WORTH REPEATING

There is no beginning, there is no end, there is only the infinite passion of life. ~ Federico Fellini

IN THE NEWS 

March 4, 2007 – Telegraph.com - Female Gondolier Turns Tide of Venice’s History
After a 10-year struggle, a German woman has breached one of Italy’s oldest male-only clubs to become Venice’s first female gondolier. Alexandra Hai, 35, cannot sing and she has failed her basic gondola-steering exam three times. Nevertheless, a regional court has ruled that she can ferry guests to three one-star hotels in the city. “We won, we won!” she said yesterday. “I am delighted. It has been my mission. I promise not to wear jeans and I have a beautiful gondola, clean and built according to tradition.” Frau Hai, who moved to Venice from Hamburg 10 years ago, abandoned her plan to become a film-maker when she fell for the charms of the gondola after taking a trip on one through the city’s famous waterways. However, she was up against the 425 male members of the Italian Gondola Association, and the weight of history. Since the beginnings of gondoliering in 1094, there has never been a female, and foreigners are also frowned on. Passing muster involves more than looking good in a striped shirt and a straw hat. After a 150-hour training course, there is a written test on the technical aspects of the boat, and a practical test. In Frau Hai’s case, the test involved steering with a single oar the 500 lb, 35ft gondola about half a mile up and down the narrow Rio del Vin.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/02/wvenice02.xml

March 23, 2007 – Corvallis Gazette Times - Italian Job: Finding Long-Lost Famiglia
This story began in 1928 when my grandmother and her three young children left Asolo, a tiny village in northern Italy, to sail across the Atlantic and eventually join my grandfather in Chiloquin. My father, Remo, was not part of the family at that time. He arrived in 1930, the last child of Anselmo and Maria Minato, and grew up alongside his older siblings as part of a small but close-knit Italian community in Chiloquin. After hearing both my father’s and my Uncle Feo’s stories of their Italian heritage and upbringing, I determined at a young age that someday I would travel to Italy to find my roots. Someday arrived in 1982 when my husband and I decided to stuff our backpacks and trek through Europe for eight weeks. Our sketchy and flexible itinerary included Asolo. By this time, my Italian grandparents had been dead for nearly two decades, and the contact between the Oregon Minatos and those in Italy had been scant. Undaunted by the odds, I contacted Uncle Feo to get some advice. He gave me some faded photographs taken on a 1955 visit, a few names of relatives (he wasn’t even sure they were still alive), and the name of the nearest train station to Asolo. He also gave me confidence to try.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2007/03/23/news/focus/bfocus12_minato.txt

April 3, 2007 – Post Chronicle - Ancient Village Restored In Italy
An ancient Etruscan city, where iron was produced thousands of years ago, has been restored and is open to visitors on the Italian coast. Populonia produced iron from mines on the island of Elba and visitors to the $4 million restoration can see how it was done, ANSA, the Italian news agency, reported. “Iron was produced on an industrial scale here,” local expert Massimo Zucconi told ANSA.
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_21272892.shtml

April 3, 2007 – NY Times (NY, NY) - DNA Boosts Herodotus’ Account of Etruscans as Migrants to Italy
Geneticists have added an edge to a 2,500-year-old debate over the origin of the Etruscans, a people whose brilliant and mysterious civilization dominated northwestern Italy for centuries until the rise of the Roman republic in 510 BC. Several new findings support a view held by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, but unpopular among archaeologists, that the Etruscans originally migrated to Italy from the Near East. Though Roman historians played down their debt to the Etruscans, Etruscan culture permeated Roman art, architecture and religion. The Etruscans were master metallurgists and skillful seafarers who for a time dominated much of the Mediterranean. They enjoyed free social relations, much remarked on by ancient historians of other cultures. “Sharing wives is an established Etruscan custom,” wrote the Greek historian Theopompos of Chios in the 4th century BC. “Etruscan women take particular care of their bodies and exercise often. It is not a disgrace for them to be seen naked. Further, they dine not with their own husbands, but with any men who happen to be present.” He added that Etruscan women “are also expert drinkers and are very good looking.” Etruscan culture was very advanced and very different from other Italian cultures of the time. But most archaeologists have seen a thorough continuity between a local Italian culture known as the Villanovan that emerged around 900 BC and the Etruscan culture, which began in 800 BC.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/science/03etruscan.html?ex=1176782400&en=c9c70938ec3e5f9a&ei=5070

