Who were the greatest Italians in history ?

How about the Arts: Composers like Giacomo Puccini, Vivaldi, Nino Rota (music composer of the "Godfather"); singers like Enrico Caruso, I like Andrea Bocelli, Sophia Loren (yeah, she is a singer too), Luciano Pavarotti, del Monaco, Frank Sinatra (don't laugh he's Italian), Nancy Sinatra (I like her song "Boots are made for walking" and the James Bond song "You only live twice") and also Tony Bennet ("I left my heart in San Francisco"), Mario Lanza ( of course, purists will laugh but I liked his singing); Federico Fellini, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino ( Kill Bill).
 
Arturo Toscanini, the conductor



His name is interesting TOSCAnini. Does the Tosca means Tuscan or Toska (Alabnian)?
 
Sophia Loren singing:

Singing Greek

 
Sorry guys

i will dissapoint you all

scientistis

Galileo Galilei. mostly as symbolical of a spirit.
Bernouli due to my studies.

Artists

MichelAngello & Da Vinci
Carlo Rossi

and
and
and
the unique

Roberto Benigni

is


[video=youtube;rgeB3jfUTD0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rgeB3jfUTD0[/video]
 
Reasons why this Italian American is not proud of Columbus:

Columbus did not prove the world was round - this was already an accepted fact. He made miscalculations based on incorrect assumptions about the size of the earth, and assumed it would be possible to reach Asia by sailing west. Instead he found the Caribbean, then inhabited by cultures with little in the way of gold, silver or trade goods. Unwilling to completely abandon his calculations, Columbus made a laughingstock of himself back in Europe by claiming that the Earth was not round, but shaped like a pear. He had not found Asia, he said, because of the bulging part of the pear near the stalk.

Columbus never forgot that his voyage was not one of exploration, but of economics. His financing came from the hope that he would find a lucrative new trade route. He did nothing of the sort: the people he met had little to trade. An opportunist, he captured some natives to show that they would make good slaves. Years later, he would be devastated to learn that Queen Isabela had decided to declare the New World off-limits to slavers.

He was a slave trader who heartlessly took men and women away from their families in order to lessen his failure to find a new trade route. His contemporaries despised him. As governor of Santo Domingo on Hispaniola, he was a despot who kept all profits for himself and his brothers, and was loathed by the colonists whose lives he controlled. Attempts were made on his life and he was actually sent back to Spain in chains at one point after his third voyage. During his fourth voyage, he and his men were stranded on Jamaica for a year when his ships rotted: no one wanted to travel there from Hispaniola to save him. He was also a cheapskate: after promising a reward to whomever spotted land first on his 1492 voyage, he refused to pay up when sailor Rodrigo de Triana did so, giving the reward to himself instead because he had seen a “glow” the night before.
 
marknyc said:
Reasons why this Italian American is not proud of Columbus:

Columbus did not prove the world was round - this was already an accepted fact. He made miscalculations based on incorrect assumptions about the size of the earth, and assumed it would be possible to reach Asia by sailing west. Instead he found the Caribbean, then inhabited by cultures with little in the way of gold, silver or trade goods. Unwilling to completely abandon his calculations, Columbus made a laughingstock of himself back in Europe by claiming that the Earth was not round, but shaped like a pear. He had not found Asia, he said, because of the bulging part of the pear near the stalk.

Columbus never forgot that his voyage was not one of exploration, but of economics. His financing came from the hope that he would find a lucrative new trade route. He did nothing of the sort: the people he met had little to trade. An opportunist, he captured some natives to show that they would make good slaves. Years later, he would be devastated to learn that Queen Isabela had decided to declare the New World off-limits to slavers.

He was a slave trader who heartlessly took men and women away from their families in order to lessen his failure to find a new trade route. His contemporaries despised him. As governor of Santo Domingo on Hispaniola, he was a despot who kept all profits for himself and his brothers, and was loathed by the colonists whose lives he controlled. Attempts were made on his life and he was actually sent back to Spain in chains at one point after his third voyage. During his fourth voyage, he and his men were stranded on Jamaica for a year when his ships rotted: no one wanted to travel there from Hispaniola to save him. He was also a cheapskate: after promising a reward to whomever spotted land first on his 1492 voyage, he refused to pay up when sailor Rodrigo de Triana did so, giving the reward to himself instead because he had seen a “glow” the night before.
Click to expand...
Yes my friend the Earth is not a perfect sphere. It does have a very slight pear shape.
 
