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On July 8th 1524, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano returned to France after having roughly surveyed the entire east coast of North America from Florida to Newfoundland.  A few months earlier, he had entered New York Harbor – the first European to do so. Thanks to the late Italian American activist John LaCorte of Brooklyn, that arrival was m...

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The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island was named in honor of Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano. However, its name was spelled incorrectly for more than half a century. Now change is on the way, as on Wednesday crews from MTA Bridges and Tunnels replaced the sign at 92nd Street near Fort Hamilton Parkway in Bay Rid...

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“You’re entering God’s country.” So said former New York Mets great John Franco, when talking about driving across the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge his adopted hometown of Staten Island. Or was he talking about taking the bridge from that island to his real hometown, Brooklyn, USA? It doesn’t matter. Both boroughs represent God’s country. And what con...

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The monument, a short, white square column with two round medallions, sits next to the Rehoboth boardwalk near the end of Olive Avenue. Sponsored by the Delaware Commission on Italian Heritage and Culture and erected over a decade ago, the monument honors the explorer, Giovanni de Verrazzano, who justly warrants recognition for his exploration of t...

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Thursday marks the 55th anniversary of the completion of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which spans the New York Harbor, connecting Staten Island to Brooklyn. Construction began on Aug. 13, 1959. The upper deck opened on Nov. 21, 1964, and the lower deck opened on June 28, 1969, with costs totaling $325 million. Seven Staten Island friends were the...

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A mistake that caused the name of New York City's Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to be misspelled for more than 50 years has finally been corrected. On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill adding a second letter 'Z' to the name of the country's longest suspension bridge, which links Brooklyn with Staten Island. The name had been spelled with...

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It's an incredible honor to have what was once the world’s longest suspension bridge named after you—assuming they spell your name right. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which opened in 1964 and connects Staten Island and Brooklyn, memorializes 16th century Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, who first sailed into the New York Harbor in 1524. (T...

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Get the extra Zs ready. The State Senate unanimously passed a bill Wednesday that would correct the spelling of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and the Assembly is expected to approve the measure next. “It’s long overdue. In the greatest city in the greatest nation, this discoverer should have his name spelled correctly on the signs for the bridge th...

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Delaware has a nickname that says everything: it is called the "First State". This is just one of the things we talk about with the guest of this new interview. Our friend Richard A. DiLiberto, Jr. is one of the major personalities of the Italian American community in Delaware.   Let's discover what he does to represent this wonderful community,...

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If you think that the story of the Italian explorers and the territory now called "United States of America" stops at Cristoforo Colombo and Amerigo Vespucci, you probably never heard about Giovanni Caboto (the fact that English is the language spoken in the US can be directly attributed to England's claims in North America, based on his voyages),...

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