It’s not easy being Italian.( Read more... )

If you want to do something for St.Patrick, you might, if you have the time, read my four chapters about the Saint - http://www.facesofarthur.org.uk/fabio/book4.htm . I like to think they are rather good ( Read more... )

Italy just beat France at Rugby by one point, thanks to a magnificent scrum pack, unbreakable courage that kept going even when nine points down with twenty-five minutes to go, exemplary fitness, and sustained teamwork. But above all, everything else was driven by courage and character and courage and courage and courage. Some other Italian ( Read more... )

A junior high school in the town of Catanzaro, in the far south of the country - a territory plagued by mafia and economic stagnation, and not generally regarded as among Italy's most vital or progressive - had a Year Three class (13-14 year olds) one of whoom had Down's syndrome. (Italian law demands that, as far as possible, children with any ( Read more... )

Italian Constitution, article 1:
Italy is a democratic republic established upon labour. Sovereignty belongs to the people, who exert it in the forms and within the limits set out by the Constitution.What any British counterpart would say, if honesty were an English trait ( Read more... )

Yesterday was the 140th anniversary of the conquest of Rome, which completed the unity and independene of Italy. I had been meaning to write a series of essays on the matter, since there are many people today who question the value of those events. Personal problems have not allowed me to do so thus far, but I think the day should at least be

I don't like Berlusconi. ( Read more... )

An excellent account of what actually happened two days ago in Rome, by an American visitor: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/may/10051702.html . As I was in the city at the time (thouth I wasn't able to see the ceremony, being busy some twenty miles away), I ( Read more... )

IERI

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OGGI

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DOMANIAs I was looking for a Partisan song for my annual commemoration of our 59,000 Partisan dead, I was surprised to find that the most famous of them had taken a second life. It was being used in videos of the heroic and thus far unfortunate struggle of the people of Iran against the monsters who claim to be their government ( Read more... )

The largest party in Italy, PDL, is the result of the union of two supposed-to-be-conservative parties, AN and Berlusconi's FI. This union has not always gone down well with the membership and middle management, and in Rome, in particular, the two founding parties are for all practical purposes still in existence, each with its own membership and ( Read more... )