ALLEY OOPS!

 

After twenty-five years of marriage, all of our children left the nest; it was now time for my wife and me to do some traveling. The first place on our list was Italy. Since it was the country of my grandparents, I always dreamed of visiting it. I was full of excitement of the unknown, wondering what it would be like. I believed there would be a sense of culture shock. Instead, from the moment we arrived at the airport, I felt like I came home and that I belonged there. Everybody looked like my cousins, their mannerisms were the same, they spoke like my grandparents, and the food was the same as we ate at home. It was like going to the Little Italy in the United States where my relatives lived.

When I was in my formative years my parents warned me about traveling in cities; don’t talk to strangers, stay out of alleys, and walk close to curb, lest someone pull you into an alley. And stay out of those sections where you don’t belong. And if any one calls to you to talk to you keep your distance. So that meant, I should only walk in the Italian neighborhoods or in familiar area of any city.

These warning were justified since we often went into the cities, like Newark and Patterson, N.J, and New York City to visit relatives. These were basic survival techniques that they gave my brother and me. My mother grew up in an Italian slum in New Jersey and my father in a rural Italian neighborhood in a New York community. Their living conditions were quite a contrast. Nevertheless, my father was street wise. As a young man he often was on the road traveling across America on foot, by freight train, bus and car. He told me many stories of significant ethnic problems he encountered on the road. The contents of his stories and the warnings remained in my memory.

On our trip to Italy we landed in Milan; rented a car and drove to Varese, a small city, on the outskirts. We arrived in the afternoon, acquired a hotel room and rested. That evening we went out to eat. As we were strolling we came upon two young teenage girls, and greeted them saying, “Hi! We are strangers, looking for a restaurant. Do you know of any nearby?”

 “Yes, follow us. We’ll take you to one.”

We followed them having a lively conversation. The first thing they did was to walk into an alley off the main thoroughfare. I immediately became wary. But, not my wife, who grew up in Italy, continued to walk nonchalantly along chatting. We continued and went into another alley, and another, and then into a small plaza where three or four alleys conjoined. In it were many young people. Some were standing in small groups, some sitting on motorcycles and looking tough to my perception. I became more nervous and suspicious.

We entered another alley and as we were coming to the end of it, I finally asked in Italian, “Are you sure there is a restaurant close by?” They both looked at me astonished, and at that moment responded simultaneously, “Si, Signore é lá.” They extended their arms pointing across a small plaza to a cafeteria.

Oops! I felt like a fool, I mentally wiped my brow, musing, “Phew!” For the rest of our trip I learned that many thing of interest to see in the large and small cities in Italy are in alleys.

It was a unique experience. I didn’t have to concern myself with where I went. The cities small and large are rife with alleys. Great works of art, Roman ruins, cathedrals, and the best of restaurants are in them. For example, the famous Pantheon, temple to all the gods, sits three alleys back off of a main thoroughfare, and once there six more alleys span from the piazza in front it. My fears dissipated.

Something else that help any misgivings about Italians occurred in the same town. We wanted to cross the street but there was a lot of traffic. We noticed many people entering to what I thought was a staircase leading down to a subway. But, when we approached it we realized it was a sottopassagio, an under-pass to cross the street. We entered, went down the stairs and when we were at the bottom there was a three way intersection. It was quite wide, and enough so that it contained a few shops and a small plaza. A group of about eight young people were gathered at the plaza and standing in the front of the entrance to one of the passageways. I looked at them with suspicion until I saw an elderly lady, walking with a cane, come ambling directly toward them. As she approached, the group automatically, without losing a word in their conversations, separated to let her through. Once she passed, they melded back together like she never passed through them. They continued talking. 

  Below is an 1836 painting of the Piazza della Rotonda by Jakob Alt and a picture of the back of the Pantheon from the Piazza della Minerva, note the alleys. Also is a picture of the alley way in front of the Synagogue in Casale Monferrato. The dark door is the main entrance.

RITA LEVI-MONTALCINI

RITA LEVI-MONTALCINI

 

Rita was born on the twenty-second of April, 1909, in Turin, Italy. She was one of four children, three girls and a boy, she being a twin of one of the girls. Her mother was Adele Montalcini. The family was wealthy and of Sephardic Jewish faith. The family was Victorian in their values, and her father Adamo Levi, an electrical engineer, believed women should not attend higher education as it would interfere in their role as future mothers. The family, as a whole engaged in intellectual pursuits; thus, it didn’t take much effort for the daughters to change his mind.

