Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site (Anecdotes about Italy and Italians)

	518 Anecdotes about Italy and Italians	Living in Italy Dating / Mating Home Decor Italianate Murals Humor Political

Click on the anecdote's title to read the whole story. Then use the browser's back button to return to this list. Or you can go to Anecdotage.com and search out stories on any topic that interests you. Solid Design? As part of his program to fortify the German navy, Kaiser William himself once d... Butcher, Baker, Booty Shaker? Bruce Springsteen's mother, who thought her young son should become an author, w... Cavalleria Rusticana One day an organ-grinder, stationed outside Pietro Mascagni's apartment, began p... Mrs. H? Senator George Hoar was once enthusiastically greeted by a man whose face he bar... Julian Calendar? Although Julia had three sons and two daughters by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (her... The Apple of Roncalli's Eye Angelo Roncalli, papal nuncio to France (and a future pope), was once invited to... All in the Family Shortly after Angelo Roncalli (papal nuncio to France and future pope) became a ... FAMOUSCIENTIST? Given Humphry Davy's accomplishments (he discovered potassium and several other ... Strung Quartet? One evening George Bernard Shaw attended a performance by an Italian string quar... Eleonora Ruse Eleonora Duse once enlisted Sam Davis (the editor of the Carson Appeal an... Details Downtracked While covering the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, Evelyn Waugh received a... Substitute Teacher? As court poet to Archduke Cosimo III of Tuscany, Giovanni Fagiuoli was also a co... La Scala While serving as general manager of New York's Metropolitan Opera, Gatti-Casazza... Dead Pope? "When Pope Benedict XV was dangerously ill a premature report of his death was f... Assinine Comment? One day Clare Boothe Luce, a Republican, was asked by a journalist for her comme... Bridge To Paradise? In 2002, Ian Brown attended a fashion show called 'Viva Italia' in Toronto. "Sop... Suicide Squad (long) Shortly before 4 pm on December 2nd, 1942, physicists Enrico Fermi and Leo Szila... Pope-a Though the novel received mixed reviews, legendary producer Dino De Laurentiis p... Kiss of God Luciano Pavarotti, famous for his flirtatious ways, was once interviewed on tele... Benchley in Venice While visiting Venice for the first time, Robert Benchley sent a cable to Harold... Apple Crumble? While attending a fashion show called 'Viva Italia' in Toronto one evening (at w... Roundabout Approach? Ian Brown once attended a fashion show called 'Viva Italia' in Toronto at which ... Two Moons In 1610, Galileo used an anagram to announce his discovery of what he believed t... Scottish Striker? During a tight match one day, Partick Thistle manager John Lambie was informed t... Moonshine In June 2003, The Daily Telegraph's Adam Edwards attended a shoeshine-ins... Hasselblad I? In July 1966, Michael Collins was selected to pilot NASA's three-day Gemini 10 m... 1492 In 1492, Christopher Columbus set off on his first famous expedition to the New ... Delano American observers in World War II monitoring Benito Mussolini's radio addresses... Joe Job? At the age of fourteen, Al Pacino saw his first professional theater production ... Banker's Banker One day the legendary banker Amadeo Peter Giannini (whose Bank of America Nation... Salt The painter Buonamico Buffalmacco once lived next door to a rich wool worker who... Electric Chairs As part of a vigorous campaign to modernize Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1890, Empero... Mona Lisa One day in 1911, an Italian house painter named Vincenzo Peruggia, angered by in... Last Judgment While he was painting his famous "Last Judgment" fresco in the Vatican's Sistine... Sentimental Illness? Gabriele D'Annunzio once stayed at a hotel which owned a goldfish, to which the ... Whiner The indignation of the Italians over the denial of their claims to the Adriatic ... Mad Laughter "The only disadvantage I laboured under at St Paul's School," Eric Newby once re... Flashy Racer The Italian Tazio Nuvolari, widely considered the greatest Grand Prix driver of ... English Breakfast In October, 2003 - shortly after rolling a peanut seven miles through London wit... Sheila Oopps Canadian Liberal MP Sheila Copps first sought public office (in Hamilton, Ontari... Time Well Wasted The tyrant Dionysius was dining one day with Philip II of Macedon, who took to s... Vatican Wag Famed photographer Yousuf Karsh was once commissioned to take an official portra... Experimenta! In 2003, Italian television presenter-turned-cosmetics manufacturer Ducio Cresci... Awkward Question "One of Mme Aubernon's guests was relating a conversation with his young son. 'P... Grand Appetite One evening shortly after his debut in "South Pacific" Ezio Pinza, the show's st... Geo-Politics In 1832, a volcanic island surfaced near Mount Etna, 30 kilometres off the coast... Marathon Walker In June 2003, Lloyd Scott set a new world record for the slowest marathon time b... Executive Perks Shortly after attending a White House dinner with President Nixon in December 19... Executive Privilege One day following his retirement, Dwight Eisenhower was asked whether his depart... Two Bits? The popular composer Jacques Francois Halevy was once infuriated to discover tha... Long Silence? Fernandel once visited a new barbershop. Having finished his handiwork, the barb... Guido Nazzo In the 1930s the Italian tenor Guido Nazzo performed in New York. The only revie... Artful Display During a rehearsal of Debussy's La Mer one day, Arturo Toscanini found himself s... Limp Lloyd George's relationship with Lord Curzon was often frought with disaffection... Pyrrhic Victory A formidable and courageous general, Pyrrus was enlisted by the Greek cities of ... Rochefort The socialist journalist Rochefort's tumultuous life was marked by a series of d... Catacombs Samuel Rogers, whose bald, polished head and sunken eyes gave him a rather cadav... Rock And A Hard Place? Mme de Stael and the beautiful Mme Recamier once found themselves seated at an e... Little Italy During the negotiations at Versailles following World War I, Woodrow Wilson adam... GG For years, Gucci was as famed for its founding-family fueds as for its fashionab... Martinelli One evening, Giovanni Martinelli visited the opera to see a fellow Italian in th... Player's Inspiration? One