Jay Nordlinger in NRO’s Corner:
It seems the battle for “Turin” has been lost. By that I mean, I’m afraid we’re going to have the “Torino Olympics,” not the “Turin Olympics,” starting February 10.
I started whining about this, here in this column, way back in 2002, when we had the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Then, Katie Couric et al. were saying, “See you four years from now in Torino!” I wanted to start a “Torino Watch,” nipping this dismaying trend in the bud. “Torino” figured in my piece “‘Gutter’ Politics,” about the pronunciation of place names and personal names.
I think we’ll be able to keep “The Shroud of Turin” — I don’t think we’ll have to say, or hear, “The Shroud of Torino.” And we’ll be able to say Florence, not Firenze; Rome, not Roma; Naples, not Napoli; Venice, not Venezia. But have you noticed that a certain type of American likes to say “Milano,” instead of “Milan”?
Well, yeah. Perche Milan e’ la bella squadra, Milano e’ la citta’. Forza Milan!