Board of Directors

Officers:

President

L. V. Teofilo

Vice President

Richard Daley

Treasurer

Vicky Sobeck

Secretary

Mary Prisco

Past President

Richard Gollnick

Directors

Ron Cattelan

Dom DelBianco

Marlene Feira

Janice Galt

Margene Mar-

cantonio

Susan Milewski

Darrell Sobeck

Judy Sulzmann

Lynn Thompson

Ambassador at

Large

Riccardo Paterni

Editor

Paul Marino

Il Piccolo Giornale May, 2020

Founded 1994

FYI - CLUB ITALOAMERI-

CANO CANCELLATIONS

AND POSTPONEMENTS

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic,

the following activities will be can-

celled for the month of May:

* Pizza night at the Glass Nickle -

Monday, May 4

* Conversation Club at Nardi’s

Affogato Bar - Saturday, May 9

* Live at the Metropolitan Opera at

Bay Park Cinema- Saturday, May 9 -

the opera “Maria Stuarda” by Doni-

zetti was scheduled to be shown

A column from Ostia in

Chicago

Submitted by Marlene Feira

Raissa Calza, in her 1959-book about

Ostia, writes about a rectangular

square or portico, c. 200 meters out-

side Porta Marina, originally over-

looking the sea. It had eight columns

"in grigio". One is missing, because

it was transported to the US in the

early 1930's. It was a gift from Italy

to the city of Chicago in remem-

brance of the first transatlantic

crossing of the Italian airforce. Sev-

eral members of the IGO gathered

more information about this event.

Here is what they found.

On June 30, 1933 25 sea-planes left

Italy, under the command of Italo

Balbo, Mussolini's air marshal, who

used mass flights as a propaganda

tool. The planes left from Orbetello

and flew via Amsterdam, Ireland,

Iceland, Labrador and Montreal.

They arrived in Chicago on July 15,

and were welcomed by a huge

crowd. The return flight began on

July 25. The planes landed at Lido di

Ostia on August 12.

The arrival of Balbo in Lido di Ostia,

August 12, 1933

Il Piccolo Giornale is the official newsletter of Club ItaloAmericano of Green Bay, Wi.

Website: http://clubitaloamericano.org/ Facebook: Club Italaloamericano of Green Bay

Send contributions/comments to: clubitaloamericano@gmail.com

The column formed part of the so-called

"prospetto a mare" outside Porta Marina,

in front of the Edificio con Opus Sectile. In

the periodical "Le vie d'Italia - rivista

mensile del Touring club Italiano" (anno

XXXIX, n. 9, settembre 1933, anno XI era

fascista, is a photo of the column in its

original setting. The caption says "Il segno

dell'amicizia fra l'Italia e la repubblica

stellata", and below the photo can be

read: "La colonna degli scavi di Ostia che

il Duce ha offerto alla cittˆ di Chicago e

che verrˆ inalzata sulla riva del Michigan,

a ricordo della trasvolata atlantica del

decennale". Later Guglielmo Marconi,

president of the "comitato Italiano" in

Chicago, wrote a letter to Calza, thanking

him for his collaboration in selecting the

column.

The photograph from "Le vie d'Italia"

The column must have reached the US by

boat. It was erected during the 1933-1934

World Exhibition, called "A Century of

Progress". It was unveiled in front of the

Italian pavillion, in 1934, after Balbo had

left. The column still stands, on its original

site, but today in meaningless isolation. It

is at a distance of a few meters from the

shore of Lake Michigan in an area that is

relatively unfrequented. It can be found in

Burnham Park, at 1600 South Lake Shore

Drive, just east of Soldier Field. It is gen-

erally called the "Balbo Monument". A

midsized highway at a distance of some

600 meters from the column was in 1934

named Balbo Drive (until that time called

7th St.).

The unveiling of the column

The column was set up on a travertine

base, with an inscription in Italian, describ-

ing it as a gift to Chicago from the people

"dell'Italia fascista".