of the players in Manchester's Halle Orchestra once had an affair with one o... Young Hemingway Shortly after Ernest Hemingway's birth, his mother began acting out a bizarre fa... Soviet Disunion? In 1962, with two Oscar nominations and an Emmy in two years, the previously lit... Stamp Collector "Baron Ferrari, the world-renowned stamp collector, received the news of his wif... Vagina Monologue In order to promote a celebrity-studded rally to combat violence against women a... Roman Men Sophia Loren once made the mistake of going shopping for brassieres in Rome. An ... Hoare-Laval In 1935, British foreign secretary Sir Samuel Hoare reached an agreement with hi... Vernacular Duke Borso once sent a letter in Latin to the mayor of an outlying village order... Fascist Novel Dorothy Parker once reviewed a novel by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. "This... Cake Giacomo Puccini was in the habit, every Christmas, of sending a cake to each of ... Duet "We had a new director, 'daring' but not yet 'sensational,' for a production of ... Perfect Couple During his first term in office, Dwight Eisenhower appointed Arthur Burns to ser... Naked Came the Stranger In 1969, on a literary lark, the legendary editor Mike McGrady assembled a group... 1492? In 1942, on a squash court beneath the stands at Stagg Field at the University o... Art Going Public In May 2003, after years of studying a Van Gogh self-portrait owned by Oslo's Na... Absolution "My father's tutor, Monsignor Contini," the actress Stella Vitelleschi once reca... Young Barbirolli "When John Barbirolli was four, his grandfather Antonio began taking him to Empi... Lady for a Day Frank Capra's successful, sentimental comedy Lady for a Day catapulted hi... Jamaican Eclipse While anchored off Jamaica in 1504, Christopher Columbus found himself in dire s... Sordello Though ostensibly the story of an unknown heir to a dukedom in thirteenth-centur... Bad Note Rossini was famed for his short temper. While conducting a rehearsal one day, he... Masked Ball Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera (Masked Ball) was inspired by the assassinat... Clooney's Vault In 2003, George Clooney bought a home on lovely Lake Como in Italy. Among the co... Casanova's Lover The notorious womaniser Casanova once met a pretty 17-year-old girl named Leonil... Classic Elvis "Elvis Presley was an enthusiast for cars, as you would expect an American hero ... Real Doozy "[The writer and politician Gabriele] D'Annunzio kept telling Eleanora Duse how ... Ballsy Comment Sean Penn once appeared on James Lipton's "Inside the Actors Studio." Conversati... Papal Jurisdiction One day, Pope John received a courtesy visit at the Vatican from the Anglican bi... Lawless Irony In October 1996, "Xena" star Lucy Lawless visited New York to appear on "The Ton... Mutual Admiration Society? When fellow artists Amedeo Modigliani and Maurice Utrillo first met, each paid t... Dumb Ox? Though he began his studies under the tutelage of a noted scholastic philosopher... Celebrity Wife-Line During his appearance on the year 2000 celebrity edition of "Who Wants To Be a M... Cordial Mussolini In 1937, Vernon Bartlett interviewed Italian Fascist dictator and prime minister... 104 The world record for the most illegal polygamous marriages is held by Giovanni V... Pointed Argument? One day, Damocles - a sycophantic member of Dionysus the Elder's court in the Gr... Papal Conversion While serving as ambassador to Italy, Clare Boothe Luce, a recently converted (a... Chigi Move? The wealhty Roman banker Agostino Chigi was famed for throwing indulgent al fres... Corbucci "Sergio Corbucci, the Italian director, had some eye trouble and there is a stor... Winters Content? Scheduled to meet a certain Italian producer, Shelley Winters called a friend in... Barrel Organs One summer Verdi rented a sizable cottage at a fashionable Italian resort. One d... Immortal Wit "What is your opinion," an Italian woman once asked Isaac Newton, "of the immort... Winged Migration? In 2001, ornithologists at the Konrad Lorenz research centre in Gruenau began br... Oversight? While Leonardo da Vinci is often cited as the prototypical Renaissance man, he w... Small Relief Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie once employed a man whose job, for ten years, w... Concert for Peace In October 1981, the pacifist composer Luciano Berio gave a special open-air con... Sight Reader "[While preparing for the first performance of Messiah in Dublin's Cheste... Capone Unable to convict Al Capone on gangland charges, Federal prosecutors and the US ... Italian Government Like so many of his colleagues, Giovanni Giolitti's political career was notably... Grrrrrrrrrrrudging Donation "When an artist is given a solo exhibition [at the Guggenheim museum], Dennison ... Understatement? When the Marchese d'Azeglio's second marriage (to Luisa Blondel) proved frought,... Confessional Box In September 2003, Lucio Renna, the Bishop of Marsi, was asked to reconsecrate I... Star-Spangled On tour one year, Arturo Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra arrived in a South A... Revisionist History In a hard-fought game against Carlisle Indian School, a soon-to-be-famous West P... ZZ Laptop ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons once observed that the band's fans, though still a "rebel... Mistress To The Church Though never ordained a priest, Poggio - as a secretary in the papal Curia - wor... Wienergate On July 9, 2003, Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Randall Simon was arrested for... Lost Horizon In 1937, Frank Capra previewed Lost Horizon, his elegant film about the H... Precautionary Measure The cast of New York City's Metropolitan Opera was once decimated by a flu epide... B-Prepared? One day while rehearsing for the title role in Otello, the leading tenor ... Indulgent Popes Popes have not always lived up to the rigorous standards set for their congregat... Watch This... The film producer Joseph Levine once presented a magnificent gold watch to Marce... Odorama In 1982, the John Waters film Polyester was enhanced in a curious manner:... Panty Jose? Famed flamenco dancer Jose Greco once took out a curious insurance policy with L... Impenetrable Logic "General Wingate was directing a reconnaissance patrol to a jungle area called T... Italy vs Korea / 2002 World... In the 2002 World Cup, co-host South Korea met a powerhouse Italian