Breakfast view from the Marriott Renaissance Naples Hotel Mediterraneo

The first prize I ever won was this crucifix from the nun who taught the Holy Communion religious instruction class I took at Visitation RC Church near the Red Hook Houses where I lived as a child. Although I have heard many horror stories about nuns told by people who went to Catholic Schools, my public school Wednesday afternoon released time for religious instruction memories are distinctly fond ones.

In the fall of 2006 I gave a walking tour of New York’s Mulberry Street Little Italy for an Elderhostel group. This is one of the sights that greeted us on the trip. I interpret the display to mean that San Gennaro was a cigar smoker.

Somethings don't change. Here, at the turn of the 21st Century, is an Italian American village on Carroll Street, Brooklyn near the Gowanus Canal. It is not far from where my wife Suzanne's grandparents, the Giordanos, lived at the turn of the 20th Century.