She studied medicine at the University of Turin and in 1936, she graduated from medical school with a summa cum laude degree in medicine and surgery.  After which she enrolled in a three year specialization program in neurology and psychiatry. She did research on the effects peripheral tissues have on nerve cell growth. But, because of her Jewish ancestry, Mussolini’s “Manifesto per la Defesa della Razza,” (Manifest for the defense of the Race), caused her to lose her job. When things became worse in Turin, the family escaped to the country side, and had to follow that with going to Florence where the family remained in hiding during the German occupation of Italy (1943-45). By 1944, the Americans cleared Florence of the Nazis and she was able to surface and became actively involved in nursing and caring for refugees suffering with infectious diseases. When the war ended in 1945, she was able to resume her research at Turin.

In 1947, she accepted an invitation to a post at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri by zoologist Viktor Hamburger. Here she was to repeat the research performed before the war in the study of the growth of nerve tissue in chick embryos.

In 1948, they discovered that a variety of mouse tumors spurred nerve growth when implanted into chick embryos. The two traced the effect to a substance in the tumor that they named nerve-growth factor NGF. Levi-Montalcini further showed that the tumor caused similar cell growth in a nerve-tissue cultures kept alive in the laboratory. Stanley Cohen, another interested scientist, joined her at Washington University, and he was able to isolate the nerve-growth factor from the tumor.

Levi-Montalcini planned to remain only twelve months, but the excellent results of their work impressed her to continue. In 1956, the University offered her the position as an associate professor and two years later that of full professorship. In 1962, she developed a research unit in Rome. She remained active both here and abroad. She also held the position of Director of the Institute of Cell Biology of the Italian National Council of Research in Rome.

NGF was the first of many cell-growth factors found in the bodies of animals. In 1986, Dr. Levi-Montalcini received due recognition when she, along with her colleague, Dr. Stanley Cohen, earned the Nobel Prize in medicine for the discoveries of NGF and of EGF, epidermal growth factor, which is used in the treatment of severe burns.

She published an autobiographical work, In Praise of Imperfection, in 1988. At the following internet address she provides a short interesting autobiographical sketch telling of her parents, sisters, and brother and war experiences. Levi-Montalcini held dual citizenship of Italy and of the United States. She passed away on the thirtieth of December 2012, at the age of 102.

http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1986/levi-montalcini-autobio.html.

 

The image below is from Wikipedia via Barnard B ecker Medical Library, Washing School of Medience circa 1975 and the following from 2009.

 

 

 THE ROMAN GOD JANUS

 

January, the first month of the year, is named after the Roman god, Janus. He has two faces, one looking back at the past and another looking forward to the future, indicating the continual process of time. Understandingly, he was also the god of doors and gates. In Roman cities they depicted him with two faces at the gates, with one side bearded and the other clean-shaven indicating age and youth. In some locales they depicted him with having four faces, signifying him as an omniscient (all knowing) god and one that no one can hide from. Besides having the first month of the year named after him, followers built many temples in his honor; they also referred to him as Janus Gemini, meaning Janus the twins, since he had two faces. The people believed in him as the protector of the city.

 Ancient legend states he originally came from Thessaly, which is located in the Eastern portion of modern Greece He settled in Latium and was welcomed by a young female resident, Camese, whom he later married. They had many children, one they named Tiberinus, who became the god of the Tiber River for whom the Romans named it. Janus was the first king of the Latins, and his reign historians describe as a Golden Age. He introduced money, laws and the cultivation of the fields. It was only after his death that the Romans deified him as protector of the city.

When Camese died, he was the sole ruler. He later married Juturna a water nymph and had another son, Fontus, who is the god of fountains or springs.  One was located in the Roman Forum and the shrine to his mother is located where it once flowed―Lacus Juturnae. 

Recipe for Ceci Bread

1 lb of unbleached flour

Two rounded tblspns of whole wheat flour

6 ounces of ceci flour

Salt to taste

1 ½ cups of warm water

1 pkg of yeast

One chopped medium size onion (and/or you can also put chopped olives of your liking)

Add the yeast to the water and allow it to froth, mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and when the yeast is ready pour into the electric mixer bowl and add half the dry mix and beat for three minutes on high, then slowly add the rest of the dry ingredients. The dough should now be firm and sticky. Remove it and put on a floured surface and add a little flour at a time and knead until it achieves a nice non sticky consistency, now add the chopped onions or olives and knead that into the dough. Place into an oiled bowl, cover and allow to raise until double.  Carefully dump onto a cooking pan and bake at 375° for 30 to 40 minutes. After 30 min. check with wooden skewer, if it comes out dry it is done.

