As a nation state, Italy has emerged only in 1871. Until then the country was politically divided into a large number of independant cities, provinces and islands. The currently available evidences point out to a dominant Etruscan, Greek and Roman cultural influence on today's Italians.
A number of google results indicate that "minga" is Italian slang for a stupid or annoying person. One indicates it is actually from a term for a body part; I am thinking maybe a 7 letter word beginning with a and ending with e perhaps?
My two cents is that he might have been called "minchia mozza" which is a cruel way of calling someone with a minuscule male organ, it literally means: "cut-off penis" 8O
An Italian novel for kids called "La Freccia Azzurra" (The Blue Arrow) says that all the children in the world wait for Christmas Eve to get presents from Santa Clause, but Italian kids are the luckiest in the world because they get presents again on the 6th of January by the Befana. Who is the Befa...