by John Mancini | Nov 5, 2023 | Uncategorized
Did you know that the entrance to the Underworld, according to poets Virgil and Dante, is on the Bay of Naples? It’s called Campi Flegrei (“The Burning Fields”) an underwater basin (“caldera”) of collapsed volcanoes—about 40 of them—that are still active. Vesuvius...
by Bill Dal Cerro | Oct 30, 2023 | Uncategorized
For those of us sometimes accused of being “oversensitive” vis-à-vis world media coverage of Italy or Italian culture, check out this recent buzz of headlines from the BBC alone: “Italian PM Splits From Partner After Lewd Remarks”;...
by John Mancini | Oct 29, 2023 | Uncategorized
Have you ever wondered where the staying power of mafia movies comes from? Just about any day of the week you can find an old mafia movie on cable or streaming. They never seem to go out of vogue. Every year, new versions are being filmed or planned. ...
by John Mancini | Oct 22, 2023 | Uncategorized
One of the fond memories of my early years was visiting ships docked in New York harbor. In the 1950s and early ’60s, my father worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and had a paesano who was chief engineer on a cruise ship. With such connections, dad...
by John Mancini | Oct 15, 2023 | Uncategorized
Wars are breaking out all over, so far in Ukraine and Israel. Is Taiwan next? The odd nature of these conflicts is that they are being waged within the same ethnic groups. Russians and Ukrainians are both Slavic. Israelis and Palestinians are both...
by John Mancini | Oct 8, 2023 | Uncategorized
Will popular history ever reveal how crucial Italians were to opening the New World? There is so much already known of this “Italian enterprise” but buried in a few books. Sadly, our community is consumed by the struggle to save the reputation of Columbus from...
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