IL CENACOLO ITALIAN CULTURAL CLUB Founded in 1928

Regular Thursday Meetings, Noon to 2:00 P.M. San Francisco Italian Athletic Club 1630 Stockton Street (3rd floor), San Francisco, CA 94133

www.ilcenacolosf.org

“Il Cenacolo is an organization that preserves, enhances and encourages all aspects of Italian arts, language and culture and recognizes the unique contribution of Italian heritage that is intertwined in the history and life of the San Francisco Bay Area.”

DECEMBER 2020

Thursday, December 3, 2020 “Venice: The Most Improbable of Cities” (Part I) Carla Gambescia (Zoom Meeting)*

Thursday, December 10, 2020 “Venice: The Most Improbable of Cities” (Part II) Carla Gambescia (Zoom Meeting)*

Thursday, December 17, 2020 The Merrie Olde Christmas Carolers (Zoom Meeting)*

Thursday, December 24, 2020 No meeting in deference to Christmas

This month’s programs arranged by Ron Fenolio.

(* Zoom link and instructions by David Cobb will be emailed the week of each meeting.) program profiles

Zoom Thursdays, December 3 & 10, 2020 Venice, the Most Improbable of Cities (2-part series) Carla Gambescia

Venezia is Queen of the Adriatic, La Serenissima, standing for triumph of human will over Nature, once a beehive of espionage, luxury, the pleasure capital of Europe, a mecca of extraordinary artists and personalities and the zenith of all Grand Tours…yet even today, Venice remains an enigma.

Come explore Venice’s complexities and seeming contradictions as we discover some of its many secrets and celebrate the city of myth, mystery, majesty and might.

Part I: From its inauspicious beginnings at the end of the Roman empire to its apex as a commercial, naval and financial juggernaut, a Xanadu of architecture and a nexus of cultural cross-currents.

Part II: From its cultural high-water mark, through its slow, opulent, sybaritic decline and ultimately to its reinvention as a real-life fantasy destination—the world’s most enchanting open-air museum.

Carla’s passion for Italy began early with her mother’s love of the Renaissance masters and her father’s discourses on Italian geniuses of every calling. This set her on her life’s pursuit. She has written about and toured every region of Italy on foot or by bicycle. Carla was a former partner in the Ciao Bella Gelato Company, conceived and co-led the Giro del Gelato bicycle tour which won OUTSIDE Magazine’s “Best Trip in Western Europe,” and for a decade owned and operated Via Vanti! Restaurant & Gelateria, in Mount Kisco, New York. Via Vanti! received a “Very Good” from the New York Times and numerous plaudits for its innovative Italian cuisine and gelato (named “Best Gelato Shop in NY.”)

Carla is the author of the award-winning book: La Dolce Vita University: An Unconventional Guide to Italian Culture from A to Z. (Won “Best Travel Book of 2019.) She also regularly lectures on topics of Italian cultural interest and curates the popular photoblog Postcards from the Boot.

— PAGE 2 — The Merrie Olde Christmas Carolers Thursday, December 17, 2020

The Merrie Olde Christmas Carolers have been entertaining and amusing audiences in the Bay area for over 40 years, and have appeared on local television and radio programs. A truly unique caroling group, the Merrie Olde Christmas Carolers are professional singers, members of the San Francisco Opera Chorus, and featured artists from other opera and theatre companies throughout the greater Bay Area. Costumed in Dickensian attire, the Merrie Olde Christmas Carolers is the only group in the Bay Area presenting new arrangements of carols and songs, as well as the beloved and familiar traditional carols. The quartet is accompanied by the merry sounds of cymbals, tambourines and kazoos. Any cel- ebration featuring this outstanding group of performers will be spirited, festive and fun. from the desk of the president December 2020

Cenacolisti—

These days I’m finding our Thursday Zoom meetings one of the happier events of the long week. Attendance is holding at around twice that of the regular lunches so others must feel the same. The chatting among us after the presentation itself is growing as well, likely a result of feeling more comfortable with this new way of communicating —I certainly am.

