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Fascists or Clowns?
Italy remembers its proud past with names on streets and busts in the piazzas. Streets are named for poets, composers, liberators, historical dates (XX Septembre), Communist thinkers (Antonio Gramsci), Machiavelli, and even Sacco and Vanzetti, the Italian-American anarchists executed by… Continue reading
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World-Wide Worry (and Work-Around)
In our balanced Constitutional system, the fifty states of the United States are said to be “experimental laboratories” of democracy. But a single state has limited authority to experiment with regulating internet networks. California is trying it with its Consumer Privacy… Continue reading
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A Christmas Carol
Christmas in a land with a foreign language, far from home, can be a special experience. An inspiration came to me like a morning star in the darkness. We could play Christmas carols, a universal language in Italy, on our… Continue reading
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By the Sea
It’s time to talk food and drink. This is Italy, after all. I’ll introduce you to one local dish and one high-octane Fanese coffee drink. Both relate to the Adriatic fishing that has been the lifeblood of Fano since before… Continue reading
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With Us
Huge old echo-y churches are all around. In the historic districts in the heart of Italian cities, where cars are virtually banned, you walk into dim sanctuaries that hold you in a silent awe. There’s some kind of awesome mystery… Continue reading
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Around the world at the speed of light: Marconi, part II
The boy who had it all . . . wanted more. The young Gulielmo Marconi, living with his wealthy family in an Italian villa amid green pastures and woods, dreamed of bringing countries together. This was in the 1890s. The… Continue reading
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Looking for Marconi
Before “wireless” meant a Wi-Fi router in your home or office (the “Wi” is for wireless), it meant “radio” in radio’s early days, in the 1920s. “Turn on the wireless, Sweetie.” And before that, it was the word that a… Continue reading
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Portichi di Bologna
Bologna feels old, older than Florence. A mere 37-minute train ride from the touristy Florence, Bologna had its heyday a couple of centuries before the Renaissance. But arriving in Bologna from the U.S. late yesterday, we are swept up by… Continue reading
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Italy as Middle-Earth
Leaving for Italy in four days, we’ll be looking for a world with older layers of time underfoot. We’ll begin in Bologna, which claims the oldest university in the world (started 1088 C.E.). Then to Fano, a much smaller city on the… Continue reading
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Sorrow at Urbino’s Sugar Café
Let’s meet at the Sugar Café. Buongiorno, Giovanni. . . . Buongiorno, my friend. If Giovanni Garbugli was at his café when you arrived, he might be the waiter who brought out your order of coffee, pastries, and salami, with… Continue reading
An American journalist heads for Italy to see his country changing from afar. 