Italian history

26:24It's July 19th, 1965. almost four decades have passed since the very first drilling began into the Alps, and at last the Mont Blanc tunnel joining France and Italy is open for traffic.

26:40When I saw the first vehicle come through, I felt happy, because it was a wonderful end to a long story, a story of almost a century of hope, of expectations, of disappointments too. And then my thoughts turned to my grandfather, who had been one of the pioneers of a Mont Blanc rail tunnel at the turn of the century. And of course, I also thought about all those poor lads who'd lost their lives trying to make this all possible. Hundreds of men had toiled for years in intense heat, digging deep underground. Twelve had lost their lives. Dozens of others had been injured in rockfalls, avalanches and flooding.

27:16But now, one of Europe's most daring projects was finished. Never before had a tunnel this long been built. and we didn't know if the construction would hold up. But in the end it was all fine. It was such a satisfaction for me to see this. I'd achieved a dream, not just my dream, but a dream of so many. Franco Cues is an Italian engineer who had grown up in the valley below the Mont Blanc mountain range. In the 1960s he worked as a consultant on the construction of the Mont Blanc tunnel and after it opened in 1965 he became its first operations manager.

27:53Even when I was a child, I heard everyone talking about a tunnel. It was an important construction for our region because it gave us a chance to communicate with France 12 months a year, not just four months, like it had been previously. A century before, people had been asking for a tunnel, although at that time it was a railway tunnel because it was before cars.

28:20But it wasn't just to connect the locals that a safer and more stable route through the Alps was so important Even after the advent of cars the steep mountain passes were closed off for much of the year because of snow and ice and even when they were possible travel in that part of eastern France and north-western Italy was extremely hazardous This is the Great St Bernard Pass a typical road over the Alps Already the snow is frozen as hard as glass. Our station wagon got trapped in it. We had to be pulled out on the way up here. For the more intrepid motorists, the pass will be open for just a few more days and then the big snows will come and it'll be closed until the middle of May.

29:02In brief, you do not cross the Alps in winter. You go round. With a 1 ,200km stretch of Italy's border effectively out of bounds for months on end, going round was often not an option. So something had to be done. In 1946, as peace returned to Europe, the first Italian construction teams began drilling on their side of the Alps. And the following year, an agreement was reached with France to build the tunnel together. But it wasn't until 1959 that work on both sides of the mountains started in earnest. This BBC reporter visited the site of the tunnel two years later, in 1961. From here, this looks a pretty big hole, but when you think of the size of the mountain through which it's being driven, it's rather like trying to drive a needle through the granite foundations of Edinburgh Castle.

29:54And in fact, Mont Blanc herself is not taking too kindly to having this hole put through her side. She's resisting with everything she's got. It was around the same time that Franco first went to visit the site.

30:10It was all smoke, water and noise. Water, because 60 % of the Mont Blanc passes under glaciers, so there were torrents of water falling into the tunnel. We're talking about 1 ,000 litres per second. The smoke was from the explosives and the motors of the trucks and the dust from the diggers. The noise was deafening from the hammers, the explosions and the diesel trucks. And then there were also these tension blows, which was something we hadn't expected. When you're digging into rock, mostly granite, you disturb an equilibrium that had been there for thousands of years. And when you start to move the blocks, you get a huge noise that sounds like an actual explosion.

30:52Using heavy boring machinery and explosives, the French and the Italian workers edge slowly forward, blasting away the inside of the mountain, then clearing the path ahead of them and installing props and supports. Progress was painfully slow and often interrupted. Franco says that on the Italian side, the earth was less stable and more prone to landslides. At one stage, work had to be halted for five months after the machinery was completely buried under falling rock. Luckily, no one was hurt.

31:27The most tragic accident happened on the Italian side when a metal bar was inserted into the side of the hill to measure the consistency of the rock, and it hit an area of high water pressure. So when the bar went in, the water spat it out like a javelin and went straight at a poor worker standing by, killing him. I know that several workers died over the years during the construction. How did such accidents affect morale? The workers knew and accepted that it was part of the job. It was sad, but they just kept on working. There was one moment of panic, though, when an avalanche struck the barracks where they slept.

