The Novena is a Catholic ritual linked to the rosary and is normally a nine-day prayer. The term is sometimes used for any prayer that is repeated over a series of days. While there are many times of the year where this devotional activity takes place, one of the most observed is the Christmas Novena. Also called the Saint Andrew Christmas Novena or the Christmas Anticipation Prayer, a special prayer is prayed 15 times every day from the Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle (November 30) until Christmas. The First Sunday of Advent is the Sunday closest to the Feast of Saint Andrew. Feast of Saint Andrew Novena
(This prayer is not prayed to Saint Andrew, but to God Himself) Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen. The Novena can be said all 15 times at once or divided up necessary (perhaps five times at each meal). Saint Andrew was the very first disciple called by Jesus, and he also convinced his brother, Saint Peter, to become Jesus’ disciple. Afterwards during Advent, in the 9 days leading up to Christmas day, the rosary is said as a preparation to welcoming Christ. This religious tradition was transformed with children going from house to house just as the time of prayer was over to sing traditional Christmas songs. The children would in turn receive small gifts of sweets or cakes. --Jerry Finzi If you enjoyed this post, please LIKE it and tell your friends about us... ciao e Buon Natale! I remember when I got my first fax machine in the 1980s. It was slow, but became essential in my studio, as art directors started using them to send layout revisions. What a time saver. Who knew that the fax... or facimile... or telefax was really invented back in 1863 by Giovanni Caselli, an Italian priest! Caselli invented his device thirty years before Bell invented the telephone and actually put it into commercial use by contract with the French government. Caselli was seen as a mad scientist rather than a man of the cloth by his friends and neighbors, with odd mechanical devices mixed among his furniture. Born 1815 in Siena, Caselli studied both theological and scientific studies. While the wired telegraph was already sending coded messages, sending pictures by wire was only a dream at the time. Caselli's idea was his pantelegraph, an concept first thought of by Alexander Bain of Scotland in 1840. Bain created a crude device to send pictures over wire, but never fully developed the idea. Living in Florence at the time (while hiding out from his political enemies) Caselli reworked Bain’s device and improved on it, but he didn't have enough mechanical skills to make a working prototype. So he went to Paris and partnered with Gustav Froment, a leading maker of scientific instruments. After seven years in 1863, they triumphed. Caselli received a U.S. patent for his telegraphic apparatus, making major improvements to the design. Unlike Bain's design which scratched the image on metal plates, Caselli's fax used ordinary ink. The image received could be enlarged or reduced. Multiple messages could be transmitted through a single wire at the same time. Caselli also developed an electrically sensitive paper, soaked in potassium, that changed color each time electricity passed through it. His fax machine was more than six feet tall, with long pendulums, batteries, and wires. For the 1860s, the quality of the fax image was amazingly high. Eventually, he would dub it the pantelegraph. Emperor Napoleon III liked the device so much they passed a law to connect a fax service between Paris and Lyons. In 1861 the French government authorized tests of a fax system using telegraph lines between Paris and Lille and Paris and Marseilles. By 1863 a Paris-Lyons line was tested with great success. Transmitting at fifteen words per minute, the fax could send forty telegrams of twenty words each hour. In 1865 the French government decided to take the system public. On May 16, 1865, the pantelegraph was set up on the existing Paris-Lyons telegraph line. It must have worked well because in two years, the Marseilles connection was added. By 1867 four Caselli machines serviced the Paris-Lyons lines. Service was so successful and the device so efficient that 110 faxes and hour could be sent. The newspaper industry, seeing what a boon it could be for their industry, touted the new invention on their pages. Interestingly, early fax machines needed to "talk" to machines of the same brand and model and it wasn't until 1974 that the world's first international fax standard was approved by the United Nations. In the 1980s, personal and small business fax machines proliferated around the world. And to think, we own it all to an eccentric Italian priest. --Jerry Finzi If you found this post interesting, please pass it along on your favorite Social Media site. Grazie! There are many differences between celebrating Christmas in Italy and the United States. The main reason is that all of Italy is Roman Catholic and even though many (especially younger) Italians don't go to church as often as their grandparents did, it is still a very religious holiday. Here are some interesting ways they celebrate Christmas in Italy...
