Giulio Andreotti, who played a dominant role in postwar Italian politics serving seven times as prime minister, was hospitalized in serious condition in Rome.

Andreotti, 93, was admitted today to the Gemelli hospital with cardiac complications after suffering a respiratory infection, the hospital said in an e-mailed statement.

 One may not have believed that a movie, produced in 1972, involving an entwinement of  violence and family love would develop into a cinematic masterpiece and fuel two equally commendable sequels, essentially setting a demanding standard for films of the gangster-genre for many years to come.  Such a production is credited to Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather trilogy, based off of Mario Puzo’s best-selling novel, The Godfather.

 Wine has a more fitting home at Walt DisneyWorld with the opening of Tutto Gusto wine cellar in the Italy Pavilion at Epcot. Tutto Gusto is a new venue adjacent to Tutto Italia Ristorante and debuted Tuesday after the restaurant opened its doors again after months of renovations.

Whenever folks ask me where they might find the better values in wine coming from Italy, I pull a sort of "Horacio" Greeley on them and say, "Go south, go south."Though southern Italian place names and wine grape varieties are unfamiliar to us (which goes a long way toward explaining why the wines are overlooked or unknown), they are Italy's best combination of skilled winemaking, big flavor and low price. 

 At least four people who said they are teachers from Italy who decided to take a tour of Florida Keys schools the past two weeks raised so much suspicion that the FBI was called in to investigate.But officials on Tuesday said they "posed no threat and were there for a legitimate purpose."What exactly that purpose is, no one is saying. The Monroe County Sheriff's Office referred questions to the FBI. Said Special agent Michael Leverock: "We are not putting out any information on this matter," referring questions back to the sheriff's office.  

 

 In the same eventful spring of 1861 that marked the outbreak of the American Civil War, Italy declared its existence as a united kingdom. In fact, just as the bombardment of an island fortress in Charleston, S.C., riveted the attention of a nation plunging into civil war, the kingdom of southern Italy made a last-ditch stand against northern Italian bombardment of a waterfront fortress midway between Rome and Naples. The two sieges, of Fort Sumter and of Gaeta, came only weeks apart.

Most of New York City’s 79 dual-language programs are Spanish. But recently other languages have been added, including French and Chinese, currently each in six schools, and one in  Korean. A great-grand-daugther of Italian immigrants, Christina Prostano, is now struggling to establish one in Italian.