Famous Celebrities in Italy
Popular Italians in the course of history
Because of its long and great history, Italy is the birthplace of many important persons, who influenced the course of history sometimes very crucially. But besides the well-known Roman emperors, writers and philosophers, there were in the further course of the history a great number of popular Italians, whose names are indeed famous, but their origins are often unknown. Among them are many scientists, explorers, politicians, athletes and artists in particular. Reason enough to have a closer look at some of the most famous Italians.
Politicians, writers and other important persons
Besides the well-known womaniser Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798), in particular writers such as Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Umberto Eco and Dario For have to be mentioned. But even well-known politicians of the recent past, as Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), Silvio Berlusconi and Romano Prodi have to be named here. Not to forget the Italian national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882), the art gallery owner Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979) and the fashion designer Giorgio Armani.
Scientists and explorers
The most famous explorer of our time, Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), was a merchant born in Genoa, who discovered America in 1492 and thus made history. But also the namesake of America, Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), was Italian and the two were preceded by Marco Polo (1254-1324), with his first major trip to China, which brought many innovations to Europe. Among the scientists, one must name also Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who made groundbreaking discoveries in various fields of natural science. Not to forget here, however, are also the mathematician Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) and Leonardo Fibonacci (1175-1250), who discovered the Fibonacci numbers. Finally, one has to mention also Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), who is considered the investigator of electricity.
Italian artists
Among the Italian artists, there are a number of familiar names whose works you can still admire all over Italy. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo (1475-1564), Caravaggio (1573-1610), Raphael Santi (1483-1520), Titian (1488-1576), Francesco Borromini (1599-1667) and Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) are only some of the important artists named here. Also worth mentioning are the Italian singer and tenor Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007), the conductor Riccardo Muti as well as the famous composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901).
In the world of film and acting, actor Roberto Benigni, Sophia Loren, and Bud Spencer as well as Sergio Leone (1929-1989) and Luchino Visconti (1906-1976) achieved worldwide success.