QUESTA COLONNA

DI VENTI SECOLI ANTICA

ERETTA SUL LIDO DI OSTIA

PORTO DI ROMA IMPERIALE

A VIGILARE LE FORTUNE E LE VITTORIE

DELLE TIREMI ROMANE

L'ITALIA FASCISTA SUSPICE BENITO MUS-

SOLINI

DONA A CHICAGO

ESALTAZIONE SIMBOLO RICORDO

DELLA SQUADRA ATLANTICA GUIDATA

DA BALBO

CHE CON ROMANO ARDIMENTO

TRASVOLO L'OCEANO

NELL' ANNO XI

DEL LITTORIO

THIS COLUMN

TWENTY CENTURIES OLD

ERECTED ON THE SHORES OF OSTIA

PORT OF IMPERIAL ROME

TO SAFEGUARD THE FORTUNES AND VIC-

TORIES

OF THE ROMAN TRIREMES

FASCIST ITALY BY COMMAND OF BENITO

MUSSOLINI

PRESENTS TO CHICAGO

EXALTATION SYMBOL MEMORIAL

OF THE ATLANTIC SQUADRON LED BY

BALBO

THAT WITH ROMAN DARING FLEW

ACROSS THE OCEAN

IN THE ELEVENTH YEAR

OF THE FASCIST ERA

Note the fasces on either side of the in-

scription. The inscription itself is a won-

derful example of Mussolini's attempts to

use ancient Rome as an impressive fore-

runner of his own regime. Here we get

the impression that the Atlantic Ocean

has become part of the mare nostrum. It

is interesting that the monument was not

removed during World War II.

The Following article submitted by

Chris Wagner

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

The Saint Who Stopped an

Epidemic Is on Lockdown at

the Met

Quarantined in Sicily, van Dyck painted a

daughter of Palermo who saved the city

from an outbreak. Our critic went to see

her in an empty museum.

“Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-

stricken of Palermo,” by Anthony van

Dyck, made during the artist’s time in

quarantine, is itself quarantined, in its

assigned place for “Making the Met.” The

commemoration of the museum’s 150th

birthday, was due to open at the end of

March.

By Jason Farago

Published March 26, 2020 Updated

March 28, 2020

He is dapper, beaming with the confi-

dence of youth; he does not have the tem-

perament for sheltering in place. It’s

springtime, the year is 1624, and the 25-

year-old Anthony van Dyck is sailing

south, to Sicily, where he has been invited

to paint the island’s Spanish viceroy.

Van Dyck is establishing his international

career as a portraitist to the rich and fa-

mous, and he has already had some suc-

cess in Genoa, London and his

hometown, Antwerp. Now, in Palermo,

he feels on the cusp of a breakthrough.

He gets the portrait done that spring, but

then: disaster. On May 7, 1624, Palermo

reports the first cases of a plague that

will soon kill more than 10,000, some 10

percent of the city’s population. On June

25, the viceroy whom van Dyck painted

declares a state of emergency; five weeks

later, he’s dead. Quarantined in a foreign

city, the young Fleming watches in horror

as the port closes, the city gates slam

shut, the hospital overflows, the afflicted

groan in the street.

As the emergency wears on, a gang of

Franciscans starts digging up the earth on

a hill facing the harbor. In a cave they un-

earth a pile of bones, which, the archbish-

op’s commission determines, belongs to

Saint Rosalia, a noblewoman of centuries

past. Rosalia’s relics are paraded through

the city as the epidemic abates, and the

grateful citizens worship her as the san-

tuzza, the “little saint,” who saved the

city.

Rosalia is proclaimed, and remains today,

the patron saint of Palermo. Van Dyck -

meeting the new demand, and not a little

grateful himself - takes a half-finished self-

portrait, slathers it with primer and paints

the new protectress, floating gloriously

over the illness-ravaged port town.

“Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-

stricken of Palermo,” painted almost 400

years ago and now in the Metropolitan

Museum of Art, is one of five surviving

pictures of Rosalia made during van

Dyck’s days in quarantine. It was, in fact,

one of the Met’s very first acquisitions,

bought a year after the museum’s found-

ing in 1870. You ought to have seen van

Dyck’s plague picture in the first gallery of

the exhibition “Making the Met: 1870-

2020,” the centerpiece of the museum’s

150th birthday celebrations, which was

scheduled to open. Now, of course, Rosa-

lia is quarantined herself as the corona-

virus pandemic intensifies. The Met does

not expect to reopen before July.

