La vita italiana

Rome’s Nativity. April 21st in the year 753 B.C. The legend tells of a founding at the hands of Romulus and Remus, sons of Rhea Silvia and Mars, belonging to the dynasty of Alba Longa, founded by Ascanio son of …

Today, most Western names consist of one or more given names combined with a family name, or surname. Surnames are a relatively recent phenomenon in human history.  Nobility and landowners may have had identifying names besides their given names, but ordinary …

Easter is the most important holiday in the Christian world, on par with Christmas, as it commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Besides religious practices, each culture has its own ways of celebrating this festivity, which reflect people’s lifestyles and …

Over two thousand named characters, action which spreads across the earth and even to the moon, female warriors, monsters, magic, three main plots, numerous sub-plots, and witty asides by the author all woven together into a veritable “page turner”  make …

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 …

Ironically, the most well-loved manufactured two-wheeled object of Italian pride takes its name from one of the most hated and petulant insects, a wasp, vespa in Italian.   While the new Vespa campaign aims to target people who follow their …

In a month, the European Parliament Elections will be held in all member states, including Italy. Europe is going to vote in a climate of economic crisis which has especially gripped the Mediterranean states, but that could involve the idea …

A mile and a half from the Circus Maximus, sheep graze in Caffarella Park. Warming themselves in the April sun, they are indifferent to the ruins of towers and mausoleums and oblivious to an annual rite of spring. Shepherds gather …

At dusk, millions of starlings invade Rome. After feasting all day on ripening olives, they fly south from the Sabine Hills and fill the sky. A cyclone of feathers swallows the sun. The birds scatter and regroup, form a living …

When Lorenzo II de Medici’s only child, Catherine, was born in Florence in 1519, he had no idea she would someday be France’s greatest queen.  Both he and her mother died shortly after, and she was raised by relatives, who …