On this day: death of Giuseppe Mazzini, unification leader
The revolutionary thinker Giuseppe Mazzini, one of the key figures behind the movement for Italian unification, died on 10th March 1872 in Pisa.
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Category: History of Italy
On This Day: birth of author Alessandro Manzoni
On 7th March 1785, Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni was born in Milan. He would go on to shape the modern Italian language and produce what is widely regarded as the most important novel in Italian literature.
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What was the Risorgimento in Italy?
The Risorgimento was the political and social movement that led to the unification of Italy in the 19th century. Lasting roughly from the early 1800s until 1871, it transformed the Italian peninsula from a patchwork of independent states into a single nation: the Kingdom of Italy.
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The Valley of the Temples, Agrigento
The archaeological landscape known as the Valley of the Temples, located near Agrigento on the southern coast of Sicily, is one of the most important surviving testimonies of ancient Greek civilisation outside Greece. Spread across a ridge overlooking the Mediterranean, the site contains some of the best-preserved Doric temples in the world and offers a […]
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On this day: birth of artist Pietro Novelli
Pietro Novelli, widely regarded as the most important Sicilian artist of the 17th century, was born on 2nd March 1603 in Monreale, just outside Palermo.
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On This Day: birth of Luisa Sanfelice
Luisa Sanfelice, the aristocrat executed after the fall of the Parthenopean Republic, was born on 28th February 1764 in Naples.
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On this Day: philosopher Benedetto Croce born
On 25 February 1866, Benedetto Croce was born in Pescasseroli, in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. Over the course of a long intellectual life, Croce became one of the most influential European thinkers of the 20th century, shaping debates on philosophy, aesthetics, historiography and liberal politics.
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On this day: birth of restaurateur Cesare Cardini
On 24th February 1896, restaurateur Cesare “Caesar” Cardini was born in the lakeside town of Baveno, on the western shore of Lake Maggiore. More than a century later, his name remains synonymous with one of the world’s most recognisable dishes: the Caesar salad.
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On this day: death of poet John Keats in Rome
On 23 February 1821, the English Romantic poet John Keats died in Rome at the age of just 25. His death brought to an end a brief but extraordinary literary career that would later secure him a place among the greats of English poetry.
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On this day: birth of poet Girolamo Benivieni
Girolamo Benivieni, the Florentine poet and humanist whose work helped transmit Platonic philosophy into Renaissance literature, was born on 6th February 1453 in Florence. Closely associated with some of the most influential thinkers of his time, Benivieni occupied a rare position at the crossroads of classical philosophy, Renaissance humanism and religious reform.
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