The empty lobby of the Met on March

18th, without a public, without its fresh

flowers .Credit...Vincent Tullo for The

New York Times

I had the chance to enter the museum last

week, ascending through the service en-

trance to meet Max Hollein, the Met’s

director, and Quincy Houghton, its depu-

ty director for exhibitions. It was a joyless

visit. In the Great Hall, the large urns sit

bereft of their usual immense sprays of

fresh flowers. A skeleton crew of guards

was stationed at tables, accompanied by

industrial-size jugs of hand sanitizer. The

lights in many galleries were off, the gates

around the gift shop drawn. Sometimes

being in an empty museum gives me a

thrill, but this locked-down Met, without a

public, left me miserable.

Rosalia, though, is already in her assigned

spot for “Making the Met,” which had

been nearly installed before work halted

in mid-March. She seems, at first glance,

to be ascending to heaven with the help of

nearly a dozen cherubim, and a shaft of

light beams onto her ruddy face through

dark clouds at the top of the painting. I

spent a while examining its light coloring,

its Titianesque brushwork; this is one of

the Flemish artist’s most Italian-looking

paintings.

It is a deceptive painting. Look fast and

you might easily confuse this for an As-

sumption of the Virgin, and indeed the

saint was incorrectly identified when the

Met bought the picture during its first

year in business. (“Making the Met” also

includes an 1881 painting of the muse-

um’s second location, on 14th Street, with

the mislabeled Rosalia clearly visible.) The

confusion was understandable outside

Sicily. Unlike Peter with his keys or Cathe-

rine with her wheel, this little-known saint

did not have a set of standard attributes

until the plague struck.

Van Dyck had to invent an iconography

for the little-known Rosalia, creating her

as an incarnation of beneficence in chaos.

Palermitans could pray to her remains in

the cathedral, but only while observing

strict social distancing. Credit...via The

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Detail of putti holding a human skull in

van Dyck’s “Saint Rosalie Interceding for

the Plague-stricken of Palermo. “ Cred-

it...via The Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the putti bears roses in tribute to

the woman who stopped a plague. Cred-

it...via The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Our Flemish upstart therefore had to in-

vent an iconography for the woman who

stopped the epidemic. Van Dyck decided

to picture Rosalia as a young woman with

long, blond, kinky hair, cheeks blushing,

eyes wide with ecstasy. Beneath her, en-

ergetically sketched in a washy palette of

ocher and green, lies the harbor of Paler-

mo, and in the background is Monte Pel-

legrino, the hill where her relics were

found.

The artist gave one of the putti bearing

her forward a wreath of pink and white

roses, a reference to her name. Another,

at bottom left, is pawing a human skull:

the skull of Rosalia herself, which was

paraded through the quarantined city al-

most as soon as she came out of the

ground. It seems certain that van Dyck

would have seen the first of these proces-

sions in locked-down Palermo, which still

takes place every July, and which are as

Baroque as one of the artist’s altarpieces.

The Festino di Santa Rosalia remains one

of the largest festivals in Italy, a mix of

sacred and secular, with rock concerts and

pasta sampling mixed in with prayer.

For New Yorkers barracked in our houses

and apartments, or doctors and nurses

scrambling for face masks, beseeching a

saint to end an epidemic may not sound

sufficient. Yet the curator Xavier F. Salo-

mon, who organized a 2012 exhibition on

van Dyck’s Sicilian sojourn (and who is

now chief curator of the Frick Collection),

has shown that the rulers of plague-hit

Palermo relied on both medical and reli-

gious interventions to stem the contagion.

Palermitans could pray to Rosalia’s re-

mains in the city’s cathedral, but only

while observing strict social distancing:

You could visit on just one day a week,

determined by your address.