April 4, 2007 – Associate Press (Rome, Italy) - Ancient Whale Fossil Discovered in Italy
Italian researchers have excavated the skeleton of a 4 million-year-old whale in the Tuscan countryside, a discovery that could help reconstruct the prehistoric environment of the sea that once covered the region, officials said. The 33-foot skeleton, dating to the Pliocene epoch, was found in almost perfect order, with only the jaw bones out of place, said paleontologists with the Museum of Natural History in Florence. Nearly all of Italy was once under water, and it is not unusual to find cetacean fossils in Tuscany. But the whale skeleton’s discovery, about 6 miles east of the Mediterranean, was extraordinary because it was almost complete, and a wealth of organisms was found around it, officials said. “The finding is spectacular,” said Elisabetta Cioppi, the head of the museum’s paleontology department and coordinator of the excavation. “The variety of the sea organisms associated with the whale — shells, fish and others — is extraordinary. It enables us to make a thorough reconstruction of the environment,” she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. Fish and other sea organisms are believed to have lived off the whale’s decomposing body for decades. Cioppi said researchers are cataloging the organisms for lab research.
For the complete story visit the following site:
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=346230&Category=24&subCategoryID=

April 4, 2007 – PR Web (Rome, Italy) - Sutri.net First Portal of Lazio in Italy
Now is born www.sutri.net, the first portal of the Lazio area near Rome in Italy. All the information about where to sleep, where to eat, where to find the millenarian history of the Etruscans and the Roman Empire. There is an area in Italy unknown by all the lovers of the “Bel paese” that is something unique, better than the famous Tuscany and Florence or Umbria or Venice: this area is named Tuscia, in the north part of Lazio, the region of Rome. Now, the first portal all about the tourism in that area is born. It is also possible to find a complete guide of the handicraft in the places where it is still possible to find the real Italian handmade. An interesting section is dedicated to the real estate of this area. Here, it is possible to still find sumptuous Italian villas or “casali” at low prices: a real opportunity of investment or a chance to change one’s own life. This is a unique opportunity to discover a new charming place very close to the Eternal City.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/4/prweb515929.htm

April 5, 2007 – Sault Star (Canada) – Nonna’s words of wisdom; Grandmother taught valuable lessons
Emma Naccarato stood nervously waiting at a Halifax dock in 1963. She carried with her letters written to her by Domenico Iuliano during the past two years. She would finally meet the man she would marry in less than 30 days to meet Canadian immigration laws. Naccarato recalled vivid memories of her own voyage from Italy to Canada in 1958. She settled in Sault Ste. Marie and worked at Muio’s Restaurant. “Emmiche, non sta con le mani entre les sache.” (“Emma, don't stand around with your hands in your pockets.”) My nonna, proud of her heritage, incorporated the Italian culture into my daily life. Whether it was making sopresata (salami), pomodori (tomato sauce), crushed olives or wine, I was always helping with my own two hands. My nonna cared for me when my parents worked. I loved coming home to the amazing aroma of my favorite snacks. I can still remember going to a restaurant and crying because my favorite snack, pane e sugo (bread dipped in fresh tomato sauce) wasn’t on the menu. At age four, I knew more Italian than I did English. I’d often translate for others. My nonna taught me to be proud of my culture and to enjoy every aspect of it.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.saultstar.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=476098&catname=Local%20News&classif=

April 5, 2007 – Middle East Times (Athens, Greece) - Archaeologists on Greek Island Uncover Ancient Tomb
Greek archaeologists have uncovered an intact tomb and what was likely a Roman theater on the Ionian Sea island of Cephalonia, the culture ministry announced. The findings include a space of about eight meters long and six meters wide (26 feet by 20 feet) with a vaulted tomb, a stone coffin, and two funeral vases, among other items, the ministry said. The front of the tomb is “particularly interesting,” according to the ministry, with a stone door with two bolts that opens normally. The vases in the tomb are made of glass and ceramic. There were also gold rings and earrings, copper keys, and coins. At another section of the searched property, archaeologists found what looks to have been a theater. Further digging will occur to better identify the monument, the ministry said. The part of the supposed theater already uncovered includes an orchestra section and four rows of terraces. It is the first of its kind to be discovered on a Greek island in the Ionian Sea that separates Greece from Italy, according to the ministry. It is similar to theaters found in Ambracia in western Greece and Alexandria in Egypt. Fiskardo, the village on the island where the discoveries were made, was an important maritime port in the ancient world between Italy and Greece.
http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070405-071737-1923r

