La vita italiana

There was a time, in Ancient Rome, when it was customary to eat with only three fingers, while leaving the ring finger and little finger uninvolved.  Only a person lacking sophistication and grace used all five fingers. With the morphing …

As Italian immigrants arrived in the United States circa 1850s, (before Italy was officially a nation-state) one of the first neighborhoods that many settled in was a notorious ghetto called the Five Points.  The Five Points located in Lower Manhattan …

Bypassing  the strong visual power of the romantic canals of Venice, the breath-taking views inside and outside Tuscany, a portrait of Rome by night and a snapshot of the emerald Sardinian sea, it is not an easy goal.   From …

  While driving on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in New York City, I was listening to a local radio station playing Alice Cooper’s hit song, School’s Out written in 1972. Although most students today are removed from the song, I imagined …

  Before Americans knew what a caffé macchiato or a cappuccino with its delicate froth was or had the pleasure of experiencing a true espresso, we cared little about our coffee and thought of it only in terms of that …

Bologna: la grassa, la dotta, la rossa. Apt nicknames for the capital of Emilia-Romagna, which boasts a rich culinary tradition (grassa meaning fat), the oldest university in the Western world (hence dotta: learned), red roofs and left-leaning politics (as in …

All culturally literate people know who George Frideric Handel was, yet the man who gave him his biggest career boost as well as being one of the great composers of his age and more, is largely unknown.  It was, in …

The Declaration of Independence was a bold statement of human rights, based on the then radical principle that government derives its power from the consent of the governed, an idea that was even more radical when it was put forth …

Italy has long been one of the world’s most popular travel destinations, and many a person has diligently saved to make the trip, but few can claim to have given up as much as Queen Christina, who renounced the kingdom …

We all have our vacations. But where on this earth will you find one nation who closes down, packs up, and goes off to rejuvenate all at one time? In the month of August, Italy does just that and of …