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He was the “King of Cool,” an Italian American star whose casual magnetism and incomparable voice defined the Rat Pack style that influenced generations of American popular culture.  Now, Dean Martin’s hometown is seeking to honor him for all time with a larger-than-life statue at the heart of this once-bustling community.  In this week’s episode,...

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Dear friends, even in August, ciao from a Rome full of American tourists and empty of us Romans!   In early August a dear friend traveling to Liguria sent me a photo, taken by him. While driving he had seen a sign that had attracted his curiosity, and he knew well that it would interest me as well. The photo is the one you see here: Cogoleto, the s...

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What does it mean to live “La Dolce Vita?” This week’s guest is here to tell us how the answer to that question is just as varied as Italy herself! Carla Gambescia is a cultural “edu-tainer,” award-winning author, travel journalist, lecturer and avid photographer. The author of “La Dolce Vita University: An Unconventional Guide to Italian Culture f...

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“Viva San Rocco!” It’s the last weeks of summer in Italian America, and in neighborhoods across the country, paesani are celebrating the Feast of Saint Rocco, one of the most venerated saint days in the Italian American year. For our part, we’re sitting down with Stephen La Rocca, president of the St. Rocco Society of Potenza, to discover more abou...

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We spent last week filming in one of the most overlooked (and criminally underappreciated) corners of Italian America… deep in the Ozarks in a little Italian village called Tontitown, Arkansas! In this week’s episode of The Italian American Podcast, we’re sitting down with two of the new paesani we met during our travels, Heather Ranalli Peachee an...

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“What does Italy mean to you?” For those of us who think about Italy and our Italianness on a daily basis, it’s a question that can force the mind into an exhausting array of mental gymnastics. To this week’s guest, Nikki Taylor of La Dolce Vita Lifestyle Magazine, it’s the question she is asking the entire world to answer! The Australian Italophil...

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We are very excited to announce that our television series, The Italian America Show, is returning for Season 3 on News 12+ this September in the New York City Metropolitan area. If outside the NYC Metro area, you can stream the episodes online! Be sure to tune in every Sunday at 8 p.m. EST for our 30-minute episodes featuring interviews with promi...

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It’s reductive to consider Sicilian carts as mere vehicles. These carts are so rich in color and decorations that, according to Marianna Gatto of the Italian American Museum in Los Angeles, they’re best described as “walking books”. For the painter from Palermo, Gianfranco Fiore (who decorates these carts), they represent the most popular, creative...

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On Thursday July 21, 2022, Mario Draghi, Italy’s technocratic Prime Minister, resigned from his role as Head of Government. With Italy facing a summer of unprecedented heatwaves, fires, draught, inflation, war on the continent, gas shortages, and the lingering effects of COVID shutdowns, the departure of this highly-regarded European technocrat has...

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