Dear Blog Readers – With fears of terrorists hopping on boats and crossing the Mediterranean, suddenly Italy – which has been pulling migrants out of the sea by the thousands over the past year – is witnessing a strong backlash against migrants. This weekend the leader of the right-wing anti-Euro, anti-Migrant Northern League led a …
Dear Blog Readers – Here is a quick update to my earlier post (Back to Lampedusa) on visiting the Portuguese ship Viana Do Castelo. When my AP Television colleague Paolo Santalucia and I visited the ship last Wednesday there were no migrant spottings, but on Friday night the ship kicked into action overnight with their …
Dear Blog Readers— I am back on Lampedusa – that little slip of an Island that is a closer to Africa than to Italy – the destination for tens of thousands of migrants every year. (See Blog Post: Lampedusa: Europe’s Port). This time I am back for a story on the beginning of Operation Triton, …
Today — one year after he was elected Pope — Pope Francis is on a spiritual retreat with bishops and cardinals. Showing his usual simplicity he took the bus and sat in the middle of the pack. One year ago on March 13, 2013, I stood with AP Television cameraman Paolo Lucariello near the obelisk …
Dear Blog Readers, While we are all waiting to hear who Time Magazine’s Person of the Year 2013 is, I thought I would share with you Mozzarella Mamma’s choice: Pope Francis –Mozzarella Mamma’s Person of the Year 2013 Ok, I admit I am biased because I had a front row seat at his election, I’ve …
Dear Blog Readers — Here is a brief post on the Pope’s visit to Assisi. Last Friday, October 4th, Pope Francis made a whirlwind trip to the Umbrian hill town of Assisi, home of his namesake, Saint Francis of Assisi. He came in a helicopter from the Vatican and arrived at 730 am and seemed …
I heard the news on the car radio as I was heading to Assisi to cover the Pope’s visit there. Two hundred and fifty people missing after a floundering ship full of immigrants caught fire and sunk half a mile from the shore of Lampedusa. A frenetic rescue operation was underway involving local fisherman, Coast …
Dear Blog-readers — Pope Francis has just left Lampedusa and it has been a goose-bump experience. What you see above is a freeze frame of video I shot, yes me, running in front of the Pope’s car with his security guys shoving me aside. But let me take a step back and tell you all …