Thanks again to Peter Sherwood, as last month’s program chair, who brought us his own presentation on the Fiat Cinquecento (rollicking, good fun!) and Susanna Lombardi’s presentation of some truly exquisite and amazing artwork from three different locations in Sicily. Finally, the big event was last month’s opening website demonstration. It revealed the many months of imagining and organizing by the web team of Chuck Stagliano, Peter Sherwood and Susi Segal, and the professional website design skills of consultants Jess Poulin and Georgia Gibbs. Thanks are also due to other Cenacolisti who have contributed time and ideas, including Jim Boitano, Ron Fenolio, Len Bargellini, Mike Prior and Pietro Bonanno. (Check out the Guided Tour of the new website following this President’s Letter).

In this bulletin Jim Boitano writes about Pope Pius VI, an important pope who ruled the Papal States during the French Revolution and early Napoleonic period. In our Speaker Series this month we will have a chance to go in-depth with a two-part set of lectures by a Cenacolo favorite, Carla Gambescia, called “Venice, the Most Improbable of Cities.” Our final meeting of the year will be our traditional offering (via Zoom) by the Merrie Olde Christmas Carolers. (Bring your own figgy pudding!) We are missing our Christmas Gala this year, but will look forward to celebrating together in 2021!

Our food blog, formerly “La Cucina Cenacolista” has moved to the website under Ron Fenolio’s new feature “Vino e Cibo.” For this holiday season, he reminisces about Christmas fare, and offers suggestions for designing your own “Grand Cenone di Vigilia.” He also riffs off Peter Sherwood’s offering last month with more about eggplant and involtini under “Family Recipes.” And Len Bargellini has a word for this season in his new Lingua Italiana. And, this just in...two new videos on the Merola page!

On a somber note, we were saddened to hear of the passing of longtime member Jim Brown on November 11. Il Cenacolo will make a contribution of $100 to Merola in his name, as suggested by his widow, Niz.

— PAGE 4 — from the desk of the president December 2020 a few words about the website The impetus for investing in a new website was the need to respond to the rapidly changing world which is affecting every aspect of our lives, most immediately, our social interactions. The initial planning and concept stages of this project included some deep diving into the essence of our club, plus some crystal ball-gazing—re-imagining our beloved club in the new environment in which we find ourselves. The nuts and bolts were the responsibility of the website team and the consultants.

The first thing to know is that “This is NOT your father’s website!” It is NOT just a gussied-up brochure, glossy and static. The idea of the modern website is that it is a dynamic, interactive mechanism, and as such, has much more to offer. There are many layers of moving parts: the architecture, the content, and all the levers and pulleys that make everything work together behind the scenes. This dynamism is evident on the active homepage, where the most recent events, articles and blogs rise to the fore, so you are always up to date on the latest. From the homepage excerpts you can launch to the full articles, and you will come upon many delightful surprises. The many interactive features, we hope, will be enjoyable and encourage engagement with your fellow Cenacolisti. Of course, interacting with websites and Zoom meetings will never replace in-person experience, but there are advantages, such as the ability to include many more of us than can attend meetings in person. We now have a fine new tool to share the beauty and excitement of Italian culture—both among members and with new Italophiles.

The website is just one of the tools in the toolbox of the Board members. We are also busy planning upcoming virtual events for the year ahead which will include everything from classic Italian movies, opera and symphony performances, wine tasting, museum and garden tours

I hope you will find these pleasant and engaging ways to get your mind off other more stressful distractions of the day. I encourage you all to visit and engage with the new and exciting ilcenacolosf.org. Changes ongoing—feedback welcome!

A presto, David Cobb, President Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo

— PAGE 5 — ilcenacolosf.org A guided tour

Technically, each feature of the completely new website is strategically designed to meet our goals of engaging current members and enticing new ones. During the launch Jess Poulin, our marketing and analytics pro, discussed SEO (Search Engine Optimization), the practice of setting up our website behind the scenes to have not only more visitors, but also visitors with a pointed interest in what we have to offer. Ongoing analytics will measure how we are doing, and point to where improvements and adjustments can be made over time. This feedback loop will be a valuable tool going forward. (Please note that it will take some time for the SEO tags to bear fruit. They will build up our web presence over the next 3-6 months. Stay posted!)

