Sometimes courage, altruism and hope make all the difference
If a 21-years-old British boy had gone straight to bed after his shift ended, 109 years ago, today the world would be a different place.
Young Harold Cottam was the wireless operator aboard RMS Carpathia in 1912, and there would likely be no Titanic survivors around if he had not…
Fast, sleek and opulent, the legendary liner inspired the name of a beer
“Hurray for the Rex! The greatest thing the regime ever built!”
In Fellini’s Oscar-winning 1973 movie Amarcord, the SS Rex comes out of the darkness, glistening with lights like a giant Christmas tree. …
An act of spite turned two invaluable historical artifacts to ashes
“I guess that anything we manage to save from history is a miracle,” Donna Tartt wrote in her 2014 Pulitzer winning novel The Goldfinch. …
Ancient Romans were masters in all things splendid
When you think about a convivium (the swanky Roman dinner party) you may imagine dissolute senators, draped in red togas, reclining on sumptuous couches with a cup of wine in their hands.
While the image might not be entirely correct, it is embedded in popular culture and there’s at least…
But give them a real good lawyer. We’re not savages.
It’s 1508 and the town of Autun, France, has a big problem. …
Sewer tourism was the trendy thing to do
What do Paris, London, Rome, Vienna and Sidney have in common, apart from crazy rents and a chronic shortage of parking space?
Their sewage networks have been (and still are) a popular destination for generations of tourists.
As strange as it may sound, since the late 19th and early 20th…
The Ottoman paradise of Ada Kaleh was sacrificed to progress
Up until 1970, the tiny island of Ada Kaleh must have appeared to visitors as an illustration straight out of Arabian Nights: almonds and figs growing around colorful bazaars, rose fields, white minarets, men in anachronistic red fezzes sipping Turkish coffee under magnolia trees.
But Ada Kaleh — populated mostly…
The iconic garment is more than 600 years old
Baggy, skinny, bell-bottomed, high-waisted, dark or sandblasted: almost everyone owns at least a pair of jeans. …
The Italian Gothic tale of the “Barber of Potenza”
Elisa Claps was sixteen years old when she went missing in Potenza, Southern Italy, in September 1993. She wore round glasses and had a big, bright smile: her face would appear on newspapers and billboards, and haunt the nation for the next 17 years.
A Nice Young Girl
Elisa was well-behaved, introverted, and a…
Giulia Montanari
Thirty-something public registrar in Italy. Not the glamorous part of Italy. Join Medium with my referral link: https://medium.com/@tanarx/membership
