Take Five: Explorers
Italy has produced many explorers of international fame, with one of the most famous being Marco Polo (1254 – 1324), the man responsible for epic voyages to China and the Far East. Polo is remembered also for his friendship with Kublai Khan, the subject of the 1797 classic poem that bears his name by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Also the world over kno...
The Renaissance Artist Whose Fruit-Faced Portraits Inspired the Surrealists
Nearly half a millennium after their creation, artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s vegetal visages live on through a handful of kitschy European food brands. From the southern tip of Sicily, his painting Summer (1563) solicits buyers of oblong and ox heart tomatoes. Further north, Vertumnus (c. 1590) has been adopted by the Bertuzzi juice company. And at...
The secret geometry of Florence: a scientific tour of the renaissance city
Michelangelo, Raffaello, Leonardo... and then again Leonardo, Galileo, and many more famed artists and scientists: there is no doubt that Firenze – the Renaissance City – has been for centuries the real keystone of both Western art and modern science. In fact, it appears that some of the leading figures of the city’s art scene were also very well-v...
Lidia Bastianich ‘Needs to Have her Hands Close to the Ground’ — in Queens
Queens isn’t known for its gardens but Lidia Bastianich has maintained her own in the borough — Douglaston, to be specific, her residence of 30-plus years. It’s here that she’s planted an heirloom garden, shaped by her growing up in Istria, formerly Italian, now Croatian, across the water from Italy-at-large. While what she’s growing may not be ser...
Combonis to honor Rose Mary Ranallo
The Comboni Mission Center will honor Rose Mary Ranallo on Nov. 25 at Porretta’s Banquets in Chicago. (708-450-9050) Ranallo is the chief financial officer and manager of her family businesses, NS Builders and Arno Decorating. A resident of Schaumburg, she grew up in Chicago and Elk Grove Village with her two sisters, Josephine and Lisa, and her pa...
Legends of Little Italy: Must-Try Italian Restaurants in NYC
On narrow, ancient streets downtown you’ll find one of the most vibrant places in Manhattan: Little Italy. Childhood home of director Martin Scorsese and inspiration for The Godfather, Little Italy remains a vital destination for visitors to NYC. It’s also a fantastic place to get a meal at a classic restaurant. For decades now, bold-face names and...
Orsogna Mutual Aid Society: Delegazione abruzzese a New York per il Columbus Day
Il presidente del Consiglio regionale dell’Abruzzo, Giuseppe Di Pangrazio, visiterà New York in occasione del Columbus Day. A darne notizia è la Orsogna Mutual Aid Society. Ad accompagnare Di Pangrazio saranno il suo segretario Gino Milano e Goffredo Palmerini, presidente dell’Anfe regionale. L’Orsogna Mutual Aid Society, l’associazione abruzzese p...
Italian eatery planned for West End
One of the five entrepreneurs who failed to win a vacant year-round liquor license the city put up for grabs in May has gained a seasonal license to launch a new West End downtown restaurant. Simon Prudenzi and his Roman I LLC of Gloucester won the approval of the city's Licensing Board this week to sell alcoholic beverages at a proposed restaurant...
Sun-Drenched Italian Dating Inside the Jane Hotel
It's Friday, and you've got Friday things to do. Same here. But before we part ways for the weekend, we've got one thing that could fit quite perfectly into those plans of yours... It's called Old Rose, and it's a gem of a sun-drenched Italian spot, now open all day inside of the Jane Hotel. Behind it: the team who brought us The Smile, that basem...
Sperlonga, Italy: Beaches and the beauty of doing nothing
In Italian they call it Il bel far niente, “the beauty of doing nothing.” It was hot and humid in Rome, and the city was lousy with sweaty tourists. I’d finished my business in Italy, and had scheduled some beautiful do-nothing time in Sperlonga, a beach town about 80 miles south of the capital in Italy's Lazio region. Sperlonga is a medieval villa...
Longtime Italian deli opens downtown location serving lasagna, tiramisu & pizza bread
Johnny and Sandra Caracci have been serving customers their Italian dishes using family recipes for 25 years. This week they opened their Johnny C’s Deli & Pasta in the Town Pavilion, 1111 Main St., Suite 115. Plowboys Barbeque formerly operated in the space but relocated to a larger spot on the south corner of the Town Pavilion. Johnny C’s serves...
Theodore Alexander named U.S. distributor for Medea Lifestyle 1905 collection
Luxury case goods resource Theodore Alexander will be the exclusive North American distributor for an Italian-made collection of case goods and upholstery for Medea Lifestyle 1905, a joint venture launched by its parent company Creative Home Furniture and Medea, s.r.l. Medea Lifestyle 1905 will include 80 pieces inspired by the furnishings of Mila...