Georgia Gibbs, our website designer specializing in branding and user experience, presented the beautiful, clean, upbeat, dynamic website she created from scratch, and it is full of surprises. Strategies to interest new people in our Club include showing off our Speaker Series front and center; highlighting our involvement in the community (i.e. with Merola Opera Program and our other “Compatrioti” in the SF Bay Area); an avenue to invite Guest Contributors as speakers and writers (who will, in turn, advertise us on their sites); and a sign-up field for visitors who would like to keep informed about our activities appears at the bottom right of every page. [We already have a new subscriber!] And finally, the updated look and feel of the whole website positions us squarely as players in the new post-COVID world.

As to strategies to engage, entertain and educate our loyal members, we have several new and fun features. This is where you come in: the interactive part! As a response to suggestions from Cenacolisti, there is a new page called “Spumante!: Member Shares”—a place where members of Il Cenacolo can share—books read, movies watched, adventures had—all the fine moments that bubble up to delight “La Vita”! Ron Fenolio has launched a new wine and food blog, “Vino e Cibo” which will be a mini-course in wine and food pairing, and more. He will also answer any foodie questions in the new Q&A feature, “Ask Ron.” The “Family Recipes” section is a place for all to contribute. And Len Bargellini’s rolling baritone spices up our website with his “Italian word-of-the-day” feature, Lingua Italiana. Finally, Jim Boitano continues his decade-long contribution of fascinating essays on Italian history and culture, renamed, most appropriately, “Il Professore Italiano.” If you have suggestions, questions, contributions or just ideas for any of the above, please fill out the new Contact Us form linked at the bottom of each webpage. As you can see, this website will evolve the more we engage—we are building this together!

— PAGE 6 — CALL FOR SPEAKERS Il Cenacolo is looking for a few good speakers!

Our Thursday Zoom@Noon presentations are getting more and more popular! We are stepping up our game, looking far and wide for new speakers! Cenacolisti, you know what we all love: Everything Italian! Architecture, design, music, cuisine, wine, literature, North Beach, San Francisco, and more! If you have an idea for someone who can speak on any of these subjects, someone you know or perhaps someone you have just heard about, or someone who is just an interesting speaker on any topic, shoot any contact information* you have over to our Program Chairman, Chuck Stagliano ([email protected]). He will take it from there! And...thanks! *If you know the person, forward the phone number and email address. If you do not know the person, please Google their name and see if you can find contact info or a website with that information. Please do not just send a name. Chuck will do all of the heavy lifting in setting up the talk, but he needs the contact information. Thanks again!

— PAGE 7 — la cultura italiana

Pope Pius VI (Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi) 1717–1799

This month’s essay deals with an important pope who ruled the Papal States during the French Revolution and early Napoleonic period. He was captured and exiled from Rome by Napoleon’s forces and spent his final days in exile in Italy and in France. He is one of the last rulers of the Papal States, which comprised a major swath of the Italian peninsula. His story is an interesting one that helps us understand the conflicts in Italy during the last quarter of the 18th Century. In addition to his importance in this regard, he was also born on Christmas Day, so we celebrate his 303rd birthday during this month. (His reign of 24 years, 6 months and 15 days is the fourth-longest in papal history, excluding the early leadership of St. Peter, who was not really a pope).

Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi was born in Cesena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of the Papal States, on December 25, 1717. He was the eldest of eight children of Count Marco Aurelio Tommaso Braschi and Anna Teresa Bandi. His family was an impoverished nobility family like many in Italy at the time. He was baptized in Cesena on December 27 and was given the baptismal name of Angelo Onofrio Melchiorre Natale Giovanni Antonio.

