MILAN - Most people are aware of the great adventures throughout history of which men are the undisputed protagonists.
Names like Christopher Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci are firmly in the vocabulary of each of us, while the results achieved by women are often overlooked and sometimes ignored.
To worthily celebrate Women's Day, PiratinViaggio has drawn up a list of the 5 most important female travelers in history, including the Italian Cristina Trivulzio from Belgiojoso.
Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso, the combative Italian
Italy is no stranger to enterprising female figures throughout history.
Cristina Trivulzio, born in Milan in 1808, lived at the height of the Italian Risorgimento, had contact with all the major protagonists of the time, and subsidized insurrections.
A highly emancipated woman, she had a daughter and separated from her husband Belgiojoso very early.
A journalist and writer, she lived for a long time in Paris where she held salons with illustrious guests, including intellectuals, artists and musicians.
In 1849, tired of the situation in which Italy found itself due to the Risorgimento, Cristina set sail with her daughter Maria on a ship bound for Malta and undertook a journey that took her first to Greece and, subsequently, to the remote and desolate valley of Ciaq Maq Oglù, near today's Ankara, Turkey.
Here she, alone with her daughter Maria and a few other Italian exiles, without money and only on credit, founded an agricultural company.
She wrote many articles, letters and stories of her oriental adventures.
In 1855 she returned to Milan, where she began to build kindergartens and schools and where she revolutionized the country, bringing it to a social level far above the typical situation of that period.
Jeanne Baré, the one who circumnavigated the world
Jeanne was a botanist and navigator in the 18th century and is considered the first woman to have circumnavigated the earth.
In a society of male domination, the only way Jeanne could make her dream come true was to dress up as a man.
When her partner, Philibert de Commerson, was chosen by the French government as a member of the crew that would sail around the world, the two decided that they would protect Jeanne's identity by using men's clothing and an alter ego, Jean Baret.
Their plan was successful for over a year, until the crew arrived at an island in the South Pacific and some of the island's inhabitants discovered the truth.
Despite the deception, when Barré returned to France, the national navy decided to "award this extraordinary woman a pension of two hundred livres a year".
“Lady Lindy” the aviator
The aviator Amelia Earhart, born in July 1897 in Kansas, was known by the pseudonym “Lady Lindy”.
In 1922, she broke the female altitude record, reaching 4,267 meters.
In her lifetime, Amelia achieved even more remarkable achievements, becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in 1928 and doing so solo four years later.
Her death is shrouded in mystery: while she was trying to complete a flight around the world, Amelia disappeared on her plane.
Recently, some studies revealed that the aircraft would have crashed on a desert island in the South Pacific, on which the aviator would have lived the rest of her days.
A woman, a bet, two wheels
On June 25, 1894, the American Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, mother of three children, declared in front of a crowd of over 500 friends, family, suffragettes and onlookers gathered in the Massachusetts House of Representatives which would travel around the world.
She mounted her bicycle and began her adventure to win her bet and prove that she, she, not only would she go around the globe, but that she would earn $5,000 along the way.
It was not only a test of her athletic and orientation skills, but also of her ability to survive independently.
Annie abandoned her traditional role as a wife and mother for 15 months and rode a man's bicycle wearing a men's bike outfit.
She reached and exceeded the $5,000 mark she earned during the trip by selling images of herself and selling advertising space about herself and her transportation.
Lucy Bird, tireless traveler
Despite her precarious health conditions and the impositions of a male-dominated society, the Englishwoman Isabella Bird managed to travel and did so even into old age.
In 1854, at the age of 23, she Isabella traveled across the United States and wrote her first successful book, The Englishwoman in America.
In her adventurous life she climbed two volcanoes in Hawaii, founded a hospital in India and visited the mountains of Tibet.
In 1892, she made history as the first woman admitted into the Royal Geographic Society.
Before dying at 72, she Lucy Bird visited Malaysia, Korea, Japan, China and Morocco.
…to the present day: Aurora Canessa, a solo sailor at 70 years old
Aurora Canessa, an Argentinian with Italian origins, has recently crossed the finish line of turning 70, celebrating on board the boat with which she sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in solitary, starting from the Netherlands Antilles to arrive at the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of South Africa.
The preparations began in 2010, after having completed an internal journey: according to Aurora, before facing an adventure of this kind, mental training is necessary to accompany the physical one.
After reaching the Netherlands Antilles starting from Brazil, the actual departure took place in May 2011, crossing the Atlantic Ocean until reaching Portugal, and then heading towards the African coasts.
Despite difficult moments, such as the hurricane in the Canary Islands or the blackout of the boat in the Bermuda Triangle, Aurora overcame this solo adventure thanks to her willpower alone.
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