In 1922, Luisa Spagnoli came up with the recipe for Baci Perugina. She combined fine cocoa and fragrant hazelnuts to obtain a gianduia center, topped with a whole hazelnut and covered with her special chocolate, Luisa dark chocolate. The result was a mini masterpiece with a rich flavor. Luisa’s recipe, with its simplicity, achieved the perfect balance between flavor and consistency.
12 Lifestyle benefits of living in italy
Excellent and varied climate
World class food and wine. Beautiful countryside, beaches, mountains and islands.Rich heritage, steeped in art and culture.
40
BARBARA BOUCHET
“ Marcello Mastroianni prize 2020”
Examples of Italian cuisine excellence, are starred chefs from Apulia with over 25 years of experience.
The European who can save Italy
32 What is america made of?
Indifference,Uninvolved, Self regarding, Inward Looking,Self-Seking, Murderous, Nasty, Brutish Lesions.
48 I Gesticulate so I am Italian!
18 Going away from one origins
A bit like leaving one’s destiny to pursue an unknown fate, day after day, year after year, life after life.
According to anthropologist Demond Morris, hands are human beings what the baton is a conductor.
The most common mistakes in Italian, which becomes a Cinderella among European languages...
57 The combination of teenagers and alcohol is not new to anyone. The use of alcoholic substances in this phase of life is in fact a typical behavior and often represents a transgressive action that the children need to underline their status as autonomous and affirmative subjects in the group.
61 The last boss of Monreal - February 21, 1946 –December 23, 2013), also known as “Montreal’s Teflon Don”, was an Italian-Canadian crime boss alleged to be the leader of the Sicilian Mafia in Canada.
In the Romanian Banat, a historical region of central Europe, these tales still terrify the collective imagination of the old, as well as of the young.
The apology of not being and therefore of suicide
On the cover
34 Francesco Castiglione, 38-year-old film, theater and television actor. A well-known face in Italian TV, Francesco has taken part in numerous successful series such as “Don Matteo”, “Un Passo dal Cielo” and “L’isola di Pietro”.
The arrival of Mario Draghi at the head of the Italian government means many things that go beyond the easy rhetoric of parties. Above all, the desire to find a certain normalcy in the chaos of populism in which the beautiful country was immersed. In particular, the political action of Matteo Renzi (extremely underestimated by the populace) allowed, within a few months, to ensure a government for the country.
He had already done it with the famous “horse move” during the first Lega-Movimento government, highlighting on the one hand the frail structure of the populist binomial’s indifferent politics and on the other, the expression of a superior political caliber .
The arrival of Draghi, therefore, could allow a political equilibrium totally lost in the last 20 years. The subjective priorities of the Covid emergency unfortunately orient common thinking towards this single problem which does not justify the collapse of many European countries in the Eurozone.
The world is running fast, the United kingdom has abandoned the European ship to take refuge in the safe harbor of her majesty the Queen. And speaking of crowns, the recent declarations of the dissidents princes have made housewives talking about around the world and this, right in the days when womens was celebrated. Media manipulations?
The Queen (of the media) swears that she has not poured a single
penny into the royal pockets but, we live in the age of the virtual, where everything is temporary and maybe tomorrow the rumor will spread that the innocent was not so innocent.
The Biden government works seriously, without twists and turns but with coherence, the best wishes of I’m Italian to the elected President.
The all-Italian humanity of governator Cuomo is tarnished and this after Trump’s farewell. Coincidentally? There are those who accuse the governor of New York of various abuses.
It is a policy that I do not like but, fortunately, we are still focused on the Covid problem and nothing can distract us, not even the last Sanremo song prize, won by the Maneskin, a metal rock soaked in pajette and youth, like to wash away all the Italic sins with the image of four boys singing ferociously “We are out of our minds!” but that deep down, they smell of talcum powder like our populist dreams that are going to crash in the claws of an inopportune virus.
THE APOLOGY OF NOT BEING AND THEREFORE OF SUICIDE
“We are all at the bottom of a hell where every moment is a miracle, if I were free I would kill myself instantly!”
Cioran was born in Romania in 1911 and died in Paris in 1995, he was a philosopher, essayist and one of the most influential aphorists of the twentieth century. His aphorisms are pervaded by a deep bitterness which is tempered by his acute irony and his ability to write. In the field of philosophical thought, Cioran ranks among those figures who go beyond the canons established by the time and who are not part of any current or any school. His direct and profound style stems from the fact that he did not write to spread his ideas to an audience but to dispel his suffering that came from a constant insomnia that led him to the brink of suicide.
“Insomnia is a dizzying lucidity that would be able to transform heaven itself into a place of torture, this does not add, anything is preferable to this permanent alert, to this criminal absence of oblivion, and it is during those infernal nights that I understood the futility of philosophy. “
The waking hours are essentially an interminable repulsion of thought through thought itself, this sounds like a declaration of war, an infernal ultimatum of the mind to itself.
Walking prevents you from racking your brains with unanswered questions, while in bed you mull over the insoluble up to the vertical.
The use of what can be defined as a form of therapeutic literature was the real redemption. Ciorane was not so fond of writing as a poetic act but as an activity that by dissolving existential crushing allows life to be liveable. When one thinks of this figure of the 20th century, one must take into account that Cioran did not make the artistic scandal a way of life and made art an explosion of feelings, writing a perfectly personal escape valve.
In some works, Cioran focuses on the tragic vision of existence and its pessimism which is the extremism of that of Schopenhauer from whom Cioran shares an interest in Buddhism and the theorization of the nightmare of pain, it is all pain , this is a Buddhist formula that we could modernize “a la Cioran” and it would sound like this: “Everything is a nightmare, therefore, I do not forgive myself for being born and it is as if by being born, I had profaned a mystery, as if I had betrayed some solemn commitment and as if I had committed a crime of unprecedented gravity for which
Living is a misfortune and birth is an irremediable disaster!BLOGGER
being born appears to be a magnet that I would be inconsolable not to have known! ” This is the absurdity that characterizes Cioran’s thought, hating life but at the same time appreciating its experiences and even considering them indispensable.
Suicide is paradoxically what life allows, this is possible to the extent that existence is perceived in absolute terms as a lacerating construction, inevitable in this perspective, suicide represents the fullest character of freedom exercisable by man who , in impotence, he has at every moment the omnipotence of cessation, of the whole, the extreme negation of every unsustainable otherness, in the final analysis man can shoulder the burden of life only to the extent that he knows he can bring death.
Cioran writes again: “I remember an occasion in which for three hours I walked with an engineer who wanted to commit suicide, in the end I convinced him not to do it, I told him that the important thing was to have conceived the idea, the important thing was so knowing how to be free and I believe that the idea of suicide is the only thing that makes life bearable but you have to know how to exploit it, don’t rush to draw the consequences, it’s a very useful idea, they should give us lessons in schools. Here is irony, irony is capable of grasping the absurdity of life and is capable of saving man. saves him from pessimism, from nihilism, the humor that, in fact, accompanies irony, makes life tolerable that sometimes seems paradoxical, giving existence itself a new rational sense from which to start living again without deceit and this is a important step, without deceit. When all ideas of a moral, aesthetic, religious, social, etc. they no longer know how to give life a direction, they know how to find a purpose in it, how can life be saved from nothing?
We can only succeed by clinging to the absurd, clinging to absolute uselessness, that is, to something
that has no consistency but whose fiction can create an illusion of life, after all Freud also said it. Now, Cioran’s philosophical system consists in denying the system itself, that is the rules, the academic formalism, it does not pretend to explain, to demonstrate but only to show what life is, speaking of himself as man and not of humanity in the strict sense. The paths of thought that Cioran follows are various and apparently incompatible with each other and are mystical philosophy, history, literature, religion, but all these paths lead to a single result, the failure that marks every human life.
But beware, to suffer is to produce knowledge, suffering produces knowledge. In Cioran, thought and life overlap in a ruthless way, the nights spent with open eyes influenced the development and drafting of his works, the sleepless nights spent between readings, notebooks filled madly, have built and forged the thought of author through boredom, boredom is his eternal companion and then there is the lucidity exasperated by a loneliness that at night leads the writer to self-analysis, an analysis of himself conducted without sparing targeted shots, to peer into the own abysses and consequently in the abysses of humanity itself, and it is precisely in this context that Cioran does not enter his philosophy, a concept comes into play that will be the lowest common denominator,
that is time, time in its various meanings, the historical time and existential time:
“There is nothing in me that pushes me to talk about pain or nothing, whydoIhavetowastetimestudying Buddhism for example? You have to look for everything in yourself and if you don’t find what you are looking for, then you have to let it go, what interests me is my life and no matter how many books I can browse, I will find nothing direct, nothing absolute, nothing irreplaceable , everywhere I will always find the usual philosophical nonsense.“
LIFESTYLE BENEFITS OF LIVING IN ITALY
MOVING TO ROME, KEY ATTRACTIONS
PRACTICAL BENEFITS OF LIVING IN ITALY
MOVING TO MILAN, KEY ATTRACTIONS
MOVING TO EMILIA-ROMAGNA, KEY ATTRACTIONS
Excellent and varied climate World class food and wine. Beautiful countryside, beaches, mountains and islands. Rich heritage, steeped in art and culture.
Safe, welcoming family culture. Effortlessly chic, relaxed lifestyle.
Great education, free or paid, local or international.
Excellent healthcare available to all Good public transport (but unique driving style!).
Great location to access Europe and beyond.
Wide variety of property options. Immersion in another language, with good English spoken.
Finding the best place to live in Italy will very much depend on your needs and circumstances. Each city has its individual culture, history and industry based on a rich and longstanding trading past that dates back thousands of years.
Wherever you choose to relocate, education and healthcare throughout Italy is based on a common dedication to offering excellent services that are available to all. The Italian public school system is free, while private international schools are available to serve the expat community. Healthcare in Italy is also freely available, although priinsurance is an option.