Christmas Season Phrases
There's much more to the Christmas than just December 25th in Italy. Throughout December and January there are a number of religious holidays that are celebrated. Remember, since Italy is a Roman Catholic country, many religious holidays are also national holidays so you might find many government offices are closed:
--Jerry Finzi If you enjoyed this post, pass it around to your friends... and Boun Natale! The Zampogne is an important part during Christmas festivities in Italy. (Learn more about Zampogne HERE). You will see Zampognari playing their instruments at Christmas markets and fairs, during Christmas Eve church services, at shopping malls, with living Nativity scenes and leading candlelit processions through villages and cities all throughout Il Bel Paese. Here are some videos to give a feeling of what these interesting instruments add to the ambiance of the Christmas season in Italy... --Jerry Finzi
If you liked this post, then LIKE it, of course! Grazie and Boun Natale! Tombola is a game that is very similar to bingo in the States where numbers are picked from a drum and called out, and players have to cover an entire row to win. It is played pretty much all over Italy from Christmas Eve to the Epihany while the little ones are waiting for La Bufana to come with their presents. ALthough more modern Tombola sets come with chips or blots to cover the numbers, most people play the traditional way--covering the numbers with torn pieces of orange or tangerine skins or beans or lentils. The boards are similar to bingo boards, but in Naples the boards are very different. Numbers range from 1 through 90, but the interesting thing is, each number on the board also contains a picture, usually with the name in Italian, Neapolitan dialect and some even have an English translation. Tombola's roots lie in a fortune telling game that was used hundreds of years ago to predict the future or help understand the meaning of dreams. Each number is represented by a symbol or picture with a particular meaning. The really strange thing is--at least to us Americans--is that many of the pictures are downright rude or sexual. Even stranger is the fact that a religious picture might be right alongside a very naughty one! Played casually in the home, people may play for small change or Euro coins, but they may also play just for fun... and offer toys, cookies or other dolci as prizes, usually letting the children win. When they do play for money, things can get pretty heated and loud. After all, these are Neapolitans, after all. The peel their oranges, eat the oranges, place pieces of peels on the numbers and laugh and talk for hours on end. It's all in fun and a great way to start the Holiday season on Christmas Eve, or to finish it off when playing on New Year's Eve. There are even television shows that play the game and offer prizes. If you feel like giving Tombola a try this holiday season, here's a link to one I found on Amazon. --Jerry Finzi
If you liked this post, please tell your friends about us and don't forget to LIKE our Facebook page! Ciao! Growing up, a tradition in our family was getting our old crèche--a well worn miniature wooden barn with a log corn crib for the baby Jesus--and placing the the three wise men, the shepherds, sheep, cows, camel and other figures into it. The baby Jesus always waited until Christmas Eve to be placed in his straw filled crib. I always loved to place the baby Jesus, although in Italy it's tradition that the most elder in the family gets that privilege. Later in his life, my Dad made some of the most beautiful nativity barns I've ever seen. He used old beat up pieces of wood that he'd find on his walks around his town. My dad--a deli and fruit man his whole life--always showed sparks of an artist hidden inside. These nativities are also known as a manger scene, or crib, or in Italian presepio or presepe... literally translating as crib. The tradition started in Italy in the 13th century when St. Francis of Assisi created a living Nativity in the town of Greccio for the Christmas midnight Mass in the year 1223. Inside a cave, he prepared a manger with animals and celebrated Mass. There were even claims of miraculous healings following the building of this crèche. From these early roots, the tradition began to spread throughout all of Italy. Presepi were mostly built in churches during the weeks leading up to Christmas. Not wanting to be left out, the wealthy commissioned presepe in their own homes. Eventually poorer people built presepe by using whatever materials they had. Typically, the presepe were modeled after the local villages where they lived. Nowadays, and especially in Naples, the presepe go much further than a little barn, animals and the three wise men. They often become entire villages, temples, neighborhoods, grottoes or hillsides complete with costumed people milling about in various professions hawking their wares... butchers, fruit vendors, carpenters, bakers, monks, washerwomen, bagpipers and of course, a few angels. The figures themselves are often magnificent works of art with typically one purchased each year to add to a family's display. And while the structures that house these cartapesta (see Cartapesta: The High Art of Papier Mache in Puglia) and terracotta figures can also be elaborate, the real appeal is in the small details... cheeses, bunches of grapes, hand tools, butcher's meats, fruit, musical instruments, sausages and more add to the realism of the presepe scenes. Back in the Eighties, I saw an amazing presepe in the basement chapel of St. Joseph's Church of Greenwich Village on Avenue of the Americas in New York. It was huge--perhaps 30 feet wide and 15 feet deep--and represented an entire hillside village in Southern Italy. In my memory it was supposed to be in Sicily, but I could be mistaken--perhaps it was in the Naples area. The buildings looked like the light colored stone houses I