Italian Mayor Immortalized on Church Doors

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zoomata staff posted: Thu Jan. 15 17:49 am

Art patrons throughout the centuries have often indulged in having their portraits put in larger works, but an Italian mayor is the first present-day official to have himself sculpted with the saints.

Vanity got the better of mayor Fedele Melas when a local artist asked to portray him in bronze on church doors in the village of San Gavino, on the Italian isle of Sardinia. Cost of the doors, more than three meters high (9.8 feet) and two meters wide (6.5 feet), was 60,000 euro ($76,000).

Melas is easy to spot in the tableau gracing the outside of Santa Chiara church, unveiled to incredulous villagers recently. He’s depicted in a modern suit and tie, grinning as he offers a basket of local civraxiu bread and saffron flowers to San Gavino, a third-century Sardinian martyr and protector of the town.

Parish priest Fiorenzo Pau also succumbed to the desire of sculptor Pietro Longu to use “realistic images,” since he, too, appears in the doors next to Melas in a bottom corner. Longu maintains that to avoid abstract faces, he chose the only people he knew in the town as models.

Inhabitants of the town of 9,500 have been quick to protest, though most recognize there is no point in whining over cast bronze, even if they are governed by a faccia di bronzo, a ‘bronze face,’ a brazen or cheeky person.

“It’s in very bad taste, having the mayor on our church doors,” said Mauro Casu. “We were happy to finance the new doors, but this is just uncalled for.”

There has been a constant line of locals waiting to see this one-of-a-kind portrait, but many stop for a quick jaw-drop without taking in the details. An inscription in Latin on the inside serves to remind future generations about the man in strange clothing. It explains that the city government paid for nearly a third of the bronze doors. ?1999-2004 zoomata.com

Zoomata is the brainchild of a bilingualjournalist based in Italy who thinks out of the box. This brain is for hire.

For Italians, Grass is Already Greener

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47% Italians “never” dream of packing it in for somewhere else
74% Italian “day dreamers” relive pleasant past memories, rather than think of future
46% Italians prefer to live in present time, rather than past or future

zoomata staff posted: Thu Jan. 15 16:13 pm

Italians, though lucky enough to enjoy a mild climate, all the art you’d ever want to feast your eyes on and excellent food, are often, well, less than enthusiastic about their homeland. Blame it on the eternal government problem, wildcat strikes, nepotism, merciless bureaucracy, brain drain, mammoni — Italy remains a country where a standard response to “How are you?” can be translated as “OK enough.”

Few, however, would seem to subscribe to a ‘grass is always greener’ mentality, if this recent poll of over 1,000 Italians is to be believed. Not only do nearly half never even dream of packing in the Bel Paese for a tropical paradise, but they are also intolerant of the daydreamers who do.
When asked to opine on why they thought one might daydream, most thought that the daydreamer “just wanted escapism, even though they had people close to them to listen and help.”
Three-quarters of Italians who do get lost in the occasional reverie prefer to relive pleasant past memories rather than speculate on a radiant future.

Another indicator that Italians are more interested in living in the here and now showed up when asked whether they’d rather live in another age or the future. The only clear preference, 46%, was shown for now while the Renaissance, the Roman age and the future garnered a measly 10% each. Carpe diem!?1999-2004 zoomata.com

Zoomata is the brainchild of a bilingualjournalist based in Italy who thinks out of the box. This brain is for hire.

Related resources:
“Living La Dolce Vita: Bring the Passion, Laughter and Serenity of Italy into Your Daily Life”
grumbling excluded…

Kate Little (Cinque Terre)

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Each month we introduce you to someone who has made the dream of picking up and moving to the Bel Paese a reality.
In their own words they share the good parts, the bad parts and the just plain absurd moments of day-to-day life in Italy.

Looking to move to Italy? Try the reader-recommended Survivor Package

If you live in Italy, we would love to hear your story–Contact form

ID Card:
Kate Little, 33 , originally from La Marque, Texas, USA I have a
3 1/2 year old son, William and a Milanese husband, Fabio. We live in
Monterosso al Mare, Cinque Terre. We own FAST (a caf?/bar), TONNO SUBITO (a
fishing shop), and my baby, Fishnet Internet Lounge. I have a noncommercial
info site about the Cinque Terre at www.fishnet.it and my email is
kate@fishnet.it

Currently living In: Monterosso al Mare, Cinque Terre, Italy.

