CHAT Easter & East (was: Country Related: Christmas)

Raymond A. Brown wrote:
> EAST & OTHER CARDINAL POINTS
> The popular language knew '[sole] levante' & '[sole]
> ponente' which still survive in Italian 'levante' (east) and 'ponente'
> (west) which have currency besides 'est' and 'ovest'.
When I was in Mexico, I saw street signs with 'ponente' on them. I'm
not sure if it's only used in street names, but I only learned the
Germanic words in school.

Also, how did Italian keep 'est' and 'ovest' with the consonant
clusters at the end? I thought Italian tended not to have final
consonants, much less consonant clusters.