side in a me... Death to Gucci? In the 1990s, film industry costume designers began complaining that such fashio... Hot Date Rossini once received a curious letter before a performance of one of his operas... Hermann Goering Apology While shuffling along a crowded railroad platform in Rome one day, Hermann Goeri... Lupa During the 1970s, Luciano Pavarotti produced several dozen acrylic paintings, ea... Classic Wahlberg One day while riding in a car with director Penny Marshall, Mark Wahlberg rolled... Rasta Phil Mark Wahlberg once recalled that the first 'celebrity' he had ever met was Rasta... Cool Calculation One day, Samuel Johnson informed his former Oxford tutor that he planned to comp... Dirty Farmer? While serving as America's vice president, Thomas Jefferson, dressed in soiled w... Generation Gape? While working as a researcher at Life magazine, Lady Jeanne Campbell (Lor... Maddalena's Ghost (long) As a student at the Conservatory in Naples, Vincenzo Bellini gave singing lesson... Molto Nudo! Sophia Loren was once asked why she had stopped doing nude scenes. "When Sophia ... Cardano Girolamo Cardano, whose addiction to gambling led to his pioneering studies of p... Truffled Chicken Rossini once congratulated the diva Adelina Patti for her incredible voice. "Mad... Language of Love A few months before his marriage to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning,... Dueling Violins In 1917, the sixteen-year-old violin prodigy Jascha Heifetz made his American de... Rossini Roast Rossini was visited one day by a man seeking his opinion of a pair of oratorios ... Crossini? Rossini was in the habit of marking errors in his students' compositions with sm... Fascius XII? Nancy Astor got her biggest laugh in the House of Commons (unintentionally) when... Dr. No Sean Connery was delighted to land the role of secret service agent James Bond i... Festive Piece Arriving to visit Rossini one morning, Arthur Sullivan found the composer playin... Bergman's Baby Shortly after Ingrid Bergman's departure for Italy in 1949 (to make ... F-Sharp When an oboist in the orchestra he was conducting played an F-sharp instead of a... Going, Going, Gone The composer Maria Cherubini once granted an audition to a man with such a power... Donizetti Gaetano Donizetti, the composer of more than seventy operas, was famously prolif... Piece de Resistance In 2002, Britain's Tate Gallery paid £22,300 to acquire a work by the late Itali... Hungry Hippo? Undertaken in a hurried bid to rescue 20th Century Fox from bankruptcy, ... Pedestal A group of Rossini's admirers once raised twenty thousand francs for a statue to... George Boore? "George Moore unexpectedly pinched my behind," Ilka Chase once recalled. "I felt... Ladd on a Ladder? During the filming of Boy on a Dolphin, Sophia Loren appeared opposite th... Lucky Ladd Alan Ladd was once asked what it had been like appearing opposite the famously w... Lucky Cynic After disposing of several old-time Sicilian gangsters, the legendary New York m... Rocky Retirement "We're talking about doing another 'Rambo,'" Sylvester Stallone announced in Sep... Stage Fright "Maria Jeritza and Enrico Caruso once appeared together in a production of the o... Billow Dr. Thomas Morell (1703-1784), the librettist of many of Handel's works, was rou... Languages The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was once asked which languages he typically use... Par for the Course Legendary gangster Al Capone was once shot on the golf course at Olympia Fields ... Viva Italia "At a royal dinner at the Quirinal," the actress Stella Vitelleschi once recalle... Lumber! Arturo Toscanini was in the habit of hurling valuable scores at the orchestra wh... Top Note Near the end of a performance at Albert Hall one evening, the famed soprano Luis... Babe Ruth Enrico Caruso was once asked by a group of reporters what he thought of Babe Rut... Pointed Question? Christopher Columbus once attended an elaborate banquet, held in his honor by th... Devil of an Austrian John Peard first met the legendary Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi on the fie... Temperamental Singer In 1897, the financier John Chaloner was declared certifiably insane and incarce... Unfavorable Impression One rainy day a certain gentleman recognized Maria Cherubini walking along the b... Chi Son? During a rehearsal one day, Puccini was dismayed to find Enrico Caruso dragging ... Annoying Fan While performing his Moonlight Sonata in London one evening, Felix Mendel... Badaluta "In an age when footballers' wages are rising faster that an Italian policeman's... If the Shoe Fits... Julius III once engaged a shoemaker to fashion special papal slippers. When they... Harpsichord During a rehearsal of his opera Flavio one day, Handel, accompanying the ... Ice Queen "Prince Michael Golitsyn of Russia had taken an Italian Catholic wife, to the in... Fishy Theory Enrico Caruso's life was ruled by superstitions. He refused to travel on Fridays... Cannelloni on Mars! One day in 1877, it was reported that Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli h... Teknival In August 2002, shortly after French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy instructe... Cagliostro Stories about the famed charlatan sorcerer Alessandro Cagliostro abounded even d... The Godfather Many readers of The Godfather have suspected that Mario Puzo's knowledge ... Una voce? A singer once gave a glorious rendition of Rossini's famous aria "Una voce," emb... Oink! Rudolph Valentino's table manners left a little to be desired. Dining with Elino... Stendhal Syndrome One day in 1817, the famed French writer Stendhal became overwhelmed while visit... Fermi As early as March 1939, Enrico Fermi tried to explain to Admiral Hooper (the Chi... Audition Handel was once visited in London by a young member of the choir at Worcester. A... Dirk Diggler In Boogie Nights, Mark Wahlberg famously played a busboy (Eddie Adams) tu... Cardinal Red One day while he was busy at work on some frescoes in the papal apartments in th... Donizetti's Children Gaetano Donizetti, the composer of more than seventy operas, was once asked whic... Godfather? In 1965, a Putnam editor happened to stop by the magazine offices where Mario Pu... Eco down the Street? Umberto Eco loved books. Indeed, such was his passion for papery pleasure that h... Papal Assurance Pope John once offered a word of advice to an ambitious young priest who