L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 4 BARBARA MINAFRA NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS I t a l y i s l o v e d a n d a d m i r e d f o r t h e many structures and monuments that sets it apart from the rest of the world. Our artists and c r a f t s m e n m a d e h i s t o r y , they laid down the founda- tion of aesthetics and tech- nique. Our paintings and s c u l p t u r e s b e c a m e t h e c a n o n , t h e p a t h a n d t h e model to follow. Enchanting landscapes — as painted by Mother Nature, and ama- zing monuments set them- selves into the peninsula, just like stars shining in the brightest of skies. But let us not simply and only turn our attention back to the past, to the majesty of Roman antiquities and to the celebrated genius of the Renaissance, because Italy keeps leaving tangible signs o f i t s i n c r e d i b l e c r e a t i v e d e v e l o p m e n t i n m o d e r n times. Starting with Rome's own Pantheon, a building that still today, 2000 and more years after its creation, boa- sts the largest cupola in the w o r l d , a r c h e t y p e f o r a l l t h o s e t h a t w e r e t o c o m e after, the history of Italy's amazing achievements is i n c r e d i b l y l o n g . F r o m F i l i p p o B r u n e l l e s c h i and its octagonal cupola in Florence (still the largest of its kind), that left the whole world in wonder, to B e r n i n i ' s S a i n t P e t e r ' s Square Colonnade and Palladio's villas: personali- t i e s a m o n g t h e m o s t influential in the history of western architecture, the creativity of whom we see even in the White House. But the Belpaese never stopped making great stri- d e s i n a r t s , s c i e n c e a n d technology and still offers w o r k s o f i m m e n s e i n g e - n u i t y , w o r k s t h a t s p e a k today's language and deser- ve just as much recognition. Two years after a tragedy t h a t s e v e r e d t h e c i t y i n two, Genoa inaugurated and opened to the world a piece of architecture bound t o m a k e t h e h i s t o r y o f more than civil engineering. D e s i g n e d b y s t a r c h i t e c t R e n z o P i a n o — w h o donated the project to his city, wounded and pained by the loss of the 43 people killed in the collapse of a bridge that was old, but first and foremost abandoned and neglected — this new, hi-tech construction seals a wound and frames a long, n a r r o w r e g i o n t h a t , i n a h a n d f u l o f m i l e s , b r i n g s enchantingly together the sea and the Alps. The new San Giorgio Bridge also represents the e n c o u r a g i n g r e a l i t y o f a country able to react and keep on going even during a pandemic, if it's true that its construction only stop- ped on Christmas Day and on the first two of the many r e d w e a t h e r a l e r t d a y s Liguria had in the past 24 months. The San Giorgio Bridge is the emblem of the r e s i l i e n c e a n d d e s i r e f o r r e d e m p t i o n o f a n e n t i r e c o u n t r y . J u s t l i k e P i a n o himself stated shortly befo- re inauguration, in front of the most important State representatives, this bridge s h o w s h o w " o u r g r i e v i n g p r o c e s s c a n b e c o m e t h e very essence of what we will be."It is a structure with a soul made of sacrifice and passion, able to regenerate the pain and shock upon w h i c h i t w a s b o r n , a n d move towards the future with all the energy of the people who built it, with a speed very much unusual for a country known for how slow moving and cumberso- me its official procedures can be. Cameras filmed the cere- mony, recording the notes of Italy's anthem, the Frecce Tricolore and their white, green and red smoke ideal- ly joining back together the t w o s i d e s o f t h e Valpocevera, a valley that had witnessed, lost and hel- pless, the crumbling of the old Ponte Morandi, built in The new Ponte San Giorgio while under construction (Photo: Luca Rei/Shutterstock) Continued to page 6 Beauty and ingenuity: Renzo Piano and the architecture of redemption

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