Bloghttps://vitoritalytours.com/blog/2024-03-28T21:58:40+00:00Joomla! - Open Source Content ManagementITALY'S DARKEST HOUR - EPISODE 4: SEPTEMBER 8TH2020-06-29T10:02:13+00:002020-06-29T10:02:13+00:00https://vitoritalytours.com/blog/item/44-italy-darkest-hour-september-8th.htmlMarcello Cordovanim.cordovani@tpenergy.eu<div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPpmOHsVp5I&t=18s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPpmOHsVp5I&t=18s</a></p> <p>If you ask a non-Italian about September 8th, he will probably answer it is one of the most beautiful days of the year, weatherwise. </p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>But if you ask an Italian, he will not be happy to talk about it. This date is associated with one of the saddest days in our recent history, one of the most shameful episodes of World War II. Here’s the story.</p> <p>In the last episode, we talked about the armistice between Italy and the Allies, signed on September 3rd, 1943. But its signature has been kept secret by mutual agreement, until the time when the Allies should conduct an airborne operation jointly with the Italian Army against the Germans, to occupy Rome. The operation is scheduled for September 8th, but the Allies cancel it because the Head of Government Badoglio asks for more time to organize the defence of the Capital. The Commander-in-Chief of the Allies, Eisenhower, has had enough of Badoglio's duplicity and announces, at 6.30 p.m., that <strong>the Armistice has been signed</strong>. <br />At this point, Badoglio is forced to broadcast the announcement of the end of hostilities by radio, at 7,30 pm. But the message is ambiguous: "Any act of hostility against Anglo-American forces must cease by Italian forces everywhere. But they will react to attacks from anywhere else”. Badoglio's hope is evident: <strong>not calling to arms the entire population aims at reassuring the Germans and facilitating a soft exit of Italy from the old alliance, preventing conspicuous reprisals by the new enemy, especially towards the King and his family, the members of the government and the other military leaders</strong>, responsible for the decision. An incredible illusion that will cost so many lives!<br />5 minutes after Badoglio's message, the <strong>German High Command orders the disarmament and the capture of the Italian armed forces, wherever they are</strong>. The directive is swiftly implemented in France, the Balkans and Italy. In the evening, the King, Badoglio and their small group of senior officers are still undecided about what to do, they are panicking. They are afraid of falling into the hands of the Germans. Beyond any consideration for their safety, being captured would mean the end of the legal government of the country, thus nullifying the choices made with the armistice. The idea of staying in Rome to lead the resistance against the new enemy is rejected, <strong>they can only escape to reach the allied lines and thus save the King, the symbol of the State</strong>. The port of Civitavecchia is the closest but it is already occupied, so they decide to leave Rome by car and point to Pescara where an Italian corvette will take the King and his entourage on board and transfer them to Brindisi, hopefully not occupied by the Germans.<br />And so, in the middle of the night the Royal Family, the Head of the Government Badoglio and the Chiefs of Staff leave Rome after giving summary indications on how to comply with the clauses of the armistice: as to air and naval forces, move to the allied bases, while the army should stay in place. And this is where the tragedy begins.<br /><strong>The haste makes them forget practically everything</strong>: whom to assign command to, how to dispose of Mussolini, who in the meantime has been transferred to a shelter on the Mountain of the Gran Sasso, and above all how to react in the case of German attacks, however already underway. The escape is an incredible success: despite being stopped at some checkpoints, which strangely give the go-ahead, the caravan reaches Pescara and the group embarks on the Corvette Bayonet for Brindisi, where it arrives on September 10.<br />When the corvette docks in the port of Brindisi, the fate of the Italian armed forces is already dramatically sealed. <strong>Without orders from their Commands, the various army units melt</strong>; officers and soldiers leave the barracks dressed as civilians and with only one goal: to reach their homes. Those who have not left their positions are disarmed and captured by the Germans: they begin an odyssey on the cattle wagons that will lead them to German lagers, as a workforce. This is also the case in Yugoslavia and Greece. Nearly half a million Italian soldiers are taken prisoners. In the following 48 hours, the great Italian cities, as well as the entire transport and communication network of the country, are firmly in the hands of the Germans, and the easy enthusiasm that the announcement of the armistice had created in the population fades sadly. <strong>Italy is under Hitler's control,</strong> with little or no resistance. Only in Rome, Grenadiers together with civilians fight against German troops, no orders and support coming from the High Command.<br />Outside Italy, only a few units resist. The fiercest resistance is opposed by the <strong>Army Division Acqui,</strong> on the island of Kefalonia in Greece. After 2 days of combat, on September 11th the Germans present Commander General Gandin with an ultimatum, requiring him to choose among 3 options: continue fighting alongside the Germans; fight against the Germans; surrender their weapons. General Gandin decides to consult the troops: almost all soldiers answer that they want to fight. On September 15th, the battle is resumed and lasts until the 22nd. The resistance of the Acqui, abandoned to itself, is crushed by the strong German reinforcements. The German Stukas bomb and machine-gun the Italian troops, which defend themselves with courage. Even before the surrender, the Germans eliminate in mass shootings the Italian soldiers, once they are taken prisoner and unarmed. This will happen only in Kefalonia and at the will of Hitler, who personally orders not to take prisoners on the island because of the "betrayal" of the Acqui.<br />On the 22nd the Italians, after losing 55 officers and more than 3,000 soldiers, surrender. After the surrender, <strong>the Germans shoot 4,800 soldiers and 341 officers,</strong> including the Division Commander, General Gandin. While transported to the mainland, another <strong>2,000 soldiers lose their lives on sinking ships</strong>, after crossing a mine area. <br />Thus begins for Italy the gloomiest and darkest moment in its recent history. The country is not out of the conflict at all, as the King and Prime Minister Badoglio had incredibly foreseen. <strong>Along the peninsula, a devastating and bloody conflict between the opposing German and Anglo American armies begins</strong>. Fascism, believed to be torn down, resurfaces under Hitler's protection and civil war begins. Mussolini has been freed by a German commando on September 12th from his captivity on the Grand Sasso and will speak on September 18th from Radio Munich, announcing the <strong>birth of a new fascist state</strong>.</p></div><div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPpmOHsVp5I&t=18s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPpmOHsVp5I&t=18s</a></p> <p>If you ask a non-Italian about September 8th, he will probably answer it is one of the most beautiful days of the year, weatherwise. </p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>But if you ask an Italian, he will not be happy to talk about it. This date is associated with one of the saddest days in our recent history, one of the most shameful episodes of World War II. Here’s the story.</p> <p>In the last episode, we talked about the armistice between Italy and the Allies, signed on September 3rd, 1943. But its signature has been kept secret by mutual agreement, until the time when the Allies should conduct an airborne operation jointly with the Italian Army against the Germans, to occupy Rome. The operation is scheduled for September 8th, but the Allies cancel it because the Head of Government Badoglio asks for more time to organize the defence of the Capital. The Commander-in-Chief of the Allies, Eisenhower, has had enough of Badoglio's duplicity and announces, at 6.30 p.m., that <strong>the Armistice has been signed</strong>. <br />At this point, Badoglio is forced to broadcast the announcement of the end of hostilities by radio, at 7,30 pm. But the message is ambiguous: "Any act of hostility against Anglo-American forces must cease by Italian forces everywhere. But they will react to attacks from anywhere else”. Badoglio's hope is evident: <strong>not calling to arms the entire population aims at reassuring the Germans and facilitating a soft exit of Italy from the old alliance, preventing conspicuous reprisals by the new enemy, especially towards the King and his family, the members of the government and the other military leaders</strong>, responsible for the decision. An incredible illusion that will cost so many lives!<br />5 minutes after Badoglio's message, the <strong>German High Command orders the disarmament and the capture of the Italian armed forces, wherever they are</strong>. The directive is swiftly implemented in France, the Balkans and Italy. In the evening, the King, Badoglio and their small group of senior officers are still undecided about what to do, they are panicking. They are afraid of falling into the hands of the Germans. Beyond any consideration for their safety, being captured would mean the end of the legal government of the country, thus nullifying the choices made with the armistice. The idea of staying in Rome to lead the resistance against the new enemy is rejected, <strong>they can only escape to reach the allied lines and thus save the King, the symbol of the State</strong>. The port of Civitavecchia is the closest but it is already occupied, so they decide to leave Rome by car and point to Pescara where an Italian corvette will take the King and his entourage on board and transfer them to Brindisi, hopefully not occupied by the Germans.<br />And so, in the middle of the night the Royal Family, the Head of the Government Badoglio and the Chiefs of Staff leave Rome after giving summary indications on how to comply with the clauses of the armistice: as to air and naval forces, move to the allied bases, while the army should stay in place. And this is where the tragedy begins.<br /><strong>The haste makes them forget practically everything</strong>: whom to assign command to, how to dispose of Mussolini, who in the meantime has been transferred to a shelter on the Mountain of the Gran Sasso, and above all how to react in the case of German attacks, however already underway. The escape is an incredible success: despite being stopped at some checkpoints, which strangely give the go-ahead, the caravan reaches Pescara and the group embarks on the Corvette Bayonet for Brindisi, where it arrives on September 10.<br />When the corvette docks in the port of Brindisi, the fate of the Italian armed forces is already dramatically sealed. <strong>Without orders from their Commands, the various army units melt</strong>; officers and soldiers leave the barracks dressed as civilians and with only one goal: to reach their homes. Those who have not left their positions are disarmed and captured by the Germans: they begin an odyssey on the cattle wagons that will lead them to German lagers, as a workforce. This is also the case in Yugoslavia and Greece. Nearly half a million Italian soldiers are taken prisoners. In the following 48 hours, the great Italian cities, as well as the entire transport and communication network of the country, are firmly in the hands of the Germans, and the easy enthusiasm that the announcement of the armistice had created in the population fades sadly. <strong>Italy is under Hitler's control,</strong> with little or no resistance. Only in Rome, Grenadiers together with civilians fight against German troops, no orders and support coming from the High Command.<br />Outside Italy, only a few units resist. The fiercest resistance is opposed by the <strong>Army Division Acqui,</strong> on the island of Kefalonia in Greece. After 2 days of combat, on September 11th the Germans present Commander General Gandin with an ultimatum, requiring him to choose among 3 options: continue fighting alongside the Germans; fight against the Germans; surrender their weapons. General Gandin decides to consult the troops: almost all soldiers answer that they want to fight. On September 15th, the battle is resumed and lasts until the 22nd. The resistance of the Acqui, abandoned to itself, is crushed by the strong German reinforcements. The German Stukas bomb and machine-gun the Italian troops, which defend themselves with courage. Even before the surrender, the Germans eliminate in mass shootings the Italian soldiers, once they are taken prisoner and unarmed. This will happen only in Kefalonia and at the will of Hitler, who personally orders not to take prisoners on the island because of the "betrayal" of the Acqui.<br />On the 22nd the Italians, after losing 55 officers and more than 3,000 soldiers, surrender. After the surrender, <strong>the Germans shoot 4,800 soldiers and 341 officers,</strong> including the Division Commander, General Gandin. While transported to the mainland, another <strong>2,000 soldiers lose their lives on sinking ships</strong>, after crossing a mine area. <br />Thus begins for Italy the gloomiest and darkest moment in its recent history. The country is not out of the conflict at all, as the King and Prime Minister Badoglio had incredibly foreseen. <strong>Along the peninsula, a devastating and bloody conflict between the opposing German and Anglo American armies begins</strong>. Fascism, believed to be torn down, resurfaces under Hitler's protection and civil war begins. Mussolini has been freed by a German commando on September 12th from his captivity on the Grand Sasso and will speak on September 18th from Radio Munich, announcing the <strong>birth of a new fascist state</strong>.</p></div>EATING IN ITALY: WHERE TO GO, AND WHY2020-06-05T07:07:08+00:002020-06-05T07:07:08+00:00https://vitoritalytours.com/blog/item/43-italians-like-to-eat-ourside-here-s-where-we-go-and-why.htmlMarcello Cordovanim.cordovani@tpenergy.eu<div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbc87S8-hm0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbc87S8-hm0</a></p> <p>“Why is Italian food so good?” “Because these flavours are distilled by centuries of history.”</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>In addition to being a people of poets, saints and navigators, Italians are mainly gourmets in food and wine. We know how to recognize what is good from what is not and distinguish the raw material with which each product is made. <strong>After all, we are the heirs of a centuries-old peasant tradition</strong> and our territory, so different from North to South, is the base for a culture simple but rich in flavours and traditions. The sun, the sea, the mountains and the plains that characterize our beautiful country, with its Mediterranean climate, make Italy the ideal place where you can find the best in food and wine. If you add the <strong>tradition and the art passed on to us by our ancestors,</strong> then the combination is perfect.</p> <p>Eating in Italy is a cultural operation. The history of Italian cuisine has been influenced by all the peoples which, over the centuries, <strong>have left their mark, not only artistic and cultural but also gastronomic. </strong>Romans, Greeks, Arabs are just some of the peoples who have helped to create a culinary tradition that has lasted for centuries. The dishes that made the history of Italian cuisine <strong>are poor and simple, prepared with very few ingredients</strong>. On the other hand, there are <strong>so many traditional Italian recipes,</strong> and their regional reinterpretations too. That’s the peculiarity of the Italian cuisine: <strong>the same ingredients assembled in infinite combinations. </strong>So, in one of the next videos I will tell you what we choose when we eat at home, but in the meantime, if we want to go out, where do we go to eat?</p> <p>Possiamo andare al ristorante, we can go to the restaurant. Nowadays we talk more and more about starred restaurants. In Italy, many have been awarded by the Michelin Guide and are certainly worth visiting. Osteria Francescana can be considered the king of Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy: chef <strong>Massimo Bottura</strong> is in fact one of the gurus of Italian gastronomy. Osteria is located in Modena and was voted the best restaurant in the world in 2016. Chef Bottura <strong>reinterprets the great classic of the Italian cuisine</strong>, such as Lasagna or Salsa Verde, through his personal style, <strong>well-known flavours are elevated almost to perfection</strong>.</p> <p>And now chefs are also tv stars. <strong>Antonio Cannavacciuolo</strong> is the most famous among them. Many chefs open restaurants in their hometowns – it lets them cook with the ingredients that sparked their passion in the first place. Antonino is from Naples, and you can hear it distinctively when he talks. But instead of staying put, he took his love for southern Neapolitan cuisine to Northern Italy and found a way to <strong>combine the two traditions to create something new and exciting</strong>. He is the chef of the two Michelin-starred restaurant inside 5* Hotel Villa Crespi in Orta San Giulio on Lake Orta, in Northern Piedmont. But beside it, he is the leading character of the TV program Masterchef Italy, and we all <strong>love him for his strong Neapolitan</strong> accent and for <strong>the bond he creates with participants.</strong></p> <p>Starred cuisine may seem distant and unreachable, but it is not so: there are many "cheap" Michelin-starred restaurants, which allow you to have a <strong>real gastronomic experience at a nice price</strong>. The most famous is probably <strong>Davide Oldani</strong>. Chef Oldani created the so-called POP Kitchen, a way of cooking based mainly on <strong>simplicity and primary ingredients. </strong>Among the first when it was not fashionable, he rediscovered the products of the Po plain, supported farmers and breeders, elevated the onion to the rank of a queen, thought of cooking as a <strong>total project</strong>. Not only made of food but <strong>people, relationships, design, raw materials</strong>.</p> <p>However, the true essence of Italian cuisine can be found in Trattorie and Osterie. Originally “il Trattore” was the manager of any eating place, while “l’Oste” was the manager of a public drinking place. The Trattoria and Osteria signs <strong>exert an irresistible appeal because in our imagination it means eating well at a fair price.