Women From Italy

"Being the captain of the National team means having a lot of responsibility and being able to manage them … No regrets … we gave 100%."

"I wanted to be a ballerina, now I dream of an Olympic medal … I have great potential and I don’t feel pressure."

"We stayed at their level for much of the time … we must fight for every ball."

"Every summer we manage to grow as a team and also individually."

"["Your first memory of your mother?"] I'm six years old, I finish catechism class, I go downstairs and find her in front of the door of the oratory. She never came to pick me up; my house was only 50 meters away. "Damn, I think I did something wrong," I say to myself. She looks at me and claps her hands: "Come on, hurry up, let's go get my sports bag. Your game is coming up soon." It was my first official outing with the Nuvolera men's team."

"As a child I was the only one in the province of Brescia to play soccer. I always played with boys, I was the captain. I've always had great respect from them, sometimes they still write to me now complimenting me. I always felt free to do what I wanted and this was my great luck. I've always wanted to play soccer. When I got home I couldn't wait to go train. When I was 14 years old, a Verona executive called me, I told my parents that I didn't want to go play with the girls. They were the ones who told me that the train only passed once."

"There has been a change in the vision and recognition … all this clearly brings more responsibility."

"The Casa del Lavoro was directed by a woman, Alessandrina Ravizza, who dedicated all the sublime forces of her spirit to the cause of Despair: and she left us two books of heartfelt memoirs:My Petty Thieves and Seven Years of Life at the Casa del Lavoro, like the document of a work, or, rather, of a whole soul."

"Not having children of my own was certainly a very hard choice, but also a very clear and rational one."

"“Sometimes the wave of life lifts you up, it pushes your ship, the wind gusts in the same direction, it blows the spinnaker up and you just go. You are at the ship’s wheel, but it’s the wind energy that leads you further, and you feel that incredible and dangerous sensation of ruling the forces of nature.”"

"In the meantime, while I think North European ports, such as Rotterdam and Antwerp, will continue to be amongst the top performing ports in the region, I think other ports will catch up. In fact, if there is peace in North Africa, I think the Mediterranean will attract more ships due to our location."

"While Asia will continue to be the driver of world trade for the foreseeable future and will produce ever larger ports, I believe Europe will continue to prosper when it comes to other aspects of supply chain"

"While the average rail freight in Italy is below 10 per cent of the total throughput, the figure is 35 per cent in La Spezia. This means about three out of every ten containers are transported in or out of our port via trains"

"If I have to name one special attribute of LSCT, it is the superior transit time we offer which results in saving end-to-end supply chain cost for shippers in Asia"

"“I think it is women who feel inadequate in a man’s world more than men creating obstacles.”"

"A great help in my life came from someone up there who loved me and helped me."

"A husband can sometimes be inconvenient, but children are."

"I wanted a pink ship. It was a crazy idea, but it worked."

"Women in the company are just as important as men, it depends on how they behave. My rules? No pants; they shouldn't judge us by our clothes."

"When you climb a mountain, sometimes you slip, you change jackets, but in the end, all mountains are climbable."

"Over the last 20 years the situation in Gioia Tauro has drastically changed. Italian rules are complicated and many other competitors such as Taranto, Cagliari, Algeciras, Valencia, Port Said, Damietta, Piraeus and others came up. The volumes decrease of the Medcenter Container Terminal is linked mainly to the economic slowdown in China"

"It is an immensely challenging environment out there and much difficult and less charming than it was 50 years ago"

"The overwhelming nature and scale of Israel’s assault on Gaza and the destructive conditions of life it has inflicted reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group."

"Albanese's campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated."

"I don't know if you heard about Francesca Albanese (..) US shoud apply sanctions against her. She shouldn't be allowed entering the United States of America. She comes once a month to promote hate, to go to universities, and you know she compared our prime minister Netanyahu to Hitler; and she compare your president to orrible leaders. That's unacceptable and I expect the new administration to be stronger on this issue."

"Francesca Albanese is the good"

"Italian, French and Greek citizens deserve to know that every political action violating the int’l legal order, weakens and endangers all of them. And all of us."

"While political leaders and governments shirk their obligations, far too many corporate entities have profited from Israel’s economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and, now, genocide."

"There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide against Palestinians as a group in Gaza has been met."

"Israel commits crimes like it breathes. The only way to protect not only Palestinians, but also Israelis, is to stop it. It is a threat to peace and security."

"I call for these top EU officials, and others, to face charges of complicity of war crimes over their support for Israel’s 19 month of assault on Gaza. This cannot be met with impunity."

"I will not give time to people who use the label of antisemitism to attack those who criticise Israel for its appalling human rights records – those people are not concerned with addressing real antisemitism, which is something that very much exists and is revolting."

"I do believe that the ICC arrest warrants constitute a historical decision. It is the first time that (these are against) leaders who are considered Western, because Israel is part of the Western bloc … It is important to advance the application of international law, especially when there are atrocity crimes."

"[5 February] Memorial of Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr, who, while still young, preserved the purity of her body and the integrity of her faith during the persecution in Catania, Sicily, offering her testimony for Christ the Lord."

