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The idiom “Ray of Light” doesn’t just refer to an expression of hope in challenging times; it’s also the title of singer Madonna’s last big album, which took home a Grammy Award in 1998. I bring this up in defense of the rather brutal beating she took in the press at this year’s Grammy ceremony on her distorted facial features. Madonna said it was...

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The piazza overflowed with family and friends waiting to see loved ones off to America. It was a dream come true for those set to depart, while apprehension and anxiety consumed those left behind. They cried, hugged, and kissed. Mothers, wives and innamorati sobbed bitterly: “Cari, ti aspetiammo! Per la Madonna, dove vai? A così lontano. Chi ti...

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“It is notoriously easier to write about things one does not really know well. One has fewer doubts. But to write about one’s own country was a tortured enterprise. I knew too much.” Luigi Barzini wrote in the foreword of his lost classic The Italians.   Barzini knew his home country way too well. He knew we talk with our hands; we’re loud and over...

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It's spring and I am preparing a global outreach for my Foundation's WorldCast 23 Environmental Studies broadcast for high school students.These include students in Italian Studies classes as well as in environmental sciences. In searching the globe for both Italian Studies and Environmental Sciences students, I pondered the vast settlement of Ital...

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While the height of the White Lotus craze has ended, the sun hasn’t set on everyone’s fascination with Italy. No one is necessarily flocking to the peninsula to spend their days having passive-aggressive dinners; rather, they're looking to make Italy a second home by becoming Italian citizens with second passports. That’s what John Tarabini, a 62-y...

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The Italian government has introduced new changes to the law on foreigners working in Italy and obtaining residence permits, in a bid to simplify the rules and make it easier for foreign workers to get employed and move to the country. Through the new amendments, the government has also strengthened the tools to fight illegal migratory flows and cr...

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My father worked with his hands beginning at the age of 10, and he never stopped, right up to the very day he walked off the job site and into the hospital, where he swiftly passed away. He never wanted my brothers to take over the landscaping business he had built. He wanted them to wear suits and ties and sit behind desks. You probably know this...

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Buying and renovating a home in Italy was something Doug and Leah Johnson had often dreamed about. The couple, who are based in Gloucester, Massachusetts, say they’d sometimes go to view houses while vacationing in the European country. But splashing out on a property there hadn’t seemed like a viable option until Doug came across a listing for a 1...

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The National Museum of Italian Emigration (MEI) is a magnificent institution that finally pays tribute to the stories of millions of Italians who have left our country: in the distant past or even recently, from every place in Italy, heading for every place in the world. It is a diaspora that Italy has not yet fully come to terms with, a trauma tha...

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Italy's foreign population stood at just over 6 million at the start of 2022, marking a rise of 88,000 over the previous year according to the 28th annual report on migration presented by the ISMU Foundation in Milan on Wednesday. Irregular immigrants accounted for 8.4% of the total foreign population, down from 519,000 at the start of 2021 to 506,...

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