New Britain herald., 1926-12-03
PORT OF LIV0RNO IS IMPORTANT ONE Italy Does Much Business
 Through This City

Washington. D. C.. Dec. 3.-"How to torture geographic pupils" might be the subject of bulletin on Livorno, just issued from the Wash ington. D. C.. headquarters of the National Geographic society.
 "The premiers of Great Britain and Italy recently met at Livorno, Italy," the bulletin recalls. Tt was an exceedingly important meeting in its possible bearing on world politics; yet not newspaper in the United States and probably none in Eng land mentioned Livorno.
 One of Chief Italian Ports
 Tt was not because Livorno is unimportant. It is the third or fourth commercial port of Italy. Nor was 1t because the meeting was secret. Thousands of columns of newspaper space were devoted tol it.
 "The answer to the mystery nes in the penchant of English people for taking liberties with for elgn names. If a name does not quite suit our tongues or ears we give it one that does Firenze, we have named 'Florence: Wien, we call 'Vienna;' and to Livorno we have given the alias, .Leghorn.'
 When one finds that no such place as Leghorn' really exists he is not quite through with his disillu- sionments. Put the question: What important article Is manufactured in Leghorn? and probably in nine cases out of ten the answer will be, straw hats for nearly everyone has heard of Leghorn straws. But Leg horn, or Livorno, doesn't produce hats Like Panama, which became famous for the closely woven hats of Ecuador merely because they passed through the Isthmus, Livorno has borrowed the fame of hats made in the interior of Tuscany, chiefly around Florence. They came out through Livorno, so to that city their . origin was popularly credited.
 Was Asylum for Prosecuted
 "Livorno Is made-to- order port, and owes its existence to one of the Medici, Cosmo, Grand Duke of Tus- cany. whose capital was Florence. A port near the mouth of the Arno had sifed up, and he needed an outlet to replace it. He selected Livorno, a little village with less than 800 inhabitants. This was shortly after the middle of the 16th century. The swamps of the peighborhood were drained, break water was built, and canals were cut. Because of these the place came to be known as the New Venice.'
 The improved Livorno was made free port, the first in the Mediter- ranean. The Medicis announced it as an asylum and invited the persecut- Jed of Europe to make their homes there. Jews and Moors from Spain, Catholics from England, merchants from war-torn France, and Arme- nians from the Levant were some Of those who accepted the invitation. Soon the new harbor was full of ships, it's quays were bustling with l business. and its inhabitants were prosperous. It became rival of Genoa and Marseilles and today is | not a great distance behind those ports in total commerce.
 The Annapolis of Italy
 "Livorno is the Annapolis of Italy: | there is situated the only naval | academy of the kingdom. It is the seat. too, of thriving ship building industry which fabricates many of the vessels of the Italian navy. The insignificant little village of Cosimo Medici's time has grown into city of approximately 10000 inhabi- tants.
 That Livorno still maintains It's character as an asylum, and the cosmopolitan stamp which its hetrogenicus immigrants gave 1t, is proved by the houses of worship one finds in use there today. In addi- tion to numerous churches of the Catholic cult, there Is Greek Orthodox, an Amenian, and Wal densian church. and a typical Scot tish kirk. One of the largest temples is synagogue founded in 1581."