Five Extraordinary Southern Italian Women
Clockwise: Matilde Serao, Sophia Loren, Donatella Versace, Elvira Notari, Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel
March 8th is International Women’s Day. And while it is ostensibly international, Italians seem to celebrate the day with far greater pizzazz than your average American.
On this day across Italy, your typical woman receives bright yellow mimosa fronds from well-intentioned, tone-deaf men (husbands, clergy, baristas…) to honor the contribution of women across the country. Then if the woman is really lucky, she takes off for a cackling al fresco luncheon with her lady friends and proceeds to get bombed on spritzes.
This was at least my initial experience with Women’s Day in the hinterlands of provincial Naples when I first arrived in Italy. Since then, I avoid the al fresco hen-dos. I still enjoy the occasional feminist mimosa of both the alcoholic and floral varieties.
But to really honor March 8th, I like to think about the bad ass women that populate my corners of Southern Italy. The fearless Neapolitan lady cab drivers. The nonnas who mind their grandchildren with the ferocity of drill sergeants. The pizza gals who fry hundreds of half mooned pizzas to serve Naples’ hungover youth.
The women of Italy’s South are the vibrant pulse of the region. To honor them, we celebrate five extraordinary Southern Italian women!
Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel (1752-1799)
Fonseca Pimentel’s early adulthood got off to one rough start. After inheriting a considerable dowry from her late mother, she married her first cousin Miguel Lopes who turned out to be a real jack-ass. Not only did Fonseca Pimentel suffer several miscarriages at the hands of her violent husband, she also lost most of her inherited wealth due to his financial negligence. When the Court of Naples granted her a divorce in 1784, she had no choice but to take up writing as a profession. After finding success as a poet, Fonseca Pimentel became a Jacobin revolutionary, seeking to overthrow the Bourbon monarchy of Naples and establish a local version of the French Republic. When King Ferdinand IV fled Naples, Fonseca Pimentel and her fellow revolutionaries founded the short-lived Parthenopean Republic in 1799. Eventually she would grow disillusioned with the French Army who would come to govern Naples. Nonetheless, Fonseca Pimentel would always consider herself a life-long secular republican who cherished Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity for all.
Matilde Serao (1856-1927)
Born in Patras, Greece in 1856 to a Neapolitan father and Greek mother, Serao repatriated to Naples as a young adult. She fearlessly worked as a school teacher in the most poverty stricken zones of Napoli in the aftermath of Italian unification. After documenting her experience in a book of short stories called Leggende Napolitane (Neapolitan Legends) she rose to national literary prominence. Serao would go on to found the newspaper Il Mattino in 1892. It would go on to become the most widely read newspaper in the entire South of Italy and remains to this day one of the country’s most important daily publications.
Elvira Notari (1875-1946)
Born in 1875 in Salerno, Elvira Notari would become Italy’s earliest and most prolific female filmmaker. She was inspired by Neapolitan theatrical style and often shot on the streets of Naples, using non-professional actors. After establishing Dora Films with her husband in 1905, Notari made over 60 films, frequently depicting strong female leads. Her most famous works include: A Piedigrotta, Nfama!, and A Santanotte.
Sophia Loren (1934- )
From the coastal town of Pozzuoli just north of Naples, Sophia Loren (born Sofia Villani) came of age at in the turbulence of WWII. Loren lyrically recounts her life in her memoirs: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life, which I highly recommend reading. Once regarded as an ugly duckling, Loren later went on the win runner-up of a local beauty pageant. After venturing to Rome to work as a model for romantic comic books, Loren was discovered by Carlo Ponti (who would later become her husband). Loren rose to international prominence after starring in the Vittorio de Sica directed film, Two Women, for which she won an Academy Award. Her vibrant sensuality and bold portrayal of women ravaged by the tumult of Post-War Southern Italy, made her a legendary screen icon.
Donatella Versace (1955- )
Versace was born in 1955 in Regio Calabria. In the mid-1970s she followed her brother Gianni to create a fashion label in Milano. The Versace brand would go on to become one of the most celebrated in the world. When Gianni was assassinated in 1997, Donatella took control of the fashion house and, against all odds has continued to make it one of the most successful haute couture brands today. Her sensual depiction of the female form is thoroughly Southern Italian and she has dressed the likes of Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga. It all started out when she was simply her brother’s muse in their Southern Italian town.
