Christopher Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo in Italian; Christoffa in Ligurian dialect) was born in Genoa in 1451. He had little education as a boy, and only learned to read and write as an adult. So he went to sea, as did many Genovese boys, and voyaged in the Mediterranean. In 1476 he was shipwrecked off Portugal, … Read more
Guglielmo Marconi, born on April 25, 1874, in Bologna, Italy, was an Italian inventor and electrical engineer who is widely recognized for his pioneering work in wireless telecommunication. He is considered one of the fathers of radio and made significant contributions to the development of long-distance wireless communication, revolutionizing the way people communicate across vast … Read more
Italy is known for many things including its natural beauty, rich history, and the world’s best cuisine. And of course, famous Italian paintings, which are among the most recognizable in the world, with the likes of The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Italian painting began to establish itself around the thirteenth century. In the … Read more
Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) was an Italian military general, politician, and nationalist who played a key role in the unification of Italy in the 19th century. Born in Nice, France, he spent much of his early life as a sailor before becoming involved in political activism and military campaigns for Italian unification. Garibaldi became famous for … Read more
Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta was born on February 18, 1745, in Como, Lombardy, to a noble family that had lost some of its social status. Unlike his siblings, young Alessandro did not enter the religious life. As a child, he did not show signs of being a prodigy, and his family thought he … Read more
Leonardo Fibonacci, also known as Leonardo of Pisa or Leonardo Bigollo, was an Italian mathematician born in Pisa, Italy, around the year 1175. He is best known for introducing the Hindu-Arabic numeral system to the Western world and for his famous sequence of numbers, now known as the Fibonacci sequence. Fibonacci was born into a … Read more
Not often mentioned with the same reverence as the composer, the work of a librettist is no less important to a genre which, from its inception, sought to combine the magical forces of music and drama to create something greater than the sum of its parts. While Mozart is the very definition of a household … Read more
John Cabot, also known as Giovanni Caboto in Italian, was an Italian navigator and explorer who is best known for his voyages to North America in the late 15th century. He was born in Genoa, Italy, around 1450, and little is known about his early life. Other records suggest he was born in Gaeta (in … Read more