22 December

Giacomo Manzù – sculptor

Shoemaker’s son who became internationally acclaimed sculptor

Sculptor Giacomo Manzù was born Giacomo Manzoni on this day in 1908 in Bergamo in Lombardy.  The son of a shoemaker, he taught himself to be a sculptor, helped only by a few evening classes in art, and went on to achieve international acclaim.  Manzoni changed his name to Manzù and started working in wood while he was doing his military service in the Veneto in 1928.  After moving to Milan, he was commissioned by the architect, Giovanni Muzio, to decorate the Chapel of the Sacred Heart Catholic University.  But he achieved national recognition after he exhibited a series of busts at the Triennale di Milano.  The following year he held a personal exhibition with the painter, Aligi Sassu, with whom he shared a studio.  He attracted controversy in 1942 when a series of bronze bas reliefs about the death of Christ were exhibited in Rome. They were criticised by the Fascist government after they were interpreted as an indictment of Nazi-Fascist violence and Manzù had to go into hiding for a while, fearful of arrest.   Manzù had started teaching at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, but during the war he went back north to live in Clusone, to the north of Bergamo.  Read more…

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Giovanni Bottesini - double bass virtuoso

Musician was also a composer and conductor

The composer, conductor and double bassist Giovanni Bottesini was born on this day in 1821 in Crema, now a city in Lombardy although then part of the Austrian Empire.  He became such a brilliant and innovative performer on his chosen instrument that he became known as “the Paganini of the double bass” - a reference to the great violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, whose career was ending just as his was beginning.  Bottesini was one of the first bassists to adopt the French-style bow grip, previously used solely by violinists, violists and cellists.  He was also a respected conductor, often called upon to direct performances at the leading theatres in Europe and elsewhere, and a prolific composer, particularly in the last couple of decades of his life.  A close friend of Giuseppe Verdi, he wrote a dozen operas himself, music for chamber and full orchestras, and a considerable catalogue of pieces for double bass, for accompaniment by piano or full orchestra, or duets.  When conducting opera, Bottesini would often bring his double bass on stage to play fantasies based on the evening's opera, of his own composition, during the intermission.  Read more…

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The Totonero betting scandal

Match-fixing scheme saw players banned and clubs relegated

Italian football fans learned the full list of punishments handed down as a consequence of the Totonero match-fixing scandal on this day in 1980. Two Serie A clubs - AC Milan and Lazio - were relegated to Serie B. Three others in Serie A and two in Serie B were handed a penalty in the form of a five-point deduction in their respective league tables.  Of 20 players banned, some indefinitely, by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), half had represented the Italy national team. The most famous were Paolo Rossi, who would go on to be part of the Azzurri team that won the World Cup in Spain in 1982, and Enrico Albertosi, who had been goalkeeper in the Italian team that won the European championships in 1968.   Rossi, who scored six goals in Spain ‘82, would have missed the tournament had his sentence not been reduced, somewhat controversially, from three years to two.  Felice Colombo, then president of AC Milan, was banned from football for life, although the disqualification was later reduced to six years.  Read more…

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Giacomo Puccini – opera composer

Musical genius who took the baton from Verdi

Giacomo Puccini, one of the greatest composers of Italian opera, was born on this day in 1858 in Lucca in Tuscany.  He had his first success with his opera, Manon Lescaut, just after the premiere of Verdi’s last opera, Falstaff. Manon Lescaut was a triumph with both the public and the critics, and he was hailed as a worthy successor to Verdi.  Puccini was born into a musical family who encouraged him to study music as a child while he was growing up in Lucca.  He moved to Milan to continue his studies at the Milan Conservatory, where he was able to study under the guidance of the composer, Amilcare Ponchielli.  He wrote an orchestral piece that impressed Ponchielli and his other teachers when it was first performed at a student concert. Ponchielli then suggested that Puccini’s next work might be an opera.   Puccini’s first attempt at opera was successful enough for it to be purchased by a firm of music publishers and after some revisions it was performed at Teatro alla Scala in Milan.  His next opera, Edgar, which also made its debut at La Scala, was not so well received but his third composition, Manon Lescaut, was a triumph when it was first performed in Turin in 1893.  Read more…

