3 September

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, eventually assisting the Allies in both the invasion of France and the invasion of Germany.  The son of a Roman wine dealer, Bottai studied at the Sapienza University of Rome until Italy declared war against Germany and the Central Powers in 1915.  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.  Fagioli could take the title only by winning the race with the fastest lap, provided Farina was third or lower and Fangio failed to register a point.  Farina could win the title only by winning the race, recording the fastest lap and hoping Fangio finished no better than third place.   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.  After 1725 his name crops up in Mantua, Venice, Munich, Berlin and Frankfurt and in every city he received rapturous acclaim for his violin performances. Many of his violin concertos were written at this time.  He was known to be in Kassel in Germany in December 1728.  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.  A constitution was written in the 16th century and its status as an independent state was accepted by the papacy in 1631.  San Marino managed to survive the advance of Napoleon's armies in the late 18th century and then had its wish for continued independence honoured during the Italian unification process.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Blood and Power: The Rise and Fall of Italian Fascism, by John Foot

In the aftermath of the First World War, the seeds of fascism were sown in Italy. While the country reeled in shock, a new movement emerged from the chaos: one that preached hatred for politicians and love for the fatherland; one that promised to build a 'New Roman Empire', and make Italy a great power once again.  Wearing black shirts and wielding guns, knives and truncheons, the supporters of the Italian Fascist Party embraced a climate of violence and rampant masculinity. Led by Benito Mussolini, they would systematically destroy the organisations of the left, murdering and torturing anyone who got in their way.  In Blood and Power, historian John Foot draws on decades of research to chart the turbulent years between 1915 and 1945, and beyond. Drawing widely from accounts of people across the political spectrum - fascists, anti-fascists, communists, anarchists, victims, perpetrators and bystanders - he tells the story of Italian Fascism and its legacy, which still, disturbingly, reverberates to this day.

John Foot is an English academic historian specialising in Italy. He is the author of several books, including histories of Italian football, Italian cylcling and the story of the pioneering psychiatrist, Franco Basaglia, who led a revolution in mental health care in Italy. 

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2 September

Pietro Ferrero - baker and chocolatier

Humble beginnings of €20 billion company

Pietro Ferrero, the founder of the Ferrero chocolate and confectionery company, was born in Farigliano, a small town in Piedmont, on this day in 1898.  A baker by profession, he moved to nearby Alba in 1926 with his wife and young son, Michele, before deciding to try his luck in Turin, where in 1940 he opened a large pastry shop in Via Sant’Anselmo.  Trading conditions were tough, however, and the business was not a success.  The family returned to Alba in 1942, setting up a smaller bakery in Via Rattazzi, at the back of which Pietro created a kind of confectionery laboratory.  He had hit upon the idea of trying to find alternative materials from which to make products, largely because the high taxes on cocoa beans meant conventional chocolate-based pastries were expensive to make.   Hazelnuts, on the other hand, were plentiful, Piedmont being one of Italy’s major producers. One of his experiments involved combining Gianduja, a traditional Piedmontese hazelnut paste, with about 20 per cent chocolate. Convinced his customers would like the taste, he began manufacturing bars of his chocolate-substitute on site at the bakery.  Read more…

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Giuliano Gemma – actor

Talented Roman became award-winning film star

Actor, stuntman and sculptor Giuliano Gemma was born on this day in 1938 in Rome.  He started working in the film industry as a stuntman but was then offered a real part in the film Arrivano i titani (The Titans Arrive), by director Duccio Tessari.  After this his career took off and he appeared in Luchino Visconti’s Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), as Garibaldi’s General.  Gemma starred in many spaghetti westerns, such as A Pistol for Ringo, Blood for a Silver Dollar, Wanted and Day of Anger. He sometimes appeared in the credits of the films under the name Montgomery Wood.  For his portrayal of Major Matiss in Valerio Zurlini’s The Desert of the Tartars, he won a David di Donatello award.  Gemma had many other film roles, often appeared on Italian television and also worked as a sculptor. His daughter, Vera Gemma, also became an actor.  Giuliano Gemma died in October 2013 following a car accident near Rome. He was taken to a hospital in Civitavecchia but pronounced dead shortly after his arrival. Cinecittà in Rome, the hub of the Italian film industry, is a large studio complex to the south of the city, built during the fascist era.  Read more…

