Dear Readers,
An August assortment of Italian Connections:

Andrea Doria (1468-1560) Genoese admiral and statesman of a family prominent in the history of Genoa started his career as condottiere and in the Italian Wars fought for Francis I of France. In 1528 he had a falling out with Francis and went over with his rival, Emperor Charles V, who had been elected Holy Roman Emperor under the condition that the independence of Genoa be preserved.

He became the virtual dictator of Genoa, however, under the Constitution he imposed, most republican institutions were preserved. He mercilessly suppressed conspiracies against him often penalizing uninvolved or even unborn relatives.

In 1747, Scipione Fieschi fled Italy after plotting against Andrea Doria, and was sentenced in absentia, given a sentence of death for himself and all his descendants to the fifth generation, including great, great grand children not yet born.

Bistro, the Russian word for “hurry up” is said to be the French Restaurants are called “Bistros”. Predating American fast food, Russian soldiers who occupied Paris in 1814, demanding speedy service of their meals, would shout “Bistro”, their word for Presto, Presto.

Covers, in Philately, usually refers to envelops with stamps affixed. Robert Lana, of Stamps News, suggest that a collection of Italian covers can illustrate Italian foreign policy during late 19th century, when the Kingdom of Italy was still consolidating as nation. In those days, national status was often asserted through the activities of a nation’s Navy.

Great Britain virtually defined itself by the success of its fleet, and the German Empire began to challenge Britain for naval supremacy. Italy's geopolitical ambitions motivated the construction and use of a modern navy similar to that of the British.

In 1894, the North African country of Tunisia was semi-independent with the Italians and French vying for influence. Italy considered landing troops in Tunisia and sent a navalsquadron to the area.

An Italian naval cover from Tunisia in 1864 bears a “Squadra Italiana” hand stamp referring to the Italian naval squadron active in Tunisian waters.

Many Italians emigrated to South America in the late 19th century, leading Italy to have an interest on developments there. During the Conselheiro Insurrection (also called the Canudos Rebellion) in Brazil in 1893, Italy sent a naval unit to Brazilian waters to watch over Italian interests.

On a cover mailed Nov. 8, 1893 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Rome. The Italian postmark translates as "Italian Naval Division in America."

In 1900, Italian forces participated in breaking the siege of the foreign legation in Peking during the Boxer Rebellion. On a 1904 postcard sent from China to Livorno, the hand stamp translates as “Royal Italian Naval Unit in China.”

Dominican, Florentine artist, Fra Angelico donated his fee from the sale of a single painting and the tower and choir of the church of St. Domenico. In Fiesole, Italy was built. Fra Angelico (1387-1455) proved to be one of the greatest artist of all time. At the national Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, several of Fra Angelico’s paintings can be seen, among them, The Entombment, The Annunciation and the Rescue of Placidus, but his chief works are in the Monastery of San Marco in Florence. Fra Angelico joined the Dominican order in 1407.

Emperor Hadrian of Rome (76-138) wore a beard to cover a facial scar. The custom was adopted by the people of Rome and by all of Hadrian’s successors on the throne.

Fourteen steps, leading from the orchestra in Roman theaters, were always reserved for the aristocracy. In ancient Rome, the aristocrats proudly identified themselves as belonging to the “Fourteen Steps,” because only the Roman aristocracy was privileged to occupy the first fourteen steps on the outdoor theatres.

Geese were often raised by the ancient Romans and Greeks not for food but to provide feathers for their arrows.

Headquarters of the Knights of Rhodes in Rome, Italy has been inhabited continuously for more than two thousand years.

Italian Commander in Chief of all German Armies, Emmanuele Filiberto (1528-1580) always forged his own weapons and always slept with a sword clutched in his hands.

Impellitteri, Vincent R. (1900-1987) was the hero of my father Vincenzo’s heartfelt God Bless America stories. Vincent Impellitteri, like my father, was the son of a shoemaker. Upon the resignation of the Mayor William O’Dwyer on September 1, 1950, Impellitteri served as Mayor of New York from 1950 50 1953.

Shortly after Impellitteri's appointment, the Brooklyn District Attorney arrested bookie Harry Gross and launched a corruption scandal that ultimately caused nearly 500 Police Officers of all ranks to resign, retire, or be fired. This famous scandal caused Impellitteri to vigorously support the Brooklyn District Attorney, Miles McDonald, and fire everyone who had been associated with former Mayor William O'Dwyer.

