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I think that they already have one. Or is that the ocean? Did you know they're not really an island?? Not really a Road either. I think it's a mafia front.

OK - I Googled it and found out it was the last of the 13 colonies to ratify the Constitution and George Washington detoured around it due to it's lax attitude.

Then I found this:

Some historians think the name owes its origins to Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, upon discovering nearby (present-day) Block Island named it Rhode Island because of its similarity in shape to the Greek island of Rhodes.[citation needed] As for Providence, the Plantation was likely named for Divine Providence, given the fact that the founder of Providence, Rhode Island, Roger Williams, was a theologian.

I still think it could be a Disneynorth or something more worthwhile than what it is now.

My history is pretty fuzzy but wasn't Rhode Island started by a woman?

Not sure if it was a woman but definitely was an Indian. Where is Dena when we need her?

Sachem?

Google just shows the founder as being Roger Williams and for the purpose of freedom of worship.

Was there a Hillary Rodham Williams?

I don't know what Yankee Cat meant about a woman. I just meant that long before Roger Williams "dicovered or settled" RI, Indians had lived there for centuries.

I didn't listen well in history class - - or morphed the whole story in my mind. I could morph things long before Adobe Photoshop!

What do Verrazano, Columbus and John Cabot have in common?

Water? Ships? Italians? Cabot was conveniently renamed by the English. I think he was originally Giovanni Cabuto.

Or maybe all three left home saying, "I'll be right back, honey".

I came THIS close (picture me holding my hand with my thumb and forefinger an inch apart) to being a LonGislander. My dad was transferred to Long Island when I was 6. He commuted from Buffalo and came home on weekends for a while, Mom went and they bought a house, sold our house here and then he quit (or got fired..you never knew with Dad..he'd just come home and not have a job anymore). anyway, we didn't move, so I still have the broad Buffalo A that my 5th grade teacher tried to get us to remove from our speech instead of the unique speech idiosyncrasies of Long Island. I've always found it interesting that Brooklyn, the Bronx, etc all have their own speech patterns.

all I ever noticed in my family was a tendency to say 'ayeh', which I think may be a Maine or general New England thing (meaning yes).

ayeh....it's a Maine thing.

Pirl wins and gets extra credit for spelling Cabuto correctly. There was also Amerigo Vespucci (who America is named for). Do you know why none of them sailed for Italy?

Garlic shortage?

I thought they sailed FROM Italy. If they sailed FOR Italy wouldn't that just be referred to as "going home"?

They sailed for (under the flag of, funded by), and from, France, Spain and England respectively.
So why not from/for Italy?

history was my worst subject. I don't want to play (whine)

Sorry. Got carried away.

The reason is: Italy did not exist as a country until 1880 something, about 400 years later.

Because Italy wasn't an official country until the 1860's?

AH! We cross posted but I did get the answer!