To Hell and Back

 To Hell and Back

Maybe I’ve been reading the wrong books much of my life.  I’m not impugning a particular book or series but the type of books I gravitate toward.  Early on, age appropriate standards of the day were read to me.  I especially recall one in the 50s that stood out about a giant living in a castle made of odorous Limburger cheese, eating pickles, and drinking vinegar.  While its title eludes me, to this day, I have a lasting affinity for the strongest of cheeses.  The hard drive in my brain also vividly recalls a tale involving another unfriendly giant in Jack and the Beanstalk.  Surprisingly, I have no fear of giants, even the cyclopes variant, lurking in the dark recesses of my closet, but then I am a bit of a giant myself, haven’t any cows to trade for beans, or skills adequate to grow anything beyond San Marzano tomatoes.  Thankfully, about the time that dinosaurs became all the rage, I’d outgrown my thick-paged picture books only to be seduced by another type of illustrated adventure saga, the comic book.

My infatuation with comics began with the stack of comic books in a familiar barbershop along my hometown’s main street, where the memory of everything in my burgeoning world began.  It was

Blackhawk Comics

usually on a Saturday after I paid for the weeks’ worth of newspapers I’d delivered that I treated myself to a strawberry sundae at Nick’s Soda Shoppe alongside the local theater.  Farther along my way home, per Mom’s emphatic prompting, I’d detour into our neighborhood barbershop.  A reservation wasn’t needed, just enough time to wait your turn.  I didn’t mind. Waiting would insure there’d be plenty of time to devour the latest Blackhawk Comics edition that hopefully had arrived since I last visited.  The newest issue of this seven man team of WWII era ace pilots who fight tyranny and oppression was easy to spot among the pile of dog-eared publications splayed across the table in the cramped seating area.  I enjoyed reading the squadron’s fictional exploits once I understood how to maneuver through the sequence of word bubbles accompanying each picture panel.  Being a slow reader, I often passed my turn to the next waiting customer, leaving myself enough time to finish each issue.  This also assured I had time to check out the comic’s back pages.  Long before Amazon, this was where I’d find the most interesting mail-order items like live pet sea horses and eyeglasses which guaranteed you could see through clothing! 

By my teenage years, I'd moved on.  Comics had lost their attraction.  They'd been eclipsed by novels, soon followed by their audio narrations.  Whatever their genre, novels had the power to put me inside the scene, if not into the thoughts of a character that up to then had been limited to glimpses of action, one comic book panel at a time.  In later years, I’d read Dan Brown, Clive Cussler, and Vince Flynn in search of my heroes.  But I sensed I needed to expand my literary horizons.  This was the period when I put adventures aside for the moment and filled the void with murder mysteries.

A bestselling crime novel, The Word Is Murder, by British author Anthony Horowitz, is representative of this eye-opening genre.  I was quickly pulled into the action of this evolving who-done-it mystery as I had those formative Saturday mornings long ago.  It was easy to warm to Horowitz’s characters, flawed though many of his players would prove to be.  His chief inspector, a loner with multiple phobias, partners with the novel’s real-life author, Horowitz.  To complicate matters just a bit more, Horowitz, the book’s protagonist, plays the appropriate part of an author, who, as a murder is investigated, shadows the flawed detective.  If all went per their arrangement, the detective would solve the crime and Horowitz would have the makings for a profitable novel.  If you can follow that, great, but it took me a few replays of the audiobook.  The narrator’s British accent proved especially enjoyable when words like ‘client’ became ‘klee-ent’ as heavy emphasis pounced on a word’s first vowel.  A sprinkling of witty humor, many as asides to the reader, only added to its charming allure.  This highly recommended who-done-it was an eye-opener for me.  Better than reading it myself, the audiobook made the story come alive.  Hearing the voices of the various characters, their tonal inflections ranging from normal to expressions of passion or fear, was reminiscent of my earliest childhood memories, while nestled in my mother’s lap, listening as she dramatized the voice of each character.

This writing style, where the protagonist interacts with his reader, and in the case of the Horowitz novel where it also imparts insight into how to write a novel along the way, was like no story I’d ever encountered before.  Like trading ten baseball cards for a Micky Mantle in the schoolyard, I understood what I’d found.  By my teenage years, comics had lost their attraction.  They had been eclipsed by novels followed by audio narrations.  Whatever their genre, they had the power to put me inside the scene if not the thoughts of a character that up to then had been limited to glimpses into the action, one panel at a time.

But there was a higher, more elusive form of written expression called literature I was yet unfamiliar with.  This is a body of distinguished works, that by the excellence of their execution, are perceived to have lasting artistic merit.  Beginning in 1901, some of these works of poetry and prose have buttressed the award of a Nobel Prize to their authors.2 John Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath), Ernest Hemingway (The Old Man and the Sea), and William Faulkner (The Sound and the Fury) come to mind.  Adding to this list, four Italians, relatively unknown outside their native Italy, have received Nobel Prizes in Literature over the last one hundred years.  They include poet Giosuè Carducci (1906), novelist Grazia Deledda (1926), playwright and novelist Luigi Pirandello (1934), and playwright and satirist Dario Fo (1997).  

But there was one standout Italian writer who

Dante Gazing at Purgatory

lived well before awards for literary achievement were in vogue, before Barnes and Noble bookstores, and well before the NY Times would weekly bring the best sellers to our attention.  He was actually a poet, whose marks on paper became the poetic equivalent of those on the surfaces of the Sistine Chapel and in epics like Beowulf and the Iliad.  In 1265, he was born in Florence to a middle-class family.  His name was Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri, better known to us simply as Dante, meaning ‘enduring’, which he certainly remains.

Although he claimed that his family descended from the ancient Romans, little is known of his early life beyond his development from an only child of a middle-class family of a notary into a poet, writer, philosopher, soldier, ambassador, and politician.³  He is known to have studied Tuscan poetry, likely at home or in a church-related school.  He would marry Gemma Donati and father at least three children.  

