People

Women and men who set out from here

A Nile explorer, a polar aviator, a rebel humanist, a rugby giant. Every story begins in a place you can still visit today.

Nineteenth-century portrait of the explorer Giovanni Miani with white beard and red fez

PeopleRovigo

Giovanni Miani, the man from Rovigo who chased the sources of the Nile

A name carved into an African tamarind and a homecoming that took ten years

Born in Rovigo in 1810, Giovanni Miani went further up the Nile towards its sources than anyone before. His remains rest at the Accademia dei Concordi.

Page from Caelius Rhodiginus's Lectiones antiquae, 1516 edition, with initial letter

PeopleRovigo

Celio Rodigino, the humanist Rovigo dismissed and then called back

The tailor's son who became one of the most widely read scholars of the Renaissance

Ludovico Ricchieri, known as Celio Rodigino, taught Greek and Latin in Rovigo, was dismissed in 1504 and welcomed back with honour twenty years later.

Photographic portrait of the aviator Umberto Maddalena in uniform, 1926

PeopleAdria (frazione Bottrighe)

Umberto Maddalena, the aviator from Bottrighe who found the red tent

From the Po Delta to the Arctic pack ice, in the summer of the airship Italia

In June 1928 a seaplane flown by Umberto Maddalena, born in Bottrighe, reached the survivors of the airship Italia on the Arctic pack ice.

The Po di Pila under a cloudy sky, with the distant bank and a chimney

PeoplePorto Tolle

Gian Antonio Cibotto, chronicler of the drowned Polesine

From the 1951 flood to the sand island of Scano Boa

In 1951 the young Gian Antonio Cibotto, from Rovigo, followed the rescuers through the flooded Polesine. Those days gave birth to his first book.

Exterior of the Teatro Sociale Eugenio Balzan in Badia Polesine

PeopleBadia Polesine

Eugenio Balzan, from Badia Polesine to the Corriere della Sera

The proofreading boy who gave his name to an international prize

Born in Badia Polesine in 1874, Eugenio Balzan joined the Corriere della Sera in 1897 and became its manager. The Balzan Prize stems from him.

The headstones of the tomb of Alberto Mario and Jessie White Mario in Lendinara cemetery

PeopleLendinara

Alberto Mario and Jessie White, a love born in prison

A patriot from Lendinara and an English journalist at the heart of the Risorgimento

In 1857 Alberto Mario of Lendinara met the Englishwoman Jessie White in a Genoa prison. Married within months, together they followed Garibaldi.

The pitch and Quaglio stand of the Mario Battaglini stadium in Rovigo

PeopleRovigo

Maci Battaglini, the giant of San Bortolo

The rugby player France called «le roi des buteurs»

Mario «Maci» Battaglini, born in San Bortolo in 1919, put Rovigo on the rugby map. The city's stadium bears his name.

Facade of Villa Grimani Molin Avezzù in Fratta Polesine

HistoryFratta Polesine

The Banquet of San Martino

The Carbonari of Fratta and the dinner that led to the Spielberg

11 November 1818: in Fratta Polesine a patriots’ banquet ends in cheers. Then come denunciations, arrests, the Spielberg. The story of the Carbonari.

Palazzo Roverella arcade in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, Rovigo

HistoryRovigo

Rossini, the Cat of Rovigo

The ginger cat who became the city’s symbol

Rescued in Bosnia, adopted by a whole city: Rossini roamed Rovigo’s banks, bars and arcades, until he became its symbol.

Sarcophagus of Albert Azzo II d’Este in front of Vangadizza Abbey, Badia Polesine

HistoryBadia Polesine

The Centenarian Marquis and the Saint of the Charcoal Burners

Two sarcophagi at the Vangadizza and the roots of a dynasty

At the Vangadizza, tradition says, lies Azzo II d’Este, who died almost a hundred: from his blood descend dukes and kings of Europe.

Casa-Museo Giacomo Matteotti (Fratta Polesine)

HistoryFratta Polesine

Matteotti, the House and the Guarded Tomb

In Fratta, a tomb the regime feared

In Fratta Polesine, Giacomo Matteotti’s house and his tomb, sealed and watched by the police until 1945. A true story, with no legends.