</strong> The premises that call themselves Trattoria and Osteria have no precise rules governing their activity. Their success is determined by <strong>the seriousness and professionalism</strong> of those who feel Trattore or Oste “inside”. They offer a cuisine <strong>linked to tradition</strong>, in some cases adapted, and simple dishes, made with products of the territory. In most of these premises, there is a search for suppliers with which to create a bond: a way to always guarantee fresh and guaranteed raw materials. The management is almost always familiar, with the <strong>master cook in the kitchen</strong>. Here the typical local dishes are passed on from generation to generation, from grandmother to grandmother, and that still today are a source of inspiration for professional chefs and home cooks.</p> <p>Pizzerias, the best are the ones with the <strong>wood-fired oven</strong>. And today we like to try pizzas with new flours, <strong>flours of the past, whole grains, more rustic, and with typical ingredients, </strong>because we like to innovate but also stay in the groove of tradition. So no to pizza with pineapple or fries, yes to pizza with the tomato “verace” from Pachino (in Sicily), with chickpea flour, with buffalo mozzarella from Campania, with anchovies of the Aeolian Islands (off Sicily).</p> <p>Finally, in recent years the choice has widened, with more and more space for those cooks who want to present reasoned and creative dishes but with low prices. The bistros, with their informal atmospheres, but also “author's trattorias” and more fluid formats, such as bakeries serving pasta or butchers with a restaurant.</p> <p>And if you are missing home, don’t worry: for North Americans we still have McDonald's, for Asians I dined with travellers from the Far East in many Asian restaurants and they were suprised at how close the cuisine was to the food they eat every day at home.</p> <p>There would be no Italian cuisine without Italian ingredients of the highest level, arising from<strong> a quality agriculture that has a thousand-year history of marriage with a generous and varied nature. </strong>Italian chefs are the best ambassadors of Italian agriculture. They know the territories, the producers and with their daily work they create <strong>good but also genuine, natural, clean food.</strong> And not only that: <strong>fair and respectful to those who produced it, cultivated it, bred it.</strong></p> <p>So, why is Italian food so good? Because the flavours of the great ingredients, cultivated on a generous land, are distilled by centuries of history, by the knowledge of our grandfathers…. but most of all our grandmothers.</p></div><div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbc87S8-hm0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbc87S8-hm0</a></p> <p>“Why is Italian food so good?” “Because these flavours are distilled by centuries of history.”</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>In addition to being a people of poets, saints and navigators, Italians are mainly gourmets in food and wine. We know how to recognize what is good from what is not and distinguish the raw material with which each product is made. <strong>After all, we are the heirs of a centuries-old peasant tradition</strong> and our territory, so different from North to South, is the base for a culture simple but rich in flavours and traditions. The sun, the sea, the mountains and the plains that characterize our beautiful country, with its Mediterranean climate, make Italy the ideal place where you can find the best in food and wine. If you add the <strong>tradition and the art passed on to us by our ancestors,</strong> then the combination is perfect.</p> <p>Eating in Italy is a cultural operation. The history of Italian cuisine has been influenced by all the peoples which, over the centuries, <strong>have left their mark, not only artistic and cultural but also gastronomic. </strong>Romans, Greeks, Arabs are just some of the peoples who have helped to create a culinary tradition that has lasted for centuries. The dishes that made the history of Italian cuisine <strong>are poor and simple, prepared with very few ingredients</strong>. On the other hand, there are <strong>so many traditional Italian recipes,</strong> and their regional reinterpretations too. That’s the peculiarity of the Italian cuisine: <strong>the same ingredients assembled in infinite combinations. </strong>So, in one of the next videos I will tell you what we choose when we eat at home, but in the meantime, if we want to go out, where do we go to eat?</p> <p>Possiamo andare al ristorante, we can go to the restaurant. Nowadays we talk more and more about starred restaurants. In Italy, many have been awarded by the Michelin Guide and are certainly worth visiting. Osteria Francescana can be considered the king of Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy: chef <strong>Massimo Bottura</strong> is in fact one of the gurus of Italian gastronomy. Osteria is located in Modena and was voted the best restaurant in the world in 2016. Chef Bottura <strong>reinterprets the great classic of the Italian cuisine</strong>, such as Lasagna or Salsa Verde, through his personal style, <strong>well-known flavours are elevated almost to perfection</strong>.</p> <p>And now chefs are also tv stars. <strong>Antonio Cannavacciuolo</strong> is the most famous among them. Many chefs open restaurants in their hometowns – it lets them cook with the ingredients that sparked their passion in the first place. Antonino is from Naples, and you can hear it distinctively when he talks. But instead of staying put, he took his love for southern Neapolitan cuisine to Northern Italy and found a way to <strong>combine the two traditions to create something new and exciting</strong>. He is the chef of the two Michelin-starred restaurant inside 5* Hotel Villa Crespi in Orta San Giulio on Lake Orta, in Northern Piedmont. But beside it, he is the leading character of the TV program Masterchef Italy, and we all <strong>love him for his strong Neapolitan</strong> accent and for <strong>the bond he creates with participants.</strong></p> <p>Starred cuisine may seem distant and unreachable, but it is not so: there are many "cheap" Michelin-starred restaurants, which allow you to have a <strong>real gastronomic experience at a nice price</strong>. The most famous is probably <strong>Davide Oldani</strong>. Chef Oldani created the so-called POP Kitchen, a way of cooking based mainly on <strong>simplicity and primary ingredients. </strong>Among the first when it was not fashionable, he rediscovered the products of the Po plain, supported farmers and breeders, elevated the onion to the rank of a queen, thought of cooking as a <strong>total project</strong>. Not only made of food but <strong>people, relationships, design, raw materials</strong>.</p> <p>However, the true essence of Italian cuisine can be found in Trattorie and Osterie. Originally “il Trattore” was the manager of any eating place, while “l’Oste” was the manager of a public drinking place. The Trattoria and Osteria signs <strong>exert an irresistible appeal because in our imagination it means eating well at a fair price.</strong> The premises that call themselves Trattoria and Osteria have no precise rules governing their activity. Their success is determined by <strong>the seriousness and professionalism</strong> of those who feel Trattore or Oste “inside”. They offer a cuisine <strong>linked to tradition</strong>, in some cases adapted, and simple dishes, made with products of the territory. In most of these premises, there is a search for suppliers with which to create a bond: a way to always guarantee fresh and guaranteed raw materials. The management is almost always familiar, with the <strong>master cook in the kitchen</strong>. Here the typical local dishes are passed on from generation to generation, from grandmother to grandmother, and that still today are a source of inspiration for professional chefs and home cooks.</p> <p>Pizzerias, the best are the ones with the <strong>wood-fired oven</strong>. And today we like to try pizzas with new flours, <strong>flours of the past, whole grains, more rustic, and with typical ingredients, </strong>because we like to innovate but also stay in the groove of tradition. So no to pizza with pineapple or fries, yes to pizza with the tomato “verace” from Pachino (in Sicily), with chickpea flour, with buffalo mozzarella from Campania, with anchovies of the Aeolian Islands (off Sicily).</p> <p>Finally, in recent years the choice has widened, with more and more space for those cooks who want to present reasoned and creative dishes but with low prices. The bistros, with their informal atmospheres, but also “author's trattorias” and more fluid formats, such as bakeries serving pasta or butchers with a restaurant.</p> <p>And if you are missing home, don’t worry: for North Americans we still have McDonald's, for Asians I dined with travellers from the Far East in many Asian restaurants and they were suprised at how close the cuisine was to the food they eat every day at home.</p> <p>There would be no Italian cuisine without Italian ingredients of the highest level, arising from<strong> a quality agriculture that has a thousand-year history of marriage with a generous and varied nature. </strong>Italian chefs are the best ambassadors of Italian agriculture. They know the territories, the producers and with their daily work they create <strong>good but also genuine, natural, clean food.</strong> And not only that: <strong>fair and respectful to those who produced it, cultivated it, bred it.</strong></p> <p>So, why is Italian food so good? Because the flavours of the great ingredients, cultivated on a generous land, are distilled by centuries of history, by the knowledge of our grandfathers…. but most of all our grandmothers.</p></div>ITALY'S INSTITUTIONS - HOW OUR COUNTRY WORKS2020-05-25T15:01:19+00:002020-05-25T15:01:19+00:00https://vitoritalytours.com/blog/item/42-italy-s-institutions-how-our-country-works.htmlMarcello Cordovanim.cordovani@tpenergy.eu<div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAC3VFJM4VA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAC3VFJM4VA</a></p> <p>Marcello talks about Italy's institutions, in comparison with other countries</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>When I lead tours, many travellers ask me about Italy’s institutions, sooner or later you end up talking about politics and so they want to know about our political system, <strong>the rules that the Italian Republic has set to govern itself</strong>. Everyone, even outside the US, knows about the President of the United States, many probably know how he is elected and the powers he has, and they know that in the US there are two Chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate, the latter having a federal basis, 2 senators for each of the 50 states. All of you know that Great Britain is a monarchy where the Queen has no power but only represents the unity of the nation. The power is exercised by Parliament, by one Chamber in particular, the House of Commons, with an electoral system that automatically indicates the Prime Minister. Germany is a Federal Republic, the Prime Minister (Kanzlerin) is simply the leader of the coalition of parties with the majority in the main Chamber, the Bundestag. There is also a federal Chamber, its legislative function is limited to certain areas that concern the interests of the Lander.</p> <p>Few, however, even the most passionate connoisseurs of Italy, know how Italy is governed. Italy is a <strong>democratic, representative Republic</strong> with a written constitution (for example, Great Britain does not), which was enacted in 1947, 2 years after the end of WWII. A year earlier, in 1946, <strong>a popular referendum had been held</strong> in which the majority of the population had chosen to abolish the monarchy (I will tell you the story later on in the series “The Darkest Hour”). <strong>Our system can be defined “balanced”</strong>. More simply, there is a Parliament, elected by the citizens, that appoints (and controls) the Government; the 3<sup>rd</sup> power, the Judiciary, is independent of the other 2 organs. There is, however, the 4<sup>th</sup> power, and this is why we sa<strong>y it is “balanced”: the Pr</strong>esident of the Republic is “super partes”, as the Romans would say, that is, above the parties. He has been placed, as a representative of the nation and its unity, <strong>alongside the other 3 powers, to control and facilitate the functioning of the entire system, and implement the principles established in the Constitution.</strong></p> <p>In the Italian parliamentary system, there are 2 Chambers, <strong>the Chamber of Deputies with 630 Deputies and the Senate with 315 Senators</strong> (maybe too many, there will be a referendum soon to reduce this number), both last 5 years unless the President of the Republic decides to call early elections. In the Senate, there are also some life members: the former Presidents of the Republic and some personalities, not more than 5, appointed by any President of the Republic<strong> among the citizens with very high merits in the scientific, artistic and literary social fields</strong> (among them the architect Renzo Piano, the Nobel Prize Carlo Rubbia and Liliana Segre, who was deported to Auschwitz in 1944). The system is "perfect" because <strong>every law must be passed in the same form by both Chambers</strong>: it is a guarantee that legislative work is carried out with more accuracy and reflection, avoiding hurried decisions in moments of excitement (and I assure you we’ve had a lot). But it is also a system that produces laws at a slow pace: if one of the two Chambers changes just one word, the law must be approved again in the new form by the other Chamber.</p> <p>In the general elections, any Italian citizen being at least 18-years-old can vote. To vote, you must be registered in the Electoral Registers and present an electoral certificate at the polling station. Voting is personal, meaning that proxy vote is not allowed, as well as voting by mail, which is widely accepted in other states for various categories of citizens.</p> <p>The electoral system is proportional with some corrections. If you are American or English, this is something very far from your experience. You may have 2 or 3 parties, we never had less than 10. There’s a joke that says, when you have 2 Italians, you have 3 political parties. <strong>This system guarantees representation, </strong>but even little parties have the <strong>power to condition the Government, </strong>that’s why we’ve had 66 governments since 1945. We always talk about how to change our electoral rules, but I think<strong> the proportional system is in our DNA,</strong> we will never change it. Having just 2 parties, Democrats and Republicans or Tories and Labour, is just unthinkable to us, we need to find the very party which reflects our ideas, and still when we vote everybody says: “I am voting for the least worst”.</p> <p>The Government depends on the majority in the Parliament, same as in the UK and Germany, but not as in the US; in other words, it rules only if it supported by the majority of MPs and Senators. When the Government no longer has a majority, the Prime Minister (we call him the President of the Council of Ministers) submits his resignation to the President of the Republic, who decides whether there is a possible alternative majority, otherwise he calls new elections. The President of the Republic signs all laws, and may not agree with the text of a law and ask Parliament to review it, but if the Parliament sends it back, he is obliged to sign it. His main task is to control and facilitate the functioning of the entire constitutional mechanism, however<strong> he never intervenes directly in the political debate. </strong>The President of the Republic in charge is Mr. Sergio Mattarella. He is the first President who did not participate in the Partisan movement against Fascists and Nazis in WWII, but he had a brother killed by the Sicilian Mafia. He is a very calm and thoughtful person, and for this he is highly esteemed by the vast majority of the population. All in all, whenever something goes wrong, we always turn to the President of the Republic.</p></div><div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAC3VFJM4VA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAC3VFJM4VA</a></p> <p>Marcello talks about Italy's institutions, in comparison with other countries</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>When I lead tours, many travellers ask me about Italy’s institutions, sooner or later you end up talking about politics and so they want to know about our political system, <strong>the rules that the Italian Republic has set to govern itself</strong>. Everyone, even outside the US, knows about the President of the United States, many probably know how he is elected and the powers he has, and they know that in the US there are two Chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate, the latter having a federal basis, 2 senators for each of the 50 states. All of you know that Great Britain is a monarchy where the Queen has no power but only represents the unity of the nation. The power is exercised by Parliament, by one Chamber in particular, the House of Commons, with an electoral system that automatically indicates the Prime Minister. Germany is a Federal Republic, the Prime Minister (Kanzlerin) is simply the leader of the coalition of parties with the majority in the main Chamber, the Bundestag. There is also a federal Chamber, its legislative function is limited to certain areas that concern the interests of the Lander.</p> <p>Few, however, even the most passionate connoisseurs of Italy, know how Italy is governed. Italy is a <strong>democratic, representative Republic</strong> with a written constitution (for example, Great Britain does not), which was enacted in 1947, 2 years after the end of WWII. A year earlier, in 1946, <strong>a popular referendum had been held</strong> in which the majority of the population had chosen to abolish the monarchy (I will tell you the story later on in the series “The Darkest Hour”). <strong>Our system can be defined “balanced”</strong>. More simply, there is a Parliament, elected by the citizens, that appoints (and controls) the Government; the 3<sup>rd</sup> power, the Judiciary, is independent of the other 2 organs. There is, however, the 4<sup>th</sup> power, and this is why we sa<strong>y it is “balanced”: the Pr</strong>esident of the Republic is “super partes”, as the Romans would say, that is, above the parties. He has been placed, as a representative of the nation and its unity, <strong>alongside the other 3 powers, to control and facilitate the functioning of the entire system, and implement the principles established in the Constitution.