By way of: I lived in London for a couple of years after high school- working and going to school.

How (or why) did you get here from there?
By chance.. I was 19 when 2 friends and I decided to hitchhike across southern Europe. We came to the Cinque Terre with during Easter 1989 and then again with one friend in June 1989. By chance, that June there was a train strike and our Interrail passes expired. My friend had to go back to London to school so we pooled our leftover cash and sent her back. I stayed on in Monterosso, moved in with a local fishing family and earned money by baby-sitting and fishing. By the time that I had made enough money to leave, I didn’t want to go. In 1990 the Legge Martelli came out (an amnesty law for
non-European citizens living Italy) and allowed me to have residency, health coverage, working papers, etc. and so I started working around town. I went to Siena and Florence to study Italian and then started really integrating myself in the culture. I started going out with Fabio in 1992 and then…the
rest is history.

What role did language skills play in your expat experience?
The main reason for applying myself to learn Italian was to communicate with the people that had shown me so much kindness and generosity in my first months here. I had no previous knowledge of Italian but, with my base of scholastic Spanish, I found it fairly easy to learn. At the time that I ‘moved’ here, barely anyone spoke English in Monterosso. Therefore it ended up being a do-or- die situation. The funny thing is that before learning real Italian, I learned the local dialect without even realizing it. Eventually, upon getting together with my future husband, I needed to work on perfecting my Italian language skills in order to avoid miscommunications. It has always been an ordeal involving trial and error — a lot of inventing words on my part — but, as they say in Italian, “sbagliando, si impara” (by making mistakes, one learns).

Your biggest challenge: First and foremost, the bureaucracy — the catch 22s — the general big mess of trying to get anything done. A close second would be the problems involved with ‘shaking’ the classic American mentality, learning to relax and enjoy the day as well as not getting too stressed when things don’t go as I plan or would like them to go.

What did you do to feel at home or adapt here?
I get regular shipments of Reese’s peanut butter cups from the states. I also have a VCR that works with US cassettes as well as European ones. That way I can bring over my favorite ‘comfort’ movies in English.
I bring LOTS of stuff back from the States each time I go; food (tortillas, ancho peppers, hot sauce), books, cooking equipment, cook books, the toothbrush that I like, medicines. The Internet is fantastic — I can read Texas Monthly and CNN and keep up with popular culture. I am very fortunate as well because my family and friends come and visit me regularly and I am able to travel back to Texas at least once a year. The people in Monterosso have accepted my ‘funny’ ways and now look forward to Easter egg hunts or crazy birthday parties for my son. I order from Amazon.co.uk a few times a year- they are extremely prompt about sending things to Italy.

What do you still have to get used to/learn?
‘Le solite italianate’ of not being able to get anything done when you want it done, or even worse- thinking that FINALLY you’ve gotten something right and then you find out that one document’s missing or you have missed the deadline.

Compare an aspect (or aspects) of your home town (or other place you’ve lived) to current town.
I grew up in Galveston Texas, a typical seaside surfer town. The attitude there was very laid back and oriented around the outdoors, as it is here. In Texas though, life revolves around your car and air conditioning, two things that are unheard of in the culture here. It goes without saying that to get anything done in America , from getting a marriage license to finding a pork loin is way easier than it is in Monterosso. Housing in the Cinque Terre is a nightmare, an expensive nightmare at that, whereas in Galveston, they literally throw houses at you.

Latest pursuits:
Right now my husband and I are starting to form a tour agency kind of thing. We already offer kayak and walking tours and want to add scuba diving and complete packages. (Keep checking www.fishnet.it for updates) The bureaucracy is nuts, you need permits for everything and anything. I am also on the town activity board and that’s equally a mess — permits, taxes and documents here there and everywhere. I want to have another child eventually. That’s in the plans when we are able to find a bigger house — right now we are 3 in a bedroom! That’s Monterosso for you.

A preconceived notion about Italians/Italy that is not true:
Italians are a kind and generous population but, contrary to popular belief, they are gossipy and spiteful when they want to be. My easy-open American personality has definitely been modified by trusting the ‘wrong’ people. I am sure that this is just a small town phenomena but it certainly was against my preconception of the classic Italian.

