Accurate, timely tsunami alert systems have proved more elusive than the Loch Ness Monster, but a new prototype testing the waters in the Atlantic may change that. Three-ton Italian-designed Geostar (Geophysical and Oceanographic Station for Abyssal Research), set down about 150 kilometers off the coast of Portugal in the Gulf of Cadiz, has been monitoring [...]
Sicilian mafia turncoat Gaspare Mutulo, recently in the headlines for revealing a kidnapping plan aimed at Silvio Berlusconi, used his time in jail to paint. His lawyer Silvio Nistico’ has put 20 of his artworks, which all portray a slightly naif if always sunny and calm Sicily, on display in an online gallery. The views [...]
Five hundred years ago, Renaissance inventor Leonardo Da Vinci put his hand to designing an artificial leg. An Italian museum dedicated to his inventions in his Tuscan birthplace, Vinci, recently unveiled a working model of Leonardo’s limb. In fleshing out his creation, Da Vinci described the leg as “round…with soft annealed copper wires then folded [...]
A portrait of combative, former-combat journalist Oriana Fallaci sans head went up recently in Milan. Dubbed “Decapitated Oriana” by the papers, protesters picketed the gallery where it is part of a show by artist Giuseppe Veneziano. The picketers were from a conservative group called “Italia con Oriana” (Italy with Oriana), ostensibly to protect her against [...]
by Nicole Martinelli Retired factory worker Salvatore Zedda, 58, makes for an unlikely pop star. However unlikely, his “song,” a sampling of calls he made to the help desk of an Internet provider made without his consent, has become an underground hit in Italy. It all started a few weeks ago when Zedda phoned Tiscali’s [...]
updated June 7 14:42 p.m. by Nicole Martinelli Some 10,000 Romans paid respects to beloved actor Nino Manfredi over the weekend. Manfredi, 83, died Friday following a stroke. A chorus of Romans shouted “Nino, Nino!” following funeral services in the Artists’ church of San Maria del Popolo this morning. He is survived by wife Erminia [...]
zoomata staff: Saturday May 8 12:37 a.m.Romano Prodi, currently European Union Commission President, is drumming up party support by offering bottles of mineral water. “A sip of optimism,” promises the orange label promoting the Ulivo party, available in still or sparkling water. Gadgets are rare in Italian political campaigns — the revolving door of 59 [...]
zoomata staff posted: Mon Dec. 28 11:49 am all bark no bite, Ugolino’s recontructed head Centuries after Dante condemned him to nibble a skull for eternity in the Inferno, Ugolino della Gherardesca, the ‘Cannibal Count,’ is finally resting in peace. He was put back into the family tomb, this time with honors, in a solemn [...]
by Nicole Martinelli? posted: Wed. Dec. 14 15:23 pm All of us have probably destroyed a photo highlighting a triple chin or lopsided smile, but things are a bit different when you’re the symbol of a political regime. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was ruthless when it came to discarding photos that showed him in, well, [...]
zoomata.com staff Members of the Mafia in America were sent across the pond to perfect the criminal trade from pros in Sicily, according to a turncoat don. Antonino Giuffr?, arrested in 2002, confirmed FBI reports that members of the Bonanno crime family in the US were sent to the province of Trapani for training. The [...]
