LIFE & PEOPLE

18th Century, Venice. Circling about the snaky, torch-lit alleyways of the ancient city are swarms of masked men and women. Before leaving the house, members of all social ranks change their names, leaving their titles and inhibitions at the door. …

Felidia’s lunch crowd began to thin out, as we remained on the second floor and Lidia Bastianich described her plight to America.  She was born in what was then called Pola under Italy and currently Pula in Croatia.  Lidia began …

Italian figurative artist, Alberto Burri (Città di Castello, province of Perugia, Umbria 1915 – Nice, France 1995), took a degree in Medicine and served as a military doctor for Italy’s Army during WWII. Painting started as a mere pastime, during …

Walk through Trastevere or along the Tiber River in Rome, explore the labyrinthine Cannaregio district of Venice or stroll down Viale Montegrappa in Reggio Emilia and you’ll spot something they all have in common; little brass cobblestones set into the …

2017 could not start in a better way for Italian scientists in the world. On January 7, three scientists born in Italy and currently working in the United States received a delayed Christmas gift, thanks to Barack Obama. The former …

Medici, Masters of Florence has recently made an appearance on television. Like everyone with an interest in Italy I couldn’t wait to see it. And when I did I wasn’t disappointed. Scheming aristocrats. Renaissance backdrops. Italian passion. What’s not to …

Shimon Schwarzschild, like Saint Francis of Assisi, could have opted for a comfortable and lucrative life, but instead has chosen a more steep and rough path at the service of a greater cause. The small town of Assisi (Umbria region …

It was 1989 when Chazz Palminteri wrote A Bronx Tale,  a one man pièce that was to become a movie in 1993 and eventually get on a Broadway’s stage around 15 years later, in 2007. Bronx, its cinematic transposition, was …

Winemaker Nicola Cantoni has a handshake you remember. His grip communicates his sturdy frame, giving one the sense that he is rooted to the ground like his grape vines at Fattoria Fibbiano. One quickly understands Cantoni as a winemaker committed …

First generation American born of italian immigrants, Rossella Rago grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn with a deep link to her Italian roots in Mola di Bari (Apulia), the village where her parents were born. As for the majority of Italians, …