</strong></p> <p>In the Italian parliamentary system, there are 2 Chambers, <strong>the Chamber of Deputies with 630 Deputies and the Senate with 315 Senators</strong> (maybe too many, there will be a referendum soon to reduce this number), both last 5 years unless the President of the Republic decides to call early elections. In the Senate, there are also some life members: the former Presidents of the Republic and some personalities, not more than 5, appointed by any President of the Republic<strong> among the citizens with very high merits in the scientific, artistic and literary social fields</strong> (among them the architect Renzo Piano, the Nobel Prize Carlo Rubbia and Liliana Segre, who was deported to Auschwitz in 1944). The system is "perfect" because <strong>every law must be passed in the same form by both Chambers</strong>: it is a guarantee that legislative work is carried out with more accuracy and reflection, avoiding hurried decisions in moments of excitement (and I assure you we’ve had a lot). But it is also a system that produces laws at a slow pace: if one of the two Chambers changes just one word, the law must be approved again in the new form by the other Chamber.</p> <p>In the general elections, any Italian citizen being at least 18-years-old can vote. To vote, you must be registered in the Electoral Registers and present an electoral certificate at the polling station. Voting is personal, meaning that proxy vote is not allowed, as well as voting by mail, which is widely accepted in other states for various categories of citizens.</p> <p>The electoral system is proportional with some corrections. If you are American or English, this is something very far from your experience. You may have 2 or 3 parties, we never had less than 10. There’s a joke that says, when you have 2 Italians, you have 3 political parties. <strong>This system guarantees representation, </strong>but even little parties have the <strong>power to condition the Government, </strong>that’s why we’ve had 66 governments since 1945. We always talk about how to change our electoral rules, but I think<strong> the proportional system is in our DNA,</strong> we will never change it. Having just 2 parties, Democrats and Republicans or Tories and Labour, is just unthinkable to us, we need to find the very party which reflects our ideas, and still when we vote everybody says: “I am voting for the least worst”.</p> <p>The Government depends on the majority in the Parliament, same as in the UK and Germany, but not as in the US; in other words, it rules only if it supported by the majority of MPs and Senators. When the Government no longer has a majority, the Prime Minister (we call him the President of the Council of Ministers) submits his resignation to the President of the Republic, who decides whether there is a possible alternative majority, otherwise he calls new elections. The President of the Republic signs all laws, and may not agree with the text of a law and ask Parliament to review it, but if the Parliament sends it back, he is obliged to sign it. His main task is to control and facilitate the functioning of the entire constitutional mechanism, however<strong> he never intervenes directly in the political debate. </strong>The President of the Republic in charge is Mr. Sergio Mattarella. He is the first President who did not participate in the Partisan movement against Fascists and Nazis in WWII, but he had a brother killed by the Sicilian Mafia. He is a very calm and thoughtful person, and for this he is highly esteemed by the vast majority of the population. All in all, whenever something goes wrong, we always turn to the President of the Republic.</p></div>MY PRIVATE ITALY: “La Mille Miglia”, the fastest (and craziest) car race ever run – Part 22020-05-07T20:38:41+00:002020-05-07T20:38:41+00:00https://vitoritalytours.com/blog/item/39-la-mille-miglia-the-fastest-and-craziest-car-race-ever-run-part-2.htmlMarcello Cordovanim.cordovani@tpenergy.eu<div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o3JDkpm0Y0&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR31JIkIDGqtE_CUEtsJkNWiTcUEkXalZeFRdHKxvUFapfnGFS6L-rfjbzs</span></p> <p>Marcello tells the story of the 1948 edition and Nuvolari’s epic drive on Ferrari – The legend was born</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>1948, the war ended 3 years ago, the democratic governments of Italy are struggling to manage not only a country largely destroyed but also a torn population. The reconstruction, however, has begun immediately and now we must also look for something that can somehow calm the spirits. Sport can be useful for this purpose and is therefore favoured by the authorities. Motorsports are still hugely popular and “La MILLE MIGLIA” is the most exciting race. Already in 1947, the original route, from Brescia to Rome and back, has been modified due to the extensive damage suffered by the road network during the war. In this edition, starting from Brescia cars will head to Padua, then turn south along the Adriatic Sea to Fano. From here through Le Marche, Umbria and Lazio to Rome. North to Livorno along the Tyrrhenian Sea, then inland to Pisa and Florence, across the Apennines to Bologna, then via Piacenza and Alessandria to Turin. Finally, the grand final sprint on the very fast highway Turin - Milan – Brescia. It’s 1000 miles, yes, but marine miles. And remember: the roads remain open to traffic.</p> <p>There is not a clear favourite for the victory this year, because 4 brands are competing with all their strength: Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Ferrari and Cisitalia. Alfa Romeo has built 2 experimental models in great secrecy, two racy 2500 CC sedans with a lightweight alloy aerodynamic body, which can exceed 200 km/h. Maserati runs with 4 2000 cubic cm cars, open, low, very stable and agile; its top driver is Alberto Ascari, who will become world champion formula 1 in 1950. Ferrari brought to Brescia 3 166 Sport, which can exceed 200 km/h. Its top driver is Cesare Biondetti, but in the end, just 3 days before the start, on April 29, it registers the 4th car. That day a driver is wandering among the cars for testing. He has been resting for several months on Lake Garda, where his main activity has been walking with his wife. That morning, however, Enzo Ferrari spots him among cars in Piazza Vittoria a Brescia, during official car tests before the starts. Ferrari does not hesitate, takes him under his arm and says: "Tazio, come with me to Maranello, I want you to see my cars". Tazio is Nuvolari, the legendary pilot. The two leave for Maranello and here Ferrari shows him a red car. "Tazio, why don't you drive one?" The great Tazio hesitates, his wife will be angry, but he can’t say no, the call of the road is too strong: at 55 years old, he will run the longest MILLE MIGLIA, 1800 km, a superhuman challenge.</p> <p>In the 1930s Nuvolari had become very popular, indeed the most popular driver in the world. His driving style, which was described by Enzo Ferrari as "a prodigy of instinct at the limits of human possibilities and physical laws", was inimitable: he turned by drifting, practically without ever taking his foot off the accelerator. On more than one occasion he had raced without even using brakes, using only the gear to slow down. Nivola easily adapted to the most diverse cars because he felt them, with an animal instinct, and soon entered into symbiosis with them.</p> <p>It is midnight on May 2, 1948; the first car starts, behind it 186 cars are queuing to start. A few minutes before 4 am the first Alfa Romeo starts, at 4:00 Ascari’s Maserati, at 4:13 here is the first Ferrari with Biondetti and at 4:24 the crowd greets with a roar the departure of Nuvolari on the Ferrari spider marked with the number 1049.</p> <p>In the Brescia-Padua section, 156 km, Ascari's Maserati averages 145.093 km/h, at night! In Padua, he is first followed by Cortese on Ferrari and Sanesi on Alfa Romeo. Nivola is 6th. From Padua, the pilots then race fast to Ravenna on the Via Adriatica along the Po river and just out of Ravenna Romano’s Alfa Romeo has an accident and overturns: luckily the drivers come out unharmed. In Forlì then, pilots leave the Via Adriatica and enter the Via Emilia, heading for the sea. In Rimini, they touch the Adriatic sea, then Pesaro and Fano.</p> <p>Now the road, the Via Flaminia, becomes more winding. In Fossombrone the road enters a deep natural rift 2 km long, the Furlo Gorge, and suddenly behind a curve appears the Gallery of Furlo, the ancient tunnel built by the Roman Emperor Vespasian at the narrowest point of the gorge to give easy passage to the Flaminia way. Then the climb to the Pass of the Scheggia (632 m), the natural watershed between the Adriatic side and the Tyrrhenian side of the Apennines. On these roads Nuvolari drives like no other, he is the master of the Apennine passes.</p> <p>The road continues to the south: Nocera Umbra, Foligno, Trevi, Spoleto, then the ascent to the Passo della Somma and down to Terni, and finally Rome. Nuvolari passes through the control of the capital at 10:13, five hours and 49 minutes after departure; he is first, on the hard Apennine passes and on the nervous roads of Umbria he overcame all competitors and with the average of 126 km/h he just broke the record of the previous year (his record) by far. The radio broadcasting the highlights of the race says: "In Rome, Nuvolari is first". Sanesi follows him on Alfa Romeo, Ascari with his Maserati is 4th.</p> <p>At the control of Ponte Milvio, outside Rome, the champion arrives at full speed and stops, the mechanics raise the hood of the Ferrari for a fast check, then close it, or rather try to close it because the body does not want to return in its place. Nuvolari tries, nothing to do, time runs, you cannot wait: the champion opens the hood and detaches it from the car and throws it away. Let’s go! Now the pilots take the Via Aurelia at top speed. In Cerveteri Sanesi on Alfa Romeo, who is going very fast behind Nuvolari, runs off the road due to the burst of a tyre; the car flips over several times, the condition of the two drivers immediately appears serious, but they will be saved. Now, with the incident of its second official car, Alfa Romeo is out.</p> <p>Tarquinia, Grosseto, Follonica, in Livorno at 12:42, 8 hours and 18 minutes after the start, Nuvolari is still first at the spectacular average of 127,301 km/h. Behind him now is Ascari with a delay of 20 minutes, then the other Ferrari of Biondetti with 24 minutes. The unexpected, however, is just around the corner: right after Livorno Nivola is overtaking another competitor when, suddenly, a bang: ending up against the rock face the car turns 180°. The right rear suspension lay is broken, a crossbow is damaged, the seat is displaced jumped and brakes are hardly working. The red car starts again, bruised more than ever, but Nuvolari has no intention to give up.</p> <p>From Pisa to Florence the road runs flat in the Arno valley. In Florence shortly after 1:30 Nuvolari is still 1st with an average of 133 km/h and his most immediate pursuer, Biondetti, is behind by 30 minutes. Ascari has retired before Florence betrayed by the gear of his Maserati. "Nuvolari is first in Florence" the radio announces to all Italians.</p> <p>Now, here are the last two climbs: the Futa Pass and the Raticosa Pass. Nivola drives on the winding roads gritting his teeth, in Bologna amid the roar of the crowd he is still 1st. Biondetti is behind with the second Ferrari with a gap of almost half an hour. Now from Bologna in the plain to Modena at full speed. No hood, no seat, no brakes, the battered frame, he just lost a fender and is starting to rain. Nuvolari is on an uncovered car, his opponent instead runs protected in a comfortable sedan. Is it the replay of last year's Mille Miglia, when a storm between Asti and Alexandria took away his victory?</p> <p>In the end, the incredible adventure ends in Reggio Emilia, the radio announces: "Nuvolari just retired close to Villa Ospizia, 1 km from the city, due to the complete break of the right rear suspension". Realizing that the car cannot go on, Nivola gets out of it: he does not curse against fate, he doesn't say a word, he is only exhausted, he asks where he can lay down and they take him to a refectory. There, he collapses; they lift him and lay him on the priest's bed. His Mille Miglia is over. "Come on, you're going to do it again next year," says Enzo Ferrari, who ran to villa Ospizio to see him. "No, there won't be another Mille Miglia”. Nivola answers by shaking his head sadly. He couldn't win but now the whole of Italy is talking about him, only about him.</p> <p>The race is almost finished. From Turin, Biondetti on Ferrari heads to Brescia at an average of 160 km/h. The red Ferrari crosses the finish line in Brescia in 15 hours 5 minutes and 44 seconds with an average of 121 km/h. It is Ferrari's first victory in the Mille Miglia: here the legend of the Prancing Horse begins. Tazio Nuvolari, meanwhile, is sleeping in the refectory of Villa Hospice.</p> <p>A truck brings the glorious spider number 1049 back to Maranello, to Enzo Ferrari’s house. The car is battered, in pieces, it looks like a wreck but only bad luck managed to stop her, and her tamer.</p></div><div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o3JDkpm0Y0&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR31JIkIDGqtE_CUEtsJkNWiTcUEkXalZeFRdHKxvUFapfnGFS6L-rfjbzs</span></p> <p>Marcello tells the story of the 1948 edition and Nuvolari’s epic drive on Ferrari – The legend was born</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>1948, the war ended 3 years ago, the democratic governments of Italy are struggling to manage not only a country largely destroyed but also a torn population. The reconstruction, however, has begun immediately and now we must also look for something that can somehow calm the spirits. Sport can be useful for this purpose and is therefore favoured by the authorities. Motorsports are still hugely popular and “La MILLE MIGLIA” is the most exciting race. Already in 1947, the original route, from Brescia to Rome and back, has been modified due to the extensive damage suffered by the road network during the war. In this edition, starting from Brescia cars will head to Padua, then turn south along the Adriatic Sea to Fano. From here through Le Marche, Umbria and Lazio to Rome. North to Livorno along the Tyrrhenian Sea, then inland to Pisa and Florence, across the Apennines to Bologna, then via Piacenza and Alessandria to Turin. Finally, the grand final sprint on the very fast highway Turin - Milan – Brescia. It’s 1000 miles, yes, but marine miles. And remember: the roads remain open to traffic.</p> <p>There is not a clear favourite for the victory this year, because 4 brands are competing with all their strength: Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Ferrari and Cisitalia. Alfa Romeo has built 2 experimental models in great secrecy, two racy 2500 CC sedans with a lightweight alloy aerodynamic body, which can exceed 200 km/h. Maserati runs with 4 2000 cubic cm cars, open, low, very stable and agile; its top driver is Alberto Ascari, who will become world champion formula 1 in 1950. Ferrari brought to Brescia 3 166 Sport, which can exceed 200 km/h. Its top driver is Cesare Biondetti, but in the end, just 3 days before the start, on April 29, it registers the 4th car. That day a driver is wandering among the cars for testing. He has been resting for several months on Lake Garda, where his main activity has been walking with his wife. That morning, however, Enzo Ferrari spots him among cars in Piazza Vittoria a Brescia, during official car tests before the starts. Ferrari does not hesitate, takes him under his arm and says: "Tazio, come with me to Maranello, I want you to see my cars". Tazio is Nuvolari, the legendary pilot. The two leave for Maranello and here Ferrari shows him a red car. "Tazio, why don't you drive one?" The great Tazio hesitates, his wife will be angry, but he can’t say no, the call of the road is too strong: at 55 years old, he will run the longest MILLE MIGLIA, 1800 km, a superhuman challenge.</p> <p>In the 1930s Nuvolari had become very popular, indeed the most popular driver in the world. His driving style, which was described by Enzo Ferrari as "a prodigy of instinct at the limits of human possibilities and physical laws", was inimitable: he turned by drifting, practically without ever taking his foot off the accelerator. On more than one occasion he had raced without even using brakes, using only the gear to slow down. Nivola easily adapted to the most diverse cars because he felt them, with an animal instinct, and soon entered into symbiosis with them.</p> <p>It is midnight on May 2, 1948; the first car starts, behind it 186 cars are queuing to start. A few minutes before 4 am the first Alfa Romeo starts, at 4:00 Ascari’s Maserati, at 4:13 here is the first Ferrari with Biondetti and at 4:24 the crowd greets with a roar the departure of Nuvolari on the Ferrari spider marked with the number 1049.</p> <p>In the Brescia-Padua section, 156 km, Ascari's Maserati averages 145.093 km/h, at night! In Padua, he is first followed by Cortese on Ferrari and Sanesi on Alfa Romeo. Nivola is 6th. From Padua, the pilots then race fast to Ravenna on the Via Adriatica along the Po river and just out of Ravenna Romano’s Alfa Romeo has an accident and overturns: luckily the drivers come out unharmed. In Forlì then, pilots leave the Via Adriatica and enter the Via Emilia, heading for the sea. In Rimini, they touch the Adriatic sea, then Pesaro and Fano.</p> <p>Now the road, the Via Flaminia, becomes more winding. In Fossombrone the road enters a deep natural rift 2 km long, the Furlo Gorge, and suddenly behind a curve appears the Gallery of Furlo, the ancient tunnel built by the Roman Emperor Vespasian at the narrowest point of the gorge to give easy passage to the Flaminia way. Then the climb to the Pass of the Scheggia (632 m), the natural watershed between the Adriatic side and the Tyrrhenian side of the Apennines. On these roads Nuvolari drives like no other, he is the master of the Apennine passes.</p> <p>The road continues to the south: Nocera Umbra, Foligno, Trevi, Spoleto, then the ascent to the Passo della Somma and down to Terni, and finally Rome. Nuvolari passes through the control of the capital at 10:13, five hours and 49 minutes after departure; he is first, on the hard Apennine passes and on the nervous roads of Umbria he overcame all competitors and with the average of 126 km/h he just broke the record of the previous year (his record) by far. The radio broadcasting the highlights of the race says: "In Rome, Nuvolari is first". Sanesi follows him on Alfa Romeo, Ascari with his Maserati is 4th.</p> <p>At the control of Ponte Milvio, outside Rome, the champion arrives at full speed and stops, the mechanics raise the hood of the Ferrari for a fast check, then close it, or rather try to close it because the body does not want to return in its place. Nuvolari tries, nothing to do, time runs, you cannot wait: the champion opens the hood and detaches it from the car and throws it away. Let’s go! Now the pilots take the Via Aurelia at top speed. In Cerveteri Sanesi on Alfa Romeo, who is going very fast behind Nuvolari, runs off the road due to the burst of a tyre; the car flips over several times, the condition of the two drivers immediately appears serious, but they will be saved. Now, with the incident of its second official car, Alfa Romeo is out.