By Mauro Battocchi In the city of Salt Lake City, the Italian language is alive and kicking. Take, for example, these two students below from the University of Utah. Italian has truly opened doors in their scholastic and personal lives and, as you can tell from their video interviews, they are very enthusiastic about this special language.  ...

By Mauro Battocchi   I'm honored to introduce you to Giuliana Cosentino Marple. She is a native Italian and is currently a full-time teaching faculty in the Department of Languages and Literature at the University of Utah where she completed her Masters degree in Foreign Language Teaching. She teaches Italian, Italian literature and history...

Most of you probably didn't notice that Utah food giant Tony Caputo officially retired this weekend. It's not really Tony's style to do anything this quietly—he tends towards open-voiced honesty and bluntness. And most of you won't even notice the retirement, since he'll still be in the downtown store he founded on most Saturdays, at least thr...

Italian immigrants entered the Great Plains first as missionaries (Fra Marco da Nizza, 1495-1558 and Eusebio Francisco Kino, 1645-1711 were two) and later as adventurers ( Count Leonetto Cipriani, 1816-1888 and Italian American Charles Siringo, 1855-1928, for example). Since Italy was not a unified country until the Risorgimento (1860-70), early tr...

By Marc Stein The coaching search farthest removed from the New York Knicks-level spotlight could prove to be one of the most fascinating of the NBA offseason.   That's because the Utah Jazz, I'm told, are on that very short list of teams that will give bona fide consideration to breaking basketball's Euro barrier on the X's and O's side by...

"Turandot" is one of Utah Opera's most highly anticipated productions in recent memory. The opening performance Saturday lived up to the show's buzz — and then some. Possibly the only way to improve this production would be to shorten the intermissions, because after the thrilling conclusions of the first two acts, 20 minutes seems too long to wait...

My first reaction to hearing Ettore Messina's name connected with the Jazz coaching vacancy was: they want a Euro coach? Then I remembered I'd made this mistake before.   Twenty-four years ago, during a summer league game, I checked a New Jersey Nets roster to learn about Drazen Petrovic. The Croatian guy was a good player, but I figure...

Born in Italy, trained in Sardinia, London, Paris, Nairobi and New York, restaurateur Valter Nassi came to Salt Lake City 16 years ago to open an upscale Tuscan eatery that through no fault of his own barely lasted a year.   After that, he did something absolutely and totally unexpected ... ... he stayed. The world was his oyster on the ha...

You are invited to a special reception honoring Roberto Dal Bosco, artist of the Italian video installation of The Supper of Saint Gregory The Great, currently on exhibit at The Leonardo.    Date: Sunday, January 26, 2014 Time: 6:00 – 8:00Pm Special Guests Of Honor Include: Roberto Dal Bosco, Artist  Mauro Battocchi, Consul...

Even before you arrive at the Ferragosto Italian Street Festival you begin to see its positive impact on people and community. Colorful green, white and red flags flap lazily from light poles while sharing a soft summer wind with soothing swirling soprano notes letting everyone know it's that time of year again.   "The Ferragosto has been a...