Italian history

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Scottish writer, editor and music programmer Arusa Qureshi. We start in 1989 when the British rock band Pink Floyd played a highly controversial concert in Venice. Then, we cover Dr Rita Levi-Montalcini whose bedroom experiments won her the Nobel Prize. We hear from a man who worked on the Mont Blanc Tunnel, which opened in 1965. A survivor describes Florence's devastating flood in 1966. Finally, the story of how the actress Gina Lollobrigida interviewed Cuba's leader Fidel Castro. Contributors: Fran Tomasi and Andrea Pattaro - witnesses to Pink Floyd's Venice concert. Arusa Qureshi - Scottish writer, editor and music programmer. Franco Cuaz - Mont Blanc Tunnel's first operations manager. Antonina Bargellini - survivor of the Florence flood. (Photo: Pink Floyd performing in Venice. Credit: Andrea Pattaro)

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Italian history is an episode from The History Hour by BBC.

This episode is 60:38 long.

This episode was published on Feb 14, 2026.

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