Italian-American Defense League: Open letter to Stamford Board of Education on Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus, once commemorated for the grandest achievement of human history, connecting two worlds in 1492, is now the target of the decolonize movement, which has the goal of decentering European culture in the United States. Decolonizers blame Columbus for all the sins of human history, without acknowledging the historical facts that pr...
Lewiston’s Sam’s Italian is Now Sam’s Bakery Store
It was less than a year ago that Sam's Italian closed its doors at 268 Main Street in Lewiston, ME. It was the end of an era to see the original Sam's no longer open. Sam Bennett (the 'Sam' in Sam's) started making salami Italians in a small shop in Auburn and quickly outgrew that location. He moved to Main Street in Lewiston in 1940, where it stil...
Opera Prima Makes Its American Debut With Soprano Amanda Forsythe
Flip a coin: if it’s heads, it’s love; if it’s tails, it’s torment. So was the theme of the evening’s program of seventeenth-century Italian music at the Morgan Library’s centennial concert last Thursday, as part of the Boston Early Music Festival’s 2024 series. Headed by viola da gamba player Cristiano Contadin, the critically acclaimed Italian en...
North End restaurants once again excluded from outdoor dining this summer
Outdoor dining is coming back to Boston neighborhood’s streets and sidewalks, with one exception. The North End’s iconic Italian restaurants will not be setting up in the streets for the second year in a row. The North End — the city’s oldest neighborhood, which has the densest restaurant presence per capita in the state — was singled out in last y...
Mod Italian Design Takes Up Residence In a Freeport Sea Captain’s House
Casa Alchimia’s elegant Colonial exterior suggests a classic Maine inn experience, but everything inside defies expectations, save for the plastic Bean boots on the room-key chains. Vividly upholstered sofas swoop and swoosh, abstract artworks intrigue with bold colors and forms, and living areas flow freely from one bright, streamlined space to th...
The Ballard Institute Presents THE SICILIAN PUPPET THEATER OF AGRIPPINO MANTEO Puppet Forum On February 22
As part of its 2024 Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry will host The Sicilian Puppet Theater of Agrippino Manteo (1884-1947): The Paladins of France in America, a discussion with Dr. Jo Ann Cavallo of Columbia University, on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2024 at 7 p.m. at the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce...
Connecticut school district facing backlash after stripping Veterans Day, Columbus Day from holiday calendar
A Connecticut school district is facing backlash after deciding to strip Veterans and Columbus days from its official holiday calendar in a controversial vote by the school board last week. Students at Stamford public schools will no longer get the day off on both holidays for the next two school years after the board voted 5-3 to remove them Tuesd...
A taste of authentic Italy, Gusto Italiano Market brings Italian cuisine to Bedford
Francesca Ronzio admits she and her husband, Matteo, may have been naïve at first in their decision to immigrate to the U.S. from their native Italy in February 2015. “We were like crazy people, very naïve people with a dream: to change and to just see how it goes,” she said. “It was just the two of us, and you miss not just your country; you miss...
Columbus and Veterans Day no longer days off for Stamford students after Board of Education vote
Columbus Day and Veterans Day will no longer be days off for Stamford students after a vote by the Board of Education Tuesday night. Both days, which are currently days off from school in Stamford, had been proposed as in-school days last year as well. But after push-back from local veterans and Italian-Americans, both remained untouched. Neither...
Rhode Island's best Italian restaurant? Here are 7 reader picks
As home to one of the five best Little Italys in America, Rhode Island's Italian food scene is one of the finest you'll find outside of Italy. With so many options, the hardest part is deciding which restaurant to make a reservation at. The Providence Journal recently put it to readers in an unscientific poll. First, we asked readers to nominate pl...
Charlie Guinta, a favorite son of Stamford, turns 100
Arty Gladstone, at age 95, drove 1,300 miles from Florida to be there. Tony Pavia, the former principal of three high schools in Stamford and New Canaan, made it quicker, flying from his winter home in the Sunshine State to Stamford, while for younger brother Sandy and his wife Jesse it was a four-hour flight from their Arizona home. About 50 other...
Italian Favorite I Pazzi Has a New Danvers Location and New Flavors
When Chef Irtan Bleta opened I Pazzi in 2008, he named his restaurant after the Italian word for fools, because everyone thought he was crazy for opening a restaurant in the depths of a recession. Fifteen years later, the joke is on them: Bleta’s handmade pasta and focus on locally grown and seasonal food attracted a loyal following. Now he has pur...