saw all over the South when we visited Italy. There were many types of figures and animals placed around the display and I recall it was displayed in the darkened chapel as an illuminated nighttime scene. Sadly, I've tried to find photos of this presepe but they've renovated the church and don't seem to have the display any longer. If I do find any photos, I'll post them here for sure... We still display a small barn type crèche in our home every Christmas and Lucas gets to place the baby Jesus in the crib on Christmas Eve.... --Jerry Finzi If you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends... Grazie e Buon Natale! A feature length documentary film about Southern Italian culture told through its indigenous folk music. The film focuses on how these traditions are dealing with the rapid changes in local economy and the homogenizing effect globalization has on local culture. Filmed by an Italian-American rediscovering his family's roots, the film takes the viewer on an odyssey through remote regions in Sicily, Calabria, Campania and Molise introducing the people who carry on these ancient traditions that most Italian Americans are completely unaware of. The Zampogna - the Italian bagpipe is the physical manifestation of this culture, its music representing the spirit and vitality of the Southern Italy. For those interested in more about the history of the zampogna, click this link... Who knew the history goes back as far as the Babylonians, Greeks and Romans? --Jerry Finzi If you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends and LIKE it... grazie. UPDATE: December 3, 2015 - I came upon the following video which I thought would add to the history of the zampogna. The rustic charm of this old zampognaro in his humble home is like looking back in time.... Enjoy. Inventor of the Barometer Evangelista Torricelli was born Oct. 15, 1608 in Faenza, Romagna. He was an Italian physicist and mathematician who invented the barometer. The catalyst for inventing the barometer was spurred on by Galileo's suggestion to Torricelli that he should use mercury in place of water for his vacuum experiments. After reading his papers in 1641, Galileo invited Torricelli to Florence, where he became the aging astronomer's secretary and assistant during the last three months of Galileo’s life. After Galileo's death, Torricelli was appointed as his successor as professor of mathematics at the Florentine Academy. Two years later, pursuing the suggestion by Galileo, he filled a glass tube 4 feet (1.2 m) long with mercury and inverted the tube into a dish. He observed that some of the mercury did not flow out and that the space above the mercury in the tube was a vacuum. Torricelli became the first man to create a sustained vacuum. His observations proved that the variation of the height of the mercury from day to day was caused by changes in atmospheric pressure. He never published his findings, however, because he was too deeply involved in the study of pure mathematics. Since atmospheric pressure also changes with altitude, Torricelli's barometer also could be used as an altimeter. Torricelli died Oct. 25, 1647 in Florence at a mere 39 years old. From CNN, By Ed Falco (Editor's note: Ed Falco is the author of the novel, "The Family Corleone," a prequel to Mario Puzo's "The Godfather." Among his awards and honors are an NEA fiction fellowship and the Southern Review's Robert Penn Warren Prize. He is a professor of English at Virginia Tech, where he directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing.) In Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where there is opposition to the building of a mosque, protesters are reported to have gathered at the construction site shouting, "Islam is not a religion!" When I read this in my local paper, I thought about how the people of Murfreesboro's Islamic community must have felt at the sight of their neighbors rallying against them and their religion. America has a proud tradition as an immigrant nation, but it also has a long history of marginalizing those it marks as "other." America's other heritage includes suspicion, hostility, abuse and even death, leveled against ethnic groups as they arrived one after another in waves over the past 2½ centuries. I learned much about this as I researched "The Family Corleone," a novel I wrote based on a screenplay by Mario Puzo. The novel is about, among other things, Italian-Americans living in New York during the depression. There were a number of things that surprised me in my initial research. I knew something about our nation's early antipathy toward Catholics and Italians, but I had not fully appreciated the depth of that antagonism. For example, the largest mass lynching in U.S. history took place in New Orleans in 1891 — and it wasn't African-Americans who were lynched, as many of us might assume. It was Italian-Americans. After nine Italians were tried and found not guilty of murdering New Orleans Police Chief David Hennessy, a mob dragged them from the jail, along with two other Italians being held on unrelated charges, and lynched them all. The lynchings were followed by mass arrests of Italian immigrants throughout New Orleans, and waves of attacks against Italians nationwide. What was the reaction of our country's leaders to the lynchings? Teddy Roosevelt, not yet president, famously said they were "a rather good thing." The response in The New York Times was worse. A March 16, 1891, editorial referred to the victims of the lynchings as "... sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins." An editorial the next day argued that: "Lynch law was the only course open to the people of New Orleans. ..." (Read the entire article HERE...) Below is a political cartoon from “The Mascot” newspaper published on September 7, 1888 in New Orleans. Through out the 19th century many Americans were angry at the influx of immigrants coming over from Southern and Eastern Europe.
