Banker Joe LoBello helped WMass rise as a region
A generation ago in the mid-1990s, a cadre of business and civic leaders from Greater Springfield confronted a dim outlook for the Western Massachusetts economy. It proved a pivotal moment to rally the region’s cities and towns to rise together for collective success. The vision set out in 1996 by the founders of the Economic Development Council of...
Napoli’s National Museum of Archaeology MANN is the Best
With its frescoed ceilings, monumental staircase, luminous rooms and unbeatable collection, the Museo Nazionale Archeologico Napoli (MANN) is the mecca for archeo-lovers, Roman history buffs and wannabe Indiana Jones. Ever since its 1777 founding, MANN has been the final destination for all things ancient in the Greco-Roman world, and without a dou...
Tramonto’s Pizza Brings Brooklyn Style Pies to Ocean
There can never be too many pizzerias in New Jersey. But Tramonto’s Pizza in Ocean Township in particular stands out for their selection of pies and daily off-menu specials. The restaurant offers light & airy deep dish pies as well as thin crust, crispy Italian Brooklyn style pizza. The Deep dish pan pizzas are already a hit. “We took a lot of time...
Travel to the Invisible City: Venice Through the Words of Italo Calvino
Words are not just tools for describing our surroundings; they create intricate worlds within the minds of their creators. Language serves as a vessel for our emotions, memories, and dreams. This concept finds its remarkable embodiment in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities or Le Città Invisibili. Originally published in Italian in 1972 and translated...
‘Awe-inspiring’ Italy leaves impression
To experience the finest Italian Renaissance art anywhere, there’s no finer place to visit than Florence, Italy. That’s what keeps drawing State University of New York at Fredonia students each summer to Art History 390: Arts of Italy, a study abroad course taught by Department of Visual Arts and New Media Associate Professor Peter Tucker. Beginnin...
Why Is Everyone Talking About the Roman Empire All of a Sudden?
If you’ve seen an inordinate amount of Roman Empire references lately, it’s not because a streaming service is replacing Russell Crowe’s award-winning Gladiator with a new show. It’s actually a rather hilarious and bizarre TikTok trend where users ask the men in their lives how often they think about the Roman Empire. Billions (1.2 billion to be ex...
New Italian Coffee Shop & Wine Bar Opens In Midtown
It's a "cynical" blend of New York and Italy. Cinico Coffee Company (Cinico means 'cynical' in Italian) is welcoming customers of all dispositions to their first New York City location on Madison Avenue and East 35th Street. Taking over the former home of Chocolat Michel Cluizel at 199 Madison Ave., the cafe and wine bar offers an all-day menu, wit...
Castles in Friuli: an itinerary among the most fascinating ones
Squeezed between the Dolomites and the upper Adriatic, set between seas and mountains, Friuli Venezia Giulia due to its position was often an area of conquest and this made it the Italian region with the richest castles and fortifications in the Middle Ages. The castles in Friuli are very numerous, we have chosen for you an itinerary among the most...
What Goodfellas Got Right About Garlic
It’s one of the most iconic scenes in one of the greatest movies in American history, and it has almost nothing to do with the rest of the plot. It’s mob capo Paulie Cicero, played by the late Paul Sorvino. He’s in a minimum-security prison with the rest of the wise guys. They’ve bribed the guards so they can have all the stuff they need for a prop...
Bagno Vignoni, the Tuscan village made of water
To find the place I’d like to show you today, we need to leave behind Tuscany’s iconic rolling hills with their vineyards and olive groves, and venture deeper into the Val d’Orcia region. Between the historic towns of Siena and Montepulciano — approximately 50 kilometers south of the first — and just a stone’s throw away from the UNESCO World Herit...
Italian cuisine ranks within top 3 choices for Americans
In a commissioned study conducted by OnePoll, Fresh Express discovered that when it comes to international cuisines, 36% of Americans say Mexican is their favorite, followed by Italian (32%) and Chinese (25%). The study also found that 47% of Americans said that using international ingredients when cooking made them feel like a professional chef an...
The city of imminent doom: why the coolest, edgiest TV shows and books are set in Naples
It’s sometimes the fate of a single city to epitomise an era: Berlin in the 1920s, perhaps, or London in the 1960s. So which one would represent our own period of ecological anxiety, true crime and fake news? I’d wager it’s one you might not suspect: Naples. In terms of cultural clout, the place is booming. The city’s famous bay, flanked by Mount V...