Salvatore Di Vita

There is an obscure story linking the name Antonio Salieri with La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy.  As the story goes, in 1776, when the old opera house had burned to the ground, a new one had to be …

By some accounts, to say that Salieri and Mozart were professional rivals, is putting it mildly.  A rivalry between Mozart and Salieri was well known and is believed to have originated when Mozart applied to be the voice teacher of …

It was a Tuesday, June 6, 1944 when thousands of Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France. Among the many young men who fought bravely was a nineteen-year-old kid named Lawrence Peter Berra from Saint Louis, Missouri. He was …

It was Sunday, just a few days ago.  I was planning to attend a celebration in honor of Christopher Columbus at the Casa Italiana, Los Angeles.   It was a special day for me because I was scheduled to be …

During one of my visits to Sicily, as I sat across the dinner table from my host Francesco, his wife Pina dished out mounds of spaghetti.  She seemed determined to fill her husband’s plate to capacity, but before she could …

The year was about 1983 when a couple of friends asked me to join them for lunch at Parker’s Lighthouse, a restaurant located at Shoreline Village in Long Beach. We took a table outside overlooking a small channel where the …

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius lasted two days. The only witness to document his observations was Pliny the Younger, who recorded what he saw from Misenum, on the other end of the Bay of Naples. His uncle, Pliny the Elder, …

It happened 1,935 years ago this August 24.  The year was 79 AD, and at the base of Mount Vesuvius sat the city of Pompeii, home to about 12,000 people. The area was known for its black fertile soil, from …

There was something about Yogi Berra that simply did not attract attention.  Even his military buddies doubted his ability to play baseball, a judgment which was based solely on his appearance.  Not long after being discharged from the military, Yogi …

How did Columbus determine the speed of his ship?  The ship’s speed was measured by throwing a piece of flotsam over the side at the bow of the ship. On the side of the ship were markers. As the ship …