The Italian immigrants were discriminated against in both the north and south. Often working in northern sweatshops for little pay or on southern farms doing the hard work of former slaves. There were also discriminated against because of their skin color. Coming from Southern Europe most Italians had darker skin colors and we often treated no better the freed slaves, and frequent victims of lynching. The above cartoon is an example of the discrimination the Italians faced in America. The top part of the cartoon shows how Americas feel about the Italians, crowding the streets and apartments, and starting fights. This stereotype has often been encouraged, even today, as Italians being violent people and participating in organized crime. The bottom of the cartoon gives ways to get rid of the perceived problem of Italian immigrants, either “dispose” of them or arrest them. During this time the Italians faced a large amount of discrimination in New Orleans, especially by the Irish immigrants already living there. In 1890 the many people in New Orleans blamed the Italians for the murder of David Hennessey. Hundreds of Italians were arrested and even though they were eventually released, eleven Italians were lynched by a mob. Reaching to the heavens in Italy often manifested itself in the design and construction of free standing bell towers, defensive towers and privately owned towers built by successful merchants and aristocrats as a sign of their status and a protective measure in times of siege. The bell towers are known as campanili. But some perhaps reached too high and built on sandy and clay soils or in areas frequented by earthquake. This resulted in some towers leaning, and even collapsing entirely (many were lost this way). Still, many are still with us... as the uber-famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. But there are other leaning towers in Italy... The Island of Burano, in the Venetian lagoon, is a contrast from the drab colors of Venice, having multicolored houses. The kaleidescope of colors is this island's main appeal, but it also has a leaning tower, the bell tower of the 15th century San Martino Church. The island is also known for lace making. The Torre delle Milizie --Tower of the Militia--is a medieval tower in Rome located near Trajan's Market in the Imperial Forum. It is said to have been built between 1198 and 1216. An important medieval monument in Rome, the Torre delle Milizie measures 10.5 × 9.5 m at its base. The original height of the tower is unsure (it was taller when originally built), but following an earthquake in 1348, the top floors were removed as a safety measure, reducing the structure to the current height of 160 ft. The 1348 earthquake also resulted in the slight tilting of the structure to make it one of the many leaning towers of Italy. Built in 1536 by Greek Orthodox refugees fleeing from Turkey during the rise of the Ottoman Empire, San Giorgio dei Greci has thin white bell tower. The tower was built in 1603 but it began to sink into the Venice lagoon from day one and still today has an pretty serious lean toward the canal. Between the 12th and the 13th century, Bologna had as many as 180 towers but less than 20 are still standing today. Two of the most interesting are simply called the Two Towers, the taller named Asinelli is 318 feet tall and the shorter one called the Garisenda is 157 feet tall. They have become the symbol of Bologna. Both built in the early 1100s, Garisenda leans much more than Asinelli but being so close together, the effect of leaning is enhanced. The imposing Church of San Pietro, was established in the 7th century. It has an obviously leaning bell tower (built by Codussi in 1482), and was the Cathedral of Venice from its origins in eighth century.The present building was built at the end of the 16th and in the first three decades of the 17th century. It contains the Throne of St Peter, a 13th century seat cut from a funeral stone and inscribed with words from the Koran. Built in the 1100s, The Church of San Michele degli Scalzi in Pisa has a Lombard Romanesque bell tower measuring 75 feet tall. The city of Pisa is built on soil that is barely above sea level and is composed of an unstable sand-clay mix which caused not only the famous Leaning Tower to lean, but also San Michele deglie Scalzi's tower to lean toward the River Arno. The late Renaissance bell tower of San Stefano in Venice, built in 1544, is tilted more than 7 feet from vertical. Its leaning is caused by problems in cellars under the tower - the original wooden pilings are in bad condition, and it was built on sandy lagoon sediments. Hopefully this beautiful bell tower will not follow the fate of the original St. Mark's Campanile which collapsed in 1902. North of Lake Trasimeno in Perugia outside of the town of Vernazzano is a unique leaning tower. This tower is a remnant of an ancient castle built before 1089. Vernazzano was an important defensive unit along the ancient road that led from Perugia to Cortona and was inhabited from