The Italian Almanac for September 4: stories and curiosities

It started here

Bank of America began with a family from Favale di Malvaro

Amadeo Peter Giannini's parents had left Favale di Malvaro, a small village in the hills behind Chiavari, in Liguria near Genoa. Born in California in 1870, Giannini opened the Bank of Italy in a former San Francisco saloon in 1904, lending to Italian artisans and small traders no other bank would take. After the 1906 earthquake he set up a table amid the crowd of survivors, hung out a sign saying the bank was open, and started issuing loans for the reconstruction. In 1927 his bank took a new name: Bank of America.

📍 Discover Favale di Malvaro

Today's tidbits

Vanished Italy 476

The Western Roman Empire ended in Ravenna, with a pension

On 4 September 476, in Ravenna, then the imperial capital on Italy's Adriatic coast, the general Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustus, the boy emperor remembered by the mocking diminutive Augustulus. The date conventionally marks the end of the Western Roman Empire. Barely in his teens, the last emperor was spared precisely because of his age: no execution, but exile to the Castellum Lucullanum in Naples, where Castel dell'Ovo stands today. One ancient source, the Anonymus Valesianus, even records an annual pension of six thousand solidi. The empire in the West did not end with a sword; it retired to the Bay of Naples.

📍 Ravenna →

Italian records

Italy's least populous municipality has 31 residents and an open-air museum

At the foot of the Resegone massif, at 1,070 metres in the province of Lecco, north of Milan in Lombardy, Morterone is Italy's least populous municipality: 31 residents at the latest count. It is a handful of houses among pastures and woods, yet it holds an unexpected cultural card: an open-air museum of contemporary art, with works placed among the meadows. In a country of nearly eight thousand municipalities, the one with fewer inhabitants than an apartment building still has its own mayor and its own art collection.

📍 Morterone →

🎉 Celebrations today in… 10

10 towns with a guide celebrate their patron saint on September 4

Santa Rosalia 6

RacalmutoSicily Campofelice di RoccellaSicily Santa Margherita di BeliceSicily BisacquinoSicily DeliaSicily BivonaSicily

Other saints of the day 4

Viterbobeata Rosa da Viterbo · Lazio Altinosan Gilberto · Abruzzo Ala di Sturasan Grato · Piedmont Villanova d'Astisant'Isidoro · Piedmont

Patron saint festival In 312 days 📍 Ala di Stura

Feast of San Grato

📅 Every year, on 4 September

On 4 September Ala di Stura, a municipality of 462 inhabitants in the province of Turin, celebrates its patron San Grato.

Patron saint festival In 312 days 📍 Bugnara

Feast of San Magno and San Vittorino

📅 Every year, on 4 and 5 September

On 4 and 5 September Bugnara, a municipality of 1,106 inhabitants in the province of L'Aquila, celebrates its patrons San Magno and San Vittorino.

Patron saint festival 📍 Altino

Saint Gilbert and the Altino Sweet Pepper

📅 Every year, on 4 September

Altino celebrates Saint Gilbert on 4 September, after a summer marked by the Sweet Pepper Festival and the Serranella Oasis.

Patron saint festival 📍 Bivona

Saint Rosalia and the 17th-century float

📅 Every year, on 4 September

On 4 September Bivona celebrates Saint Rosalia, one of the oldest firmly attested cults of the saint; the church dedicated to her keeps the float of her statue, from 1601.

Patron saint festival In 312 days 📍 Santa Margherita di Belice

Saint Rosalia and the Crucifix venerated by John Paul II in his anathema against the Mafia

📅 Every year, on 4 September; the Most Holy Crucifix, also held to be a legitimate patron, is celebrated on the first Sunday of May

Santa Margherita di Belice celebrates Saint Rosalia on 4 September; the town also venerates as patron the 14th-century Crucifix of the mother church, before which John Paul II celebrated mass in 1993, launching his famous anathema against the Mafia.

Patron saint festival In 312 days 📍 Bisacquino

Saint Rosalia, patron of a town in the Sicanian Mountains

📅 Every year, on 4 September

Bisacquino celebrates Saint Rosalia on 4 September; the cathedral of San Giovanni Battista, rebuilt in 1720, holds the tomb of the venerable Monsignor Giovanni Bacile, while the chapel of the Madonna del Balzo preserves an ancient local devotion.

Patron saint festival In 312 days 📍 Delia

Saint Rosalia, patron portrayed by Monocolo in a church built on the ruins of another

📅 Every year, on 4 September

Delia celebrates Saint Rosalia on 4 September; in the church of Santa Maria di Loreto, built in 1500 on the ruins of the church of San Nicola di Mira, a painting of the saint by Pietro D'Asaro of Racalmuto, known as il Monocolo, is preserved.

Patron saint festival In 312 days 📍 Campofelice di Roccella

Saint Rosalia, patroness of a town with the Roccella Castle facing the beach

📅 Every year, on 4 September

Campofelice di Roccella celebrates Saint Rosalia on 4 September, with the church dedicated to her; the town, which from 2008 to 2012 hosted the Roccella Music Festival directed by Ignazio Dolce, also preserves the ancient Roccella Castle.

Patron saint festival In 312 days 📍 Racalmuto

Saint Rosalia, patroness of the birthplace of the writer Leonardo Sciascia

📅 Every year, on 4 September

Racalmuto celebrates Saint Rosalia on 4 September; the town, which developed in the Norman period around the Chiaramonte Castle, was the birthplace of the writer Leonardo Sciascia, to whom a foundation in the former Enel power plant is dedicated.

Patron saint festival In 312 days 📍 Viterbo

Saint Rose, patron who died at eighteen and is carried skyward on a 30-metre tower

📅 Every year, on 4 September, with the Transport of the Macchina di Santa Rosa on the evening of the 3rd

Viterbo celebrates Saint Rose on 4 September; on the evening of the 3rd, a hundred men called «Facchini di Santa Rosa» carry the Macchina di Santa Rosa on their shoulders through the city's darkened streets, a 30-metre illuminated tower, UNESCO heritage since 2013.

Patron saint festival In 312 days 📍 Castel Gandolfo

Saint Sebastian, patron of the Madonna del Lago procession

📅 Every year, on the first weekend of September (the liturgical feast day falls on 20 January)

Castel Gandolfo celebrates its patron Saint Sebastian on the first weekend of September, even though his liturgical feast day falls on 20 January. On 29 August 2026, for the 400th anniversary of papal stays, Pope Leo XIV took part for the first time in the Madonna del Lago procession, boarding onto the waters of Lake Albano.

Patron saint festival In 312 days 📍 Brindisi

Saint Theodore of Amasea, patron whose basilica hosted Frederick II's wedding

📅 Every year, on the first weekend of September

Brindisi celebrates Saint Theodore of Amasea, whose relics are kept in the cathedral, together with Saint Lawrence of Brindisi, on the first weekend of September; the same cathedral hosted Emperor Frederick II's wedding in 1225.

Patron saint festival In 312 days 📍 Novedrate

Saints Donatus and Carpophorus and the lace exhibition

📅 Every year, on the first weekend of September, with the lace exhibition

Novedrate celebrates Saints Donatus and Carpophorus on the first weekend of September. The town, internationally famous for its lace production, hosts an exhibition every year alongside the patronal feast.