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Luisa Gazelli di Rossana

1896–1989

Born
19 May 1896, Turin
Country of birth
Kingdom of Italy, today Italy
Died
27 Apr 1989, Rome
facts
6
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

  • Birth19 May 1896, TurinProbable1 source
  • Death27 Apr 1989, RomeProbable1 source
  • UnionFulco Ruffo di CalabriaConfirmed1 source

A life in time

  1. Born · Turin

    Birth, Turin

  2. Child born: Queen Paola of Belgium

    Birth, Forte dei Marmi

  3. Died · Rome

    Death, Rome

What was it like?

The world around Turin, 1896: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

When Luisa was born in 1896, Turin belonged to the Kingdom of Italy, ruled by Otto I the Great.

Who ruled

  • Otto I the Great

    Monarch of Italy, 951 · Kingdom of Italy

  • Adelaide of Italy

    Monarch of Italy, 947 · Kingdom of Italy

  • Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

    Monarch of Italy, 1900–1946 · Kingdom of Italy

Born the same year

  • Eugenio Montale

    Italian poet (1896-1981)

  • Sandro Pertini

    Italian journalist, resistance leader and politician, President of Italy from 1978 to 1985

  • Tristan Tzara

    Romanian-French poet (1896–1963)

  • Antonin Artaud

    French-Occitanian poet, playwright, actor and theatre director (1896-1948)

  • Dziga Vertov

    Russian-Soviet documentary/avantgarde filmmaker (1896-1954)

  • Uberto de Morpurgo

    Italian tennis player (1896–1961)

Fashion

Grumento festive female attire

Women in Grumento wore a typical dress on special occasions consisting of a light brown skirt with a large pleated section, a matching corsage with gold embroidery, and a traditional apron. They accessorized with a gold jewelry set featuring pendant earrings and gold pendants on velvet straps.

Holy Day respect in clean clothing

On feast days, laboring men and women carefully preserved special clothes to wear, as wearing a clean, pure white shirt or jacket was considered a necessary sign of respect toward God.

Music

Street musicians for two grani

In Sicily, street musicians playing instruments like the fiddle, mandolin, or flute could be hired for two grani to play popular dance music such as the tarantella or fasola.

Tarantella instruments and triccheballacche

The tarantella was commonly accompanied by instruments such as tambourines, castanets, and the triccheballacche, which is a device made of wooden hammers joined together to mark the dance's rhythm.

Getting around

Railway challenges and social class differences

Train schedules were unreliable and inconsistent between cities, sometimes varying by over 10 minutes due to different local time standards. Trains also had distinct social classes, with third-class passengers often enduring crowded, basic, and sometimes unroofed carriages.

Stagecoach travel was slow and exhausting

Before widespread rail, stagecoaches were primary for intercity travel, with a journey from Bologna to Florence taking up to 15 hours. Travel was slow, often requiring numerous stops at post stations to change horses.

Daily life

Compulsory schooling and common truancy challenges

Schooling was compulsory for children aged 6 to 9, but truancy was common because parents often prioritized farm labor. In 1885, a teacher might struggle to manage a class, and when school facilities were rented, they often lacked basic furniture or toilets.

Lack of public water and sewage infrastructure

Public water pipes were rare; by the late 19th century, over half of municipalities lacked them, forcing people to draw water from wells or public fountains. Sewage systems were also non-existent in over 77 percent of municipalities, often leading to contaminated water.

Food
Around 1900–1924

Boiled chestnuts as a main course

For one soldo, street vendors in Naples sold nine boiled chestnuts in a reddish juice, which the poor used as a main course by soaking their bread in the liquid.

Around 1900–1924

Peasant diets relied on carbohydrates

Peasant families often lived on a diet centered on carbohydrates like polenta made of maize flour, beans, and bread, with meat consumption remaining very low at about 14 to 15 kilograms per person annually.

Prices and wages
Around 1897–1898

Bread price spikes in Milan

The price of prime-quality bread in Milan rose from 30 centesimi per libra in April 1897 to 38 centesimi by January 1898.

Around 1900–1910

Cost to set up a home

In the early 1900s, a Neapolitan couple could set up a new home with basic furniture, such as a wooden chest and a kitchen cupboard, for 350 to 400 lire.

Work

Harsh daily wages and work hours

Industrial workers typically endured 12 to 15-hour workdays, and agricultural laborers in Sicily often earned an average daily wage of 3 tarì (L. 1.27) in 1876.

Agricultural dominance in late 19th-century Italy

In the late 19th century, approximately three-quarters of the Italian working population were engaged in agriculture, often working long hours for subsistence.

During their lifetime

  1. 1898

    The Bread Riots of 1898

    Widespread bread riots broke out across Italy in 1898 due to rising wheat prices, leading to mass repression, including the Bava Beccaris massacre in Milan where up to 400 people were killed.

  2. 1905

    Nationalization of Italian Railways, 1905

    In 1905, the Italian state nationalized the railway network, forming the State Railways (FS) to modernize transport and boost heavy industry.

  3. 1906

    Simplon Tunnel opens, 1906

    In 1906, the Simplon Tunnel, at 19.7 km the world's longest at the time, opened, connecting Italy and Switzerland by rail.

  4. 1913

    Peak of Italian migration, 1913

    In 1913, Italian migration hit a record peak, with 870,000 people leaving the country in a single year.

  5. 1918

    Spanish flu pandemic, 1918

    During the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918–1919, 600,000 Italians lost their lives.

  6. 1927

    Economic crisis, 1927-1935

    Following the Great Depression, the poorer classes in Italy suffered a fall in nominal wages of up to 70 percent between 1927 and 1935.

Family

Spouses

Children

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.