In 1295, a law decreed required nobles who aspired to public office to enroll in one of the guilds.  To further his political ambition, he obtained admission to the Physicians' and Apothecaries' Guild.  Although he did not intend to practice pharmacy, it was a close fit since books were sold from apothecary shops.  As a politician, he held various offices and became embroiled in the Guelph–Ghibelline political factions and ensuing military conflicts.  The Ghibellines backed The Holy Roman Emperor while the Guelphs faction, opposed to imperial influence, supported the Pope.  Dante and his family were loyal to the Guelphs.³ 

Following years of political strife that led to the defeat of the Ghibellines, the Guelphs split into two factions: Blacks Guelphs in support of the Pope while the Whites sought more freedom from

Dante, Father of the Italian Language

Rome.  In 1302, the Black Guelphs took power in Florence and accused Dante of corruption for the two months in 1300 when he’d served as city mayor.³  Under Black Guelph rule, Florence branded Dante a fugitive and confiscated his possessions.  He was condemned to exile for two years and ordered to pay a fine of five thousand florins.  With his assets seized, he could not pay the fine.  This resulted in his permanent exile, which lasted 20 years.  During this time he lived under a death sentence for had he returned to Florence without paying the fine, he could have been burned at the stake.  Later, in 1315, following Lewis Carroll’s Queen of Hearts dictum in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’s “off with their heads,” he faced public decapitation.  Dante shied from either of these predicaments, choosing instead to preserve life and limb by making Ravenna his home base.  From there he wondered throughout Italy seeking patrons who valued his talents.  His days as a politician at an end, he devoted himself to writing prose and La Commedia, later called The Divine Comedy.  He would never see his wife again.  His Divine Comedy, estimated to have taken 11 years to compose, is widely considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language.³

Although titled a comedy, there is nothing funny about it, even by today’s dark comedy standards.  Here, reference to comedy follows the classic story arc we see to this day in many sitcoms (Frasier comes to mind) where some sort of misunderstanding or confusion is the driving element until it is resolved by the end with everyone in high spirits (no pun intended).  In La Commedia, Dante’s movement from Purgatory to Paradise follows this pattern as sin is mollified, the Divine is pleased, and all is again right with the world.

Written in an Italian vernacular, not scholarly Latin readable only by the learned, it was clearly intended for the common people.  The Italian he used was his own, the Italian dialect of Florence, one of the fourteen competing versions of Italian then in use on the peninsula.  La Commedia became so widely read and prestigious that it formed the basis for modern-day Italian language, making Dante the “Father of the Italian Language.”

I am not a fan of poems.  The few I do enjoy, the likes of Kilmer (Trees) and Frost (The Road Not Taken), are by an equally few in number list of poets.  For much of my life, I kept La Commedia at arm’s length.  I still don’t fully understand it but have developed a smidgen of appreciation for its attempt to describe the state of souls after death in an imaginatively complex otherworld.  Like a Venn diagram might depict the intersection of Heaven and Hell as Purgatory, Dante, with his spheres, circles, and ascending and descending levels, took mankind on an imaginative journey into a contemplative world where life intersected death, for Dante “without having died traverses the kingdom of the dead,” (The Inferno, Canto 8), was yet mortal.  The poem became a nagging exception to my tentativeness about poetry.  Do I like it?  Possibly, but the jury is still not unanimous.  Clearly written by a genius, it is not a creation of stone but one of words.  As a vast literary construction, it is filled with illusions, hidden meaning, mystery, and a surprising amount of pagan and mythological references from such a devout Christian author.

Its structure was revolutionary, for in it, Dante introduced the terza rima, an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme never before seen.  Amazingly, every three lines see their first and third lines rhyme.  From there, the rhyme of the middle line becomes the rhyme for the first and third lines of the next three-line stanza, known as a terzine.  In total, this remarkable and complex inter-rhyming goes on for 14,233 lines. 

To create what would become the cornerstone of Western literature, Dante employs a cast of characters familiar in Dante's time but far from everyday household names familiar to today’s readers.  The cast contains 408 characters, with an additional 426 mentioned by name, along with indirect references to 112 additional persons through the inclusion of their quotes.¹

If I attempted to read it as Dante wrote it, there would be a problem.  First off, it is in a 13th-century version of Italian.  While purists, in order to appreciate its full majesty, will learn 13th-century Italian, I remain mired in the present tense (presente) of that horde of 21 Italian verb tenses of modern Italian.  In addition to understanding the bizarre geography of La Commedia that Dante travels through, medieval Florence of which he was a product, requires its own understanding.  As you would expect, his was an entirely different social order and culture from ours.  It was one where religion dominated everything through papal political manipulation, to the extent that often the Pope himself was a political appointment.  Church and state were one and the same.  Anyone who questioned the pope’s authority over temporal matters risked accusations of treason or heresy.

Dante’s crowning gift to the world, his opus magnum, was and remains The Divine Comedy.  Throughout its terzine superstructure, each line consists of eleven syllables distributed among 100 cantos, a word for the grouped divisions of a long poem derived from the Italian word for song.  These cantos are divided into the three major songs or sections that describe Dante’s journey as follows:

Inferno (Hell)

Dante described Hell, that xanadu of suffering, as a gigantic funnel that moves downward through nine levels to the very center of the Earth.  The least offensive sinners occupy the upper circles of Hell, while those with more

The Boatman Charon Begin the Descent into L’Inferno (Hell)

grievous sins inhabit greater depths and suffer greater torment.  Along the way, as in other regions of his journey, he encounters and converses with known and legendary figures of his time.  Noteworthy, we learn that all torment is not by fire.  Traitors, for instance, are frozen in ice to their necks, while gluttonous shades suffer endless cold and dirty rain. 

Purgatorio (Purgatory)                                    

Terraced Purgatory Island

Purgatory Island is where penitent sinners cleanse themselves of sin before ascending to Heaven.  Beginning with the excommunicated and spiritually lazy, Dante spirals upward through seven terraces, each associated with the seven deadly sins.  Dante defined them as Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice and Lavishness, Gluttony, and Lust.  Reaching the summit, he entered the Forest of Eden leading to Heaven.

Paradiso (Heaven)

Dante describes Paradise as a place of light and contentment, a land of luxury and fulfillment containing everlasting bliss.⁶  It is the heavenly abode of God, the angels, and the ‘virtuous dead’ presented as a series of nine concentric spheres surrounding the Earth.  Souls in Paradise are perceived to inhabit these different spheres according to

Purgatory Connects to the Spheres  
of Heaven Surrounding the Earth 
With Hell Deep Inside

their rank.  Empyrean, the Mind of God (tenth sphere), is the highest part of heaven.

It is challenging to understand the nuances of The Divine Comedy.  I doubt there will ever be a perfect way to tackle the text.  To get through the poem absent a deep understanding of Dante's world, I needed all the help I could get, as Dante did.  For him, as for me, it was a strange netherworld.  On his journey, Dante used guides.  His first would be the Roman poet-theologian Virgil of Aeneid fame, who appears at Hell’s Gate and saves Dante from three beasts.  Although a pagan from centuries past, in Dante’s day Virgil was believed to have been a proto-Christian because of his prophecy of Christ’s coming and thus was seen as a bridge from pagan to Christian.  Virgil assists Dante on his journey to the farthest depths of Hell, speaks on his behalf at times, and ascends with him to the garden summit of Purgatory.  There, drawing closer to God, Dante says goodbye to Virgil and meets his next guide, veiled Beatrice.  Beatrice was Dante’s lifelong muse and plutonic love, and serves as a symbol of faith as they depart Purgatorio and enter the celestial spheres of Paradiso (Moon, Planets, Sun, etc).  Only later, without fanfare, does she depart, replaced by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who in life was renowned for his devotion to the Virgin Mary, who then serves as a go-between to Christ.⁵  In Paradise, Saint Bernard mediates with the Virgin Mary on Dante’s behalf to allow Dante a “glimpse of the Trinity and the dual nature of Christ.” ¹  Even in Heaven,  human nature comes into play when you want something from someone else, even a deity:  Want God to do something for you?—Just ask his mother to intercede for you.