International capital, cosmopolitan lifestyle.
Large expat community, 10% non-
Italian population.
Beautiful architecture, museums and galleries.
Great location in the centre of the country.
Centre of politics, business and industry.
Finding things to do with kids in Italy is a breeze. Not only is the Italian culture one of Europe’s most familyfriendly, it is also based on outside activities, epic family events and –just like in the movies – long multigenerational lunches in the sun where nobody complains while kids run around enjoying themselves.
Perfect location for skiing and Alpine lifestyle.
Italy’s largest city, major hub of industry, growing service sector
Lower cost of living compared to eg London.
Plenty of international kindergarten and secondary schools.
Great location for international travel with high-speed links.
Getting a mortgage in Italy is open for expats and the property market is healthy in the key expat locations. Like any country with a long history, the real estate in Italy dates from chic modern city apartments to historic castles and vineyards.
Whether you’re looking for a ski lodge, a seaside villa or a sleepy house in a village square, or even a substantial townhouse in one of Italy’s main cities, there’s something for every expat looking to relocate.
Achingly beautiful landscape and architecture
Superb food and wine
Very popular with English-speaking tourists and residents
Florence is the ‘cradle of the Rennaisance’
Easy access to Lucca, Pisa, Chianti, San Gimignano and more
The definition of the best place to live in Italy will depend on whether you are retiring, looking for work or moving with your current company. Or perhaps you are searching for adventure based on the reputation Italy has been presenting in every movie, advertisement and wedding photo for decades.
Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna Superb ham and cheese in Parma Ferrari and Lamborghini in Modena The oldest university in the world in Bologna
Easy access to the northern Apenninines.
You can’t be sure that moving to Italy will bring you la dolce vita but it’s certainly likely. And whatever happens, Italy is a country with unique character and a love of life that will certainly give you an experience to remember.
Leaving one’s memories, and above all one’s history to enter another existential narrative is an exercise of great intellectual courage and it doesn’t matter if you are poor or not, the important thing is that once you have left for another “ world “our sentimental longitudes will inexorably become sentimental solitudes and all that was knowledge for us, suddenly, will turn into an immense universe in which we will have to navigate by sight without the faintest idea of space and its temporal evolution!
Other smells, other languages, other loves, other food, other gods
Our cognitive latitudes will lose the sense of distance and we will find ourselves, alone and strangers, on an unknown planet, in a new humanity not well identified!
On this unusual and different stage, in what will be a new comedy, perhaps a tragedy, a melodrama, or finally the real film of our life, we will have to play another part, another character, with other habits, other attitudes ... we will find catapulted into other existential arrangements and inevitably we will have to renegotiate our contract with dreams, because they too will undergo a natural, primary and necessary revision! They too will have to revise the script, correct it, reinvent it!
Our tropic, with its parallels of lived life, corresponding to the angle of inclination of our customs, traditions, customs and habits, will change its position with respect to the perpendicular of the plane of our reality, and from that moment on we will become clandestine of life, in our life and in that of others!
As in a transhumance, we too, flock on the natural paths of our dreamlike, fantastic and enchanted convictions, will migrate with our sensations to other places of thought, to other regions of the psyche to discover other opportunities, to other pertinences of reality, to a another planet on which to look for new appearances, features, shapes and forms of new existences!
And here it is the “New World”, with its colors, its accents, its laws, its facts and its misdeeds in the most phantasmagoric of universes! It is there, right in front of us that we arrived with bare feet, with a boat in a sea of doubts, with our scars of ancient wounds, hidden in the shadows of a truck with our illusions, in the dark and deep intestines of a ship or with the latest spacious and space shuttle at the speed of light that has never illuminated anything! Here it is that “world” in front of us who have traveled among stormy despair and deserted hopes, impetuous rebellions and desolating defeats, libertarian aspirations and broken promises ...
We who arrived with an old and worn suitcase worthy of an actor who came from a peripheral marginalization , full of junk, bagatelle of words, a couple of old photographs and in a corner, still wrapped in a newspaper page, the familiar and never forgotten smell of our home! We who have come this far with our hard skin, sunburned and parched by the atavistic thirst for unfulfilled desires on which bruises of injustice and scars of forgotten hypocrisy, will make a fine show of our lost and embarrassing reality!
Going away from one’s origins is a bit like leaving one’s destiny to pursue an unknown fate, day after day, year after year, life after life!
Here it is the “New world”, the new jungle, with its beasts and its traps that will welcome us with its gaping jaws and its cement, its oil and its lights, its illusions and its progress ... Here they are mirages and allurements, the chimeras and utopias that will make us cannon fodder for new wars with other worlds, new philosophical constructions for other walls, new diseases for other sciences and tempting ideologies to celebrate the latest, sensational and extraordinary economic news of the thought…
Forgetting your memory is a bit like leaving your past in an uncertain present to chase an unknown future, moment by moment, memory after memory ...
“Humanism” or “Inhumanism”, this is the dilemma! ... If it is nobler in life to flee from something, to escape from someone ... Or perhaps dream?
Dying or sleeping will no longer make any difference, it will always be us, wanderers in destiny, nomads in fate, strays in fate or out of necessity, wandering in fate and wandering
in the future! It will always be us, always the same, always the usual adventurers without adventure, poets without poetry, artists without art, tired travelers aimless and ageless, existential emigrants without any humanistically ascertained direction on the path of life!
“Humanism” or “Inhumanism”, this is the dilemma! ... If it is nobler in life to flee from something, to escape from someone ... Or perhaps dream?
BY CIRO ACAMPORA
Antonella Ricci and Vinod Sookar, 2 examples of Italian cuisine excellence, are starred chefs from Apulia with over 25 years of experience. They both have leading roles on Italian cooking TV shows such as “La prova del cuoco”, “MasterChef Magazine” and “Midnight Dinner”.
They met in 1998 in the treasure of the Indian Ocean, the island of Mauritius, during a cooking seminar that Antonella hosted with a team of colleagues representing Italian cuisine abroad. During her time on the island, Antonella was awed by Vinod’s kindness and profession skills. He had been entrusted to her as an acclaimed local chef with a passion for Italian cuisine. The following year the two became husband and wife and for over 20 years they continue
to live a happy life in Italy full of professional satisfactions.
Their desire to travel, speak about and spread the flavors of Italian cuisine across borders unites them and has led them to many experiencing around the world, in addition to their success on Italian TV. In 2015 Vinod and Antonella taught cooking courses in Nevada and offered courses on Italian food and preparation, from appetizers to desserts. In 2018, they were guests of the Canadian event “Sotto una buona stella”, an initiative to promote Italian haute cuisine promoted by the Italian Consulate in Toronto, the Italian Cultural Institute of Toronto and George Brown College, the most prestigious cooking school in Canada for which they held a masterclass for students who were attending the college’s post-graduate in Italian cuisine.
During the Canadian experience Antonella e Vinod were also executive chefs for a sold-out “dinner of the author” at the famous restaurant “Buca”, an event narrated in English and French by food expert and sommelier Antonella Millarte. Antonella has certainly inherited her passion for cooking and travel from her family. Her parents Angelo and Dora Ricci are the founding owners of the historic Italian restaurant “Al fornello da Ricci” in Apulian gastronomical city, Ceglie Messapica. The restaurant holds 19 Michelin stars. Angelo and Dora brought their experience and the flavors of Apulia to the world long before Antonella and Vinod did. Thirty years ago, the Riccis, while heading overseas with suitcases full of local products, were invited by the “Culinary Institute” of San Francisco to give lessons on local Napa Valley produce that was also locally cultivated in Apulila.
By Fabrizio Catalfamo
You deserve that in a matter of weeks we’ve had a coalition collapse, a resignation, failed negotiations and then, you technocratic Prime Minister which begs, the Question Is: what the hell is happening in Italy? So this article will attempt to answer just that, looking into exactly, what’s happened and why it’s being necessary to deploy whatever it takes and call on Super Mario to fix this mess .
This entire crisis came to the fore when Italy’s ruling coalition collapsed, Italy’s former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, pulled his party “Italia Viva” out of the coalition led by Giuseppe Conte, causing Conte to lose his majority support. The question is: why politicians don’t just pull out of coalitions when they feel like it but beyond their money?
Now the EU plans to spend billions of euros to kickstart the
European economy money that will invariably be divided up to national governments, for them to spend how they wish, the issue being how exactly the national governments want to spend that vast quantity of cash. If it’s coming their way, Renzi wanted the 200 and €10 billion promised to Italy to be directed towards new infrastructure projects, which was in direct opposition to Conte’s desire for a panel of appointed
experts, to oversee and direct the spending of the funds.
After weeks of threatening to withdraw over the issue, Renzi finally did so in a move widely denounced by MPs and much of the Italian press, and a move which many believe was derived by a thirst for political power up, published in the immediate wake of Renzi’s withdrawal from the coalition.
Now, 46% of Italians didn’t even understand the reason for the cri-
sis with 73% believing that he was pursuing his own selfish political objectives rather than the interests of the country. The two largest parties in Italy’s government were quick to throw their support behind Conte, both, the five star movement and the Democratic Party, publicly criticised Renzi’s move and stated that they would continue to back Conte, the acting leader of five star stressed that in this moment of crisis there can be
no other thoughts, but continuing to work for the best of the country .....and its citizens.
The confidence was subsequently called in Giuseppe Conte and vote he easily won in the lower house the Chamber of deputies, where the remaining coalition parties still have a majority, but in the Senate, he only won very narrowly, crucially without an absolute majority. Had the government survived, it would have been significantly weakened and unable to pass a budget which requires an absolute majority in the Senate. In light of this, Conte promptly tendered his resignation to the president, this led the president scrambling trying to decide what should happen next because with no forthcoming coalition of support coming out in favor of Renzi.
The next option would be to call an election, not exactly the best idea in the middle of a pandemic, so to solve the issue, the president invited Mario Draghi to form a government.
