La vita italiana

As we exchange gifts and recover from the debt accrued on our credit cards resulting from our holiday shopping, the end of December also means, at least for me, a time to get ready for the numismatic convention in New …

In our imagination, comets are fascinating prodigies of nature that cross the sky often invisible to the naked eye. Yet, this year we almost had the chance to see one of them shining above our heads just around Christmas. Sadly, …

Vampires existed in folklore for centuries, gruesome, repulsive, rotting horrors that mindlessly preyed on the blood of the living.  The modern version is quite different; while still requiring liquid refreshment, they appear as eerily attractive, suave, psychologically complex, traveling in …

A fellow writer recently expounded on his lack of interest in the origins of his European ancestry.  He engagingly wrote ‘None of my ancestors ever looked back with anything like nostalgia. As far as they were concerned, it was “good …

November is a month of wind and rain. Soaked in melancholy, Romans light candles on All Souls Day and sip vino novello on St. Martin’s Day. If I had hands, I would lift a glass and toast the memory of …

What was Guido Barilla, the Chairman of Pasta Barilla thinking when he said, he would prefer to use the image of a “traditional family” rather than use a gay family to advertise his products?  Was his distasteful declaration a result …

  On December 8, a snow-white papamobile leads a caravan of black limos from Vatican City to the Column of the Immaculate Conception in Piazza Mignanelli, the southwest extension of Rome’s Piazza di Spagna. Dedicated shortly after Pius IX declared …

The underbelly of the National Football League (NFL) has been unveiled once again. This time it is not about post concussion syndrome or even an arrest of a player but an alleged bullying case that some speculate occurred in a …

Dear Readers:  Before I get into the ‘meat’ of genealogical investigations, I’d like to clear up any misconceptions or ill feelings caused by my use last month of the term ‘Italians and Sicilians’.  I meant no disrespect to either group, …

Calling someone a “Renaissance man” is quite a compliment, even if occasionally misused and misunderstood  in our times.  Fortunately, one of the world’s great autobiographies paints a clear picture of the expression by one who embodied it. Benvenuto Cellini was …