Word: podesta
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1920-1929
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...veiled with flags in his honor; people cheered when they spied him on foot or in a boat. Mayor Walker quickly called the gondoliers "wet taxi drivers," the canals, "nature's pavement." On being shown the Doges' Palace, he lighted a cigaret, murmured to Count Pietro Orsi, Podesta of Venice, "Very historical." When he saw the sunset-colored pajamas worn by other guests in his hotel, he reflected, in jocular fashion: "If I dress like everyone else here nobody will know whether I am just getting up or just going to bed. Perhaps I will be able...
Signor Federzoni proposed nothing less than to suppress electoral government in every Italian city, town and village which enjoyed that privilege last week and to set up instead over each municipality a podesta (governor) appointed by the State. Since this measure was but an extension of the laws (TIME, Dec. 7), placing the larger Italian cities under podestas, the decree obtained at once the approval of Signor Mussolini, passed the Cabinet by a routine unanimous vote...
Students of politics were intrigued by a clause in the decree providing that each podesta shall be "advised" by a consulta (council), the members of which "will not be elected but appointed by the provincial prefect, in turn appointed by the State. The terms podesta and consulta are borrowed, of course, from the political vocabulary of the Middle Ages, when the small independent communities of Italy were ruled by a podesta who was advised by a consulta representing the workers' guilds. It is Premier Mussolini's announced intent that the new consultas shall similarly represent the Fascist "unions...
...What is a podesta...