50th anniversary

[Metabarca]

Look what's in town!
[image]www.comoy.com/webimages/vespucci.JPG[/image]
Today is the 50th anniversary of the return of Trieste to Italy and there are four warships plus the Vespucci, all dressed for the occasion and with their crews lining the decks. All the politicos will be rolling up shortly for the ceremonies.
For those wondering, in WWII, Tito got to Trieste before the Allies (mainly through US dithering) and held on to it for 45 days before being invited to leave by Churchill. Trieste and the surrounding areas were then administered by the Allies until 1954, when the city was returned to Italy and some of the surrounding area, already under Yugoslav control, was confirmed as Yugoslav territory. Poor old Trieste has changed owner some 6 times in the past 90 years!

<hr width=100% size=1>Adriatic links here: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html>http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html</A><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Metabarca on 04/11/2004 10:28 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Clive_Rigden]

Wonderfull picture; tell us more about the ship.

Shouldn't Trieste be part of Austria ? . . .

<hr width=100% size=1>Khyber

 

[Twister_Ken]

Shopping opportunity

Mmm.

Looks like the Italian navy need modernising. I understand the Canadians may have some nice, lightly-used, diesel electric subs for sale.



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[Metabarca]

I'm not sure of Vespucci's history, but she was here in 1954 and was one of two similar vessels, one of which was sold to the USSR in the 1950s. The Vespucci is used as the Italian Navy's training vessel, and she looked really wonderful today with all the ratings on the spars and ratlines. As to Trieste being Austrian... well. Under the empire, Trieste was the 5th busiest port in the world; now it wouldn't make the top 100. It was indeed the Austrians who developed the city and gave it its distinctive look; although one of the most patriotically Italian cities, it is in character, history, genetic make-up, architecture one of the least!
A few more pics are available here:

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[Sybarite]

America named after Vespucci...

Amerigo Vespucci

Vespucci was the one person for whom North and South America was named after. Vespucci had a wonderful life and found many things on his voyages. Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy in March of 1451, and grew up in a considerable mansion near the river. As a young boy, Amerigo's happiest moments studying the stars. He excelled in mathematics and his hobby was copying maps. His dream as a young boy was to travel and get a better picture about what the Earth looked like. Amerigo spent half of his life as a business man hoping to strike it rich so he could explore. Amerigo was the third son, there were two older brothers, Antonio and Girolamo, the youngest was Bernardo. The parents were Stagio and Elisabetta Vespucci. Italy, at this time was not yet a civilized country. Italy was a bunch of city- states each self governed and looking for money for it's own purposes and not for the benefit of the country. Florence, where Amerigo was born and grew up, was in the city-state governed by the powerful Medici family. Later in Vespucci's life he ends up working for this family helping govern the city-state. Italy, at this time was not a good country as it is today. In 1492 Vespucci left Florence for Seville, Spain because Italy had the monopoly and didn't need, or want, exploration. Well into his forties, around 1495, Vespucci became the director of a ship company that supplied ships for long voyages. This was the first opportunity Vespucci had to make voyages and he was very happy about this, therefore he was only looking for "new worlds" to discover and not money or rewards for finding exotic places. In 1497 Vespucci said that he went on a voyage to the "New World." Little is known about this because there was not much evidence to support that he actually made this voyage such as: journals, maps they used, or any crew members journals about what happened. He was said to be back in 1498. Later on down the road, after this journey was said to take place people began to doubt this and Columbus became known as the founder of the "New World" even though he thought he was in India.

In 1499 Vespucci was said to have made his second voyage with Alonso de Ojeda as the captain. This voyage could be backed by a great deal of evidence and is supposed to have occurred. The watchman finally did spot land, the Cape Verde Islands, and this is the first time anyone has been purposely to the "New World." On this first journey Vespucci explored the north eastern coast of South America and also came in contact with Cuba, Hispaniola, and the Bahaman Islands. Vespucci got back to Spain in 1500 and told everyone about his findings of the land and the people. On May 19, 1501 Vespucci left from the ports of the sponsoring Spain on his third voyage. On this voyage Vespucci was second in charge behind Gonocalo Coelho, another one of Spains' explorers. They explored on this expedition the Cape Santo Agostinho at the shoulder of present day Brazil. This voyage was one of the less successful because they explored only limited water area. On the fourth, and last, voyage Vespucci explored more of South America.

In 1503, on this journey, led by Amerigo Vespuccci himself, the captain and crew explored the south eastern side of South America. They ran along the coast and visited such places as Cape Soo Roque, Guanabara Bay, Rio de la Plata, Cape Santo Agostinho, San Julian and spotted the Falkland Islands. His crew returned back to Spain in 1504 and told their story to mapmakers to put on the maps. After the findings of the "New World" a mapmaker suggested they call it America, after the knowing founder. Martin Waldseemuller a German mapmaker was one of the first to believe that Vespucci was the first European to reach the "New World." In 1507, he suggested they call it America and soon this name was used throughout and eventually used officially in the naming of the continent.

Vespucci left a controversy when he died saying that he did not make the voyage that started in 1497. Today scholars still doubt that Vespucci made the voyage. Vespucci also claimed, in his writings, that he captioned all the journeys himself when he only captained one of the four reported expedition. The results to Vespucci's findings was that North and South America were named after him, and back in the late 1400's and the early 1500's they would know that there was a "New World" out there and they didn't have to go on believing that Asia was just beyond the horizon and that in reality there was two of the biggest continents in the way of their destination, Asia.


