Cristoforo Colombo

Christopher Colombo was an Italian navigator and explorer, citizen of the Republic of Genoa and a subject of the Kingdom of Castile. He was among the most important Italian sailors who took part in the geographical discoveries at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth century.

He was born between 26b August and 31 October 1451 in Genoa.

During his travels as a merchant he had come up with the idea of the existence of a land overseas, according to him Asia.

Whereas King John II of Portugal refused to give him fundings to sail to the New World, the Kings of Castile and Aragon, and especially thanks to the Queen of Castile, Isabella, agreed to finance the voyage and granted privileges to Colombo in case of success.

On 3rd August 1492 Columbus set sail from Palos de la Frontera

with three caravels the Pinta, the Santa Maria and the Niña

and on October 12th he landed on an island called Guanahan which Columbus named San Salvador Island.

On the evening of October 27 the caravels arrived in Bariay Bay, Cuba, in the province of Holguín.

He died on 20 May 1506 in Vallaloid and is buried in the Cathedral in Seville, Spain.

GIUSEPPE GARBALDI

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian general and politician. He was born on July 4, 1807 and is considered a central figure in the Italian Risorgimento since he personally fought in many military campaigns that led eventually to the formation of a unified Italy. He generally tried to act on behalf of a legitimate power which does not make him exactly a revolutionary: for example, he was appointed general by the provisional Government of Milan in 1848, General of the Roman Republic in 1849 by the Ministry of War, and led the Expedition of the “Thousands” on behalf and with the consent of King Victor Emmanuel II. He has been called the “Hero of Two Worlds “ because of his military enterprises in South America and Europe.

In the popular telling of his story, he is associated with the red shirts worn by his volunteers instead of a uniform.

On the evening of 5 May 1860 he set sail with a thousand volunteers from a rock in Quarto, a district of Genoa,

and landed at Marsala, Sicily on 11 May

in order to conquer the kingdom of the Two Sicilies ruled by the Bourbons.

On 27 May, with the help of a popular insurrection, the “Mille” laid siege to Palermo, the island’s capital. The expedition was a success and concluded with a referendum that brought Naples and Sicily into the Kingdom of Sardinia, the last territorial conquest before the creation of the Kingdom of Italy on 17 March 1861. The Expedition of the “Thousands” has traditionally been one of the most celebrated events of Italian Risorgimento, the process of the unification of Italy.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci (April 15,1452-May 2,1519) was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most talented person ever to have lived. Leonardo was educated in the studio of Verrocchio, a Florentine painter. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice. He spent his last years in France. Leonardo was and is renowned primarily as a painter.

Among his works

The Mona Lisa is the most famous portrait and is considered to be "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world." The painting is in oil on a panel, now the property of the French Republic, is on permanent display at the Musée du Louvre in Paris.

The Last Supper

The Vitruvian Man, regarded as a cultural icon, is accompanied by notes based on the work of the architect Vitruvius. The drawing, which is in pen and ink on paper, depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. This image exemplifies the blend of art and science during the Renaissance and provides the perfect example of Leonardo's keen interest in proportion.

He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, a calculator and made important discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, optics and hydrodynamics,