Now Mario Draghi has to put it lia-
bility of a reputation in the Europan Union. The former president of the European central bank during the European sovereign debt crisis, is largely credited with saving the euro from complete destruction with the Greek economy on the verge of collapse from international market pressure. Pressure that was slowly but surely seeping into the likes of Italy, Portugal and Spain, druggle pledged to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro.
Going on to add “believe me” it will be enough these words alone widely credited with immediately applicating financial markets and reducing pressure on the countries? But while he has had some successes, Super Mario isn’t a politician he never was draggy has never stood for political election having been the governor of the Bank of Italy before moving on to the presidency of the European central bank. In the words of the FT Draghi is set to be thrust into the cauldron of Italian Daily Politics, a vastly different arena from the Polish tan market focused world of central banking, but Italy’s president
didn’t shy away from the fact that it was a technocratic appointment.
He called on Italian lawmakers to back a government of high profile which should not identify with any political formula. In the light of the crisis, this crucially isn’t the first time that Italy is called on non political outsiders to come and fix things, rather it’s happened a few times now. In 1993 Carlo Azelio Ciampi, the former governor of the Bank of Italy, like Draghi, entered politics to balance things out through a volatile period before an election could be held one eventually would bring Silvio Berlusconi to power. In the height of the European sovereign debt crisis, Mario Monti a former European commissioner was brought in following the resignation of then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Monti was ultimately responsible for enacting the structural and painful economic reforms demanded by the Commission and move that invariably contributed to his downfall later down the line.
So there’s clearly some history of Italy calling in the technocrats when things get tricky bandle actions. Brought down in this crisis was first appointed as a technocratic leader although some are now arguing that he’s turned into a truly political figure, the issue being that it’s relatively uncontroversial to say that technocratic rule hasn’t been plain sailing in all instances leaders unaware of the cauldron of Italian domestic politics, have been brought in and had to adjust the domestic politics, fix the situation. They’ve been called into while, at the same time, trying to get a coalition of support around them and, more importantly, to stay around them.
Ultimately whilst the leader, maybe a technocrat they’re not suddenly leading the parliament on their own rather, they have to adjust to an cater for the political winds and seas, and parliamentarians who supports were to vanish, would spell the end of their time at the helm of Italian politics, and that’s the issue likely to play Super Mario in the coming weeks and months, support for Draghi isn’t
a foregone conclusion. The five star movement, changed their position with their acting leader telling reporters that after a meeting with Draghi, we’re open to considering whether the conditions are right to join a government. We will decide above all on the basis of the policies and mark shift from the earlier out right projections.
The League have also backtracked having first called for snap elections, it expressed conditional backing with its leader stating that it would be prepared to join so long as it was a government that goes to Brussels keeping its head high in the name of national interest.
Renzi’s Italia Viva party, as well as Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, have already indicated their support so there’s clearly some growing support for Draghi in the words of the FT the danger for Mr Draghi is that his Premiership proves to be a poisoned chalice as an unelected technocrat. In an age of populism and lacking a party base of his own Mr Draghi will be vulnerable to sniping, that
his policies are not the expression of political.
Asuming that he’s able to garner a fully fledged coalition of support or have the formidable task of redesigning Italy’s recovery plan, a plan worth in excess of €200 billion the largest sum in absolute terms for any EU country in a statement Draghi emphasized that the challenges that Italy now faced were substantial beating the pandemic, completing the vaccination campaign, offering answers to everyday challenges, and getting the country back on track. Matteo Renzi told the BBC’s news hour, that “Draghi was the Italian who saved Europe, I think he is now the European who can save Italy.”
ROME, FEB 15 - Sardinia Governor Christian Solinas has said that only people who can prove they are vaccinated for COVID-19 will be allowed to enter the region this summer.
“Those who enter Sardinia will have to show a certificate demonstrating that they are negative (for the coronavirus) or that they have been vaccinated,” he told daily newspaper L’Unione Sarda. “The system of checks will be in place long before the start of the summer season”.
ROME, FEB 15 - Screen diva Sophia Loren has got the L.A. Italia Legend Award for her extraordinary career and philanthropic work most recently demonstrated by her new film ‘La vita davanti a sé’ (The Life Ahead), the jury of the Los Angeles, Italia - Film, Fashion and Art Festival 2021 said Sunday.
Hollywood, California.
The festival honors the best of Italian and Italian-American culture every year through premieres, performances and exhibitions, during the pre-Oscar week. All of its events are open to the public free of charge. It is sponsored by the Italian Culture Ministry and Intesa San Paolo Bank. This year the festival will be inaugurated by The Life Ahead.
MILAN, FEB 8 - Milan’s iconic Duomo cathedral will reopen to visitors on Thursday, February 11, the Venerabile Fabbrica del Duomo said Monday. The Duomo, a symbol of Milan, has been closed due to COVID-19. In this first phase, the Farbbrica said, the cathedral will be accessible from Monday to Friday between 10:00 and 17:00 local time. It advised visitors to buy their tickets online at www.duomomilano.it.
The jury was headed by ItaloAmerican actor Armand Assante, an Emmy Award winner for Gotti. Loren, 86, has won critical acclaim for her portrayal of a former prostitute who forms a bond with a young black migrant in The Life Ahead, directed by her son Edoardo Ponti. “Never as this year does Donna Sophia deserve the plaudits of the cinema world and we hope the SAcademy recognises her extraordinary performance with an Oscar nomination,” said Naples-born Assante, who worked with Loren in the 1980 TV movie Her Own Story. This year’s 16th edition of the “L.A. Italia Festival runs from April 18 to 24, leading into Oscar night on April 25. Two-time Oscar winner Loren is “on the crest of the wave again with her new film”, organisers said. The Los Angeles Italia Film Festival or Los Angeles-Italia Film Fashion and Art Fest is an Italian film festival held in Grauman’s Chinese Theatre,
NEW YORK, JAN 28 - A rare masterpiece by Renaissance great Sandro Botticelli, ‘Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel’, fetched over $92 million at Sotheby’s in New York on Thursday, far exceeding estimates. It was a record for the auction house’s Great Masters series. The painting was pout up for auction by the family of late billionaire Sheldon Solow, one of the great builders of New York skyscrapers, who died in November. The painting fetched $92.184 million, including auction rights.
WASHINGTON, FEB 15 - The United States on Sunday night congratulated the new Italian government of former European central banker Mario Draghi saying it was confident they could work together on many global challenges, a State Department spokesman told : “The United States has a long and historic relationship with Italy,” the spokesman said.
“We congratulate the new Italian government and look forward to continue cooperation to boost our results and tackle the numerous challenges facing us as a global community”.
A few hours earlier US President Joe Biden tweeted his congratulations to Draghi saying he hoped for a “close collaboration” on addressing global challenges, from COVID-19 to climate change.
Draghi’s government was sworn in at the weekend and will face two confidence votes on Wednesday and Thursday in the Italian parliament.
Draghi is credited with saving the euro with his famed ‘whatever it takes’ stance.
TURIN, JAN 26 - A four-year-old Italian boy has regained the use of a hand that was irreparably damaged in a car accident thanks to the transplant of a toe.
The toe has replaced the finger that was lost in the crash.
The pioneering surgery was led by Bruno Battiston at Turin’s Regina Margherita Hospital.
The op used innovative robot technology. Doctors said the new hand will not only function fully but will also grow as the boy gets older.
“It is a cutting edge operation,” said local ‘Health City’ Director Giovanni La Valle, “which our professionals managed to carry out by using tools never before used”.
Battistons’ team was assisted by reconstructive microsurgery chief Davide Ciclamini and the head of peripheral nerve surgery, Paolo Titolo. The team transplanted bones, tendons and soft tissues from a toe to the finger using a very high power robot-guided microscope called Robotic Scope.
The scope transfers images from the operating field to a viewer used by the surgeon, who can therefore work with “greater ergonomics” and protected for COVID, hospital sources said.
Traditional microscopes do not allow the use of such tiny anti-COVID shields, they said.
ROME, FEB 8 - Pope Francis called on the Italian people to show unity on Monday, with the country in the grip of a political crisis in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Italian people was the first in Europe to find itself faced with the consequences of the pandemic,” he said in an audience with the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.
“I call on it not to let the current difficulties defeat it, but to work in unity to build a society in which no one is cast aside or forgotten”.
The pope also recalled that this year Italy is celebrating the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante.
ROME, FEB 15 - Italy’s public debt stood at 2,569.3 billion euros at the end of 2020, 159.4 billion euros more than the 2,409.9 billion it came in at on December 31, 2019, the Bank of Italy said on Monday.
ROME, MAR 4 - Italy has placed fifth in the world in a ranking of COVID research by QS Quacquarelli Symonds , which looked at 13,883 research programmes by 1,440 universities.
The scientific database SCOPUS, created by publishing house Elsevier, was used by QS to gauge the universities’ research output. Rome’s La Sapienza University, the biggest in Europe, is the best in the world for classics and ancient history, according to the 11th edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, leapfrogging the University of Oxford which slipped to second.
This emerged from a comparative analysis of the world’s universities’ performance carried out by QS in 52 Italian universities.
At a global level the rankings, compiled by QS’s higher education analysts, furnish an analysis on the performance of 13,883 university programmes by 1,440 universities in 51 disciplines.
ROME, MAR 8 - Premier Mario Draghi said Monday that “the (COVID) pandemic is not beaten but we can glimpse, with the acceleration of the vaccine plan, a way out that is not far off”.
In a videomessage to a conference titled “Towards a National Strategy on Gender parity”, Draghi said the pandemic was worsening and called on “everyone” to play their part, starting with the government. “The executive must do more with each passing day,” he said. Draghi called for “well thought out but rapid choices”.
He said nothing must be left untried, and the government should “multiply its efforts, since every life counts”.
On vaccines, Draghi stressed the importance of everyone waiting their turn, “with the fragile and atrisk categories coming first”. He said “now is not the time to divide ourselves, but to give answers”.