the 13th to the 16th centuries. It was abandoned by the 18th century when rocky mountain under it moved after a strong earthquake. This leaning tower is frequented by hikers, Driving to Vernazzano, parking and walking along a wooded path to the dangerously leaning tower. This tower is being held up by an installation of steel girders and cables. The Cathedral of Modena boasts its own tilting tower known as Ghirlandina, taking its name from the two rows of garland-like balustrades which crown it. It is viewed by the people of Modena as the symbol of their city. Ghirlandina did not only have the religious function deriving from its status as cathedral tower, but was also a defensive tower used to store important civic documents and charters. It reaches upward next to the cathedral nearly 290 feet tall. It is a combination of two architectural styles: the original square base is in Romanesque style, while the octagonal and pyramidal upper parts are Gothic. Work on the upper part began in 1261 and was completed in 1319. Dating from the 11th century, the Campanile of the Cathedral of Santo Stefano in Caorle, just east of Venice, is a wonderful example of Romanesque style of architecture. It stands a proud 148 feet tall and sports a conical spire above its cylindrical shape. It was more than likely built as a watchtower or lighthouse for this small port town before becoming a bell tower. The tower is tilted nearly 1.4 ° east-Southeast, around about 1/3 the lean of Pisa's famous tower. Do Leaning Towers Ever Fall?In a word--Yes. As far as we know, Venice’s famous St. Mark’s Campanile wasn't even leaning before it collapsed. During its 500 years it had been repeatedly struck by lightning, burned and damaged in several earthquakes. It might have been best to scrap the whole thing and start over after having suffered so much damage. Instead, they simply rebuilt the damaged parts, occasionally adding more height (and more weight) to the tower that was originally constructed sometime between 1148 and 1157. That wasn’t the greatest idea, given that the tower’s foundation consists of no more than vertical oak pilings driven into a bed of clay in the lagoon, then filled in with sand. It’s no big surprise that the tower finally collapsed on July 14th, 1902. A large crack formed in the morning, rising diagonally across the main corner buttress. Falling stones within the bell chamber prevented any fatalities by warning bystanders that something was amiss. A new tower, with a much sturdier iron foundation, was built in the lost tower’s image. That is the tower we see today. Many other towers have also fallen throughout Italy's history. In a country so geologically active, it's inevitable. For example, in 2012, the 13th century Torre dei Modenesi in the town of Finale Emilia (the name is rather foreboding), was partially collapsed by an earthquake that also killed six people. Following an aftershock, it collapsed completely. In keeping with the Italian spirit, it proudly stands today, rebuilt by its stubborn residents. Some collapsed towers aren't meant to be rebuilt, it seems. Such is the case with the Torre Civica of Pavia which collapsed without warning in 1989. The reason for its collapse is still not known--perhaps the reason it hasn't been rebuilt. So, the next time you're in Italy and want to climb one of these towers, you might want to pause and imagine what it would feel like if even a small earthquake shook underneath your tower... Perhaps carry along a travel-parachute? And if you're in Bologna and stop dead in your tracks, gasp and look up at the leaning Twin Towers, just make sure you're not standing in the direction of their lean... --Jerry Finzi Copyright, 2017 Jerry Finzi/Grand Voyage Italy, All rights reserved There are many truths about Italy that people never discuss and few even know about. Here are a bunch of interesting truths I've discovered about Bello, Pazzo Italia: 1. Naples and New York City are on the same lines of latitude (both being the same distance from the North Pole and the Equator). Their weather should be the same. New York can have a lot of snow and even blizzards each winter, while snow in Naples is very rare. New Yorkers will be bundled up in October with frost on their pumpkins, while in Naples the locals could still go to the beach for a few last swims. 2. The word pizza is one of the most understood words all around the world, in any language. It's right up there with Coca-Cola and OK. Put them all together and you can order a pretty decent meal just about anywhere on Mother Earth... "Pizza, Coca-Cola, OK?" 3. The average Italian earns nearly $28,000 per year, with those in the South earning far less and those in the North earning as much as $40,000 annually. That's some crazy distribution of wealth! 4. Italy has a larger proportional senior population than the United States... 20% of their population is over 65 where in the United States it's only 14%. Eating all that pasta, taking 2-3 hour lunch breaks and the antioxidants in tomato sauce must be doing some good! (It's almost lunchtime... I'm going to have some pasta and then lie down for a few hours.) 