32:06That was when many of the workers wanted to leave, but the company persuaded them to stay on. In August 1962, three long years after the work had begun, the tunnellers from each side finally met in the middle. It was a moment of great joy and great emotion, of hugs, handshakes, flags, applause. The Italians were giving the French bottles of Chianti and the French gave the Italians bottles of Beaujolais. It would take three more years before the tunnel was finally finished and officially opened with great fanfare by President de Gaulle of France and Italy's Giuseppe Saragat. But even then, says Franco, the problems were not over.

32:47In the winter of 1966, a massive avalanche fell on the entrance area, bearing a French vehicle waiting to pass customs. And then on the morning of March 24th 1999, a much more serious incident after a 40-ton truck caught fire inside the tunnel. The fire began on a lorry carrying flour and margarine as it travelled through the seven-mile tunnel. Twenty other lorries and ten cars became trapped and were burnt to a cinder. Eleven charred bodies have been recovered so far. It's thought at least 30 people may have died. The Mont Blanc tunnel was closed for the next three years, while a radical reassessment of safety was carried out.

33:28In 2005, a French court found 13 individuals and companies guilty of manslaughter, among them the head of tunnel security and the truck's Belgium driver. Franco had left the tunnel management in November of 1990, well before the fire, but like everyone else, he was greatly affected by such a tragic event. He later went on to work on other tunnel projects, including the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France. Franco's long since retired, but he still lives in the shadows of Mont Blanc, not far from the tunnel's entrance.

34:05This was the highlight of my professional career. It's what any engineer dreams of. And even now, when I'm out riding my bike or walking along the road in the town and I see the queues of trucks waiting ahead of the tunnel, I worry about it as if I was still working there. It's really stayed in my heart. You understand? The Italian engineer Franco Coas, who recently celebrated his 100th birthday, he spoke to Mike Lanchin in 2017. That Mont Blanc tunnel opened in 1965. In November the following year, Italy suffered a disaster that struck a chord around the world. Florence was hit by a devastating flood after heavy rainfall caused the river Arno to burst its banks.

34:48The city was submerged under tons of mud, rubble and sewage. Thousands of people were forced from their homes and the city's famous artistic heritage didn't escape. Jane Wilkinson has been hearing from someone who was directly involved in the aftermath. Nature took its toll in 1966. The Arno River in Italy, fed by autumn storms, surged into Florence. The water kept on rising and rising and rising, impossible to stop. First noisily, and then silently, here on my street, it reached more than five metres, and then everything turned into a horrible swamp. This is Antonina Bergelini. On the morning of the Florence flood, she was 22 and living on the third floor of her family home.

35:42I woke up, opened the window and looked out. It was so strange. Instead of the garden, I saw a lake. And I remember leaning into the street and the noise was terrifying. Cars being dragged along with the water and crashing into each other. And there was even a floating tree, and the doors of the houses were ripped off, and everything was pouring out, out of the houses. It was chaotic. We just didn't understand what was happening. Go 20 miles upstream of here on the still swollen waters of the Arno, and the reason why it happened at all seems plain enough. Rainwater from the mountains descending in torrents, pouring into the Arno Valley from the tributaries large and small.

36:30In just 24 hours, a third of the region's total annual rain had fallen, bursting the riverbanks. While upstream, excess water is also being released into the Arno to stop dams from breaking. The result is catastrophic. A flood flowing through the city at up to 70 kilometres an hour. Downstream in Florence, where the water still stretched forbiddingly after further heavy rains, the full force of the flood descended. First the water, then the mud. In Antonina's home, neighbours have gathered, worried their own houses might collapse. Some want to speak to her father, because Piero Bergelini is Florence's mayor.

37:11But my father had been called out. There was serious danger that the Ponte Vecchio, the old stone bridge over the Arno, was about to collapse. He rushed there immediately. Fortunately, it didn't happen, but he wasn't able to return home. instead mayor bergelini remains at the platzo vecchio the city's town hall by now in some streets the water has risen to nearly six meters high and then finally at around 8 p.m it stops and slowly very slowly the flood began to recede and by night time there was an enormous silence It was a dark silence, because all the lights had gone out. We went up to the terrace of our building, from where you can see all of Florence, and it seemed like a medieval city.

