A History of Italy

Just when the Borgias seem at the top of their game and that nothing could possibly stop them, in August of 1503 pope Alexander VI, after a dinner party at a cardinal's house, becomes seriously ill and died after two weeks.

His son Cesare also becomes very ill and cannot sum up the energy to control the fallout of the situation and outmanoeuvre the Borgia's arch enemy, cardinal Giuliano della Rovere.

In the end the inevitable happens and he becomes pope Julius II, sealing the impeding doom of Cesare Borgias who, after some time in captivity, seems to take the option of going out in a blaze of glory.

In our first episode of the Regional Italy miniseries we explore the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, travelling initially along the ancient Roman road created by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus.

We start from the beautiful castles of the province of Piacenza, then cross the river to Parma, the culinary capital of Euope. Then it's a visit with Matilda countess of Canossa in Reggio Emilia before visiting with Ferraris and Pavarotti in Modena. After that, remembering the battle of the bucket takes us from Modena to Bologna.

We leave the Via Emilia for a moment to explore the lands of the ancient house of Este in Ferrara and then the ancient imperial capital of Ravenna. Heading south brings us to the lands of Caterina Afroza, the "Tigress of Forlì" before we cross the Rubicon and end our tour in Rimini, visiting the bridge of Tiberius, the arch of Augustus and the Malatesta castle where we find the Federico Fellini museum.

Our guide in the tour will be Explore Worldwide:

Click here for Adventure Travel inspiration from our friends at Explore Worldwide. Don’t Just Travel, Explore!

While wishing you a "Buon Anno" (Happy New Year" we are also excited to announce the launch of our new miniseries on the Italian regions:

Regional Italy!

Thanks to the support of our friends at Explore Worldwide, we'll be looking at the culture, landscape, legends and history of some of Italy's 20 beautiful regions.

Join us!

https://www.exploreworldwide.com/?utm_source=Podcast&utm_medium=Spotify&utm_campaign=History+of+Italy+Podcast

Just a quick one to wish you a happy whatever you are celebrating, or not celebrating and give you the gift of my rendition of the famous poem "a visit from Alaric" also known as "T'was the night before Saturnalia".

People in Italy are getting very nervous about Cesare Borgia's successes, at times reached with treachery, and some of the unhappy party are actually Il Valentino's captains. When rebellion breaks out they see their chance and jump on the bandwagon. However, when things don't turn out as planned, the captains have to hope Cesare's forgiveness is sincere...

Just a quick update to apologise for a publishing delay and tell you a little about our sketches, the Italian school system and the current political situation in Italy

After doing his part for the French in the second Italian War Cesare Borgia heads back to Rome to concur with his father pope Alexander VI. They take care of some internal business with the Colonna, Orsini and Savelli and Cesare takes some time to kill some bulls and impregnate a few women.

Then Cesare heads back to expand his duchy of Romagna aiming for Camerino and Urbino of the Montefeltro, while his captains, particularly Vitelozzo Vitelli and Giampsolo Baglioni.

As Cesare rises higher, those around him, even the allies, start to worry.

We first follow the life of the military captain Ettore Fieramosca (Hector Proudfly) and his troubled love story with Ginvenra da Monreale which ended tragically after the intervention of Cesare Borgia.

We then move to the lead up and action to one of the most famous duels in Italian history, the Challenge of Barletta (La Disfida di Barletta) in which 13 Italian knights faced off against 13 French knights lead by Guy De La Motte to defend the honour of Italian arms.

The duel would resound throughout Italian history reaching through the Italian Risorgimento to the Fascist era.

The Italians:

Francesco Salamone

Marco Corollario

Riccio Da Parma 

Gugliemo albamonte 

Mariano marcio Abignente

Giovanni Capoccio da 

Giovanni Brancaleone

Ludocivo Abenavolo

Ettore Giovenale

Giovanni Bartolomeo Fanfulla 

Romanello da Forlì

Ettore Gioveneale de pazzis

The French:

Charles de torgues

Marc De Frigne

Girout de Forses

Claude Grajan D'aste

Martellin de lambris

Pierre de liaye

Jacques de la fontaine

Eliot de baraut

Jean De Landes

Sacet de saceet

Francois de pise

Jacques de Guignes

Naute de la Faise

Naples once again falls to the French of king Luis XII, but once again they can't hold on to it for long as the delicate agreement with the Spanish of Queen Isabella and king Ferdinand quickly melts away and the legendary general Gonzalo De Cordoba manages to win the kingdom of Naples for his sovereigns with great victories at Cerignola and on the Garigliano river among others.

