Podestà is the name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities, since the later Middle Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state (like otherwise styled counterparts in other cities, e.g. rettori "rectors"), but also as a local administrator, the representative of the (Holy Roman) Emperor.

The term derives from the Latin word potestas, meaning power. This development of a term meaning "Power" or "Authority" to be eventually the title of the person holding such power is parallel to the development of the Islamic term "Sultan".

The first documented usage of podestà was in Bologna in 1151, when it was applied to Guido di Ranieri di Sasso of Canossa, brought in from Faenza to be rettore e podestà, noted in numerous documents. Leander Albertus gives the particulars:

The citizens, seeing that there often arose among them quarrels and altercations, whether from favoritism or friendship, from envy or hatred that one had against another, by which their republic suffered great harm, loss and detriment; therefore, they decided, after much deliberation, to provide against these disorders. And thus they began to create a man of foreign birth their chief magistrate, giving him every power, authority and jurisdiction over the city, as well over criminal as over civil causes, and in times of war as well as in times of peace, calling him praetor as being above the others, or podestà., as having every authority and power over the city."

Walter Bonatti (Bergamo, 22 June 1930 – Rome, 13 September 2011) was an Italian mountain climber. He is noted for a solo climb of a new route on the south-west pillar of the Aiguille du Dru in August 1955 and the first solo winter ascent of the Matterhorn north face in 1965.

Bonatti was born in Bergamo. Famed for his climbing panache, he pioneered little known and technically difficult climbs in the Alps, Himalayas and Patagonia. At the age of 21, Bonatti in 1951 made the first ascent of the Grand Capucin, an extraordinary red granite pinnacle in the Mont Blanc massif, from 20 to 23 July. This was the climb that brought him to public notice. Aged 18, he had made the fourth ascent of the formidable North Face of the Grandes Jorasses with very poor equipment over a period of two days. Among his notable climbs were a solo climb of a new route on the south-west pillar of the Aiguille du Dru in August 1955, the first ever ascent of Gasherbrum IV in 1958 and the first solo winter ascent of the Matterhorn north face in 1965. Bonatti was awarded the French Legion d'Honneur for saving the lives of two fellow-climbers in a disaster in the Alps. He authored a number of books about climbing and mountaineering. Bonatti died of pancreatic cancer in Rome on 13 September 2011 at the age of 81.

Rossana Podestà (born 20 June 1934 in Tripoli) is a former Italian actress.

She was born in the Italian colony of Libya, where she spent her first years in Tripoli and later moved to Rome after World War II. Rossana Podesta still lives in Italy, in Dubino (Sondrio province). She lived with the famous mountain climber, explorer and journalist Walter Bonatti; he died on September 13, 2011.

Podestà's most memorable role was as Helen in Helen of Troy, produced by Robert Wise in 1956. She could not speak English so she learned her lines by rote with a voice coach. The movie gave Podestà international exposure, and she performed alongside a young Brigitte Bardot. Thanks to her starring in the Mexican film Rosanna (film), she became very popular in Latin America.

Podestà also worked in the movie Ulisse, directed by Mario Camerini, and in the sixties and seventies she acted in some romantic movies, including Paolo il caldo and Il prete sposato. Her last performance was in 1985's Segreti segreti, directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci.

Guido Podestà (born on 1 April 1947 in Milan) is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for North-West with the Forza Italia, part of the European People's Party and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. He was elected president of the province of Milan on 2009/06/22, replacing the centre-left candidate Filippo Penati, whom he beat in a runoff vote.

He is a substitute for the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.

See also: European Parliament election, 2004 (Italy)

Andrea Bocelli, OMRI, OMDSM (Italian pronunciation: [anˈdrɛːa boˈtʃɛlli]; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor, multi-instrumentalist and classical crossover artist. Born with poor eyesight, he became blind at the age of twelve following a football accident.

Since winning the Newcomers section of the Sanremo Music Festival in 1994, Bocelli has recorded thirteen solo studio albums, of both pop and classical music, two greatest hits albums, and eight complete operas, selling over 75 million records worldwide. Thus, he is the biggest-selling solo artist in the history of classical music and has caused core classical repertoire to "cross over" to the top of international pop charts and into previously uncharted territory in popular culture.

In 1998, he was named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People. In 1999, his nomination for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards marked the first, and so far only time a classical artist had been nominated in the category, since Leontyne Price, in 1961.The Prayer, his duet with Celine Dion for the animated film The Quest for Camelot, won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song and was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category. With the release of his classical album, Sacred Arias, Bocelli captured a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records, as he simultaneously held the top 3 positions on the US classical albums charts. Six of his albums have since reached the Top 10 on the Billboard 200, and a record-setting 8, have topped the classical albums charts in the United States.