Cent’anni...auguri!
Inter Milan
Italy’s most famous soccer team, F.C. Internazionale Milano, better known as Inter Milan, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. This milestone puts Inter among five Italian teams that have reached the century mark. Last season, the team won its 15th Serie A title and now leads the league heading into the final weeks of the season. With two Champions League titles, its rival, AC Milan, is the only Italian team with more international championships. Nicknamed “the Nerazzuri,” Inter Milan is the only Italian team never to be relegated to Serie B. The team holds the record for most points in a season and most consecutive wins. Notable players include Giuseppe Meazza, Javier Zanetti, and Christian Vieri.

L’Italo-Americano
L’Italo-Americano is celebrating 100 years of service to the community. Founded in 1908 by Gabriello Spini of Florence, Italy, the weekly Italian language newspaper is based in Sun Valley, California. Editor Mario Trecco has been a longtime supporter of the Foundation.

PIÙ IMPORTANTE
Roman ruins - free no more
Visitors will now have to pay $14 to visit the Roman Forum, Colosseum and Palatine Hills. The fee includes entrance to newly opened rooms in the palace of Emperor Augustus. Tickets can be purchased at the Palatine box office on Via di S. Gregorio 30. If arriving during the summer season, avoid the lines and call 011-39-06-3996-7700. You can also buy tickets or arrange a two-hour, $65 tour through Select Italy at www.selectitaly.com.

Pompeii
One of the world’s most famous archaeological sites, the ancient town of Pompeii, was buried in 79 A.D. by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. If you are unable to visit this favorite vacation spot of the ancient Romans, go to the San Diego Natural History Museum to view frescoes, jewelry, and household items from the buried city. Visit www.sdnhm.org or call 619-232-3821 for more information.

Italian architecture in Washington
The influence of Italian art and architecture remains a fixture of Washington D.C.’s landscape. A newly published book, “The Italian Legacy in D.C.: Architecture, Design Art, and Culture,” documents the 300- year relationship between Italian design and the nation’s capital. Luca Molinari, the book’s editor, gives a comprehensive analysis of the Italian influence found at Monticello, the Capitol Building, the White House, the Jefferson Memorial, and other area landmarks. Molinari is a practicing architect and professor of Architecture at the University of Naples. The book is illustrated with archival photos and sketches with additional photographs taken by D.C. architectural photographer Max Mackenzie. NIAF sponsored a Congressional Reception to promote the book and its author in April.

Did you know?
Ralph J. Menconi, an Italian-American scultptor, designed the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medal as well as 300 medallion portraits, including those of fourteen presidents.

New NIAF affiliate member
The Craco Society will host a trip in June to Craco, Italy’s region of Basilicata, and surrounding cities. Attendees will learn about the city’s Greek and Roman roots. Also, in August there will be a reunion in Manhattan for ancestors from Craco who arrived in New York City during the early 20th century. Visit www.thecracosociety.org.

Italian-American writers conference
Sponsored in part by NIAF, Casa Italia in Stone Park, Ill, will host “Reconstructing Italians in Chicago: Twenty Authors in Search of Roots and Branches,” a conference examining writing about Chicago’s Italian Americans, from May 8-10, 2008. This conference brings together Italian American authors as they discuss new ways of looking at today’s society. Visit dominic.candeloro.googlepages.com/home.

$500 Voucher from Alitalia
Alitalia Airlines is offering a $500 voucher with the purchase of a Magnifica Class ticket beginning April 1 through June 30, 2008 which can be used toward the purchase of a future Alitalia transatlantic trip from any of the airlines’ United States gateways to any of Alitalia’s 24 destinations in Italy. Visit www.niaf.org/alitalia to receive more information. Alitalia provides daily nonstop service to Rome, Italy from Boston, Chicago, Miami, and New York (EWR and JFK). Beginning June 1, 2008, Alitalia will introduce nonstop service between Los Angeles and Rome, the only nonstop service between California and Italy.