There is more to celebrating Italian traditions than to feast on pizza or pasta at home or at a restaurant, especially with the approach of Columbus Day each year. Columbus Day, a federal holiday, occurs in October during national Italian Heritage Month. So how can one best appreciate and celebrate things Italian this month and beyond, whether you are of Italian descent or love things Italian and wish maybe you were?

"Making homemade Italian food, pasta and gravy, is all well and good and taking a language course is wonderful, but that usually gets only a family or a limited number of people involved," said Robert Odorizzi, president of the Italian Cultural Foundation of South Jersey in Vineland.