A preconceived notion about Italians/Italy that is true:
Loving children — since my son was born, I’ve realized how much Italians adore children. I wouldn’t live anywhere else with my son now just because he is treated like royalty by everyone he comes across. He is welcome everywhere and everyone, anyplace, has something to give or share with him. He has experienced love and trust in a rare way and I would never take that away from him. The Italians are very physical and very quick to show their affection. Just as they are rapid in showing their distaste in something (which I often view as tactlessness), they are open in showing their pleasure and love for any and every child.

Your response/advice/warning to the following question: “I love Italy! I really want to live here, even though I don’t speak Italian or have a job.”
Hmmm. It takes a special person to move to Italy. Especially if you are North American and used to the efficiency and opportunities available there. If you don’t speak Italian, everything could seem great until you hit the bureaucratic barrier. After that, nothing seems like it will ever go right.
I generally discourage people from selling everything to move over unless they are very young or very rich. Italy is a fantastic place to live but it is also extremely difficult. It seems that most people I know that live here indefinitely had their ‘move’ happen by chance, without really realizing it (not unlike myself). I’d tell people who are very convinced that Italy is the country for them to come over for a while – try it- work a little bit ‘in nero’ (without papers), get a taste of life and then decide. I know that I’ve considered abandoning ship many a time. It could be quite a disappointment for someone who is expecting paradise to find out that they are in the extreme opposite of fully-functional America.

How would you sum up your Italian experience in a word (and why)?
Infatuation. Something new and unexpected is always around the corner.

Italy’s best kept secret
Sardegna. Foreign tourists rarely make it over there. It is uncrowded, unspoiled and relatively inexpensive. The beaches are lovely, the people are friendly and the food is great.

Dan DeFebbo (Como)

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Each month we introduce you to someone who has made the dream of picking up and moving to the Bel Paese a reality.
In their own words they share the good parts, the bad parts and the just plain absurd moments of day-to-day life in Italy.

Looking to move to Italy? Try the reader-recommended Survivor Package
Contact form

ID Card:
Dan DeFebbo; Profession – Telecommunications Sales Engineer.
email: miticodan@yahoo.com I’ve lived in Italy (this time) since 1998.

Currently living in: Como, Lombardia

By way of: Raleigh, North Carolina

How (or why) did you get here from there?
I grew up as a Navy brat. One of my father’s assignments was Naples when I was 15. I lived in Naples from 1975 to 1978 and fell in love with Italy. I loved it so much I came back in the US Army and was stationed just south of Venice for about 18 months in 1980.
I had always kept my eyes open for an expat position with my company in the US but nothing ever opened up. Then, in 1998, I found out about an internal position in Milan and jumped on the opportunity so I packed up my wife and two kids (ages 4 and 6) and headed to Italy. We decided early on not to live in Milan because it’s too dirty and after 3 years living in a suburb of Como, we moved into the pedestrian zone in the center.

What role did language skills play in your experience?
When I arrived, I spoke some Neapolitan dialect I had learned 20 years prior. It was funny because I arrived in Milan speaking like a street urchin from Naples. It was very amusing for Italians to see me, a very American-looking person, speaking dialect. Over the past 4 years, however, I have pretty much picked up a northern accent and speak much better. I can’t imagine surviving without speaking the language at least at the level where I could buy bread. I don’t feel like it is necessary to be fluent but you have to have a place where you can start.
My wife has had a difficult time learning the language which surprised me. In 1991, she took an intensive course and got along well when we came here for our honeymoon but this time around she struggles. She’s very smart but just hasn’t gotten the hang of it after 4 years. My kids went straight into Italian school without any problems not speaking a word and are fully fluent at this point.

Your biggest challenge:
Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. I bore all my friends with horror stories about the questura here in Como. They are particularly unhelpful.

What did you do to feel at home or adapt here?
I have a couple of sources for American groceries here in Europe and have a constant stream of visitors who smuggle me stuff like brown sugar. Not so important for me because I prefer Italian food anyway, but the kids like to have peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies from time to time. My one necessity is underarm antiperspirant. For some reason, in Italy they only sell deodorant so I have to prevail on friends to help me keep my armpits dry.

