Three recent news items, from the trivial to the profound, all extolling the same point: namely, the deep, grounded humanism of the Italic people.
Let’s start with the trivial.
First is an Instagram video posted by Karin Kidlow, the sister of US Olympic downhill ski champion Lindsey Vonn. The video is still making the rounds.
As readers may recall, Ms. Vonn, already nursing a hurting knee, decided to (bravely? foolishly?) make an attempt to ski anyway at the Milan-Cortina Olympics on February 8th. The result was a spectacular crash which led her to being helicoptered to a hospital in Trevino for major surgery and rehab.
No, Ms. Vonn’s injuries, or an Instagram video about them, aren’t the least bit trivial. That’s not the topic. Her doting sister Karin, however, decided to “see the silver lining in this situation” by surreptitiously filming handsome male doctors and nurses at the hospital where her sister was recovering.
After completing her quick takes, Kilman urged female viewers, via a caption, to “delete their dating apps and just go to an Italian emergency room.” She then set the images of the life-saving Romeos to the tune of Natalie Cole singing This Will Be (an Everlasting Love) in the background.
Click on the link below to determine if Ms. Kidlow made lemonade out of her sister’s sour situation. (In point of fairness: Would the media have lovingly embraced a similar video of a male athlete’s brother taking secret shots of hot female doctors and nurses? A double standard is a double standard.)
The second item is more serious.
A unit of Italian peacekeepers replaced a statue of Jesus allegedly vandalized by two Israeli soldiers in a southern village in Lebanon. Click on the second link below to read a CNN story about it. Note: The current Latin patriarch of Jerusalem since 2020 is also an Italian—Pierbattista Pizzaballa, a highly respected prelate whom many still consider a possible future pope, given his relatively young age of 61.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/24/middleeast/lebanon-israel-italy-christianity-peacekeepers-intl
The third item is an upcoming annual ritual held during the Feast of the Pentecost (April or May): a group of Roman firefighters climb the roof of Rome’s magnificent Pantheon and pour rose petals down the open oculus (eye) in the ceiling. The gesture is meant to symbolize the descent of the Holy Spirit.
The Pantheon is itself a symbol of transformation—it was first a temple dedicated to pagan Roman gods, then consecrated into a Catholic Church by Pope Boniface in A.D. 609. Since then, it has bridged Italy’s classical and modern eras. Both Christian martyrs and famous Italian artists are buried there.
Visit the third link below to see a quick view of the first-ever, literal “rose parade.”
It doesn’t take much effort to note the hallmarks of caring behind each three news items—toward beauty, religious worship, and one’s fellow humans.
Italians, and their cousins across the globe in America, Argentina, Australia, etc., still remain “la brava gente” (the good people). –BDC
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