As Italy’s film industry gathers each year to honour its finest work, the prize it awards carries the name of one of the greatest sculptors in the history of Western art. Donatello was a Florentine whose mastery of the human form changed what art could be.
Continue Reading
On 6 May 1527, an imperial army breached the walls of Rome, triggering one of the most catastrophic episodes in the history of the city. Known as the Sack of Rome, it brought the Renaissance papacy to its knees.
Continue Reading
The Swiss Guards, the world’s smallest army, will swear in its latest recruits today (6th May). The ceremony marks one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the papacy.
Continue Reading
Michele Ferrero inherited a small pastry shop in Piedmont and grew one of Italy’s favourite food empires. He was born on 26th April, 1925. There won’t be many Italians who haven’t had Nutella at some point in their lives!
Continue Reading
Giovanni Caselli, the Sienese inventor whose pantelegraph transmitted handwritten images along telegraph wires more than a century before the fax machine, was born on 25 April 1815. He died on the same date he was born in 1891.
Continue Reading
Launched on the eve of Liberation Day, the Cammino ’44 traces the Gothic Line through Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. It connects Sant’Anna di Stazzema and Marzabotto in a secular pilgrimage through the darkest chapter of Italy’s wartime history
Continue Reading
On 23 April 1554, Venice lost one of the most remarkable literary voices the Italian Renaissance had produced. Gaspara Stampa, considered the greatest woman poet of the Italian Renaissance, died at just 31 years old. She left behind a body of work that would take centuries to receive the recognition it deserved.
Continue Reading
Born on 22 April 1891, in a small Piedmontese town, Vittorio Jano went on to become one of the most consequential figures in the history of motor racing. He was a quiet, methodical genius whose engines powered world champions across four decades and three of Italy’s most famous automotive brands.
Continue Reading
On 21 April 753 BC according to legend, tradition and the calculations of Rome’s own ancient scholars, a man named Romulus ploughed a furrow around the Palatine Hill and founded a city. Today, that city, Rome, turns 2,779 years old.
Continue Reading
Born Giovanni Antonio Canal, Canaletto became the greatest view-painter of the 18th century. His luminous vedute of Venice, Rome and London still the definitive image of a city at the height of its gilded, fading glory.
Continue Reading