Braschi’s formal education began at the Jesuit college in Cesena, and continued at Ferrara where he studied canon and civil law, obtaining his law degree in both at the age of 17. Soon after his graduation, Braschi became the private secretary of papal legate Cardinal Tommaso Ruffo, who took him as his advisor to the 1740 papal conclave that elected Benedict XIV as pope. When Ruffo became the Dean of the Sacred later that year, Braschi was appointed as his auditor, a post he held until Ruffo’s death in 1753.

Braschi’s skill in the conduct of a mission to the court of Naples won him the esteem of Pope Benedict XIV, and in 1753 the pope appointed him one of his secretaries. Two years later, he was appointed by Benedict as a canon of St. Peter’s Basilica. In 1758, Braschi put an end to an

— PAGE 8 — la cultura italiana continued engagement to be married and was ordained to the priesthood. (His fiancé entered a convent). He was quickly appointed to other papal posts: first, as the Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura (1758–1759); then as auditor and secretary of Cardinal Carlo Rezzonico, who was the nephew of Pope Clement XIII; and finally, in 1766, Clement appointed him the treasurer of the apostolic chamber, in effect making him the treasurer of the Papal States. In 1773, he was made a cardinal by Pope Clement XIV.

The Papacy of Pius VI

After the death of Clement XIV in September, 1774 Braschi attended his first conclave as a voting member of the College of Cardinals to elect the next pope. The conclave of 1774 lasted four months and ultimately Braschi reached the pinnacle of Church leadership when he was elected pope on February 15, 1775. He took the name Pius VI several days later when he was crowned pope and ruler of the Papal States.

There had been extreme nationalistic politicking going on at the conclave arising primarily from the issue of the suppression of the Jesuits. (Clement had been pressured by the royal courts of Coat of Arms of Pius VI Spain, France and Portugal to dissolve the Jesuit order, causing the Society’s members throughout the world to renounce their vows and go into exile). Cardinals at the conclave from these countries wanted to preserve Clement’s brief of 1773 “Dominus ac Redemptor” (“Lord and also Redeemer”) by which he had dissolved the order.

Braschi received support from these anti-Jesuit cardinals who believed that he would continue the actions of his predecessor. The other faction—the pro-Jesuit group—believed that Braschi was secretly sympathetic toward the Jesuits and expected him to repair the wrongs suffered by the order in the previous reign. Thus, Braschi became pope under great pressure from both sides to support their positions. As a result, he was led into situations where he gave little satisfaction to either side.

Upon his election, Pius VI ordered the release of Lorenzo Ricci, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, who was held prisoner in the papal Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, but Ricci died before the decree of liberation arrived. It is perhaps due to Pius VI that the Jesuits managed to escape dissolution in White Ruthenia (Belarus) and Silesia. (In 1792, Pius considered the universal re-establishment of the Society of Jesus as a bulwark to fight against the ideas of the French Revolution, but this ultimately did not happen).

