In March 1989 a series of intense solar events caused relevant effects on the Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere. Interesting phenomena like exceptional brilliant Auroras, total blackouts of the HF radio links and one of the strongest magnetospheric and ionospheric storms ever recorded in this century, were observed during this month. In this paper the study of the main magnetic and ionospheric effects that occurred before and during the strong magnetospheric storm of March 13th, as they were observed over Italy, is reported. A brief discussion about the magnetic and ionospheric disturbances occurred after a solar flare is also presented. Geomagnetic-field elements from two italian magnetic Observatories (L'Aquila, Castello Tesino) and a temporary magnetic station (S. Nicolo Gerrei) as well as the data scaled from two ionospheric stations (Rome and Gibilmanna) are discussed considering their latitudinal dependence as well as other different site characteristics.