Watkins Glen Italian American Festival returns for 39th year
More than 50,000 people are expected to flock to Watkins Glen this weekend for the village’s annual Italian American Festival at Clute Park. The event was founded 39 years ago to honor the Feast of the Assumption, which occurs each August. To celebrate, a procession of men carried the Virgin Mary on their shoulders through the streets of the villag...
Under-The-Radar Umbria: Five Reasons To Visit
In terms of tourism, Umbria seems to suffer the misfortune of sitting in the metaphorical shadow of Tuscany, its neighbor due west. Why? Compared to Tuscany, Umbria falls short along several dimensions. It’s one-third the size, making it the smallest region in Italy, and it has no large cities. Umbria is also the only region in Italy without a coas...
Very much an acquired taste: how did so many Italian baroque paintings end up in US museums?
This volume grew out of a 2013 symposium sponsored by the Frick Center for the History of Collecting. The writers comprise a well-qualified group whose expertise covers the essential disciplines and institutions that inform collecting academia, public museums, college museums, auction houses, art dealers and conservators. They have produced a set o...
Il Vino in Italia - Wine-Related Vocabulary You Need to Know
Italy is currently the largest wine producer in the world and Italian wines are well known around the world. Il vino italiano (Italian wine) is made throughout the country, from Lombardia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Piemonte in the north, to Campania and Sicilia in the south. So you should definitely try some when in Italy! If you would like to orde...
Italian Luxury Tailoring Brand Corneliani Lands Stateside
Mantua-based Corneliani has been quietly making waves since the 1930s. Everything about the brand is refined—there are no flashy logos, no blinding brights, no “where would I ever wear that?” silhouettes. And while these things certainty have their place, as evidenced by the meteoric arc of Gucci’s truly outré designs over the past few years, this...
Venice: The Sights Beyond The Canals
Venice may be one of the most alluring cities in the world, but a lot of people who have it at the top of their travel bucket lists are focused almost wholly on the canals. This is fair enough, in a sense. The canals that crisscross this city are what make it so unique, and they lend a sort of otherworldly atmosphere to the city that no individual...
Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra
THE birth of Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra (NSO), in 1931, was modest, not to say eccentric. Milton Schwartz, a local violinist, later described being approached by a “seedy-looking person in an old coat” who announced: “I am here to form a symphony orchestra. I just heard you play and I like you very much.” The person was Hans Kindler,...
THE ITALIAN FLAG ON THE TABLE
The festa della Liberazione is the event of April. On the 25th Italians celebrate the anniversary of the freedom of the country and this is the right time in which people boast their Italian spirit. +Parades and events are organized all over the country and the tricolore, the noun used to describe the Italian flag, becomes the real and only protago...
Italy’s fabulous five: planning your visit to the Cinque Terre
How do I get there? Tucked away in a particularly mountainous kink of the Italian Riviera, the Cinque Terre villages were shaped by their profound isolation. Today the villages’ exquisite ruggedness still presents a few challenges for accessibility. Although all the villages can be reached by car, you’ll need nerves of steel for the narrow, twistin...
Resurrecting A Miraculous Little League Dream
In The Bronx, NY, neighborhood of Riverdale sits a Roman Catholic school named Manhattan College whose NCAA Division I baseball team bears a green and white logo strikingly reminiscent to that of Southern California Champion Park View Little League of Chula Vista. The Manhattan Jaspers have inducted several of their baseball team’s players over the...
At 99 Brick Oven, dining halfway between urban and country
The server at 99 Brick Oven Bar & Grille wasn't sworn in as a witness, but her words could have been introduced as evidence in the case of the People of Western New York vs. Boring Food. Every time I ordered a Neapolitan-style pizza at the Lancaster restaurant, she asked: with fresh garlic? Yes, I repeated. Why, at a restaurant with so much Italian...
WHERE TO GO IN THE MOUNTAINS IN SUMMER IN ITALY. THE TOP 5 PLACES.
The sea during the summer is not the only “solution”. In fact, the Italian mountains offer a fresh alternative to a “classic” seaside holiday. For enthusiasts, they are places which concentrate on relaxation and rejuvenation, where Nature plays a leading role even when there is no snow. Let’s take a look at the 5 most beautiful mountain places to v...