Looking at the world through rose-colored glasses eludes to a type of aloofness associated with those who are undoubtedly blinded to the atrocities that have affected people of color throughout centuries. As we move pass the 2020 election our focus shifts somewhat off the poorly run Trump Administration that was littered with hate, spitefulness and indecency. Even though some of the ignorance and bigotry were strained, there still lingers an uncertainty on how America regains its fallacious illusion of purity.
People are forced to look at America and her policies not through rose-colored glasses but through Colored People’s glasses. Only to be faced with the same grim reality that has haunted our Black communities for years. Where were these disgraces a mere four years or a great 400 years ago? Billowed in an unconscious cloud of sightlessness beholden to people with the inability
to sympathize with anyone but their own. Injustice reared its ugly head and White America was no longer able to hide behind their truths. No matter what side of the fence you are on with your political preference it’s the beginning of being forced, to face your demons long concealed beneath your masks. The last four years presented a platform for a great portion of American’s to stake their ideologies about racism and what it truly means.
They are forced to take stock in their stance on regression and oppression of people whose mirror image they do not share. No matter what side of the fence you are faced with questions such as where have I been or I was always here. For those of us who crossed the party lines we have to ask ourselves through what lens did I view the world before and now that the smoke has blown over do I again become complacent, nasty and brutish?
For those of you who voted not for political reasons but survival reasons have to ask themselves how far am I willing to go to “Make America Great Again?”
How far are you willing to go to preserve the White Race?
Indifference, Uninvolved, Self-Regarding, Inward Looking, Self-Seeking, Murderous, Nasty, Brutish Lesions.
There are great generalizations in these words, however they are backed by the lives slaughtered by police officer for simply breathing while being Black.
They include but are not limited to:
Patrick Lynn Warren Sr., Vincent “Vinny” M. Belmonte, Angelo
Quinto, Andre Maurice Hill, Casey
Christopher Goodson Jr., Angelo “AJ” Crooms, Sincere Pierce, Marcellis Stinnette, Jonathan
Dwayne Price, Dijon Durand Kizzee, Rayshard Brooks, Carlos
Carson, David McAtee, Tony “Tony the TIger” McDade, George
Perry Floyd, Dreasjon “Sean”
Reed, Michael Brent Charles
Ramos, Daniel T. Prude, Breonna
Taylor, Manuel “Mannie” Elijah Ellis, William Howard Green, John
Elliot NevilleAtatiana Koquice
Jefferson, Elijah McClain, Ronald
Greene, Javier Ambler, Sterling
Lapree Higgins, Gregory Lloyd
Edwards, Emantic “EJ” Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., Charles “Chop”
Roundtree Jr., Chinedu Okobi, Anton Milbert LaRue Black, Botham Shem Jean, Antwon Rose Jr., Saheed Vassell, Stephon Alonzo
Clark, Dennis Plowden Jr., Bijan
Ghaisar, Aaron Bailey, Charleena
Chavon Lyles, Fetus of Charleena Chavon Lyles (14-15 weeks), Jordan Edwards, Chad Robertson, Deborah Danner, Terence Crutcher, Terrence LeDell Sterling, Korryn Gaines, Joseph Curtis Mann, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Bettie “Betty Boo” Jones, Quintonio LeGrier, Corey Lamar Jones, Jamar O’Neal Clark, Jeremy “Bam Bam” McDole, India Kager, Samuel Vincent DuBose, Sandra Bland, Freddie Carlos Gray Jr., Walter Lamar Scott, Phillip Gregory White, Mya Shawatza Hall, Meagan Hockaday, Tony Terrell Robinson, Jr.,and Janisha Akai Kareem Gurley.
What Is America Made Of?
eBOOKS
Quiet Desperation is a 70,000 word psychological thriller where a rivalry ensues between good and evil. In witnessing and judging the desperation of others the characters find themselves trying to mend their own fragmented sense of morality.
HTTPS://AMZN.TO/2PNTZ1N
Indifference, Uninvolved, Self-Regarding, Inward Looking, Self-Seeking, Murderous, Nasty, Brutish Lesions.
Francesco Castiglione, 38-year-old film, theater and television actor. A well-known face in Italian TV, Francesco has taken part in numerous successful series such as “Don Matteo”, “Un Passo dal Cielo” and “L’isola di Pietro”. In 2018 he spent most of the year in the United States where he attended acting coach Susan Batson’s workshops and perfected his English at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. He sat down of us at “I’m Italian” for an exclusive interview exposing his peculiarities as a man and actor.
Francesco, icey blue eyes yet skin bronze like the hot desert sand; which of these two contrasting features most resembles you on the inside and why?
We all know that the stereotype of the average Sicilian is that of a person with a dark complexion, with dark eyes and dark hair. Considering the fact that the South of Italy was a territory of Arab conquest, it goes without saying that this stereotype is not so far from reality, but between the eleventh and twelfth century during the conquest of Southern Italy and Sicily, the Normans populated and founded many centers of central and eastern Sicily. Obviously this genetic mixture has produced in Sicily and Southern Italy many individuals with blue eyes. Therefore aesthetically I am a little Norman and a little Arab, this mix makes me extrovert, carnal and affectionate because however in my veins flows Sicilian blood.
You were born in Germany, when you were 10 years old you returned to Sicily, at 19 you went to Rome to pursue a profession acting career. What did it mean for a young boy full of dreams and ambitions to move every time? How much did these shifts affect your personality and your acting career?
Although I am Sicilian inside, I define myself as a citizen of the world. Despite the attachment to my land I need to constantly dive into different cultures, new
thoughts. That’s why I love traveling so much. Surely, spending the first 10 years of my life in Germany made a real difference. Though I realize only now, as an adult, how much that has opened my mind. I grew up surrounded by children from all over the world I went to school and played with them every day, making me realize from the very beginning that not only has racism no reason to exist, but it’s stupid and worthless. On the other hand, I unconsciously acquired the rigidity and determination at work that is quintessentially German. In order for an actor to be able to tell so many stories and through his characters live many different lives, he must have lived as many, I think my background is a solid starting point for that. The 9 years I lived in Sicily, my parents’ homeland and where we spent all our summers, were fundamental in order to bond even more with my roots. And then there’s Rome where I’ve been living for 19 years now, a wonderful city that made me realize my lifelong dream of becoming an actor. In Italy, Rome is the place to be to start this career. Rome has given me a lot, it has given me independence, it has shaped my character, it has made me suffer at the first doors slammed in my face, but when you have a great dream and you are willing to make great sacrifices you will certainly be rewarded. I believe that every place, in its own way, has been fundamental to my personal and professional growth. I carry it all inside of me, and it will be the same for all those places that I have yet to visit because they will surely enrich my life even more.
“NY is like a blender full of so many ingredients and flavors”
What’s the most beautiful experience America has given you and how have your studies in NY changed your experience on the set today in Italy.
If I think that only a few years ago NY was just a big dream and almost unattainable today it seems almost impossible to have lived there, even just for a short time. NY is like a blender full of so many ingredients and flavors, I had this feeling, it’s a city that enchants, recharges you with great energy and surprises you every day. I went there mainly for the language because my English was really basic and I needed to improve it, a lot. In fact, I attended a college in South Orange in New Jersey. Thanks to that experience, I can finally have a conversation in English and talk to you in English right now. It certainly gave me the awareness that in life nothing is impossible, you just have to want things badly! I also met a lot of great people I’m still in touch with basically every day and are always there for me if they have to. I also attended Susan Batson’s courses, a very famous American acting coach, where I had the opportunity to meet actors from different countries
in the world, it was thrilling and stimulating to confront with foreign colleagues, speaking different languages and coming from such a diverse background. After this experience I gained more self-confidence, I face this job from a different point of view and certainly when I audition in English everything is easier for me now.
If faced with a crossroad and forced to choose only one artistic path as an actor, would you choose the stage or the camera and who would be alongside you?
This is a very difficult question that I have been asked several times, and believe me it is not at all easy to answer because the love for this profession was born on stage, and there I felt safe whenever I needed it, but over the years many things have changed, the theater has changed, society, the needs of people and the way they approach the theater, many small factors that have made me move away a little, but at the same time have made me approach another wonderful world that is the set, where I found “home”, so if I have to answer, I see myself more on
that direction even if theater is there and there will always be. And if I had to choose a director to work with, I would choose Giuseppe Tornatore, while I would love to act with Meryl Streep and Al Pacino, not bad, what do you think?
Is there a character that you played that has remained in your heart afterwards?
Certainly when the work is more difficult and challenging, it is when I feel more rewarded. For one of my shows, I staged a monologue lasting one hour where I played a character who was 30 years older than me. This was a big test, to build a real character with a life experience totally different from mine. I must say that it gave me great satisfaction, every night I threw liters of sweat that was reciprocated with esteem and affection from many people.
As for the other character, the effort was similar if not more, I shot a docu-film on the life of John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus, and his precursor, the title of the film is precisely “The Forerunner”. Playing a character so strong, combative and sensitive at the
same time in conditions that are not at all comfortable, such as walking barefoot on the stones, in the middle of the mud, in the freezing water of the Potenza river for 10 hours with a rather extreme makeup (long hair and beard to be worn all day) and with 35 degrees in the shade, made me love this job even more because when you suffer and you get good results through your emotions, it is always worth it.
Your ongoing experience with “Don Matteo” has given you much popularity. How do you deal with this responsibility when you meet someone or when people recognize you on the street?
Surely Don Matteo is the series that made me known to the big audience, I was lucky to join a family that was already well established but that welcomed me with open arms. It is an honor for me to be a part of it and then through my character Gianni Barba I have tried to convey a sense of passion, loyalty, rigor and sense of duty to best represent the Carabinieri.
When people stop me in the street for a photo or a chat and thank me, I’m grateful to life because knowing that thanks to my work I can transmit a bit of serenity or give a smile makes me happy.
