L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2017 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 26 LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear Readers, A September assortment of Italian con- nections: Spiro Agnew was picked by Nixon to be his running mate in 1969. Ponder this: what if Nixon had picked John Volpe, one of my favorite people, whom I met many times when he was presi- dent of the NIAF, instead of Agnew in 1968? Volpe would have been vice- president when Nixon resigned because of Watergate, Volpe would automatically have become president of the United States of America. The late John Volpe was a prince of a fellow, a genuine down deep, decent gen- tleman. The former governor and ambassador to Italy had a prodi- gious memory and would meet and greet people by name even if he had only met them briefly before. "Hello Cristina, how are things at the castle in Melfi (Potenza)?" John would said to my friend, recalling a conversa- tion of over a year before, when Cristina had mentioned that her parents' old Norman Castle at Melfi, now housed the Museo Melfi, with its collection of Byzantine jewelry. John Volpe's character was molded in a family environment we seldom see today. His father, Vito, had a stern moral code and like many Italian men of his time, he was the absolute authority in the Volpe family. Vito had a tenacity that was inherited by his son; it was this tenacity that carried John Volpe to fame and wealth. John headed the highly successful Volpe Construction Company of Malden, Massachusetts, which served as a spring board for him in the world of politics. He became the commissioner of Public Works in Massachusetts and from that post went on to serve his native state as Governor for three terms, devoid of any scandal. He served as the first Federal Highway administrator in the Eisenhower Administration; he was secretary of Transportation; and ambassador to Italy in the Nixon Administration. His appointment as ambassador was "a dream come true." A true son of Abruzzi: "Forte ma Gentile" (Strong but Gentle)is the region's motto and John Volpe certainly was all that and more... Bistro, as those small, unpre- tentious cafés in France are called, is not a French word. Bistro is the Russian word for faster. French restaurants are called "bistros" because Russian soldiers who occupied Paris in 1814, demanding speedy service of their meals, shouted "bistro". faster, hurry up. If Italy had occu- pied Paris in 1814, the small cafés might have been called "prestos." Carlo Ponti once produced a film about a 1944 war crime that took place inside man made caves, just beyond the ancient walls of Rome on Via Ardeatina. The movie, which starred Marcello Mastroianni and Richard Burton was based on the book "Massacre in Rome" by Robert Katz. The scene of the crime is now a memorial to the tragedy of the "Fosse Ardeatine," (Via Ardeatina No. 174, open 8:30 to 5:00 pm daily). In German occupied Rome (1944) the German S.S. police randomly herded over 320 romans, men, women and chil- dren into meat trucks, took them to an abandoned quarry south of Rome and shot them point black.  The execution was in reprisal for a bomb attack that had killed 32 German soldiers when they started up Via Rasella, and marched into a partisan ambush. The German decided that a mini- mum of 10 Italian civilians would die for every one German killed. Visiting the Fosse Ardeatine one cannot help being moved. The dead ranged in age from a boy of 14 to an old man of 74. They included shoemakers, shop- keepers, students, professors, lawyers, engineers, day laborers, office workers, a music teacher, three doctors and a priest. Family members still tend most of the graves. The Germans blew up the tun- nels where the massacre had taken place, but local peasant had witnessed the scene and later helped find the corpses. The site is now a memorial to the values of the Resistance against the Germans, which gave birth to the modern Italian Republic. A forbidding bunker-like mon- ument houses the rows of identi- cal tombs containing photos of the victims. Beside, it is a muse- um of the Resistance. Interesting works of modern sculpture include The Martyrs, by Francesco Coccia, and the gates shaped like a wall of thorns by Mirko Basaldella. Barbara Sinatra's recent passing at age 90 (1927-2017) reminded me about an auction Frank and Barbara authorized back in 1995 when they sold their surplus via Christie's, a sort of upscale version of a garage sale. I pulled out my Christie's hard cover copy of the Sinatra auction for a little walk down memory lane, back to the days when many Sinatra fans met and lifelong friendship were formed. Over the course of some 200 years, Christie's has sold the works of many talented artists, which is probably the reason why Frank Sinatra, the most enduring artist of our time, brought his sur- plus property from their former Palm Springs compound (which was sold in 1994) to Christie's for public bidding. The auction opened with Lot #1, a French gold and gem-set dressing table box with a diamond set "F" and "B" on the cover, and the inscription, "To Frank and Barbara, Love Happiness", a gift from Gene and Mike Romanoff, proprietors of then world-famous Romanoff's Restaurant.The Romanoffs were partially respon- sible for the Sinatra's interest in Fabergé and objects of Vertu. The auction closed with Lot #25, a 1976 Jaguar XJS two-door sports coupé, with approximately 9,500 miles, in British racing green color. It was a wedding gift from Mrs Sinatra to her husband in 1976. Valued in the catalog at no more than $12,000, the Jaguar sold for a stunning $70,000 as the last "going, going, gone" of the Sinatra auction sounded. The prices realized made it clear that bidders were eager to purchase a link to Frank Sinatra, rather than works he had collect- ed. For example, two simple wine glasses, one inscribed "Blue Eyes" and the other "Blondie" (for Barbara), were estimated at $20 to $40, but sold for an incred- ible $1600. Similarly, a weathered mailbox with the lettering "F. Sinatra" went for $12,000 - to which a smiling auctioneer stated, "Sold! The most expensive mail- box in history."

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