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Alessandro Bonvicino – Renaissance painter

Talented artist from Brescia acclaimed for sacred paintings and portraits

Alessandro Bonvicino, who became famous for the altarpieces he painted for churches in northern Italy, died on this day in 1554 in Brescia in Lombardy.  Nicknamed Il Moretto da Brescia - the little moor from Brescia - Bonvicino is known to have painted alongside the Venetian artist Lorenzo Lotto in Bergamo. The portrait painter Giovanni Battista Moroni from Albino, in the province of Bergamo, was one of his pupils.  Bonvicino, sometimes known as Buonvicino, was born in Rovato, a town in the province of Brescia, in about 1498. It is not known how he acquired his nickname of Il Moretto.  He studied painting under Floriano Ferramola, but is also believed to have trained with Vincenzo Foppa, a painter who was active in Brescia in the early years of the 16th century.  It is thought he may also have been an apprentice to Titian in Venice and it is known that he modelled his portrait painting on the Venetian style. Bonvicino is believed to have admired Raphael, although there is no evidence he ever travelled to Rome. He specialised in painting altarpieces in oils rather than in fresco.  At the height of his career, Bonvicino was considered one of the most acclaimed painters working in Brescia. Read more…

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Giuseppe Bergomi – footballer

World Cup winner who spent his whole career with Inter

The footballer Giuseppe Bergomi, renowned as one of the best defenders in the history of Italian football and a member of the World Cup-winning Azzurri side of 1982, was born on this day in 1963 in Milan.  Bergomi spent his entire club career with the Milan side Internazionale, spanning 20 years in which he made 756 appearances, including 519 in Serie A, which was a club record until it was overtaken by the Argentine-born defender Javier Zanetti, who went on to total 856 club appearances before he retired in 2014.  In international football, Bergomi played 87 times for the Italian national team, of which he was captain during the 1990 World Cup finals, in which Italy reached the semi-finals as hosts.  Alongside the brothers Franco, of AC Milan, and Giuseppe Baresi, his team-mate at Inter, and the Juventus trio Gaetano Scirea, Antonio Cabrini and Claudio Gentile, he was part of the backbone of the Italian national team for much of the 1980s.  He made his Azzurri debut in April 1982, only a couple of months before the World Cup finals in Spain, aged just 18 years and 3 months, making him the youngest player to feature in a match for Italy since the Second World War.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Foul Play: The Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport, by Mike Rowbottom 

There is cheating. And then there is cheating. But where does one end and the other start?  Doping. Fixing. Sledging. Intimidating. Time-wasting. Diving. Ever since sporting contests began there have been rules, and for many competitors those rules have been there to be broken. Or maybe just bent a little. Foul Play offers an inside track on the dark arts employed in sport to gain an unfair advantage - on the football or rugby field, on the tennis or squash court, on the athletics track and the golf course, even on the bowling green or the Subbuteo table.  Some cheating in sport is considered virtually par for the course, while other forms are completely unacceptable. But who, ultimately, makes that judgement? From ball-tampering and bribery in cricket to rugby union's 'Bloodgate' scandal; from Diego Maradona's Hand of God to Alex Ferguson's managerial mind games; from the dodgy dealing of the ancient Greeks and the wily cunning of W.G. Grace to the doping scandals engulfing Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong, it's all here. Foul Play - sometimes funny, sometimes shocking - provides all the evidence you'll ever need that the sporting world is often anything but.

Mike Rowbottom is a freelance journalist who writes widely on sport, and whose current job titles include chief features writer on www.insidethegames.biz. He covered the summer Olympics and Winter Olympics for The Independent, and worked also for the Daily Mail, The Observer, The Times, The Guardian and the Sunday Correspondent. 

