La vita italiana

Fall is around the corner in the Bay Area, and with it comes Lido Cantarutti’s Italian Film Festival of acclaimed comedy and drama directly from Italy. The Festival is an abiding favorite, eagerly awaited by Marin County residents as well …

Chef Bobby Bonsonor Hellen sweats like a water fountain underneath the orange-and-blue New York Mets baseball hat waiting for his grandma pie to be ready. He is standing right in front of the deck oven of his almost one-year old …

When I spend time in Italy, one of my favorite things to do is people watch. I love to observe the locals in action. They are similar and yet different from my culture here in the states. Although I remain …

On May 6, 2015, UC Berkeley’s ambitious plan to establish a Center for the Study of Ancient Italy was officially launched with a reception at the Italian Cultural Institute in San Francisco. It was a well attended event with supporting …

Six Italian-Americans sit around the table, a barbecue just completed. Now it’s time to chat and drink a little. Seated are an engineer, a Shakespearean scholar, an inventor, an online historian, an expert on reading and memory, a cruise ship …

I met up with Steve Oedekerk at “O Entertainment,” his studio in San Juan Capistrano. What was once an old bank and still has the vintage vault to prove it, now serves as Steve O’s office, but not for long. …

Inside the American Tourister suitcase was a historical treasure. Over two hundred items including photographs, two postcards, two photo albums of pasta factories and five maps were donated to John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, the Queens College first founded …

History, art, cuisine, tradition: you don’t always have to head to a major tourist town to experience these classic treasures we associate with Italy.  Head to one of the country’s “borghi” instead: ancient, tiny villages retaining the atmosphere of times …

Se uno vuole, ce la fa: you can do anything you set your mind to. This sums up the essence of Claudio Bondì, the softly spoken, captivating filmmaker who is an award-winning writer and director. Bondì, born in Rome, 1944, was Roberto Rossellini’s …

Pioneer Square is the heart of Seattle. Settled in 1852 by men and women who were drawn to its protected deep-water harbor, the area burned to the ground in 1889 when a fast-moving blaze consumed 29 blocks of mostly wooden …