Would a movie about your life be about a boy who painstakingly got what he wanted or about a man who is still searching for inner peace and happiness?
I believe that we should be proud of ourselves no matter what if we put love, passion and dedication into the things we do. The meaning
of life, in my opinion, revolves around the achievements, the goals, whether small or large, because they are the ones that stimulate us to live a full life, so I certainly did not get everything I wanted and maybe I will never get it because maybe after the next conquest I will already have another goal to chase. Happiness is within us, we just need to know how to welcome it, I think I have found a serenity with myself, with ups and downs of course, but the base is solid.
Cary Grant once said: “I’ve often been accused by critics
of being myself on-screen. But being oneself is more difficult than you’d suppose.”. What do you think about this statement?
I agree with Cary Grant, it’s easier to take refuge in characters that are far from us, it’s like putting on a mask and then returning to your own reality but bringing the truth to the table. Being completely yourself can be really difficult and risky.
You’ve done film, TV and theater. Is there something in the entertainment world that you are passionate about and would like to try that would surprise us?
3 years ago in my small Sicilian town I was asked to present “Ludofestival”, a small singing contest. I didn’t want to accept in the first place because presenting is not my job, but I said yes, and took it as a challenge, and I must say that, unexpectedly, I had a
great time and I discovered to be up to the task. Last year, I also presented the “Spello Film Festival” in Umbria and even there
I had an excellent feedback. Who knows, maybe in my future there will be space for this too. Maybe there’s a showman hidden in me!
How do you imagine your future in 10 years, where will you be and above all... with whom?
In 10 years? It makes me anxious just to think about it, ha! The great (but also sometimes worrying) thing about working as an actor is that it’s such an unpredictable job, there are times when you think you might be able to enjoy your home and friends for a while and then the next day you’re already on your way to a new destination, a place you might never have imagined visiting until the day before. I certainly hope I can continue to do this job
without losing the enthusiasm and passion I have for it. I hope to be able to say in 10 years time that I shot the greatest movie ever and I hope to be able to say that I visited as many beautiful places in the world as I possibly could. In 10 years I could be in Rome, London, New York or Sicily, wherever I am, I hope to have the people I love most in this life beside me.
Thank you!
“MarcelloMastroianniisamagnificent actor.Butheisaboveallamanof enchantinggoodness,offrightening generosity.Tooloyaltothe environmentinwhichhelives.Helacks thearmor,somebadfishthatIknow arereadytoswallowitinabite.“
Famous for his charm, his beauty and his skill, Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri on September 28, 1924 and died in Paris on December 19, 1996. He began making films as a child, appearing in some film scenes shot by Vittorio De Sica in the 1930s. If the handsome Marcello has acquired a certain notoriety in Italy, he will conquer it worldwide in 1960 as the main actor of Fellini’s masterpiece “La dolce vita”, and three years later with “Otto e mezzo” again with the same director with the who had a very deep working relationship and friendship. During the following decade and in the 1980s, Mastroianni’s skill traveled hand in hand with that of other monsters of Italian cinema such as Sordi, Gassman, Tognazzi and Manfredi. A tireless actor, Mastroianni was nominated for an Oscar as best actor three times, he won 2 Golden Globes, 8 David di Donatello, 8 Silver Ribbons, 5 Golden Globes, 1 Gold Ciack. To this must be added the conquest of the Volpi Cup twice and in 1990 a Golden Lion for his career.
“... It is necessary that all the intellectual forces that count in the area wake up and assume responsibilities for the youth ... With the common sense and the collaboration of all, every difficulty can be overcome ... My great sacrifices and the disappearance of Marcello led me to evaluate my feelings once again. Even our Marcello will end up in the shadows, because no one will think to take into account that he was one of the architects of the rebirth of our land ”. This is the heartfelt appeal of Umberto Mastroianni, Marcello’s uncle and internationally renowned sculptor, who gave the input for the birth of the “Marcello Mastroianni Research and Documentation Study Center” which keeps the actor’s memory alive and celebrates the unforgotten divo, in collaboration with Roma Film Festival, organizing the “Fontana Liri Prize for Marcello Mastroianni”.
Barbara Bouchet, pseudonym of Bärbel Gutscher, is a Germanborn Italian actress who boasts collaborations with directors such as Jack Arnold, Jack Lee Thompson, Otto Preminger, Bob Fosse and Martin Scorsese. Together with Marcello Mastroianni, in 1975 she starred in the film “For the ancient stairs” directed by Mauro Bolognini, playing the role of Carla, Mastroianni’s lover, in the role of Professor Bonaccorsi, head of a provincial asylum, who alternates scientific studies , aimed at the search for the causative agent of madness, at casual love affairs.
I’M Italian took part in the fifth edition of the award which was held on the 24th anniversary of the actor’s death by interviewing for readers Barbara Bouchet, an icon of Italian comedy between the Seventies and Eighties, who this year received the prize, and Adriano Pintaldi, the artistic director of the prize.
BY SUSANNA CASUBOLO
What can you tell us about Marcello Mastroianni and your collaboration with him?
My moment with Marcello I must say that he was very beautiful, he was a great actor, but also a great gentleman. I remember that he stayed until the end of the day to give the lines to an actress who had been waiting all day and this thing was not at all obvious, most of the actors once finished their scene go away, and instead Marcello remained until the end of the day, always present, sweet, cute. It was a great joy to work with him.
What are your professional projects right now?
What are my plans? Good question ... just today I received a script for a horror film, to be done in FebruaryMarch in Calabria. But now everything is at a standstill, I hope that everything resumes and that we can continue to do our beautiful job, making films, which gives so much joy and pleasure. So I hope I can make this movie. It is a difficult moment, do creativity and creative work still manage to have space despite the difficulties. We are all a bit busy, I am taking care of family photographs, thousands because dad was a photographer, box by box, I have fun right now I arrange them in albums, I write where we were, who we were, I try to occupy my brain with something constructive.
Adriano Pintaldi is President of the Rome film festival, Director of Fanta festival and Member of the David di Donatello as well as artistic director of the award that he presented to actress Barbara Bouchet in the event broadcast in live streaming due to the pandemic caused by covid19. Two contributions by him were screened during the event: a video dedicated to Mastroianni and Ennio Morricone and a video contribution on Mastroianni and Federico Fellini.
The relationship with Marcello began a long time ago, a few years ago I dedicated an edition of the Rome film festival to him, titling it “dear Marcello”. It was a memorable event for which I produced a documentary focusing on his incredible career, a monographic volume and a review with his most important films. The event brought together many characters who had accompanied him in his varied career such as Claudia Cardinale, Sandra Milo, Ursula Andress, Giancarlo Giannini, Stefania Sandrelli, Lina Wertmuller, Ettore Scola. I also inaugurated the space in front of the Rome cinema house with the mayor of that time, giving it his name “Largo Marcello Mastroianni.” Two years ago I was invited to Fontana Liri to attend a conference dedicated to him and on that occasion they asked me to take care of the artistic direction of the award, I accepted with great enthusiasm for the love and esteem I have always had towards Marcello.
During the event we were able to see two of your very interesting documentaries, how difficult was it to enclose in a few minutes and choose from the images linked to these immense talents?
The docufilms I made this year are the result of a research I did in Marcello’s complex filmography. I discovered that seven films starring Marcello had the soundtrack written by Ennio Morricone. Since I wanted to pay homage to the recently deceased maestro for “Mastroianni & Morricone”, I selected some unforgettable clips from the films
“ Così come sei” by Lattuada, “Todo modo” by Petri, “La donna della domenica” by Comencini, “Allonsanfan” by Taviani , “Sostiene Pereerà” from Faenza, “Stanno tutti bene” by Tornatore, “Per le antiche scale” by Bolognini with a magnificent Barbara Bouchet to whom we awarded the prize. “Mastroianni & Fellini” is a light-hearted declaration by Marcello for his friend-accomplice Federico with whom he has worked all his life, who also has the memorable ceremony of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Venice delivered to Marcello by Fellini. .
To further enhance the combination of Fontana Liri - Mastroianni, during the event a reportage was also projected on the installation in the central square of two works dedicated to him: a mural by Umberto Cufrini, created with the “word work” technique, which makes monochrome the bas-relief, with the dark parts defining the features of the actor’s face; and an artistic installation, which is an assembled structure that evokes the Nouveau Rèalism and also the interior lighting design revisited on an urban scale entitled “Come Here”; this is a “new experiment” of Franco Bianchi Poteca who curated it.
According to anthropologist Demond Morris, hands are to human beings what the baton is a conductor. The body speaks much more than our words. The psychologist Albert Mehrabian shared the effectiveness of communication: the non-verbal one reaches 55%, the paraverbal one, linked to the tone or rhythm of the voice, 38%, while the words only 7%.
Verbal language has an effectiveness of only 7%! In fact, it has been shown that in the case of a communicative inconsistency, people rely more on non-verbal behavior than on verbal behavior, because it is considered more spontaneous and sincere than speech. Non-verbal communication is therefore able to make the human mind understand every type of message more clearly. Gesture is part of our non-verbal language, it enriches the word, adds nuances or even can change the meaning of our speech.
Scientific studies have shown that 70% of information reaches the brain through what we see, confirming how gestures are an important component of communication. The instinct that leads us to gesticulate is one of the most rooted: people talking on the phone, very young children, and even the blind when they talk to blind people, gesticulate. How many times have we heard that gesticulating conspicuously when speaking is an action devoid of any form of etiquette? Instead, we discover that the art of gesturing simplifies communication and increases its expressive intensity.