Very hard topic...

Michangelo .............no, he was a tuscan

Tintoretto, .........real name, Jacopo Comin ..........no, he was a venetian

Christofo Colombo ..........was he Genoese or a Catalan...........the debate still goes on ( we know he could not speak genoese )

Marco Polo ( Mark Paul ) ...........no , he was a venetian

Italians since from March 1861 ............what about Marconi ...............because he did his invention in London England.........does it count?
 
Sile said:
Very hard topic...

Michangelo .............no, he was a tuscan

Tintoretto, .........real name, Jacopo Comin ..........no, he was a venetian

Christofo Colombo ..........was he Genoese or a Catalan...........the debate still goes on ( we know he could not speak genoese )

Marco Polo ( Mark Paul ) ...........no , he was a venetian

Italians since from March 1861 ............what about Marconi ...............because he did his invention in London England.........does it count?
Click to expand...

The scientific community has found that Tesla was the one invented radio transmission.

Please have your facts right!
 
Sile said:
Very hard topic...

Michangelo .............no, he was a tuscan

Tintoretto, .........real name, Jacopo Comin ..........no, he was a venetian

Christofo Colombo ..........was he Genoese or a Catalan...........the debate still goes on ( we know he could not speak genoese )

Marco Polo ( Mark Paul ) ...........no , he was a venetian

Italians since from March 1861 ............what about Marconi ...............because he did his invention in London England.........does it count?
Click to expand...

Give your separatist nonsense a rest...ask Tuscans if Michelangelo and DaVinci weren't Italian because they were also Tuscan. Or the Genovese if Andrea Doria wasn't Italian because he was also Ligurian. For that matter, ask people of the Veneto if Tintoretto and Marco Polo weren't Italian as well as Venetian.

Stop trying to pretend that you represent the views of all Italians or even of people of the Veneto when push comes to shove...the ones who don't belong to some Lega Nord off shoot group, at least. The only thing most of the Lega Nord voters ever cared about was their tax money staying in their provinces and local government control. We have them in Liguria and Toscana and Emilia as well, you know. They're not an unknown quantity to me, and I know what makes them tick. It's MONEY, and to a lesser extent it's because there's a lot of sentiment against immigration from the Third World. Then, of course, the party imploded because their idiot leaders were even more corrupt than the standard Italian politician. Stop exaggerating its significance.

Besides, aren't you an Australian citizen yet? None of this should concern you. Oh, and have you tried running that by them? How you're not Italian, but instead a member of some fantasy country in the Alps? Good luck with that.
 
There's no way that I could choose the greatest, really. For one thing, it depends on the field. As for great Italians, there would be dozens on my list, many of whom have already been posted.

I would add some to the above lists, although I'm leaving many out. These are just people whose work has meant something to me personally and who weren't previously mentioned :

In painting, sculpture, and architecture: Rafaello, Giotto, Ghiberti, Donatello, Cellini, Bramante, Sansovino, Della Robbia, Verrocchio, Bronzino, Veronese, Guido Reni, Modigliani.

In literature and philosophy, of those not mentioned: Ovid, Livy, Horace, Thomas Aquinas, Pico della Mirandola, Macchiavelli, Benedetto Croce. Of "modern" writers: Pirandello, Ignacio Silone, Natalia Ginzburg, Elsa Morante, Alberto Moravia, Dario Fo, Primo Levi, Carlo Levi, Umberto Eco, Oriana Fallaci. I know he's already been mentioned, but Montale is very close to my heart.

In music, of those not mentioned: Monteverdi, Pergolesi, Mascagni, Paganini, Corelli, Riccardo Muti. Of modern performers: Caruso, Gigli,Tebaldi, Scotto, Galli-Curci, Corelli, Pavarotti. More "pop" performers: Mina, DeAndre, Lucio Dalla, Zucchero, Battisti, Battiato, Nannini.

In theater and film: Eleanora Duse, Rossellini, DeSica, Pasolini, Bertolucci, Tornatore, and yes, Sergio Leone. (Was Fellini mentioned?) As performers, there are so many, but among them, Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Alberto Sordi,Toto.