One edict proclaimed that, while the city

should pray for “the intercession of glori-

ous Saint Rosalia,” nevertheless “the hu-

man instruments and industry should not

be set aside.” That included strict limits

on movement, and regular recording of

the ill and the dead. The sick had to isolate

themselves on pain of excommunication,

and worse; the archbishop warned that

“they will be cursed with Lucifer, and

Judas and all the Devils in hell.”

Young van Dyck, who could have relied on

his royal connections to get out, stayed

through it all. He found, amid pestilence, a

subject more urgent than the courtly por-

traits that would eventually make his

name.

What could a painter, and a foreign one at

that, offer this city? So much more than a

picture to pray before. Having endured a

quarantine which shut down his interna-

tional career, having survived an epidemic

that could have cost him his life, van Dyck

crafted in Palermo an incarnation of be-

neficence in chaos. Plagues are random.

They are merciless. They are, I’m now

learning, most terrifying for their uncer-

tain duration. Yet Rosalia, floating over

Sicily like a hot-air balloon, promises that

the horror of epidemic will lift eventually,

and beauty will return.

I could hardly appreciate the privilege of

seeing her all alone at the Met last week,

so furious was I that this new plague had

deprived us of the balm of art in common.

New York’s imported guardian must re-

main in seclusion, as must van Dyck’s four

other Rosalias, two in Europe (at the Pra-

do in Madrid and Apsley House in Lon-

don), and two in the United States: one in

the Menil Collection in Houston, another

at then Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto

Rico.

As for Sicily, where images of the saint are

ubiquitous, the infection rate today is far

lower than in Italy’s richer northern prov-

inces, but the island’s tourist economy is

getting hosed. In grim times you have to

believe — if not in saints, then at least in

art. All it can offer, in good times or bad, is

a view of the world we want to live in ra-

ther than the world at hand. It can affirm

the human capacity for invention even

when death is stalking your studio door.

Rosalia will be there for us when “Making

the Met” eventually opens, and in July,

we have to hope, she will remind us of a

Palermo that is finished with lockdowns.

“Viva Palermo e Santa Rosalia!” they

shout every year as the image van Dyck

crafted parades through the capital, amid

a crush of bodies —in streets or muse-

ums— that I usually find claustrophobic

but now find myself desperate to redis-

cover. We just have to wait.

As we tire of taking the precau-

tions of staying home and social

distancing you need to consider

the following :

ARTICLES FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

Please feel free to submit articles or pic-

tures for our newsletter. Information for

each upcoming month needs to be sub-

mitted to me by the 25th. (think Christ-

mas) of the month. You should email

articles as an attachment in Microsoft

Word and pictures in a jpeg format.

My email address is: pao-

lomarino1@gmail.com

Questions— call me at 612-360-8246

CLUB MEMBERS IN BUSINESS

We have several club members that are in

the restaurant business:

Nardi’s Affogato Bar in DePere, Luigi’s

Italian Bistro in Green Bay, Sammy’s Pizza

Garden in Green Bay, Tarlton Theatre in

Green Bay, Titletown Brewery in Green

Bay and Thumb Knuckle Brewing in Lux-

emburg.

Whenever you visit these businesses,

please mention that you are a member of

Club ItaloAmericano as a support of their

business and membership.

CLUB BUSINESS WEB SITES

Nardi’s Affogato Bar in DePere, https://

gelato920.com/

Luigi’s Italian Bistro in Green Bay,

https://

www.luigisitalianbistrogreenbay.com/

Sammy’s Pizza Garden in Green Bay,

https://

www.sammyspizzagreenbay.com/

Tarlton Theatre in Green Bay, https://

thetarlton.com/, https://

www.facebook.com/thetarlton/

Titletown Brewery in Green Bay,

https://www.titletownbrewing.com/

Thumb Knuckle Brewing in Lux-emburg.

https://www.thumbknuckle.beer/

https://www.facebook.com/pg/

ThumbKnuckleBrewingCo/events/

*Need to Log into Facebook to View

Events

2020 ACTIVITIES

Janary (gennaio)……. Felice Anno Nuovo

MONTHLY ACTIVITIES:

January -December (gennaio-dicembre)

First Monday of each month @ Glass

Nickel, 416 Dousman St., $5.00 Pizza @

5:00 pm

January - December (gennaio-dicembre)

