Bill Giovinazzo 11/29/23 Bill Giovinazzo 11/29/23

Marcus Aurelius, Philosopher King?

Plato wrote of the philosopher king. He described a ruler who combined philosophical knowledge and temperament with political skill and power. Since that time, there has been only one ruler who embodied Plato’s description. Although Marcus Aurelius, in his humility, saw himself as merely a student of philosophy, he was the personification of this Platonic ideal.

Bill Giovinazzo 11/15/23 Bill Giovinazzo 11/15/23

Giuseppe Garibaldi, Hero of Two Worlds

As Joseph Campbell said, “a hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” I can think of no greater example of a hero than Giuseppe Garibaldi. He was a man who combined the personal magnetism of George Washington, the convictions of Abraham Lincoln, and the swashbuckling joie de vivre of Errol Flynn.

Bill Giovinazzo 11/3/23 Bill Giovinazzo 11/3/23

Pineapple on your pizza, sure. Anchovies, no.

You want pineapple on your pizza? Sure, you could get that anywhere. But try asking for anchovies! Nowadays, you get anything on your pizza, from barbeque chicken to kimchi. What is happening to pizza?

Bill Giovinazzo 10/19/23 Bill Giovinazzo 10/19/23

Tony Bennette

This past July, we bade farewell to Tony Bennett, one of the all-time great crooners. Tony Bennett, an artist of whom Frank Sinatra said “is the best singer in the business.”

Bill Giovinazzo 9/27/23 Bill Giovinazzo 9/27/23

The Neapolitan Quartet

The Neapolitan Quartet is a set of novels to which many Americans have been introduced through the HBO series, My Brilliant Friend. While the television series does an excellent job of capturing the essence of the books and is well worth the watching, there is nothing that can compare to actually reading Elana Ferrante’s words. I devoured these books, not hesitating in going immediately from one to the next, as if each book were merely chapters of one complete work, which they were. Ferrante has described them as “a single novel” published in four volumes due to length and duration. They are like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, one story across multiple books.

Bill Giovinazzo 4/25/22 Bill Giovinazzo 4/25/22

The Godfather, The Offer, and Disinformation

Bill Giovinazzo 3/15/22 Bill Giovinazzo 3/15/22

Ukraine & Partisan Flowers

Bill Giovinazzo 1/4/22 Bill Giovinazzo 1/4/22

What Befana Can Teach Us

Bill Giovinazzo 12/23/21 Bill Giovinazzo 12/23/21

Is the Feast of Seven Fishes Italian

Bill Giovinazzo 10/6/21 Bill Giovinazzo 10/6/21

Lampadusa, The Last Leopard

Bill Giovinazzo 6/13/21 Bill Giovinazzo 6/13/21

Anti-Italianism is Alive & Well

I was called a Guinea this week. I never had that happen before. I was also told that when the Nazis marched into Italy Hitler told them to not defecate (that was not the word he used) in the streets because he wanted to starve the Italians. That one was a real head-scratcher for me. Were Germans in the habit of doing something like that in the streets? I also wondered if the Germans ever really marched into Italy as they did in France or Poland. I thought the two countries were allies. I guess you shouldn’t expect a bigot’s comments to make any sense.

Bill Giovinazzo 6/13/21 Bill Giovinazzo 6/13/21

The Origins of Valentine’s Day

They say Italians didn’t invent love, we just perfected it. We can, however, take credit for inventing Valentine’s day. Now, I will admit although the cynical assertion that the holiday was started by chocolatiers, florists, and greeting card companies to help bump sales during the post-holiday slump has some appeal, it isn’t correct. If you are one of these naysayers that dreads having to buy flowers and find a coveted seat at an overbooked restaurant every mid-February, blame the Italians.

Bill Giovinazzo 6/13/21 Bill Giovinazzo 6/13/21

Mussolini and the Catholic Church

In my post last week, Italians and the Catholic Church, I noted how there was a split between the church and the newly unified nation of Italy. Since that time, however, the two have reconciled their differences. No one knows more about this reconciliation than Mrs. Soile Lautsi.

Bill Giovinazzo 6/13/21 Bill Giovinazzo 6/13/21

Italy and the Catholic Church

In my post last week, The Catholic Church and Italian Americans, I had noted how Italians of the Mezzogiorno saw the Catholic Church as yet another institution living off the sweat of the working class. I had also referred to the fact that after Italians unified the country making for the first time in history an actual Italy, that the Vatican reached out to Catholics around the world as well as foreign governments to work towards destabilizing the newly formed Italian Government.