</p> <p>Tarquinia, Grosseto, Follonica, in Livorno at 12:42, 8 hours and 18 minutes after the start, Nuvolari is still first at the spectacular average of 127,301 km/h. Behind him now is Ascari with a delay of 20 minutes, then the other Ferrari of Biondetti with 24 minutes. The unexpected, however, is just around the corner: right after Livorno Nivola is overtaking another competitor when, suddenly, a bang: ending up against the rock face the car turns 180°. The right rear suspension lay is broken, a crossbow is damaged, the seat is displaced jumped and brakes are hardly working. The red car starts again, bruised more than ever, but Nuvolari has no intention to give up.</p> <p>From Pisa to Florence the road runs flat in the Arno valley. In Florence shortly after 1:30 Nuvolari is still 1st with an average of 133 km/h and his most immediate pursuer, Biondetti, is behind by 30 minutes. Ascari has retired before Florence betrayed by the gear of his Maserati. "Nuvolari is first in Florence" the radio announces to all Italians.</p> <p>Now, here are the last two climbs: the Futa Pass and the Raticosa Pass. Nivola drives on the winding roads gritting his teeth, in Bologna amid the roar of the crowd he is still 1st. Biondetti is behind with the second Ferrari with a gap of almost half an hour. Now from Bologna in the plain to Modena at full speed. No hood, no seat, no brakes, the battered frame, he just lost a fender and is starting to rain. Nuvolari is on an uncovered car, his opponent instead runs protected in a comfortable sedan. Is it the replay of last year's Mille Miglia, when a storm between Asti and Alexandria took away his victory?</p> <p>In the end, the incredible adventure ends in Reggio Emilia, the radio announces: "Nuvolari just retired close to Villa Ospizia, 1 km from the city, due to the complete break of the right rear suspension". Realizing that the car cannot go on, Nivola gets out of it: he does not curse against fate, he doesn't say a word, he is only exhausted, he asks where he can lay down and they take him to a refectory. There, he collapses; they lift him and lay him on the priest's bed. His Mille Miglia is over. "Come on, you're going to do it again next year," says Enzo Ferrari, who ran to villa Ospizio to see him. "No, there won't be another Mille Miglia”. Nivola answers by shaking his head sadly. He couldn't win but now the whole of Italy is talking about him, only about him.</p> <p>The race is almost finished. From Turin, Biondetti on Ferrari heads to Brescia at an average of 160 km/h. The red Ferrari crosses the finish line in Brescia in 15 hours 5 minutes and 44 seconds with an average of 121 km/h. It is Ferrari's first victory in the Mille Miglia: here the legend of the Prancing Horse begins. Tazio Nuvolari, meanwhile, is sleeping in the refectory of Villa Hospice.</p> <p>A truck brings the glorious spider number 1049 back to Maranello, to Enzo Ferrari’s house. The car is battered, in pieces, it looks like a wreck but only bad luck managed to stop her, and her tamer.</p></div>Italy’s darkest hour – Episode 3: Italy surrenders2020-04-29T12:15:23+00:002020-04-29T12:15:23+00:00https://vitoritalytours.com/blog/item/38-italy-darkest-hour-episode-3-italy-surrenders.htmlMarcello Cordovanim.cordovani@tpenergy.eu<div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw5d5h9l3kw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw5d5h9l3kw</a></p> <p>Marcello talks about the time between the fall of Mussolini and Italy’s surrender. The armistice is signed, but at what cost?</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>Last time we left you with the ousting of Mussolini and his imprisonment, on July 25th.</p> <p>Hitler has met Mussolini just a few days before, on the 19th, now with his Generals in the “Wolfsschanze”, the Wolf's Lair, he screams irrepressibly: betrayal, betrayal, betrayal, like in WWI. Hitler wants to act now, not recognize Marshal Badoglio’s Government, occupy Italy. His generals induce him to stop, but everyone fully understands that the reassuring statements of the King and Badoglio are a gimmick, they just want to buy time. On the contrary, better to take advantage of the time that this choice makes available to the German armed forces, to gradually invade the country and occupy it.</p> <p>Now, it all depends on the intentions of the Allies. Where will they strike after Sicily? The Germans have experimented in Sicily with the tactics of a slow, controlled retreat and have no intention of abandoning Southern and Central Italy, which offer many possibilities of valid defence thanks to rivers and mountain ranges. They hope that the Allies will climb the peninsula starting from Calabria, and that’s precisely what they will do, unfortunately for Italy. From the Brenner, units of the Wehrmacht (the German army) begin to flow into Italy, and in South Tyrol they act as if they were already in annexed territory. Formally, in Rome, the relationship between the High Commands remains correct. In reality, the Germans see Italy as a potential ally of the Allies.</p> <p>For the Allies, the time is ripe. On the evening of 27 July, Commander in Chief Eisenhower sends a clever radio message to the Italians: “You want peace, you can have it immediately….. We come to you as liberators. Your part consists of stopping immediately to cooperate in any way with the German military forces..... As you have already seen in Sicily, our occupation will be mild and beneficient ... The ancient liberties and traditions of your country will be restored”. It is the carrot, accompanied by the stick. At the same time, the Allies intensify bombings on Italian cities. One, in particular, is to be remembered. Milan, August 16th, it's a Sunday. At midnight a wave of RAF bombers targets the city center and one bomb weighing 1.8 tons strikes the area of the church of Santa Maria della Grazie. In the refectory of the church, on the north wall, Leonardo da Vinci painted in 1498 his masterpiece: l’Ultima Cena, the Last Supper. The blast reduces the East wall of the refectory to rubble and brings the roof down with it. Fortunately, in 1940 local art officials concerned about this very possibility had installed sandbags pine scaffoldings and metal bracing on both sides of the North wall. The loss of the East wall and roof dissipates the delicate micro-climate inside the refectory, and the summer heat increases the moisture in the wall causing portions of the painted surface to swell and then lift. The bomb blast dislodges sandbags tossing some of them against the painted surface; the building attached to the backside of the refactoring threatens to collapse. As events in Milan demonstrate, the new technology of aerial bombardments and in particular incendiary weapons puts history's most precious works of art in grave danger. Some of them will disappear, cancelled by the fury of man. It is as a consequence of this bombing that, finally, the Americans establish the famous “Commission for the protection and salvage of artistic and historic monuments in Europe”, the corps that will become famous with just 2 words: the Monuments Men. They will play a decisive role in preserving Italy’s treasures and will be one of the main characters in this story.</p> <p>Now, Badoglio and the King want to get out of the war, so they need to find a way to start negotiations with the Allies, who already in the Casablanca conference have dictated the harsh demand for unconditional surrender. But there is a problem: how to break away from the alliance with the Germans, present in forces on the peninsula, suspicious, ferocious like a wounded tiger? And here begins the ballet, which will soon turn into tragedy.</p> <p>Marshal Badoglio is obsessed with secrecy. At first, he orders to contact the British and American ambassadors at the Vatican, but they are not able to communicate with their Governments ensuring reasonable secrecy. So he decides to contact the Allies in neutral ground, and chooses Spain and Portugal. He instructs General Castellano, a member of the High Command, to travel to Madrid and contact the British Ambassador. Castellano arrives in Madrid on August 15th. Fortunately, he finds in his office the British Ambassador Hoare, who is unexpectedly quite courteous to him. Castellano tells him that Italy could cooperate with the Anglo-Americans and the Government is willing to accept the unconditional surrender, but it asks to know where the Allies will land next. His purpose is clear, the Italian Government is under the illusion of starting a negotiation among equals. The Ambassador gives him safe conduct for Lisbon with a letter of accreditation for the fellow British ambassador to the Government of Portugal, then telegraphs to the Government in London suggesting that he take into account the offers of the envoy of Badoglio.</p> <p>In Lisbon, Ambassador Campbell takes time to await the arrival of two military representatives Eisenhower has just sent from his HQ, his Chief of Staff, the American General Smith and the head of Information Services, the English Colonel Strong. They meet with Castellano on August 19th. It's an icy meeting: the two don't salute, they don't shake hands, they just nod. “There is no room for negotiation, Italy must surrender unconditionally”, they say. Castellano asks when and where the main landing in Italy would take place and says that the Italian Government would like the date of the armistice to be known 15 days in advance, to effectively prepare the protection of the Government and the Royal family. Sadly, this is much more important in the negotiations than the hundreds of thousands of Italian soldiers scattered throughout Europe. Smith coldly replies that the announcement of the armistice will precede the main landing by a few hours and that the Italians will be notified on the same day.</p> <p>Castellano is equipped with a radio transmitter and a cypher, and Smith and Strong indicate the date of August 30th as the deadline by which the approval of Italy must be communicated.</p> <p>Castellano must report to Rome but, given the secrecy of the mission, he cannot use any communication channels. He has no choice but to take the train for the long journey from Lisbon to Rome, where he arrives on August 25th, crossing territories where controls by the Germans are frequent. Now, the incredible happens, to confirm the nervousness and apprehensions of the conspirators. Badoglio is convinced that Castellano's delay is due to an accident, or maybe Castellano has been arrested by the Germans, so he orders a second mission led by General Zanussi, who is to fly directly to Lisbon. The arrival in the Portuguese capital of another Italian delegation produces dismay and surprise among the Allies. Eisenhower, informed of the new mission, wonders: can Italians still be trusted? Out of prudence, he hijacks the plane by which Zanussi is returning to Italy to Algiers, here his advisers question him to clarify if he is a provocateur or a spy. Fortunately, the general manages to clear all doubts and is then detained in Algiers.</p> <p>August 30th, the terms for surrender expire. Finally, Badoglio decides to accept and with the transceiver (remember?) he sends a message to confirm that Castellano will leave the next day from Rome for Sicily.</p> <p>September 1st, Castellano meets with Smith and Storm in Cassibile, halfway between Noto and Syracuse. And there he tries again to set conditions and suggests the idea of a joint operation near Rome, which would allow the Italian army to defend Rome and encourage the Italians to fight alongside the Anglo-Americans. The Allies must think about it, and Smith moves the final decision date to the following day at noon. Castellano leaves for Rome. In the evening of September 1st, Badoglio via radio transmits that Italy agrees to surrender and that Castellano will return to Sicily the next day with full powers. Unfortunately, it is not over: Badoglio has ordered Castellano to further bargain the timing and mode of the armistice, trying to know in detail the military contribution of the Allies to the fight.</p> <p>Castellano arrives on September 2nd at the Cassibile Headquarters. The Allies are in a hurry, are you allowed to sign? NO, Castellano answers. At this point, the Allied negotiators lose patience and are about to send Castellano back to Rome. The Italian negotiator understands it is not possible to prolong the game and asks Badoglio for the authority to sign. Finally, on September 3rd at 4:30 pm under a tent, the official surrender is signed by Smith and Castellano, with Eisenhower standing aside. The announcement will be made jointly at 6:30 p.m. in one of the next few days, indicated by the Allies.</p> <p>Italy has therefore agreed to abandon its alliance with Germany and to leave the conflict. There is still a question outstanding: the operation on Rome. Two Eisenhower’s aides, General Taylor and Colonel Gardiner set off for Rome to ascertain the real feasibility of the operation, it’s an adventurous journey into enemy territory, they use an Italian corvette to Gaeta and an ambulance into the city. After speaking with some officers of Badoglio’s staff, on the evening of September 7th they ask to confer with the Marshal. But Badoglio tells them that the deployment of the Italian army in Rome will not be completed before September 15th, it is necessary to postpone the announcement of the armistice because otherwise the capital will be occupied by the Germans. Eisenhower does not accept a further delay, he has already decided he will announce the armistice on September 8th and in the meantime suspends the operation on Rome. At 18:30 Radio Algiers announces the armistice with Italy and the end of the fighting. It will be the beginning of one of the darkest periods in the history of Italy.</p></div><div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw5d5h9l3kw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw5d5h9l3kw</a></p> <p>Marcello talks about the time between the fall of Mussolini and Italy’s surrender. The armistice is signed, but at what cost?</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>Last time we left you with the ousting of Mussolini and his imprisonment, on July 25th.</p> <p>Hitler has met Mussolini just a few days before, on the 19th, now with his Generals in the “Wolfsschanze”, the Wolf's Lair, he screams irrepressibly: betrayal, betrayal, betrayal, like in WWI. Hitler wants to act now, not recognize Marshal Badoglio’s Government, occupy Italy. His generals induce him to stop, but everyone fully understands that the reassuring statements of the King and Badoglio are a gimmick, they just want to buy time. On the contrary, better to take advantage of the time that this choice makes available to the German armed forces, to gradually invade the country and occupy it.</p> <p>Now, it all depends on the intentions of the Allies. Where will they strike after Sicily? The Germans have experimented in Sicily with the tactics of a slow, controlled retreat and have no intention of abandoning Southern and Central Italy, which offer many possibilities of valid defence thanks to rivers and mountain ranges. They hope that the Allies will climb the peninsula starting from Calabria, and that’s precisely what they will do, unfortunately for Italy. From the Brenner, units of the Wehrmacht (the German army) begin to flow into Italy, and in South Tyrol they act as if they were already in annexed territory. Formally, in Rome, the relationship between the High Commands remains correct. In reality, the Germans see Italy as a potential ally of the Allies.</p> <p>For the Allies, the time is ripe. On the evening of 27 July, Commander in Chief Eisenhower sends a clever radio message to the Italians: “You want peace, you can have it immediately….. We come to you as liberators. Your part consists of stopping immediately to cooperate in any way with the German military forces..... As you have already seen in Sicily, our occupation will be mild and beneficient ... The ancient liberties and traditions of your country will be restored”. It is the carrot, accompanied by the stick. At the same time, the Allies intensify bombings on Italian cities. One, in particular, is to be remembered. Milan, August 16th, it's a Sunday. At midnight a wave of RAF bombers targets the city center and one bomb weighing 1.8 tons strikes the area of the church of Santa Maria della Grazie. In the refectory of the church, on the north wall, Leonardo da Vinci painted in 1498 his masterpiece: l’Ultima Cena, the Last Supper. The blast reduces the East wall of the refectory to rubble and brings the roof down with it. Fortunately, in 1940 local art officials concerned about this very possibility had installed sandbags pine scaffoldings and metal bracing on both sides of the North wall. The loss of the East wall and roof dissipates the delicate micro-climate inside the refectory, and the summer heat increases the moisture in the wall causing portions of the painted surface to swell and then lift. The bomb blast dislodges sandbags tossing some of them against the painted surface; the building attached to the backside of the refactoring threatens to collapse. As events in Milan demonstrate, the new technology of aerial bombardments and in particular incendiary weapons puts history's most precious works of art in grave danger. Some of them will disappear, cancelled by the fury of man. It is as a consequence of this bombing that, finally, the Americans establish the famous “Commission for the protection and salvage of artistic and historic monuments in Europe”, the corps that will become famous with just 2 words: the Monuments Men. They will play a decisive role in preserving Italy’s treasures and will be one of the main characters in this story.</p> <p>Now, Badoglio and the King want to get out of the war, so they need to find a way to start negotiations with the Allies, who already in the Casablanca conference have dictated the harsh demand for unconditional surrender. But there is a problem: how to break away from the alliance with the Germans, present in forces on the peninsula, suspicious, ferocious like a wounded tiger? And here begins the ballet, which will soon turn into tragedy.