ITALY’S SECRET PLACES

So, you want to build a tower?

There's that one in Florence, you know!

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<WORK IN PROGRESS>

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Florence's famous football in Renaissance guise...

NO! They are not "doing it for the tourists"!

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In Florence, the Medici follow you wherever you go.

Thereby hangs many a tale...

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Columbus Day is the most controversial of American national holidays. People disagree—often violently—about its past and present meaning. Here are the facts of the matter, neglected for a very long time. Make of them what you will!

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(1) PHILADELPHIA 1876

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Columbus Day is the most controversial of American national holidays. People disagree—often violently—about its past and present meaning. Here are the facts of the matter, neglected for a very long time. Make of them what you will!

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(2) NEW ORLEANS 1891—AND AFTER

Columbus Day is the most controversial of American national holidays. People disagree—often violently—about its past and present meaning. Here are the facts of the matter, neglected for a very long time. Make of them what you will!

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(3) ITALIAN COLUMBUS DAY VS. AMERICAN COLUMBUS DAY

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Columbus Day is the most controversial of American national holidays. People disagree—often violently—about its past and present meaning. Here are the facts of the matter, neglected for a very long time. Make of them what you will!

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(4) CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AGAINST THE WORLD

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Cerveteri by way of Giorgio Bassani.

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(1) THE MYSTERIOUS ETRUSCANS

(2) ETRUSCAN CITY OF THE DEAD

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From Michelangelo's David to Trippa alla fiorentina to Intimate Apparel...

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Michelangelo Fusion in Piazza della Signoria.

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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

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It all began with my discovery of a fellow Goldberg (Antonio by name) amidst the mythic Mille di Garibaldi—the thousand or so patriots who accompanied the "Hero of the Two Worlds" on his 1860 invasion of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Before I knew it, I was spiraling through the turbulent world of the Italian Risorgimento, in search of Jews who played notable roles in the process of national unification.

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(12) VA PENSIERO and VIVA V.E.R.D.I.

(13) WHAT'S IN A NAME ("Goldberg", for example)?

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It all began with my discovery of a fellow Goldberg (Antonio by name) amidst the mythic Mille di Garibaldi—the thousand or so patriots who accompanied the "Hero of the Two Worlds" on his 1860 invasion of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Before I knew it, I was spiraling through the turbulent world of the Italian Risorgimento, in search of Jews who played notable roles in the process of national unification.

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(9) PAPAL FALLIBILITY

(10) MORE MORTARA: The Pope and His Inquisitors Go to Cincinnati

(11) MORE PAPAL FALLIBILITY

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It all began with my discovery of a fellow Goldberg (Antonio by name) amidst the mythic Mille di Garibaldi—the thousand or so patriots who accompanied the "Hero of the Two Worlds" on his 1860 invasion of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Before I knew it, I was spiraling through the turbulent world of the Italian Risorgimento, in search of Jews who played notable roles in the process of national unification.

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(6) THE JEWISH QUESTION

(7) THE JEWISH QUESTION vs. THE ROMAN QUESTION

(8) MORTARA BEGINS

It all began with my discovery of a fellow Goldberg (Antonio by name) amidst the mythic Mille di Garibaldi—the thousand or so patriots who accompanied the "Hero of the Two Worlds" on his 1860 invasion of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Before I knew it, I was spiraling through the turbulent world of the Italian Risorgimento, in search of Jews who played notable roles in the process of national unification.

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(3) GARIBALDI'S SEVEN: Eugenio Ravà

(4 ) GARIBALDI'S SEVEN: Riccardo Luzzatto (and family)

(5) GARIBALDI'S SEVEN: Francesco Grandi (and Luigi Grandi / Tobia Ariento)

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It all began with my discovery of a fellow Goldberg (Antonio by name) amidst the mythic Mille di Garibaldi—the thousand or so patriots who accompanied the "Hero of the Two Worlds" on his 1860 invasion of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Before I knew it, I was spiraling through the turbulent world of the Italian Risorgimento, in search of Jews who played notable roles in the process of national unification.

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( 1 ) "GOLDBERG, MEET GARIBALDI!"

( 2 ) GARIBALDI'S SEVEN: Giacomo Alpron, Donato Colombo, Angelo Donati, Giulio Rovighi

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Florentines normally hate waiting in line!

But there was nothing normal about the age of COVID...

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<WORK IN PROGRESS!>

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Once upon a time—a century-and-a-half ago—there was an actual Indian in the story. In 1870, the Seventh Maharajah of Kohlapoor died in Florence at the age of twenty and a grand Hindu funeral was performed in the Cascine, the city’s chief public park. A lavish monument was erected at the site of the cremation—then Florentine culture and custom kicked in, assuring the "Indiano" a unique place in the local consciousness.

