[Tzimisce]

Columbus was actually a Genoan.

So if you want to be technical (and it sounds like you do), you’d have to be Italian to claim Columbus.

[Clemenza]

Italy did not become a country until the mid-19th Century. Columbus was from the Republic of Liguria, and spent much of his adult life in Portugal and then Spain. He sailed for Spain and expanded their Empire.

I’ll stick by my belief that Hudson and even Verrazano deserve to be venerated as the true European explorers of what would become the various colonies of British North America. All poor Verrazano has is a bridge which I hope they don’t tear down or rename.