After the untimely death of the first duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the duchy is thrown into turmoil as the widow, Caterina Visconti attempts to hold onto the realm of her sons, Giovanni Maria and Filippo Maria through internal intrigue and external military pressure from Florence, Venice and many others trying to take advantage of Milan’s moment of weakness.
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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:
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:
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.
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Shout out to the History of England:
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.
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.
