A History of Italy

1076 - 1077 Godfrey the Hunchback meets a sticky end and the investiture controversy reaches a high point and slips towards war

1073 - 1076 We follow the marital problems of Matilde of Canossa and Godfrey the Hunchback of Lorain while pope Gregory VII rolled up his sleeves and get's down to some serious posing and reforming.

1061 - 1073 The Normand, having conquered as much as they could in Southern Italy, head for Sicily while the struggle between the papacy and the empire heats up.

1052 - 1061 Bonifacio Attone of Canossa dies leaving his wife Beatrice and stepdaughter to first look to the pope and then marry Godfrey the Bearded while in the backgrounds a couple of popes come and go and we also see a change of emperors.

1047 - 1054 Once pope Leo IX takes power, we follow his rather disastrous decision to challenge the Normans and Robert Guiscard. After that, we have a quick look at the start of the Great East- West Schism.

1039-1046 We follow the descent of Henry III into Italy and see how he deals with the church as a reform takes route

We take a look at the arrival of the Normans in Southern Italy at the start of the XI century and follow their participation in the anti-Byzantines rebellions of the 1040's.

1024 - 1037 We look at the passage from Henry II to Conrad and look at the trouble caused for the new emperor by Bishop Aribert of Milan while he tries to consolidate his hold on Italy with the help of Bonifacio of Canossa and the new pope. 

1009 - 1024 We take a look at a forgotten rebellion in the south of Italy headed by an apple tree, check in with the Canossa family to observe their growing power in the north and then see how Holy Roman emperor Henry II got on when he made his way across the Alps.

Between the 29th September and 5th October 1944, the Nazi occupiers of Italy, along with their Fascist allies, rounded up and killed almost 800 civilians, mostly elderly, women and children in the worst single episode of violence against the civilian population in Western Europe. The massacre occurred on the slopes of Monte Sole, south of Bologna.

We leave Henry II waiting for a moment to look at the increasing Saracen raids in the early 11th century before taking a look at the unique history of the Sardinian "Giudicati".

1002 - 1013 As a new millennium dawns on the Italian pensala, we see that nothing much has changed, at least for the moment, as we see Henry II of Bavaria attempting to take power in Italy and then become emperor.

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the armistice between the Italian government and the allied forces we look at the fateful day the armistice was announced and the consequences for the Italian forces and people.

After our recap episode, we take a look at the attitudes towards the year 1000 and have a look at what daily life was like for people around that year.

We explore the concept of national identity and pride and look at additive rather than subtractive human pride.

In this recap episode we look back over the period from the fall of the Lombard kingdom at the hands of Charlemagne in 774 to the year 1000.

A look at the paper is an opportunity to explain the make-up of the current government and prompts consideration about the state of Italian unity today.

In the bar today a conversation about the government between two men with Roman accents prompts memories of trips to the eternal city, inlacing one adventure riding with a coach-full of modern-day hippies.

Welcome to the new Paypal and patron-only feature of "A History of Italy": NewsCapuccino. In this programme we're going to take a look at current affairs, stories and memories, starting from Italy and Italian issues, but taking a look at the world as well.

983 - 1002 After the death of Otto II, we see how his young son was brought up to manhood under the regency of his mother Theophanu and his grandmother Adelaide of Italy and how he became an emperor with dreams of greatness, as well as how those dress clashed with reality

973 - 983 We take just a moment to mourn Otto I and then proceed to see how his son, Otto II, got on with his attempt to hold the Holy Roman Empire together and even try to expand to all of the Italian peninsula while dealing with the usual pope complications. 

966 - 973 Otto I of Germany continues to consolidate his hold over Italy, attempting to go all the way south and dislodge the remaining Byzantine presence, meanwhile setting up his son with a Byzantine princess, Theophanu.

We have a chat with Italian teacher and history enthusiast Daniela Pellacani from Carpi on one of the heroes of the Risorgimento, Ciro Menotti.

951 - 066 We take a look at the reign of the teenage oboe John XII and the start of the struggle between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire

932 - 955 We look at how Alberic II did after taking control of Rome from his mother Marozia and his stepfather Guido of Provence. Then we jave a look at the usual confusion in northern Italy before the descent of the Saxon king Otto I, while we wait for the unforgettable pope John Xii to come on the scene.