appeare... Exhibitionist Pope? One day Pope John expressed a desire to walk around his garden each day. Some ti... Fabio Goosed In March 1999, famed male supermodel Fabio was among the first to ride the new "... Alberto Ascari & the Black Cat Italian auto racer Alberto Ascari was famously superstitious. He was terrified o... Erotobabble In 2001, Catherine Millet published "an ostentatiously obscene work of erotobabb... Spitoon Cardinal Bembo once gave a splendid dinner in Rome. Among the guests was the Cou... Lacking Perspective? Such was Uccello's fascination with perspective and foreshortening that he staye... Dry Humor Mark Twain was no fan of James Fenimore Cooper's fiction: "It is a restful chapt... Lohengrin Gioacchino Rossini was once asked his opinion of Wagner's opera ... Full Fellini? Federico Fellini once provided a curious explanation for his strict closed-set p... Watery Wonder Though trained as a portrait artist, a trip in the 1750s to Italy - with its nat... Good Zog! After Italy's invasion of Albania in 1939, King Zog, having been exiled by Musso... Young Seth Green "My friend Breckin Meyer and I were really bad kids," Seth Green once recalled. ... Impotent Agency Italian porn star and parliamentarian Cicciolina once publicly offered Iraqi dic... Precarity (long) In 2002, Renzo Piano (in association with New York architectural firm Fox & Fowl... Love is Blind? Beginning around the age of thirteen, Enrico Fermi discovered his passion for ma... Ultime Parole Famose? In 1866, Luisa Blondel learned that the Marchese d'Azeglio - with whom she had b... Berlioz & Cherubini (long) "The moment Cherubini took over the Conservatoire after the death of Perne," Ber... War Mongrel? General Dwight Eisenhower was once called upon to address a graduating class at ... Levi's Liberation During World War II, Primo Levi was liberated from the notorious concentration c... Loco Sta While leading a mission to England one day, Saint Gregory was inspired by a sign... Gilbert in a Pickle Among W. S. Gilbert's neighbors at Grims Dyke (his mansion in Stanmore just outs... Smell-O-Vision In 1960, Mike Todd, Jr unveiled a $2 million motion picture featuring Smell-O-Vi... Ultramarine Perugino was once commissioned to paint several frescoes (long since lost) in a ... Supposed Designer? "[In the early 1990s] car designers started to be influenced by an Italian-sound... Noteworthy? In 1918, near the end of World War I, Ernest Hemingway was wounded at Fossalta d... Mountain Rescue Dog A St Bernard named Bruno earned a measure of fame in the village of Valchiusella... Qaddonkey "At a function in Tripoli, Qaddafi had to walk up some steps to a podium. He did... Mormons One day in 2002, Tony Danza played a show in a packed auditorium in Utah. "Nice ... Turandot Turandot debuted seventeen months after Pucini's death (in 1924). Though ... Spartacus's Death In 73 BC, the famed Thracian gladiator Spartacus led a slave revolt in Italy. Af... Young Kobe Bryant At the age of seven Kobe Bryant's father gave him his first genuine leather bask... Likely Story At 15, a certain actor's classmates voted him "most likely to end up in the elec... Indy Racer Indy racer Mario Andretti, who was "hardly fazed" after flipping a car at more t... Bold Digger? One day during a trip to Italy, Esther Guimond was detained at a customs house b... Tesh / Lush John Tesh once found himself rather soused in a surprising place. "It's this gia... Puccini's Operas Dimitri Shostakovich once asked Benjamin Britten what he thought of their fellow... Green with Envy? Seth Green had a rough time growing up. "Not to boo-hoo for me but there was no ... Anti-Dentite? One day a group of society leaders took to lavishing praise upon the looks, tale... Fettuccine Rossini? Rossini once attended a dinner party thrown by a hostess noted for her excellent... Resuahnnat While visiting Rossini at his home one day, a friend was surprised to find a sco... Wonderful Timing The production of Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life went swimmingly - w... General Modesty "General Alexander, fresh from his triumphs in Italy, came into [White's] club i... Perfect Agreement Charles V spent much of his reign engaged in warfare and diplomacy defending his... Gender Bender Both of Sylvester Stallone's parents were entrepreneurs. One started opening gym... Street Smarts? Al Capone was once asked something about his neighbor to the north. Replied Capo... Pieta Michelangelo was nearly ninety when he began his famous "Pieta". One night Giorg... Crappy Advice? An aspiring actor and singer named Ed MacNamara once engaged the famed tenor Enr... Herbert Bonaparte One day on the Italian set of King Vidor's screen adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's ... Clooney Wedding While answering questions about his role as a divorce lawyer in the Coen brother... Encore! (long) "It was 1946," Ben Wicks once recalled. "The war in Europe was over. Once again ... Mirror Dedication In 1901, Pietro Mascagni, having completed his opera Le Maschere, sought ... Vitelleschi "I am lucky to be alive," Stella Vitelleschi once remarked. "Before I was a year... Est! Est! Est! "In the year 1110 Bishop Fugger set out from his German diocese for Rome to atte... Smart Comment Galileo made a number of important astronomical discoveries which convinced him ... Incognito (long) Landon Ronald once recalled an incident concerning his mischievous fellow compos... Monkey Business? Could Mark Wahlberg have been the victim of a practical joke on the set of direc... Como Estas? "Star Wars movies are passport-intensive. Attack of the Clones was filmed... Tenor Tenacity? One of the watershed moments in Luciano Pavarotti's life occurred when he was 12... Butcher, Baker, Candlestick... Téa Leoni kept her marriage to David Duchovny a secret form everyone but her fam... Maestro Verdi Verdi was among the most popular operatic composers of his day. "He greatly grat... Train of Laughter "During the intensely dramatic scene in [Arnold Ridley's play] ... Sex Beer Sex? A certain congressman once endeavored to flatter Clare Boothe Luce in the House ... Holy Logic? The emperor Menelik took literally Francis Bacon's maxim that "some books are to... Marriage Not? Samuel Rogers once fell into a conversation with Lord Lansdowne on the subject o... White House Squirrels Dwight Eisenhower once banished squirrels from the White House grounds. Why? An ... Verdi! Verdi! While Verdi was cheered