A World's Fair in Italy: Turin 1911

Place: Vercelli

Name:	Vercelli
Place type:	city
Description:	Vercelli is one of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy. The city is situated on the river Sesia in the plain of the river Po between Milan and Turin. It is an important centre for the cultivation of rice, and is surrounded by paddy fields, which are flooded in summer. The world's first university funded by public money was established in Vercelli in 1228. Today it has a university of literature and philosophy as a part of the Università del Piemonte Orientale and a satellite campus of the Politecnico di Torino.
People:	Sassi, Francesco Very few information on this artist are currently available. Francesco Sassi was a Neoclassical sculptor from Vercelli, who intensively worked in Turin at the turning of the 20th century. Still young (1880, 1890 and 1891), he was invited to show some of his bronze sculptures at Palazzina Promotrice delle Belle Arti, in which occasion he gained the respect and admiration of the critics. The bronze Monument to Giovean Felice (one of the founder of the newspaper "La Stampa") in Turin is one of his best works. In 1911, he was invited to work on the Monumental Bridge with the other scuptors Alloati and Del Santo, and he specifically realized the elegant statues of Nike with outstretched wings.