A GUY’S STUFF, PART 2
IL VITTORIALE, Gabriele D’Annunzio’s villa along the shore of Lago di Garda in northern Italy, is opulent to the extreme in design and furnishing. Here I continue yesterday’s tour of … Continue reading
THIS GUY HAD STUFF! PART 1
GABRIELE D’ANNUNZIO was an Italian poet, patriot, soldier, aviator, hypochondriac, scoundrel, libertine, thrill-seeking meglomaniac, womanizer, proto-fascist and, some say, even worse. Il Vittoriale degli italiani, loosely, the shrine of Italian … Continue reading
FLYING ROME TO TOKYO—IN 1920
THE FIRST flying machines seen by thousands of people across Asia could have been two Ansaldo SVA.9 biplanes. Italian pilots Arturo Ferrarin and Guido Masiero, accompanied by their mechanics Gino … Continue reading
LAGO DI GARDA
THE LARGEST of Italian lakes, Lago di Garda is about 1 1/2 hours east of Milan, just past Brescia (of Mille Miglia fame). The lake has an irregular hatchet shape, … Continue reading
GABRIELE D’ANNUNZIO: POET, PATRIOT—FLYGUY
GABRIELE D’ANNUNZIO, the Italian poet and patriot, also became enamored with aviation. At the 1909 air show in Brescia, in northern Italy, d’Annunzio conned his way aboard flights with aeronaut … Continue reading
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