A 21-year-old college student and lawyer-to-be from Illinois is looking forward to a September trip to Rome, Florence and Venice as part of her prize for winning the Miss Italia America pageant. Olimpia Giacalone, 21, a native of Norridge, Illinois, is majoring in English with minors in Italian and philosophy from Loyola University Chicago, from which she expects to graduate in May 2024.

She is a graduate of Saint Viator High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Giacalone was crowned in March in Miami. She entered the pageant because she thought it would be an exciting experience after participating in the Columbus Queen Pageant hosted by the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans in Chicago, she says.