Word: ferragosto
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...nothing else, the Italian way of government almost slavishly honors traditions. One is the prolongation of political crises to a degree that commands the awe, if not exactly the envy, of the rest of Europe. Another is an unfailing respect for the sacrosanct mid-August "Ferragosto" vacation, when millions of Italians, especially the politicians, seek a respite from the inconclusive politicking of Rome and leap to the seashore like cats onto tuna...
Paul's death came in the middle of the ferragosto, Italy's traditional August vacation break, and Curial Cardinals were scattered everywhere. Cables went out to them and to all Cardinals around the globe, summoning them to Rome. Sebastiano Baggio, head of the Vatican Congregation of Bishops, had to fly in from Colombia, where he was helping prepare an October meeting of Latin American bishops. On Tuesday, in the presence of those red hats who had arrived in the Eternal City, Villot raised a hammer and smashed the Fisherman's seal, inscribed with Paul's name, that had been removed...
...long mid-August Assumption holiday known as ferragosto and, except for tourists, Rome was a ghost town. But inside the big military hospital on the Caelian Hill overlooking the Colosseum, a lone middle-aged woman moved with purpose. Around 1 a.m., she paused in the doorway of Room No. 2, located on the third floor of the surgical pavilion at the rear of the block-long hospital complex. On the door she tacked a note handwritten in Italian: "Please do not disturb me until 10a.m...