Italy

Little Italy rejoiced last night over news of likely construction of two huge parking garages -- really.Appeasing often-feuding community groups while keeping an TC auto repair center from opening at Little Italy's gateway, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke announced yesterday his intention to proceed with approval of plans for garages at opposite ends of the historic enclave."

Maria Monaldi, the booking agent for her sons' Monaldi Brothers Band who was known as Mamma Monaldi, died of a respiratory ailment March 25 at Mercy Medical Center. The Little Italy resident was 86. Born in Maria Vidi in Pinzolo, Italy, in the Dolomite Alps, she came to Baltimore in 1935 with her mother. She attended St. Leo's Parochial School and joined a family business, Vidi Brothers Grinding Service, after her older brothers were drafted for military service during World War II. "She jumped right in with her younger brother, Nilo, to help and learned how to sharpen and hone knives," said her daughter, Rosanna M. Biscotti of Severna Park.

VERONA, Italy -- Italy's hard right-wing political party, shedding its last loyalties to a lingering Fascist tradition, emerged from a three-day conference this weekend as the stable, indispensable and increasingly respectable member of Italy's center-right opposition.Several thousand delegates of the party, the National Alliance, gathered here under the nonthreatening, if unlikely, symbol of a red-and-black ladybug. They listened to their pragmatic party leader, Gianfranco Fini, 46 -- who is being called the "Tony Blair of the Italian right" -- declare that the party has completed its break with the past and is ready to embrace a future untinged by old ideological battles.

CLAIREFONTAINE, France -- In a secluded training site 40 miles southwest of Paris, hidden among woods that were once the royal hunting grounds, the pride of France prepared this week to bag the biggest soccer trophy of all.The French team has never won the World Cup, but the current edition, playing at home with style and grit, is one of just eight teams remaining as the quarterfinal round begins.No easy games remain. The toughest of all may be today, however, when France plays Italy, a friendly neighbor against whom the French always have measured their soccer.

In Little Italy, long famous for baked ziti and boccie, fine wine and fat cigars, old-timers seethe at the mere mention of the newest prospective neighbor: a tire and auto repair center at the gateway to Baltimore's best-known ethnic neighborhood.Instead of the old Pastore's Wholesale Grocers with its painted "Baltimore's Famous Little Italy" greeting, most visitors' first glimpse of the neighborhood would be a Hillen Tire & Auto Service at Pratt and Albemarle streets.As Hillen prepares to lease the vacant Pastore's, with city approval to open the auto repair shop, longtime residents and restaurateurs famous for agreeing to disagree have united in opposition.

Anthony Franciotti apparently knew he was about to die.Before the 64-year-old was fatally shot in his Little Italy rowhouse Wednesday night, he wrote the name of a suspect on a note, which was found by homicide detectives. Police arrested the man yesterday in Essex.What has emerged from the investigation into the rare Little Italy slaying is a tale of strip clubs and of a jockey-turned-bartender that culminated in gunfire in one of the city's most celebrated tourist districts.Police suspect that Franciotti -- who was arrested in the 1994 state police raid on Baltimore's Block and convicted of selling cocaine from a strip bar -- was killed by a suspected drug dealer with whom he often argued.

It would seem that residents of Little Italy might be relieved at the Board of Estimates' decision yesterday to get the long-awaited parking garage in their community fully open for business. But the parking garage, which has been criticized for cost overruns, ran into another snag before the board yesterday: Two of Little Italy's most prominent activists went toe-to-toe over which company should operate the garage. Roberto Marsili, president of the Little Italy Community Organization, and Gia Blattermann, a board member of the Little Italy Owners and Residents Association, each had a company of choice.

Five Baltimore-area youth soccer players will get a taste of international competition when they travel to Italy next week with the other members of the U.S.A. Thunderbolts.The Thunderbolts, a 13-year-old boys soccer team comprised mostly of regional-level Olympic Development Program players from Maryland, Washington and Virginia, will compete against some of Italy's top youth teams in a series of exhibition games.In Italy, the team will stay as guests of A.C. Milan, the 1995-96 Italian national champions, at the Collegio San Francesco, a 14th-century monastery used as a school and sports center for Italy's premier youth soccer teams.

An ugly confrontation in Little Italy over boccie, power and a crime prevention meeting has led to the arrest of community activist Robert L. Marsili, accused of punching a 77-year-old man in the face after insulting the man's 104-year-old mother.Marsili was arrested on battery charges Monday after Dominic R. DiFelice claimed he punched him during an argument Sept. 30 after a meeting that night on crime in Little Italy, attended by community leaders and Baltimore Police Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier.

A thousand pounds of pasta; 225 gallons of red sauce; 150 pounds of veal. Such is the gastronomic toll expected at just one of Little Italy's two dozen eateries this weekend, one of the busiest yet in a bustling tourist season."