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Andrea Illy – businessman and writer

Family dream was to make the best coffee in the world

Andrea Illy, who is the chairman of coffee makers illycaffè, was born on this day in 1964 in Trieste, the capital city of the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.  The grandson of the founder of illycaffè, Francesco Illy, Andrea represents the third generation of his family to lead the business. His father, Ernesto Illy, was chairman of the company between 1963 and 2004. His sister Anna and brothers Francesco and Riccardo - a former CEO now vice-president - Illy are on the board of directors.  Andrea graduated with a degree in Chemistry from the University of Trieste and went on to study at SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, Harvard Business School and Singularity University in Silicon Valley.  He joined the family firm in 1990 as a supervisor of the quality control department. Inspired by Japanese business methods, Andrea started the Total Quality Programme, which established standards both for the company and the coffee industry in general.  He was appointed CEO of illycaffè in 1994 and chairman of the company in 2005.  He developed the Università del Caffè to spread the culture of coffee throughout the world.  Read more…

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Marie Josephine of Savoy

Italian noblewoman who became titular Queen of France

Marie Josephine Louise of Savoy, who married the future King Louis XVIII of France, was born Maria Giuseppina Luigia on this day in 1753 at the Royal Palace in Turin.  She became a Princess of France and Countess of Provence after her marriage, but died before her husband actually became the King of France.  Marie Josephine was the third child of prince Victor Amadeus of Savoy and Infanta Maria Antonio Ferdinanda of Spain.  Her paternal grandfather, Charles Emmanuel III, was King of Sardinia and so her parents were the Duke and Duchess of Savoy.  Her brothers were to become the last three Kings of Sardinia, the future Charles Emmanuel IV, Victor Emmanuel I and Charles Felix.  At the age of 17, Marie Josephine was married by proxy to Prince Louis Stanislas, Count of Provence, the younger brother of the Dauphin, Louis Auguste, who was fated to become Louis XVI of France and to be executed by guillotine.  After the outbreak of the French Revolution, the Count and Countess of Provence stayed in France with the King and Marie Antoinette.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The History of Sweets, by Paul Chrystal

Sweets – objects of pure delight. But it’s not only children who love and devour sweets – gobstoppers, bulls eyes, liquorice, seaside rock, bubble gum and the like; grown-ups of all ages are partial to a good humbug, or a lemon sherbet or two, a succullent chocolate. Wherever and whenever, the sweet is there, the sweet delivers and the sweet rarely disappoints. Sweets then are ubiquitous and enduring; they cross age, culture and gender boundaries and have been around, it seems, forever. The History of Sweets tells the story of sweets from their primitive beginnings to their place today as a billion pound commodity with its sophisticated, seductive packaging and sales, advertising and marketing. It explores the people’s favourites, past and present, as well as sweets from different countries and cultures.

Paul Chrystal has classics degrees from the Universities of Hull and Southampton; he is the author of 100 or so books, a number of which are about confectionery and beverages. He has written features on aspects of the history of food and drink for the Daily Express and he has appeared on several radio stations, including the BBC World Service and Radio 4’s PM programme, talking on a wide range of subjects, but notably confectionery.

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1 September

NEW - Scipione Borghese – Cardinal and art collector

Pope’s nephew used position to acquire wealth to buy art

Cardinal Scipione Borghese, who was a patron of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Caravaggio and established a magnificent art collection during his life, was born on this day in 1576 in Artena just outside Rome.  As the nephew of Pope Paul V, Borghese was given the official title of Cardinal Nephew - cardinale nipote - and he had great power as the effective head of the Vatican government. He amassed an enormous fortune through the papal fees and taxes he gathered and he acquired vast amounts of land. He was able to use his immense wealth to assemble a large and impressive art collection.  Cardinal Borghese was the son of Francesco Caffarelli and Ortensia Borghese. When his father suffered financial difficulties, his uncle, Camillo Borghese, stepped in to pay for his education.  After Camillo Borghese was elected as Pope Paul V, he made his nephew a Cardinal and gave him the right to use the Borghese name and coat of arms.  Borghese was given many honours by his uncle, the Pope, who entrusted him with the management of the papal finances as well as the finances of the Borghese family.  Read more…

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Vittorio Gassman - actor

Stage and screen star once dubbed ‘Italy’s Olivier’

