Free Republic

Giacomino Nicolazzo is one of Italy’s most beloved writers. Born and raised in Central Pennsylvania, he lives in a small village in Lombardy where he writes his books. Montecalvo, Lombardy, Italy. As I sit here in my involuntary isolation, it was just reported that overnight 743 more people died and 5.249 new cases have been reported. This brings the total cases of infection to 69,176 and the body count to 6,820. We take relief in knowing that 8,326 people have recovered so far. (Numbers as of 3/24, 8:30pm in Italy.) Most towns here in Italy, from the upper reaches of...

Ancient Finding Suggests Pasta Invented In ChinaBEIJING -- Who invented noodles first? A discovery in western China could bolster the argument that the Chinese came up with pasta before the the Italians. Researchers have found a 4,000-year-old clump of yellow noodles inside an overturned bowl in China. The noodles had been made from a dough of two local varieties of millet. The bowl had become sealed with clay, so the noodles were preserved. The findings are published in this week's issue of the journal Nature. A Chinese researcher said they're definitely the earliest noodles ever found. The researcher said the...