Tag: Italy
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Potpourri Bolognese
Bologna is a frequent site for meetings by nephrologists. It is a lovely northern Italian city, easily accessible by air or by train. From the railway station, an easy walk under covered arcades takes the visitor to the center of town, to the San Petronio Cathedral, the two medieval towers, and to a modern shopping…
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The magnificent Boboli Gardens of Florence
The Boboli Gardens, one the most magnificent Renaissance gardens in Italy, originated in 1549 after Cosimo I de’ Medici bought the Pitti Palace to create formal gardens on the hillside behind it. Niccolò Tribolo was the first architect given the task to design the gardens, before other renowned architects such as Bartolomeo Ammannati, Bernardo Buontalenti, and Guilio and Alfonso and Parigi joined the project. A two-century-long collaboration produced…
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Science, wine, and music in Asti
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Back in 1993, while spending a sabbatical in Long Island, a few medical colleagues suggested we meet at a special Italian restaurant called Asti. The restaurant was located at 13 E. 12th St. in Greenwich Village, NYC. It was a unique experience. Besides an excellent menu, many of the waiters were…
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Dipinto di blu: Turning blue in a Florence hospital
Giulio NicitaFlorence, Italy We were in the middle of the 1970s in Florence, Italy. We had concluded the long, tedious years of university study. Real work awaited us in Villa Monna Tessa, a large early 1900s four-story building. It housed several departments of Medicine as well as Urology. The edifice, once an elegant patrician residence,…
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Book review: My Years with the British Red Cross
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom The Red Cross is known worldwide as a great humanitarian achievement. The charity was founded by Swiss businessman Henri Dunant, who was moved by the lack of care available to people who had been wounded in the Battle of Solferino, Italy, in 1859. His idea was to produce national societies…
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Dancing with spiders: Tarantellas and tarantism
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “There are always hysterical people undergoing extraordinary cures.”– Robertson Davies, The Cunning Man The industrial city of Taranto is in the “heel” of boot-shaped Italy. The Romans called the city Tarentum,1 and part of its historical importance comes from its name. Confusion has also arisen from that name’s overuse. A traditional folk…
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Fascist Italy: The Battle for Births
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “It’s up to you to create a generation of soldiers and pioneers for the defense of the empire.”– Benito Mussolini, to the women of Italy1 “Women are a charming pastime…but they should never be taken seriously, for they themselves are rarely serious.”– Benito Mussolini2 Nazi Germany, Francoist Spain, and fascist Italy needed…
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Doctor in exile
Constance MarkeyChicago, Illinois, United States In August of 1935, a handcuffed Dr. Carlo Levi, (1902-1975), author of Cristo si è fermato a Eboli, (Christ Stopped at Eboli) arrived in the miserable southern Italian village of Gagliano (actually, Aliano).1 He knew why he was there. Indeed, under the fascist regime, he had already been arrested and…
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Women surgeons
Moustapha AbousamraVentura, California, United States Last spring, I spent three months in the Texas Hill Country. It is a place that at once can be beautiful and hostile. The fields of blue bonnets in full bloom are breathtaking. The cacti that abound around barbed wire fences at first glance appear ominous with their threatening thorns,…