Second Saturday of each month Conver-

sation Club @ Nardi’s Affogato Bar, 109

N.Broadway, De Pere @10:00 -11:30 am

January-December (gennaio-dicembre

Second Tuesday of each month-Scopa (an

Italian Card Game) @ GB Yacht Club,

5:30pm

May - September (maggio-settembre)

Every Sunday (weather permitting)- Boc-

ce Ball @ Colburn Park @ 4:00 pm

May (maggio) Thurs….Meet & Greet,

New Perspective Senior Living

Chair: Marlene Feira, Co-Chairs: Shirley

Maloney & V. Sobeck

June (giugno)…………...a Prima Pas-

seggiata

July (luglio)……………..Seconda Pas-

seggiata

August (agosto)... .....La Terza Pas-

seggiata

October (ottobre)………....Musicale XIII,

Universalist Fellowship Church,

Chair: John Contratto

November ( novembre)……….TBD Dinner

(4:45 pm) & “Italian movie” at NevilleMu-

seum (7:00 pm)

December 12, (12 dicembre) Satur-

day….Cena di Natale

Chair: Marlene (Sparapani) Feira

OPEN FORUM Calling all

Members

We extend an invitation for all club mem-

bers to attend our monthly Board of Di-

rectors meetings. Our plan is to create

on open forum at the beginning of each

meeting where members can share their

ideas, suggestions and/or concerns.

If you have an item or topic that you feel

needs extra time, please contact Presi-

dent Teofilo (LVTeofilo@aol.com or 432-

6513) by the Monday before the board

meeting so it can be added to the agen-

da.

The meetings are held on the third Thurs-

day of every month.

FROM ONE FRIEND TO AN-

OTHER

Written by Andy Rooney, a man who had

the gift of so much with so few words.

Rooney has passed away but used to be

on CBS's 60 Minutes:

I've learned...That the best classroom in

the world is at the feet of an elderly per-

son.

I've learned....That when you're in love, it

shows.

I've learned ...That just one person saying

to me, 'You've made my day!' makes my

day.

I've learned....That having a child fall

asleep in your arms is one of the most

peaceful feelings in the world.

I've learned...That being kind is more im-

portant than being right.

I've learned....That you should never say

no to a gift from a child.

I've learned....That I can always pray for

someone when I don't have the strength

to help him in any other way.

I've learned...That no matter how serious

your life requires you to be, everyone

needs a friend to act goofy with

I've learned...That sometimes all a person

needs is a hand to hold and a heart to

understand.

I've learned...That simple walks with my

father around the block on summer nights

when I was a child did wonders for me an

adult.

I've learned...That life is like a roll of toilet

paper. The closer it gets to the end, the

faster it goes.

I've learned...That money doesn't buy

class.

I've learned...That it's those small daily

happenings that make life so spectacular.

I've learned...That under everyone's hard

shell is someone who wants to be appreci-

ated and loved.

I've learned...That to ignore the facts does

not change the facts.

I've learned...That when you plan to get

even with someone, you are only letting

that person continue to hurt you.

I've learned...That love, not time, heals all

wounds.

I've learned...That the easiest way for me

to grow as a person is to surround myself

with people smarter than I am.

I've learned...That everyone you meet

deserves to be greeted with a smile.

I've learned...That no one is perfect until

you fall in love with them.

I've learned...That life is tough, but I'm

tougher.

I've learned...That opportunities are never

lost; someone will take the ones you miss.

I've learned...That when you harbour

bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

I've learned...That I wish I could have told

my Mom that I love her one more time

before passed away.

I've learned...That one should keep his

words both soft and tender, because to-

morrow he may have to eat them.

I've learned...That a smile is an inexpen-

sive way to improve your looks.

I've learned...That when your newly born

grandchild holds your little finger in his

little fist, you're hooked for life.

I've learned...That everyone wants to live

on top of the mountain, but all the happi-

ness and growth occurs while you're

climbing it.

I've learned...That the less time I have to

work with, the more things I get done.

Take Care Of Youselves —Stay Safe