</p> <p>Marshal Badoglio is obsessed with secrecy. At first, he orders to contact the British and American ambassadors at the Vatican, but they are not able to communicate with their Governments ensuring reasonable secrecy. So he decides to contact the Allies in neutral ground, and chooses Spain and Portugal. He instructs General Castellano, a member of the High Command, to travel to Madrid and contact the British Ambassador. Castellano arrives in Madrid on August 15th. Fortunately, he finds in his office the British Ambassador Hoare, who is unexpectedly quite courteous to him. Castellano tells him that Italy could cooperate with the Anglo-Americans and the Government is willing to accept the unconditional surrender, but it asks to know where the Allies will land next. His purpose is clear, the Italian Government is under the illusion of starting a negotiation among equals. The Ambassador gives him safe conduct for Lisbon with a letter of accreditation for the fellow British ambassador to the Government of Portugal, then telegraphs to the Government in London suggesting that he take into account the offers of the envoy of Badoglio.</p> <p>In Lisbon, Ambassador Campbell takes time to await the arrival of two military representatives Eisenhower has just sent from his HQ, his Chief of Staff, the American General Smith and the head of Information Services, the English Colonel Strong. They meet with Castellano on August 19th. It's an icy meeting: the two don't salute, they don't shake hands, they just nod. “There is no room for negotiation, Italy must surrender unconditionally”, they say. Castellano asks when and where the main landing in Italy would take place and says that the Italian Government would like the date of the armistice to be known 15 days in advance, to effectively prepare the protection of the Government and the Royal family. Sadly, this is much more important in the negotiations than the hundreds of thousands of Italian soldiers scattered throughout Europe. Smith coldly replies that the announcement of the armistice will precede the main landing by a few hours and that the Italians will be notified on the same day.</p> <p>Castellano is equipped with a radio transmitter and a cypher, and Smith and Strong indicate the date of August 30th as the deadline by which the approval of Italy must be communicated.</p> <p>Castellano must report to Rome but, given the secrecy of the mission, he cannot use any communication channels. He has no choice but to take the train for the long journey from Lisbon to Rome, where he arrives on August 25th, crossing territories where controls by the Germans are frequent. Now, the incredible happens, to confirm the nervousness and apprehensions of the conspirators. Badoglio is convinced that Castellano's delay is due to an accident, or maybe Castellano has been arrested by the Germans, so he orders a second mission led by General Zanussi, who is to fly directly to Lisbon. The arrival in the Portuguese capital of another Italian delegation produces dismay and surprise among the Allies. Eisenhower, informed of the new mission, wonders: can Italians still be trusted? Out of prudence, he hijacks the plane by which Zanussi is returning to Italy to Algiers, here his advisers question him to clarify if he is a provocateur or a spy. Fortunately, the general manages to clear all doubts and is then detained in Algiers.</p> <p>August 30th, the terms for surrender expire. Finally, Badoglio decides to accept and with the transceiver (remember?) he sends a message to confirm that Castellano will leave the next day from Rome for Sicily.</p> <p>September 1st, Castellano meets with Smith and Storm in Cassibile, halfway between Noto and Syracuse. And there he tries again to set conditions and suggests the idea of a joint operation near Rome, which would allow the Italian army to defend Rome and encourage the Italians to fight alongside the Anglo-Americans. The Allies must think about it, and Smith moves the final decision date to the following day at noon. Castellano leaves for Rome. In the evening of September 1st, Badoglio via radio transmits that Italy agrees to surrender and that Castellano will return to Sicily the next day with full powers. Unfortunately, it is not over: Badoglio has ordered Castellano to further bargain the timing and mode of the armistice, trying to know in detail the military contribution of the Allies to the fight.</p> <p>Castellano arrives on September 2nd at the Cassibile Headquarters. The Allies are in a hurry, are you allowed to sign? NO, Castellano answers. At this point, the Allied negotiators lose patience and are about to send Castellano back to Rome. The Italian negotiator understands it is not possible to prolong the game and asks Badoglio for the authority to sign. Finally, on September 3rd at 4:30 pm under a tent, the official surrender is signed by Smith and Castellano, with Eisenhower standing aside. The announcement will be made jointly at 6:30 p.m. in one of the next few days, indicated by the Allies.</p> <p>Italy has therefore agreed to abandon its alliance with Germany and to leave the conflict. There is still a question outstanding: the operation on Rome. Two Eisenhower’s aides, General Taylor and Colonel Gardiner set off for Rome to ascertain the real feasibility of the operation, it’s an adventurous journey into enemy territory, they use an Italian corvette to Gaeta and an ambulance into the city. After speaking with some officers of Badoglio’s staff, on the evening of September 7th they ask to confer with the Marshal. But Badoglio tells them that the deployment of the Italian army in Rome will not be completed before September 15th, it is necessary to postpone the announcement of the armistice because otherwise the capital will be occupied by the Germans. Eisenhower does not accept a further delay, he has already decided he will announce the armistice on September 8th and in the meantime suspends the operation on Rome. At 18:30 Radio Algiers announces the armistice with Italy and the end of the fighting. It will be the beginning of one of the darkest periods in the history of Italy.</p></div>MY PRIVATE ITALY: WHY IS ITALY SO VARIED?2020-04-24T15:04:48+00:002020-04-24T15:04:48+00:00https://vitoritalytours.com/blog/item/37-why-italy-is-so-varied.htmlMarcello Cordovanim.cordovani@tpenergy.eu<div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFrfh9mg2fU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFrfh9mg2fU</a></p> <p>Why is Italy so varied? Why do we have so many dialects, languages, customs?<span style="display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>All in all, Italy from north to south, from Brenner to Pachino, is just slightly less than 1,200 km, 750 miles, as the crow flies of course.</p> <p>Well, there’s the difference in the climate: continental in the north, with cold winters and humid summers, mediterranean in the south, with a milder temperature, and dry in summer. Geographically, we have the Alps and the Apennines, then a few, little plains: the Po plain, the plains North and south of Rome, Puglia.</p> <p>But that's not the real reason. Italy is so varied, so multifaceted because <strong>it was born as a unitary state quite late</strong>, just 150 years ago, after centuries in which there were many small states; <strong>different pieces of a puzzle, and each piece has many layers, like a cake</strong>. Several peoples have come to occupy different parts of Italy: Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Germans, French and Spanish. Each of them left an imprint, in the language, in customs, even in the kitchen. Italy is, therefore, an overlap of peoples and languages. To understand it in full we need a map, and here it is, so let's take a look for a moment.</p> <p>Let’s start with the North-West.</p> <p><strong>Piemonte</strong> (Piedmont): “Piè monte”, i.e. at the foot of the mountains, that’s quite obvious. Here we had the Gauls, the Romans (Augusta Taurinorum, hence the name Torino, Turin), the Longobards, then the German Roman Empire, and finally the Duchy of Savoia in the 14th and 15th century. The Savoias were very famous across Europe as mercenaries; <strong>from here, the so-called Kingdom of Sardinia, the unification of Italy started</strong>, absorbing the rest of the country (we’ll talk about it some time).</p> <p><strong>Lombardia</strong> (Lombardy): first the Gauls, then the Romans conquered it in 222 B.C. (Mediolanum, now Milan). In the Middle Ages the Longobards (thus Lombardy), the Free Cities under the German Roman Empire, the Spaniards, the French, the Austrians. It is the most advanced area in the country because it was the <strong>region where the Industrial Revolution started in Italy</strong>, from early 1800, with the domination of the French (Napoleon won his first battle in Italy during the Italian Campaign in 1796) and then the Austrians.</p> <p><strong>Veneto</strong>: the “Veneti”, then the Romans, the Free Cities under the German Roman Empire, the Republic of Venice, the Austrians. There’s a great difference of language with other Regions, Veneti talk dialect instead of Italian. There’s a Venetian (meaning Veneto, not just Venice) identity, “i Veneti” are very proud of their history and customs. After the unification a lot of them emigrated because of hunger, then after the war, with the reconstruction, their intimate disposition to work and their entrepreneurship led many of them to create small companies and set up small factories, which year after year transformed into big, very profitable companies, so now <strong>Veneto is the region that economically drives Italy</strong>.</p> <p><strong>Trentino Alto Adige</strong> (or South Tyrol): the Romans, then the German Roman Empire, then it became a part of the Austrian Empire. Most people in Alto Adige (or South Tyrol, to mark its bond with the Austrian region of Tyrol) speak German, or better a German dialect, it is a piece of Austria in Italy. In 1918 Italy won the war and acquired Alto Adige. The Italian government wanted to “Italianize” it and Mussolini sent so many Italian settlers to Alto Adige that today 1/3 has an Italian heritage. But <strong>in the valleys, people speak German</strong>. That’s the area of the Dolomites, the most beautiful mountains of Europe and maybe the world</p> <p><strong>Emilia-Romagna</strong>: first the Etruscans, then the Romans. The Region developed along the Via Emilia, the road connecting Rome to Rimini, built by the Roman Consul Paolo Emilio Lepido in the 2nd century B.C. Emilia was the border region of Republican Italy, here is the Rubicon, the river that Caesar passed (do you remember “alea iacta est", the die is cast?), passing the Rubicon was like invading Italy, and you could not do with an army. After the Romans, there were Duchys and Signorie, with Austrian and French influences. They are renewed for their joy of life, <strong>they like food, motors</strong> (but they are also very inventive and entrepreneurial); maybe that’s because this is probably the <strong>most fertile and richest land in Italy</strong>, that’s the land of Prosciutto, Mortadella, Salame, Parmigiano, Aceto Balsamico and many others.</p> <p><strong>Toscana</strong> (Tuscany): the Etruscans, then the Romans, the Longobards, the Franks, the free Cities, the “Signorie”, and finally the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (with an Austrian Duke). We always say they're a little presumptuous: <strong>“Siamo Toscani”, we’re Tuscans</strong>. Perhaps the most famous region in Italy, so famous in the States and the UK that many Americans and British have their homes there, to the extent that Chianti has been renamed “Chiantishare”, as if it were an English county. So much to say, we’ll come back in one of the next videos.</p> <p><strong>Lazio and Umbria</strong>: the Romans obviously, then the State of the Church, the territory of the Roman Catholic Church, from the 8th century A.D. until 1870. It was never occupied by other European states, nobody dared to go against the Pope, not even Hitler did it. The <strong>Pope was the prime force against the unification</strong>, following the famous Roman motto: “divide et impera”, divide and rule</p> <p><strong>Italia del Sud e Sicilia</strong> (Southern Italy and Sicily): first the Greeks, then the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs (in Sicily), the Longobards, the Franks, the Normans (as we call the Vikings), then the German Roman Empire, and finally the “Kingdom of the Two Sicilies” under Spanish influence. Strange but true, at the times of Greeks and Romans it was the most advanced and richest part of the country, but when Northern Italy started to industrialise, the rulers of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies did not favour it, so the structure of the society remained unchanged: large estates owned by noble landowners with vast cultivated extensions and many areas left to the breeding of livestock. With the unification, the Piedmontese arrived. They introduced some changes, but the social structure did not change; the “Mafia” was born, as a secret society parallel to the State imposed by the Piedmontese. <strong>It’s the area from where most Italian emigrants come</strong>, they just escaped famine and exploitation.</p> <p>So, we can say, <strong>unity in diversity</strong>. We feel strongly Italian, but at the same time anyone of us is strongly Lombard or Venetian, Tuscan or Sicilian. That’s the beauty of Italy, many countries in one, across 3,000 years. That’s why a full life is not enough to know it!</p></div><div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFrfh9mg2fU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFrfh9mg2fU</a></p> <p>Why is Italy so varied? Why do we have so many dialects, languages, customs?<span style="display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>All in all, Italy from north to south, from Brenner to Pachino, is just slightly less than 1,200 km, 750 miles, as the crow flies of course.</p> <p>Well, there’s the difference in the climate: continental in the north, with cold winters and humid summers, mediterranean in the south, with a milder temperature, and dry in summer. Geographically, we have the Alps and the Apennines, then a few, little plains: the Po plain, the plains North and south of Rome, Puglia.</p> <p>But that's not the real reason. Italy is so varied, so multifaceted because <strong>it was born as a unitary state quite late</strong>, just 150 years ago, after centuries in which there were many small states; <strong>different pieces of a puzzle, and each piece has many layers, like a cake</strong>. Several peoples have come to occupy different parts of Italy: Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Germans, French and Spanish. Each of them left an imprint, in the language, in customs, even in the kitchen. Italy is, therefore, an overlap of peoples and languages. To understand it in full we need a map, and here it is, so let's take a look for a moment.</p> <p>Let’s start with the North-West.</p> <p><strong>Piemonte</strong> (Piedmont): “Piè monte”, i.e. at the foot of the mountains, that’s quite obvious. Here we had the Gauls, the Romans (Augusta Taurinorum, hence the name Torino, Turin), the Longobards, then the German Roman Empire, and finally the Duchy of Savoia in the 14th and 15th century. The Savoias were very famous across Europe as mercenaries; <strong>from here, the so-called Kingdom of Sardinia, the unification of Italy started</strong>, absorbing the rest of the country (we’ll talk about it some time).</p> <p><strong>Lombardia</strong> (Lombardy): first the Gauls, then the Romans conquered it in 222 B.C. (Mediolanum, now Milan). In the Middle Ages the Longobards (thus Lombardy), the Free Cities under the German Roman Empire, the Spaniards, the French, the Austrians. It is the most advanced area in the country because it was the <strong>region where the Industrial Revolution started in Italy</strong>, from early 1800, with the domination of the French (Napoleon won his first battle in Italy during the Italian Campaign in 1796) and then the Austrians.</p> <p><strong>Veneto</strong>: the “Veneti”, then the Romans, the Free Cities under the German Roman Empire, the Republic of Venice, the Austrians. There’s a great difference of language with other Regions, Veneti talk dialect instead of Italian. There’s a Venetian (meaning Veneto, not just Venice) identity, “i Veneti” are very proud of their history and customs. After the unification a lot of them emigrated because of hunger, then after the war, with the reconstruction, their intimate disposition to work and their entrepreneurship led many of them to create small companies and set up small factories, which year after year transformed into big, very profitable companies, so now <strong>Veneto is the region that economically drives Italy</strong>.</p> <p><strong>Trentino Alto Adige</strong> (or South Tyrol): the Romans, then the German Roman Empire, then it became a part of the Austrian Empire. Most people in Alto Adige (or South Tyrol, to mark its bond with the Austrian region of Tyrol) speak German, or better a German dialect, it is a piece of Austria in Italy. In 1918 Italy won the war and acquired Alto Adige. The Italian government wanted to “Italianize” it and Mussolini sent so many Italian settlers to Alto Adige that today 1/3 has an Italian heritage. But <strong>in the valleys, people speak German</strong>. That’s the area of the Dolomites, the most beautiful mountains of Europe and maybe the world</p> <p><strong>Emilia-Romagna</strong>: first the Etruscans, then the Romans. The Region developed along the Via Emilia, the road connecting Rome to Rimini, built by the Roman Consul Paolo Emilio Lepido in the 2nd century B.C. Emilia was the border region of Republican Italy, here is the Rubicon, the river that Caesar passed (do you remember “alea iacta est", the die is cast?), passing the Rubicon was like invading Italy, and you could not do with an army. After the Romans, there were Duchys and Signorie, with Austrian and French influences. They are renewed for their joy of life, <strong>they like food, motors</strong> (but they are also very inventive and entrepreneurial); maybe that’s because this is probably the <strong>most fertile and richest land in Italy</strong>, that’s the land of Prosciutto, Mortadella, Salame, Parmigiano, Aceto Balsamico and many others.</p> <p><strong>Toscana</strong> (Tuscany): the Etruscans, then the Romans, the Longobards, the Franks, the free Cities, the “Signorie”, and finally the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (with an Austrian Duke). We always say they're a little presumptuous: <strong>“Siamo Toscani”, we’re Tuscans</strong>. Perhaps the most famous region in Italy, so famous in the States and the UK that many Americans and British have their homes there, to the extent that Chianti has been renamed “Chiantishare”, as if it were an English county. So much to say, we’ll come back in one of the next videos.