— PAGE 9 — la cultura italiana continued

As Pius’ reign began, the church needed both spiritual and institutional reform since the papacy was nearly stripped of power and influence. The religious orders, the essential medium of papal influence in the Church, were under attack by the proponents of the Enlightenment. The royal leaders of Catholic Europe, who had always been the pope’s traditional allies and could be counted on to give him military and monetary support, were now indifferent to papal interests and operating under the influence of the principles of enlightened despotism. They had become concerned only with the possibility of using the national churches in their schemes to accomplish administrative reform, i.e. help bring them more power and more control over their kingdoms. In October, 1781 the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II of Austria (right) inaugurated his reforming Edict of Toleration, whereby non-Catholic minorities received considerable religious toleration within his empire. Beginning in 1782, he dissolved “unnecessary” monasteries and seized their properties with the intention of using the income from them to make priests salaried officials of the state. Diocesan boundaries were redrawn to make them more manageable by these government officials. Seminaries were placed under state control as well. Joseph followed these measures with restrictions on the number of festivals and “superstitious” observances permitted to the Church that were not considered in keeping with the Enlightenment. Pius intervened in 1782 by personally visiting Vienna, where he was royally feted by Joseph, but he failed to secure any concessions from the emperor. Joseph’s application of Febronianism, which was an ecclesiastical doctrine within the Church that advocated restrictions of papal power, subsequently became known as Josephinism when Joseph applied the doctrine to secular relations between the emperor and Church authorities. Meanwhile, the Church in the Habsburg dominions (i.e. the Holy Roman Empire) remained wealthy and influential but subordinate to the state. The French issue was equally overwhelming. Pius saw the events of the French Revolution, and especially the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” (1789) issued by the French Assembly, as signs of opposition against the social order ordained by God and also as a conspiracy against the Church. The new government also turned its attention to the Church’s enormous wealth, especially its vast property holdings, which it confiscated as a direct backing for its currency. With the Assembly’s passage of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790), France intended to force a reform of the French Church, thus causing a major conflict between Rome and the Revolution. Its scheme resembled Joseph’s earlier designs against the Church; French clergy were basically made employees of the state.

— PAGE 10 — la cultura italiana continued

Pius took no immediate action against France; he even attempted to bring about some improvement in the relations between the Church and the French government as he had attempted with negotiations with Joseph. However, when an oath of fidelity to the new regime was demanded from the clergy, he formally denounced the Civil Constitution and also the Revolution itself on March 10, 1791. The French clergy were forbidden to take oaths of loyalty to the French government. The French Church, thus, was completely cut off from the papacy in Rome and remained in a state of confusion.

In 1791, the Papacy officially ended diplomatic relations with France and recalled the papal nuncio, Antonio Dugnani, to Rome. One of the reasons for the breach was the seizure by the revolutionaries of the Comtat Venaissin, (part of the Papal States around Avignon) that ended 516 years of Papal rule in Avignon.

Pius protested King Louis XVI’s execution on January 21, 1793, and sided with the anti-French Revolution coalition of states. He believed that he could rely on their support to protect him and the Papal States. However, in 1796 French Republican troops under Napoleon’s command invaded Italy and defeated the Austrian and papal troops. The French occupied Ancona and Loreto. Pius sued for peace which was granted at Tolentino on February 19, 1797. The terms of the peace called for the Church to surrender Ferrara, Bologna, and the Romagna (all part of the Papal States) to the French, to pay fifteen million francs, and to give up numerous costly works of art and manuscripts. King Louis XVI Photo: www.Brittanica.com On December 28, 1797, in a riot blamed by papal forces on some Italian and French revolutionists, the popular French brigadier general Duphot, who had gone to Rome with Joseph Bonaparte as part of the French embassy to execute the peace terms, was killed. This provided a new pretext for another invasion, and the French General Berthier marched to Rome. He was unopposed when he entered the city on February 10, 1798, and, with a group of Italian patriots, proclaimed a Roman Republic. They demanded that Pius renounce his temporal authority over Rome and the Papal States.

When Pius refused the demand, he was taken prisoner. On February 20, 1798 he was escorted from the Vatican to Siena, and then to the Certosa del Galluzzo, the Carthusian monastery near Florence, where he was held as prisoner. The French declaration of war against Tuscany in March, 1799 led to his removal once again. Aged and frail, Pius was escorted by the Spanish Marquis of Labrador via Parma, Piacenza, Turin, and Grenoble. He finally was imprisoned at

— PAGE 11 — la cultura italiana continued the citadel of Valence, the chief town of Drôme, France. Here, six weeks after his arrival, Pope Pius VI died on August 29, 1799, having reigned up to that time longer than any pope after St. Peter. His body was embalmed, but was not buried until January 30, 1800 after Napoleon saw political advantage to burying the deceased pope in his efforts to bring the back into France. Pius’ entourage had insisted for some time that his last wish was to be buried in Rome, which was then behind the Austrian lines. The papal entourage also prevented a Civil Constitutional bishop from presiding at the burial, as the laws of France then required, so no burial service was held. (This return of the investiture conflict was finally settled by the Concordat of 1801).

