Michele Ferrero's sweet intuition gone iconic: Nutella turns 60 years old
60 years of history locked in a jar, Nutella has become a brand, not just a product. Nutella's 60 years celebrate the genius of Michele Ferrero, who invented the hazelnut and chocolate spread in 1964. For decades it was an almost unique proposition inside large-scale retail; today it has become a product category in its own right. On April 20, 1964...
PA Judges Unanimously Revive Lawsuit That Would Prevent the Removal of Pittsburgh’s Christopher Columbus Statue
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on Friday overturned the dismissal of a lawsuit that was filed to block the planned removal of Pittsburgh’s Columbus statue, writing in a 24-page opinion that a lower court “erred” in its dismissal of the case in 2022. Philadelphia litigator George Bochetto filed the lawsuit, and subsequent appeal, on behalf of t...
An unpublished piece by Giacomo Puccini will be performed for the first time at the Lucca classical music festival, April 28
A young Puccini, a piece that remained "hidden" for a very long time, then available only in unfinished form and, finally, brought back to light recently thanks to the studies of Professor Gabriella Biagi Ravenni of the Centro Studi Puccini, who found it complete in the library of the Conservatorio di Musica "Luigi Boccherini," where the Puccini wa...
Presentation of 400th festival of Santa Rosalia (Palermo - Italy) in New York
The press conference for presenting the 400th anniversary of the Feast of Santa Rosalia 1624-2024 took place at the headquarters of the Italian Consulate in New York, attended by the Mayor of the Municipality of Palermo, Roberto Lagalla. This year marks the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the miraculous remains of Santa Rosalia, the...
What's up with WTI: Editorial # 174
Dear friends, I just came back from a magnificent Verrazzano Day in Tuscany, in Greve in Chianti, the small town where the great explorer who first entered New York Bay 500 years ago was born. It was a beautiful day of friendship between Italy and the United States together with the Tuscan authorities, the new U.S. Consul in Florence Danela Ballard...
Italian culture and history: Traipsing Around Capri
The splendid Isle of Capri rises from the Tyrrhenian Sea and greets the Sorrentine Peninsula. Having become famous with the discovery of its Blue Grotto or Grotta Azzurra in 1826, Capri is a place of legend that continues to be a main destination for travelers, stars and intellectuals. Among the first to be captivated by it was the Roman Emperor T...
Italian sport: 50 years ago the "Valanga Azzurra" was born
There are sporting feats that become legendary because they are truly extraordinary and unrepeatable. These are not always stories related to exhilarating victories by a great champion or, for example, an underdog athlete or team before a major final that then manages to win an unexpected victory. There are indeed many sporting feats that remain fo...
Italian cuisine: Seafood Linguine for Spring
While Italians and Italian Americans both love pasta, one of the things that distinguishes each group is when and how we eat pasta. Most Italians still eat delicious and nutritious forms of pasta often, many daily at lunch. Italian Americans, however, tend to associate pasta with Sunday Supper and dinnertime. The truth of the matter is, if you choo...
Italian handcrafts: Soapstone
Soapstone carving began in remote times. Pliny the Elder already mentions it in his Naturalis Historia, in relation to Valtellina. Hundreds of old soapstone quarries can be found In Valmalenco and Valchiavenna, two of which are still in operation. Studies on archaeological discoveries of soapstone artefacts show that the activity probably dates ba...
Italian books: Accabadora
This book was written by Italian novelist Michela Murgia (1972 – 2023) and published in 2009. She was born in Sardinia and was very fond of her origin and the region she came from, in fact in 2006 she published a blog in which she described the less known places in Sardinia. Michela Murgia received a catholic education and before undertaking her li...
Italian design: Gaetano Pesce between Wonder and Change
On April 4, 2024, Gaetano Pesce passed away at his home in New York. The celebrated designer was born in La Spezia (Liguria) on November 8, 1939, and studied architecture at IUAV in Venice, at the time when personalities such as Carlo Scarpa, Franco Albini, Ernesto Nathan Rogers and Bruno Zevi were teaching there. In 1959, together with other young...
Italian report: Startups, Scaleups and Employment in Italy. Impact and trends
The Research "Startups, scaleups and employment in Italy: impact and trends" is conducted by the Hi-tech Osservatori Digital Innovation of the Politecnico di Milano on behalf of the Italian Tech Alliance. The main objective of the Research is to investigate and photograph the state of the art of the Italian startup ecosystem from an employment pers...