38:03There were only voices that carried from one house to another, saying, A woman here is ill. Pass the message to Palazzo Vecchio, from rooftop to rooftop, because in those days there were no mobile phones. And my father felt so powerless, but also proud that the Florentines were calling out to each other, helping each other. It was truly a very powerful moment. But the next day, Florence faces more problems, around 600 ,000 tonnes of rubble and sewage. As the water receded, we discovered the mud had arrived, a very deep layer of mud. Then there was a terrible smell because the sewers had burst and risen up.

38:48And there was the stink of the diesel oil from the heating systems. It was awful, but in those first days, nothing could be done. When we went out, we could barely walk because of the mud. And one of the paradoxes of the flood was the total lack of water for drinking and for cleaning. We actually spent an entire day without drinking because all the clean water had disappeared in Florence. Mobile coffee stalls brought to hundreds the first hot drink and food they had had for five days. It was only when I went outside that I realized what a disaster it was. The damage to Florence was enormous. 700 streets and 50 squares were flooded.

39:36So much destruction. This was the biggest tragedy Florence had experienced for centuries. 8 ,000 paintings may be damaged beyond restoration. And among the works of art affected, the one that was the most upsetting, not only for me, but for everyone, was the crucifix by Cimabue. The monks tried to save it, but the water arrived, and the crucifix was destroyed, proving almost impossible to repair. It's a Christ on whose face you can see the suffering of the flood. It became, for all Florentines, the symbol of the city, of what they went through that day. Thousands are homeless, shops and businesses destroyed, art ruined.

40:30Mayor Bergelini appeals for help. And it comes. Artists, including Pablo Picasso, auction their work to raise money. And the film director, Franco Zeffirelli, makes what will be his only documentary, Florence, Days of Destruction. The city of Dante, of Michelangelo, of Galileo, of Machiavelli, is in a dreadful state. The actor, Richard Burton, lends his voice. The water starts coming into the city and it rises so fast that no one has time to save or bring away from museums and churches those art treasures of which Florence is so rich. Zephyrilli's film was very important because it was through this that people abroad learned what had happened in Florence.

41:20And enormous aid arrived from the United States, literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. RAF planes came carrying blankets, lifting equipment, medicines and tents. But not only from there, from all over the world. From Senegal, Ethiopia, China, Russia, the Philippines, from any country you can name. And there's more. Hundreds of young people begin arriving in Florence to clean up the city, wearing wellingtons and carrying spades. They become known as the mud angels. At first, my father was worried. He said they need to be fed and a place to sleep, in a Florence that has been destroyed. But then, because they were young, they adapted.

42:10They slept wherever they could, even on trains. And they were amazing. During the day, They worked in horrible conditions, transporting manuscripts and works of art. A vast amount remains to be done. Books salvaged in a waterlogged state from the Bibliothèque Viesseur are dried off, then carried away to safer ground by students and soldiers working together. Afterwards, they helped the people, those who needed their homes clean. because you can't imagine what the cellars were like. Stinking, full of dead animals, the smell coming up from drains. And these angels were helping and smiling, always smiling.

43:00And the Florentines, very proud people, worked day and night. So, at Christmas, the first shops began to reopen and little by little the city recovered. And by spring, Florence was ready to receive tourists. Thanks to the people and to the world.

43:27Antonina Bergelini was talking to Jane Wilkinson. Next, we're going to break away from past events in Italy for a moment as we take a look at another sporting witness. And for this, we're delving into the troubled history of professional darts. There have been ebbs and flows in the fortunes of darts, very popular in the 1970s and 80s, not so much in the 90s. As television audiences dwindled, there was a split in the sport. Tim O 'Callaghan has been hearing from a player who was at the heart of that rupture nearly 30 years ago.

44:01The BDO said, well, we run this, and we don't particularly care what you want. That's my attitude, and it always has been, that they wouldn't listen. If they'd have listened, there was no need for there could have ever been a split. That's John Lowe, a three-time world darts champion. Before we get into this split, we need to go back to the 1970s and 80s, because at that time something extraordinary was happening to darts in the United Kingdom. Traditionally played in pubs and social clubs, television brought the game into the living rooms of millions, making the players household names. And it was in the 1970s that a new body was formed, the British Darts Organisation, commonly known as the BDO.

