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Tito Brunetti

1905–1954

Born
18 Dec 1905, Florence
Country of birth
Kingdom of Italy, today Italy
Died
13 Jul 1954, Piacenza
facts
6
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

  • Birth18 Dec 1905, FlorenceProbable1 source
  • Death13 Jul 1954, PiacenzaProbable1 source
  • UnionPrincess Editha of BavariaConfirmed1 source

A life in time

  1. Born · Florence

    Birth, Florence

  2. Child born: Serena Brunetti

    Birth

  3. Child born: Carlotta Brunetti

    Birth

  4. Child born: Antonia Brunetti

    Birth, Viareggio

  5. Died · Piacenza

    Death, Piacenza

What was it like?

The world around Florence, 1905: 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 Tito was born in 1905, Florence 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

  • Emilio G. Segrè

    Italian physicist and Nobel laureate

  • Angelo Schiavio

    Italian footballer (1905-1990)

  • Greta Garbo

    Swedish-American actress (1905–1990)

  • Joan Crawford

    American actress (1908–1977)

  • Henry Fonda

    American actor (1905–1982)

  • Preguinho

    Brazilian footballer (1905-1979)

Fashion
Around 1911–1911

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.

Music

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.

Getting around

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.

Daily life

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.

Food

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.

Prices and wages

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.

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).

Work

Agriculture dominated the Italian workforce

In 1911, the vast majority of the Italian population, 58 percent of the active workforce, was employed in agriculture.

Grueling working hours for laborers

Factory workers often toiled between 12 and 16 hours a day, with start times as early as 3:00 a.m. in the summer.

During their lifetime

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 1918

    Spanish flu pandemic, 1918

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

  5. 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.

  6. 1946

    Italy becomes a Republic

    In 1946, Italian voters chose to abolish the monarchy in a referendum, leading to the birth of the Republic.

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.