I may be wrong, and I ask our readers to help me if so, but there is no such thing as a town called "Little Italy" in the United States. There are, of course, many neighborhoods called Little Italy in different American cities, officially or not. But a city officially called Little Italy, to my knowledge, does not exist. Today our interview guests...

Being a part of an Italian family is something to be amazed about, especially with the kind of unique culture and the strong family bond they have. If you’ve ever wondered what it is like to have that kind of family or even better, how it is like to grow up in one, read on this post because you will be reading the top reasons why growing up in an I...

When Elena Parisi, an engineer, left Italy at age 22 to pursue a career in London five years ago, she joined the vast ranks of talented Italians escaping a sluggish job market and lack of opportunities at home to find work abroad. But in the past year, as the coronavirus pandemic forced employees around the world to work from home, Ms. Parisi, like...

Who am I? Glad you asked! I could write a book about that! But to be brief, “Sono figlio di genatori immigrati italiani.” I am the son of Italian immigrant parents. I am also a proud American and a soldier of God and country. My parents, like thousands of other Italian immigrants, dared leave all behind. How brave they were to embark toward a stran...

I'm not an art critic, I'm not even an expert, but I believe that appreciation and judgment of art is subjective and personal: mine is that the most incredible work of art ever created is Mount Rushmore. For difficulty, danger, accomplishment, talent, inventiveness, precision, vision. Can you imagine what it's like to sculpt a mountain hanging in t...

Dear Friends, We at the Casa Italia Library are very proud to announce the new updated republication of Reconstructing Italians in Chicago: Thirty Authors in Search of Roots and Branches." The 2011 edition sold out the original 1000 printed copy. Please order a copy or two and show your support for the work we do at the Casa Italia Library. Thanks...

THEY BROUGHT THEM IN SUITCASES and in trunks, tucked into the corners of boats and, later, on airplanes. Seeds that became rapini, cardoons, artichokes, cucuzza squash. Cuttings from knobby grape vines that flourished into backyard arbors. And, above all, bits of stick that grew into fig trees. Starting in the late 1800s, when Italian immigrants po...

More than a century ago, Our Lady of Mount Virgin, located in Seattle’s Mount Baker neighborhood, was once the heart of Seattle’s Italian community. In 1915, when the church was built, about 215 Italian families called the neighborhood home. As new immigrants arrived, Our Lady of Mount Virgin was one of the first places they would visit for informa...

One of the most wonderful things about the exceptional tradition that unites all those who have built the history of the Italian American community over many decades is the solidarity, generosity, and brotherhood that has allowed so many Italian Americans to survive and grow in very difficult conditions, thanks to the help of other fellow Italians...

As the great sage Charlie Brown once said: “There are 3 things in life that people like to stare at: a flowing stream, a crackling fire, and a Zamboni clearing the ice.” Watching one of these machines glide across a skating rink, restoring carved-up ice to glassy perfection, is efficiency in motion. A job that once required 1.5 hours of manual labo...