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Our Lady of Mercy church in Baton Rouge presented their St. Joseph's altar Sunday to celebrate his upcoming feast day and encourage the faithful to help feed the poor. In the Catholic Church, followers believe St. Joseph is the foster father to Jesus Christ. Centuries ago, there was a famine in Italy. The people there prayed to St. Joseph to lift t...

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Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at LSU will host Louisiana author Elisa M. Speranza at the Main Library at Goodwood, 7711 Goodwood Blvd., Baton Rouge, at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14. Speranza will discuss the fascinating true back story to her novel, "The Italian Prisoner." The event is free and open to the public. A work of historical ficti...

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Soon enough, if not already, fig cookies, lemons and fava beans will adorn pied St. Joseph Altars at local Catholic churches to celebrate the feast day of the saint. The tradition dates back to the Middle Ages, when the people of Sicily commemorated the end of a drought-caused famine. The islanders attributed the abundant rain and crops to prayers...

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The story of Italians in Baton Rouge stretches like a parade route across the city. The perfume of olive oil and garlic-infused tomato gravy signals proximity to an Italian kitchen where the coveted recipes came from the old country to this new place where immigrants landed, joining family members who came before them. Accompanied by devout faith a...

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Former LSU coach Paul Mainieri was inducted Friday night into the Louisiana Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame at the River Oaks Event Center in Lafayette, La. The Hall of Fame ceremony capped the first day of the annual LBCA Convention, which continues Saturday at Rock‘n’Bowl in Lafayette. Among the other members of the 2022 LBCA Hall of Fa...

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The sixth annual Week of Italian Cuisine in the World begins Monday, November 15th through Saturday November 21st. The weeklong celebration promoting Italian cuisine is an initiative promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs along with other agencies such as the Italian Trade Agency (as well as Italian Cultural Institutes). The Italian Em...

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For years I’ve heard a variety of opinions about Drago’s from friends who visited the longtime New Orleans restaurant. Ever since the Drago’s family opened a Baton Rouge outpost, I had been curious to try it out. With an empty fridge and an envie for seafood, we threw caution to the wind and made the trek to Constitution Avenue. The menu is extensi...

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LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri, who led the Tigers to the 2009 national championship and is No. 1 among active NCAA Division I coaches in career victories, announced Friday that he will retire at the end of the 2021 season. Mainieri, whose collegiate career spans 39 seasons – including the past 15 years at LSU – will coach the Tigers in the 2021...

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You know you're in an authentic Italian eatery when conversations behind the counter are in Italian. And that's how the talk flows at Anthony's Italian Deli, where Marco Saia easily switches from Italian to English and back again. Though he was born in Baton Rouge, Saia's first language was Italian, taught to him by his parents, Anthony and Maria S...

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La Divina Italian Cafe, 3535 Perkins Road, is joining the Capital Area Animal Welfare Society in hosting "Gelato Love for Dogs: A CAAWS Fundraiser" from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. June 6. The cafe will give free gelato for every $5 donation to CAAWS, plus it's donating 25% of all of its proceeds during that time to the animal welfare society. This also inclu...

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