According to legend the town was founded by the soothsayer Manto when he fled from Thebes; Mantua enters history with the Etruscans. It goes from Roman rule to the barbarian invasions until, around 1000 A.D. it becomes part of the feudal dominions of the Canossa. » Continue reading…

NEW YORK — Ben Gazzara, whose powerful dramatic performances brought an intensity to a variety of roles and made him a memorable presence in such iconic productions over the decades as the original “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on Broadway and the film “The Big Lebowski,” has died at age 81.

Longtime family friend Suzanne Mados said Gazzara died Friday in Manhattan. Mados, who owned the Wyndham Hotel, where celebrities such as Peter Falk and Martin Sheen stayed, said he died after being placed in hospice care for cancer. She and her husband helped marry Gazzara and his wife, German-born Elke Krivat, at their hotel. » Continue reading…

Our province, so wet-logged and covered by waters, seems to be the natural cause of these singular creatures.

…In Italy, frogs and snails as food are mostly part of the culinary traditions of the North, a territory rich in rivers, ditches, ponds, marshes and rice fields, all due to the geographical position.

Although now considered rare and precious foods, in the Mantua territory they have, for centuries, been a common part of popular culinary culture, substituting the more costly beef or hen which were reserved for special occasions. Frogs and snails were easily found in the countryside and therefore massively hunted, so much so that, with the formation of an ecological conscience, in Lombardy it was necessary to pass a law forbidding the capture of frogs outside the limits of certain periods of the year, to protect their reproduction. » Continue reading…