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[Twister_Ken]

You sure?

I thought he invented the motor scooter

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[Roberto]

my grand mother was from Istria peninsula, just south of Trieste

I still remember her melancholic look when she talked about the good old days under her beloved emperor Franz Joseph



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[Twister_Ken]

View from Heaven

Emperor Franz Josef is sitting around in Heaven, eating another plate of ambrosia, while he fondles Marilyn Munro. "What's going on back on Earth?" he asks a passing Angel.

"This evening, your majesty, Austria and Hungary are playing football."

"Jolly good. And who are their opponents?"

----



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[Roberto]

Re: America named after Vespucci...

crazy what those people managed to do in those days: Corumbà, a nice city in the middle of Mato Grosso in Brazil, probably a few *thousand* km from the sea, up the Paranà-Paraguay rivers basin, was founded by one of the Cabot brother, who came up to there by ship

now what are engines for ?


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correction my mistake, I double checked Cabot did not arrive up to there but stopped a bit earlier, Corumba was founded at the end of 18th ctry
Anyway, he sailed upriver a bit less than a few thousands km -.<)
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Roberto on 04/11/2004 14:44 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[BrendanS]

Re: Hey!

Why'd they name it after him? I got there first!!! <g>

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.castletown.com/brendan.htm>http://www.castletown.com/brendan.htm</A>

<hr width=100% size=1>Me transmitte sursum, caledoni

 

[Clive_Rigden]

Thank you Lucien, very interesting indeed.

Good pics. too - it must be a real carnival there!

/forums/images/icons/smile.gif



<hr width=100% size=1>Khyber

 

[Clive_Rigden]

Indeed. If only the allies had listened to the pleadings of Emeror & King Karl and not broken up the Habsburg Empire, even without him as Head of State, then maybe, just maybe, Europe might have been a more peaceful place in those following decades . . .

<hr width=100% size=1>Khyber

 

[Metabarca]

Whereabouts in Istria, Roberto? On my mother's side, my great-grandmother was Slovene, and great-grandfather Istrian (going back hundreds of years in Portole, presumably in the employ of the Venetian republic). My mother says her parents were delirious with joy when Trieste became Italian in 1918, but by 1920 were wishing it were Austrian again: apart from the sentimental satisfaction of 'redeeming' Trieste (along with Trento and Gorizia), Italy has done f-all for Trieste except swipe its ship-building industry and harbour, now all looked after by Venice and Genoa. Trieste: the city in which the propeller was invented, one of the world's main centres of shipping insurance, the city in which the bathyscaph 'Trieste' was built for the Yanks.
Of course, it wasn't all wonderful under the Austrians, but by and large, as long as everyone paid their taxes, they let all of their subject nations get on with their own lives.
Anyone interested in the subject should read Jan Morris 'Meaning of nowhere'.
p.s. happy to show anyone around!

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[Roberto]

my grand mother was from Parenzo (Porec), her son (my father) a newborn from Buzet -Pinguente, in the middle of Istria there is even a mountain named after my family

they escaped from there a few weeks before the arrival of Tito s army, to Monfalcone and then central italy, my grand father remained there instead and had a horrible end

like the Balkans, it is a part of the world where history took some really terrible turns





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[Metabarca]

it certainly was a mess. My great-grandparents also scarpered before Tito arrived. My great-grandfather was the head teacher in Portole-Oprtalj and had helped the unlettered Slav peasants cope with the strictures of Fascist bureaucracy. It was they that warned him that as an 'intellectual', his name was on some list... His family had lived there since the 1420s.
p.s. this is not a diatribe against the Yugoslavs - the fascist Italians were the first to stir up what had been until then a fairly happy pot of Latins, Slavs and Teutons. I believe the ultimate responsibility for Istria being lost to Italy must be Mussolini's.
I have always been struck too by the incredible attachment Istrians have for their land - alas, the peninsula is again being invaded, this time by the inland Croatians with different values to those of the Istrians and Dalmatians, who are buying up land and houses. Once again, the locals haven't the clout to take their own destiny in their hands (which in this day and age means having the wherewithal to buy the hotels and restaurants and run them themselves, instead of having someone from Zagreb running the show).

p.s. what mountain's that then, near Pinguente? (I've probably been up it!)

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[branko]

Even this is not forum for such discussions I wish to promote to read Enzo Betizza book :Esil ( or Egzil on Croatian). I just finished it and think that it is regarding my oppinion very real presentation( view from Italian side) of period 1941 to 1945 during WW2 on this reggions. It was sadly from both sides. ....And I am very happy that we shell live in one country and jumpover those who would like to devide or change borders. It was enough for all of us.


<hr width=100% size=1>Branko

 

[Metabarca]

Zivio Branko!
Here, here; it's about time the Balkans (including Trieste/Trst/Triest) started looking forwards in time and not backwards. And this is one area where the EU will, I think, have a positive influence. The bora blows the same for all of us!

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[branko]

Yes, agree .The worst thing on Balkan is looking backwards! ( and can be applied to whole the Europe)


<hr width=100% size=1>Branko