Rinascita: Ten Years After Amatrice, Brooklyn's Quiet Rebuilds

Italy Today

• Ten years, 299 names, one word: rinascita. Giorgia Meloni traveled to Amatrice today for the anniversary of the Aug. 24, 2016 earthquake that killed 299 people across the central Apennines, laying a wreath at the victims’ monument ahead of a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi. She framed the goal now as the “rinascita” — rebirth — of the central Appennines, while President Mattarella called the disaster a standing warning to strengthen earthquake prevention.

  Unverified

  Reconstruction commissioner Guido Castelli’s figure of roughly €4.3 billion invested in rebuilding so far — reported by TGCOM24 — couldn’t be corroborated against a second outlet; other coverage cites a meaningfully different total.

• The bill for beating the heat lands in September. Italy’s electricity demand hit a record in July as air conditioners ran nonstop through the hottest stretch of summer, and wholesale prices climbed with it — worst news for the roughly half of households still on indexed free-market contracts, who’ll feel it first.

  Review

  “roughly half of households still on indexed free-market contracts” — this split wasn’t found in the linked Fanpage piece or in other coverage of the July demand/price record checked during pre-review; it reads as an unsourced estimate — add > [!unverified] or verify against ARERA/market-share data.

Brooklyn Dispatch

• Dyker Heights is getting a Columbus statue the city can’t touch. The Preserving Italian-American Heritage Coalition, organized by Assemblymember Lester Chang, is raising $100,000 for a bronze Columbus designed by Peter DiMarzio, to be installed this October on the private grounds of the John Hughes Club on 86th Street — a workaround for a city that won’t put Columbus on public land anymore. Chang, who is Chinese-American, says an Italian restaurant gave his immigrant father a job when nobody else would.

  Review

  The $100,000 fundraising target and statue details trace to the coalition’s own announcement; the other outlets found during pre-review appear to be syndicating the same original story rather than reporting independently — treat as single-sourced, add > [!unverified], or confirm against a second independent report.

• Carroll Gardens’ 120-year-old library is almost done disappearing. The Clinton Street branch, closed since July 2023 for a gut renovation, is on track to reopen this fall with a new HVAC system, restored architectural detail and a dedicated teen space — patrons have been making do with a pop-up branch on Baltic Street in the meantime.

Arts & Culture

• Venice picked a Murdoch origin story to open the show. The 83rd Venice Film Festival (Sept. 2–12) opens with Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” starring Jack O’Connell as a young Rupert Murdoch; Maggie Gyllenhaal chairs the competition jury judging new films from Casey Affleck, Hirokazu Koreeda and Lee Chang-dong.

  Review

  “starring Jack O’Connell as a young Rupert Murdoch” — casting looks reversed: per Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and IndieWire coverage of this same lineup, Guy Pearce plays Murdoch and O’Connell plays Larry Lamb, the Sun editor — fix the actor/role pairing.

• Update: Napoli’s Allegri era started with a clean sheet. Serie A’s opening weekend saw Inter rout Monza 4-1 while Massimiliano Allegri won his Napoli debut 2-0 at Genoa — every 18th Avenue bar mentioned in Friday’s brief has, by now, definitely picked a side.

• This year’s Strega winner is doing a victory lap through the south. Michele Mari, who won the Premio Strega for “I convitati di pietra,” stops in Benevento tomorrow as part of the prize’s summer tour — the literary equivalent of the winning team’s parade route.

Parola del Giorno

Parola: rinascita (noun, f.) — rebirth, revival; from ri- (“again”) + nascita (“birth”), from Latin nasci (“to be born”). This week: the word Meloni used today for what Amatrice is still working toward ten years after the earthquake — not recovery, not repair, but starting over. Usage: “Dieci anni dopo, Amatrice cerca ancora la sua rinascita.”

Takeaway