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21 December

NEW - Italo Marchioni - ice cream maker

Italian-American inventor of the waffle cone

Italo Marchioni, the ice cream manufacturer credited by many as the inventor of the ice cream cone, was born in the tiny mountain hamlet of Peaio in northern Veneto on this day in 1868.  Marchioni learned his skills in Italy, where gelato was well established as a popular treat, but in common with so many Italians during what were tough economic times in the late 19th century he took the bold step of emigrating to the United States in 1890.  Records suggest his first American home was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and that it was there that he married Elvira De Lorenzo in 1893. Marchioni - by then known by his Americanised name of Marchiony - later settled in Hoboken, a city in New Jersey with a strong pull for Italian immigrants that retains an Italian flavour to this day, with almost a quarter of the area’s population thought to have Italian roots.  As he had done at home, Marchiony made and sold ice cream, starting out by selling lemon ice from a single cart, crossing the Hudson River every day to wheel his cart around the Wall Street financial district, where the traders were good customers.  Read more…

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Masaccio – Renaissance artist

Innovative painter had brief but brilliant career

The 15th century artist Masaccio was born on this day in 1401 in Tuscany.  He is now judged to have been the first truly great painter of the early Renaissance in Italy because of his skill at painting lifelike figures and his use of perspective.  Christened Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, the artist came into the world in a small town near Arezzo, which is now known as San Giovanni Valdarno.  Little is known about his early life but it is likely he would have moved to Florence to be apprenticed to an established artist while still young.  The first evidence of him definitely being in the city was when he joined the painters’ guild in Florence in 1422.  The name Masaccio derives from Maso, a shortened form of his first name, Tommaso. Maso has become Masaccio, meaning ‘clumsy or messy Maso’. But it may just have been given to him to distinguish him from his contemporary, Masolino Da Panicale.  Massaccio’s earliest known work is the San Giovenale Triptych painted in 1422, which is now in a museum near Florence . He went on to produce a wealth of wonderful paintings over the next six years.  Read more…

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Moira Orfei - circus owner and actress

‘Queen of the Big Top’ became cultural icon

Moira Orfei, an entertainer regarded as the Queen of the Italian circus and an actress who starred in more than 40 films, was born on this day in 1931 in Codroipo, a town in Friuli-Venezia Giulia about 25km (16 miles) southwest of Udine.  She had a trademark look that became so recognisable that advertising posters for the Moira Orfei Circus, which she founded in 1961 with her new husband, the circus acrobat and animal trainer Walter Nones, carried simply her face and the name 'Moira'. As a young woman, she was a strikingly glamorous Hollywood-style beauty but in later years she took to wearing heavy make-up, dark eye-liner and bright lipstick, topped off with her bouffant hair gathered up in a way that resembled a turban.  Her camped-up appearance made her an unlikely icon for Italy’s gay community.  Born Miranda Orfei, she spent her whole life in the circus. Her father, Riccardo, was a bareback horse rider and sometime clown; her mother, part of the Arata circus dynasty, gave birth to her in the family’s living trailer.  Growing up, she performed as a horse rider, acrobat and trapeze artist.  Read more…

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Giovanni Boccaccio – writer and scholar

Renaissance humanist who changed literature

One of the most important literary figures of the 14th century in Italy, Giovanni Boccaccio, died on this day in 1375 in Certaldo in Tuscany.  The greatest prose writer of his time in Europe, Boccaccio is still remembered as the writer of The Decameron, a collection of short stories and poetry, which influenced not only Italian literary development but that of the rest of Europe as well, including Geoffrey Chaucer in England and Miguel de Cervantes in Spain.  With the writers Dante Alighieri (Dante) and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), Boccaccio is considered one of the three most important figures in the history of Italian literature. Along with Petrarch, he raised vernacular literature to the level and status of the classics of antiquity.  Boccaccio is thought to have been born in about 1313.  He was the son of a merchant in Florence, Boccaccino di Chellino, and an unknown woman. His father later married Margherita dei Mardoli who came from a well off family. Boccaccio received a good education and an early introduction to the works of Dante from a tutor.  His father was appointed head of a bank in 1326 and the family moved to live in Naples.  Read more…