The Italians gesticulate more and better, the foreigners notice it immediately while the inhabitants of the tricolor peninsula do not realize it because for them it is a natural thing. Where does this habit come from? According to an article in the New York Times, the secular tradition can be traced back to the period in which the ancient Greeks colonized southern Italy: in cities as crowded as those of the South it was as if there was a kind of competition to gain attention. , using the whole body. Another explanation could be the need to develop an alternative form of communication by the Italians during the centuries in which the peninsula was occupied by foreign powers such as Austria, France and Spain between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries. Gesticulating always remains a custom rooted in Italian culture, it is part of its identity: through gestures one can immediately recognize each other even abroad and understand each other even beyond dialects or social barriersPerhaps for those looking at an Italian from the outside, the gestures are just an incomprehensible ballet, a series of meaningless movements. But in Italy gestures are a codified and precise language and have a clear meaning for those who can interpret them. If you ask a foreigner to mimic an Italian, an
exaggerated and folkloristic speck of disjointed agitation comes out, but only a true Italian will notice that the gestures do not correspond to the real meaning of the language of that moment, the others will laugh at the caricature without realizing it. For example, the famous gesture of the “pinecone” hand, that is the fingertips joined upwards and the hand that moves up and down, is used by foreigners who imitate Italians when they say good morning, without knowing that gesture in the Italian language accompanies a question or a doubt!
Studies show that those who use gestures while studying, while communicating, obtain better results, as gestures are essential for transmitting thoughts and knowledge. The most remembered phrases are precisely those accompanied by meaningful gestures.
So they also gesticulate to help themselves, when explaining difficult concepts, or when shortterm memory is under pressure. For example, gestures can be used to recall motor memories that help to recover the name of what we are talking about: if the tool we want to refer to is a saw, we will make the movement of bringing the arm back and forth or, at least, we will mention it to help us.
“ Gesticulating not only helps communication but also learning”
Gesticulating also has a significant impact on cognitive development according to a joint study by the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Chicago and the Italian CNR which analyzed Italian and American children showing that in both cultures those who gesticulate have greater ease in learning and in the overall linguistic development. Therefore gesticulating not only serves to express oneself better, but also to learn, to make more space in the memory and to acquire new notions and skills. This is also demonstrated by a research published in Science in which elementary school children who had to solve challenging math exercises were analyzed. Children invited to gesticulate freely solved their problems much more brilliantly than others who were asked to keep their hands still.
In conclusion, gesturing helps to communicate better, learn better and remember better. Arthur Schopenhauer wrote: “Thenatural,usualgesticulation,as it accompanies every lively conversation, is a real language and, in truth, a language much more universal than that of words, since, being independent of words, it is the same among all nations, although each nation makes use of it according to its degree of vivacity, and in some nations, for example among the Italians, it has received the addition of a few purely conventional gestures, which therefore have only a local significance ». Even the great Schopenhauer had seen in Italian gestures an extra gear, a personal and unique code that could only be understood by those who used it, but we know...
italians do it better.
With this intervention I will limit myself to the anamnesis for the state of health of Dante’s language in Italy (“the beautiful country where yes sounds”) and then talk about the various chronic or acute “pathologies”, episodes of illness, recrudescence, of convalescence and strengths and expressive abilities, in the field of fantasy and rhetoric, for which we are “milk brothers” with the Spaniards.
As a permanent literature teacher in high schools in Italy, for more than twenty years, as a writer, historian of philosophy, I have a not only literary approach towards my Italian mother tongue, but also philosophical and philological, matured at the School Normale SuperiorediPisa, accompanied by constant contact with speakers of the Italian language, of all ages and all levels of education, many of whom are not native speakers, both in Italian schools and in the courses I hold online for Italian courses, Latin and Greek with students from all over the world. Now not very accessible at “high” level, high school and university, the literary language from the eighteenth century back to the origins, the health of contemporary Italian, supervised by the Accademia della Crusca, cannot be excellent.
The most common mistakes in Italian, which becomes a Cinderella among European languages, without particular accents in young people, still characterized by inflections of regional pronunciations by adults who no longer speak the dialect of the family of origin - are certainly in the use of verbal, subjunctive and conditional modes, in the lexical poverty that becomes an inappropriate use of terms and logical connectives. One wonders if as from Latin, from “sermo vulgaris” the Romance and neo-Latin languages were born, also from this “sermo vulgaris” a new language will be born or only Italian will be lost, which
will remain as a literary language and not alive . Dystopia, also with regard to the linguistic scenario, can be useful to prevent the worst from happening. Languages disappear because the nation in which they are spoken loses power, not for aesthetic or even linguistic reasons. This was the case for the Greek language, after the globalization of Alexander the Great, obviously for the Latin language, then for the French of the philosophers, from the nineteenth century for English. It happened at a national level for the illustrious Sicilian, the true mother tongue of Italian poetry, declined with the end of the Norman Swabian Kingdom (1250) and with the domination of the French and Spanish, a legacy collected by the free Municipalities of Tuscany, in particular from Florence, Dolce Stil Novo and then Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio.
Today the subjunctive is often eclipsed, replaced by the indicative, mode of certainty, which should not be used when there is a doubt, a possibility, a hypothesis or an unreality; or the “se” conjunction that accompanies the indicative or subjunctive in the hypothetical period, is associated with the conditional: “se farei” (instead of se facessi)! Terrible! Certainties must dominate hypotheses and doubts, this is the sense of an error that is not only grammatical, but also logical which will then become “philosophical”! We live in doubt, we speak with certainty! The less we know, the more we spit out sentences with the indicative!
The exchange between the personal pronouns “gli” and “li” is certainly due to a lack of pronunciation, which becomes an incorrect written recording of the phoneme, but also to a lack of morphological awareness. For the homography between “gli”, the definite article and the personal pronoun, and the homophony for bad pronunciation with “li” (the plural masculine personal pronoun “li” (them, as an object complement after active transitive verbs) c ‘is a great confusion in the written and oral, even more than between “the (a lui) and” the “(a lei) used incorrectly. A mistake of the new generations the exchange between them, because since elementary, they rely
more on listening than on reading, so confusion in pronunciation becomes fundamental, as in the wrong division between words, a continuous flow, difficult to break one phrase from the other!
Here we eat a lot in fast food, in street food, increasingly ethnic foods, but at the same time standard, domesticated for Italian palates (Chinese, Mexican, Indian foods) and so our speech is all cooked and then frozen, ready in five minutes. The use of the apostrophe in writing is still a problem that does not denote forgetfulness, but ignorance of many terms, so we rely on the homophony of the spoken language. If you do not
know the meaning of “door” it may be okay to write “knocked on the door” as “knocked on the door”! Italics may soon no longer be required: thinking as a gesture in writing is not replaced by using the keyboard of a PC: our very personal handwriting, “fingerprint” of our thinking, of maturity, “retina ”Of our personality, with which to open strong cases of memories, desires and fears, so much so that the signature is still a form of recognition against counterfeiting.
The language of digital natives, often dysgraphic, dysorthographic, dyslexic, dyscalculic (requiring heavy use of PCs with video writing, speech
synthesis, concept maps, images that accompany each proposed content, with a very low attention span and often hyperactive or catatonic) , between play station and social media, uses anglicisms that the Accademia della Crusca has not yet registered as legitimate: bugging, dissing, shoppare! To say that a lesson went well ... they say it’s stonks: Gif of Stronks on Istagram or on WhatsApp to say that the lesson went well.
Writer, literary critic and teacher of literature.
PhD in History of Modern Philosophy at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa.
HTTPS://AMZN.TO/2OAKWCT
BY ROSANNA MAZZITELLI
Drunkorexia consists in limiting the intake of food and calories to be able to drink a lot of alcohol without risking gaining weight.
The combination of teenagers and alcohol is not new to anyone. The use of alcoholic substances in this phase of life is in fact a typical behavior and often represents a transgressive action that the children need to underline their status as autonomous and affirmative subjects in the group. This in itself does not have a salutary effect especially from a fiscal point of view for an evolving and developing body such as that of an adolescent, but the situation is further complicated when the use of alcohol is associated with a eating disorder. It is in this case that we can speak of DRUNKOREXiA.
Drunkorexia, also known as drunkorexia, drankorexia or happy hour anorexia, started as a fad by American teenagers and has spread very quickly so that at the moment it is one of the most common eating disorders in the Western world and Italy does not exception. According to data from the Ministry of Health, drunkorexics in Italy (of various ages) are already more than 300,000. The boys who suffer from it are mainly between 14 and 17 years old, 8 out of 10 are females and unfortunately their number is constantly and rapidly increasing.
It must be emphasized that the term drunkorexia is a media-type invention, i.e. it was coined by the New York Times media in 2008 so it is not an official medical-diagnostic
category, in fact it does not indicate a full-blown food pathology like anorexia and bulimia, but the name was coined to define a pathological behavioral tendency by now so widespread as to constitute a recognized social phenomenon of relevance to the health of the population.
The main characteristics of this phenomenon are: 1. avoiding meals in order to “avoid” calories or compensate for the increased calorie intake from the consumption of alcoholic beverages; 2. Excessive exercise to compensate for calories consumed with alcohol; and 3. Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol in order to avoid nausea and vomiting (Chambers 2008). Those who suffer from this disorder are convinced that they can replace the calories necessary for nutrition and deriving from food, with those coming from alcohol, with the consequence of not gaining weight.
Of course this is a mistaken belief since alcohol does not contain the food principles necessary for healthy functioning of the organism and is very toxic to the gastrointestinal organs, tissues and mucous membranes. Drunkorexia, which is a mixture of alcoholism and anorexia (drunk and anorexia), has gained a lot of ground among young people most likely because it combines well with the night high habits of guys and allows you to be more loose and uninhibited. , thus limiting the anxiety derived from the relationship
with peers.
This behavior has the double advantage for the boys of reducing calories and at the same time intensifying the effect of alcohol which in this way is taken on an empty stomach and therefore absorbed more quickly by the body.
This behavior, as mentioned, represents a serious risk to the health of young people, as the digestive system of a fourteen year old, for example, is not yet able to break down alcohol (since the development of the system has not yet been completed enzymatic) and consequently not taking food and exceeding with the introduction of alcohol into the body can lead to serious consequences on the body (among others .... ulcers, digestive bleeding, cardiac alterations, cirrhosis, up to cancer and ethyl coma) and also have serious repercussions on the brain and cognitive functions of a young individual.