Impellitteri had moved with his family to the United States from Sicily as an infant in 1901. In a book, first published in 1955 as “Le parole sono pietre” authored by Carlo Levi, of “Christ stopped at Eboli” fame, Levi made three journeys to Sicily and went to chronicle his travels in three separated essays.

The book was translated into English by Anthony Shuggar and published in 2005 by Hesperus Press Limited, www.hesperuspress.com, as “Words are Stones,” Impressions of Sicily. In 1951, shortly after Vincent Impellitteri became mayor of the City of New York, he and his wife traveled to Italy and the Sicilian village of Isnello, were he was born.

Carlo Levi, who distinguished himself as a doctor, painter, journalist and later in life a Senator, when he won a place in the Italian Senate in 1963 and reelected in 1968, was in Isnello Sicily as a journalist when Impellitteri Mayor of New York came to call. Following are some excerpts of Carlo Levi’s impressions of the 1951 Mayoral visit:

Once the car bearing the Mayor of New York, a handsome grey Pontiac provided for the occasion, had stopped at the entrance to the village of Isnello, and Signor Impellitteri, with his wife, had emerged, to the din of clapping and cheering and - the town band, amidst the thronging glamour of carabinieri, motorcycle escorts, ,reporters, photographers, rubberneckers, mot countless cousins, other relatives, townspeople, peasants, shepherds, women and, really, all the 4,000 inhabitants of Isnello who had turned out to see him the boys of the town immediately crowded around the car, pushing, shoving, and elbowing their way forward to touch it.

“C'mon, let's touch the car,” they shouted, egging one another on, Let's touch the car, so we can leave for America.' The car had only just arrived, and it had already become a relic, a holy and miraculous object.

And so, from the moment he set foot in the village, the journey of Signor Impellitteri was, to the peasants of Isnello, a fairy-tale adventure, a mythological occurrence. His journey became a fairy tale for the people of Isnello, and a fairy tale it will remain, for many years. The fairy tale of birth and Fortune, the fairy tale of America, of the far side of the world.

Signor Impellitteri did everything that was required to conjure this fairy tale into existence: he behaved impeccably. And he was not alone in this; everyone behaved impeccably: peasants, gentlemen, public officials, Christian Democrat parliamentarians, both male and female, Communists, priests, relatives, goats, donkeys, dogs, and even the flies. Because the whole story unfolded in Isnello, in one of the thousands of journeys to an ancient and wholehearted land, where everything becomes true, even the visit of a politician.

In Isnello the town was swarming with American reporters who were canvassing the populace, going from door to door and questioning everyone they met in a crazed frenzy for the most frivolous items of information.

In front of number 70, Via Cristoforo Grisanti, two elderly women claimed to have very clear memories of Impellitteri’s father, who had, on that doorstep, a bancaredda du scarparu (a cobbler's bench), and when the weather was fine he would put it outside, and when it was raining he would bring it inside. And she remembered when he left for America.

She went into her house, rummaging for a piece of evidence, an incontrovertible document. Set in a wooden frame, it was a certificate of enrolment in the Eucharistic League for Nicolina di Maria, daughter of Vincenzo (deceased), the mayor's grand-mother, in 1897; and it had been left to her as a keepsake by the Impellitteris on the day they left for America. I asked the old woman what she had given these long-ago emigrants in exchange. She hesitated briefly before answering, and then said to me: “I gave them some cheese to eat during the crossing: they were poor, they had no money.”

After the mass in Impellitteri’s honor, the official speeches began. The Mayor and the representative of the Regional Government spoke of the pride of the poor emigrant, who had become an illustrious man “not due to illustrious birth, but through the two laws of Sicily: the law of honor and the law of love.” And he described how “the personal pride of Signor Impellitteri was fulfilled and enlarged in the pride of the four thousand citizens of Isnello and in the four million citizen of Sicily.

Signor Impellitteri good speaker in English: in Sicilian, was perfect. He understood that his fellow citizens were celebrating themselves in him.

He spoke of his papà and mamà; he said: “I am the son of a poor shoemaker who left Isnello without five pennies dint' a' sacca (in his pocket), with six sons, and then came a daughter: in Sicily all males, and in America a girl. And so, thanks to democracy, it is possible for all these carusi (young men) who are here today to become, some day, the Mayor of Rome or the leader of Italy or the Mayor of New York, like me.

This is democracy and liberty. I was baptized here and now I am the mayor of the biggest city in the world. Long live Sicily, long live Italy, and long live the United States of America!”

 

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