Parma – A History of Italy

Halloween Special: The Ghost of Bardi Castle

In this special Halloween episode we explore the castle of Bardi in the Apennines of Parma. The ghost is supposedly that of Moroello, the captain of the castle garrison who is said to have died along with his beloved Soleste in the late 15th century.

We also take some time to explore the history of the castle and finally propose our own A History of Italy style alternative ending.

Here is the link to some of the photos taken in 1995:

LA FORTEZZA DI BARDI e la foto del fantasma

The link to the video:

Link to the Instagram page of Domenico Barletta, author of “Soleste e Moroello”:

https://www.instagram.com/domenico_barletta.nico75/?utm_medium=copy_link

Link to music:

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113 – The definitive death of communal Milan (1339 – 1354)

After spending so much time gallivanting around town in the kingdom of Naples and the Papal states, it’s time to head back up north to Milan to see what’s going on. We get there in time to see the passing of Azzone visconti and the new role of Archbishop Giovanni and his brother Luchino, under whom the remains of communal Milan are definitively eliminated and the dynastic Signoria of the Visconti is consolidated, ready to become a great Duchy.

Our sponsor for the episode:

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Shout out to the History of England:

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108 – Italians against stairs

We see how Mastino Della Scala of Verona continues with his father Cangrande’s expansionist policy taking over neighbouring cities in northern Italy. This starts to get on the nerves of some of the bigger players, such as Florence, Venice and Milan who end up forming a coalition against the Della Scala. The coalition wins out and in the aftermath, although the Della Scala are not completely done for, their hopes for expansion are and Milan Florence and Venice can get to consolidating their external and internal situations.

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077 – The situation in the 13th century and revenge in Florence

We take a look at how our communes are evolving in the 13th century with the whole messy Guelphs and Ghibellines business and have a look at the legend of how the factions were formed in Florence with the tragic tale of Buondelmonte dei Buondelmonti, a real soap opera, Florentine style.

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063 – After Legnano, the cool Crusade and the Italian one

We take a look at the aftermath of the battle of Legnano which saw the forces of the Lombard League victorious against Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Then we take a quick look at the third and fourth Crusades.