Furthermore, girls are more at risk because the enzyme that metabolizes alcohol is more concentrated in men and therefore, for the same amount of alcohol in the body, for women this substance becomes more toxic. Added to this are the consequences of the aspects related to the anorexic part of the symptom and therefore the risk of osteoporosis, amenorrhea and heart disease.
Of course, not all kids who drink alcohol suffer from this disorder. It is possible to suffer from drukorexia when at the base of this behavior there are important experiences of suffering that find relief and shelter in the development of symptoms such as those connected to an eating disorder.
To counter this phenomenon, it is very important that adults listen to children and pay attention to
the manifestations of malaise that they can bring out in different ways. Among the most useful and necessary tools we find prevention that can be done both at school, in the family or in other places of reference for children. It is important to educate minors both regarding the physical and psychological dangers associated with the early use of alcohol but also to help them accept themselves and others, favoring the expression of the emotions and
the content of suffering they may experience. .
Making children understand that they can be themselves, beyond the judgment of others is one of the greatest lessons that can be learned. In any case, when the problem of drunkorexia is structured it is very important to contact a professional who can help the minor to deal with this problem.
YOU CAN MAIL DONATIONS (CHECKS AND MONEY ORDERS ONLY) TO:
ALSAC/ST. JUDE CHILDREN’S RESEARCH HOSPITAL
501 ST. JUDE PLACE
MEMPHIS, TN 38105
“Nobody has been able to bring together all the Mafia clans in Montreal ... the Mafia is in complete disarray. There’s definitely no emerging leader — that’s why the situation is unstable and volatile”.
Pierre de Champlain
February 21, 1946 – December 23, 2013), also known as “Montreal’s Teflon Don”, was an Italian-Canadian crime boss alleged to be the leader of the Sicilian Mafia in Canada. He headed the notorious Rizzuto crime family based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Rizzuto was born in Cattolica Eraclea, Sicily, Italy in 1946 and immigrated to Montreal with his parents in 1954. His father Nicolo married into the mob, and later started his own crime syndicate in Montreal after overtaking the Cotroni crime family in the late 1970s. He had several run-ins with the law but was able to avoid conviction for any major offenses until 2004.
In 1981, Rizzuto participated in the killing of three rival capos in New
York City ordered by Joe Massino of the Bonanno crime family, and he was indicted by a Brooklyn federal grand jury in connection with these killings in 2004. He was extradited to the United States in 2006, and pled guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering charges in 2007. He was given a 10-year prison sentence, but was released in late 2012.
The Rizzuto crime family had been in the midst of a power struggle while Rizzuto was incarcerated; his son Nicolo Jr. was killed in 2009, and his father killed in 2010. Rizzuto died shortly after on December 23, 2013, due to complications from pneumonia, which may have been induced by lung cancer.
In 1954, on Vito’s eighth birthday, he immigrated with his family to Canada, docking at Pier 21 in Halifax,
Nova Scotia before moving on to Montreal, Quebec. Vito was the first child of Nicolo Rizzuto and his wife, Libertina Manno. His mother was the daughter of Antonio Manno, a local Mafia leader in their hometown. Vito was named after his grandfather, who was murdered on August 12, 1933 in Patterson, New York, Nicolo would later be murdered as well, killed by a single sniper’s bullet at his residence in the Cartierville borough of Montreal on November 10, 2010.
Vito married Giovanna Cammalleri, daughter of compatriot mobster Leonardo Cammalleri, on November 26, 1966, and had three children. His eldest son, Nicolo Rizzuto (Nick Jr.) –named after his grandfather – was born on December 4, 1967. He was shot six times and killed near his car in the Montreal borough of NotreDame-de-Grâce on December 28,
2009. His other son is Leonardo Rizzuto, and the third child is his daughter, Libertina “Bettina” –named after her grandmother. His sister Maria was married to Paolo Renda, reputed consigliere of the Rizzuto crime family, who went missing on May 20, 2010. Vito’s son, Leonardo, and Rocco Sollecito’s son, Stefano, are believed to be the heads of the Mafia in Montreal, who were both arrested and charged with drug trafficking and gangsterism in November 2015. On February 19, 2018, they were released from prison, acquitted of charges of gangsterism and conspiracy to traffic cocaine.
In the 1970s, his father Nicolo was an underling in the Sicilian faction, led by Luigi Greco until his death in 1972, of the Calabrian Cotroni crime family. As tension then grew into a power struggle between the Calabrian and Sicilian factions of the
family, a mob war began in 1973.This led to a violent Mafia war in Montreal which resulted in the deaths of Violi and his brothers, along with others, spanning the mid-1970s to the early 1980s until the war ceased. By the mid 1980s, the Rizzuto crime family emerged as Montreal’s pre-eminent crime family after the turf war.
According to law enforcement officials, Rizzuto oversaw a criminal empire that imported and distributed tons of heroin, cocaine and hashish in Canada, laundered hundreds of millions of dollars, lent out millions more through loansharking operations and profited handsomely from illegal gambling, fraud and contract killings. In 1972, Rizzuto was sentenced to two years for conspiring to commit arson of Renda’s hair salon in Boucherville in 1968 with the intention of defrauding insurers; he served 18 months of the sentence.
In October 1987, a ship off the coast of northeast Newfoundland and and Labrador was seized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The RCMP found 16 tonnes of hashish in the surrounding area, and Rizzuto, Raynald Desjardins and four associates were arrested; Rizzuto was freed on bail in March 1988.[23] Rizzuto’s trial began in October 1990 in a St. John’s courthouse, but when the RCMP overstepped the bounds of Rizzuto’s warrant by wiretapping restaurant conversations between Rizzuto and his lawyer, the Newfoundland Supreme Court dropped the case.
Later that year, Rizzuto was arrested again for conspiring to import hashish into Canada. Drug dealer Normand Dupuis was ready to testify against him for a reduced prison sentence, monetary compensation and a new identity. Before the trial, however, Dupuis contacted Rizzuto’s lawyer Jean Salois with an offer not to testify in exchange for $1 million. Salois recorded this conversation and got Dupuis charged with obstruction of justice. With the witness unfit to testify, Rizzuto was acquitted in 1989.] In the early 1990s, the RCMP secretly ran a phony currency exchange in Montreal as part of an elaborate sting operation, called Project Compote, ending with 46 arrests and a Rizzuto lawyer, Joseph Lagana, convicted for laundering $47 million. Rizzuto was named as a co-conspirator, but there was not enough evidence to charge him.
Though only considered a soldier of the New York Bonanno crime family by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Rizzuto was considered by Canadian officials to be the most powerful mob boss in the country. The organized crime authors Lee Lamothe and
Adrian Humphreys consider the strength of the Rizzuto clan to rival that of any of the Five Families in New York and dubbed it the “Sixth Family.” Rizzuto worked closely with the Sicilian Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan – major illicit drug traffickers –that was led in Canada by Alfonso Caruana.
In early 2004, Rizzuto was indicted by a Brooklyn federal grand jury in relation to racketeering conspiracy charges, including loansharking and murder, in connection with the May
a power grab after the incarceration of then-boss Philip
Rizzuto was arrested on January 20, 2004, in Montreal.
On August 17, 2006, after a legal
battle of 31 months, he was extradited to the United States, and appeared before a United States magistrate judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn. Massino, who received a life sentence for murder after he turned state’s evidence in 2004, was also expected to testify against Rizzuto regarding his role in the three capos murder, but Rizzuto accepted a plea bargain in May 2007 before the case went to trial.
On May 4, 2007, Rizzuto pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder as well as racketeering charges, admitting that he was present at the triple murder in 1981, but stated he had only yelled
“it’s a holdup”, while others did the shooting; he received a 10-year prison sentence and was fined $250,000, to be followed by a threeyear supervised release as part of the plea bargain.Rizzuto’s statement was contrary, however, to a previous testimony given by Bonanno family informant, Salvatore Vitale stating, “Rizzuto was the first mobster out from a hiding spot during the ambush and the first to start shooting.” Organized crime authors Antonio Nicaso and Lee Lamothe stated of the sentence respectively, “It’s a great deal. He couldn’t expect anything better”, and, “I think the system has been beaten again”.
NEXT PAGE
White as snow or candied caress that arises on the white embroidery the night lights up the shine of your white skin and I cross the light of your blue eyes irremediably lost in your candor while I think what my life would be like, after you.
HTTPS://AMZN.TO/3BSRNBP
In the dim light of a dark night our lips intertwine, passionate kisses. Whispers of love float in the air and the heart accelerates its beats; caresses become bolder, kisses softer and… a whirl of bodies enchains the lovers.
HTTPS://AMZN.TO/3BSRNBP
He was released from prison on October 5, 2012, and immediately deported to Toronto, Ontario. Reports suggested that upon his arrival in Canada, Rizzuto met with representatives of the New York Mafia families, and laid low in Toronto for a while before moving back to Montreal. Sources indicated that he had bought an armoured vehicle and was living in a wellguarded apartment, suggesting Rizzuto knew his life was in danger, yet wanted to send a message that he was back and would not be easy prey.
On February 11, 2005, an arrest warrant was issued in Rome against Rizzuto in connection with alleged Mafia involvement with plans to launder money, through Giuseppe Zappia, in building the multi-billiondollar Strait of Messina Bridge across the Strait of Messina connecting the Italian mainland with Sicily. ] The 3,690 metres (12,110 ft) long, suspension-type bridge, which was initially planned to open by 2011, was expected to cost about €5 billion ($7.3 billion CAD).
Several family members and associates of Vito Rizzuto died or disappeared while he was incarcerated:
His associate Federico del Peschio was killed behind La Cantina restaurant in Ahuntsic on August 21, 2009.