What do you still have to get used to/learn?
I don’t write in Italian very well although my reading comprehension is very good. I don’t think I will ever get used to stores without parking, shops being closed for lunch, people passing you in a dangerous way just to cut you off to exit the highway, “colpo di freddo” rules, bad Mexican food, and the dreaded questura.

Compare an aspect of your home town (or other place you’ve lived) to current town.
In North Carolina, you have to drive everywhere. Even to pop down to the store for a quart of milk you have to fire up the SUV or minivan (per forza). In Como, I park my car on Friday after work and don’t touch it again until Monday morning. I live in a pedestrian zone so everything is within easy reach either on foot or by bike. I don’t know of anyplace in the US where you can do that.

Latest pursuits:
I try to take the family someplace every weekend. I would venture to say that we are out exploring Italy 30 weekends a year. Lately, I stayed in an agriturismo in the Chianti region, spend a couple of days on the beach in Liguria, visited London on a very cheap airfare, and visited France.

A preconceived notion about Italians/Italy that is not true:
Italian are fat.

A preconceived notion about Italians/Italy that is true:
The food is wonderful, the scenery is breathtaking, art and history abound.

Your response to the following question: “I really want to live here, but I don’t speak Italian or have a job. What do you think?”
Get a skill that is not very common in Italy (technical stuff) and learn the language. With a combination of those two things, you can easily find a job that pays fairly well. Lower your expectations as far as the size of your apartment and kitchen goes. Without a work permit, things can be pretty difficult.

How would you sum up your Italian experience in a word (and why)?
Casa. I feel more at home here than any place on earth.

Italy’s best kept secret (music, culture, food, way to get round things)
Sfursat wine from the Valtellina region around Sondrio on the swiss border.

Italians Clear Dante’s ‘Cannibal’ Count, Rebury Him

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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 ceremony in Pisa’s St. Francesco church presided over by local authorities, his descendants and two groups in historical costume.

Ugolino was found guilty of treason in the late 1280s. Left to die from hunger and imprisoned in a tower with two sons and two grandchildren, legend has it he staved off the inevitable by eating his offspring. He became one of the most haunting images in Dante’s Inferno, a macabre figure who wipes his lips with the hair of the skull he’s munching.

In 2002, the professor of ‘excellent cadavers,’ Francesco Mallegni discovered a box of bones in a crypt of the family chapel in Pisa and used samples from Gherardesca descendants to prove the remains belonged to the count.
DNA testing showed that Ugolino didn’t have much to bite the kin he spent his last days locked up in a tower with. The count, at an estimated 80 years of age, was nearly toothless.

Ugolino is one of the more spectacular discoveries made recently by Italian scholars and scientists who are busy digging up remains to find out more about historical figures. In November, 14th-century poet Francesco Petrarch was exhumed by a team of scientists eager to reconstruct his face and know more about his general state of health.

Anthropologist Mallegni, whose other discoveries include Giotto and verifying the corpse of Saint Ranieri, patron of Pisa, is already working on a new mystery surrounding bones found in a church in Aulla thought to be remains of St. Caprasio. ?1999-2004 zoomata.com

Zoomata is the brainchild of a bilingualjournalist based in Italy who thinks out of the box. This brain is for hire.

Pimp Fined for ‘Damaging Image’ of Italian Art City

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zoomata staff posted: Thu. Dec. 24 15:49 pmProstitution and artistic splendor don’t go together, according to an Italian court judging a pimp in medieval jewel Perugia.

In a landmark sentence, a 22-year-old man was fined for “harming the image and historical patrimony of Perugia” and sentenced to three years of jail for forcing a minor into prostitution. Just how much he’ll have to pay for damages to the Umbrian city, 176 km (109 miles) north of Rome, will be decided by a separate court. Prostitution is not illegal in Italy but exploiting or coercing sex workers is a crime.

“Prostitution contributes to crime and the high visibility of prostitutes working the streets in the capital of Umbria harms tourism,” said prosecutor Antonietta Confalonieri. “This is the first time an Italian court has made a similar decision.”

Perugia, where Renaissance master Raphael learned the trade from teacher Perugino, is home to an important university, an international jazz fest and is considered capital of the Italian chocolate world.
The city center hasn’t always been off-limits to streetwalkers. Like many Italian towns, in 15th-century Perugia prostitutes were allocated a central red-light district between the two main squares to ply their trade.

