Raise your hand who, especially in the summer under an umbrella or while travelling, hasn't spent an entire afternoon racking their brains with crosswords, crossword puzzles, rebuses and quizzes of all types and levels of difficulty: today we can say that this habit was born exactly 88 years ago. It was indeed on January 23, 1932 when the very first, historic number of The Puzzle Week was published, a periodical which has been published continuously since then and which has already exceeded 4.500 issues (just today, among other things, number 4583 is out on newsstands). Since 2 January 2014, the "healthiest and cheapest pastime of the Italians", as the Enigmatic Week defines itself on its website, has been regularly released on Thursdays (previously the day was Saturday). Also in 2014 another novelty arrived, in step with the times: while safeguarding the legendary and still very successful paper edition, the periodical can also be downloaded in digital format, only on iOS/Android tablets.
The historic headquarters, as legible in number 1, was located in via Enrico Noë 43 in Milan. Today, however, the management and editorial staff are still based in the Lombard capital but at Palazzo Vittoria in Piazza Cinque Giornate 10. The magazine "which boasts countless attempts at imitation!" came founded by a Sardinian engineer of noble origins, the knight of work, great officer, doctor, engineer Giorgio Sisini, former count of Sant'Andrea, and son of the founder of the Rotary club of Sassari. After his death, the management was assumed by Raoul de Giusti and subsequently by Francesco Baggi Sisini. The first issue, still with the masthead in black, it was published in 16 pages at a cost of 50 cents of lire: on the cover was drawn the image of the Mexican actress Lupe Vélez taken from the Austrian magazine Das Rätsel, obtained by shaping the black boxes of the crossword puzzle.
The weekly cadence of The Puzzle Week had only two interruptions: numbers 607 of 1943 and 694 of 1945 they came out after about two months due to the war events, and on both occasions the magazine apologized to its readers. Since then the magazine has boasted among its collaborators the most famous puzzlers, including the founder himself, who created puzzles for readers until the last days of his life, as well as Piero Bartezzaghi and Giancarlo Brighenti. It can probably be considered the forefather of Italian puzzle journals, at least as regards the dissemination of this art to the general public. The wording “Crosswords” itself is a registered trademark of the magazine.
