Sources cited

• Mango is a municipality in the province of Cuneo, in the Langhe, in the Moscato DOCG area (since 1985 its castle has housed the Enoteca Regionale dei Vini Moscato, the regional Moscato wine shop). During the war it was one of the centers of the Resistance, linked to the places of Beppe Fenoglio.
• The Armistice of Cassibile was signed on 3 September 1943 and made public on 8 September 1943 (Eisenhower's proclamation at 6:30 pm, then Badoglio's at 7:42 pm).
• The Partisan Republic of Alba lasted 23 days, from 10 October to 2 November 1944, as told by Beppe Fenoglio in "I ventitré giorni della città di Alba" (The Twenty-Three Days of the City of Alba, Einaudi, 1952).
• The surname Farinetti is a Piedmontese-Ligurian diminutive variant of "Farina" (flour), a nickname tied to the trade of the farinarius (miller) or baker.

Sources: Mango · Armistice of Cassibile · Partisan Republic of Alba · I ventitré giorni della città di Alba · Surname Farina

• Ferrero was founded in Alba in 1946 by Pietro Ferrero; the first jar of Nutella left the Alba plant on 20 April 1964.
• Miroglio, a textile and clothing company, was founded in Alba in 1947 by Giuseppe Miroglio.
• Pianopoli is a municipality in the province of Catanzaro, in Calabria (~2,500 inhabitants).

Sources: Ferrero · Nutella · Miroglio · Giuseppe Miroglio (Treccani) · Pianopoli

• The Red Brigades were founded in 1970; they practiced "kneecapping" and moved from kidnappings to murders. Turin was one of the main hotspots (Fiat): the journalist Carlo Casalegno, deputy editor of La Stampa, was shot on 16 November 1977 and died on 29 November.
• The Years of Lead cover roughly 1969 to 1988: the armed organizations active in Italy went from 2 (1969) to 91 (1977) to 269 (1979).

Sources: Red Brigades · Years of Lead

• The Fiera Internazionale del Tartufo Bianco d'Alba (International Alba White Truffle Fair, founded in 1929) confirms Alba as the capital of the white truffle.
• Unieuro was founded in 1967 in Alba by Paolo Farinetti (Oscar's father), initially as a clothing and household linen store. The name is a tribute to Altiero Spinelli and the idea of a united Europe. (Note: the book places the name in the context of the coffee business, in the mid-'70s: probably narrative compression.)
• Carrefour opened the first European hypermarket in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (France) on 15 June 1963: 2,500 m², self-service. In Italy hypermarkets only spread on a large scale from the '90s (the first dates from 1974).
• Castagnito is a municipality in the province of Cuneo, in the Roero.

Sources: Truffle Fair · Unieuro · Paolo Farinetti · First Carrefour hypermarket · Castagnito

• The Fiera Internazionale del Tartufo Bianco d'Alba (International Alba White Truffle Fair, founded in 1929) confirms Alba as the capital of the white truffle.
• Unieuro was founded in 1967 in Alba by Paolo Farinetti (Oscar's father), initially as a clothing and household linen store. The name is a tribute to Altiero Spinelli and the idea of a united Europe. (Note: the book places the name in the context of the coffee business, in the mid-'70s: probably narrative compression.)
• Carrefour opened the first European hypermarket in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (France) on 15 June 1963: 2,500 m², self-service. In Italy hypermarkets only spread on a large scale from the '90s (the first dates from 1974).
• Castagnito is a municipality in the province of Cuneo, in the Roero.

Sources: Truffle Fair · Unieuro · Paolo Farinetti · First Carrefour hypermarket · Castagnito

• SNIA was founded in Turin in 1917 by Riccardo Gualino as Società di Navigazione Italo-Americana (Italian-American Shipping Company); it then switched to synthetic fiber (viscose/rayon) as SNIA Viscosa. In 1925 it was the first Italian company with a capital of one billion lire and the first listed on foreign stock exchanges (London and New York), with 68.6% of national production of artificial fibers. (A reference to ep12 on Gualino.)
• In Italy inflation rose to ~14.8% in 1979 and peaked at ~21-22% in 1980 (the second oil shock); bank rates rose into the 15-25% range.

Sources: SNIA · SNIA (MuseoTorino) · 1979 energy crisis

• The GRE (Grossisti Riuniti Elettrodomestici, United Appliance Wholesalers), founded in 1972, was a buying group that pooled the volumes of appliance wholesalers to get better contracts and discounts from suppliers. It is the group that launched the Trony banner in 1997.

Sources: Unieuro/Trony

• In the '90s the national leaders in electronics retail in Europe were Dixons (United Kingdom, founded 1937), Darty (France, 1957, now Fnac Darty) and MediaMarkt (Germany, first store in Munich in 1979).
• Trony is a real Italian electronics banner: its first store opened on 28 September 1991 at the Rho shopping center (Milan), run by the GRE group and launched as a national "Made in Italy" brand in 1997.

Sources: Dixons · Fnac Darty · MediaMarkt · Unieuro/Trony

• Slow Food's first Salone del Gusto was held in 1996 in Turin (Lingotto Fiere).
• Berlin's KaDeWe is famous for the large food department on its upper floors (the 6th, extended to the 7th): the largest food hall in Europe, open since 1956, ~34,000 products over ~7,000 m².
• Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, whose construction began in the winter of 1455/56, is one of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world (61 covered streets, more than 4,000 shops).

Sources: Salone del Gusto · KaDeWe Gourmet Floor · Grand Bazaar Istanbul

• Tonino Guerra (1920–2012), Italian poet and screenwriter, worked with Federico Fellini (Amarcord, 1973, Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1975) and Michelangelo Antonioni (L'Avventura, La Notte, L'Eclisse, Red Desert, Blow-Up).
• Guerra was the face of the famous UniEuro campaign with the slogan "Gianni, l'ottimismo è il profumo della vita" ("Gianni, optimism is the scent of life"), a catchphrase that entered popular culture. Sources date it to 2003 (the book places it in 2000-2001).

Sources: Tonino Guerra · ADV History (Gazzetta del Pubblicitario)

• In 2001–2002 the British group Dixons acquired the Italian chain Unieuro in stages: first a 24% stake (~£64 million) with an option on the rest, then the remainder (~76%, ~£231 million) in 2002; it held 100% control until 2013.
• John Clare was CEO of the Dixons Group from 1994 to 2007.
• In the early 2000s Dixons ran more than 1,250 stores across the United Kingdom and several European countries (the Nordics through Elkjøp, Greece, Hungary).
• The September 11, 2001 attacks (9/11) took place on 11 September 2001.

Sources: Unieuro · Dixons Retail

• Carlo Petrini (Bra, 1949–2026), known as "Carlin", is the founder of the Slow Food movement and of the Terra Madre events.
• In October 2004 Petrini founded the University of Gastronomic Sciences, promoted by Slow Food together with the Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna regions.
• The university is based in Pollenzo, a village that is part of Bra (province of Cuneo): the first university in the world entirely devoted to gastronomic sciences.

Sources: Carlo Petrini · University of Gastronomic Sciences · Biography (Slow Food)