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THE TOWN OF GRECCIO, NINE miles from Rieti in the region of Sabina, northeast of Rome, is twinned with the city of Bethlehem for a very special reason: In 1223 Saint Francis decided to enact there the first living nativity scene in the history of Christianity. The event is also depicted in the cycle of frescoes on the life of Saint Francis attribut...

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THE LOCATION OF ITALY’S true geographic center has obsessed writers since Roman times. Marcus Terrentius Varro (who was born in Rieti, then known as Reatae) claimed that his home region was Italy’s ombelicus (navel). Initially, the site was believed to be the nearby Lake of Paterno, sacred to the ancient Sabine people, which Pliny also cites in his...

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Kobe Bryant’s No. 24 jersey was hoisted to the rafters of the arena in Italy where his father, Joe, played after he retired from the NBA and moved his family to Europe in the 1980s. The central Italian city of Rieti became the Bryant family’s first Italian home when Joe Bryant signed for the local team AMG Sebastiani Rieti in 1984, when six-year-ol...

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