Maria Gloria Rando

Art Angels were the hundreds of volunteers who flocked to Florence, Italy in early 1966 to help save its art treasures after floods, caused by heavy rains. Literally, many art works were floating down the streets of the city. Among …

Dear Readers, April marks the 141st anniversary of the birth of the great Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi. April also marks the month when Guglielmo Marconi, born in Bologna April 25, 1874, was hailed worldwide as a benefactor and hero to …

Dear Readers, In June, the month we celebrate Grads and Dads, I want to offer my heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to newly minted, MBA Boston College graduate, Angela Cannistraci. During the graduation ceremonies held at Boston College, a Roman …

December, the month we celebrate Christmas, exchange presents with our friends and wish all “Buon Natale,” I got to thinking that some people, by their efforts, wind up enriching an entire community or in the case of Carlo DiRuocco, the …

Dear Readers, Merry Christmas or Buon Natale is fine but Season’s Greetings sounds too one size fits all seasons. It seems that with merchants putting up their Christmas decorations (now holiday decorations) a nanosecond after clearing shelves of candy corn …

Dear Readers, June jottings with an Italian connection: Italy’s “Festa Della Repubblica” (Italian Republic Day) celebrates the date, June 2, 1946, when Italians went to the polls to express their preference between a Republic and a Monarchy form of government. …

Dear Readers, A July assortment of Italian connections for you: Mauro Battocchi, Consul General of Italy for North Western U.S.A., and recent guest speaker at the Italian American Heritage Foundation in San Jose, California, encouraged the audience to learn more …

Dear Readers, An April assortment of Italian connections for you: A “ghetto” in the U.S.A. is usually a section of a city that is thickly populated by people on the lower end of the economic scale, in less desirable parts …

Dear Readers, An April assortment of Italian connections for you: Pietro Di Donato was born in West Hoboken, New Jersey on April 3, 1911, to Abruzzese emigrants and died at the age of 80. He took up writing during a …

Genoa, Italy, as we little Italo-American kids learned in school, was the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, the “man who discovered America”.   Most Italo-Americans who claim Genovese “roots” are not descendants of people born in the city of Genoa, but …