelli of the coastline at Posillipo.
Vianelli was a member of the Posillipo School.

Artist from Liguria who captured scenes of Naples

The painter and printmaker Achille Vianelli, whose specialities were landscapes and genre pictures, notably in his adopted city of Naples, died on this day in 1894 in Benevento in Campania.

For a while he worked at the French court, giving painting lessons to King Louis Philippe. Some of his works have sold for thousands of euros.

Vianelli was born in 1803 in Porto Maurizio in Liguria. When he was a child, his family moved more than 1,200km (750 miles) to the other end of the Italian peninsula to the coastal town of Otranto in the province of Lecce, where his father, Giovan Battista Vianelli, Venetian-born but a French national, had been posted as a Napoleonic consular agent.

Achille spent his youth in Otranto before, in 1819, he moved to Naples. His father and sister moved to France, although they would return to Naples in 1826. Achille took a job in the Royal Topographic Office.

Vianelli was a friend of the
painter Giacinto Gigante

In Naples, he became close friends with Giacinto Gigante, with whom he shared an interest in painting. Together, they studied landscape painting, attending the school of the German painter Wolfgang Hüber, after which Vianelli became a pupil of Anton Sminck van Pitloo, a professor at the Accademia di Belli Arti in Naples who had a studio in the Chiaia neighborhood of Naples.

Pitloo is regarded as the father of the Posillipo School, a group of landscape painters, based in the Posillipo area of Naples, a stretch of coastline extending from Mergellina to the headland at Parco Virgiliano, overlooking the volcanic islet of Nisida, on the northern side of the Bay of Naples.

Both Vianelli and Gigante were members of the Posillipo School, along with Teodoro Duclere, Vincenzo Franceschini, Consalvo Carelli and others.

In the 1830s, Vianelli gradually moved away from oil landscape painting, increasingly devoting himself to perspective views of squares and church interiors, in watercolor. He experimented with sepia monochromes, of which he developed a valuable technique.

 Vianelli's view of the Piazza di San
 Lorenzo Maggiore in Naples

Many of his views were etched or lithographed and published in books dedicated to the city of Naples.

In 1848 he moved to Benevento, where he founded a drawing school in the Cloister of Santa Sofia. Among his students was Gaetano de Martini.

Vianelli enjoyed success with his work and his fame spread beyond Italy. King Louis Philippe invited him to give him painting lessons and Vianelli lived in France temporarily. He died in Benevento, at the age of 91 years.

His son Alberto, born in 1847, was also a landscape painter. A sister, Flora, had married Teodoro Witting, a German landscape painter and engraver active in Naples in 1826, while another sister, Eloisa, married Giacinto Gigante in 1831.

Villa Donn'Anna is near Mergellina, at the bottom of the
main road through Posillipo, known as Posillipo Hill

Travel tip:

Posillipo is a residential quarter of Naples that has been associated with wealth in the city since Roman times. Built on a hillside that descends gradually towards the sea, it offers panoramic views across the Bay of Naples towards Vesuvius and has been a popular place to build summer villas. Some houses were built right on the sea’s edge, such as the historic Villa Donn’Anna, which can be found at the start of the Posillipo coast near the harbour at Mergellina.

The magnificent Arch of Trajan is one of
several Roman relics in Benevento

Travel tip:

In ancient times, Benevento was one of the most important cities in southern Italy, along the Via Appia trade route between Rome and Brindisi. The town is in an attractive location surrounded by the Apennine hills, and it suffered considerable damage during the Second World War, there are many Roman remains, including a triumphal arch erected in honour of Trajan and an amphitheatre, built by Hadrian, that held 10,000 spectators and is still in good condition. The cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, originally built in the 13th century, has undergone major reconstruction work, while the original bronze doors for the cathedral are now kept inside the building.

More reading:

The Neapolitan legacy of sculptor and architect Domenico Antonio Vaccaro

How Neapolitan painter Francesco Solimena became one of the most influential artists in Europe

Why Luca Giordano was the most celebrated Naples artist of the late 17th century

Also on this day:

1696: The birth of operatic soprano Francesca Cuzzoni

1725: The birth of amorous adventurer Giacomo Casanova

1959: The birth of Olympic marathon champion Gelindo Bordin



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1 April

April Fools' Day - Italian style

What lies behind the tradition of Pesce d'Aprile

Playing practical jokes on April 1 is a tradition in Italy in the same way as many other countries, although in Italy the day is called Pesce d’Aprile – April’s Fish – rather than April Fools’ Day. It is said to have became popular in Italy between 1860 and 1880, especially in Genoa, where families in the wealthier social circles embraced the idea, already popular in France, of marking the day by playing tricks on one another. The most simple trick involves sticking a cut-out picture of a fish on the back of an unsuspecting ‘victim’ and watching how long it takes for him or her to discover he had been pranked but over the years there have been many much more elaborate tricks played. Often these have involved spoof announcements or false stories in the newspapers or on TV or radio shows. Read more...

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Arrigo Sacchi -- football coach

AC Milan manager's tactics revolutionised football in Italy

Arrigo Sacchi, the football coach who led AC Milan to back-to-back European Cups and steered Italy to a World Cup final, was born on this day 70 years ago in Fusignano, a small town not far from Ravenna in Emilia-Romagna. Unusually among top coaches, Sacchi never played football as a professional.  Aware of his limited ability, he quickly decided he would concentrate instead on becoming a manager, taking charge of a local amateur team, Baracca Lugo, when he was just 26.  Literally, he worked his way up from the bottom, making a living as a shoe salesman while training his players in his spare time. Yet step by step he ascended to the very top of the game. Read more…

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Alberto Zaccheroni - football coach

First Italian coach to lead a foreign nation to success

The football coach Alberto Zaccheroni, who won the Serie A title with AC Milan and steered the Japan national team to success in the Asia Cup, was born on this day in 1953 in Meldola, a town in Emilia-Romagna. In a long coaching career, Zaccheroni has taken charge of 13 teams in Italy, a club side in China and two international teams, Japan and the United Arab Emirates. The chance arose to take charge of the Japan national team in 2011. Despite language problems, he led the Japan to the Asia Cup in his first season in charge, the first Italian coach to be successful with an international team other than Italy. Subsequently, Zaccheroni’s Japan won the East Asia Cup in 2013 and qualified for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil. Before to winning the Scudetto with Milan in 1999, he had twice won Italian domestic titles at Serie D (fourth tier) level and twice in Serie C. Read more…

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