Lombardy: The Unesco Capital of Italy bbc.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bbc.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A portrait of Rev. Giovanni Antonio Grassi, president of Georgetown University from 1812-1817. Artist and date unknown (Wikimedia Commons)
In 1818, Giovanni Grassi, S.J., published the first of three Italian-language editions of a pamphlet of his observations of the United States.
Georgetown’s Second Founder presents the first English translation of his insights based on his seven years of residence in Washington. This college administrator shared with Italian readers his observations and assessments of the young republic to explain various novel concepts, such as democratic self-government and freedom of religion. Father Grassi believed the Stati Uniti provided abundant opportunities for enterprising immigrants from the Italian peninsula to achieve financial success. He included a range of statistics and commercial facts, along with piquant comments about the American character, themes that later European visitors developed at greater length.