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As proud Italian Americans, it is important to buy products from Italian American-owned businesses. Equally as important, it is enjoyable to pay visits to neighborhoods that are historically Italian, specifically communities that still have a significant amount of Italian American residents. The Empire State has Little Italy in Manhattan, Bensonhur...

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When five young Italian American friends from the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn discovered that they each had talented voices, they started singing together as a group on street corners in 1957.  After being together for a short time, the singing group decided to call themselves the Overons. They started the group just for the love of singing and...

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One of Brooklyn’s most iconic events returned last week after a year off due to COVID-19. The annual Feast of Santa Rosalia began Aug. 19 on 18th Avenue – a/k/a Cristoforo Colombo Boulevard – from 67th Street to Bay Ridge Parkway. The 10-day event features rides, music, games for the kids, drinks and food. Bensonhurst resident Paul Gordon said the...

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Another beloved tradition will soon return from the COVID-19 doldrums. Bensonhurst’s annual Feast of Santa Rosalia begins Aug. 19, with all the fanfare that people have enjoyed for 45 years. The 10-day event includes rides, music, games for the kids, drinks and, of course, a vast array of food. The feast will take place on 18th Avenue – a/k/a Crist...

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Growing up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in the 1960s and 70s, Daniel Paterna was well aware of the sweeping yet often inaccurate stereotype of his Italian-American enclave. “In my household, my parents frowned on the clichés of the Italian-American gangster or buffoon,” Paterna says. “It was an earnest way of life: no guns, no mafia, no dead bodies, no...

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A crucifix vandalized outside of a Brooklyn church and discovered Friday morning is being investigated by the NYPD as a possible hate crime, the Diocese of Brooklyn said. The wooden crucifix displayed at St. Athanasius Roman Catholic Church, located in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, was found face down in the grass next to the school affiliat...

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Father Carlo Graziano, a priest of the Diocese of Ariano-Lacedonia, Italy, who assisted at St. Athanasius for more than two decades, becoming a familiar face to the parish’s Italian-American community, died of complications of COVID-19 at Maimonides Medical Center on Jan. 18, parish officials confirmed. Father Graziano, 82, was diagnosed with coron...

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In the Italian neighborhood of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, (where Dr. Fauci grew up), spooky Halloween pastries are a seasonal specialty. At Villabate Alba, a family-owned bakery and gelateria founded in 1979 by the Alaimo family, they sell exquisite trays of Sicilian pastries. When crisp autumn breezes rush through the streets, pushing trick-or-treater...

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Columbus Citizens Foundation (CCF) is proud to announce a new scholarship to support Italian Americans with great academic prowess seeking financial aid at the graduate level in medical and public health fields of study. The scholarship will be awarded annually, recipients will be chosen by a qualified standing committee and the scholarship is to b...

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Bensonhurst-born home cook, photographer and graphic designer Daniel Paterna is dishing up more than mouthwatering recipes in his new cookbook, “Feast of the Seven Fishes: A Brooklyn Italian’s Recipes Celebrating Food & Family.” Through lovingly rendered photographs, readers also get a taste of the neighborhood’s little Italian bakeries, butcher sh...

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