April 6, 2007 – Zip2it.com - Italian Filmmaker Comencini Dies
Luigi Comencini, a postwar filmmaker known as the “children's director” for his films examining childhood, has died. He was 90. The director died Friday, April 6, after a long illness, says his family, according to international news sources. Comencini was a “maestro, one of the great and unforgettable directors in the history of cinema,” said Rome’s mayor Walter Veltroni in a statement. “Thanks to him, we smiled and laughed about ourselves. More than anything else, we loved his intense and delicate way of looking at the world of children.” Comencini was born in the northern Italian town of Salo in June 1916 and first dipped his toe in the world of showbiz as a newspaper film critic. In 1946, he made his screen debut with the documentary “Bambini in Citta” (“Children in the City”). Over the course of his 44-year career, he directed more than 40 films, including the 1953 romantic comedy “Pane, Amore e Fantasia” (“Bread, Love and Dreams”) starring Gina Lollobrigida and Vittorio De Sica. The film earned an Oscar nomination and snagged the Berlin International Film Festival's Silver Bear award. Comencini is also known for “Incompreso” (“Misunderstood”) about a boy dealing with his mother’s death and the popular “La Avventure di Pinocchio” (“The Adventures of Pinocchio”) for TV.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/zap-luigicomenciniobit,0,4507439.story?coll=zap-news-headlines

April 8, 2007 – DNAindia (Mumbai) - The Italian who ‘discovered’ money, but died a pauper
“Just after four o’clock, Ponzi wandered outside to buy the afternoon papers, generously tipping the first newsboy he came across. As he did, someone in the crowd yelled, “You’re the greatest Italian in history!” “No,” Ponzi answered with a laugh. “I am the third greatest. Christopher Columbus discovered America and Marconi discovered the wireless.” The fan cried out, “You discovered money!” These lines from Mitchell Zuckoff’s book, Ponzi’s Scheme, The True Story of a Financial Legend, point to the popularity Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant into the United States. On November 3, 1903, Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi boarded the SS Vancouver, bound for Boston. He survived doing odd jobs around in the US and Canada, was jailed a couple of times and changed his name to a more American sounding Charles. After a series of jobs, Ponzi started “Charles Ponzi, export and import” with the plan of working as a commission agent for companies who were hoping to do some international trading. But there was a slight problem - Ponzi did not have any contacts. “To attract business, Ponzi thought about printing circulars and sending blanket mailings to potential clients. But that would cost him a nickel per circular for domestic companies and eight cents each for international firms. Ponzi realized he would be wiped out by mailing fees before he collected his first commission. Instead, he decided to advertise in foreign trade magazines, but again he was stymied by the cost,” writes Zuckoff.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1089611

April 9, 2007 – Swans (Menlo Park, CA) – The Day of the ‘Cello’
To judge from the etymology of the Italian names of our modern string instruments the ‘cello was the last to appear on the scene during the process of those instruments’ invention in Italy 500 years ago. Surprisingly enough, in view of musicians’ propensity down through the centuries, even today, to joke about its practitioners, the viola seems to have come first (Spanish = vihuela), since the Italian name for the smallest member of the family is violino or “little viola,”; in English, the “violin.” Along with the violino came the violoneor “big viola,” what we call the “double bass.” Or what we would call the double bass if that instrument had actually stuck around. The ancient double bass carried the shape of the viola/violin but proved too large for practical use. What we now usually call and know as the double bass is actually a descendant, in shape and size at least, of the gamba family. The gamba family existed for centuries beside the violin family. Gambas were strung in a different way, and their members also came in various sizes. But by the end of the 18th century these instruments’ watery and insubstantial tone had relegated them to the curio cabinet of the fading rococo, only to be resurrected in our own day for period performances. But the largest stand-on-the-floor member of the family, with its cutaway sloping upper back and drooping shoulders, proved favorable for evolving into the modern double bass.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.swans.com/library/art13/saslav02.html