His eldest son, Nicolo Rizzuto Jr., was gunned down on December 28, 2009, in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough of Montreal
His brother-in-law and consigliere Paolo Renda disappeared on May 20, 2010, also in Montreal, and is believed to be dead.
Rizzuto was incarcerated at the ADX Florence, the federal supermax prison for the most dangerous male inmates in the United States.
His associate Agostino Cuntrera was executed in broad daylight on June 29, 2010 in the Saint-Leonard borough of Montreal. His father, notorious crime boss Nicolo Rizzuto, was killed by a sniper through his kitchen window on November 10, 2010, at the age of 86. Shortly after Vito Rizzuto’s release, several men were killed in what was suspected to be retaliation for the hits on his family:
Drug dealers Emilio Cordileone, Tony Gensale, and Mohamed Awada were eliminated in back-to-back killings in November 2012 for their alleged implication in the 2008 abduction of a Rizzuto ally.
Also in November 2012, Joe Di Maulo, an influential mobster and ally to the Cotroni family, was executed in the driveway of his home, north of Montreal — his funeral was lightly attended by mafia standards, a sign that he had fallen out of favour. Three days before Christmas 2012, a gunman entered the coffee shop of incarcerated Rizzuto rival Giuseppe De Vito, killing one man, Dominic Facchini, and critically wounding another. In January 2013 Raynald Desjardins’ brother-in-law, Gaétan Gosselin, was murdered in front of his home, as was Vincenzo Scuderi, an alleged associate of Giuseppe De Vito. De Vito would later be killed by cyanide poisoning in prison in July 2013. Salvatore Calautti and Moreno Gallo, each of whom had a falling out with Rizzuto, were murdered. Calautti was shot in the head and killed while sitting in his car in July 2013; he had been suspected in the
unsolved murder of Rizzuto’s father. Gallo, a former influential member of Rizzuto’s organization, was shot dead outside a restaurant in Acapulco, Mexico in November 2013. Gallo had been deported two years earlier, at which time it was also believed he was targeted for execution.
On December 23, 2013, Rizzuto died of complications from pneumonia, which may have been induced by lung cancer, at Sacré-Cœur hospital in Montreal; he was 67. Although his official cause of death was from natural causes, there has been speculation he could have been poisoned, as an autopsy was never performed on his body. Rizzuto’s funeral was held at the Church of the Madonna della Difesa in Montreal’s Little Italy on December 30, attended by around 800 people.He was buried at Saint-François d’Assise cemetery in Saint-Leonard, Quebec.
Even after Rizzuto’s death, the Rizzuto crime family continued their revenge campaign.
Almost three years after Rizzuto’s death, Pierre de Champlain, a former RCMP intelligence analyst stated that “during Vito Rizzuto’s era, if everything was going well for organized crime in Montreal, it was because of Rizzuto”. Subsequently, no other leader proved capable of getting the various groups in the city to work together, allowing street gangs to become more powerful. “Nobody has been able to bring together all the Mafia clans in Montreal ... the Mafia is in complete disarray. There’s definitely no emerging leader — that’s why the situation is unstable and volatile”.
Almost three years after Rizzuto’s death, Pierre de Champlain, a former RCMP intelligence analyst stated that “during Vito Rizzuto’s era, if everything was going well for organized crime in Montreal, it was because of Rizzuto”.
Subsequently, no other leader proved capable of getting the various groups in the city to work together, allowing street gangs to become more powerful. “Nobody has been able to bring together all the Mafia clans in Montreal ... the Mafia is in complete disarray. There’s definitely no emerging leader — that’s why the situation is unstable and volatile”.
FORMAT: HARDCOVER
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ISBN: 1947488619
ISBN13: 9781947488618
RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 2020
PUBLISHER: HOFFMANN & HOFFMANN
LENGTH: 442 PAGES
WEIGHT: 1.80 LBS.
DIMENSIONS: 9.0” X 1.1” X 6.0”
“Legends concerning vampires or other creatures of the night, which frighten or annoy people, have been circulating around the world for centuries, if not millennia.”
BY LOREDANA PREDA
In the Romanian Banat, a historical region of central Europe, these tales still terrify the collective imagination of the old, as well as of the young.
The most important and reliable evidence comes from the chronicles of the early nineteenth century, when, after the end of the Ottoman rule, in 1718, Banat became a territory incorporated into the Hapsburg Empire.
The rigor of the Austrian imperial house did not take long to make itself felt even among the populations of those lands who lived suspended between myth and superstition, between archaic beliefs, religion, and a world that made science a marginal aspect of its existence. It seems that it all began in the year 1725, when, in one of the reports of a Viennese official, the first case of vampirism linked to those territories was recorded and reported.
The story refers to the death of a farmer, Peter Blogovici, after whose death a series of “anomalous” events begins to appear in the village of Kisolova.
Why was the man cataloged as a vampire? Why these accusations?
Immediately after his death, both in
the country and in his family, nine deaths occurred for nine consecutive nights, unexpected, deaths. As if that were not enough, Peter’s son began to tell that every night, at the time of his father’s death, he (or a being in his likeness) would show up in the house, asking for food and drink.
The young man, who had refused to please the starving creature, reported that his father had sucked blood from his neck, and then disappeared into the darkness. The boy began to suffer from fever, chills, hatred in the face and lack of appetite.
The villagers put the events head to head and came to the conclusion that the culprit of the nine deaths and of having drained the vital energies of the orphan boy was none other than Peter.
Since they had to have proof of what was alleged, the peasants claimed the events from the Habsburg authorities, and asked for permission to unearth the body.
In the report, delivered in writing to the Viennese court, the following was recorded: “In the mouth of the deceased I noted, to my immense amazement, the presence of fresh blood. Surely it was the blood drunk from the bodies of the nine people
Peter killed. “
Peter’s body will be pierced by a sharp pole, which will cross his heart, considered to be the seat of life. To ensure that they have definitely sent not only the body but also the soul of man to the afterlife, the peasants, in agreement with the ecclesiastical authorities, decide to completely burn the corpse.
This 1725 report will appear in the European press and will initiate a series of phenomena of collective hysteria concerning the creatures of the night, including vampires. The written chronicles and the stories spread orally speak, later, of hundreds of deceased “denounced” as vampires. The Habsburg representatives will be terrified of the local people. Empress Maria Theresa will send doctors to investigate these unprecedented phenomena.
By questioning relatives and acquaintances of the suspected deceased, scientists note and record some common characteristics among them; these are mainly the similarities regarding the symptoms that preceded death: excruciating pain in the stomach, intestines, nausea and vomiting, unbearable pains in the head, tachycardia, irregular pulse.
Often, before leaving this world, so-called vampires were haunted by nightmares, where they told of seeing monstrous creatures vampirizing those left alive. A kind of premonitory dream.
These details aroused the attention of the members of the community, who, once the deceased was buried, according to customs that are lost in the darkness of history, brought a white horse led by a young child to the cemetery at midnight. If the horse refused to pass over the grave of the deceased, that was an unmistakable sign that the dead man was a vampire. Then they passed to the exhumation and proceeded by piercing the heart and burning the corpse.
Given the multiplication of cases of vampirism, the peasants had
also developed methods to defend themselves from any vampires. In the folkloristic handbook we find: a box containing two guns or two long and sharp nails (sometimes replaced by wooden stakes), to kill and pierce the vampire; garlic powder or other exorcistic plants, to remove it or not bring it close to the home; Saints icons.
These events, disseminated by Viennese, German and French publications, brought curious people from all over Europe to Banat. The French Academy sent delegations to investigate. The doctors turned their attention to the cemeteries of this “wild East”, the lands where vampires, the Stigoi Roamed.
Maria Teresa condemned the pagan customs and sanctioned, through the officials, with fines and even imprisonment, the desecrators of tombs.
As for the latter, it is said that, despite the measures taken to combat the phenomenon, one day, angry with one of her court ladies, she hit the young girl on her face so hard that she made a nosebleed spurt. of the young woman. Since she could not wash her hand immediately, the Empress must wait for a few hours, time in which the blood dried on the back of her palm. Once she arrived at the Castle, cleaned with water, the empress noticed that between the hand where her blood had been there was a notable difference. The skin of the bloody hand was visibly firmer, more turgid, younger looking. It is said that, by virtue of this set of events, the Empress, underneath, began to believe in the lifegiving and rejuvenating power of blood and that, every month, she performed real beauty rituals, where the ingredient chief was the blood of virgin maidens.
Clinical psychologist, integrated strategic psychotherapist, EMDR therapist, expert in juvenile distress, in support for parenting and in eating disorders.
Romanian by origin and Italian by adoption, I live in a province of Bologna. I am consultant and life coach, dedicating myself, to esoteric, spiritual, religious and cultural issues.
Painter, musician, author of theatre and writer. The artist has exhibited his works in Paris, Lausanne, Milan, Czestechowa, Turin, Lyon, Kaiserslautern, HongKong (Affordable Art Fair 2015), Cannes (Festival International du Film 2008) and participated in December 2018 with three works at the "Prima Biennale della Street Art e Delle Visioni Metropolitane" in the Piacenza Expo.
Italian entrepreneur in the musical industry, living in New York since 2017. He actively promotes Italian culture in the U.S. and supports associations in the Italian community by bringing artists, new content and a fresh vision of Italy to the Italian events that he supports..
Book writer author, native of New Jersey who currently A master of science in clinical mental health counseling, therapist by trade and a social activist by nature .
I am an occupational psychologist, sports psychologist, integrated strategic training psychotherapist expert in autobiographical methodologies ..
Trained in the humanities, her studies began with the “Alfieri” high school in Asti, to continue with a degree in Philosophy and a PhD and Postdoctoral degree at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, which led her to live in Turin, in the city of Pisa. in which she graduated in 1994 with honors, in Naples (essential for the study of G. Vico), and in Paris
Rosanna Mazzitelli
Roberto Sironi
Loredana Preda
Ramsay Cummins
Susanna Casubolo
Mariagrazia Pia
Ciro Acampora
