La vita italiana

There are still places in Italy where time stands still.  One of them is the Abbey of San Fruttuoso di Camogli, on the Ligurian coast. The Abbey sits on a breathtakingly beautiful bay between the towns of Camogli and Portofino, …

Carnevale in Italy is a farewell to winter and a delirious celebration of Spring and all things delicious and forbidden. Every city or town has its own emblematic festival foods that are imbued with symbolic meaning. Naples is devoted to …

Art historian Laura Morelli is on a mission to help travelers to Italy in search of genuine handicrafts discern treasure from trash. Her “Authentic Arts” travel book series was devised with the idea of guiding visitors to the discovery of …

Peter Mondavi Sr., Napa Valley visionary responsible for the success of his family’s winery for more than 50 years died on February 20th at his home in St. Helena, California.  He was 101. Mondavi was born in Virginia, Minnesota, on …

A Milan-New York ‘chat’ was enough to rediscover the marvel of being Italian.  On the other end of the telephone was Alexo Wandael, Trentino Alto Adige born but New Yorker by adoption, a former architect, now a professional photographer who …

Likewise his fellow citizen, a certain Christopher Columbus, who reached the New World in 1492, Italian photographer, Lorenzo Capellini (born in 1939, in Genoa) has been experiencing an adventurous life, immortalizing personalities and realities from every corner of the globe.  …

It is widely believed that Sicilians, unlike Neapolitans, are not very expansive with their emotions. They are usually represented as brooding, somber characters who are more prone to explode in anger rather than in laughter. D. H. Lawrence who spent …

I recently caught up with award-winning Tuscan winemaker Ginevra Venerosi at a local New York trattoria to taste and talk about the wines of her estate Tenuta di Ghizzano. There is something immediately, attractively transparent about Countess Ginevra Venerosi. I …

The list of honorees reads like a who’s who among Seattle’s culinary elite: Armandino Batali of Salumi; food marketer Jon Rowley; Frank Isernio, founder of Isernio’s Sausage; restaurateur Tom Douglas and his wife Jackie Cross; and most recently, Charles and …

In the last issue of L’Italo-Americano, we explored the legacy of 20th century North Beach photographer, J.B. Monaco, a legacy that has endured decades of change to the fabric of San Francisco’s Italian community.  Recently, L’Italo-Americano spoke with Rick Monaco, …