April 10, 2007 – TheAge.com.au - Italian Villagers Battle NY Museum Over Ancient War Chariot
A small mountain village in Umbria is fighting New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for the ownership of a 2600-year-old Etruscan war chariot. The Met intends to make the carefully restored bronze war chariot, which dates from 530 BC, the star attraction of its $US155 million Leon Levy and Shelby White Court, part of a new wing that is set to open on April 20. The villagers of Monteleone di Spoleto, population 651, are determined to claim it back. For the past decade, the Met has been carefully restoring the chariot, said to be the only intact Etruscan chariot ever found, to its former glory. The three panels of the vehicle show scenes from the life of Achilles, the Greek hero. “It would have been a very special object for the Etruscans, the Rolls-Royce of their time,” said Joan Mertens, from the museum’s archaeology department. The museum had bought the chariot “in good faith,” although he admitted that since it has been in their collection for more than 100 years there were no papers to prove its provenance. The villagers say the chariot was taken out of Italy illegally, and have been encouraged by a Government campaign to retrieve antiquities from abroad.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/italian-villagers-battle-new-york-museum-over-ancient-war-chariot/2007/04/09/1175971016050.html

April 11, 2007 – European Jewish Press (Turin, Italy) - Italy, Remembers Primo Levi, Auschwitz Survivor
A panoply of events kick off this week in the northern Italian city of Turin in memory of Primo Levi, an Auschwitz survivor who wrote powerful memoirs, fiction and poetry and wound up taking his own life. His death 20 years ago Wednesday at age 67 came more than 40 years after his return from the death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Levi’s “If This Is a Man” (published in the United States as “Survival in Auschwitz”), considered a Holocaust classic in many school curriculums, was published in Italy in 1947 just after his return from Auschwitz. The book has since been translated into some 30 languages, and about 200,000 copies a year are still sold in Italy alone. Ironically, Einaudi, a major publisher in Levi’s native Turin, initially rejected the manuscript, which was first published by a small house that printed only 1,500 copies.
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.ejpress.org/article/15770

April 11, 2007 – Herald Tribune (Venice, Italy) - In Venice, a Landmark Clock Returns to Action
During its great days the Serenissima, the Most Serene Venetian Republic, seldom stinted in matters of civic self-celebration: witness the Torre dell’Orologio, in Piazza San Marco, one of the most architecturally and mechanically complex tower clocks ever constructed. Unveiled on Feb. 1, 1499, amid general rejoicing, it was described by Marin Sanudo, a contemporary diarist, as “made with great skill, and very beautiful.” Having shown and struck the hours more or less continuously for nearly half a millennium, the clock tower was closed in 1997 for extensive restoration, partly financed by the Swiss watchmakers Piaget. This proved more lengthy than expected, but the clock is now in full working order again. Small groups (book in advance) can view its fascinating interior, and enjoy a 360-degree panoramic view of the city from the roof, where two bronze "Moors" - bearded, half-naked, larger-than-life automatons wielding huge hammers - mark the hours by striking the bell that crowns the edifice. “The mechanisms of these clocks are works of art in themselves, but it is only now that this is coming to be appreciated once again in Italy.”
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/10/news/rwvenice~13129.php

THE JOHN D. CALANDRA ITALIAN AMERICAN INSTITUTE

The most comprehensive listing of Italian and Italian American events for New York can be viewed at: http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/calandra/community/commcal.html

LEGISLATION UPDATE

H.R.1609
Title: To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Constantino Brumidi.
Sponsor: Rep Pascrell, Bill, Jr. [NJ-8] (introduced 3/20/2007). Latest Major Action: 3/20/2007 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
Cosponsors (21): Rep Bilirakis, Gus M.: Rep Blumenauer, Earl; Rep Bordallo, Madeleine Z.; Rep Brown, Corrine; Rep Brown, Henry E., Jr.; Rep Carnahan, Russ; Rep Cohen, Steve; Rep Hare, Phil; Rep Holt, Rush D.; Rep Israel, Steve; Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila; Rep Lamborn, Doug; Rep Maloney, Carolyn B.; Rep Matsui, Doris O.; Rep McCotter, Thaddeus G.; Rep Mica, John L.; Rep Moran, James P.; Rep Renzi, Rick; Rep Sarbanes, John P.; Rep Shays, Christopher; and, Rep Space, Zachary T.
Nota: If your congressional representative is not listed, please contact him/her and ask for their support of this important legislation. Grazie millie.