For my Cliff Notes ‘guiding’ equivalent, I relied on The Divine Comedy by Joseph Gallagher, whose canto after canto summaries served like Virgil and the others as my modern-day chaperon through the purifying souls of Purgatory, the torturous levels of Hell, until rising to the blissful epiphany of Paradise.

While it is unclear where Dante’s soul is today, we are certain concerning the whereabouts of his mortal remains.  Inside Florence’s Santa Croce Church, dubbed ‘Temple of Italian Glories,’ visitors will

The Dante Cenotaph, Santa Croce 
Church, Florence

find a crypt heralding Dante.  It properly lies among other eminent Florentines such as Michelangelo and Galileo.  By all appearances, though somewhat smaller than the tombs of other luminaries, it fits in with the similar sarcophagi that adorn the wall’s perimeter.  Impressively crafted, adorned, and personalized with figures, they ooze testaments of importance.  Few, however, are aware that although Dante is honored there, his remains are absent.  In fact, absent his remains, it is properly called a cenotaph; an honorary monument absent a body.  Because of his political exile, Dante was at arm’s length, a persona non grata, when he died in Ravenna after contracting malaria.  The figure atop this cenotaph announces, “Honor the Most High Poet,” but we do it symbolically from afar since Dante lies in Ravenna where he always has.  The pensive scowl of the figure poised atop his Santa Croce monument, which in fact, may be a caricature of Dante, may hint at this vacancy.  Exile meant exile.  For almost two centuries, a standoff pull and tug ensued, with Ravenna refusing to return his body despite Florence’s attempts to bring the body of its eminent citizen home.  Florence almost succeeded in 1519, but something went wrong.  Pope Leo X, a Florentine himself, concurred with the demands of the Accademia Medicea and authorized the transfer of Dante’s remains to Florence.  With the Pope's backing, everything seemed settled.  How could Ravenna

Dante's Tomb in Ravenna

resist the Pope’s will, especially since Ravenna was part of his Italian holdings?  But when the papal ambassadors arrived and opened the sarcophagus, the tomb was empty.⁴  It was only in 1865 when a box secreted inside the Ravenna church’s wall revealed the truth.  Apparently, local monks moved Dante’s remains into this box when his departure looked certain.  There they remained as conflicts came and went until their surprising discovery.

Reading through The Divine Comedy, can be a transformational eye-opener.  I can only imagine the impact such a revolutionary story had on the Florentine faithful of the time and later as it spread throughout medieval Italy.  Anecdotal reports following its unveiling recount how children, ran after Dante in hopes of touching the cloak of a man who, in their minds, had visited Hell, Heaven, and seen God.¹  In their households, a term we use, ‘Been through hell,’ took on a literal meaning.

Books help the winter months melt away.  Choose as you might among the plethora of subject matter from A to Z or, in the case of The Divine Comedy, from Α-Ω (Alpha to Omega).  Some people spend their entire lives studying The Divine Comedy.  In stark contrast, with but only a smattering of Duolingo Italian levels of accomplishment, I invested a few weeks trying to unravel its content with about as much headway as trying to untie a wet sneaker’s shoelace with gloves on.  I finally took the gloves off and read La Comedia naked in an English translation, having sacrificed its three-line poetic rhythm.  Searching to comprehend this field guide to a world following death, I took a chisel to it in an attempt to find that lodestone of comprehension that had liberated people from misery, expressed the power of love, outlined the intransigence of power, and the justice of salvation and punishment.  At this, I remained essentially a babe on my mother’s lap, equivalent to my youthful self, trying not to interpret the bubble dialog of comics but the melody of a gifted and, who knows, prescient poet. 

From That Rogue Tourist,

Paolo

 

1  A Modern Reader’s Guide to Dante's The Divine Comedy, Joseph Gallagher, Triumph Publications, 1999

2  Facts on the Nobel Prize in Literature, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/facts/facts-on-the-nobel-      prize-in-literature/

3  Dante Alighieri, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri

4  The Mystery of Dante Alighieri’s Remains, https://www.travelemiliaromagna.it/en/mystery-dante-alighieri-remains/

5  Clarifying Catholicism,

https://clarifyingcatholicism.org/articles/platonic-guides-virgil-and-beatrice/#:~:text=Beatrice's%20role%20as%20a%20guide,%2C%20to%20Christ%2C%20than%20Beatrice

6  Pardise, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise#:~:text=Paradise%20is%20a%20place%20of%20contentment%2C%20a%20land%20of%20luxury,or%20underworlds%20such%20as%20Hell

Ancient Traditions

 

Ancient Traditions

Meet Punxsutawney Phil

      A snowy wintery season is upon us.  The below-freezing temperatures outside confirm this for at least some of us.  When it rains in the forest where we
live, we call it “the woods in the wet.”  We’ve nothing comparable when it snows other than vanishing to some warm clime or taking vitamin D.  Fortunately, days have already grown longer, so there is hope the white stuff will be short-lived, and we can retire our snowblower for another season.  Exactly when I should prepare to do this or otherwise ensure I have enough gas to continue blowing snow for additional weeks does not depend on the Old Farmer’s Almanac or the US National Weather Service. Instead, I rely on the USA’s one and only living and breathing groundhog weather barometer, Punxsutawney Phil.  According to a tradition extending back to 1887, if Phil sees his shadow and returns to his underground burrow, he has predicted six more weeks of winter-like weather.   However, if Phil does not see his shadow, he is telegraphing an early spring.¹  On a recent gloomy February day, Maria Elena and I heaved a sigh of relief when Phil confirmed winter just about in the rearview mirror.  

Prophecies like this extend beyond a Pennsylvania rodent's prognostications.  The many that have been promulgated around the globe and have existed since ancient times have not been binary in their predictive convictions.  Less conclusive, they offer more leeway to interpretation than simple “yes or no,” “long or short (as in winters),” or “rain or shine” decrees.

