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🔔 The Italian Almanac

October 21

Stories and curiosities for October 21, from the Italy of a thousand bell towers.

Impossible geography 📅 1923

The Tiber rises in Romagna by decree: the border moved on Monte Fumaiolo in 1923

The source of the Tiber lies at 1,268 metres on Monte Fumaiolo, in the municipality of Verghereto, and until 1923 that slope belonged to Tuscany, in the province of Florence. That year Mussolini ordered the border between the provinces of Florence and Forlì redrawn so that the spring fell inside his native Romagna: the river of Rome had to be born in the province where he was born. On 15 August 1934 a marble monument with the eagle and the Capitoline wolf was unveiled at the spring, inscribed “Here rises the river sacred to the destinies of Rome”. In the hamlet of Balze di Verghereto a column from the Roman Forum marks the start of the road up the mountain.

📍 Discover Verghereto

Today's tidbits

On the table today

Altamura bread: Horace called it the best in the world in 37 BC, the DOP came in 2003

In the spring of 37 BC Horace, back in the landscape of his childhood, noted in his Satires (book I, V) “the best bread in the world, so good that the careful traveller carries a supply for the rest of the journey”. In Altamura, on the Murgia plateau of Apulia, it is still made that way: durum wheat semolina of the appulo, arcangelo, duilio and simeto varieties, at least 80% from the five Murgia municipalities, sourdough, sea salt, water and a wood-fired oven. Two shapes, “u sckuanéte”, tall and folded over, and “a cappidde de prévete”, the priest's hat, in loaves of at least half a kilo, made to last the weeks peasants and shepherds spent away from home. The DOP came in July 2003.

📍 Altamura →
Place names 1938

Sasso Marconi changed its name twice in three years: Praduro e Sasso, Sasso Bolognese, then the scientist

Until the interwar years this town in the hills south of Bologna was called Praduro e Sasso, after the Sasso della Glosina, a crag of the Pliocene ridge. In 1935 it became Sasso Bolognese and in 1938, three years later, Sasso Marconi, in memory of Guglielmo Marconi. The reason lies in the hamlet of Pontecchio: at Villa Griffone, the family home, the young Marconi made his first wireless transmission experiments in 1895, with the Celestini hill outside his laboratory window as the first obstacle to beat. Today the villa houses the Marconi Museum and the foundation set up in 1938; in the grounds stands the mausoleum by Marcello Piacentini, where the scientist has rested since 1941.

📍 Sasso Marconi →

🎉 Celebrations today in… 3

3 towns with a guide celebrate their patron saint on October 21

Sant'Orsola 3

PoirinoPiedmont CampogallianoEmilia-Romagna Sant'Orsola TermeTrentino-South Tyrol
Patron saint festival 📍 Campogalliano

Feast of Saint Ursula

📅 Every year, on 21 October

On 21 October Campogalliano celebrates its patron Saint Ursula; the town hosts the Museo della Bilancia, dedicated to the history of weighing instruments.

Patron saint festival 📍 Sant'Orsola Terme

Feast of Saint Ursula

📅 Every year, on 21 October

On 21 October Sant'Orsola Terme celebrates its patron Saint Ursula, after whom the town is named; the territory also preserves the Sass de Sant'Orsola.