Educators: Maria Montessori

Scientists: Luigi Cavalli-Sforza. There are many others, but like many scientists, they work more in obscurity.

Of the ancients not mentioned so far: Marcus Agrippa, if for nothing else, for the Pantheon, my favorite building in the whole world.

Saints: Caterina de Siena, patron saint of Italy, Roncalli, Papa Giovanni XXIII

Honorable mention: Anti-mafia crusading magistrates and others, like Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino
 
Angela said:
Give your separatist nonsense a rest...ask Tuscans if Michelangelo and DaVinci weren't Italian because they were also Tuscan. Or the Genovese if Andrea Doria wasn't Italian because he was also Ligurian. For that matter, ask people of the Veneto if Tintoretto and Marco Polo weren't Italian as well as Venetian.

Stop trying to pretend that you represent the views of all Italians or even of people of the Veneto when push comes to shove...the ones who don't belong to some Lega Nord off shoot group, at least. The only thing most of the Lega Nord voters ever cared about was their tax money staying in their provinces and local government control. We have them in Liguria and Toscana and Emilia as well, you know. They're not an unknown quantity to me, and I know what makes them tick. It's MONEY, and to a lesser extent it's because there's a lot of sentiment against immigration from the Third World. Then, of course, the party imploded because their idiot leaders were even more corrupt than the standard Italian politician. Stop exaggerating its significance.

Besides, aren't you an Australian citizen yet? None of this should concern you. Oh, and have you tried running that by them? How you're not Italian, but instead a member of some fantasy country in the Alps? Good luck with that.
Click to expand...

as per the constitution , michelangelo was not italian and his ancestors cannot become italian unless he fits this criteria. If any from History cannot become Italian, then they are not Italian

Basic Criteria for Acquisition of Citizenship jus sanguinis:


  • There were no Italian citizens prior to 17 March 1861, because Italy had not yet been a unified state. Thus the oldest Italian ancestor from whom citizenship is proven to be derived in any jus sanguinis citizenship claim must have been still alive on or after that date.
  • Any child born to an Italian citizen parent (including parents also having the right to Italian citizenship jus sanguinis) is ordinarily born an Italian citizen, with the following caveats:
    • The Italian parent ordinarily must not have naturalised as a citizen of another country before both the child's birth date and the date 15 August 1992.
    • If the child had an Italian mother and a foreign father, the child ordinarily must have been born on or after 1 January 1948.
    • If the Italian parent naturalised as a citizen of another country on or after 1 July 1912, and prior to 15 August 1992, then the child's Italian citizenship survived the parent's loss if the child was already born, and residing in a country whose citizenship he or she additionally held because of that country's jus soli nationality laws. Conversely, if the child was not born in a country whose citizenship was attributed to the child based on jus soli provisions in its nationality law, then the child could lose Italian citizenship by acquiring the citizenship of the naturalising parent. Italy generally does not attribute its citizenship based on jus soli, so an Italian child born in Italy could lose Italian citizenship in the event that his father naturalised.
    • If the Italian parent naturalised as a citizen of another country on or after 1 July 1912, and prior to 15 August 1992, then the child's Italian citizenship survived the parent's loss if he or she reached legal adulthood (age 21 prior to 10 March 1975; age 18 thereafter) prior to the parent's naturalisation.
    • If the child's Italian father naturalised as a citizen of another country prior to 1 July 1912, the child's Italian citizenship was not directly impacted by the father's loss if the child reached legal adulthood (age 21) by the time the father naturalised, or else if the child was residing in Italy when the father naturalised.
    • Italian citizens naturalising in another country prior to 15 August 1992, while being of legal adult age, typically lost their Italian citizenship at that time.
    • Italy has been a participant in the Strasbourg convention on the reduction of cases of multiple citizenship. Children born outside of Italy with the citizenship of a member country may not have been able to hold Italian citizenship by birth because of this convention. The convention has also extended the era when Italians could lose citizenship by foreign naturalisation to dates later than 14 August 1992, if the naturalisation were in a participant country.