RUDY RATTLES SOME WITH VITO CORLEONE’S VOICE

By Craig Gordon, Newsday – April 6, 2007

     Rudolph Giuliani launched into a California campaign speech recently with an opening line the crowd surely didn’t expect -- his husky-voiced impersonation of Don Corleone in “The Godfather.”
     “Thank youse all very much for invitin’ me here tuh-day, to this meeting of the families from different parts’a California,” Giuliani said, recycling his old New York gag to laughter and scattered applause.
     Then this week, Giuliani used the reference again, invoking the mob’s code of honor to explain why reporters should lay off his wife. “I am a candidate. She’s a civilian, to use the old Mafia distinction,” he said.
     Other Italian-American politicians have shunned references to organized crime, fearful of being tarred unfairly by anti-Italian stereotyping. Not Giuliani, who has in the past embraced such talk to remind voters he helped bust up the New York mob as a federal prosecutor. Plus, he’s an unabashed “Godfather” fan.
     But some political analysts are puzzled why a man seeking to become the first Italian-American president would dabble so blithely with the darkest stereotypes of his heritage, especially before voters really get to know him.
     And a leader in the nation’s largest Italian-American organization said Thursday that Giuliani should drop his Corleone impersonations because they are insensitive to Italian-Americans trying to dispel the linkages between being Italian and being in the mob.
     “It’s unfortunate for him to make light of a stereotype that creates a lot of discomfort for millions of other Italian-Americans,” said Dona De Sanctis of the Order Sons of Italy in America. “We would hope that Mr. Giuliani would try to find humor in other aspects of his candidacy rather than his Italian heritage that way.”
     “We don’t think it’s funny,” she said of such jokes. “We stopped laughing a long time ago.”
     Giuliani’s campaign Thursday night issued a statement that did not address the Sons of Italy directly. “Mayor Giuliani is proud of his Italian heritage and has a record celebrating the country’s culture and the important contributions Italian-Americans have made to New York City and the United States.”
     Giuliani’s comments didn’t bother Joseph Scelsa, president of the Italian American Museum in New York and the Coalition of Italian American Associations. He called himself a Giuliani supporter and said the mob references were “in jest. ... He’s done more to advance the image of Italian-Americans.”
     So far, Giuliani’s heritage -- he is the grandson of Italian immigrants -- has not been in an issue in the campaign, seemingly because so many Americans already know him and his record in New York City and on 9/11.
     But the Marlon Brando impersonation has been a longtime favorite of Giuliani’s, including from his days giving paid motivational speeches. One real-estate Web site quoted him at a March 2006 convention appearance, saying in the Brando voice, “Welcome to Las Vegas -- a city which we used to own.”
     In the February appearance in California, Giuliani told the crowd he opened with the impersonation because he listened to 2,000 hours of men on tape talking that way to carry out his groundbreaking mob prosecutions in the “Pizza Connection” case and others. Plus, it’s important to have a “sense of humor” about such things, he said.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usrudy0406,0,3411630.story?coll=ny-top-headlines

PROVERBO ITALIANO

Spesso sotto vili pani molta sagezza si nasconde.  Under a ragged coat lies wisdom.

LEST WE FORGET

In 1896, Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, arguing that the nation was accepting “strange peoples from strange lands,” introduced a bill that mandated newcomers be literate in their own language. Lodge said in the Senate: “[T]here is a limit to the capacity of any race for assimilating and elevating an inferior race and when you begin to pour in unlimited numbers of people of alien and lower races of less social efficiency and less moral force you are running the most frightful risk that a people can run. The lowering of a great race means not only its decline, but that of civilization.”

SEGMENTS ACROSS THE SEAS

                                  By Professor Silvia Montemurro

                        Nestled softly within each seed

                                    a memory of planting fields;

                        Shafts of wheat spiraling to and

                                    fro in a sunkissed dance;

                        There before me the farms of Italy

                                    vibrant in my aerial descent.

                        To touch the sanctity of this ground

                                    endlessly toiled by laboring hands.

                        Sprinkled soil of countless generations

                                    energized with kismet of volcanic ash.

                        Each box of pasta holds connectives to the past!

