Wings Across Italy

Sometimes it takes awhile to understand wordplay. Case in point is the independent airline Air One, based in Rome, Italy. The official name is pronounced as in English. But look at the company's avian logo splashed on the rudder. It's a bird, and not just any bird, but a heron, which in Italian is spelled "airone"—hence the double meaning.

Interestingly enough, the company, which originated in Pescara in 1983 as a flying school and also provided air-taxi services, was then known as Aliadriatica. In Italian, the word ali, of course, means wings. The word is a clue also to the derivation of the name of the flag carrier airline of Italy, Alitalia. It's an Italian portmanteau of the words ali (wings) and Italia (Italy).