Vittorio Gassman, who is regarded as one of the finest actors in the history of Italian theatre and cinema, was born on this day in 1922 in Genoa.  Tall, dark and handsome in a way that made him a Hollywood producer’s dream, Gassman appeared in almost 150 movies but he was no mere matinée idol.  A highly respected stage actor, he possessed a mellifluous speaking voice, a magisterial presence and such range and versatility in his acting talent that the Hollywood columnist Sheilah Graham once called him ‘the Lawrence Olivier of Italy’.  He enjoyed a career that spanned five decades. Inevitably, he is best remembered for his screen roles, although by the time he made his movie debut in 1945, he had appeared in more than 40 productions of classic plays by Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Ibsen, Tennessee Williams, and others.  On screen, his major successes included his portrayal of the handsome scoundrel Walter opposite Silvana Mangano in Giuseppe De Santis's neorealist melodrama Riso amaro (Bitter Rice, 1948), and several commedia all’italiana classics, including Mario Monicelli’s I soliti ignoti (released in the US as Big Deal On Madonna Street, 1958).  Read more…

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Guido Deiro - vaudeville star

Accordion player who wowed America

The musician Guido Deiro, who was the first artist to become a star playing the piano-accordion, was born on this day in 1886 in an Alpine village north of Turin.  For a while, in the early part of the 20th century, he and his brother Pietro were among the highest-paid performers on the booming American vaudeville circuit. Using his stage name, which was simply ‘Deiro’, he made more than 110 recordings, which sold in large numbers.  He ‘covered’ many popular hits and well known classical and operatic pieces and wrote compositions of his own, the most famous of them the song Kismet, which became the theme song for the Broadway musical and was used in two film versions of the story, which was based on a play by Edward Knoblauch.  Deiro became something of a celebrity and was seldom short of glamorous female company. He was married four times, on the first occasion to his fellow vaudeville star Mae West, who would go on to become much more famous as a movie actress.  He was born Count Guido Pietro Deiro in the village of Salto Canavese, near Courgnè, about 45km (28m) north of Turin. His family were long-standing rural nobility.  Read more…

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Tullio Serafin – opera conductor

Toscanini’s successor furthered the career of Callas

The man who helped Maria Callas develop her singing talent, musician and conductor Tullio Serafin, was born on this day in 1878 in Rottanova near Cavarzere in the Veneto, on the Adige river just south of the Venetian Lagoon.  Serafin studied music in Milan and went on to play the viola in the orchestra at Teatro alla Scala under the baton of Arturo Toscanini.  He was later appointed assistant conductor and then took over as musical director at the theatre when Toscanini left to go to New York.  Serafin conducted at La Scala between 1909 and 1914, from 1917 to 1918 and then returned briefly at the end of the Second World War.  He became a conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1924 and stayed with them for ten years before returning to Italy to become artistic director at the Teatro Reale in Rome.  During his career he helped the development of many singers, including Rosa Ponselle, Magda Olivero and Joan Sutherland.  Serafin’s most notable success was with Maria Callas, with whom he collaborated on many recordings. He is credited with helping the American-born singer achieve a major breakthrough in 1949.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: City of Echoes: A New History of Rome, its Popes and its People, by Jessica Wärnberg

In Rome the echoes of the past resound clearly in its palaces and monuments, and in the remains of the ancient imperial city. But another presence has dominated Rome for 2,000 years - the Pope, whose actions and influence echo down the ages. In City of Echoes, historian Jessica Wärnberg tells, for the first time, the story of Rome through the lens of its popes, illuminating how these remarkable (and unremarkable) men have transformed lives and played a crucial role in deciding the fate of the city.  An original study that shows Rome in all its beauty, depravity and resilience - the history of papal power is never better explained.

Jessica Wärnberg is an historian of the religious and political history of Europe, with a background in the history of art. She has written for academic journals and popular magazines such as History Today. In Rome, the city she knows best, she has worked extensively in the archives of the Vatican, the Holy Office and the Jesuits.

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Scipione Borghese – Cardinal and art collector

Pope’s nephew used position to acquire wealth to buy art

Ottavio Leoni's portrait of
Cardinal Scipione Borghese

Cardinal Scipione Borghese, who was a patron of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Caravaggio and established a magnificent art collection during his life, was born on this day in 1576 in Artena, a town to the southeast of Rome

As the nephew of Pope Paul V,  Borghese was given the official title of Cardinal Nephew - cardinale nipote - and he had great power as the effective head of the Vatican government. He amassed an enormous fortune through the papal fees and taxes he gathered and he acquired vast amounts of land. He was able to use his immense wealth to assemble a large and impressive art collection.

