Craft Traditions of the Italian Alps
Few of us would mistake Milan for Munich, but some southern Italians jokingly call their northern countrymen tedeschi, a nod to the cultural ties that the Alpine regions of Italy share with Germany and Austria. In these northernmost reaches of Italy lie some of the country’s most fascinating—and unexpected—craft traditions: everything from copper c...
Why ancient Romans built statues of their greatest enemy
Imagine the U.S. building a statue of Ho Chi Minh in the middle of New York City. Or one of Nikita Khrushchev in Washington DC. As unlikely as its sounds for a mighty empire to build such a monument to a once-great, potentially vanquished foe, that's how Ancient Rome used to roll. No matter what your high school history teacher told you, the Romans...
Festa di Natale! Dec 4th (RI)
Join the Rhode Island Region as we celebrate the holidays with an evening that includes dinner and an entertaining Trivia Night Italian Style at the Aurora Civic Association on Wednesday, December 4th, beginning at 6:00PM. Guest speaker Carla Gambescia, travel writer and author of La Dolce Vita University: An Unconventional Guide to Italian Culture...
Aqua Vino in Utica: excellent traditional Italian, steaks and seafood (Dining Out Review)
The menu at Aqua Vino in Utica will not startle you. If you enjoy traditional Italian steakhouse style choices with a healthy dose of seafood options, you will be comfortably pleased with the selection. So the significant question for us on our recent Wednesday visit was about how well executed the old favorites would be. We left very happy indeed....
Dante and Cosmology
In the early twentieth century Albert Einstein discovered that time could stretch and space bend, and a multi-dimensional mathematics would eventually be needed to describe the cosmos that his physics predicted. In this lecture, Professor Egginton shows how, by confronting some of the greatest metaphysical problems of their day, Dante and the theol...
Naples: Santa Chiara has a “Secret Garden” of Majolica Tiles
Susan takes us to Naples, where she explores a special place related to Santa Chiara. The old looming Church of Santa Chiara in the heart of Naples is well worth a break in your day. Built between 1313 and 1340, this Provençal – Gothic structure is a religious complex that includes a Franciscan monastery, tombs, an archaeological museum and a very...
Felice 56 Brings Tuscan Finesse in Both Cuisine and Style to Midtown New York City
New York has more than its share of posh, high-end Italian restaurants, but Felice 56 is the first of real significance since Lincoln Ristorante at Lincoln Center opened ten years ago. (Last year’s Leoni made an attempt in décor, but the food fell well short.) Indeed, Felice 56, has overcome the problems of a subterranean, windowless space that use...
Ciminnesi celebrate ‘happy’ holiday tradition
The tradition began two centuries ago, when a mid-December procession bearing the Madonna del Triunfu from Palermo to Ciminna arrived later than expected. “They were supposed to arrive at 6 p.m., but they didn’t make it into town until 1 a.m.,” explains Tony Napoli. “They had been eating and drinking along the way, so they were happy and dancing.”...
36 Hours in Barolo, Italy
As far as Italian wine regions go, it’s hard to beat Barolo. Crowds are thinner than in Chianti, the food better than in Friuli, the landscape lusher than in Umbria or Sicily. In the heart of Italy’s northwestern Piedmont region — a gastronomic paradise famous for its rich pastas and white truffles that are in season right now — this noble wine reg...
Should Italian Americans Seek Reparations?
During World War II, the U.S. government threw 60,000 Italian immigrants in internment camps, and forced hundreds of thousands of Italian immigrants and Americans of Italian descent from the east and west coasts of the United States for being what was described as “enemy aliens.” Like the Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans, Italian immigran...
Looking Back: Downtown couldn't support an Italian restaurant in the 1980s
Downtown Sioux Falls has made an incredible recovery from the state it was in in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. The downtown pedestrian mall, which itself was an effort to breathe life back into the area, not only failed, but made an already-bad situation even worse. Fortunately, there were a number of area residents who believed in the h...
St. Anthony's Lodge in Downingtown marks 100th anniversary
Senator Andy Dinniman recently joined with members and families of St. Anthony’s Lodge to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Italian-American fraternal organization that has touched the lives of so many Chester County residents. In recognition of the milestone event, Dinniman presented Anthony Mascherino, Secretary of the Board of Trustees and co-ch...