</p> <p><strong>Lazio and Umbria</strong>: the Romans obviously, then the State of the Church, the territory of the Roman Catholic Church, from the 8th century A.D. until 1870. It was never occupied by other European states, nobody dared to go against the Pope, not even Hitler did it. The <strong>Pope was the prime force against the unification</strong>, following the famous Roman motto: “divide et impera”, divide and rule</p> <p><strong>Italia del Sud e Sicilia</strong> (Southern Italy and Sicily): first the Greeks, then the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs (in Sicily), the Longobards, the Franks, the Normans (as we call the Vikings), then the German Roman Empire, and finally the “Kingdom of the Two Sicilies” under Spanish influence. Strange but true, at the times of Greeks and Romans it was the most advanced and richest part of the country, but when Northern Italy started to industrialise, the rulers of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies did not favour it, so the structure of the society remained unchanged: large estates owned by noble landowners with vast cultivated extensions and many areas left to the breeding of livestock. With the unification, the Piedmontese arrived. They introduced some changes, but the social structure did not change; the “Mafia” was born, as a secret society parallel to the State imposed by the Piedmontese. <strong>It’s the area from where most Italian emigrants come</strong>, they just escaped famine and exploitation.</p> <p>So, we can say, <strong>unity in diversity</strong>. We feel strongly Italian, but at the same time anyone of us is strongly Lombard or Venetian, Tuscan or Sicilian. That’s the beauty of Italy, many countries in one, across 3,000 years. That’s why a full life is not enough to know it!</p></div>ITALY’S DARKEST HOUR – Episode 2: Mussolini is ousted2020-04-15T16:22:21+00:002020-04-15T16:22:21+00:00https://vitoritalytours.com/blog/item/36-italy-darkest-hour-episode-2-mussolini-is-ousted.htmlMarcello Cordovanim.cordovani@tpenergy.eu<div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCFeByufcVE&t=31s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCFeByufcVE&t=31s</a></p> <p>In this episode, Marcello tells you about the relationship between the Duce and the King, and the bombing of Rome.</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>With the Allies occupying for the first time a portion of Italy, the country’s future is now in the hands of 2 men: the King, Vittorio Emanuele 3° and the Duce, Mussolini. At this time, Italians are losing their faith in Mussolini’s capacities and turning towards the Institution of the Monarchy for a direction. But who is this King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele 3°? On July 29th 1900, at the age of 30, Vittorio Emanuele had acceded to the throne upon his father's assassination by an anarchist. In his early years, the new King showed a commitment to constitutional freedoms. But, when World War I began, Italy at first remained neutral and then, in 1915 signed several secret treaties committing to enter the war on the side of the Triple Entente (Russia, GB and France). Most of the politicians opposed the war, however, and the Italian Chamber of Deputies forced Prime Minister Salandra, who wanted the war, to resign. But Vittorio Emanuele declined Salandra's resignation and personally decided for Italy to enter the war. A coup, by all means.</p> <p> </p> <p>The economic depression following World War I gave rise to much extremism among Italy's working classes. This caused the country to become politically unstable. Mussolini, the leader of the right-wing Fascist Party, took advantage of this instability for his rise to power. In 1922, he led a force of Fascist supporters on a March on Rome. The Prime Minister, Luigi Facta, drafted a decree of martial law, but the King refused to sign it. He was worried about the rising power of the Communists and the Socialists, who were obviously anti-monarchic, and used Mussolini and his party to stop the left from taking power and, possibly, end the monarchy.</p> <p> </p> <p>The King, who was sure to control Mussolini, failed to move against the regime's abuses of power. Actually, he went along with him very well in the first years and remained silent during the winter of 1925–26 when Mussolini dropped all pretence of democracy. During this time, the king signed without protest laws that eliminated freedom of speech and assembly, abolished freedom of the press, and declared the Fascist Party to be the only legal party in Italy. Only in the late thirties, the King started to get disappointed with Mussolini, who was taking all decisions without even informing him, thus keeping him in the shade. Mussolini argued all through May 1940 that since it was evident that Germany was going to win the war, there was an unparalleled chance for Italy to make major gains at the expense of France and Britain. This would allow Italy to become the dominant power in the Mediterranean. And finally, on June 1st 1940, the King gave Mussolini his permission for Italy to enter the war. It was the famous “stab in the back” of France, which in the future will raise hatred between the 2 countries.</p> <p> </p> <p>Now, in mid-July 1943 the King decides the fall of Mussolini. The anti-monarchist currents extend especially among young people and the monarchy would only survive with an action that meets national sentiment, now opposed to fascism and war. But the time has to be right. On July 19, Mussolini meets Hitler at Villa Gaggia, near Venice. As Hitler presses him for the negative test of Italian soldiers in Sicily, the news of the bombing of Rome with the devastation of the district of San Lorenzo come. Only 9 days before, following numerous pleas by Pope Pius the 12th that Rome be spared, President Roosevelt had written the Pope that “churches and religious institutions will, to the extent that it is within our power, be spared the devastations of war during the struggle ahead”. But it is not possible to spare Rome. For the Allies, it is important to disrupt enemy communications and interdict the supply of German and Italian forces from Northern Italy to Sicily via Rome and Naples; so they target the Littorio and Ciampino airdromes and the railway marshalling yards at Littorio and San Lorenzo. But the San Lorenzo railyards lay less than a mile and a half from Rome's most famous monument, the Colosseum, and immediately adjacent to one of the most revered churches of Rome, the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le mura. Rome is a target, and this can be a formidable push for Italians to get out of the war.</p> <p> </p> <p>Starting from 11:00 am, for more than 2 hours an enormous formation of more than 500 bombers skirt the Vatican and release almost 1,000,000 tons of explosives from an altitude of more than 6000 meters, targeting the airports and the railways. While the raid devastates the marshalling yards some bombs miss their target and hit adjacent University and hospital buildings, the nearby Cimitero del Verano, the Verano Cemetery, and the Basilica di San Lorenzo. More than 2000 people die. During the bombings the Pope stands at the window in his private study and watches it through binoculars. Then ignoring security concerns he departs Vatican City for the San Lorenzo area and here, amid the rubble and a flock of desperate people, he kneels and prays for the victims of this and other raids. After this bombing, everyone is waiting for something to happen, including the King who awaits the right opportunity to get rid of Mussolini, and this comes with the convocation of the meeting of the Great Council of Fascism for the afternoon of July 24. Mussolini has summoned it because he has been urged by the other Fascist leaders to discuss the progress of the war and the possibilities for Italy. A few days earlier, the agenda has been drawn up calling for Mussolini's resignation; he is aware of it but decides to be present because he thinks he is still supported by the King and the majority of the leaders of fascism. It is a long meeting, Mussolini makes an account of the war and claims to still be able to win thanks to the sci-fi new weapons of the Germans, but at the end of a dramatic confrontation the council votes for his resignation and asks Mussolini himself to present it to the King.</p> <p> </p> <p>On July 25th Mussolini asks the king to receive him in the afternoon, he is still convinced that after the night's rebellion the leaders are eager to repent and that a reshuffle of government seats would be enough. But the King has no intention to save Mussolini. At the hearing, He informs the Duce that he has decided to accept his resignation and appoint Marshal Badoglio as Head of Government. Then he accompanies him out of Villa Savoia; waiting for him there is an ambulance that will take him to a military base of the carabinieri. That evening in a national radio address the King announces the acceptance of Mussolini's resignation and Marshal Badoglio's appointment as the new leader of Italy. A joy explodes on the streets of Italian cities meaning above all one thing: the end of fascism is the prelude to the end of the war. But Badoglio also says that Italy keeps its word with the Germans.</p> <p> </p> <p>The war continues, even without Mussolini. What will happen next?</p></div><div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCFeByufcVE&t=31s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCFeByufcVE&t=31s</a></p> <p>In this episode, Marcello tells you about the relationship between the Duce and the King, and the bombing of Rome.</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>With the Allies occupying for the first time a portion of Italy, the country’s future is now in the hands of 2 men: the King, Vittorio Emanuele 3° and the Duce, Mussolini. At this time, Italians are losing their faith in Mussolini’s capacities and turning towards the Institution of the Monarchy for a direction. But who is this King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele 3°? On July 29th 1900, at the age of 30, Vittorio Emanuele had acceded to the throne upon his father's assassination by an anarchist. In his early years, the new King showed a commitment to constitutional freedoms. But, when World War I began, Italy at first remained neutral and then, in 1915 signed several secret treaties committing to enter the war on the side of the Triple Entente (Russia, GB and France). Most of the politicians opposed the war, however, and the Italian Chamber of Deputies forced Prime Minister Salandra, who wanted the war, to resign. But Vittorio Emanuele declined Salandra's resignation and personally decided for Italy to enter the war. A coup, by all means.</p> <p> </p> <p>The economic depression following World War I gave rise to much extremism among Italy's working classes. This caused the country to become politically unstable. Mussolini, the leader of the right-wing Fascist Party, took advantage of this instability for his rise to power. In 1922, he led a force of Fascist supporters on a March on Rome. The Prime Minister, Luigi Facta, drafted a decree of martial law, but the King refused to sign it. He was worried about the rising power of the Communists and the Socialists, who were obviously anti-monarchic, and used Mussolini and his party to stop the left from taking power and, possibly, end the monarchy.</p> <p> </p> <p>The King, who was sure to control Mussolini, failed to move against the regime's abuses of power. Actually, he went along with him very well in the first years and remained silent during the winter of 1925–26 when Mussolini dropped all pretence of democracy. During this time, the king signed without protest laws that eliminated freedom of speech and assembly, abolished freedom of the press, and declared the Fascist Party to be the only legal party in Italy. Only in the late thirties, the King started to get disappointed with Mussolini, who was taking all decisions without even informing him, thus keeping him in the shade. Mussolini argued all through May 1940 that since it was evident that Germany was going to win the war, there was an unparalleled chance for Italy to make major gains at the expense of France and Britain. This would allow Italy to become the dominant power in the Mediterranean. And finally, on June 1st 1940, the King gave Mussolini his permission for Italy to enter the war. It was the famous “stab in the back” of France, which in the future will raise hatred between the 2 countries.</p> <p> </p> <p>Now, in mid-July 1943 the King decides the fall of Mussolini. The anti-monarchist currents extend especially among young people and the monarchy would only survive with an action that meets national sentiment, now opposed to fascism and war. But the time has to be right. On July 19, Mussolini meets Hitler at Villa Gaggia, near Venice. As Hitler presses him for the negative test of Italian soldiers in Sicily, the news of the bombing of Rome with the devastation of the district of San Lorenzo come. Only 9 days before, following numerous pleas by Pope Pius the 12th that Rome be spared, President Roosevelt had written the Pope that “churches and religious institutions will, to the extent that it is within our power, be spared the devastations of war during the struggle ahead”. But it is not possible to spare Rome. For the Allies, it is important to disrupt enemy communications and interdict the supply of German and Italian forces from Northern Italy to Sicily via Rome and Naples; so they target the Littorio and Ciampino airdromes and the railway marshalling yards at Littorio and San Lorenzo. But the San Lorenzo railyards lay less than a mile and a half from Rome's most famous monument, the Colosseum, and immediately adjacent to one of the most revered churches of Rome, the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le mura. Rome is a target, and this can be a formidable push for Italians to get out of the war.</p> <p> </p> <p>Starting from 11:00 am, for more than 2 hours an enormous formation of more than 500 bombers skirt the Vatican and release almost 1,000,000 tons of explosives from an altitude of more than 6000 meters, targeting the airports and the railways. While the raid devastates the marshalling yards some bombs miss their target and hit adjacent University and hospital buildings, the nearby Cimitero del Verano, the Verano Cemetery, and the Basilica di San Lorenzo. More than 2000 people die. During the bombings the Pope stands at the window in his private study and watches it through binoculars. Then ignoring security concerns he departs Vatican City for the San Lorenzo area and here, amid the rubble and a flock of desperate people, he kneels and prays for the victims of this and other raids. After this bombing, everyone is waiting for something to happen, including the King who awaits the right opportunity to get rid of Mussolini, and this comes with the convocation of the meeting of the Great Council of Fascism for the afternoon of July 24. Mussolini has summoned it because he has been urged by the other Fascist leaders to discuss the progress of the war and the possibilities for Italy. A few days earlier, the agenda has been drawn up calling for Mussolini's resignation; he is aware of it but decides to be present because he thinks he is still supported by the King and the majority of the leaders of fascism. It is a long meeting, Mussolini makes an account of the war and claims to still be able to win thanks to the sci-fi new weapons of the Germans, but at the end of a dramatic confrontation the council votes for his resignation and asks Mussolini himself to present it to the King.</p> <p> </p> <p>On July 25th Mussolini asks the king to receive him in the afternoon, he is still convinced that after the night's rebellion the leaders are eager to repent and that a reshuffle of government seats would be enough. But the King has no intention to save Mussolini. At the hearing, He informs the Duce that he has decided to accept his resignation and appoint Marshal Badoglio as Head of Government. Then he accompanies him out of Villa Savoia; waiting for him there is an ambulance that will take him to a military base of the carabinieri. That evening in a national radio address the King announces the acceptance of Mussolini's resignation and Marshal Badoglio's appointment as the new leader of Italy. A joy explodes on the streets of Italian cities meaning above all one thing: the end of fascism is the prelude to the end of the war. But Badoglio also says that Italy keeps its word with the Germans.</p> <p> </p> <p>The war continues, even without Mussolini. What will happen next?</p></div>MY PRIVATE ITALY: The Italian Language, quite a mess – Part 12020-04-13T07:27:10+00:002020-04-13T07:27:10+00:00https://vitoritalytours.com/blog/item/35-the-italian-language-quite-a-mess-part-1.htmlMarcello Cordovanim.cordovani@tpenergy.eu<div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p> </p> <p>Latin to Italian? Not just that. In these videos Marcello explains the evolution of the Italian language, from its origins to present days</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>Many travellers are just marvelled and amazed at the variety of the Italian language, with its different dialects but also different terms, sometimes changing in no more than 10 KM. We have always been told that Italian comes from Latin, but even so, how can it be so varied across the country? Well, let me tell you a story about the Italian language, or better, the languages of the Italians. And let’s start from the very beginning. Each language is a "fossil" and at the same time continuously renewing.</p> <p>The past lives every day in our present, hidden in the folds of words. Just as through the study of archaeological remains we can guess about the settlements and reconstruct monuments of the distant past, so through the study of languages we can uncover the past and devise some chronology. There is a branch of the human sciences, linguistics, which studies the evolution of languages, and retracing the evolution of language in Europe or rather in the so-called Romance area is very funny and very stimulating. Thus, linguistics scholars have reconstructed the path of the Latin language in different modern languages.</p> <p>Remember that Latin was the language spoken throughout the Empire, it was the language of law and commerce. As the provinces were assimilated, Latin took the place of the local language; so was it in Spain, in France and even in Romania. However, Latin was not the only universal language spoken in the empire; there was another very important language, the language of the scholars, the language of philosophy: Greek. The Romans looked at Greece as the seat of the best philosophy and science, and great philosophers such as Aristotle, historians such as Herodotus and great playwrights such as Aristophanes were a model for all the writers and philosophers of the Empire. So, there were 2 large linguistic areas: in Western Europe Latin, in Eastern Europe, Greek. Take, for example, the 4 Gospels: the versions that we know today, although in the case of Mark and Matthew they have an Aramaic origin, that is, the language spoken by Jesus, were written in Greek, to facilitate its spread in the eastern part of Europe and the Middle East.