In the earlier world of ancient Rome, a method of divination heavily reliant on interpretation called haruspicy was practiced.  Haruspicy was a form of communication with the gods that relied on inspecting the entrails of sacrificed animals.  For example, examining a liver could assess the god’s approval or disapproval.⁴  Rather than predicting future events, this form of divination allowed humans to discern the will of the gods before engaging in a specific activity or making important decisions.  Through divination, Roman behavior maintained harmony between men and Mount Olympus deities.  Punxsutawney Phil has no idea how lucky he is that his shadow has replaced a fatal examination of his viscera. 

Modern Italians have seen these practices abolished but still retain a quasi-relationship with the whimsical nature of fate and chance, if not destiny.  Each year, for example, beginning at the stroke of midnight, cultural quirks renew themselves on New Year's Day.  Because the shape of lentils resembles ancient gold coins, symbolic of prosperity, eating them at midnight is deemed to promote good luck throughout the coming year.²  Although I love lentils, this hasn’t worked for me.  But then, I’ve never been in Italy on New Year's Eve, which may be key to their magic.  

Along with these legumes, eating twelve grapes (one for each month of the new year) or their equivalent dried version, raisins, will ensure Lady Luck is with you.²  When these antics conclude, in keeping with another Roman custom, you’re expected to don something red (usually underwear) to fend off negativity and invite happiness and love into your life.²  The color red is essential because it is associated with passion, energy, and, here again, prosperity.  It may all be for commercial reasons, but for it to work, you can’t cheat by wearing old red pajamas or lingerie.  Au contraire, your red underwear must be new and a gift from someone.  Buying them for yourself is cheating and just might be behind the enigma of Victoria’s Secret.  No wonder I get so many red jammies, with or without penguins, each Christmas!  

In parts of Italy, throwing old crockery out the window symbolizes purging yourself of what is useless.²  By ridding yourself of unnecessary items accumulated during the year, it is believed that you free yourself of burdens and avail yourself of a fresh start, in a way mindful of a New Year’s resolution.  But, look out below! 

If you are fortunate to make it outside safely (without head injury) that first day of the new year, ancient customs require that you closely observe the first person you meet on the street.  If it is an elderly person or, better yet, a hunchback, the new year will be full of great surprises.  If you meet a baby, a priest, or a doctor, according to this tradition, there might be some bad luck around the corner.

Moving on from New Year's, the search for happiness and love continues.  Geoffrey Chaucer, in a 1375 poem in reference to Saint Valentine’s Day, wrote:

“For this was on seynt Valentynes day, / Whan every foul cometh there to chese his make.”

(For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day, / When every fowl comes to choose his mate.) ³

Chaucer appears to have been referring to an earlier origin of the holiday, once again thought to have ancient Roman roots well before Saint Valentine or red pajamas.  Every year on February 15, Roman priests gathered at the sacred Lupercal cave on the Palatine Hill, where Romulus and Remus were allegedly born (circa 771 BC) to sacrifice a goat and dog.  This ritual was performed to bless mothers with fertility in the coming year.  Not to take away from modern reality TV series like The Bachelor and Love is Blind, the legend also describes how single women placed their names in an urn.  Unmarried men would then draw to be paired with these women for the year, which often resulted in marriage.³

A Cornicello Neckless

There is also a very popular and plentiful horn-shaped Italian trinket known as a cornicello, which for millennia was considered the best, most powerful of good luck charms.  On the spectrum of fortune and protection, the common American practice of carrying a rabbit’s foot doesn’t approach the persistent worldwide mania for wearing a cornicello.  Made of red coral, a cornicello offers protection from the ill intentions of the evil eye, a malevolent gaze that some cast to cause bad things to happen.  This concept is deeply rooted in ancient beliefs and continues to hold significance to this day.  Across cultures around the world, the evil eye plays a formidable role.  For example, it’s known as el Ojo Maledicto (‘the cursed eye’) in Latin America.  While I’ll not attempt to write it in Hanzi characters, it’s called the ‘jinxed eye’ in China.  Protective evil eye pendants are thought to have originated with the Greeks and Ancient Romans some 3,000 years ago as a defense against a shared threat: the evil eye curse.¹¹  Casting the evil eye bestows a curse intended to bring harm, misfortune, accidents, or negative influences on someone.  In addition to the cornicello, there are other amulets designed to ward off evil spirits, and variations of evil intentions.  I have an eye-shaped amulet myself

My Metaphysical Eye Bead
Desktop Security System

purchased in what better place than Olympia,  Greece.  Referred to as a nazar (‘to be coveted’), this large eye-shaped bead is made of glass.  Its circular shape featuring four colored concentric circles dangles above my desk in case of some metaphysical, counter-curse emergency.  It has the advantage of zero power consumption, and lacking the need for renewal, it offers 24/7 protection.  

For Added Protection
Some Use Both

     The benefits of a cornicello include blessings, fortune, positive outcomes in various aspects of life, and, as always, prosperity.  It is often worn by individuals of Italian descent to reflect their Italian heritage.  While it may look like a pepper, don’t be fooled.  It doesn’t symbolize a hot pepperoncino pepper, it clearly resembles.  It is something entirely different.  For ancient Romans, the male organ was
regarded as a talisman of fertility and prosperity.  Thus, this Italian protective pendant usually takes the form of a phallus.  A cornicello is also believed to enhance one's emotional connections, strengthen relationships, and ignite passion in romantic partnerships.  It extends to promoting good health, emotional protection, vitality, and

A Cornicello Resembles a Hot
Pepperoncino Pepper

courage, as well as providing protection from negative energies.  Not stopping there, its properties are believed to enhance energy levels, boost the immune system, improve overall well-being, and bolster determination. 

In 77 AD, Pliny the Elder wrote in depth about red coral in his early version of an encyclopedia, Naturalis Historia.  Thought to possess powers capable of warding off danger, Pliny went so far as to have recommended coral to protect against lightning strikes and, for those with this problem, a means to counter temptresses.⁶  He describes the most valued coral as the reddest and branchiest.  It was also viewed as a thing of beauty and powerfully religious.  While he expressed his belief in its protective powers, he’d likely agree that it would be useless against what, at the time, was believed to be the foremost practitioner of the evil eye, mythological Medusa.  A self-initiated gaze at Medusa saw the ‘voyeur’ turn to stone.  Absent Medusa, in the Middle East and the Mediterranean, where blue eyes are relatively rare, the ancients believed that people, especially those with blue eyes, could cast the evil eye with just a glance, unfortunately marking me as a potential transmitter.¹⁰

Coral amulets are also given to children for protection.  In many paintings of the 1300 - 1500s, you will find children with a small coral horn or branch.  One in particular by Piero della Francesca hung in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, portrays the infant Jesus wearing a red coral stem.  Another example,

