Maria Fosco

Co-Founder/Vice President, Italian American Museum, Italian American Affairs/Civil Rights/Fundraising/Abruzzese/Cavaliere of Italian Republic/Queens College

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

Sunset in Rome

[Jack Carr @JackCarrUSA]

The people of Normandy showing up for our World War II veterans! What an honor it was to be there with them today! Thank you to the Best Defense Foundation for all you do for our Greatest Generation 🙏🇺🇸

[Military History Now @MilHistNow]

On this day in 1944, 150,000 Allied soldiers are being loaded onto ships all across southern England. Tomorrow, they'll take part in history's greatest invasion.

“At that time, we didn't know it was D-Day," one veteran would later recall. "We just knew we had a job to do.”

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

The most heavily fortified refuge in the history of the popes was originally built as a tomb...

It stands on the bank of the Tiber in Rome, a massive stone cylinder rising above the river, and for centuries it was the safest place in the city. When enemies marched on Rome, the pope did not stay in the Vatican. He fled here, across a secret elevated passage built into the city wall, and shut himself behind walls that had been standing since the age of the Caesars.

But it was not built for any of that.

Around 135 AD, emperor Hadrian commissioned it as a mausoleum for himself and his family. It was completed in 139, a year after his death, and his ashes were placed inside, along with those of the emperors who followed him, until Caracalla in the third century.

For a time it was the tallest building in Rome...

Then the empire fell, and the building began its second life. In the fifth century, its majestic walls and commanding position over the river made it a natural fortress, and it was absorbed into the defences of the city.

Its name changed after the year 590, when, according to legend, Pope Gregory the Great led a procession through a plague-stricken Rome and saw the Archangel Michael appear above the old tomb, sheathing his sword — a sign that the plague was ending. From then on, it was called the Castel Sant'Angelo, the Castle of the Holy Angel.

Over the following centuries it became almost everything a building can be. A fortress. A papal residence with frescoed Renaissance apartments. A treasury. A prison, whose cells held the condemned, and whose execution courtyard became the setting for the final act of Puccini's Tosca. Today it is a museum.

It has watched Rome rise, fall, and rise again for nearly nineteen centuries.

Hadrian built it so that he would not be forgotten after his death. He could not have imagined that the forgetting would never come and that his tomb would outlive his empire, his religion, and his entire world, and still be standing, full of visitors, two thousand years later...

If you enjoyed this, I write a weekly newsletter read by over 50,000 people who love rediscovering the beauty of the past. You can join us at the link below, and if you'd like to support my work, a paid subscription is what makes it possible:

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Thanks for reading!

[RadioGenoa @RadioGenoa]

Today marks 80th anniversary of Italian Republic.

[Mambo Italiano @mamboitaliano__]

🚨 The real masterminds and backstage geniuses behind the rose petals falling from the Pantheon’s oculus on Pentecost Sunday?

The Rome firefighters!

Italy at its finest 🇮🇹🔥

[The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln]

Melania didn't defended you once @realDonaldTrump in that statement. Only herself.

[The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln]

A statement by Epstein survivors in response to Melania Trump

[The Figen @TheFigen_]

In Sicily, a classical music concert was held at the ancient Taormina Theatre, but the real star of the show was Mount Etna erupting.
A truly magical night!

[Empire State Building @EmpireStateBldg]

Tonight, I will shine yellow and blue in support of Ukraine. 🇺🇦

[Noel Y. Calingasan • NYC @nyclovesnyc]

Blizzard in New York City - Central Park, February 23, 2026

[DonkConnects ♻️™ @donkoclock]

BREAKING: MAGA in full meltdown mode over this Super Bowl ad 😡

It would be a shame if you shared it and it went Viral 💙💙💙

Drop a 💙 for the bravery of Epstein survivors!

[George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway3d]

Immigration enforcement, my ass.

Bondi's letter below—essentially offering to stop attacking and murdering citizens in Minnesota in exchange for the state's voter rolls—shows what Trump, Miller et al. are really after:

They want to fuck with the nation's elections so that they never have to cede power and never have to answer for their crimes.

Trump needs to go. He needs to be impeached and removed. Now.

[PoliticsGirl @IAmPoliticsGirl]

Today is the tipping point.

[Empire State Building @EmpireStateBldg]

Tonight, we will light with a special white snowfall effect ahead of the weekend’s winter weather.

View the city live on EarthCam — https://t.co/Ie0LknJ9uk

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

Jennifer Welch on the ICE murder of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis: “ICE agents have shot a protester in the face for no reason whatsoever. This is a George Floyd moment. This is the American Gestapo. This is what Stephen Miller wants. This is horrific beyond all measure.”

[DiaperDiplomacy @DiaperDiplomacy]

“Turn. The. Volume. Up.” — Zohran Mamdani Goes Off on Trump in a Fiery NYC Victory Speech

[Tali Goldsheft @TaliGoldsheft]

Seriously. This is your new ad, @andrewcuomo.

What a mic drop.

[Leading Report @LeadingReport]

BREAKING: Andrew Cuomo calls out Zohran Mamdani:

“You’ve never had a job. You’ve never accomplished anything. You never proposed a bill in NY senate to fix anything. You had the worst attendance. You never even showed up. Shame on you!”