by Italian patriots at every performance, their applause... Classic Capone The funeral of famed Chicago gangster Dion "Deany" O'Banion in 1926 was attended... Deathbed Roulette? On his deathbed, Pietro Perugino refused to send for a priest. His last words? "... Note to Self... Pope John once reported that while falling asleep, important thoughts would freq... Rockin' Pope In September 1999, Pope John Paul II hosted a debt relief concert in Italy featu... Richard Simmons Before Richard Simmons' hand was turned to fitness, it was often turning a fork.... Liverpudlian Following his trade from Liverpool to Juventus, famed soccer forward Ian Rush fo... Spanish Rome? Like many football (soccer) players, Aston Villa's Mark Draper was not noted for... Professional Failure? "When I was a small boy growing up in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishin... Spectacles In Rome one day, Henrik Ibsen noticed a crowd of people gathered around a large ... Lorenzo Da Ponte The libretto for Don Giovanni (Mozart's opera about the legendary lover D... Lucky Luciano In 1936, legendary New York gangster Lucky Luciano, dubbed "the czar of organize... Allied Lines? While inspecting a British section of the Allied lines one day after the success... Spaghetti Tetrazzini Famed soprano Luisa Tetrazzini gave little thought to her immense girth, often f... Handel & Mattheson In 1703, George Frideric Handel traveled to Hamburg and befriended another young... Natural Musician Arturo Toscanini was once accosted just before a concert by a frantic clarinetis... Legendary Paganini The virtuoso violinist Niccolo Paganini often played using fewer than four strin... Carpe Diem The Italian soccer player Francesco Totti was not noted for his intellect. He wa... Operatic Outlook A friend of Luigi Arditi's, told of the composer's plans to visit Birmingham one... Moses in Egypt Rossini once attended a concert at which several variations on an aria from his ... Hypochondriac "Caruso not only equipped himself with atomisers, and all sorts of gargling flui... Guggenheimer "[Peggy Guggenheim] was offered an entire pavilion for the display of her collec... La Scala of Passion? Toscanini was famed for his temper. During one rehearsal he suddenly exploded: "... Hanky Panky Though Toscanini never left his wife, Carla, he had affairs with such divas as R... Catherine of Siena "As a young novice of the Sisters of Penance, [St. Catherine of Siena] had nurse... Double Cross? In 1269, Saint Francis of Assisi visited Egypt with the intention of converting ... Handel & the Prince George Frideric Handel was once asked by a member of the royal family what he th... Girly Man? Famed male supermodel Fabio once agreed to appear in the video for Jill Sobule's... Rossini's Overtures "Wait until the evening before the opening night [before writing an overture]," ... Hello? In the run-up to a possible invasion of Iraq in 2003, many critics questioned Ge... Sly Maneuver Sylvester Stallone once dumped model Angie Everhart - by sending a rejection sli... Handel Untuned Because he could scarcely bear the sound, the tuning of instruments was always p... Stand-up Comic Comedian Dom Irrera: “Brad Garrett, from ‘Everybody Loves Raymond,’ told me he o... Operation Silkworm Emperor Justinian once bribed two Persian monks who had lived in China to revis... Burlesque Berlusconi? In March 2003, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi attended the opening of ... Anti-Semite Sir Moses Montefiore once found himself at a dinner party seated next to an anti... Cleopatra The production of Cleopatra, which still ranks among the most expensive f... Singer The famed conductor Arturo Toscanini was in the habit of singing with the orches... Handel's Song During a rehearsal one day in 1722, the soprano Francesca Cuzzoni, a famously te... Marble Staircase Andrew Carnegie spared no expense on his Scottish home. Marble was imported from... Gangsta Security Whenever Tupac Shakur forgot the keys to his apartment, he would simply break a ... Mirror Ball While recording an Italian TV special one day in 1980, Van Halen frontman David ... Galli-Curci While relaxing in her dressing room after a concert one evening, the legendary s... Young Gardener "When I was a child staying with my grandfather Lord Lamington," the actress Ste... High Voltage Conductor During a rehearsal one day Toscanini, famed for his temper, flew into a rage, or... Emperor Speaks While performing one evening, Franz Liszt was dismayed to observe his patron, Em... Clooney in Italy Shortly after moving into his 25-room Italian villa, George Clooney complained t... Andretti Curse Though Mario Andretti won 29 of 85 Indy car starts bewteen 1966 and 1969, therea... Gatekeeper During a rehearsal one day, Arturo Toscanini grew impatient with the NBC Orchest... World's Greatest Lover? Though his first wife (the actress Jean Acker) was a notorious lesbian, Rudolph ... Cloaked Heart-broken after a failed love affair, the romantic hero Gabriele D'Annunzio (... Mehul? One day Maria Cherubini was shown a score which was purported to have come from ... Heavenly Blooper During a rehearsal of Puccini's Tosca one day, Maria Jeritza slipped and ... Macaroni Rossini, famed for his appetite, was once greeted by a society gentleman who was... Classic Rossini Gioacchino Rossini took great pride in his ability as a composer. "Give me a lau... Beautiful Irony One evening shortly after the release of Luchino Visconti's The Leopard (... Snake Charmer During the filming of Cleopatra, Claudette Colbert told director Cecil B.... Capone Quiz Which of the following were said by notorious gangster ("Public Enemy #1") Al Ca... Columbus and the Birds "Thirty-one days out from Spain, the expedition's sailors were near mutiny and t... Facino Cane The 14th century Italian condottiere Facino Cane and his marauding soldiers were... Cream Cheese Girl Kelly Hu was once asked about her weirdest modeling job. "I did 11 commercials f... Young Asia Argento A child prodigy, Asia Argento was publishing poetry at the age of eight, had mad... Forgotten Dictators For his book Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators, Italian ... Young Fabio: Holy Terror Young Fabio was a mischievous child. "I was very active," he recalled. "I was al... Comes A Time (long) "One day," Neil Young's father Scott recalled, "Neil and I dropped into the big ... Ivana Grump In June 2000, Ivana Trump filed a lawsuit against an