Red Coral Necklace on Infant Jesus

the “Virgin and Child with Angles,” by Allegretto Nuzi, hung in the Musee du Petit Palais in Avignon, France, portrays a similar scene with red coral prominently visible on the child.  If the child is too small to wear an amulet safely, there are alternative approaches to ensure protection.  For instance, my Florentine friend, Christina, recounts how her mother-in-law sewed a piece of coral to Christina’s infant son’s bassinet to ward off malocchio (‘evil eye’) misfortune.  Other parents tie a red thread around a baby’s hands.  Our former neighbor, JoAnn, related how, as a child, when she complained of a headache, a zia (aunt) or nonna (grandmother) would take her aside and make a sign of the cross three times with her right thumb in the center of her forehead to the accompaniment of a prayerful incantation over her (the words vary from region to region) followed by spitting three times.  She would then move to one side of JoAnn’s forehead, make the signs once more there three times, spit again, only to cycle through this sequence one last time on the other side of the forehead’s center.  The spitting mimics a superstition where a Greek yaiyai (grandmother)

Virgin & Child by Nuzi

will quickly spit at a newborn three times, ‘tou, tou, tou,’ to ward off the evil eye.  This follows another Greek custom whereby if someone makes a ‘tou’ spitting sound at you three times, accompanied by the flick of their hand, that person is not expressing disapproval at all.  Instead, they are paying you a compliment.  It means you are worthy of envy, so giving you what appears to be a negative gesture (spitting) wards off the potential for the evil eye due to jealousy.  Next, JoAnne’s relative would add a drop of oil to each of three small white bowls filled with water.  In keeping with their version of the tradition, if the oil burst out quickly into the water as if it had exploded (some claim the drop must sink), it meant you were the victim of an evil eye perpetrator.  If, however, the droplet didn’t separate and remained in a circle, not to worry, you only had a headache.  Today, contemporary events call a similar procedure to detect an analogous form of evil a take-home COVID Test! 

Beyond protection against the evil eye, a blue-colored amulet projects positive energies such as creativity, motivation, and commitment, which symbolize good karma.¹¹  What I particularly like, although when I purchased my blue bead, I hadn’t a clue, is that it fosters calmness, a smooth flow of communication, serenity, and relaxation in its owner—a veritable tranquilizing, non-prescription form of Valium if ever there was one.  In addition to blue, evil eye beads are available in various colors.  While each color offers protection against evil curses that might lead to misfortune, depending on their color, they are also said to promote such things as freedom, happiness, imagination, success, relief from exhaustion, wealth, secure friendships, and more.¹¹  There are evidently colors available for every concern.  The classic color scheme is deep blue with white circles to symbolize the human eye.  An eye bead talisman like mine is believed to possess a supernatural force that reflects a

... Just About Everywhere Indeed

malevolent gaze back upon its source—those who wish harm upon others. 

To muddle things further, it’s believed that a curse can be triggered involuntarily by someone unaware they can cast an evil eye.  A folktale tells of a man whose gaze was such a potent transmitter that, knowing this, he resorted to cutting out his own eyes rather than continuing to spread misfortune, especially to his loved ones.¹²  Under circumstances like these, it could be just about everywhere. 

 The twin tyrannies, jealousy, and envy are thought to be the dominant motives that trigger evil eye curses.  The recipient must believe that receiving the evil eye will cause misfortune or injury for it to be effective.  A potent glare, a simple glance, or even a negative comment that one person might give another, founded on intense jealousy or envy, are reportedly all it takes.  To shield against such acts, an urge to suppress envy and snuff out jealousy grew to become ... Just Abiut Everywherso widespread that people went to great lengths to not show pride in their status, flaunt excess, and eliminate any form of behavior that might foster envy, loathing, or resentment in others.  They dressed down, lived simply, wore old shoes, watched what they said in public so as not to boast or appear overly intelligent, and did anything to avoid highlighting themselves.  It is mindful of the public response to that famous purge of luxuries (Bonfire of the Vanities) by Savonarola in 1497 Florence.

When it comes to the evil eye and curses, I’m also reminded of that magical 1987 movie “Moonstruck.”  When Dean Martin would sing, “When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie - that’s Amore,” he foreshadowed this movie, where the moon may as well have been a character.  It is a portrayal of the workings of a dynamic Italian American family, where when referencing Italians, the word dynamic is steeped in passion.  Cher earned the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance in this must-see, fairytale story of love and life that approaches reality.  In the riot of ethnicity that ensues, one Scene at JFK Airport (click/open to watch) reveals a vendetta based on a lifetime accumulation of envy.  In it, as an airliner takes off for Sicily with Cher’s fiancée aboard, an old woman explains why she has placed a curse on the plane for it to crash.  Come to find out, neither of them believes in curses, though Cher cringes and, while no evidence of a cornicello is presented, has her fingers crossed.  

      Another form of expressive protection, a widespread part of everyday life in Il Mezzogiorno (southern Italy), where history runs long, is a gesture called le corna (‘the horn’).  Generally, Italians, expressive as they are, make the sign of the horns when confronted with unfortunate events or simply when harmful events are mentioned.  It is formed by extending the index and pinkie fingers downward while holding the inner remaining fingers closed with the thumb (making this sign with the hand raised takes on a different meaning).

 To this day, the faithful perform certain hand gestures like the sign of the cross and wear religious medals such as a Miraculous Medal or a St. Benedict Medal for divine protection from curses, evil, and diseases.  Others pray to icons for protection, maintain repositories of protective symbols, and wear sacred texts, and charms.  The hamsa, also called the Hand of Fatima and the Hand of Mary is an equally powerful palm-shaped amulet popular from North Africa to the Middle East.  Along with other

Hamsa With an All-Seeing Nazar

symbology, the hamsa features an eye in the middle of an open hand.  As with other evil eye amulets, like the cornicello and nazar, the hamsa is traditionally believed to have talismanic power to provide divine protection.⁹

Like religion, the power of the evil eye is based on belief and faith, making it difficult, if impossible, to verify its validity.  Although scientific evidence does not support the protective powers of amulets, if you believe in the evil eye and the need for protection, it seems best to wear one.  If correct, you have everything to gain.  If you are cynical about these apocryphal beliefs, ask yourself: do I, like grandma, throw a pinch of salt over my shoulder for good luck (thought to blind the devil to stop him from performing evil deeds), pass along chain letters, feel a bit anxious about the number 13 especially Friday the 13th, fear you’ve tempted the Fates by walking under a ladder, break a mirror and anticipate seven years of bad luck, never open an umbrella inside, or knock on wood for luck (gods were thought to inhabit trees)?  If that is the case, acquiring an amulet as an insurance policy on life and limb may be wise just in case these ancient social mores are credible.  You have nothing to lose.  Whichever way you go—nothing to lose, everything to gain—this may explain why so many people worldwide, myself included, possess these protective icons.