City council member for social services, Wladimiro Boccali, is satisfied with the judge’s decision.

“It’s not about the money, though the fine will go to the association that helps take these women off the streets, ” he said. “We’re not going to remain indifferent to this slavery, we can’t pretend it’s not there anymore.”

There are an estimated 50,000-70,000 prostitutes in Italy, about 70% are illegal immigrants lured to the country with the promise of a job then forced into sex work, according to Eurispes data. The study reports almost half of all Italian men regularly frequent the so-called “fireflies” (lucciole), some 70% of these are married.?1999-2003 zoomata.com

Zoomata is the brainchild of a bilingualjournalist based in Italy who thinks out of the box. This brain is for hire.

Mussolini’s Bad Hair Days Become a Book

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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, a less than a flattering light.

The trouble is that thousands of these snaps, with Il Duce’s cursive ‘no’ scrawled on them, made it into the hands of Italian historians who have put together a book of the rejects.
“Il Duce Proibito” (Forbidden Duce) serves up 140 pages of nixed photographs taken over a 15-year period.

What exactly did he want to keep people from seeing?

Topping the discards, all personally screened by Mussolini, were photographs portraying the normally lantern-jawed authority figure as jovial, informal or just plain awkward.

Take the one where Mussolini, in a slightly lumpy suit topped with a jaunty cap, gives an enthusiastic handshake to a uniformed and plume-hatted King Victor Emmanuel III.
The photo got the red light because Mussolini, in addition to the casual attire, standing in front of the royal car, might have been all too easily mistaken for the chauffeur. Other candid cast-offs immortalize him in tennis shorts and an overcoat, presiding over an empty piazza and making an ungraceful exit from an airplane in a puffy white aviator suit.

The forbidden Duce comes to light at a time when Mussolini is likely on spin cycle in his tomb in the northern Italian town of Predappio. Gianfranco Fini, leader of the neo-fascist National Alliance party, criticized the fascist regime during a recent trip to Israel. In the ensuing clamor granddaughter and senator, Alessandra Mussolini, left the party to form a new one amid speculation that her political clout has run dry.

Authors Mimmo Franzinelli and Emanuele Valerio Marin found over 2,000 ‘forbidden’ photos forgotten in the archives of Istituto Luce, which served as a propaganda arm for the fascist government.

The increasing number of photos rejected as the years went on make for a fascinating study in impression management. Mussolini became more and more fearful of his public image, prohibiting publication of photos where he was placed near priests or nuns, whom he was convinced brought him bad luck, and those where people around him appeared not to be paying ‘enough’ attention to his presence. ?1999-2003 zoomata.com

Zoomata is the brainchild of a bilingualjournalist based in Italy who thinks out of the box. This brain is for hire.

No-fault Divorce for Italian Husband in Sexless Marriage

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A cheating husband who does not have sex with his wife is not to blame for the failure of their marriage, an Italian court ruled.
Rome judges of the Cassation Court, the country’s highest, ruled that husband Filiberto’s ‘continued’ philandering and ‘total lack of interest’ in having sex in his wife didn’t cause the breakup of their over 30-year union. Wife Monica (full names are not supplied in sentences to protect privacy) is entitled to a 250 e. monthly alimony check because of the no-fault ruling.

As author James M. Henslin pointed out in “Marriage and Family in a Changing Society,” until recent reforms in Catholic countries the only way to get a divorce was to prove adultery, because it meant ‘breaking a central property right, sexual access.’

The sentence delivers a jolt to the traditional stance of Italian wives who close an eye or two on their partner’s dallying to save the marriage. Because his wife accepted to live in a sexless marriage and knew of her husband’s affairs, the relationship was bound to deteriorate and fall apart, reasoned judges.

Another recent Cassation sentence also underlined that all is not fair in love and war, at least not in Italian marriages. The court sentenced a snooping husband and his accomplice friends to jail for tapping his wife’s phone, hoping to catch her cheating. Though he said he was trying to ‘preserve the unity of the family’ by keeping tabs on his partner, the judges ruled that the nosy trio had violated the woman’s privacy. The three men were sentenced to eight months in prison. ?1999-2003 zoomata.com

Italian Newspaper Sells Cross as ‘Gadget’

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zoomata staff updated: Wed. Dec. 3 8:35 am

For an extra 1.50 euro, Italians can pick up the symbol of the Catholic Church with their daily news.