44:42It was a boom. It was the British Darts Organisation that really got it onto TV on a regular, well, probably almost every week. Run by Ollie Croft, a businessman from North London, the BDO began running tournaments from county level to international, with the two major TV channels in the UK, the BBC and ITV, showcasing them. and then in 1978 the first world championship was staged. It was a good friend of mine who started all that and not the BDO. It was Mike Watterson who ran the world snooker championship and he rang me up at two o 'clock in the morning and said I need 16 or 32 players, professional players and we're going to have a world championship of darts.

45:26And I said I'm sorry, I think we've only got three. As the sport grew so did the sponsorship and prize money. In the 1984 World Match Play, the sponsors offered any player who could hit a nine-dart finish£100 ,000, which would be worth almost US$450 ,000 in 2026. It had never really been done. And if anybody said they had done it, we doubted it because they couldn't prove it. For those of you who don't know, a nine-dart finish is where you go from 501, which is the score you start on in dart match play, to zero in nine darts, the lowest possible. It's considered one of the hardest feats in sport and it had never been witnessed on TV.

46:07That was until John stepped up to throw his darts on the 13th of October, 1984.

46:15Once I'd got the two maximums, 180-180, I'd got it in my mind, don't go for treble 20 again, go down to the treble 17, then all you'd do is move upward to the treble 18, across slightly, double 18, and it worked perfect. Simple as that. The room rose, Keith Dallaro was playing, it got a big smile in his hands without the shake hands. It was an history-making moment, yeah, and thankfully I never thought of money at all. I did afterwards, but I didn't while I was doing it. And I thought, well, I have practised for 19 years and this looks like the best chance. They were absolutely, and I'm not bragging in any way, but all the nine darts were perfect.

46:59I believe that changed the sport of darts. It took it from the amateur arena into the professional arena. But when you're that high, it can be very easy to fall. In 1983, there were 23 tournaments on television. But then the BBC decided to cut down on its darts coverage and ITV stopped showing it altogether. By 1989, only the World Championships remained on TV. This was a big worry for the players who relied on the sport to make a living, including John. The British Darts organisation didn't have a plan. They didn't have a business plan to go forward. We wanted a meeting with them between the players who were professional then.

47:39How are we going to carry on making money? Eric Bristow, who had won five world championships, told the BBC in 2014 how that meeting in late 1992 went. They sent me in as a spokesman for the Darts players. I said, I've only got three questions. First of all, I said, can you guarantee us more than one tournament a year on TV? He said no. Second one, would you mind if we run our own tournaments? Sky wanted to come in and we had contacts to run the tournament. And he said yes. And then the last question was, OK, if we did run our own tournament, what would happen? And he said, we'll ban you. It was all about power.

48:14And it was, I run this game. I am the chairman. I am the founder of the British Arts Organisation. And it will continue my way. I honestly believe that. For his part, Olly Croft told the BBC he couldn't guarantee anything and that the top players weren't prepared to wait for the situation to get better. And then between December 1992 and January 1993, a lot happened. Undeterred by the threat of a ban, John and 15 other players, including every active former world champion, decided to form their own organisation, the World Darts Council, or WDC. And then they said they'd only participate in the 94 World Championships if it was under the WDC and not the BDO.

49:00I was the world champion when the split came, so I really had more to lose than anyone. I didn't defend the world title. John reckons this cost him thousands in potential sponsorship fees. A few weeks later, in January 1993, the BDO responded by banning the Rebel players from any event on British soil, which was later extended to a worldwide ban. It was not a nice feeling for the simple reason people wouldn't even book us for exhibitions just they thought that the members of the BDO could not come and play us. It was a lot more difficult than what people think especially over that time period.

49:38Legal action against the ban was launched by the WDC and they began hosting their own world championships in 1994 shown on the new satellite channel Sky. When we did the first World Championship, no one got paid. It was months before anybody got any money because they didn't have any. So really, we were a little bit fortunate really that the ship didn't sink early on and then it grew. Did you ever have a wobble? Did you ever think, oh gosh, we've done the wrong thing here? Me personally, I thought, and I think now today that I may have done the wrong thing. Because looking back at it, I turned down quite a lot.

