The San Sabino Society of Williamsburg: The New Venue For The Growing Up Italian Podcast
One of the many incredible contacts that I made at the most recent event for the Italian American Baseball Foundation was Sabino Curcio of the social media phenomenon, Growing Up Italian. Sabino invited me to join his podcast as a guest. I graciously accepted. About a month after the IABF event, I met with Sabino at the San Sabino Society Club (206...
ONE VOICE Defends Columbus on Radio
By now you have heard that the president of Notre Dame, under pressure from students and Native American groups, has agreed to cover up murals of Christopher Columbus. Executive Board Member of the Italian American One Voice Coalition Andre DiMino will be speaking about this issue on six different radio stations today and tomorrow - including the I...
The Italian Art Supply Shop That Keeps Renaissance Painting Techniques Alive
Dante called it “the cursed and unlucky ditch.” Half a millennium later, Tuscany’s Arno river would more than live up to that title. Just before dawn on November 4, 1966, the rain-swollen river abruptly broke its banks; its waters surged through Florence at speeds of 45 miles per hour and flooded the city with 18 billion gallons of mud and grime. Y...
Saving History - Remembering Nicolena "Lil" Abate
I often talk about the past of the Italian American Community of Northeast Ohio and the work that I do within the community and at the Western Reserve Historical Society to assure that it is preserved in the Italian American Collection. The history of the community, though represented through “things” in the collection, is really about the people w...
Lauded Seattle Chef Reopens His Celebrated Italian Restaurant in Pioneer Square
James Beard Award-winning chef Scott Carsberg opened his Pioneer Square restaurantBisato earlier this month. Carsberg previously operated Bisato, an Italian small plates restaurant, in Belltown, but he closed that down in 2012. Now the celebrated chef is back at it, this time at 84 Yesler Way, the former home of Trattoria Mitchelli. Fans of the ori...
The Room of the Abbess, a hidden gem in Correggio
Correggio (1489-1534) decorated the Room of the Abbess (or Room of Saint Paul) in the former Monastery of Saint Paul in Parma, likely in 1519. He achieved such surprising and innovative results, that to this day the space bears testimony to the artistic maturity of the great Renaissance painter. Ironically, the room was kept a secret for a long tim...
Molto bene: Native Italian shares culture with preschoolers in Beaver
A requisite for most preschoolers is distinguishing colors, but one recent morning at Kiddie Korner Child Development Center in Beaver, learning leapt over the rainbow to a land far, far away. Marco Fiorante, recent guest instructor, held up colored flashcards before two dozen preschoolers sitting cross-legged on a floor mat. “Verde. Bianco. Rosso,...
In Los Angeles "the truth is in (Italian) wine" with Vinitaly International Academy Ambassador course coming up in February
Vinitaly International in collaboration with Veronafiere are working on the finishing touches of the Los Angeles edition of the VIA Italian Wine Ambassador certification course next February andenrollment is still open. The re-formatted, tasting-intensive Italian wine course is taught by VIA Faculty Sarah Heller MW and Henry Davar, both experienced...
Now Open: South Orange's The Fox & Falcon fuses Italian cooking with friendly pub atmosphere
The new restaurant The Fox & Falcon in South Orange is something between an Irish pub and an Italian restaurant, which is exactly what owner and restaurateur David Massoni envisioned it to be. “All roads were leading toward this project,” he said. “My family heritage is half Irish and half Italian. I wanted to combine that hospitality of a great Ir...
Energica Motorcycles: New Commercial Agreement in New York and the Northeast U.S.
New York has the fifth largest number of motorcyclists in the U.S., with over 392,771 registered street bikes in 2017. According to Plug-In America, New York is also the second largest market for EV vehicles, with about 30,645 currently registered and a growth rate of 67% in just the last year. There are over 2,400 charging stations already in plac...
The thousand secrets of farro
Spelt, known to the ancient Romans as far, used to be their most common and best loved cereal up to the first republican period (509-264 BC). After, wheat took its place because of its better yield and lower labor costs. Known since the Neolithic, it is the most ancient type of grain cultivated and used as food by Man. It is mentioned in the Bible,...
The Sopranos and Italian Dialects: The Real Story of Our Language
This week, an article appeared in northjersey.com, part of the USA Today Network, that begins “You may be speaking Soprano–and not even know it.” The article talks about HBO’s show The Sopranos and how it used “Italian-American food slang words” that only New Yorkers know. The article lists a number of words such as “goomah” and “goomba” and their...