No Questions Asked

Ever wish you had asked a parent or relative about things in their past?  Do you regret a lack of curiosity about the world while you were young?  “If only I had asked… ” ” I wish I could go back and find out why…” At my June...

Mother Roma, Roman Mother

With the potential of Giorgia Meloni being selected as Italy’s first female prime minister on September 25th, it may be a good time to reflect that this isn’t a fluke. Though a long time coming, putting la bell’italia in the hands of an Italian woman...

Fleeing Venezuela

Did you know that Venezuela means “little Venice” in Spanish?  That was the name Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci gave it (Veneziola in Italian) when he visited it in 1499 and saw indigenous huts built on pilings around a lake. (Some 5 million Venezuelans have...

Royals in Waiting

Ever wonder which side you would be on in 1775?  It has been estimated that only 30% of Americans at the time wanted an independent nation.  The remaining majority were loyalists or probably just apathetic.  Unless I got swept up in revolution mania, my...

The Taxicab Army

The history of France would be quite incomplete without reference to Italians.  From its Romanization launched by Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars to its cultural transformation under Catherine de Medici’s near thirty-year control (1547-1574) of the French throne,...