 

From That Rogue Tourist, 

Paolo

 

1. Groundhog Day 2020 Guide: Punxsutawney Phil facts, tips for going to Gobbler's Knob and More. Pennlive, 2020-01-28.

2. Studia in Italia, https://www.studiainitalia.com/en/blog/new-year-traditions-italy/#:~:text=Eat%20lentils%20and%20grapes&text=For%20others%2C%20lentils%20are%20a,)%2C%20to%20bring%20you%20luck

3. Valentine’s Day’s Connection with Love was Probably Invented by Chaucer and Other 14th-Century Poets, https://theconversation.com/valentines-days-connection-with-love-was-probably-invented-by-chaucer-and-other-14th-century-poets-199544

4. Haruspex, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruspex

6. Coral and the Grand Tour, https://www.ericaweiner.com/history-lessons/coral-and-the-grand-tour#:~:text=Coral%20in%20jewelry%20in%20Europe,Angels%20by%20Allegretto%20Nuzi%2C%201360.

9. Hamsa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamsa

10. Nazar, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazar_(amulet)

11. Evil eye Bracelet Meaning and Origins, https://www.iconicjewelry.com/evil-eye-bracelet-meaning-and-origins/

12. The-Strange-Power-of-the-Evil-Eye, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180216-the-strange-power-of-the-evil-eye

 

The Patriot Thief

 The Patriot Thief

The Louvre is a massive complex of art treasures that requires weeks to explore and years to appreciate.  It was initially a fortress before being transformed into a palace.  Following the French Revolution, it became a museum.  For years, Maria Elena and I have talked of visiting Paris for the sole

The View from Our Paris Room

reason of exploring this sprawling institution and taking in its artistic gems.  We dreamt of going during off-season when the tourist count would be low.  We were naive to think that Paris ever experienced even a slight pause.  The Ville-Lumière (City of Light) was still crowded in late October when we finally visited.  Neither rain nor the fact that by this time of year students would be back in school seemed to dent the number of people in the city and the fraction of those who visit the museum every day.  But I’m getting a little ahead here.

We’d been in Calitri for some time before our “vacation within a vacation” began.  It could have happened much earlier as part of our arrival in Europe or waited until our return flight to the USA.  We’d done this before.  Back then, we would lay over at a stop.  For instance, on a stopover in London to switch aircraft, we spent a few days there before continuing

Bangers & Mash

to the States.  After “bangers & mash,” a visit to the luxurious Harrods department store, and watching the guards change over at Buckingham Palace, we continued our return flight.  Apparently, times have changed.  On our latest trip, we sought a similar layover in Paris, either during our arrival or departure.  We explored that possibility with two airlines.  Neither was successful.  In the case of Air France, a layover in Paris terminated our flight.  For instance, our reservation, Naples to Paris and then on to the US, would end if we hesitated in Paris.  To continue the flight home would require two one-way tickets at approximately $1,000 each.  Double ouch and out of the question.  Clearly, I’d retired from the wrong ‘flight provider’, the US Air Force, not a commercial airline.

One of the reasons we had a ‘pied-à-terre’ in Italy was to use it, primarily in retirement.  In my travel essay, “The Italian Chronicles of a Rogue Tourist”, I put it this way: ^[1]

“Should we buy our own tiny piece of Italy and immerse ourselves in the culture, the language, and its people or should we continue to wander the country continually visiting new places - there would always be new venues to explore. One road read ‘come this way’ the other, equally appealing, like a hawker in front of a restaurant, beckoned that we proceed down that avenue. … Instead, our idea of an Italian home was a small, affordable place we could use in retirement for a few months at a time, and before that, as often as we could get there. … even more sobering, why tie ourselves down and have to always restrict our Italian adventures to medieval Calitri? “

Falling back on a military expression, it had the advantages of a “forward operating base.”  Being already in Europe, Calitri serves as a springboard not only to other parts of Italy but also to the entire

French Onion Soup

continent.  Short hops between countries on low-cost airlines were affordable.  In a eureka moment, it was Maria Elena's quick thinking, recalling our reasoning from twenty years earlier, that resolved our stop-over dilemma.  Instead of a costly stop-over while enroute to or from the US, “Let’s lock the door after we are there a while and visit somewhere new.”

Our Parisian jaunt began when I drove our Fiat, Bianca, to Naples, parked her at the Navy Base adjacent to the Capodichino Airport, and boarded an EasyJet flight to Charles de Gaulle Airport.  A short two and a half hours later, we arrived.  The number of tourists thronging the terminal confirmed it was definitely not off-season.  Over the days that followed, before we located the Louvre’s glass pyramid, we enjoyed bowls of French onion soup and visited interesting restaurants like the legendary literary Les Deux Magots café for pastry and their renowned hot chocolate.  A visit to the iconic Shakespeare and Company bookstore served as a 

Our Magot Petit Dejeuner

whipped cream
 topping to our Paris fling. 

But there was more.  Yes, I love those testosterone-fueled classics like Top Gun (either one), The Gladiator, et al., but the right side of the brain, thought to be the home of the non-conscious mind also holds sway.  That’s the part that is associated with creativity, emotion, and intuition.  It may help explain why I enjoy books and creative writing.  The influence of my brain’s right hemisphere is why we sought out the nearby church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont.  It is not a major tourist attraction by a long shot, but more on the spectrum of a social media phenomenon.  In the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris, the main character Gil (Owen Wilson) sits on the side steps of this church

nightly in hopes of a magic car ride into the past among literary and artistic giants.  In addition to historical magnets like the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and the Louvre, the steps have become an unofficial ‘in-place” to visit while in Paris.  It was our turn to sit on the steps in tribute to the movie.  We sat there, but it being well before midnight, no one picked us up.  Later, just across the narrow, cobbled street separating the church from a corner tavern, we sat by a window and watched as another couple scratched it from their bucket list.

By this point, some of you may wonder if I have gone rogue like Tom Cruise in one of his Mission Impossible franchise movies.  Have I become a Francophile?  Not really.  In the British Museum, we sought

out Roman Britain and the Rosetta Stone.  In Bruges’ Church of Our Lady, it was the allure of Michelangelo’s Madonna of Bruges that attracted us.  At the Louvre the object of our obsession was the famed portrait of the Mona Lisa. 

Our strategy to avoid the crowds was a private evening tour.  Evening hours are called “nocturnes.”  Our rendezvous point was in front of the fashionable brasserie Le Nemours Café, where, while waiting, we were amused by the wait staff over who alleged to have worked there the longest.  By 6:30 pm six of us, all Americans, had rendezvoused for the tour.  We crossed the street and entered through the Porte de Richelieu.  It was immediately evident, as one of the largest, most popular museums in the world, the Louvre is also one of the busiest, even by night.

