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. The crowd awaiting her passage cheers, claps, waves hats and handkerchiefs— some even shed a tear —…

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. I suppose it must be true, considering how many historical and artistic treasures we managed to…

The things you do for love — A young prince in love with a beautiful maiden, an old king determined to keep them apart by all means: sounds like a fairytale straight out of a children’s book. But King Pedro I of Portugal and Dona Inês de Castro’s love story doesn’t have a happy ending: it’s a…

Captain Hook has nothing on him — If you were a Longobard man in Medieval Italy, there were many ways you could lose your right hand. An enemy chops it off with his sword, or you mangle it while working in your blacksmith shop. You fall from your horse and the fracture is so bad a doctor…

“I got myself a taste for murder,” he said — On the 17th of December, 2020, the most prolific serial murderer in Italian records died of Covid-19. He refused treatment because, according to him, he “didn’t want to be a burden anymore.” So ended a dark and sinister chapter in Italian criminal history — in a hospital bed, quietly and…

Wanna come to the guillotine with me? — Tricoteuses. French for knitting ladies, the word conjures images of cozy evenings sitting by the fire, crocheting granny squares with a cat on your lap and a cup of tea — or a glass of wine — nearby. But this word is mainly used to indicate a very different kind…

On Wednesdays we wear a visard — Maybe you think late Victorian bustles were stuffy and unflattering, or wonder how hot and sweaty an 18th-century periwig could become on a summer day. Maybe you ponder what women in the 1870s were thinking when they decided wearing taxidermy birds on their heads was a good idea. On a…

They’re all external and I’m still broke af — So, as you might have surmised from the title, one of my stories has a bunch of views and no money to show for it. Now, do I have the skills to present a sensible, compelling argument about the fact external views help the platform grow and Medium should still…