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Italian history

Pink Floyd's controversial 1989 concert in Venice, the Mont Blanc Tunnel, and film star Gina Lollobrigida.

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ 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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1 hour, 1 minute

Last on

Tue 17 Feb 2026 00:06GMT

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