Italy & America

Before there was an America, there was an Italian. Christopher Columbus, a Genoese navigator sailing for the Spanish Crown, made four Atlantic crossings and opened the way west. Another Italian, Amerigo Vespucci, gave the continent its name. The word America is Italian. That is where the story begins. It has never really stopped. Italy holds more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than any country on earth. The Dolomites, which Le Corbusier called the most beautiful architectural work in the world. The historic centers of Rome, Florence, Venice and Naples. Pompeii. The Amalfi Coast. The Greek temples of Sicily. Twenty regions, each as distinct as a separate country. Here history is not kept behind glass. It is underfoot. The connection runs deeper than admiration. In 1787 Thomas Jefferson, then Minister to France, traveled through northern Italy studying its agriculture, architecture and art.