Shortly after entering, we found ourselves in the Louvre's Carrousel du Louvre shopping mall, dominated by an inverted pyramid that serves as a skylight pointing to the floor made famous by The Da Vinci Code bestseller movie.  In the lower level of the Sully Wing, on our way to the museum’s best-known works of art, we walked by the original medieval foundations of the Louvre, rising like castle battlements.  In the hours that followed, we made our way through a labyrinth of various subjects listening to the wealth of knowledge our guide had to share.  All along, our information chaperone, Maria, elaborated on Greek statues ranging from the goddess Aphrodite, known as Venus de Milo, to the Hellenistic era goddess Nike of Samothrace, we know as Winged Victory.  In this maze

Original Louvre Castle Foundation

of halls and stairs, we also saw Egyptian artifacts and were dazzled by bling collections that rivaled the British Crown Jewels.  

Our tour culminated in the Grande Galerie devoted to Italian paintings, for us, the anticipated highlight of our tour.  The walls were hung with a horde of stunning paintings, including Italian Renaissance masterpieces by Caravaggio, Raphael, and Botticelli, along with works by Leonardo da Vinci, including The Virgin of the Rocks, and Saint John the Baptist.  It was in a side room, the Salle des États, the Louvre’s largest room, about the size of a basketball court, that we were introduced to 24-year-old Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo.  We know her as Madam Lisa,

Winged Victory

truncated further to Mona Lisa, one of the most emblematic portraits in the history of art.  This is hard to believe since it was never completed by its creator, Leonardo da Vinci.  Begun in 1503 on a board of poplar, Da Vinci was still working on her in 1517.  Never completed to his satisfaction, he carried it with him, continuing to work on it, a stroke here or there, only parting with her on his death in 1519.

Fortunately, the room was not crowded.  We could only imagine the press of the daytime crowd when, as we learned, lines extended outside the hall along the side of the Grande Galerie.  From what Maria related, you could pass outstanding and not fall to the floor.  Being the only portrait on the wall positioned at the far end of the room creates the impression that the Mona Lisa is tiny.  This is not an illusion but a fact.  Positioned behind physical barriers and protected inside a temperature and humidity-controlled glass case, Mona’s portrait, a scant 30 by 21 inches, is petite.  We were close enough to see the gossamer-

A Real Smiler

like veil-like veil shrouding her head, confirm her mysterious lack of eyebrows, but not so close as to confirm that one pupil is larger than the other.  Related to her eyes, there is the perception associated with da Vinci called the ‘Mona Lisa Effect’.  This optical illusion refers to the sensation that the eyes of a portrait follow you around the room.  Go where you may, and the feeling persists.  The fact is, Mona does not look at you when standing directly in front of her.  Ironically, the Mona Lisa, for which the sensation is named, is absent the Mona Lisa Effect.^[2]  Instead, she consistently stares over a viewer's right shoulder, beginning to generate a smile. 

The painting’s appeal lies in its technical excellence, that wisp of a smile, the background landscape’s mix of science and fantasy, and the sfumato blurring technique that envelops the figure in a hazy mist.  Her smile suggests that she has caught sight of something and hints that she is turning toward it.  Was Leonardo so prescient in his strokes that he anticipated her popularity?  Might her head be turning toward the millions of gaping visitors who call on her annually?  Is its fame due exclusively to

We Learn A Startling Story

its masterful technique or to some underlying fact beyond artistry or its famed creator? 

For many years, this diminutive portrait occupied a spot within a cluster of other Italian paintings.  What could account for its current explosion in popularity, enough to dominate an entire room in the Louvre?  Our guide asked and answered this question with the startling revelation that while much of the Louvre is filled with stolen art acquired as a result of Napoleon’s global plunder, the Mona Lisa is the most famous of those few paintings ever stolen from the Louvre.  Maria and history relate that for a time, Mona was actually the victim of, let’s call it, a kidnapping.

Paris held its breath when the “kidnapping” occurred in Aug 1911.  Crowds gathered at the gates of the Louvre — some left flowers, some were angry, and others were simply shocked.  When it reopened, thousands gathered to view an empty space on the wall occupied by four iron pegs.  Her fame spread internationally.  A worldwide alert was issued, searches were performed, suspects interrogated, and rewards offered but nothing materialized. 

Mona Discovered Missing

The ensuing fiasco of an investigation continued for over two years as other world events, like the sinking of the Titanic, captured center stage.

All this time, Mona Lisa lay resting in a firewood storage closet in the apartment of the perpetrator, Vincenzo Peruggia.  That Vincenzo (Enzo) did the deed is a certainty but why he did it, his motive, remains elusive to this day.  What drove him to steal the Mona Lisa, though hinted at, was unclear although a subculture of theories soon arose.  Beyond an obvious monetary motive, other potential explanations range from revenge, jealousy, fame, psychological issues, and acts of passion.  Some can merge with others and shift with time and circumstances. 

The Patriot Thief

Only Enzo knew for sure what drove him to act.

Vincenzo was born in the northern Italian town of Dumenza, positioned between Lakes Como and Maggiore, coincidently only nine miles from the origin of my Italian roots.  As was common at the time, he left Italy seeking work in Paris.  There, he labored as a handyman, house painter, and later as a Louvre Museum worker for a glass company under contract to the Louvre.  Employment with this firm afforded him easy access to the museum.

It was on a Monday when the under-secured Louvre was closed for cleaning and repairs with few workers or guards around, that the theft occurred. ^[4]  Wearing his workmen’s white smock, he entered the Louvre, proceeded to the Italian gallery, and took the painting.  He chose the Mona Lisa because of its convenient size, especially with its frame removed.  He had no idea of its value (today estimated at 860 million dollars) which impugns the theory that his actions were motivated by money.^[5]  After all, he was a glass cutter and could have easily accessed jewels far simpler to conceal and later ‘fence,’ as those in that trade put it.  Instead, he went to the Italian gallery.  He walked out carrying the Mona Lisa under his arm wrapped in his smock.  While the clueless police investigated and searched, Enzo and the painting remained quiet until his arrest in December 1913.

His arrest and the Mona Lisa’s recovery occurred in Florence, Italy.  He’d traveled there to see a dealer in antiquities with connections to the Uffizi Museum.  To this point, Enzo only spoke of repatriating Mona.  When the dealer asked him how much he was asking, he said 500, at which point the dealer finished his sentence, saying, “500,000 Lira?” Enzo replied in the affirmative.  Is this where 

Recovered Mona Lisa in the Uffizi

the money motive originated?  Had Enzo even imagined such a monumental figure then equivalent to $100,000?  In any case, the dealer took the painting to the Uffizi, where it was examined.  When the painting was determined to be authentic, Enzo was shocked when, as opposed to being rewarded, he was immediately arrested. 

