Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince of Civitella-Cesi

Don Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince of Civitella-Cesi was an Italian banking heir and a member of the House of Torlonia.

Public hostility to new styles

When women first appeared in Italian cities wearing split skirts or culottes in 1911, they faced aggressive public harassment and protests for challenging traditional dress norms.

Apron signals romantic interest

In mountain villages, women used their aprons as a silent language; moving the apron to the right side signaled a romantic interest in a young man.

Christmas Music by Zampognari Musicians

At Christmastime, zampognari musicians traveled from the Abruzzi mountains to Naples, playing bagpipes and the ciaramella to perform music before images of the Holy Infant during the nine-day Novena.

Popular Neapolitan Song Printed 180,000 Times

The Neapolitan song Te voglio bene assaje became extremely popular, with 180,000 copies of its lyrics printed for the public.

Lack of a unified time system

Travel times were inconsistent because there was no unified time; for example, trains in Verona ran with a 13-minute delay compared to those in Turin. Additionally, local time in cities like Lecce differed by several minutes depending on longitude.

Reaching the train station by mule cart

For many people in the early 1900s, reaching a train station required walking down mountain paths to a village where they could catch a mule cart. This was often the first time individuals had traveled beyond a few miles from their birthplace.

Candlelit homes and open hearth cooking

Until around 1910, most homes relied on candles, oil lamps, or petroleum lamps for lighting. Cooking was done over open fires that blackened kitchens with smoke until newer closed stoves appeared around 1915–1920.

First Italian village with modern electric light

Crespi d'Adda workers' village was the first in Italy to feature modern Edison public street lighting.

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.

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.

Cost of basic meals

A typical dinner for a family of six or seven consisting of five pounds of bread and macaroni cost about thirty-five to forty cents (lire). Supper for a working man, often bread and a pint of coffee, cost about four cents (lire).

Daily wages for Italian laborers

Some unskilled laborers in Italy earned as little as seven cents (lire) for a fourteen-hour workday, while very few skilled mechanics earned as much as one dollar (lire) per day.