Pius VI’s body was removed from Valence on December 24, 1801 and buried at Rome on February 19, 1802, when he was given a Catholic funeral that was attended by Pope Pius VII, his successor. A statue by Antonio Canova depicting Pius in a kneeling position was placed in front of his tomb in 1822. By decree of Pope Pius XII in 1949, his remains were moved to the Chapel of the Madonna below St. Peter’s in the Vatican grottoes (left). They were placed in an ancient marble sarcophagus; the inscription on the wall above it reads:

“The mortal remains of Pius VI, consumed in unjust exile, by order of Pius XII were placed fittingly here and decorated by a marble ornament most excellent for its art and history in 1949.”

Some Achievements of Pope Pius VI

Pius VI saw the development of the Catholic Church in the United States. He released the American clergy from the jurisdiction of the Vicar Apostolic in England, and he established the first American episcopal see, the Diocese of Baltimore, in November, 1789.

He elevated 73 cardinals in 23 consistories (ceremonies where cardinals are given their symbols of office). Although he did not canonize any saints, he beatified a total of 39 individuals.

He set the finances of the Papal States on much firmer ground.

— PAGE 12 — la cultura italiana continued

He expanded the Pio-Clementine Museum, which was begun at the suggestion of his predecessor Clement XIV (below).

He made an attempt to drain the Pontine Marshes. Although unsuccessful in draining the entire marshland (this was ultimately accomplished by Mussolini during late 1920s and ‘30s, completed in 1939), Pius did successfully drain the marshes near Citta della Pieve, Perugia, and Spoleto.

He restored the Via Appia to be more easily traveled by people and goods.

He deepened and expanded the harbors of Terracina and Porto d’Anzio, a major center of Pontifical trade.

He added a new sacristy to St. Peter’s Basilica.

He was a great patron of the arts and humanities.

Adapted by James J. Boitano, PhD from: Cultural Catholic website; Encyclopedia Britannica website; Encyclopedia.com website; New Advent website; Sede Vacante 1799- 1800 website; and Wikipedia website.

Pio Clementino Museum (video tour.)

— PAGE 13 — SFIAC Foundation Giving Campaign Sponsor our SFIAC Employees

As you know, the Club closed on March 16, pursuant to San Francisco Mandate. COVID-19 has impacted all of us in so many unexpected and abrupt ways. At the SFIAC that has been particu- larly true for our employees - our chefs, bartenders, waitresses and dishwashers - who, prior to COVID-19, came to work weekly, giving everything they had to keep our Club thriving and ensuring our members and guests had a top notch experience at every event. With the temporary shutdown of the SFIAC, we are unable to host any events, which means our employees have no work for the foreseeable future.

This is where you can make a difference. Please consider sponsoring our employees as a tax-de- ductible donation. We will pool the funds together and distribute as a stipend to help our employees during this hardship. We will update this site with your names as our generous donors (unless you choose to be anonymous).

We have an amazing team at SFIAC and we are hopeful that when this is all over, we will be back up and running, serving you as eagerly and graciously as we did before. We understand that many can- not support financially during this time; so, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Know that we are exploring all available options from local, state, and federal sources at this time. Thank you for your support. Please stay safe. SFIAC Foundation: Bill Isetta, President, and Directors Nicolas Figone, Tom Piro, Roberto Lombardi & Randy Bessolo SFIAC: Guido Perego, President, and 1st VP Manuele LaTorre & 2nd VP Chuck Canepa IABA: Al Casciato, President NBEC: Scott Bambacigno, Director

Cenacolisti, Thanks to all who have contributed to this fund through Il Cenacolo. We are pleased to be able to present to SFIAC over $3000 so far. If you still would like to add to the Club’s group support, please make checks payable to SFIAC, and send them to David Cobb, 80 Beach Road, Belvedere, CA 94920. He will then forward them all with a cover letter from Il Cenacolo. —David T. Giannini and David Cobb