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Strife-torn Rome turns to Vespasian

Elevation of military leader ends Year of Four Emperors

The ninth Roman emperor, Vespasian, began his 10-year rule on this day in 69AD, ending a period of civil war that brought the death of Nero and encompassed a series of short-lived administrations that became known as the Year of the Four Emperors.  Nero committed suicide in June 68 AD, having lost the support of the Praetorian Guard and been declared an enemy of the state by the Senate.  However, his successor, Galba, after initially having the support of the Praetorian Guard, quickly became unpopular.  On his march to Rome, he imposed heavy fines on or vengefully destroyed towns that did not declare their immediate allegiance to him and then refused to pay the bonuses he had promised the soldiers who had supported his elevation to power.  After he then had several senators and officials executed without trial on suspicion of conspiracy, the Germanic legions openly revolted and swore allegiance to their governor, Vitellius, proclaiming him as emperor.  Bribed by Marcus Salvius Otho, the Roman military commander, members of the Praetorian Guard set upon Galba in the Forum on January 15, 69AD and killed him.  Read more…

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Lorenzo Perosi - priest and composer

Puccini contemporary chose sacred music over opera

Don Lorenzo Perosi, a brilliant composer of sacred music who was musical director of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican for almost half a century, was born on this day in 1872 in the city of Tortona in Piedmont.  A devoutly religious man who was ordained as a priest at the age of 22, Perosi was a contemporary of Giacomo Puccini and Pietro Mascagni, both of whom he counted as close friends, but was the only member of the so-called Giovane Scuola of late 19th century and early 20th century composers who did not write opera.  Instead, he concentrated entirely on church music and was particularly noted for his large-scale oratorios, for which he enjoyed international fame.  Unlike Puccini and Mascagni, or others from the Giovane Scuola such as Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano and Francesco Cilea, Perosi's work has not endured enough for him to be well known today.  Yet at his peak, which music scholars consider to be the period between his appointment as Maestro of the Choir of St Mark's in Venice in 1894 and a serious mental breakdown suffered in 1907, he was hugely admired by his fellows in the Giovane Scuola and beyond.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Ice Cream: A Global History, by Laura B Weiss

Be it soft-serve, gelato, Indian kulfi or Israeli glida, some form of ice cream treat can found throughout the world in restaurants and home freezers. Though ice cream was once considered a food for the elite, it has evolved into one of the most popular mass-market products ever developed. In Ice Cream: A Global History, Laura B Weiss takes us on a vibrant trip through the history of ice cream from ancient China to modern-day Tokyo in order to tell the lively story of how this delicious indulgence became a global sensation. It's a tale populated with Chinese emperors, English kings, former slaves, women inventors, shrewd entrepreneurs, Italian immigrant hokey-pokey ice cream vendors and a gourmand American First Lady. Though Europeans came up with the first modern recipes, Americans have long claimed ice cream as their national dessert. Indeed, from the sundae to the cone, American entrepreneurs popularized the treat, developed the modern ice cream industry and gave the world the soda fountain - that nostalgic icon of American innocence and small town values. Weiss tells of the iced sherbets made in the Middle East and brought to Europe, the frozen confections made at the French court, and 19th and 20th century sodas and sundaes with names such as 'Over the Top' and 'Purple Cow'. Today American brands can be found around the world, but vibrant ice cream cultures like Italy's continue to thrive, and more recent ones, like Japan's, flourish through unique variations. Weiss connects this much-loved food with its place in history, making this a book sure to be enjoyed by all who are beckoned by the siren song of the ice cream man.