Italian TV station after it... Berlusconi Farce "It was only a question of time before [Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi... Berlusconi on Ice After being placed under criminal investigation (on charges of bribery, fraud, a... Michener & Eisenhower President Dwight Eisenhower once invited James Michener to dine at the White Hou... Poor Angeli Although Pier Angeli and James Dean were in love and wanted to marry, Angeli's m... Guess Who? Lucrezia Borgia was married for a third time in 1502. Her new husband, Alfonso d... Charles Brrrrronson Charles Bronson won his first screen role in Henry Hathaway's 1951 film ... Holy Land? In the eighteenth century the small kingdom of Sardinia suffered under the burde... Ode to the Bread? "In Athens in 1963 we talked about mermaids. He [the Greek poet George Seferis] ... Formal Statement "The Marchese Caprinica del Grillo was invited to an evening reception by a prom... Cipollini While training in Livorno one day in February 2003, world champion cyclist Mario... Italian Stallion? In 1544, while serving in France (at the behest of Francis I), Benvenuto Cellini... Leary traveler? While traveling through southern Italy in 1847, Edward Lear was overtaken by the... Flying Turrrrtles In 1933, Enrico Fermi, teaching at a summer school for theoretical physics at th... Luce's Elixir? During the 1960's, Clare Boothe Luce experimented with LSD (acid) under the supe... Mastiff Attack "Columbus believed that for fighting Indians one dog was worth fifty soldiers, s... Andrea Doria "The Andrea Doria, sunk in collision, its beauty now rusting on the Nantucket sh... Fortunato? In April 1982, in a bid to distract the opposition from its demands for democrac... Menotti's Will "I have always felt that a man often betrays his friendships in his will," Gian-... Humble Pie When Maria Callas signed a contract to perform at the 1958 Festival of Two World... Crossing the Rubicon "Caesar's confrontation with the senatorial party came to a head in 49 BC, when ... Sophie Arnould Long after Sophie Arnould, the noted eighteenth-century opera diva, had lost ful... Sunny Serendipity (long) As a young actress Stefanie Powers was once given a pair of Italian sunglasses b... Venus of Urbino Although his wife was unattractive and growing old, The Duke of Urbino agreed to... Point Well Taken? When Charondas - having passed a law forbidding citizens from carrying weapons i... Higher In 1910, airshow promoters in Milan, Italy, offered a large prize to the first f... Underwear Boy Mark Wahlberg was once asked why he had quit producing ads for Calvin Klein unde... Ca 90 In January 1921, Count Caproni enlisted a pilot named Signor Semprini to test hi... Ciccone More media-savvy than many artists, Madonna dropped her surname (Ciccone) at an ... Opera Farce (long) "Eva Cummings was the star soprano of an 1880s troupe called the Milan Grand Ita... Young Verdi "It was a fete day, and he [Verdi] was helping as choir-boy at Mass in the littl... We Love Lucy "Lucille Ball was a lithe and inventive physical comedian, and her famous slapst... Sly Glances? In November 1999, Sylvester Stallone and his wife were sued by five former emplo... Patton's Apology One day in August 1943, General George Patton, then in command of America's forc... Stallone in Japan In 1989 Sylvester Stallone appeared in a memorable Japanese television commercia... San Francisco Earthquake After being caught in the great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906, Enric... Michelangelo's Children A priest once remarked to Michelangelo that it was a shame he had never married ... Emergency? Hoping to make a film about the Palio (the annual horse race run through the str... PETA Lover In November 2002, Fabio, a card-carrying PETA supporter, asked Sam's Club to sto... Dr S "A few years ago, a distinguished Italian neurologist and expert on memory disor... Martinelli Giovanni Martinelli was once asked by a reporter about his smoking habits. "Toba... Columbian Exchange Isabella and Ferdinand, who expected Columbus to return from his explorations ab... Wavell "When General Wavell rightly decided to evacuate Somaliland, and carried out a ... Wise Guy Alfonso the Wise was famed for his patronage of the arts and sciences, for his r... Worse Than a Flute "What is worse than a flute?" the composer Cherubini once asked - and immediatel... The Italian Job One day on the set of The Italian Job, Mark Wahlberg shot a scene in a mi... Italian Politics When Silvio Berlusconi became Prime Minister of Italy in 2001, he continued to r... Laughton & Breen During the production of They Knew What They Wanted (1940), the tale of a... Boarding Pass When the San Francisco earthquake struck on April 17, 1906, the great Enrico Car... Modigliani Assassination? "Serena Modigliani warned her husband [the economist Franco Modigliani] not to t... Russian Democrat Boris Yeltsin's appointment of Vladimir Putin (a former KGB agent) to succeed hi... Model Romance Fra Filippo Lippi, one of the master painters of the Renaissance, was as famed f... Lazy Thinking? In his later years, Sebastiano, having quit painting, was often criticized for h... Plagiarist George Frideric Handel was once asked why he had borrowed music from the composi... Fruit Salad Former "Miss Italy" Gina Lollobrigida once seduced teen idol David "Harry the Ho... Aretino While laughing at a remark made by the Duke of Urbino, Aretino had a stroke and ... Political Stew In December 2001, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi tried to block the pl... Bellicose? During the last, grueling climb of the 84th Giro d'Italia, Wladimir Belli was ap... Hotel Triest While visiting Vienna for a concert in July 2003, Robbie Williams and his entour... Galvanic Response "One evening in the late eighteenth century an Italian woman stood in her kitche... General Unleaded During World War II, Yugoslavian guerilla leader General Mihailovitch made a dea... Worthy Baptism In 1402, Lorenzo Ghiberti was awarded the commission to decorate the baptistry d... Show Off One summer day in 2002, the legendary Italian striker Roberto Baggio began showi... Hero Status By his own admission, Bob Dole was hardly immune to hypocrisy. "I told John Glen... Cherubini & Napoleon "My dear Cherubini, you are certainly an excellent musician," Napoleon once told... Jane's Addiction According to Perry Farrell, Jane's Addiction was named in honor of the drummer i... Vespucci "America