This is the latest installment in the national ‘crucifix soap opera,’which has been dominating media attention since late October after a Muslim in a small town won a court order to have the cross taken down in the elementary school attended by his two children. The resulting political and religious uproar had the school in Ofena (Abruzzo) shut down and then reopened, with the cross still hanging in the classroom.

“Yes, we’re selling the cross with the newspaper,” said chief editor of right-wing paper Libero, Vittorio Feltri, in an editorial today. “We’re not giving it away out of the fear that someone, not interested in the symbol of Christianity, might throw it away. It’s not nice to throw away the cross.” Profits made from sales will go to charity.

Feltri’s remarks came after a series of investigative reports showed that Italians aren’t always so touchy about the representation of the national religion – one large bronze crucifix, created for 2000 Jubilee celebrations, was discovered abandoned in a warehouse looking very much like an unwanted cadaver.

Religious publications in Italy often sell Catholic-inspired extras — from a comic book on the life of Pope John Paul II to the Bible in installments — but they rarely make it into the mainstream press. An unscientific poll of newsstands in central Milan would appear to show that the initiative is just another attention-getting antic — in two news outlets only one of the slim metal crosses had been sold so far.

“It’s just a way of dragging out the controversy,” newsstand owner Vincenzo told zoomata. “Most people are Catholics, but they aren’t practicing Catholics. I don’t see crosses flying out of here.” His most recent best-selling gadget, back ordered five times, was an EU-mandatory safety vest that cost an extra six euro.

Interested or not, it would appear that politicians throughout the country are jumping on the cross bandwagon. Between law proposals to make hanging the cross obligatory to regions purchasing truckloads to hang in schools and offices, this is one debate unlikely to end soon.
Adel Smith, who started the crusade to remove the crucifix, told Italian news agency ANSA that he plans to ask to remove the cross from the court hearing the case.”I don’t think I would feel sure of getting a fair hearing, with that hanging over the judges’ head,” he commented.@1999-2009 zoomata.com

Controversial Archbishop Flees Italy

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zoomata.com staff posted: Thu. Nov. 27 12:44 am
African archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who rocked the Vatican by eloping then repenting, has left Italy for his native Zambia, according to news reports.

Vatican officials reportedly knew, but did not authorize, Milingo ‘s trip home. Church officials also did not know when he planned to return.

It hasn’t been a good month for Milingo. First the Vatican stopped him from appearing at a press conference, then he took off for Northern Italy for a series of medical exams sparking rumors that he was contemplating moving from where Church officials have him under ‘house arrest’ in a Rome-area monastery.

Milingo fell from grace in 2001 when he married Maria Sung in a group ceremony of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification church. Pope John Paul II managed to bring this embarrassing stray back into the fold a few months later, but Milingo has been kept out of the public eye ever since.

His appearance at a benefit to raise funds for Catholic missionary work in Africa on Nov. 3 in Rome would have signaled a fresh start for the 73-year-old. After the Vatican gag order, Milingo headed to Northern Italy where he’s always had a strong base of support. Italian media coverage has been similar to that given movie stars — with much speculation on the reasons for his visit, where he has been staying and what he has been doing. Leading daily Corriere della Sera reported that a friend close to him said his “health is precarious”and that once word got out operators at the hospital in Lecco had been “bombarded” with phone calls from concerned locals.

Rumors that Milingo was not only licking his wounds but also looking to move were not met well. Molteno, the town reportedly chosen by Milingo, won’t offer a very warm welcome. Mayor Ferdinando De Capitani told newspapers, “We hope he doesn’t pick our town, we’re not ready psychologically or on a practical level to offer him a place to stay.”

The Zambia native, known for his exorcisms and faith healing, was called to Rome in 1983 so that the Vatican could keep a closer eye on him. Milingo refused to be confined to the desk job they gave him and soon gained a large following in Italy, where he became a popular figure on television and also cut a CD. ?1999-2003 zoomata.com

Zoomata is the brainchild of a bilingualjournalist based in Italy who thinks out of the box. This brain is for hire.