Since I was born in Brescia, Italy I'm Italian and
regardless that I had to renounce my nationality when I naturalized here as
American citizen of the USA because this country doesn't want to recognize any
other birth country that this one, I'm a dual citizen (American + Italian) for
Italy but I'm only American for the USA.
This brings me to say that all we think, have, learn,
appreciate since our birth originated in Italy, arts, science, democracy,
finances and even religion (catholic) come from the country where I was born 51
years ago, just look at what every important museum in this country has on
display, what every theater programs in the show schedule, the materials used
to build some important and beautiful buildings in towns in this country and
you are going to have just one word in your mind: ITALY!
My today's post could be very long and articulated, but I
don't want to bore my readers with too obvious concepts and ideas, suffice for
me to say what I just said, what matters most for me is to say that while Italy
is the country of origin of very many beautiful artistic and scientific concept
it's also the country with the worst possible government, I cannot even
remember how many special elections have taken place in my mother country, nor
how many presidents and dominant parties have been in power over the last few
hundreds of years, even now the current president (the one after the magnate
Berlusconi) has resigned and the entire country is in the "guessing
mode" that's been its way of functioning almost since the time when the
very first government was formed (XVIII century).
I've been posting here too about the other country (or kingdom)
located in Italy besides San Marino (unique in this field) that's the Vatican
kingdom with its emperor (the pope), its army(the clergy, or the hierarchy of the
roman Catholic church ) and its huge wealth (donations plus the many art
treasures made and donated from great artists inspired by what the Vatican
represents and stands for.
I truly can't tell where my interest and fascination with
the history of my country comes from, but I can say with great confidence that
there exists very little that I never saw or visited while living in Italy .
I'd say that it was just my luck that my mother was born in
Venice and my grandparents (her parents) lived there for their entire lives, so
I'd be visiting them in Venice at least once each month until I moved here in
1989, in addition I still have many relatives (cousins and uncles + ants) who
live either in Venice downtown or very close to it (Lido).
After I was married with Michele and before we moved to MD
we went several times to
It's a very important objective of mine to bring my two
treasures to Italy, go to historical locations/towns and have them get to know
well all their relatives who live in that country, I often tell to them that
since I'm their true father, there's a piece of that country in their genes, so
once there it will be for them like going back home, in addition they both can
speak Italian, with my son surely ahead of his sister in this field,
mostly because he remembers having been there when I was in Italy for work
meetings, he'd come with me and Michele and they both used to travel around
while I was working. Since I own the very upscale residence where my parents
lived for many years (and my mother still occupies) my treasures will inherit
this great place that's few steps away from the Saint Zeno church, built in the
year 1.000, and this is going to give a target to go to and visit for their
future vacations.
Of course my sweetest memories of living in Italy are all
related to the times when Michele and I were living together and I had just
started my work career, in example I have fun memories of her taking courses of
Italian language in Bologna with a woman as teacher who would go with her in an
Italian bar (cafe) and drink several glasses of wine in the middle of the day,
in addition her driving skills with the car I had passed on to her (Fiat Panda)
and the almost F1 speeds se would take driving in the hill roads around
Bologna, I have friends that still mention their panic in those moments.
In a way I'm proud of being a naturalized USA citizen, but
I'm proud to still be Italian too, with all of my culture, experience and
knowledge that only being born in Italy and being myself I can have, in
fact my own sister, her husband and very many of my friends never accumulated a
level of experience and knowledge like mine. Sadly my beautiful Michele too has
remained to be the thoroughbred Werney she was born to be, no matter how much I
had dreamt to have turned her into an Italian Lingiardi too, her recent
behaviors have brought to light her innermost genetics.
However, I don't mind at all that she's kept my last name,
it's more clear for my treasures and my hopes to have influenced her in the
Lingiardi direction will die with me.
- http://egiv.hubpages.com/hub/The-Difference-Between-Italians-and-Italian-Americans
- http://www.kathyandpeterinsicily.com/whatdoesitmean.html
- http://www.silive.com/opinion/columns/index.ssf/2014/09/do_you_have_roots_in_the_boot.html
- http://www.scordo.com/2010/08/on-what-it-means-to-be-and-live-like-an-italian-american.html
- http://www.italiancenter.net/pdfs/newsletter_archives/2005-03.pdf
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