gets its name from low-ranking sailor Amerigo Vespucci, who managed to ... Pirandello "In 1918, when he was fifty and working on [his classic play] ... Petrarch After lying, apparently dead, for twenty hours in Ferrara, Petrarch suddenly sat... Homesick Amidala Though she later called her experience working with George Lucas on ... Red Priest Vivaldi, called "the red priest" after his ordination (at the age of fifteen) on... Butkus? (long) Sylvester Stallone, offered a large sum for his Rocky script, demanded a ... Rossini's Duet Rossini was notoriously lazy. One morning while he was composing a duet in bed, ... Rude Awakening At 16, a drug-fueled Mark Wahlberg robbed a beer store, assaulting a Vietnamese ... G.I. Joe "G.I. Joe" was once awarded the Dickins Medal for saving a thousand British sold... Papal Swords In 1505, as pennance for a quarrel with Julius II, Michelangelo began a year-lon... Good Points? Giovanni Caroto, an admirer of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, was once criticize... Dante Although he lived at the court of his patron and protector, Can Grande della Sca... Marble-Hewer Michelangelo once sought the assistance of a marble-hewer. The man was amazed to... Gattamelata Donatello was once commissioned to sculpt an equestrian statue of the condottier... Skeleton Crew During the production of Apocalypse Now in the Philippines, Francis Ford ... Valentino As a boy, Rudolph Valentino was lazy, bad-tempered, and keen on stealing and cha... Fixed Thinking During his tenure as Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev visited Silvio Berlusco... Tabloid Writer During the filming of Cleopatra, Elizabeth Taylor became embroiled in a s... Garden Fete "One summer afternoon Acton, then a celebrated undergraduate poet at Oxford, was... Seeking Enlightenment "Ed Norton went to a yoga class with his actress girlfriend Courtney Love. The t... Counterpoint One day in 1856, Rossini bumped into the celebrated music theorist and scholar F... Handel's "Thought" One day after receiving a dozen bottles of fine champagne, the composer George F... No Matter! In 1797, Madame de Stael, a great admirer of Napoleon's, pursued and flattered h... Opa! After a dinner in Greece one day, Barbra Streisand, following the local custom, ... Thought That Counts One day Maria Callas was interviewed by an American reporter. "Madame Callas, yo... Romaine Brooks Romaine Brooks's inherited wealth freed her from the need to please her sitters:... Fermi's Driver Enrico Fermi was once awarded a title by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini: "Ecc... Pythagorean Brotherhood Secure in his new home [in southern Italy], Pythagoras founded the Pythagorean B... Dinner for Two The composer George Frideric Handel once ordered dinner for two from a local tav... Making of John Wayne Though the producers at Twentieth Century-Fox liked Marion Morrison's screen tes... Occult Pope Though the Church during the Renaissance formally frowned upon the occult as bor... Galileo's Telescope On October 2, 1933, Galileo Galilei's original telescope was used to collect moo... Typical Thomas Aquinas "A famous anecdote illustrates Thomas's obsession with the truths of God: He was... Young Fabio After completing his service in the Italian army, Fabio was persuaded by a girlf... Wacky Weaver In March 2003, Sigourney Weaver staged an elaborate wedding (complete with pre-n... Rock Quarry Charles Bronson, famed for his craggy, unconventional features and taciturn mann... Young Pavarotti Luciano Pavarotti fell in love with vocal music as a young man. One day, he plun... Doggie in the Window Rosemary Clooney was often asked to sing her classic song, "How Much Is That Dog... Impromptu Bishop One day in 374, during his stint as governor of northern Italy, Saint Ambrose wa... Monumental Protest One day in 1854, at the height of the construction of the Washington Monument, P... Drunken Master (long) "One winter I had to organize a concert for the benefit of medical students," Mu... Perfectionist Pope "Seven Wonders of the World (1956) was a Cinerama travelogue, held togeth... Theodora Handel's opera Theodora was a remarkable failure. When his friends lament... Perry Como Perry Como's style was as relaxed as they get. Indeed, Dean Martin once joked th... Young Elsa Schiaparelli The famed fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli was once a thin, liberal-minded gir... Old Harrovian In June 1944, British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan sent General Alexander (Al... Dry Humor? In August 2002, Asia Argento confessed that she often had XXX-rated dreams. "Man... Leo X "As Leo was a smiling sybarite infected with the popular neopagan culture of his... Performance Anxiety "When I was a soloist at a concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini," Gregor Piatig... Orchestra Pits "An orchestra once applauded Arturo Toscanini during rehearsal after he made the... Carneravore? In March 1934, Primo Carnera successfully defended his heavyweight title against... Quick Learner Enrico Caruso was approached one day by a woman requesting that he teach her to ... Mad Laughter Travel writer Eric Newby: "The driver of an electric brougham [car] sat outside,... Scarlatti's Cat One day the Italian composer Alessandro Scarlatti's cat struck several notes on ... Baby-Sitter "Eleonora Duse offered to look after the year-old baby of some friends while the... Fascination of the Abomination Salma Hayek first encountered Frida Kahlo's very personal, very disturbing paint... Exploding Canon? While visiting London one day, Gabriele D'Annunzio asked a policeman for directi... False Note Many anecdotes concern Arturo Toscanini's famous temper. During one rehearsal of... Ambling Alp "Primo Carnera was the hulking giant who captured the boxing world's imagination... Problem Set When Enrico Fermi grew bored with his mathematics classes, a professor gave him ... Busybody Dante was once so deeply immersed in meditation during a church service that he ... Italian Stallion Sylvester Stallone landed his first big screen role when he was 24 years old. Un... Il Gobbo One day Michelangelo happened to observe a group of people admiring his ... Typical Beatty Though Warren Beatty became politically active in the 1960s, political discussio... La Gaza Ladra Rossini, noted for his generosity to aspiring musicians, was once visited by an ... How's Your English While co-starring in The