You live in a world of propaganda,
I have dual citizenship, but my parents do not..............they are no longer Italian according to the Italian government........but I am

Besides, didn't you ignore me...........so do not respond to me either...............or do you want the best of both worlds! ........typical
 
Echetlaeus said:
The scientific community has found that Tesla was the one invented radio transmission.

Please have your facts right!
Click to expand...

ok, if that the facts

Then I cannot recall of any famous Italian
 
Sile said:
ok, if that the facts

Then I cannot recall of any famous Italian
Click to expand...

C' mon bro, they were famous Italians since the period of the Roman Empire ...

And the word Italian is as old as Hellene, so it does not mean only the new era.

There was this famous physicist Enrico Fermi.
 
Echetlaeus said:
C' mon bro, they were famous Italians since the period of the Roman Empire ...

And the word Italian is as old as Hellene, so it does not mean only the new era.

There was this famous physicist Enrico Fermi.
Click to expand...

sorry you do not understand

as late as 1847 as well as at the congress of Vienna in 1820, all Europeans leaders amintained that Italy was a geographical expression. This term goes back to the end of the Roman Empire.
The term geographical expression is like the term Balkan............its an area............greeks, macedonians, albanians , bulgarians etc are balkan people ........this is a geographical expression. Italy was a geographical expression as late as 1847 according to all European leaders
 
Sile said:
sorry you do not understand

as late as 1847 as well as at the congress of Vienna in 1820, all Europeans leaders amintained that Italy was a geographical expression. This term goes back to the end of the Roman Empire.
The term geographical expression is like the term Balkan............its an area............greeks, macedonians, albanians , bulgarians etc are balkan people ........this is a geographical expression. Italy was a geographical expression as late as 1847 according to all European leaders
Click to expand...

We should not care that much of what politicians say, after all things change.

When someone says Italy, he means the Italian peninsula (the "boot").

What we should care for is what people believe. If they considered themselves Italians, they are Italians ...

Venetians, Genovese, Napolitanos etc. spoke the same language, and in general had almost everything in common. To me this is what characterizes a nation. For your country is the so called Italikon, similar to the notion of the Hellenikon.
 
Echetlaeus said:
We should not care that much of what politicians say, after all things change.

When someone says Italy, he means the Italian peninsula (the "boot").

What we should care for is what people believe. If they considered themselves Italians, they are Italians ...

Venetians, Genovese, Napolitanos etc. spoke the same language, and in general had almost everything in common. To me this is what characterizes a nation. For your country is the so called Italikon, similar to the notion of the Hellenikon.
Click to expand...

Italian regional languages belong to different linguistic trees . they did not speak the same language.
In 1861 when Italy formed only 3% of 22 million "italians" spoke Italian


If Italy never formed in 1861,.............what would they be called today ?.............Italians due to geographical terms .
British, Iberian, Scandinavian...........are all Geographical terms
 
Sile said:
Italian regional languages belong to different linguistic trees . they did not speak the same language.
In 1861 when Italy formed only 3% of 22 million "italians" spoke Italian


If Italy never formed in 1861,.............what would they be called today ?.............Italians due to geographical terms .
British, Iberian, Scandinavian...........are all Geographical terms
Click to expand...

It is natural to have topical accents, yet I suppose that the core of the language was the same, i.e., they could understand each other, no?
 
maybe

Andrea Zanzotto

Poet

Andrea Zanzotto is widely considered one of the most important Italian and European poets of the twentieth century. From the fall of Fascism in the 1940s to the economic boom of the late 1950s, and from the student protests and "hot autumn" of the 1960s to the advent of a mass culture in the 1970s, Zanzotto's poetry has registered the profound social and cultural changes that have transformed postwar Italy


me son ris-cià, picolà in fo'ra,
fin a cavàr su da chisà onde
fin a sforzharme co 'sta sécia zbuzàda
co 'sto tàmizo de maja 'ramài masa larga
a cavàr su 'l parlar vècio

I have risked, out on a limb,
to the point of pulling out from who knows where
to the point of trying with this pail full of holes
with this sieve with a mesh now too-large
to pull up the old idiom

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/40157261?uid=3737536&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21104063532947

http://www.academia.edu/344544/The_Selected_Poetry_and_Prose_of_Andrea_Zanzotto_A_Bilingual_Edition

 
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