In 2009 the book Rita Atria, a Sicilian rebel got publish, written by Petra Reski, a german journalist, who also wrote the non-fiction novel Mafia. Rita Atria is a pentita, someone that breaks with her or his (criminal) background and will serve as a state witness. A mortal sin within the Mafia structure and certainly not something that will be don...

There are personalities who are unknown to most of us, but they have made an important contribution to our knowledge of the world around us. In fact, without their contribution, some news of the past would not have come down to us and we would not have a complete view of past cultures.One of these is, undoubtedly, Giovanni da Pian del Carpine who, ...

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina was a presbyter of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin who was born on May 23, 1887, in Pietrelcina, Italy, to die 81 years later on September 23, 1968, in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy. The Catholic Church recognized him as a Saint on June 16th 2002, on which the aforementioned John Paul II, decreed him Saint. Since then, the...

Early history Just at one-hour distance from Milan you can find the small town of Cremona. As the capital city of the province of Lombardy, Cremona has around 72.000 inhabitants. The historic town is situated near the Po river in the middle of the Po valley (Pianura Padana) and has an long history, dating from 400 BC when Cremona is first mentioned...

November 2nd is All Souls' Day, a Catholic feast dedicated to the memorial of the dead which, according to tradition, can be dated back to ancient times. This day, in almost every country, the dead are remembered with different rituals and customs, yet the aim is just one: give some consolation to the souls of the dead. Although the tradition might...

The name Italia, probably a Graecized form of Italic Vitelia (='calf land'), was originally restricted to the southern half of the 'toe' but was gradually extended. By 450 B.C. It meant the region subsequently inhabited by the Bruttii; by 400 it embraced Lucania as well. Campania was included after 325, and by Phyrhus' day Italia as a geographical ...

The greatest exodus of modern history has been that of the Italians. Since 1861, more than twenty-four million departures have been recorded. In the space of just over a century a number almost equivalent to the amount of the population at the time of the unification of Italy emigrated abroad. It was an exodus that affected all the Italian regions....

Giovanni Caboto, son of Giulio, was born in Gaeta, Italy, around 1451 AD. After the Aragonese defeated the Angevins in 1461, his family took refuge in Venice where the young Giovanni grew up, got married to Mattea about 1870 and had three children: Ludovico, Sebastiano, and Sancto. His dream was to be an explorer, but it took him some time before f...