Cabrini shrine to host 2nd annual bus pilgrimage
The first Italian American pilgrimage to the National Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in Chicago was such a resounding success, the shrine is gearing up to replicate the experience on Sept. 21. Buses will once again pick up and drop off attendees at Casa Italia in Stone Park and the Old Neighborhood Italian American Club in Chicago, with Villa...
New day dawning at Casa Italia
After six whirlwind months of construction, the first floor of the Community Center at Casa Italia has been transformed as part of an ongoing rinascimento at the venerable institution. The Community Center has always been a great venue for special events, with a modern lobby and restrooms, the Chandelier Room accommodating up to 140 guests, and the...
Italy-based Motorsports Technical School opens Indianapolis campus
The racing capital of the world is now home to the first American Motorsports Technical School location. MTS reported that it’s prepared thousands of students for top global racing teams over the past decade of growth in Europe. So, when it was time to expand programming to the United States, Indianapolis was an obvious choice for CEO and founder E...
Conti steps from courtroom to media spotlight
With nearly 40 years of experience practicing law, Chicago attorney Karen Conti is also an author and media personality who makes appearances on national and local radio and TV. Next on her list of goals: finishing her second book, upping her list of visited countries to 62, and hosting her own TV show. Conti, whose paternal grandparents were born...
Corrado Parducci: Detroit’s Architectural Sculptor
Event by Detroit Historical Museum and Detroit Historical Society. 5401 Woodward Avenue, 48202. September 27, 2025, 2:00 - 3:30pm. Included with museum admission! Learn more and register here. Join author, photographer, and historian Dale A. Carlson as he explores the life and career of Corrado Giuseppe "Joe" Parducci (1900–1981), Detroit’s most pr...
Cleveland Italian Film Festival announces 2025 lineup
Italy has won the Academy Award for Best International Film 14 times. That’s more than any other country, and it’s part of the reason why Joyce Mariani started the Cleveland Italian Film Festival. Now in its 18th year, the festival returns next month with screenings on three consecutive Thursdays at the Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland Heights and At...
Tinaglia a good fit as Arlington Heights mayor
Jim Tinaglia, an architect with a long history of community service, was voted in as mayor of Arlington Heights (IL) this spring. When people ask him what it’s like to be mayor, he says that he always tells them his job is 90% wonderful. “People have been so respectful, decent, optimistic and kind,” Tinaglia says. “The 10 percent is the scary part...
Conference / American Boccaccio Association
From September 16 2025 To September 20 2025. Newberry Library and IIC Chicago. The year 2025 marks the 650th anniversary of the death of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), author of the Decameron and foundational author of the European narrative prose tradition. To commemorate this milestone, the American Boccaccio Association (est. 1974) and the Newb...
“Geek of Chic” to share his story in Chicago
At the start of the 21st century, shopping online was still a futuristic fantasy. And then, in the spring of 2000, Federico Marchetti invented one of the world’s first platforms for online sales, launching a company that would revolutionize the luxury fashion sector. In “The Geek of Chic: An American Dream, Italian Style,” Marchetti tells the tale...
Chapel in the Meadow: Mass and Picnic
Sunday afternoon, September 14th. The Italian POW Chapel in the Meadow at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. Mass and Picnic. Do you know the story? It’s a fascinating slice of Italian American history that not many people know about. Camp Atterbury, located a 45-minute drive south of Indianapolis in Edinburgh, IN, is named after Brigadier General William Wa...
Incoronata prez keeps flame burning brightly
Jim Distasio hasn’t missed the Feast of Maria SS. Incoronata in what is now Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood since he was a little boy. At first, it was top avoid incurring the ire of his grandfather, who expected every family member to be in attendance at the yearly tradition started in 1897 by emigrants from his ancestral hometown in Italy. “We h...
On Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, ISDA Celebrates Progress and Pioneers Change
Basil M. Russo, national president of the Italian Sons and Daughters of America (ISDA), was elected to his sixth term during the 47th ISDA Biennial Convention, held on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. Since first taking office in 2014, Russo has been unanimously reelected five consecutive times, leading ISDA through a decade of sustained cultural and fi...