Traditions

The coming of Summer brings to each and every one of us different emotions: for school kids, it is synonym with holidays and mornings spent in bed. For city dwellers, it brings about frightful images of blasting AC in the …

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 …

I brought with me a little sachet of salt, a time-honored remedy to ward off evil spirits, when visiting two Medieval borghi on La Riviera dei Fiori whose history includes a bizarre story of witchcraft, envy, superstition and power. The …

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 …

Her foot taps, slowly at first but then more insistently. The beat quickens and her legs begin to twitch. And as the rhythm builds to a frenzied crescendo the young woman writhes and thrashes, possessed and entranced by the poison …

What really is remarkable about the upcoming exhibition, The Sicilian Cart: History in Movement, hosted at the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles (IAMLA) from June 30th to January 7th, is that its Executive Director, Marianna Gatto, since she was …

In the heart of Sicily, there was once a town called Corleone, the birthplace of a mafia boss of the likes of Bernardo Provenzano; his bloody history, in reality and on screen, has transformed this place into a stereotype of …

Having discussed Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and the traces these great navigators have left in Genoa and Venice, our tour of the “land of explorers” ends with a closer look at Amerigo Vespucci’s origins and presence in the city of …

Perhaps because Pasquale Verdicchio can boast a grayish beard worthy of a Greek philosopher – the likes of Plato or Aristotle – or maybe thanks to years and years of teaching in Southern California, or even – if we yield …

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. …