</p> <p>Latin was a living language, a language in movement and therefore a language that evolved, just as English is doing now, think of British and American English, or even African English. A language that started from the centre and branched out to the periphery, and which sometimes from the periphery came back to the centre. An example of this is the verb eat: in Italian, we say mangiare, in French manger, but in Spanish comer. Because? Because in Latin the verb comedere is older than the verb manucare; the latter new word started from the centre but failed to reach the peripheral areas of the empire, in particular Iberia, present-day Spain, which has preserved the older origin. An example of a return is the word cheese: from France, the innovation "formaticus" started, then in French "fromage" and in Italian "cheese", while the Latin caseus remained marginal, at the edges: in Tuscan "cacio", in Spanish "queso" In this sense the language that remains most adherent to its Latin root is Romanian. Romania (from Rome) was conquered in the years between 101 and 106 by the emperor Trajan, by the way, the Roman armies exterminated most of the local populations, the Dacians. So the colonies spoke Latin, which became the language of those areas. The linguistic innovations that departed in the 3rd century from Rome conquered Italy and Gaul but did not reach the lateral areas, due to the fall of the empire.</p> <p>This is even more true for the so-called “isolated” areas that retain the most archaic sections because isolation allows the language to evolve less, it cuts it out of the upheavals and the pressures that come from outside. An example of this is Sardinia, where more archaic words remain. Sardinia is one of the most layered areas in Italy; Sardinian is a composite language that preserves ancient Mediterranean elements, which are Punic (north African), Greek and Byzantine, Arabic. Many are the Catalan and Spanish terms, since the Spaniards dominated Sardinia for four centuries from 1327 to 1720. Maybe the most stratified region in Italy is Sicily, due to the several different peoples which colonized it. Just consider the sequence of invaders and rulers of the island over the centuries: Phoenicians in the 11th century BC, Greeks from the 7th century BC on, Romans from 212 BC, Vandals then Arabs from the 9th to the 11th century, Normans (best known as Vikings) in the 11th and 12th centuries, Spaniards from 1282 to 1713, then Austrians, Bourbons and finally the annexation to the Kingdom of Italy (where they spoke Italian but with a strong french influence), in 1861. Let me greet you with a sentence of Italy’s most famous investigator, Andrea Camilleri’s Commissario Montalbano, a Sicilian, who when he wants to say that he is fed up with someone uses a greek word: “Hai scassato I cabbasisi” (you broke my…well I am sure you understood it).</p></div><div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p> </p> <p>Latin to Italian? Not just that. In these videos Marcello explains the evolution of the Italian language, from its origins to present days</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>Many travellers are just marvelled and amazed at the variety of the Italian language, with its different dialects but also different terms, sometimes changing in no more than 10 KM. We have always been told that Italian comes from Latin, but even so, how can it be so varied across the country? Well, let me tell you a story about the Italian language, or better, the languages of the Italians. And let’s start from the very beginning. Each language is a "fossil" and at the same time continuously renewing.</p> <p>The past lives every day in our present, hidden in the folds of words. Just as through the study of archaeological remains we can guess about the settlements and reconstruct monuments of the distant past, so through the study of languages we can uncover the past and devise some chronology. There is a branch of the human sciences, linguistics, which studies the evolution of languages, and retracing the evolution of language in Europe or rather in the so-called Romance area is very funny and very stimulating. Thus, linguistics scholars have reconstructed the path of the Latin language in different modern languages.</p> <p>Remember that Latin was the language spoken throughout the Empire, it was the language of law and commerce. As the provinces were assimilated, Latin took the place of the local language; so was it in Spain, in France and even in Romania. However, Latin was not the only universal language spoken in the empire; there was another very important language, the language of the scholars, the language of philosophy: Greek. The Romans looked at Greece as the seat of the best philosophy and science, and great philosophers such as Aristotle, historians such as Herodotus and great playwrights such as Aristophanes were a model for all the writers and philosophers of the Empire. So, there were 2 large linguistic areas: in Western Europe Latin, in Eastern Europe, Greek. Take, for example, the 4 Gospels: the versions that we know today, although in the case of Mark and Matthew they have an Aramaic origin, that is, the language spoken by Jesus, were written in Greek, to facilitate its spread in the eastern part of Europe and the Middle East.</p> <p>Latin was a living language, a language in movement and therefore a language that evolved, just as English is doing now, think of British and American English, or even African English. A language that started from the centre and branched out to the periphery, and which sometimes from the periphery came back to the centre. An example of this is the verb eat: in Italian, we say mangiare, in French manger, but in Spanish comer. Because? Because in Latin the verb comedere is older than the verb manucare; the latter new word started from the centre but failed to reach the peripheral areas of the empire, in particular Iberia, present-day Spain, which has preserved the older origin. An example of a return is the word cheese: from France, the innovation "formaticus" started, then in French "fromage" and in Italian "cheese", while the Latin caseus remained marginal, at the edges: in Tuscan "cacio", in Spanish "queso" In this sense the language that remains most adherent to its Latin root is Romanian. Romania (from Rome) was conquered in the years between 101 and 106 by the emperor Trajan, by the way, the Roman armies exterminated most of the local populations, the Dacians. So the colonies spoke Latin, which became the language of those areas. The linguistic innovations that departed in the 3rd century from Rome conquered Italy and Gaul but did not reach the lateral areas, due to the fall of the empire.</p> <p>This is even more true for the so-called “isolated” areas that retain the most archaic sections because isolation allows the language to evolve less, it cuts it out of the upheavals and the pressures that come from outside. An example of this is Sardinia, where more archaic words remain. Sardinia is one of the most layered areas in Italy; Sardinian is a composite language that preserves ancient Mediterranean elements, which are Punic (north African), Greek and Byzantine, Arabic. Many are the Catalan and Spanish terms, since the Spaniards dominated Sardinia for four centuries from 1327 to 1720. Maybe the most stratified region in Italy is Sicily, due to the several different peoples which colonized it. Just consider the sequence of invaders and rulers of the island over the centuries: Phoenicians in the 11th century BC, Greeks from the 7th century BC on, Romans from 212 BC, Vandals then Arabs from the 9th to the 11th century, Normans (best known as Vikings) in the 11th and 12th centuries, Spaniards from 1282 to 1713, then Austrians, Bourbons and finally the annexation to the Kingdom of Italy (where they spoke Italian but with a strong french influence), in 1861. Let me greet you with a sentence of Italy’s most famous investigator, Andrea Camilleri’s Commissario Montalbano, a Sicilian, who when he wants to say that he is fed up with someone uses a greek word: “Hai scassato I cabbasisi” (you broke my…well I am sure you understood it).</p></div>ITALY’S DARKEST HOUR, A HISTORY OF FALL AND RISE – EPISODE 1: THE ALLIES LAND IN SICILY2020-04-06T12:56:50+00:002020-04-06T12:56:50+00:00https://vitoritalytours.com/blog/item/34-italy-darkest-hour-a-history-of-fall-and-rise-part-1.htmlMarcello Cordovanim.cordovani@tpenergy.eu<div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn9gJUw08ZY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn9gJUw08ZY</a></p> <p>Italy had its most difficult time in history during WWII, Marcello tells the story of the occupation of Italy, until its liberation and the proclamation of the Republic, and how it was saved by a few courageous men.</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>Comparison in these last few weeks between the current, tragic times and some sad periods in our history, as we try and get a sense of this and, most of it, find a light at the end of this tunnel. And many comparisons are being made between what’s happening now and what happened in the last 2 years of WWII, when a civil war broke out in Italy. I think that that was our DARKEST HOUR, the time when everything seemed irremediably lost. Still we came out of it, and that was the time when our country started back from rubble, to become the nation it is today. So I have decided to tell you a story, the story of Italy’s fall and rise, a story of death, betrayal, despair, hunger, but also a story of hope, renewal, faith and hard work, because at the end of this story Italy was born again. So this is the story of Italy from 1943 to 1946: there will be soldiers, spies, scholars, politicians, traitors, but mainly honest people, who managed to find their own way through a tragedy which seemed endless. I hope you will like it.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Allied are facing a coalition of 3 countries: Germany, Italy and Japan. Whereas Japan was fighting its own war in the Pacific, in Europe Italy and Germany were fighting together. We are at a turning point in the war in Europe. The allied conquered North Africa after 2 years, and now, what will be their next move? At the Casablanca conference in January FDR e WC take 2 decisions: 1) solemnly swear that the war will end only with unconditional surrender of Italy and Germany – 2) Attack Italy, starting from Sicily, because the road to Berlin passes from Italy The invasion of Sicily would be carried out by 2 armies, the 8th British army of Marshal Montgomery, the winner of the battle of North Africa, who would land in Pachino, and the American 7th Army under the command of George Patton, the volcanic general who liked foul language and loved to show off his belt with two western-type pistols with ivory handles. The Americans would land in Gela. MOVIE PATTON The plan does not take into account the key point of the operation: possession from the beginning of the Strait of Messina. The project lacked imagination and audacity, qualities completely absent in Montgomery's strategy. There’s another problem: the humiliation of Patton, virtually ousted from decisions. He had been reserved for a backup role. The conquest of Messina had been assigned to the British soldiers, it was only up to him to cover his march. There is a personal rivalry between Patton and Montgomery, who looks down on the American: he won at El Alamein, while Patton's army did not act well in the battles in Africa.</p> <p> </p> <p>April 30th,1943: A body is found off the coast of Spain, it is an officer of the British Combined Operations HQ, Major William Martin, who drowned and has a bag full of confidential documents with him. Spanish officials passed the documents on to German intelligence: they show that the enemy is faking a landing in Sicily while the real target was Greece. The German high command took the documents seriously because they confirmed Hitler's predictions; the result was that 7 German divisions were transferred to Greece one to Corsica and one to Sardinia. It was a fake: Operation Mincimeat was carefully designed and put into action by the British Secret Service, who literally invented Major Martin: they created a false identity, picked the body of a unknown dead soldier, dressed him as a Major, boarded him on a submarine and stranded him off the coast with fake top secret documents. One of the most successful secret operations in the history of the war.</p> <p> </p> <p>July 10: Eighth Army lands on the coast between Capo Passero and Capo Murro, the seventh American Army in the Gulf of Gela As the Germans fight fiercely, the Italians flee, many soldiers abandon their posts and throw their weapons away, some even begin to dress in civilian clothes. A real dissolution, the confirmation that army is no longer willing to fight for the war of Mussolini While the British find strong resistance in Catania, the Americans manage to break through the front and point to Palermo. But the advance on Palermo at that time made no sense: General Patton wants to be the first commander to enter a large European city, to take it away from Hitler, he already dreams of the big headlines and his photos as a victorious commander in a historic location, while the rival does not advance beyond Catania. On July 22, the Americans enter Palermo. Patton is conspicuously portrayed as a conqueror in the devastated city and receives numerous delegations of citizens at the Royal Palace, just like a king. He is an idol for his troops, and the echo of his deeds makes him a hero in the eyes of American citizens at home.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Americans from Palermo then head to Messina, but the advance is very slow. Patton is eager to get to Messina before the British and pushes his soldiers, regardless of their needs and tiredness. Until August 3: Visiting a field hospital crowded with wounded people spots a soldier who does not appear to be injured; asks him why he is there the soldier answers "I think I can't do it anymore" Patton loses his temper, insults him and slaps him with a glove, then grabs him by the collar and pushes him out of the tent with a kick in the butt. Commander-in-Chief Eisenhower learns about it and orders Patton to apologize. Everything is silenced until November, when scandal breaks out and Patton will be laid to rest before being recalled for the Normandy landings.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the following days, Germans and Italians were busy slowing down the Allies, to allow their troops to embark on the continent, and they did it well, with a few losses, almost all German troops crossed the Strait successfully. The race to Messina was won by the Americans on August 17 at 8:00 the colonel commander of the Messina contingent offered General Truscott the surrender of the city. But Truscott was in grave embarrassment because he knew Patton wanted to enter the city 1st, to appear as the real winner of the last Sicilian battle. The impetuous American commander arrived at about 10:00 a.m.; in a very elegant uniform, he took place on a Jeep and wandered through the devastated Messina. In the central square of the city he had a platform placed, from where he made a speech for American soldiers, dirty and hot under the sicilian august sun. So the campaign was over after 38 days. By now it is clear that the days od fascism are almost over: in the next episodes I will tell you about the fall of Mussolini and his escape.</p> <p> </p> <p>In mid-July 1943 the king decided the fall of Mussolini There were already plans by the military to which he gave his assent. The anti-monarchist currents extended especially among young people and the monarchy would only survive with an action that meets national sentiment, now opposed to fascism and war. But the time has to be right. On July 19, Mussolini meets Hitler at Villa Gaggia, near Feltre, 50 km north of Venice. As Hitler presses Mussolini for the negative test of Italian soldiers in Sicily, the news of the bombing of Rome with the devastation of the district of San Lorenzo comes.</p> <p> </p> <p>Only 9 days before, following numerous pleas by Pope Pius the 12th that Rome be spared, President Roosevelt had written the Pope that “churches and religious institutions will, to the extent that it is within our power, be spared the devastations of war during the struggle ahead”. But it was not possible to spare Rome. It was important to disrupt enemy communications and interdict the supply of German and Italian forces from Florence in Genoa into Rome; also the allied wanted to avoid the resupply from Rome to Sicily via Naples farther South; so they targeted the Littorio and Ciampino airdromes and the railway marshalling yards at Littorio and San Lorenzo. But the San Lorenzo railyards lay less than a mile and a half from Rome's most famous monument, the Colosseum, and immediately adjacent to one of the Seven Pilgrim churches of Rome, the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le mura. Rome was a target, and this could be a formidable push for Italians to get out of the war.</p> <p> </p> <p>Starting from 11:00 AM, for more than 2 hours an enormous formation of more than 500 bombers skirted the Vatican to begin their bombing run from an altitude of more than 6000 meters the bombers released their payload Almost 1,000,000 tons of explosives targeting the airports and the railways. while the raid devastated the marshalling yards some bombs missed their target and hit adjacent University and hospital buildings, the nearby Cimitero del Verano, the Verano Cemetery, and the Basilica di San Lorenzo. More than 2000 people died. During the bombings the Pope stood at the window in his private study and watched it through binoculars. then ignoring security concerns he departed Vatican City for the San Lorenzo area and here, amid the rubble and a flock of desperate people he knelt down and prayed for the victims of this and other raids.</p> <p> </p> <p>Everyone is waiting for something to happen, including the King who awaits the right opportunity to get rid of Mussolini, and this comes with the convocation of the meeting of the great council of fascism for the afternoon of April 24. Mussolini had summoned it because he was urged by the other leaders to discuss the progress of the war and the possibilities for Italy. A few days earlier, the agenda was drawn up calling for Mussolini's resignation and he became aware of it but decided to present himself because he thought he was still supported by the King and the majority of the leaders of fascism. It is a long meeting, Mussolini makes an account of the war and claims to still be able to win thanks to the sci-fi new weapons of the Germans, but instead the council votes for his resignation and asks Mussolini himself to present it to the King.</p> <p> </p> <p>July 25th Mussolini asked the king to receive him in the afternoon convinced that after the night's rebellion the leaders were eager to repent and that a reshuffle of government seats would be enough. At the hearing, the king informs Mussolini that he has decided to accept his resignation and appoint Marshal Badoglio as Head of Government. Then he accompanies him out of Villa Savoia; waiting for him there is an ambulance that will take him to military base of the carabinieri. That evening in national radio address the King announced the acceptance of mussolini's resignation and badoglio's appointment as the new leader of Italy. A joy exploded on the streets of Italian cities that meant above all one thing: in the end of fascism the people saw the prelude to the end of the war. But Badoglio had also said that Italy keeps it word with the Germans, the war continues, even without Mussolini. What will happen next?