 
REDISCOVERING AMERICA

By Kat Piper, Epoch Times (Melbourne, Australia) – April 13, 2007

     In 1499 the first North American Christian church was built in Newfoundland by an Italian Augustinian friar, according to the "revolutionary claims" of a former English historian.
     Dr. Alwyn Ruddock of Birkbeck College, University of London, spent 40 years researching the little known sea voyages of John Cabot, an Italian contemporary of Christopher Columbus. But before Dr. Ruddock died in December 2005, aged 89, she ordered that on her death all her research be destroyed.
     A 1992 book proposal and correspondence with the intended publisher, University of Exeter Press, are all that remain of her extraordinary work, says Dr. Ewan Jones of Bristol University in the most recent issue of Historical Review.
     In 1497 and 1498, under the charter of King Henry VII of England, Mr. Cabot set sail from Bristol in search of a trade route to Asia. What he found was North America. In her book Dr. Ruddock planned to reveal documents, some found in private libraries, detailing the voyages and Mr. Cabot's association with the influential Italian Friar Giovanni Antonio de Carbonariis.
     According to Dr. Ruddock's research, Mr. Cabot is said to have sailed south down the east coast of America claiming it for England as far as the Spanish Caribbean.
Meanwhile, Friar Giovanni had landed in Newfoundland where he established a settlement and built a church named after the Augustinian Church of San Giovanni a Carbonara in Naples.
     "If Ruddock is right, it means that the remains of the only medieval church in North America may still lie buried under the modern town of Carbonear," said Dr Jones.
The oldest surviving church of English foundation in North America today is the Gothic St Luke's Church in Virginia, built in 1632.
     On his return to England in 1500, Mr. Cabot's achievements, which included the longest coastal voyage in the New World at the time, were not publicized, and he died four months later.
     Dr. Jones has stressed that the amount of supporting evidence for Dr. Ruddock's claims is not known and may yet prove to be incorrect. He has called for scholars to take up the challenge to either verify or disprove the claims, which he says could rewrite the history of the European discovery of America.
     However, the mystery of why Dr. Ruddock wanted her research destroyed may never be solved. Dr. Jones speculates that her high standards, dislike of posthumous publication, and "great sense of possession she felt for her work" may have lead her to take her findings to the grave.
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-4-13/53992.html

WHY STUDY ITALIAN?

• A knowledge of Italian is important for people in business, the arts, technology and many professions. It also is useful for high school and college students planning careers in art history, music, linguistics, education and international relations.
• Students preparing for the SATs who have studied Italian tend to score higher on vocabulary and grammar. The reason is simple: Italian developed from Latin and an estimated 60 percent of English vocabulary comes directly from Latin.
• Italian is in fact the Romance language closest to Latin. A knowledge of Italian, therefore, will go far in helping one to understand the whys and wherefores of the English language, which has a very large percentage of words of Latin derivation.
• Italian is also the language closest to English (Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, 1987). Italian will therefore serve to enrich our students’ knowledge of English vocabulary since it contains many cognates and roots that resonate with familiarity.
• Italian is the language having the “best phonetic fit.” It is the easiest foreign language to read, write, and pronounce because there is only one sound per letter of the alphabet (and four consonant blends). For young learners, the easier the language, the better. Italian will not compete with the learning of English, it will enhance the learning of English.
• It is much easier for dyslexics to learn to read in languages where there is a one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds. In Italian, dyslexics have a far easier time than in English or French. Dyslexics are rare in Italy.
• Italian is the fourth most frequently spoken foreign language in U.S. homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (2000). Italian also is spoken in Switzerland, parts of Africa, the Balkans, and the island of Malta.
• Italy is one of the top seven economies in the world and is a member of the G7 Group of the wealthiest democracies of the world.
• An estimated 7,500 American companies do business with Italy and more than 1,000 U.S. firms have offices in Italy including IBM, General Electric, Motorola, City Bank and Price Waterhouse.
• Italy is a world leader in tool manufacturing, with advanced technologies in robotics, electromagnetic machinery, shipbuilding, space engineering, construction machinery and transportation equipment.
• Italy’s economy is changing: state-owned companies are becoming privatized, opening up the Italian market to American companies and professionals in aerospace, transportation, insurance, finance, shipping, telecommunications and other commerce.
• With the Italian market opening, American companies alike AT&T and IBM will be establishing ties with Italian companies in the areas of Cable TV, international cellular telephone systems, the Internet and more, and will need employees who speak Italian and English.
• American companies expanding in Italy have a great demand for software designers, systems engineers, technical support, marketers and managers who speak Italian and English.
• Italy is a world leader in the culinary arts, interior design, fashion, graphic design, furniture design, etc. Those planning careers in such fields greatly benefit from knowing Italian.
• Italy has long been a magnet for the tourism industry. In 2004 Italy headed the list of foreign destinations for vacation travel in Europe. Travel and tourism products in Italy increased by 339% in Italy in 2004 compared to 2003 when it grew 113%. This compared with the European average of 60%.
• Italy is one of the most popular countries in the world to migrate to. In the decade 1989-1999, Italy's foreign population more than trebled from 490,000 to 1,500,000.
• Young Americans who want to be physicians, dentists and veterinarians, but who cannot afford tuition a American schools can study at Italian universities for a fraction of the cost. Their degrees are valid in the U.S.
• Art historians need Italian. According to UNESCO (the cultural and educational agency for the United Nations), over 60 percent of the entire world’s art treasures are found in Italy.
http://www.ritornello.com/whyit.html