"[Italian graphic novelist Fabia] Mustica recounts a promise made to Agatha years ago, following the moment her cherished cousin awoke from a deep coma caused by a car accident. This event coincided with the night the hospital chaplain circulated the Veil of Saint Agatha in the intensive care unit. This relic, treasured by the residents of Catania, is believed to be the same veil that endured while her tormentor, Quintianus, forced Agatha to walk over scorching coals and burn. Mustica vowed to dedicate a graphic novel to the saint. However, distracted by her busy life, she delayed fulfilling this promise until the saint reminded her during her prayer before her statue in Catania Cathedral."

"Lucy, a noble maiden from Syracuse, having heard of Saint Agatha's fame throughout Sicily, went to her tomb with her mother Euticia, who had been suffering from blood loss for four years and whom the doctors had been unable to cure. It so happened that during the celebration of Mass that day, the passage from the Gospel was read in which it is said that the Lord healed a woman from that same illness. Lucia then said to her mother: ‘If you believe what has been read, believe that Agatha always has beside her the one for whom she suffered martyrdom. Therefore, if you touch her tomb with faith, you will immediately regain your health.’ When everyone had left, the mother and daughter remained in prayer at the tomb. Lucia fell asleep and saw Agatha before her, adorned with precious stones, surrounded by angels, who said to her: 'My sister Lucy, virgin devoted to God, why do you ask me for what you yourself could obtain for your mother? Behold, thanks to your faith, she is healed."

"He visited the main church dedicated to Saint Agatha, whose choir features forty-two beautifully carved images depicting the life of the saint, culminating in her coronation by Christ and Mary. The seats in the apse can accommodate sixteen clergymen, all of whom must be of noble birth and receive an annual income of one hundred and fifty scudi. In the church, which is long and narrow in shape, there is a chapel where the body of Saint Agatha is kept, securely closed by two doors, one made of iron and the other of copper, with eight different locks. The ceiling is decorated with ancient but still splendid paintings depicting the sufferings of Christ. The church has a beautiful bell tower with a melodious bell, which can be reached after climbing two hundred and forty-two steps."

":*Ferdinand Albert I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern, quoted in Carlo Ruta (editor), Viaggiatori in Sicilia tra rinascimento e illuminismo, Edi.bi.si, Messina, 2007, pp. 34-35 (in Italian)."

"I struggle to bear the constant "SISTER"...; I was very keen on the lay character of our group because it is LAY, even if consecrated to God: it is my personal vocation."

"Your virtue may raise you above the glory of being king. The sort of honour that goes down to our children with real lustre is derived from our deeds and qualities, not from power or titles. For myself, I do not wish to be the wife of a king, but of a general who can make himself superior to the greatest king, not only by courage, but by magnanimity, and superiority to any less elevated motive than duty"

"She bore me great affection, and I had none the less for her. Death deprived me of a great friend."

"In my opinion Amici is not a competition or just a talent show, but a school of life, because a leap like this is only made when human relationships are real, when you are "friends" with a capital "A". At four years old my father Marco asked me what I wanted to do as a hobby. I told him that I wanted to play the piano, which was already played in the family, and to play tennis. My parents immediately allowed me to do both. I consider myself very lucky. Tennis, which I played at a competitive level, was fundamental. It's an individual sport: if you win, you just win, ditto if you lose. On the field I almost eat the ball as much as I want to do it."

"I still don't feel like populate. Of course, walking through the streets of my city there are people who stop and ask me for a photo, it's a beautiful thing."

"My father was a piano teacher, while my mother played the piano: it goes without saying that the passion in me was born very early and that my parents have always supported me, advising me to play the classical piano while I was singing. I lived my life with everyone singing around me – whatever passion I had, my family always supported me. If this doesn't happen, you unfortunately start with one point less."

"When I was ten I was very sure of myself; once a year I skied and on that occasion I was always convinced that I would win all the competitions and in fact I did. I threw myself into it without fear. Then I moved on to tennis and I started to be more afraid of making mistakes. I got scared and started making more mistakes than I would have if I hadn't had all that paranoia. I started to doubt myself, to have no self-esteem. On some days it's freezing, on others it's below zero. I am very self-critical and I always want to give my best, I think this is the reason. I feel a bit Sexy Magica: I understand it as synonymous with carefreeness. I do what I feel like doing, I'm myself."

"I am in favor of criticism because I think that even negative criticism helps everyone grow, both as a person and as an artist. For me it's important to know from people who don't like you what the reason is for trying to improve yourself. Among the compliments, however, I am pleased when they tell me that I am genuine and simple. I like that it comes out that I'm not a big person. I feel like the same person as before with a little more awareness. Before I was completely out of this world and now I'm realizing that I can face it. Obviously there are people who like me who support me and, therefore, having this little extra awareness doesn't hurt."

"Every day I do new things, I'm very happy to live in this loop. I live tossed around Italy, but I'm very excited. I've been singing since I was little, I've never actually studied. But in the villages there were the first experiences of singing in public. I listen to a lot of different music, I don't listen to rap that much. I mostly listen to pop. I like melodies that are beautiful to sing. I am lucky that I have many trusted people who follow me. I also have my sister who is working with me a little, she has no reason to wrong me, when she tells me something I'm sure she is saying it for my good."

"I always calculate everything, everything I am I have studied at my desk. I control myself, always."

"I can't stand discos: they are full of smoke and people jumping around and going there to pick someone up."

"I am a materialist, I am not interested in ideals, and men who are too intense scare me."