50:15And players and some people outside that had nothing to lose, they moved in and actually capitalised on it. At that time, I knew I'd done right. I wanted to stay with the professional side of the game or could we make it professional? Looking back on it, it's still in the back of my mind. Did I do the right thing? In 1997, the two sides went to the High Court in London over the player ban. and in John's words it was a bit of a farce. The judge said take it to arbitration, go and sort it out over the weekend and come back here on a Monday morning at 12 o 'clock and we want it all finished. It never really went through a deciding thing.

50:54They made us an offer, we made counter claims more than offers and when it came into court the judge thanked Ollie Croft and the other committee members of the BDO for doing a great job and then just awarded it in our favour, but with no payment or anything. The ban on the players was lifted and one of the stipulations was that the WDC becomes the PDC, the Players' Darts Council. The two world championships of the BDO and the PDC continued though, with the PDC bringing in the sports promoting firm Matchroom to help grow their tournaments. Under Matchroom's management in the 2000s, the PDC tour and prize money surpassed the BDO, with most of the top players choosing to play in PDC tournaments.

51:40The BDO then rejected a£1 million buyout offer from the PDC in 2009 and went into liquidation in 2020. When I look at it now, if they hadn't have been the split, if they hadn't have collapsed everything, I don't think the game would be worth it today. But when I look back, the BDO, there's no reason the BDO shouldn't have appointed a company to do exactly what the PDC are doing today. John Lowe, three-time world dance champion, was speaking to Tim O 'Callaghan. Finally this week, back to Italy, and Gina Lollabrigida. She was one of the biggest film stars of the 1950s and 60s, an iconic beauty.

52:22Her co-stars read like a Hollywood who's who of that era. And later in life, she reinvented herself as an artist and photographer. and in 1974 she secured an exclusive photo shoot and interview with none other than the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, as Ben Henderson learned from the BBC archives.

52:46Gina Lollabrigida was born the daughter of an Italian furniture maker in 1927. During the Second World War, her family moved to Rome, where she found success in beauty contests and one day she was scouted for the big screen while walking down the street. She discussed her early career with film knights Sherrod and Morley. Was it very difficult at that time in the 50s to make your name outside your own country? I mean, I didn't do anything concerning the publicity. It was the public that made me a star. You know, I did, for instance, the first movie was Fanfala Tulip and when it came out I had my name very small and Gerard Philippe, of course, was a big, big name.

53:31But after one week in Champs -Élysées, they changed completely all the, how do you say, the poster and they made my picture big, my name big. You know, they did it. I didn't push myself. Lola Brigida starred in mainly Italian films at first, but in 1950, her then-husband took some publicity shots of her in a bikini. The photos caught the attention of Howard Hughes, the richest man in the world and a film producer. Such was his obsession that he flew Lollabrigida to the US, tried to make her divorce her husband and bombarded her with marriage proposals. He wasn't the last to find her irresistible.

54:13But you speak very good English. You know why? Tell me why. This is Gina chatting to the BBC's Simon D. Should I? Yes, why, why, why? A lot of English nice friends taught me to speak English. Mostly men, you mean? Of course. I see.

54:35Lola Brigida returned to Europe where she established her reputation. She was often referred to as the most beautiful woman in the world. In 1953, her first English language film, opposite Humphrey Bogart in Beat the Devil, began a series of starring roles alongside cinema's leading men, including Errol Flynn in Crossed Swords, Rock Hudson and Frank Sinatra. Her most celebrated films included Trapeze in 1956 and the 1960s romantic comedy Buona Serra, Mrs. Campbell. Do you hear what I'm saying? Do you want to fish on the sides of Adeline? You're a man. You're a trumpet. I didn't hear my name mentioned.

55:18Can you do a triple? Can you? The name, Campbell, where did you get that? From the soup. You named yourself a soup? I had to. The only other American name I knew was Coca-Cola. I couldn't call myself Mrs Coca-Cola. Lollabrigida was pitted against another queen of Italian cinema, Sophia Loren. When asked about the rivalry, Lollabrigida said, we're as different as a fine racehorse and a goat. In 1966, she was convicted of obscenity in Italy for appearing nude in the film The Dolls, although her defence claimed she wore flesh-coloured tights. The conviction was lifted a year later. Now I think this is for the nun and for children, that picture.