    A legal tug-of-war trial ensued.  While the prosecution saw it as a clear-cut case, based on a demand for 500,000 Lira, his defense crafted a patriotic motive cloaked in sympathy.  In Paris, Italians were looked down upon.  Along with this anti-Italian sentiment, Enzo had experienced continued verbal abuse.  Acceptance and respect were fleeting, if not impossible to obtain.  Taunted, called a ‘dirty Italian,’ and addressed as ‘macaroni’ rather than by his given name, he was offended by the insults and grew to hate France.  This demeaning treatment was further fueled by the prevalent belief that Italy would join with Germany if war erupted between France and Germany.  Because of these slights, revenge over his treatment in the form of a patriotic act kicked in.  He’d show his oppressors who ‘macaroni’ was.  His troubled mind believed that his act against the French, by taking the painting and returning it to its homeland and rightful owners, would see him honored with fame, glory, and reward.  Revenge and hate had merged with patriotism and the appeal of recognition.

Unfortunately for Vincenzo, his repatriation argument was specious.  Unaware of the Mona Lisa’s history, he instead relied on gossip from his Parisian-Italian neighborhood where the popular belief was that the Louvre’s Italian collection originated from Napoleon’s looting of Italy.  Truth be told, the Mona Lisa, while Italian in origin, was not part of the Napoleonic plunder.  Following Leonardo’s death in 1519, his assistant and heir, Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno, inherited the painting and subsequently sold it to Francois I, the King of France.^[6]  Mona Lisa was, therefore, rightfully French property.  Evidently, he’d chosen the wrong painting to make his point. 

Enzo’s defense bolstered his patriotic decision to liberate the Mona Lisa on weak judgment based on “intellectual deficiency.”  Enzo had been diagnosed as suffering from lead poisoning following years of work as a painter.  Whether outright theater or in evidence of this flaw, his behavior in court was eccentric with emotional outbursts, rage, court interruptions, and arguments with the judge, his lawyer, and prosecutors.  Nevertheless, Vincenzo was found guilty and sentenced to one year and fifteen days.^[4]  This rather lenient sentence may have been due to his arrest in Italy, not France, and a reflection of the amount of sympathy he’d garnered among Italians who loved him, in this, his moment of fame.  Such sentiment was reinforced by his release in seven months and eight days.  To many Italians, he was a hero.  Italians rushed to the Uffizi to see Mona; Thirty thousand who couldn’t get in, rioted.  Many Italians sent him love letters, cakes, and bottles of wine while he was in jail.  In a way, some degree of notoriety had arrived.

Days after his release, World War I erupted.  Vincenzo served in the Italian army, which had allied itself with France, not Germany.  Unlucky at crime and now at war, he was captured by the Austrians.^[4]  This time, as a POW, his ‘indefinite sentence’ lasted two years until the end of the war. With his release, he returned to Paris seeking work, accompanied by his wife.  He’d been banned from France, and his wife feared for his safety, especially when he brought her to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa.  Their daughter would later recount his inflated words seeking to reassure his wife, “The shingles on this roof will rot, but my name will remain famous.” ^[7] But fame and its trappings eluded him.  Nothing happened that day and throughout the rest of his life in Paris, which ended on his 44th birthday in 1925. Today, not a street is named for him.  Besides living on the Internet, Enzo’s only lasting fame may amount to a plaque outside Room 20 at Hotel La Gioconda that he and Mona occupied those last few nights before their separation.^[7]

The theft of the Mona Lisa made her world-famous, transforming her into a global celebrity, but not Vincenzo.  Might this account for the beginning of that smile, never quite broadening, because she knows the truth concerning her fame?  Her celebrated history was fascinating before her abduction but was eclipsed by her kidnapping.  Conforming to herd mentality, people like Maria Elena and me today flock to see her without an inkling about the true source of her fame, all thanks to Vincenzo Peruggia.  He may have believed he was famous, but no one flocked to his grave, for the period of time he had one.  You see, after 30 years, his remains were removed from his burial plot and deposited in the communal ‘bone locker’ mixing with those of others.^[4]

As a young man, alone in a foreign country, looked down upon, and harassed, Vincenzo Peruggia decided to ‘liberate’ the Mona Lisa.  Precisely why, to what end, and how to accomplish this end, he hadn’t fully thought through.  Like Enzo, many of us have been impetuous and taken brash actions.  In our world, we respect those who take decisive action, praise the ambitious, pin medals on heroes, and give trophies to champions.  So long as the majority approve of the act and they succeed, someone who might otherwise be classified a ‘terrorist’ is exalted as a ‘freedom fighter.’  However you measure it, Vincenzo’s actions were a crime regardless of a fantasy for fame, misguided zeal, the longing of a patriot, or some heroic delusion couched in a sfumato-like blurred understanding of the consequences.  Even with the heft of a mitigating thumb on the scale of justice, when heroic patriot or thief was measured, for Enzo, it still tipped to thief.

 From That Rogue Tourist,

Paolo

 

[1] The Italian-Chronicles of A Rogue-Tourist, Paul Monico, 2015, https://www.amazon.com/Italian-Chronicles-Rogue-Tourist-Discovering/dp/0979623391/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1V6F0HFKN7AH6&keywords=the+italian+chronicles+of+a+Rogue+Tourist&qid=1704657535&s=books&sprefix=the+italian+chronicles+of+a+rogue+tourist%2Cstripbooks%2C79&sr=1-1

[2] Mona Lisa Effect Not True for Mona Lisa, Scientific American, 2019, https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/mona-lisa-effect-not-true-for-mona-lisa/#:~:text=The%20Mona%20Lisa%20effect%20is,Christopher%20Intagliata%20reports.

[3] Napoleon’s Stolen Masterpieces: The Plunder that Formed the Louvre, https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/napoleon-s-stolen-masterpieces-the-plunder-that-formed-the-louvre-1.4589616

[4] Vincenzo Peruggia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincenzo_Peruggia

[5] What are the Most Expensive Paintings in the World (2023), https://www.free-power-point-templates.com/articles/most-expensive-paintings-in-the-world/#:~:text=So%2C%20how%20much%20is%20the,price%20is%20approximately%20%24860%20Million.

[6] How Did the ‘Mona Lisa’ End up in France?, https://becomingitalianwordbyword.typepad.com/monalisabook/2016/03/how-did-the-mona-lisa-end-up-in-france.html

[7] Additional Information from the 2013 Documentary by Joe Medeiros, Mona Lisa is Missing – The Man Who Stole the Masterpiece