APRIL ALMANAC
Italic Institute of America

April 8 - Jurist Pasquale Fiore is born in 1837. His expertise and writings about international law had a profound influence on the legal systems of all Latin countries in Europe and the Americas.
April 9 - British engineer Sebastian Ferranti is born in 1864. He promoted and oversaw the development of England's AC power grid.
- Enrico Tonti and Robert LaSalle reach the mouth of the Mississippi River in 1682. LaSalle was later murdered by his French crew. Thereafter, Tonti spent 25 years developing middle America which eventually was sold to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase.
April 11 - Italian military aviator Renato Donati sets the high altitude record of 47,352 feet in 1934.
April 13 - Italian-American inventor Antonio Meucci is born in 1808. Living in Staten Island, NY, Meucci files the first papers for his teletrofono (telephone) five years before Alexander Graham Bell.
April 14 - Topo Gigio, the Italian mouse, premieres on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
April 16 - Composer Henry Mancini is born in 1924. His hits included the Pink Panther Theme, Moon River, Days of Wine and Roses.
- Italian monk Giovanni Francesco Bernardone founds the Franciscan Order in 1209.
April 17 - Giovanni da Verrazzano is the first European to enter New York Harbor in 1524, eighty five years before Henry Hudson.
April 21 - The city of Rome is founded in 753 B.C. She later became the creator of the nation-state of Italy.
April 25 - Inventor of wireless telegraphy, Guglielmo Marconi, is born in Bologna in 1874.
April 26 - Italy signs the Secret Treaty of London in 1915 in which France and Britain promised Italy overseas colonies in return for its participation in the First World War. The Allies reneged on the pledge even after Italy defeated Austria-Hungary and lost 600,000 servicemen.
April 27 - Heavyweight boxer Rocky Marciano retires undefeated in 1956.
April 30 - Freedom fighter Romolo Gessi is born in 1831. This soldier/explorer led numerous expeditions for the British in Africa freeing 30,000 slaves from bondage.
http://www.italic.org/