Laura B Weiss is a journalist based in New York who specializes in food, travel and lifestyle. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Daily News, the Zagat restaurant guide and the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, New York University.

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Italo Marchioni - ice cream maker

Italian-American inventor of the waffle cone

Italo Marchioni hailed from
mountainous northern Veneto

Italo Marchioni, the ice cream manufacturer credited by many as the inventor of the ice cream cone, was born in the tiny mountain hamlet of Peaio in northern Veneto on this day in 1868.

Marchioni learned his skills in Italy, where gelato was well established as a popular treat, but in common with so many Italians during what were tough economic times in the late 19th century he took the bold step of emigrating to the United States in 1890.

Records suggest his first American home was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and that it was there that he married Elvira De Lorenzo in 1893.

Marchioni - by then known by his Americanised name of Marchiony - later settled in Hoboken, a city in New Jersey with a strong pull for Italian immigrants that retains an Italian flavour to this day, with almost a quarter of the area’s population thought to have Italian roots. 

As he had done at home, Marchiony made and sold ice cream, starting out by selling lemon ice from a single cart, crossing the Hudson River every day to wheel his cart around the Wall Street financial district, where the traders were good customers.

His invention of what we now know as the ice cream cone came about after he found that his profits were being impacted by the frequent loss of the small glass dishes or glasses that he used to serve his ice creams.

The designs that accompanied
Marchioni's patent application

He would ask his customers to return the dish when they had finished and while many did, others forgot. Combined with the inevitable breakages, this meant that Marchiony had to spend a sizeable proportion of his takings on restocking with dishes.

By then, Marchiony was spending the evenings in the kitchen at the family home making waffles to accompany his ice cream. He found that if he folded a freshly made waffle before it had fully cooled, he could shape it into a cup.

Now he had a container for his ice cream that was edible. They quickly became known as “toots” according to some accounts, perhaps because Marchiony told his customers they could eat all of it, the container as well as the ice cream - “tutti”.

Ice cream vendors themselves were often called “hokey-pokey men”, thought to have derived from Marchiony’s habit of offering a taste of his ice cream with the words “ecco un poco” - “here’s a little”.

Marchiony’s cones became hugely popular. He soon took on his first employee, followed by many more, in time operating a “fleet” of 45 or 50  ice cream carts on the streets of Manhattan.

Keeping up with demand by making his waffle cups by hand became impossible, so the ever-enterprising Marchiony adapted the design of a waffle iron to build a device which could mass produce ice cream cups. He filed for a patent on the device in 1902, which was awarded the following year, rented a garage and set the machine up there.

In 1904, he acquired a factory in Grand Street, Hoboken, to manufacture cones as well as rectangular wafers that were either flat or moulded into shapes that resembled clams or bananas. Horse-drawn wagons carrying the Marchiony name supplies retailers all over the New York area. At its peak, the factory reputedly could turn out 150,000 cones in 24 hours.

An ice cream cart similar to that operated
by Marchioni in late 19th century New York

Although Marchiony’s descendants - records show he was married twice and had seven children - hail him as the inventor of the ice cream cone, the story has at times been disputed.

One popular alternative story is that the ice cream cone was invented at the 1904 World’s Fair in St Louis, Missouri.  Ernest Hamwi, an immigrant from Syria, had a stall making zalabia, a wafer dessert, next to one selling ice cream. The two stallholders chatted and Hamwi suggested that the two things might be sold in combination. Hamwi eventually opened the Missouri Cone Company.

In 1913, Marchiony was accused of patent infringement by his cousin, Frank, another immigrant from Italy who also had a cart selling ice creams in New York City. By the time the accusation was made, Frank was in business with Antonio Valvona, an Italian migrant who had originally settled in Manchester, England, where he was one of dozens of Italian ice cream makers. He had patented a machine to produce edible cup-shaped biscuits in 1901.