THE CEPPO OR TREE OF LIGHT

 

The Ceppo (chayp-poe) or Tree of light dates back to the 1500s in Tuscany, Italy. In pagan times, the Tuscans burned a log to commemorate the calends. The calends are the first day of the month. A major event concerning the burning of the Ceppo was at the end of December, in anticipation of the Calend of January. The people attached festivities to the event as the people of England did in the Yule log celebrations and in today’s New Year’s Eve parties. In another holiday, the Festa di San Giuseppe, the celebrants light fires to venerate the Saint the night before his feast day. These fires are visible from afar as sparkling stars through some of the mountainous areas of Italy.

 In Italian Ceppo means stump or log, similarly in modern times often when builders of homes put the rafters of the roof on a new house, carpenters frequently place a branch at the peak of the work until the job is finished. This is in recognition of Jupiter, the god of all gods, whose sacred tree was the oak. Because of this some considered the calends’ fires as a pagan ritual. 

In Rome, the future St. Boniface, with permission of Pope Zachary, abolished the burning of the Ceppo. Many accept that the people replaced it by building a facsimile of a tree from wood. The new Ceppo consists of tiered graduating shelves constructed around a shaft, the largest being at the bottom, and the smallest at the top. The shelves are painted and/or covered with colored paper or cloth on which are placed figurines representing Christmas. Usually the first level has the nativity scene and the above levels, greenery, fruit and other decorations. Lights are also used. 

The people of Italy still use the Ceppo, but many are adopting green artificial trees in it stead. During the holidays the Italians emphasize the nativity scene and the celebrating of Christmas Day as a concentration on Christ. Gift giving comes later during the Epiphany, i.e., the Wise men finding Christ and bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Consequently, this developed into gift giving among family, friends, and to charities.

It is interesting to note that the word Ceppo derived from the Latin word cippium, which were stone stump shaped landmarks, marking distances on the ancient Roman Highways.

 

 

 

THE MINORCAN EXPERIENCE

 

An early Italian Immigration Happening

St. Augustine, Florida

 

In 1763 Spain lost Cuba to the English during the Seven Years War. It ended with the Treaty of Paris. In that treaty, England ceded Cuba back to Spain in exchange for the Spanish territory of Florida.

A Scotsman, Dr. Andrew Turnbull, and two other business men, invested in an adventure to develop a colony in what is now New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Dr. Turnbull, in recognition of the warmer climate, believed that Mediterranean people would be better suited to settling there. Consequently, he ventured to Italy, Corsica, Turkey, and to Greece, where he formerly was the British consul at Smyrna to the Ottoman Empire. His intent was to entice individuals to contract for indentured servitude. The lure was that each individual would receive fifty acres of land upon completion of their tenure. The length of servitude was six to eight years.

The amount of Italians recruited was 110; Corsicans 210, and a handful of Greeks and Turks. The rest were Minorcans, who, at the time, were under British rule. Outside of the Minorcans, the Italians were the first recruitments and Dr. Turnbull had them transported to Mahon, Minorca while he sailed to Greece and Turkey to recruit more people. During his tenure in Greece as consul he met and married a woman from Smyrna, hence the name―New Smyrna Beach.

He boarded the Italians on farms until the time for their departure to the New World. Some of them waited over a year and in the meantime many married local women. When Dr. Turnbull returned to Mahon, the signees asked permission to bring their wives.

The initial amount of persons that he intended to indenture was six hundred and sixty, but now, since there were wives, presumably, he was getting two for one. He granted them permission and in 1768 eight ships left Mahon with 1400 passengers. During the trip three births occurred and one hundred and forty-eight people died. Four ships became lost on the trip delaying their arrival by a month.

Father Pedro Camps, the priest for the flock accompanied them to and in New Smyrna and in St. Augustine. Father Camps was a highly dedicated individual who tended to his flock with the utmost care. It is because of him that there is an abundance of information about the “Minorqueños,” available. He recorded all the births, baptisms and deaths into what many refer to as, “The Golden Book of the Minorcans”. The original book is still extant and in good condition. Several handwritten copies are on file in the Historical Library in St. Augustine. The name of the colony was Les Mesquite.

