Marciano Meets Medici

Marciano Meets Medici

“You just couldn’t knock him out, you couldn’t take Marciano down.”

My childhood was colored with stories of Rocky Marciano, arguably the greatest boxer that ever entered a ring.  I remember my father and my grandfather having conversation after conversation about the 49-0 slugger.  There was his “Suzie Q,” his favorite punch.  There was the time he knocked out Ezzard Charles, all the while having a giant gash in his nose.  There was the time he allegedly sent Ali to the mat in a play fight for ridiculing his wig.  There was the time he knocked out Joe Louis, ending Louis’ career.

To me, he personified every positive Italian-American trait- tough, hard-working, persistent, and a determination to fulfill the American Dream.

However, I often wondered about the “Italian” part of Italian-American.  Was eating pasta early on Sundays and having a grandmother that wrapped a couch in plastic only related to the American side of “Italian-American?”

I always wanted to find out what traits came from Italy, and which ones developed as a result of my family’s 100 years of American  living.

And so, I embark on this journey to Tuscania, Italy with a purpose in mind:  to find a deeper understanding of my culture, and how it came to be.  Hence, the name of the blog- a combination (or possible collision) of two worlds.

I consider myself to be more Marciano than Medici, but who knows, maybe Medici had a “Suzie Q” of his own.

Filed by Matt Signorile at January 2nd, 2010 under Uncategorized