Postcard from Bertinoro

Bertinoro is famous for its ancient Hospitality Rite: anyone could be hosted for a meal by one of the noble families of the town simply by taking his envelopes tied to a ring of the Hospitality Column (which inside has the name of the hosting family).

Emperor Septimius Severus and inflation

Today Roman Emperor Septimius Severus died at York in 211 during his military campaign to make Britannia's frontier safe.

He was a great soldier, but his many successes unleashed the very one enemy who contributed most significantly to the fall of Roman Empire: inflation. In fact, to finance his military campaigns

Severus for the first time uncoupled intrinsic and nominal value of coins, by halving the quantity of precious metals. 

From Lupercalia to Candlemas

Today Roman Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple otherwise known as the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin or Candlemas. The Italian name is the Candelora. 

It is a purification day which replaced in 492 a.D. the ancient Roman purification rites of the Februatio during the Lupercalia. This superimposition practice has always been very common.

Giorgio Perlasca

Giorgio Perlasca was born on January 31th 1910. 

He was maybe the greatest imposter of all Italian history and he has to be honored for it. His Wikipedia profile explains why: 

During World War II, Perlasca worked at procuring supplies for the Italian Army in the Balkans. When the Nazis occupied Hungary, in 1944, instead of departing with other diplomatic staff (Italy had by then surrendered to the Allies) he escaped to the Spanish Embassy in Budapest, immediately becoming a Spanish citizen under the name Jorge Perlasca, due to his status as a veteran of the Spanish war. He worked with the Spanish Chargé d'Affaires, Ángel Sanz Briz, and other diplomats of neutral states in smuggling Jews out of the country. The system he devised consisted of furnishing 'protection cards' which placed Jews under the guardianship of various neutral states, and of creating 'protected houses in mansions governed by extraterrorial conventions and thereby guarantee asylum for persecuted Jews.

When Sanz Briz was removed from Hungary to Switzerland in November 1944, he invited Perlasca to join him in safety. However Perlasca chose to stay on. The Hungarian government ordered the Spanish Embassy building and the extra-territorial houses where the Jews took refuge cleared out. Perlasca immediately gave the false announcement that Sanz Briz was due to return from a short leave, and that he had been appointed a substitute.

Throughout the winter, Perlasca was active in hiding, shielding and feeding thousands of Jews in Budapest, and to issue them with safe conduct passes on the basis of a Spanish law passed in 1924 that grants citizenship to Jews of Sephardi origin.

In December 1944, Perlasca audaciously rescued two boys from being herded onto a freight train in defiance of a German lieutenant colonel on the scene. Swedish diplomat/rescuer Raoul Wallenberg, also present, later informed Perlasca that the officer who had challenged him was none other than Adolf Eichmann. In a period of some 45 days, from December the Ist 1944 to the 16 of January 1945, he saved thousands of Jews by his own initiative.

After the war, Perlasca returned to Italy, and didn't reveal his actions to anyone, including his family, until he was found again in 1987 by a group of Hungarian Jews. A best-selling narrative of his remarkable single-handed valour was written by Enrico Deaglio, entitled, the 'Banality of Goodness'[1], and was turned into a film by the RAI national television corporation.

Giorgio Perlasca died of a heart attack in 1992, having received decorations from the Italian, Hungarian and Spanish governments and is considered by Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. His deeds were the subject of an Italian film, Perlasca, un eroe italiano.

Unique handicrafts from Italy: the Vancali in Tiriolo

Artistic handicrafts have ancient roots in Calabria, and production includes shawls, wool rugs, tapestry and oriental inspired wall hangings. These products vary from place to place, but embroidery and the textiles used to make the so called "vancali" in Tiriolo, a small village on the slopes of Sila Piccola, are particularly famous.

If you can read Italian, a simple search for "vancali" on Google will reveal many sites describing the vancali. If you can't, you may visit Sylvie's Story: Italy part 2 for a few photos and informations.

Need to know if you will marry soon?

If any lady wishes to know for sure if she will get married by the end of the year, she has just to visit S. Costanzo's church in Perugia and look at his portrait. If she can see the Saint to wink at her amidst the light reflections over the painting, then she will marry. Otherwise, she can search comfort in the local sweetcake, the Torcolo of S. Costanzo.

S. Costanzo was the first Bishop of Perugia and he was martyr under Marco Aurelio in the II century a.C.. According to the common lore he was author of several miracles.

Saint of the day: Thomas Aquinas

Probably the most influential Middle Age scholar he melted Aristotle and Greek culture with Christianity.

Son of the Count of Aquino, born in the family castle in Lombardy near Naples, Italy. Educated by Benedictine monks at Monte Cassino, and at the University of Naples. He secretly joined the mendicant Dominican friars in 1244. His family kidnapped and imprisoned him for a year to keep him out of sight, and deprogram him, but they failed to sway him, and he rejoined his order in 1245.

He studied in Paris, France from 1245 to 1248 under Saint Albert the Great, then accompanied Albertus to Cologne, Germany. Ordained in 1250, then returned to Paris to teach. Taught theology at University of Paris. He wrote defenses of the mendicant orders, commentaries on Aristotle and Lombard’s Sentences, and some bible-related works, usually by dictating to secretaries. He won his doctorate, and taught in several Italian cities. Recalled by king and university to Paris in 1269, then recalled to Naples in 1272 where he was appointed regent of studies while working on the Summa Theologica.

On 6 December 1273 he experienced a divine revelation which so enraptured him that he abandoned the Summa, saying that it and his other writing were so much straw in the wind compared to the reality of the divine glory. He died four months later while en route to the Council of Lyons, overweight and with his health broken by overwork.

His works have been seminal to the thinking of the Church ever since. They systematized her great thoughts and teaching, and combined Greek wisdom and scholarship methods with the truth of Christianity. Pope Leo VIII commanded that his teachings be studied by all theology students. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1567.

(From saints.sqpn.com where you can find a lot more about Thomas Aquinas.)