Giuseppe Verdi was born in Roncole di Busseto on 10 October 1813. He is universally recognised as one of the most important composers of opera. Verdi sympathised with the Risorgimento movement, which pursued the unification of Italy and actively participated for a short period in political life (he was a senator of the Kingdom of Italy), becoming a profound artistic symbol of the country’s unity. He died in 1901, and without direct heirs and as the owner of a huge estate, he drew up a long list of people and institutions to benefit from his legacy for social pruposes. These include: the central kindergartens, institutions for the malnourished, the deaf and dumb, the blind of Genoa; the hospital of Villanova sull’Arda; the Mount of Piety in Busseto; the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti retirement home for retired musicians, built by him, to which he gave 75 thousand lire in income and all the copyright in Italy and abroad on all his works.

Notarial Archive of Parma – Holographic will dated 14 May 1900.

Notary Angiolo Carrara of 27.01.1901 directory no. 2.613.

Alcide De Gasperi was born in Pieve Tesino (Trento) on 3 April 1881. He was one of the protagonists in the political and economic reconstruction of Italy after the Second World War and was head of centrist governments from 1947. He is considered as one of the fathers of the Republic (he was a minister several times then President of the Council) and of the future European Union. His foreign policy (he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of the ECSC) was aimed at including Italy in the Atlantic Alliance and achieving a united Europe.

Historical Archive of the Alcide De Gasperi Foundation – Rome.