{"id":492993,"date":"2026-04-28T11:22:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T09:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unipi.it\/news\/quarantanni-di-internet-in-italia-una-storia-che-passa-da-pisa-e-da-una-lettera-di-enrico-fermi\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T16:38:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:38:23","slug":"internet-forty-years-of-digital-history-in-italy","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.unipi.it\/en\/news\/internet-forty-years-of-digital-history-in-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"From a letter by Enrico Fermi to the Internet: forty years of digital history in Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some stories seem to begin suddenly, marked by a symbolic date that makes them memorable. For the Internet in Italy, that date is 30 April 1986<\/strong>, when the first connection to the global network<\/strong> was established from the National University Centre for Electronic Computing (CNUCE) in Pisa. Today, a plaque in Via Santa Maria, just a few hundred metres from Piazza dei Miracoli, commemorates that event.<\/p>\n

Yet no innovation truly begins in a single day. The story of forty years of the Internet in Italy<\/strong>, rooted in Pisa, began long before 1986. For this reason, on 13 May, the University of Pisa organised the event \u201c<\/em>Internet-40. From the first connection to digital citizens. Innovation, society and new challenges in artificial intelligence and security<\/strong><\/a>\u201d<\/em>, to revisit this history and reflect on ongoing transformations.<\/p>\n

The beginnings: from Enrico Fermi to IBM<\/h3>\n

Why Pisa? The origins date back to 1954, to a funding allocation of 150 million lire and a letter from Enrico Fermi to the Rector of the University of Pisa, Luigi Avanzi<\/strong>. Fermi suggested that these resources \u2014 made available by the provinces and municipalities of Pisa, Lucca and Livorno \u2014 should be used to build an electronic computing machine.<\/p>\n

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Reconstruction of the CEP \u2013 Calcolatrice Elettronica Pisana (Pisan Electronic Calculator) at the Museum of Computing Instruments.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This idea led to the creation of the Calcolatrice Elettronica Pisana (CEP), inaugurated in 1961 by the President of the Republic Giovanni Gronchi<\/strong> \u2014 one of the first large computers in Europe, now preserved at the University\u2019s Museum of Computing Instruments. However, the most important outcome was not just the machine itself. Around the CEP, a research community developed that led, in 1965, to the establishment of the National University Centre for Electronic Computing (CNUCE), inaugurated in the presence of President Giuseppe Saragat<\/strong>. On that occasion, Rector Alessandro Faedo observed:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the CEP was completed, we realised that the greatest result was not the machine itself, but the creation of a group of scholars who wanted to continue working scientifically in this field.\u201d<\/p>\n

CNUCE, also supported by the donation of an IBM 7090, became the driving force behind computing development in Pisa. In 1969, Italy\u2019s first degree programme in Information Engineering was established, and in 1974 the Centre became part of the National Research Council (CNR).<\/p>\n

Watch the video featuring interviews<\/strong> with the key figures in the history of the Internet in Pisa.<\/p>\n