Bellissimo! Here’s how to plan the ultimate Italian road trip
As a travel writer, I often get asked, ‘What’s the best place you’ve been to?’ Always a difficult question to answer, I used to say something like, ‘Oh everywhere is different and each has its highlights.’ But more recently, the answer has been Italy. I just can’t get enough of this country. Maybe it’s because I’m dating an Italian, or maybe it’s t...
The Two Amelia Rosselli - Exile and Creativity Series
Thursday, January 17, 2019. From 6:00 pm To 8:00 pm. Entrance: Free. Location: Italian Cultural Institute of New York - 686 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065. Book now! The two Amelia Rosselli whose lives and work will be discussed and celebrated were, respectively, the mother and the daughter of the anti-Fascist leader Carlo Rosselli, founder of one...
Alimentari Da Pesavento's Opening in Progress
A couple with a knack for historical renovations is on the brink of re-opening the beloved Simrell's bar, with a fresh name and a back to basics feel. Ken Ramsay and Joe Everhart are calling their latest landmark restoration a reboot of the original Simrell's Italian restaurant from 60 years ago. With their new restaurant and bar, Alimentari Da Pes...
Duke’s Virginia Elena Carta starts Birdies for Babies program to give back
Virginia Elena Carta, an easy-to-like Italian with a brain as big as her heart, will leave Duke University next spring with so much more than a national championship ring. College golf doesn’t have the allure it once did. The best players skip it altogether. The next-best generally stay for a season or two. Those who experience the kind of first-ye...
How Costume Designer Piero Tosi Dressed Up Cinema
One of international cinema’s undisputed greats in costume design, Piero Tosi’s work first faced the awards season spotlight 64 years ago with only his third film, Luchino Visconti’s masterwork “Senso,” which competed for the Golden Lion in Venice in 1954. Nominated for five Oscars for costume design and recipient of an honorary Oscar in 2013, Tosi...
Vetri, Las Vegas: A Philly chef’s next gambit
There was a time not too long ago when Marc Vetri was a gambling man, which seems to make sense, given his new restaurant in Las Vegas. Twenty years ago, having just cleared 30, he was a chef from Abington, a single guy, a middle child from a family of overachievers, living and working in Italy, who pooled everything he’d saved into opening a tin...
South Philly school with all-white faculty celebrates diversity of students
While working on this teacher diversity series, we visited one of the schools in the city with an all-white faculty, A.S. Jenks in South Philadelphia. What we found was a school that in many ways is a model of diversity. Its principal is black, and the student body comes from all over the world. Its teachers, nearly all of them native white South P...
Italian American One Voice Coalition asks if MTV and Viacom have corporate mandate against Italian Americans
The Italian American ONE VOICE Coalition (“ONE VOICE”), America’s largest independent Italian American anti-bias organization, is asking MTV and Viacom officials if they have a corporate mandate to denigrate and malign Italian Americans. This comes from the announcement of MTV’s newest reality series “Made in Staten Island” to premiere next month....
Portofino Ristorante
Portofino celebrates 44 years of hospitality and pride in Forest Hills where you are always welcome as family. The menu says, “Welcome to Forest Hills, Italy,” and at Portofino you’ll be tended to in comfort while enjoying traditional Italian cuisine, wines and great cocktails. Whether you are celebrating one of life’s special occasions or your ave...
Louise DeSalvo: An Evening of Books and Memories
Saturday, January 12 2019, from 18:00 to 20:00 EST. I Am Books, 189 North St, Boston, MA 02113. Celebrating the Literary Work and Legacy of Louise DeSalvo. With the following guests: Mary Cappello, author of "Night Bloom and Life Breaks in: A Mood Almanack". Nancy Caronia coeditor of "Personal Effects: Essays on Memoir, Teaching, and Culture in the...
Strong earthquake hits Catania, 4 injured, damages reported
A strong earthquake hit Catania during the night, Italian media report. The 4.8 magnitude tremor hit at 3.18am, with the Italian geophysical institute measuring it as just one kilometre beneath the surface. The epicentre was located at Viagrande and Trecastagni. Many Sicilians rushed out of their homes after the earthquake struck. Four persons are...
Rimini off season, an uncrowded gem on the sea
Like football, truffles and flu, tourism also has an off season in Italy. It’s from November through February. In December, except for the pilgrims pouring into St Peter’s Square and skiers to the Dolomites over Christmas, Italy doesn’t seem more touristy than Indianapolis. That’s despite hotels dropping their rates and hardly any lines for museums...