</p></div><div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn9gJUw08ZY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn9gJUw08ZY</a></p> <p>Italy had its most difficult time in history during WWII, Marcello tells the story of the occupation of Italy, until its liberation and the proclamation of the Republic, and how it was saved by a few courageous men.</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>Comparison in these last few weeks between the current, tragic times and some sad periods in our history, as we try and get a sense of this and, most of it, find a light at the end of this tunnel. And many comparisons are being made between what’s happening now and what happened in the last 2 years of WWII, when a civil war broke out in Italy. I think that that was our DARKEST HOUR, the time when everything seemed irremediably lost. Still we came out of it, and that was the time when our country started back from rubble, to become the nation it is today. So I have decided to tell you a story, the story of Italy’s fall and rise, a story of death, betrayal, despair, hunger, but also a story of hope, renewal, faith and hard work, because at the end of this story Italy was born again. So this is the story of Italy from 1943 to 1946: there will be soldiers, spies, scholars, politicians, traitors, but mainly honest people, who managed to find their own way through a tragedy which seemed endless. I hope you will like it.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Allied are facing a coalition of 3 countries: Germany, Italy and Japan. Whereas Japan was fighting its own war in the Pacific, in Europe Italy and Germany were fighting together. We are at a turning point in the war in Europe. The allied conquered North Africa after 2 years, and now, what will be their next move? At the Casablanca conference in January FDR e WC take 2 decisions: 1) solemnly swear that the war will end only with unconditional surrender of Italy and Germany – 2) Attack Italy, starting from Sicily, because the road to Berlin passes from Italy The invasion of Sicily would be carried out by 2 armies, the 8th British army of Marshal Montgomery, the winner of the battle of North Africa, who would land in Pachino, and the American 7th Army under the command of George Patton, the volcanic general who liked foul language and loved to show off his belt with two western-type pistols with ivory handles. The Americans would land in Gela. MOVIE PATTON The plan does not take into account the key point of the operation: possession from the beginning of the Strait of Messina. The project lacked imagination and audacity, qualities completely absent in Montgomery's strategy. There’s another problem: the humiliation of Patton, virtually ousted from decisions. He had been reserved for a backup role. The conquest of Messina had been assigned to the British soldiers, it was only up to him to cover his march. There is a personal rivalry between Patton and Montgomery, who looks down on the American: he won at El Alamein, while Patton's army did not act well in the battles in Africa.</p> <p> </p> <p>April 30th,1943: A body is found off the coast of Spain, it is an officer of the British Combined Operations HQ, Major William Martin, who drowned and has a bag full of confidential documents with him. Spanish officials passed the documents on to German intelligence: they show that the enemy is faking a landing in Sicily while the real target was Greece. The German high command took the documents seriously because they confirmed Hitler's predictions; the result was that 7 German divisions were transferred to Greece one to Corsica and one to Sardinia. It was a fake: Operation Mincimeat was carefully designed and put into action by the British Secret Service, who literally invented Major Martin: they created a false identity, picked the body of a unknown dead soldier, dressed him as a Major, boarded him on a submarine and stranded him off the coast with fake top secret documents. One of the most successful secret operations in the history of the war.</p> <p> </p> <p>July 10: Eighth Army lands on the coast between Capo Passero and Capo Murro, the seventh American Army in the Gulf of Gela As the Germans fight fiercely, the Italians flee, many soldiers abandon their posts and throw their weapons away, some even begin to dress in civilian clothes. A real dissolution, the confirmation that army is no longer willing to fight for the war of Mussolini While the British find strong resistance in Catania, the Americans manage to break through the front and point to Palermo. But the advance on Palermo at that time made no sense: General Patton wants to be the first commander to enter a large European city, to take it away from Hitler, he already dreams of the big headlines and his photos as a victorious commander in a historic location, while the rival does not advance beyond Catania. On July 22, the Americans enter Palermo. Patton is conspicuously portrayed as a conqueror in the devastated city and receives numerous delegations of citizens at the Royal Palace, just like a king. He is an idol for his troops, and the echo of his deeds makes him a hero in the eyes of American citizens at home.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Americans from Palermo then head to Messina, but the advance is very slow. Patton is eager to get to Messina before the British and pushes his soldiers, regardless of their needs and tiredness. Until August 3: Visiting a field hospital crowded with wounded people spots a soldier who does not appear to be injured; asks him why he is there the soldier answers "I think I can't do it anymore" Patton loses his temper, insults him and slaps him with a glove, then grabs him by the collar and pushes him out of the tent with a kick in the butt. Commander-in-Chief Eisenhower learns about it and orders Patton to apologize. Everything is silenced until November, when scandal breaks out and Patton will be laid to rest before being recalled for the Normandy landings.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the following days, Germans and Italians were busy slowing down the Allies, to allow their troops to embark on the continent, and they did it well, with a few losses, almost all German troops crossed the Strait successfully. The race to Messina was won by the Americans on August 17 at 8:00 the colonel commander of the Messina contingent offered General Truscott the surrender of the city. But Truscott was in grave embarrassment because he knew Patton wanted to enter the city 1st, to appear as the real winner of the last Sicilian battle. The impetuous American commander arrived at about 10:00 a.m.; in a very elegant uniform, he took place on a Jeep and wandered through the devastated Messina. In the central square of the city he had a platform placed, from where he made a speech for American soldiers, dirty and hot under the sicilian august sun. So the campaign was over after 38 days. By now it is clear that the days od fascism are almost over: in the next episodes I will tell you about the fall of Mussolini and his escape.</p> <p> </p> <p>In mid-July 1943 the king decided the fall of Mussolini There were already plans by the military to which he gave his assent. The anti-monarchist currents extended especially among young people and the monarchy would only survive with an action that meets national sentiment, now opposed to fascism and war. But the time has to be right. On July 19, Mussolini meets Hitler at Villa Gaggia, near Feltre, 50 km north of Venice. As Hitler presses Mussolini for the negative test of Italian soldiers in Sicily, the news of the bombing of Rome with the devastation of the district of San Lorenzo comes.</p> <p> </p> <p>Only 9 days before, following numerous pleas by Pope Pius the 12th that Rome be spared, President Roosevelt had written the Pope that “churches and religious institutions will, to the extent that it is within our power, be spared the devastations of war during the struggle ahead”. But it was not possible to spare Rome. It was important to disrupt enemy communications and interdict the supply of German and Italian forces from Florence in Genoa into Rome; also the allied wanted to avoid the resupply from Rome to Sicily via Naples farther South; so they targeted the Littorio and Ciampino airdromes and the railway marshalling yards at Littorio and San Lorenzo. But the San Lorenzo railyards lay less than a mile and a half from Rome's most famous monument, the Colosseum, and immediately adjacent to one of the Seven Pilgrim churches of Rome, the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le mura. Rome was a target, and this could be a formidable push for Italians to get out of the war.</p> <p> </p> <p>Starting from 11:00 AM, for more than 2 hours an enormous formation of more than 500 bombers skirted the Vatican to begin their bombing run from an altitude of more than 6000 meters the bombers released their payload Almost 1,000,000 tons of explosives targeting the airports and the railways. while the raid devastated the marshalling yards some bombs missed their target and hit adjacent University and hospital buildings, the nearby Cimitero del Verano, the Verano Cemetery, and the Basilica di San Lorenzo. More than 2000 people died. During the bombings the Pope stood at the window in his private study and watched it through binoculars. then ignoring security concerns he departed Vatican City for the San Lorenzo area and here, amid the rubble and a flock of desperate people he knelt down and prayed for the victims of this and other raids.</p> <p> </p> <p>Everyone is waiting for something to happen, including the King who awaits the right opportunity to get rid of Mussolini, and this comes with the convocation of the meeting of the great council of fascism for the afternoon of April 24. Mussolini had summoned it because he was urged by the other leaders to discuss the progress of the war and the possibilities for Italy. A few days earlier, the agenda was drawn up calling for Mussolini's resignation and he became aware of it but decided to present himself because he thought he was still supported by the King and the majority of the leaders of fascism. It is a long meeting, Mussolini makes an account of the war and claims to still be able to win thanks to the sci-fi new weapons of the Germans, but instead the council votes for his resignation and asks Mussolini himself to present it to the King.</p> <p> </p> <p>July 25th Mussolini asked the king to receive him in the afternoon convinced that after the night's rebellion the leaders were eager to repent and that a reshuffle of government seats would be enough. At the hearing, the king informs Mussolini that he has decided to accept his resignation and appoint Marshal Badoglio as Head of Government. Then he accompanies him out of Villa Savoia; waiting for him there is an ambulance that will take him to military base of the carabinieri. That evening in national radio address the King announced the acceptance of mussolini's resignation and badoglio's appointment as the new leader of Italy. A joy exploded on the streets of Italian cities that meant above all one thing: in the end of fascism the people saw the prelude to the end of the war. But Badoglio had also said that Italy keeps it word with the Germans, the war continues, even without Mussolini. What will happen next?</p></div>MY PRIVATE ITALY: “La Mille Miglia”, the fastest (and craziest) car race ever run – Part 12020-04-03T07:01:06+00:002020-04-03T07:01:06+00:00https://vitoritalytours.com/blog/item/33-la-mille-miglia-the-fastest-and-craziest-car-race-ever-run.htmlMarcello Cordovanim.cordovani@tpenergy.eu<div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqMR-qaYG4M">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqMR-qaYG4M</a></p> <p>Marcello narrates how the famous car race Mille Miglia was born, its route and the many difficulties pilots had to face</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>The 1000 miles was born from the idea of 3 crazy managers of the Automobil Club of Brescia, Maggi, Mazzotti, Castagneto, and a journalist, Canestrini, who wanted to invent a unique race, a race that could give an electric shock to the world of fast wheels In Italy and also abroad. The 4 met in December 1926 in Milan, one of them brought a large map of Italy. The paper was carefully examined, scrutinized palm to palm, and finally here’s the idea: a very fast gallop from Brescia to Rome and back, without stops, as fast as you can. When the race was designed, then they needed a name, so they invented that unmistakable and inimitable name, 1000 MIGLIA, precisely because the race would cover a distance of 1600 km. The idea was immediately welcomed by the world of sports racing and incredibly just 3 months later on March 26, 1927 the first 1000 miles in history departed.</p> <p> </p> <p>The route was grueling. The first section of Brescia Parma Bologna entirely in the flat Po Valley was easy, but things got much worse from Bologna to Florence. Drivers should race across the Apennines, climbing 2 mountain passes: the Raticosa Pass and the Futa Pass, more than 900 m high. Then, all the way south to Rome, across the Radicofani pass at 900 m, along terrible roads. After leaving Rome, drivers would take the winding roads of central Italy that led to Ancona on the Adriatic Sea. From Ancona to Bologna it was a great sprint on flat ground but in Veneto the drivers would find, dulcis in fundo, the very hard and extremely challenging mountain roads from Feltre to Bassano del Grappa.</p> <p> </p> <p>The final piece Vicenza Verona Brescia was not particularly difficult on paper but under what physical conditions at the end of such a grueling test would the drivers drive, probably at full speed? You can easily imagine the condition of the roads in 1930: more than a third of the route was clay, with stones, dust and mud, when it rained. The roads would be open to running circulation so you could find everything: from cars that marched in the opposite direction to a flock of sheep, from the child who suddenly crossed the road to trucks or buses to be overtaken, not to mention the 67 level crossings many of them unattended. Drivers would need a remarkable driving ability, very quick reflexes, an extreme physical resistance and of course a perfectly good car.</p> <p> </p> <p>The race, due to the enormous organizational difficulties, was meant to have only one edition. Instead, the success of participation and audience was such that after the number one edition they organized also that number two and number three. Fascism looked favourably at mechanical speed, in the sky on land and at sea, and Mussolini’s consent for the continuation of the 1000 miles was decisive. The 1st edition, when someone even said that no car would return to Brescia, was won by Minoia and Morandi at an average of 77 km/h on OM, that’s almost 21 hours. The second and third editions were won by Campari and Ramponi on an Alfa Romeo, in 1929 the average was 89.68 km/h. But it was in 1930, with the 4th edition of the race, that the legend of the 1000 MIGLIA was born and, with it, the legend of Tazio Nuvolari, il MANTOVANO VOLANTE.</p></div><div class="K2FeedIntroText"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqMR-qaYG4M">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqMR-qaYG4M</a></p> <p>Marcello narrates how the famous car race Mille Miglia was born, its route and the many difficulties pilots had to face</p> </div><div class="K2FeedFullText"> <p>The 1000 miles was born from the idea of 3 crazy managers of the Automobil Club of Brescia, Maggi, Mazzotti, Castagneto, and a journalist, Canestrini, who wanted to invent a unique race, a race that could give an electric shock to the world of fast wheels In Italy and also abroad. The 4 met in December 1926 in Milan, one of them brought a large map of Italy. The paper was carefully examined, scrutinized palm to palm, and finally here’s the idea: a very fast gallop from Brescia to Rome and back, without stops, as fast as you can. When the race was designed, then they needed a name, so they invented that unmistakable and inimitable name, 1000 MIGLIA, precisely because the race would cover a distance of 1600 km. The idea was immediately welcomed by the world of sports racing and incredibly just 3 months later on March 26, 1927 the first 1000 miles in history departed.</p> <p> </p> <p>The route was grueling. The first section of Brescia Parma Bologna entirely in the flat Po Valley was easy, but things got much worse from Bologna to Florence. Drivers should race across the Apennines, climbing 2 mountain passes: the Raticosa Pass and the Futa Pass, more than 900 m high. Then, all the way south to Rome, across the Radicofani pass at 900 m, along terrible roads. After leaving Rome, drivers would take the winding roads of central Italy that led to Ancona on the Adriatic Sea. From Ancona to Bologna it was a great sprint on flat ground but in Veneto the drivers would find, dulcis in fundo, the very hard and extremely challenging mountain roads from Feltre to Bassano del Grappa.</p> <p> </p> <p>The final piece Vicenza Verona Brescia was not particularly difficult on paper but under what physical conditions at the end of such a grueling test would the drivers drive, probably at full speed? You can easily imagine the condition of the roads in 1930: more than a third of the route was clay, with stones, dust and mud, when it rained. The roads would be open to running circulation so you could find everything: from cars that marched in the opposite direction to a flock of sheep, from the child who suddenly crossed the road to trucks or buses to be overtaken, not to mention the 67 level crossings many of them unattended. Drivers would need a remarkable driving ability, very quick reflexes, an extreme physical resistance and of course a perfectly good car.</p> <p> </p> <p>The race, due to the enormous organizational difficulties, was meant to have only one edition. Instead, the success of participation and audience was such that after the number one edition they organized also that number two and number three. Fascism looked favourably at mechanical speed, in the sky on land and at sea, and Mussolini’s consent for the continuation of the 1000 miles was decisive. The 1st edition, when someone even said that no car would return to Brescia, was won by Minoia and Morandi at an average of 77 km/h on OM, that’s almost 21 hours. The second and third editions were won by Campari and Ramponi on an Alfa Romeo, in 1929 the average was 89.68 km/h. But it was in 1930, with the 4th edition of the race, that the legend of the 1000 MIGLIA was born and, with it, the legend of Tazio Nuvolari, il MANTOVANO VOLANTE.</p></div>