5. Italians are increasingly reporting that, despite their nation’s reputation for amazing natural beauty, good food and wine, some of the best art in the world, and a laid back lifestyle and longevity, they are not happy. The country legalized divorce, contraception, and even abortion in the 1970s. The current population shows that Italian families have 1.27 children each. Perhaps they should go back to having large families like their great-grandparents did and the happiness will return. Perhaps they need to put in place a truly centralized government that doesn't give preferential treatment only to the large industrial or biggest tourist regions. 6. The population of Italy is over 60 million, fast approaching France's 66 million. France is a much larger country with more space for its people. It's a good thing Italians drive such small cars or the place would really feel crowded. 7. In Italy, people over 18 can vote--well, almost true. That's only for local and general elections. You have to be over 25 to vote in the senate elections. To be elected for the senate, you must be at least 40. Italian Youth = Taxation Without Representation. 8. The unemployment rate in Italy is high at 13.4%, but this is a national average. The shocking truth is that in the South the numbers reach over 18%. To illustrate the difference between North and South, in the North the unemployment rates are less than 0.6%. This could be the reason we found a lot of abandoned properties in the southern part of Italy. Many young people told us they were planning on heading to Rome or Milan or leaving for the U.S. 9. Many of William Shakespeare's stories were set in Italy... Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, A Winter's Tale, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Despite all of this, there is absolutely no evidence that Willy Boy ever stepped foot in Italy, chowed down on pasta and Chianti or had a slice of pizza. Willy, you don't know what you missed. 10. The piano was invented in Italy around 1700 by Bartolomeo de Francesco Cristofori, a harpsichord maker. Besides piano meaning piano in Italian, it also means floor. 11. Eau de Cologne sure sounds French, but it came from Cologne, Germany. To add stinky insult to perfumed injury, an Italian invented it... Giovanni Maria Farina, who later changed his first name to Johann. Take that, you perfumed Frenchies! 12. The Italians got pasta from China, right? Wrong. Way before Marco Polo went to China in 1292, Italy had already been enjoying pasta for several hundred years. After visiting Sicily in 1154, Arab geographer Idrisi wrote about a food people made from flour and turned into long strings. Sound familiar? 13. Italy has always produced cars... That teeny car, the Fiat 500 is only part of an entire automotive empire which owns the legendary brands of Lamborghini, Ferrari, Maserati and Alfa Romeo. Much like the Roman Empire, Fiat now has its sights on taking over the world. It now owns all the Chrysler brands. Toyota, bring out your legions and defend yourself! 14. Pizza is said to have originated in Naples. Don't you believe it. The word "pizza" was first documented in 997 AD in Gaeta, about 60 miles north of Naples. But flatbread pizza--called panis focacius by the Romans--was eaten 2000 years ago all over the Roman Empire. Similar to focaccia of today, various toppings were added to turn the flat bread into a complete meal. 15. Tomatoes are not native to Italy. Originally found in the Americas, they were brought back to Europe in the 1500s. Many were convinced that, like its cousin the nightshade plant, they were poisonous. When Italy got a hold of them, they crushed and cooked them. Later, in the Naples area they started putting the red sauce on top of flatbread--the modern style pizza was born. 16. Italian Inventions: Ice cream cone, car battery, wireless communications, nitroglycerin, thermometer, nuclear reactor, eyeglasses, Pinocchio, the typewriter and the telephone (look up Antonio Meucci). 17. Italians are 95% Roman Catholic but only about 30% go to church each week. But they all wear crosses or their patron saint around their neck, so they're covered. Father forgive them. 18. About 35% of Americans are obese. Even after consuming 26 gallons of wine, 182 pounds of bread, and 55 pounds of pasta per person each year, only about 8 1/2% of Italians are overweight. It must be due to all those hilltowns and closed restaurants at lunchtime. 19. The old Jewish Ghetto in Rome is now one of the most expensive places to live in the city. 20. From the end of World War II to the present day, Italians have gone through over 60 governments. I wonder if they have a Tea Party or Pasta Party? --Jerry Finzi You can also follow Grand Voyage Italy on: Google+ StumbleUpon Tumblr Please, stop by our SURVEY and spend 60 seconds telling us how we could make our blog better! Grazie! |
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