UPCOMING EVENTS

April 17, 2007 - Cellini Lodge #2206 presents “The Allure & Mystique of Olive Oil - Educational Olive Oil Tasting.” An event to benefit the Garibaldi Meucci Museum. 7:30 PM. Marcus Christ Community Hall, New Hyde Park Road & Jericho Turnpike. Presented by Michéal Castaldo. Wine & cheese served. Donation: $8 for OSIA member $12 for all other guests. Call & Reserve Your Ticket: (516) 935-5084.
April 20, 2007 – Garibaldi Meucci Museum presents a new art exhibit, Not Paved With Gold, photographs by documentary photographer Vincenzo Pietropaolo. A free wine and cheese opening reception at 7 PM. For more information contact the Museum at (718) 442-1608.
April 20, 2007 - Dr. Salvatore LaGumina, Professor Emeritus of History and Director of the NCC Center for Italian American Studies, will lecture on the topic of “Italian American Catholics During World War II.” Dr. LaGumina’s talk is based on his most recent volume, The Humble and the Heroic (Cambria Press, 2006). Nassau Community college, Room CCB 252-3, 7 PM. There will be coffee and cake/cookies available.
April 21, 2007 – Centennial Lodge #2828 presents a Venetian Masquerade Ball at SPQR Restaurant, 133 Mulberry St., Manhattan. 8 PM. $65 pp. Preferably in costume and mask. Contact: osiacentennial@aol.com
For reservations and information.
April 22, 2007 – Garibaldi Meucci Museum presents Anita Garibaldi, great-granddaughter, of Giuseppe Garibaldi, who will lecture and share valuable stories of her great-grandfather’s life. 2 PM. For more information contact the Museum at (718) 442-1608.
April 22, 2007 – Annual Grand Lodge Bowling Tournament at Farmingdale Lanes, 999 Conklin Street, Farmingdale. 10 AM. $17 pp. Contact: Keith Wilson, (516) 633-1435 or Armand Vella, (631) 271-7926.
April 27, 2007 – 25^th Anniversary Golden Lion Awards Dinner at the Garden City Hotel. Contact: Eileen Marie Stavis at (516) 785-4623.
April 28, 2007 – Spring Plenary Session hosted by Cellini Lodge #2206, New Hyde Park. Contact: Eileen Marie Stavis at (516) 785-4623.
May 5, 2007 – 10^th Annual Grand Lodge Foundation Walk-A-Thon at Eisenhower Park. 8:30 AM, Parking Field #1. Contact: Dan Colantone at (516) 799-6804.
May 6, 2006 – A Special Tribute in Honor of New York State First Lady Madeline Matteucci at Chateau Briand, Carle Place. Breakfast at 9 AM. Contact: Carol DiTrapani at (516) 791-5261.
May 20, 2007 – CSJ/B’nai B’rith Solidarity Breakfast at the Coral House, Baldwin. Contact: Richard Haemmerle at (516) 731-1811 or Marge Moschella at (516) 249-2879.
June 2, 2007 – NYSOSIA Scholarship Program to be held at the VFW Post 2973, 16 Ramapo Avenue, Suffern, NY. 9:30 AM. $20 pp. Contact: Michele Ment, (845) 225-1144.
June 7-10, 2007 – 101^st Annual NYSOSIA State Convention at the Holiday Inn, Albany. More information to follow. Contact: Rae Lanzilotta at (516) 334-0830.
June 15, 2007 – Garibaldi Meucci Museum presents a Wine Tasting Event on Il Grande Prato. 6:30 PM. For more information contact the Museum at (718) 442-1608.
June 16, 2006 - Common Ground Summer Series in Sayville, LI, NY. Vital Records Recording Artist Michéal Castaldo performs the timeless and classic Italian songs from his critically acclaimed CD ‘Villa.’ 8:30 PM. Rotary Park, between Candee and Gillette Avenues. Bring a blanket, a picnic basket and folding chairs. For more information: www.michealcastaldo.com
June 21, 2007 – 102^nd OSIA Anniversary Wreath Laying Ceremony with Dinner to follow at SPQR Restaurant, Little Italy, Manhattan. More information to follow. Contact: Sylvia Summa, (718) 384-7915 or John Fratta, (212) 619-0602.
June 25, 2007 – Italian Night at the Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre, Eisenhower Park, East Meadow. More information to follow. Contact: Carolyn Reres, (516) 358-5010.
September 30, 2007 – Garibaldi Meucci Museum Brunch at George Washington Manor, Old Northern Boulevard, Roslyn. 10:30 AM. $55 pp. Contact: Connie Conte at (516) 794-1089.
October 7, 2007 – District I and II Columbus Day Parade. More information to follow. Contact: Roy Perticone, (631) 242-5492.
October 28, 2007 – Loggia Glen Cove #1016 presents Tracing Italian American Immigrant History. Glen Cove Public Library. 2:30 PM. Contact: Kathryn Grande, (516) 676-7436.
November 4, 2007 – Gift of Sight Annual Fund Raiser Luncheon at the Immaculate Conception Center, Douglaston, 1 PM. Contact: Angelo Ferrara, (516) 328-3165.
 

Nota del Redattore:

• The Italian Heritage & Culture Committee will send out a weekly news synopsis of articles and announcements of interest which compliment the Italian and Italian American Experience in America. Our sister and brother members are urged to submit items of interest.
• This report is available online at: http://www.nysosia.org/heritage.asp

Respectfully submitted:
Robert Necci
Coordinator - Italian Education, Culture & Language Committee
Chair – Italian Heritage & Culture Committee
2101 Bellmore Avenue
Bellmore, NY 11710-5605
CultureNYSOSIA@optonline.net

ITALIAN CULTURE, HERITAGE and EDUCATION

To promote, preserve, and support our Italian culture, heritage, and language by implementingthis element of the Order in our parades, functions, meetings, and conventions.