La vita italiana

“More than 5,000 people currently in the U.S. are of San Fratello origin,” says Professor Salvatore Mangione, historian and former mayor of San Fratello, a village in the province of Messina, Sicily. “In the old times, immigrant villagers from San …

California may have a lock on the production of almonds—the state produces more than 80 percent of the world’s supply—but if you have never tasted an almond grown in Sicily, you have never truly tasted an almond. Sicily combines the …

If there is one reason why Italian Americans are especially proud of their ethnic roots, it is because Italy happened to be the birthplace of the first explorers and navigators who “discovered” – or better, “re-discovered” – America at the …

In a world where the younger generations are less and less acquainted with pen and paper, and more and more in love with keyboards, talking about the pleasure of writing with a a good fountain pen may seem old fashioned. …

With more Unesco world heritage sites than any other country in the world and a history that spans millennia from the ancient Roman empire via Michelangelo’s art Renaissance to the world of operatic theatre preserving Italy’s historic culture is an …

The days of the old tradition of everyone in the extended family coming the grandparents’ home for Sunday dinner, every Sunday, might be gone, but through our stories they will never be far from our consciousness.   The front door …

The idea itself of dialect may be difficult to grasp for non-Italians. It’s not a language, yet it’s not a variety of one either. It may sound like Italian here and there, yet it can also be extremely different and …

Every spring, thousands of tourists descend on the picturesque city of Siracusa in the southeast corner of Sicily, drawn to an experience unlike any other: Seeing Greek theater come alive in the same dramatic, open-air setting enjoyed by the ancient …

History and art have a lot of things in common, of course. One of them is certainly the importance, nay, the essentiality of the concept of authenticity: an art piece is valuable and meaningful only when authentic, just as historical …

William Papaleo is a prominent painter whose dramatic depictions are full of controlled and potent emotion. The New York-born artist, a third generation American, captures the texture, colors and toil of Southern Italy, which has absorbed layers of history and …