Italo admitted his association with Frank and the judge found in the latter’s favour, ruling that the device Italo patented was too similar not to have been a copy of Valvona’s. Despite the judgement, Italo continued in business as before.

He retired just before the outbreak of World War Two at the age of 70, selling the business to the Schrafft Candy Company, and he died in 1954 at the age of 86.

Peaio is a hamlet in the beautiful Cadore Valley
in the north of Italy's Veneto region

Travel tip:

Italo Marchioni’s home village of Peaio today has a population of just 138 residents. Situated on the SS51 highway in the Cadore Valley in the northern part of the Veneto region, it is about 50km (31 miles) north of Belluno, the provincial capital, and approximately 140km (87 miles) from Venice.  Once an undeveloped and poor district, the Cadore Valley now has a thriving economy, which is based largely on tourism, the area being popular for trekking in the summer months and skiing in the winter, with the ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo situated in the upper part of the valley, near the border with Austria.  The painter Titian was born in the town of Pieve di Cadore, just 12km (7.5 miles) from Peaio.

Picturesque Piazza del Duomo is one of the many
charms of the town of Belluno in the Dolomites

Travel tip:

Belluno, the capital of the province of which Peaio is part, is a beautiful town in the Dolomites, situated just over 100km (62 miles) north of Venice. It occupies an elevated position above the Piave river surrounded by rocky slopes and dense woods that make for an outstanding scenic background. The architecture of the historic centre has echoes of the town's Roman and mediaeval past. Notable Renaissance-era buildings including the 16th century Cattedrale di San Martino in the picturesque Piazza del Duomo and the nearby 15th century Palazzo dei Rettori, which is the former town hall. The Piazza dei Martiri, the scene of an execution of partisans during the Second World War, is now a popular meeting place. Local cuisine includes some unusual cheeses, including Schiz, a semi-soft cheese often served fried in butter.

Also on this day:

69: Vespasian proclaimed Emperor of Rome

1375: The death of writer and scholar Giovanni Boccaccio

1401: The birth of Renaissance painter Masaccio

1872: The birth of priest and composer Lorenzo Perosi

1931: The birth of circus owner and actress Moira Orfei

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20 December

Francesco Bentivegna – military leader

Patriotic baron executed in what was to become Mafia heartland

Baron Francesco Bentivegna, a Sicilian patriot, died on this day at Mezzojuso in Sicily in 1856.  Bentivegna led revolts against the Bourbon rulers of the island in the mid 19th century and became renowned for his bravery.  He was born in Corleone near Palermo - a modern day Mafia stronghold - and it is believed his parents originally intended him for the church.  But after leading his first revolt against the Bourbons in 1848 in Palermo he was appointed military governor of the Corleone district as a reward.  Within 16 months the Bourbon soldiers had reoccupied Palermo and offered all the rebels an amnesty if they pledged loyalty to their French rulers.  Bentivegna refused and again attempted to launch a coup, which was unsuccessful. Afterwards he had to live as a wanted fugitive, while continuing to try to organise revolutionaries.  He was arrested in 1853 but released in 1856, after which he began to plan a full-scale uprising against the occupying forces.  The Baron was betrayed by one of his compatriots and arrested. He was sentenced to death and executed by a firing squad on 20 December 1856.  Read more…

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Giuliana Sgrena – journalist

