Watching Stanley Tucci's 'Searching For Italy' series and I can only think about how much I wish we got the crossover of him and Anthony Bourdain.
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"Spoken Latin Is Making a Comeback"
The title is over the top for what the article is actually about. A teacher is setting up trips to Rome for Latin students, on the trip they attempt to converse in Latin for an added experiential effect when learning the language. It sounds fun and super nerdy.
I took four years of Latin in high school, a decision my father was very much against (he wanted me to just take Spanish) and my mother fought (truly, one of the only times I recall them disagreeing and sticking to their guns.) Ultimately it was my decision and I chose Latin.
I can recall at one point in high school, I think my Junior year, I was deep in the class and had just left it. A kid ran by and hit my shoulder and I said, "Ubi est ignis?!" almost without thinking. I didn't think about translating the phrase "Where's the fire?" it just came out. It's the only time I recall finding myself in that deep a gestalt with the language. I can only imagine how much I would have enjoyed going to Italy to study and speak Latin.
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Italian police utilize lamborghini for delivering transplant organs
Photo from the Reddit thread that brought this to my attention, it had the title: "Italian police delivering a donor kidney travels 490 kilometers in two hours from Rome to Padua in a Lamborghini Huracan. His average speed during the trip was 233km/h (145mph). The trip normally takes 6 hours."
The linked article is pretty lightweight, but it is from December. I had to learn more about this as I have to imagine being a police officer, knowing you can't get in trouble, and having full license to floor it in the Lambo through the Italian countryside must be an absolutely amazing thing to get to do.
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The history of Tresigallo Italy
Add this one to the list of places I want to visit and dive into the history of.
In the 1930s, the Italian village of Tresigallo was the site of an extraordinary experiment. Wide avenues, tall buildings, grand squares, stadiums, hotels, restaurants, sanatoriums, gyms, and factories were constructed, transforming this impoverished village of 500 inhabitants into a “utopian city” which could be replicated across Fascist Italy.
But these weren’t just hastily built prefab structures; they were works of astonishing beauty, blending the metaphysical dreamscapes of Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico with the latest trends in modernism to create an urban environment quite unlike anywhere else.
I am tempted to excerpt much of the article simply out of fascination with it. Just go read it. You'll find it interesting as well. I did a quick search and it seems no full book has been written about this city's history, which is a shame - it seems ripe for some infotainment beyond this article.
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Redditor /u/Hoyarugby delivers great insights and context about American black men volunteering to go fight in Ethiopia and defend it from Mussolini
Reddit title for this photo: "African Americans in Harlem volunteering to go to Ethiopia and fight to save Africa’s last uncolonized nation from fascist Italian dictator Mussolini. Almost all volunteers were blocked from leaving by the US government. Few managed to go to Ethiopia. Summer 1935."
The top comment, which I linked, is super interesting and yet another example of a moment in American history I had no awareness of.
The war that is being discussed is The Second Italo-Ethiopian War which I did know about (only at the highest level of awareness, no real in depth knowledge) but I was completely unaware of this aspect of it from the US history perspective.
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