Cardinal Borghese was the son of Francesco Caffarelli and Ortensia Borghese. When his father suffered financial difficulties, his uncle, Camillo Borghese, stepped in to pay for his education.

After Camillo Borghese was elected as Pope Paul V, he made his nephew a Cardinal and gave him the right to use the Borghese name and coat of arms.

Borghese was given many honours by his uncle, the Pope, who entrusted him with the management of the papal finances as well as the finances of the Borghese family.

He used money from the papal finances to fund Borghese family investments and, exploiting his power as Cardinal Nephew, he compelled people to sell their land to him at discounted prices.

Caravaggio's Madonna and
Child with Saint Anne

Borghese took a great interest in the development of the extensive gardens at his Roman residences, Palazzo Borghese, and Villa Borghese, and he built up one of the most impressive art collections in Europe. He collected paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael, and Titian, as well as ancient Roman art.

The Pope gave Scipione a collection of 107 paintings that he had confiscated from the artist Cavalier d’Arpino when he did not pay a tax bill. The haul included two important, early works by Caravaggio, a probable self-portrait usually called Bacchino Malato - Sick Bacchus - and A Boy with a Basket of Fruit. He also organised the removal of Raphael’s Deposition from a church in Perugia to be given to his nephew. He was later forced to provide Perugia with two good copies of the painting in order to avoid the population of the city rising up in violent rebellion against him.

Borghese also appropriated Caravaggio’s Madonna and Child with Saint Anne, a large altarpiece which had been commissioned for a chapel in St Peter’s Basilica. It was suspected that he had planned to acquire it for his collection when the work was commissioned.

The Cardinal’s patronage of Bernini helped the artist become the leading Italian sculptor and architect of the 17th century in Italy.

Between 1618 and 1623, Bernini worked primarily for the Cardinal Nephew, creating innovative pieces that foreshadowed the early Baroque style. He produced two marble busts of his patron, which are both in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, the second carved after Bernini found a flaw in the marble used for the first.

Cardinal Scipione Borghese died in Rome in 1633 and was buried in the Borghese chapel in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

The Galleria Borghese is housed
in the Villa Borghese Pinciana

Travel tip:

The Villa Borghese Pinciana, built for Scipione Borghese by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, which now houses the Galleria Borghese, was originally intended as a party villa, where Scipione would entertain guests. The villa and the gardens surrounding it, developed on the site of a former vineyard, were acquired by the Italian state from the Borghese family in 1901 and opened to the public two years later. Generally known as the Villa Borghese Gardens, they now form the third largest public park in Rome, covering an area of 80 hectares or 197.7 acres, with entrances near the Spanish Steps and Piazza del Popolo. The Pincio, in the south part of the park, offers one of the finest views over the city.  Other villas in the area of the park include the Villa Giulia, which now houses the Etruscan Museum, and the Villa Medici, home of the French Academy in Rome.  The Piazza di Siena, an open space within the gardens, hosted equestrian events at the 1960 Rome Olympics.

The main facade of the Palazzo Borghese, which
was the Borghese family's principal Rome residence

Travel tip:

The Palazzo Borghese, the original home of the family’s art collection, is notable for its unusual trapezoidal layout, having two parallel sides but two that are not parallel, with its narrowest facade facing the Tiber. It was the main seat of the Borghese family in Rome, situated in the Campo Marzio district, not far from the Ponte Cavour and about 600m (0.37 miles) on foot from the Spanish Steps. It was built in about 1560-61 by the architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola on behalf of Monsignor Tommaso del Giglio and acquired by Cardinal Camillo Borghese in 1604, shortly before he became Pope Paul V.  The first floor of the palace has been the home of the Embassy of Spain in Italy since 1947. The Borghese family’s art collection, which contained works by Raphael, Titian and many others, was transferred in 1891 to the Galleria Borghese.

Also on this day:

1878: The birth of conductor Tullio Serafin

1886: The birth of vaudeville star Guido Deiro

1922: The birth of actor Vittorio Gassman

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