War reporter who survived kidnapping in Iraq

The journalist Giuliana Sgrena, a war correspondent for an Italian newspaper who was kidnapped by insurgents while reporting the 2003 invasion of Iraq, was born on this day in 1948 in Masera, a village in Piedmont.  Sgrena, who was covering the conflict for the Rome daily Il Manifesto and the weekly German news magazine Die Welt, was seized outside Baghdad University on February 4, 2005.  During her 28 days in captivity, she was forced to appear in a video pleading that the demands of her abductors – the withdrawal of the 2,400 Italian troops from the multi-national force in Iraq – be met.  Those demands were rejected but the Italian authorities allegedly negotiated a $6 million payment to secure Sgrena’s release.  She was rescued by two Italian intelligence officers on March 4 only then to come under fire from United States forces en route to Baghdad International Airport.  In one of the most controversial incidents of the conflict, Major General Nicola Calipari, from the Italian military intelligence corps, was shot dead. Sgrena and the other intelligence officer were wounded.  Read more…

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Gigliola Cinquetti - singer and TV presenter

Eurovision win at 16 launched successful career

Gigliola Cinquetti, who was the first Italian to win the Eurovision Song Contest, was born on this day in 1947 in Verona.  She took the prize in Copenhagen in 1964 with Non ho l'età (I'm Not Old Enough), with music composed by Nicola Salerno and lyrics by Mario Panzeri.  Just 16 years old at the time, she scored an overwhelming victory, gaining 49 points from the judges. The next best song among 16 contenders, which was the United Kingdom entry I Love the Little Things, sung by Matt Monro, polled just 17 points.  Non ho l'età became a big hit, selling more than four million copies and even spending 17 weeks in the UK singles chart, where songs in foreign languages did not traditionally do well. It had already won Italy's prestigious Sanremo Music Festival, which served as the qualifying competition for Eurovision at that time.  Italy had finished third on two occasions previously at Eurovision, which had been launched in 1956. Domenico Modugno, singing Nel blu, dipinto di blu (later renamed Volare) was third in 1958, as was Emilio Pericoli in 1963, singing Uno per tutte.  None of the country's entries went so close until Cinquetti herself finished runner-up 10 years later with Sì.  Read more…

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San Leonardo da Porto Maurizio

Franciscan monk canonised in 1867

San Leonardo da Porto Maurizio, whose feast day is celebrated on November 27 each year, was born Paolo Gerolamo Casanova on this day in 1676 in Porto Maurizio, which is now part of the port city of Imperia in Liguria.  Leonardo recovered from a serious illness developed soon after he became a priest and devoted the remaining 43 years of his life to preaching retreats and parish missions throughout Italy.  He was one of the main propagators of the Catholic rite of Via Crucis - the Way of the Cross - and established Stations of the Cross - reconstructions in paintings or sculpture of Christ’s journey to the cross - at more than 500 locations. He also set up numerous ritiri - houses of recollection.  Leonardo was a charismatic preacher who found favour with Popes Clement XII and Benedict XIV, who helped him spread his missions, which began in Tuscany, into central and southern Italy, inspiring religious fervour among the population.  The son of a ship’s captain from Porto Maurizio, the young Paolo was sent to Rome at the age of 13 to live with a wealthy uncle and study at the Jesuit Roman College. Read more…

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Book of the Day: A Thousand Years in Sicily: From the Arabs to the Bourbons, by Giuseppe Quatriglio

This is a history of Sicily from the invasion of the Arabs in 827 AD to the end of the Bourbons' rule in 1860, after Garibaldi's expedition that resulted in the annexation of the island to the new Kingdom of Italy under Victor Emanuel II. It is a fast moving and dramatic excursus dealing with the tortured events of the island whose people have always had a sense of their own nationhood but were always thwarted by foreign powers.  Now in its third edition in English following 16 editions in Italy and one in Japanese, A Thousand Years in Sicily condenses 10 centuries of Sicilian history into an eminently readable and entertaining narrative.  Translated by Justin Vitiello.

Giuseppe Quatriglio was an award-winning journalist and author. Born in Catania but resident in Palermo from a young age, after obtaining a Law degree he studied journalism in the United States. The author of a number of non-fiction books, he later wrote many novels drawing on his knowledge of Sicily. Among his literary awards, he received the Culture Prize of the Council of Ministers in 1996, 1999 and 2004.

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