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(9) THE BEAUTIFUL GAME

(10) MORE SPORTS

(11) "GO THROW MYSELF OFF THE INDIAN"

(12) THE INDIAN COMES HOME

Once upon a time—a century-and-a-half ago—there was an actual Indian in the story. In 1870, the Seventh Maharajah of Kohlapoor died in Florence at the age of twenty and a grand Hindu funeral was performed in the Cascine, the city’s chief public park. A lavish monument was erected at the site of the cremation—then Florentine culture and custom kicked in, assuring the "Indiano" a unique place in the local consciousness.

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(5) CRICKETS vs FIREFLIES

(6) LUCCIOLE, LUCCIOLI, LUCCIOLX

(7) BATWOMAN IN THE CASCINE

(8) VITTORIO EMANUELE II PLUS HITLER AND MUSSSOLINI

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Once upon a time—a century-and-a-half ago—there was an actual Indian in the story. In 1870, the Seventh Maharajah of Kohlapoor died in Florence at the age of twenty and a grand Hindu funeral was performed in the Cascine, the city’s chief public park. A lavish monument was erected at the site of the cremation—then Florentine culture and custom kicked in, assuring the "Indiano" a unique place in the local consciousness.

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(1) WHO WAS "THE INDIAN"?

(2) LE CASCINE: FROM MEDICI FARMLAND TO PUBLIC PARK

(3) CRICKETS IN THE CASCINE

(4) CRICKETS vs CAMELS

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My weird and wonderful farewell visit to Florence's Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata. The city was coming back to life after many excruciating months of COVID quarantine and I was leaving my adopted hometown, more or less forever.

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History has given a free pass to Guglielmo Marconi, who was both a scientific genius and a Fascist ideologue. There are two stories to tell—first in Italy and then in America.

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(1) THE VIEW FROM PIAZZA MARCONI (ROME)

(2) MARCONI, MUSSOLINI, JEWS

(3) DEATH AND AFTERLIFE

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In the time of COVID, nothing was normal, not even familiar street art. Every horseman heralded the Apocalypse and rainbows took on a desperate life of their own.

Thank you, COVID?!

Michelangelo's David, plus space and silence, in Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia.

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(1) THE GRIM REAPER COMES TO SELFIE HELL

(2) SPIRIT OF THE BUNKER

(3) AN INVITATION TO THE GALLERIA DELL'ACCADEMIA (not to be confused with "The David Museum")

It is almost too easy to crack wise about Michelangelo's David. But why not?!

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (otherwise Biancaneve e i Sette Nani) across the river in the Oltrarno district of Florence.

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In 1930s America, Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the radiotelegraph and Italo Balbo, "the Second Columbus" led a brilliantly orchestrated public relations campaign on behalf of Benito Mussolini's regime. Americans—especially Italian-Americans—enthusiastically embraced the emblems of Fascist ideology until the Second World War intervened.

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(1) THE VIEW FROM PLAZA MARCONI (PHILADELPHIA)

(2) MARCONI-MANIA vs. BALBO-MANIA

(3) ITALO BALBO AND THE COLUMBUS THING

(4) THE SECOND COLUMBUS CRASHES AND BURNS

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Every five years, the inhabitants of the tiny Piedmontese town of Sordevolo stage a compelling recreation of the last days of Christ— as it was (and maybe still is) imagined by Catholic believers.    

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(1) CHRIST-KILLERS, THEN AND NOW

(2) BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES

(3) CURTAIN CALLS

(4) UPDATES

In Florence, Fascist-era sewer caps appear beneath our feet wherever we go— creating an eerie counterpoint to our daily lives. What's the story?

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(1) THE STRANGE WORLD OF FASCIST SEWER CAPS

(2) WHO WAS GIOVANNI BERTA, BOY MARTYR FOR FASCISM?

(3) FONDERIA DELLE CURE GIOVANNI BERTA, IRONMONGER TO THE REGIME

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In Sicily, Benito Mussolini invents the Fascist present by reinventing the ancient and more recent past.

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(1) MEMORIAL STONE STYLE

(2) ANCIENT NOBILITY

(3) FOLLOW THE FASCES

(4) THERE WAS A CITY HERE...

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What if Mussolini threw a World's Fair and no one came? That is basically the story of the E.U.R. (Esposizione Universale Roma), one of the Eternal City's strangest and most intriguing districts.

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(1) ESPOSIZIONE UNIVERSALE ROMA 1942

(2) ON THE GROUND IN E.42 TODAY

(3) A CALL FROM BEYOND?

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Mussolini's Museum of Roman ... what exactly???

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(1) CIVILITÀ

(2) THE AUGUSTUS THING

(3) IT'S ALL THERE...

(4) CAESAR WHO? (Part One)

(5) CAESAR WHO? (Part Two)

(6) "CAESAR WHO" UNCAGED

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In Rome, Strength through Joy... then and now.

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Rome: Skateboard vs. Fasces in Mussolini's Foro Italico.

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