The state of affairs in were harsh. Dr. Turnbull and his overseers were cruel and kept those who survived the rigors of the settlement beyond their servitude. Conditions were so bad that nine hundred and thirty individuals died before the end. During the first year four hundred and fifty perished. However, due to births, the number that made it to St. Augustine was six hundred. Of the original 1400 only two hundred and ninety-one survived.

Captives Ramon Rogero, Francisco Pellicer, and Juan Genoply (Genopoli) clandestinely built a make-shift boat, escaped and set sail to reach to St. Augustine to tell the governor of the conditions at the colony. En route a passing ship rescued them and took them to Baltimore. Once there they continued their journey to St. Augustine by horseback and on foot. Upon arrival in St. Augustine they met with the British Governor Tonyn and explained the conditions at New Smyrna. The governor had an investigation conducted with the findings that the colony was in deplorable conditions and the people were enslaved.

He freed and removed them en masse in a seventy-five mile march to St. Augustine in July of 1777.The trek took three days. Records of the investigation still exist. Seven years later the 1783 Treaty of Paris returned Florida Spain

 Some descendant names of the Italian survivors that made it to St. Augustine are Usina, Pacetti (Paxetty, Pachetty, Paxity, etc.) Capo, Canova, Bonelli (Bonelly), Mascaro, Mariano, Manusi, Trotti. Two famous Minorcan descendants are Judy Canova and Stephen Vincent Benét. Originally, his name had no accent. His grandfather, who was from St. Augustine was Stephen Vincent Benet, General U.S Army. His father was Esteve Benet from the Isle of Minorca, arriving in New Smyrna Colony in 1768.

 

Below is a picture of the Oldest Wooden School House in the United States. Juan Genopoly (Giovanni Genopoli) built it.

RAPHAEL

(Raffaello Sanzio or Santi)

 

Raffaello’s last name appears in both spellings; however, he and his works are so famous that people know him simply as Raphael or in Italian as Raffaello. Similar to Michelangelo whose last name is Buonarotti, and Giotto, whose is Di Bondone. Raphael is famous for many Madonna and Child paintings, he did during the Italian Renaissance.

Raphael was born in Urbino on the twenty-eighth of March or the sixth of April 1483, the uncertainty derives from a tomb inscription by Pietro Bembo which states that Raphael died on the same day of the year that he was born―Good Friday. But, in 1483, Good Friday fell on twenty-eighth of March.

Raphael’s father, Giovanni, Sanzio was an artist who worked for the ruler of Urbino―Guidobaldo da Montefeltro and his wife Elisabetta Gonzaga. Giovanni taught his son the rudiments of painting and when he was old enough, he sent him to a school in Perugia. Here he was under the tutelage of Pietro Perugino, a highly regarded artist who apprenticed with Leonardo da Vinci, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Fillipino Lippi, and others.

Within a year Raphael was an artist on his own merit. His first painting, at the age of nineteen was, “The Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga” (1502 Oil on canvas presently at the Galleria degli Uffizi, in Florence). He painted a number of Madonna and Child canvases with equal charm. Eighteen different cities in Europe and the United States claim ownership to some of his paintings. Five are at the National Gallery of Art in Washington; D.C.: The Alba Madonna, The Niccolini―Cowper Madonna, The Small Cowper Madonna, Saint George and the Dragon, and Bindo Altoviti.

Raphael, unfortunately, for us, after a two week illness in the prime of his life at the age of thirty-seven died on his birthday in 1520, in Rome. While ill Pope Leo X visited him daily. On his tombstone are the words, “This is Raphael’s tomb. While he lived, Nature feared his victory; when he died, that it would die with him.”

One outstanding aspect of him was his ability to synthesize the styles of other artists into his own productions; thereby keeping, expressing, and emphasizing the genre of his epoch. He was a person held in very high regard by his peers. Giorgio Vasari, a painter, architect, writer, historian, and a contemporary of Raphael, wrote, “With what liberality heaven can occasionally pour out the whole wealth of its treasures, all talents and outstanding skills, into a single person is clearly evident in Raffaello Sanzio of Urbino, who stood out as much for his rare personal charisma as for his unique genius.”  Below is the Alba Madonna, a self portrait, he is in the background, and The School of Athens, and the web sites for viewing his works. At www.galleriabroghese.it, www.vatican.va, www.aberoma.com (Villa Farnese)