56:00And I almost went to prison for that. And further controversy followed when she took advantage of Italy's recent legalisation of divorce to part ways with her husband in 1971. Your newfound freedom, do you like it? Or are you secretly longing to get a man in tow? No, I enjoy to be like that, free and happy, no trouble, no man. I mean, many around, but not someone that you can't just throw him out, you know. I mean, when you have a husband in your home and you want to send him away, it's not easy. In the 1970s, her acting roles dried up. However, rather than relax with the vast fortune she'd amassed, she decided to pursue a new career.

56:46Before I did the photography just for hobby, but a lot of magazines that publish my pictures, and in fact I went to New York and I was supposed to do some reportage for live magazine, but when they saw the picture they said, you are too good, so they ordered me a book in the same afternoon. Gina was offered a publishing deal for a photography book. When I'm doing the filming, it depends on the director, on the cameraman, on the script, on so many things. It's a collaboration. When I do a book, it's me. So I can express myself completely. So it's a work that, in a way, I like much, much more. Initially, she published photographs documenting her native Italy.

57:29But she always had an eye for the spectacular. The camera breaches the walls of Castro's island fortress. Ever since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959 and established a Soviet-allied regime, Western journalists had struggled to report from Cuba, as you can hear in this British Pathé archive. For the first time since the Cuban crisis arose, come pictures from inside Havana. But Gina wasn't one to shirk a challenge. I was interested in photographing him because he's a quite mysterious man. Nobody lately succeeded to have an interview or see him. I was in Moscow to photograph Yevtushenko and I was Neshin's King, the two big poets in Russia, I sent the letter and the book to the Cuban embassy in Moscow.

58:23And Fidel Castro answered me after four days and he accepted. Gina spent nearly two weeks with Castro in 1974. Can you tell me when you arrived there and you met him? Was he familiar with your work? Oh, yes. He knows my film quite well. and he admired me on the screen and he was very enthusiastic about my book. They sealed their friendship by exchanging watches. He engraved his, to Gina, with admiration, Fido Castro. The pictures were published in Ladies Home Journal. It was a remarkable scoop and ever the entrepreneur. Gina made a documentary about it the following year. Well, you have produced this book now.

59:05Are you afraid that when people come to look at it, they'll look at it and say, this is a book of photographs by a well-known film star and not really joint you as a photographer? I really did the book to satisfy myself. For one time in my life, I said, this is my luxury. I want to do something that I like, something really good. I didn't care about the money I was spending and I wanted something nice. Then when the book was out, and not even the people, but even the credit was successful, I really was moved. I was more than happy.

59:50In later life, Lola Brigida became a sculptor and even attempted to launch a political career, running for the Italian Senate aged 95. In 2018, she was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But I did movies in Hollywood, I did movies in England, in Italy, in Africa, all over the world. And they loved me and I tried to give all my best in all the movies. So I thank you for the honor I have today. I didn't expect, but I am really happy and thank you, all of you. Ben Henderson, remembering the life and work of Gina Lollobrigida, one of the most famous individuals to have emerged from Italy's recent history.

1:00:43And that's it for this edition of the History Hour from the BBC World Service. We'll be back with more first-hand stories to illuminate past events next week. So until then, this is Max Pearson from all of us here. Thanks for listening. Goodbye. From the pioneers. We weren't going to ask mission. We're just going to do it. And the celebrations. You feel you have, you win. I feel it. I was first. I was first. We were so proud of ourselves, and Cameron was proud of us too. I still cannot believe it. It was such an amazing feeling. It was incredible. To the humiliations. I did cry most of the half.

1:01:21Oh man, I'm failing. I'm failing this sport that I love. Sporting Witness takes you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. is not just about the sport. It's about all the other things that people with disabilities learn from each other. For nine minutes, you become a fan in the stands as we take you back in time to examine memorable moments from all over the world. There's a magic during those moments that carries your soul. We were truly blessed to be a part of history. Sporting Witness. Subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

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