Pride and the Passion, Frank Sinatra taught his ... Rosemary Clooney In 1946, Rosemary Clooney's first solo recording, "I'm Sorry I Didn't Say I'm So... Fra Filippo Such was Fra Filippo Lippi's love of women that his concentration often wavered.... Stinker Despite growing up in Italy, Asia Argento (born into a family of actors and film... Grand Blooper In 1988, Pink Floyd transformed the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, into a giant s... Bank of Italy "Like a lot of folks in the San Francisco area, Amadeo Peter Giannini was thrown... Round the Corner Surprise "Round the corner of an orange grove in Italy Eric Ambler came face to face with... Fredonia When the Marx Brothers made their satirical comedy Duck Soup in 1933, the... Caesar's Fortune When Julius Caesar sailed from Italy at the end of 49 BC to attack Pompey in nor... Barrett Walks After a childhood accident, Elizabeth Barrett led the life of an invalid, watche... Angry von Weber While attending a production of Mehul's opera Joseph in Egypt one evening... Dior's Clairvoyant Christian Dior developed an obsessive reliance on a noted Parisian clairvoyant, ... Classic Eisenhower Before embarking on a political career, Dwight Eisenhower was courted by both ma... Dante's Inferno "In a famous anecdote Boccaccio tells, Dante overheard two women in Verona who s... Young Fermi After finding two antique volumes of elementary physics in the bookstalls in Rom... Italian Stallion While dining at a Los Angeles restaurant one evening, Sylvester Stallone was app... Pinocchio Pope As the health of Pope John Paul II worsened, the writer and theologian Monsignor... Schirripa & the Olive Garden Steven R. Schirripa, famed for his role as Bobby 'Bacala' Baccalieri on "The Sop... Martha Gellhorn Diet Plan "On the one hand [Martha Gellhorn was] the most staunch and loyal friend, on the... Naomi Campbell & Robert De ... In 2002, leggy supermodel Naomi Campbell told an Italian magazine that Spanish m... Machiavelli Niccolo Machiavelli's masters used him for dozens diplomatic missions. He moved ... Handkerchief One day Queen Elizabeth attended William Shakespeare's new play. The mischievous... Tough Love After an education at Monte Cassino and at the University of Naples, Thomas Aqui... Madame Butterfly In February 1904, Puccini's Madame Butterfly debuted at the La Scala oper... African Passport In the late 1940s, Leonard Howell, a Caribbean religious leader, was jailed for ... Anglo Angels According to tradition In 586, while serving as abbott of the monastery of St. A... Mathematical Flattery After many years, the mathematician and professor Girolamo Saccheri began to exp... Baking Hot Sophia Loren often indulged in a curious habit while watching television: rollin... Light Traveler David Cassidy once returned from a trip to Europe with advice for novice travele... Sticky Wicket One evening the cricket writer E. T. Smith found himself at a party in New York'... Pink Powder Puffs In the early 1920s, the great Latin lover Rudolph Valentino was a role model for... Barbarossa While leading the Third Crusade in 1190, Frederick Barbarossa (the Holy Roman Em... Italian Screwdriver Famed California surfer Tom Harvey had a great passion for "Italian Screwdrivers... Marsh Prediction The famous ecologist George Perkins Marsh once made a curious prediction: that t... Rossini & Liszt Young Franz Liszt once played a new piece for his fellow composer Gioacchino Ros... Rossini's Mass Though it was customary for composers to mark the end of a piece with "Glory be ... Chess Addict Cardinal Borromeo was once censured for the inordinate time he spent playing and... Magic Fluke As he stood on the stage at the Metropolitan Opera house belting out an aria in ... Ai-Ai-Aida When tenor Carlo Begonzi let loose a particularly thin-voiced rendition of Celes... Bonfire of the Vanities One day Cardinal Mazarin was informed that a violent disagreement had broken out... Copying Out "How [Felix Mendelssohn] composed I enjoyed only one opportunity of witnessing,"... Legion of Honor Following his second victorious Italian campaign, Napoleon returned to France wi... Bronzino "About 440 years ago, the Italian painter Bronzino produced the classic 'Venus, ... Coffee History Coffee, introduced into Europe by Arabic traders, was considered by many Roman C... Sergio Leone By the time of his death in 1989, Sergio Leone was a highly respected director. ... Dubourg George Frideric Handel once attended a concert in Dublin at which the English vi... Handel in London In 1710, while serving as Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover, Handel visite... Noble Ambition Shortly after the London debut of Handel's Messiah (in 1743), the compose... Indy 499? In 1912, Ralph DePalma was leading the Indianapolis 500 by an astonishing five m... The Real Selassie During one of his visits to the island of Jamaica, Haile Selassie encountered ma... Hannibal's End When the Romans defeated King Antiochus III's Syrian forces at Magnesia (in 189 ... SDI In the mid 1980s, filmmaker George Lucas filed suit against President Ronald Rea... Cherubini While serving as director of the Paris Conservatoire, Maria Cherubini was asked ... Libertine The Duc de Berri was a notorious womanizer. In 1820, his wife, Caroline, was vis... Venus Victrix Princess Borghese once posed as a nude model for Antonio Canova's famous statue ... Theodoric Theodoric's trusted Catholic minister, hoping to ingratiate himself with the kin... Firing Squad "As a follower of the red-shirted revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi, Claudio Tosc... Navy Antics During World War II, Eric Newby served in the Black Watch (and was a prisoner of... Paganini's Violin One day the virtuoso violinist Niccolo Paganini was horrified to learn that his ... Film Financing Vegas Style "Financing film production was often a problem, forcing directors at times to b... Old Friends Castruccio Castracani once fell into a nasty quarrel with the Quatigianis of Luc... Hannibal The Second Punic War, Italy, 217 b.c. The darkness of night covered the Apenn... Cheesesteak Though beloved by the Democratic establishment, John Kerry occasionally appeared... Hairy Scene Marlon Brando was not, in Sophia Loren's estimation, the most romantic of leadin... Sympathy in F Minor? Rossini once complained to fellow composer Giacomo Meyerbeer that he was feeling... Visit my Humor in Italy page Visit my Italians as Europeans page