We also see a little involvement of our old pal Cesare Borgia and hear about a tragic love triangle he was involved in with a woman called Ginevra da Monreale and a man who will resound through Italian history and literature called Hector Proudfly, Ettore Fieramosca.

We follow Cesare Borgia as he continues his conquest ousting Giovanni Sforza from Pesaro, Pandolfo Malatesta from Rimini and Astorre Manfredi from Faenza.

We are also introduced to one of his most important generals, Vitelozzo Vitelli and his vengeful hatred for the Republic of Florence who executed his brother.

Finally, France and Spain reach a secret pact for the division of the kingdom of Naples.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Province_1454.jpg

With the French hold on Milan looking weak, Ludovico il Moro sees his chance to take his duchy back, but only manages for a while before he is defeated at the Battle of Novara, made prisoner and taken to France where he will spend the rest of his days in captivity.

As we set the scene for the start of Cesare Borgia's military campaign, we start to observe the ominous signs of what is to come in Rome with the arbitrary accusation and confiscations of the Roman nobility.

Then we go exploring to see what we intend with the term "Romagna" and trace it back to Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the Byzantines and Julius Cesar's famous "The die is cast" speech, pronounced in Rimini after crossing the Rubicon river which we will also do to visit with the Malatesta of Rimini before Cesare comes to face of with Caterina Sforza to start his conquest.  

See link to Romagna explanation:

https://emilia-o-romagna.netlify.app

King Louis XII prepares to descend upon Milan to stake his claim to the duchy. Before he sees out he needs to make deals with England, The Swiss and the Italian powers, Savoy and Ve3nice.

Meanwhile, duke Ludovico il Moro is also preparing and doing a really bad job of it. The results will show.

We follow the last stand of Caterina Sforza as the French once again descend upon Italy with king Louis XII and Cesare Borgia, made representative of Romagna by his father Pope Alexander VI, closes in on the lands of Caterina as she prepares for her last great battle.

After the assassination of her husband Girolamo Riario, Caterina is in full control as regent for her son, Ottaviano Riario.

She has to navigate regional issues in Romagna, another assassination in Faenza and then the tricky balancing act during the descent of Charles VIII of France.

During all of this she managed to start a new passionate relationship with Giacomo Feo, which will also end in murder and in her thirst for vengeance, Caterina will lose sight of her role as a head of state.

After settling in to their new signoria, Caterina Sforza and her husband Girolamo Riario have to deal with continuous plots, the War of Ferrara and the death of uncle pope Sixtus IV. After that Caterina will really show what she's made of by taking and holding Castel Sant Angelo, her sword at her side, while seven months pregnant.

In the end after her husband's assassination, she will stand alone to face the conspirators in one of Italian Renaissance history's most famous legendary scenes.

We look at the early years of the woman who would come to be known as "The Tigress of Forlì", Caterina Sforza starting with her youth at the court of her father, duke of Milan Galeazzo Maria.

We then move on to the traumatic start to her marriage to Girolamo Riario, nephew of pope Sixtus IV, as he starts his ambitious rise to power, that will eventually lead him to his doom.

Having met Francesco II Gonzaga, at the battle of Fornovo, we take some time to go back and have a look at the beautiful city of Mantua from its legendary origins, surrounded by lakes created by the tears of a prophetess, through the period of our heroine, Matilda of Tuscany, countess of Canossa, to see the arrival and rise of the Corradi of Gonzaga. They would take over control of the city of Mantua and set up a county, and then a Marquisate that would put them in third place as the longest lasting dynasty in Italy

On the way, they will have to battle with the greedy Visconti of Milan, and have arguments with famous painter Andrea Mantegna who refused to make the ugly Gonzaga good looking and had issues with apples.

We will also answer the question of what happened to King Charles the eighth of Franc's porn collection.

To celebrate 2nd June, Republic Day as well as the release of the related film "C'è ancora domani" (There's still tomorrow) by director Paola Cortellesi, we are brushing up our episode on the Historical events that lead up to the referendum od 1946 which abolished the Italian monarchy, sending the Savoy family into exile.

All of this against the background of post war Italy which was on the brink of civil war.

After leaving the Papal States with Cesare Borgia waiting for us, we head into the Republic of Florence to look at the struggle with the other Italian powers over Pisa and also stop to talk a little about the man who named America, the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci.

After that it's over to the Duchy of Milan where duchess Beatrice d'Este dies in 1497 and the threat of French invasion becomes very real when Luis XII takes the throne.

The last stop takes us to Venice and yet another clash with Ottoman Turks at the battle of Zonchio, a.k.a. the first battle of Lepanto.

Thanks once again to our partner for the episode: Exlore Worldwide