Dear Readers,
A May mix of Italian Connections: Airlines, both in the U.S. and Italy, have not been fiscally flying high the last few years, so in Italy they have been “working on the railroad.” High-speed “bullet trains” will soon be bringing high-speed service to most of Northern and Central Italy. Work is proceeding on Milano-Bologna high-speed tracks and should be completed by the end of this year.
The cost will be approximately $13 billion U.S. dollars (6.9 billion euro.) The construction started in the year 2000. The Milano-Bologna section is 182 km (102 miles.) A new station is being built at Reggio Emilia. Experts anticipate that in the first year of operation, 64 high velocity capacity trains will connect Milano and Bologna non-stop in one hour, as compared to 1.42 hrs presently. By the year 2010 the number of trains will increase. The new high-velocity trains will run on four new lines by 2011.
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Anderson - Abruzzo International Balloon Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is worth a visit if you are in the area. Abruzzo, as you may recall, is Ben Abruzzo (1930-1985), an American businessman and hot air balloonist who helped place Albuquerque, N.M. on the map as the balloon capital of the world. Born in Rockford, Illinois, he attended the University of Illinois and upon graduation in 1952, he joined the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico and adopted New Mexico as his home state after leaving the U.S. Air Force.
Abruzzo took an interest in hot air ballooning. He was on the crew of the Double Eagle I in 1977 and many believed the Double Eagle I would become the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, Abruzzo suffered exposure and frostbite over Iceland and was forced to abandon the attempt. Ben Abruzzo with Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman, made a second attempt in 1978, Double Eagle II.
The team took off from Presque Isle, Maine on August 11 and made a successful landing in Miserey, France, six days later. For their efforts, the team was finally awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1979. Abruzzo was also on the Double Eagle V (1981), the first team to cross the Pacific Ocean in a gas balloon. Abruzzo died a few years later in 1985, when his private plane crashed near Albuquerque.
His name lives on in the new Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum in Albuquerque. His son, Richard, also a noted balloonist, continues to fly today. The Museum, built with a combination of public and private funds will continue to keep Albuquerque on the map as the balloon capital of the world and during the ten-day Balloon Fiesta, tourists will pump over $70 million dollars into the city. The Anderson family originally came up with the Museum idea, in the 1980’s after an accident took Maxie’s life. The Maxie Anderson Foundation was set up with Ben Abruzzo involved in the project until his death, in 1985.
Louis Abruzzo stepped in and took over his father’s place on the foundation’s board. Louis Abruzzo has a license to fly balloons, though he is not actively doing it any more. He has flown both fixed wing aircrafts and hang gliders for over 25 years. His young brother, Richard, who “followed dad’s footsteps” in long distance ballooning, flew in the Chrysler Gas race across the Atlantic, and was involved with an around-the-world flight.
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Achille Gaggia, born in Milano, Italy in 1895, is the man to whom those who enjoy an espresso or cappuccino owe a debt of gratitude, for it was Gaggia who invented the modern day espresso machine. Achille worked at a coffee bar in Milano, on via Premuda, after school. The coffee machines, at that time, were tall cylinders that, like a circus calliope, would blow out jets of steam. Achille did not like the burnt taste of the coffee these machines made.
By 1938, trying to improve the taste, he devised a model that used a separate heat exchanger to avoid forcing steam through the coffee. A lever was spring-loaded and when pulled down allowed the proper amount of water to enter a chamber. When the lever was released, the spring forced the hot water through the coffee in the filter holder at the required pressure. Achille’s model worked and the good coffee with its small creamy cap was a big hit. World War II interrupted his work, but after the war he returned to making machines. By 1946 Gaggias were rectangular.
No longer tall and cylindrical, the steam generated was for making cappuccino and was able to operate with gas or electricity. In 1938 Gaggia had patented the first electric motor pump system for an espresso machine. This provided a consistent pressure for forcing the water, not steam, through the coffee.
Demand for this coffee maker grew and Gaggia decided to open his own company and manufacture them for the home as well as bars. In 1952 Gaggia introduced the Modello Gaggia Gilda, named after the character played by Rita Hayworth in the motion picture film “Gilda”. Achille Gaggia died in 1961, but the leading manufacturer of home espresso machines in Italy to this day is Gaggia.
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Avian “Birds of a Feather” or those temporarily grounded can recuperate on the grounds of King Ferdinand IV former hunting lodge in Ficuzza, near Palermo, at a large park complex and bird refuge where for over two decades volunteers have helped care for wounded birds, at Centro Regionale Recupero Fauna Selvatica.
Most of the volunteers are members of the Italian Bird Protection League (Lega Italiana Protezione Uccelli). The bird sanctuary is overseen by the Azienda Foreste Demaniali della Regione Siciliana.
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St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the Italian Scholastic Doctor, philosopher and major theologian of the Catholic Church was born in the family castle of Roccasecca in the town of Aquino, Italy, near the great abbey of Monte Cassino. Because of his slow, quiet manner, some of his companions called him a “dumb ox” but they soon learned of his genius and popes, kings and scholars sought his advice and wisdom.
He taught at the University of Paris and then traveled and taught in many small towns and villages in Italy. He listed “the seven Deadly Sins” (envy-lust-greed-anger-gluttony-sloth and pride in his writings). They are not listed in the Bible, as many people may think.
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“Arrivederci con allegria”. A young voter stood up at a campaign rally and said “Senator, I wouldn’t vote for you if you were St. Peter.” The Senator looked at the young voter and said “If I were St. Peter, you wouldn’t be in my district.”
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