HerrinFesta Italiana has kicked off their week-long festival for 2023, featuring food, games and entertainment. The popular festival was founded in 1991 and voted Best Festival in Illinois in 2014. This is a celebration of the rich Italian heritage in the City of Herrin. In early April, they announced the entertainment lineup for the large event, i...

Com.It.Es (Comitato per gli italiani all’estero) and Comitato Tricolore Italiani nel Mondo will host the 15th annual Festa della Repubblica on June 4 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii in Chicago. The event celebrates the birth of the Italian republic and bears the distinction of being the only such celebration outside of Italy to feature a parad...

Paul D’Alessio decided he needed to fuel the Quincy University baseball team with some Italian power this week. So Tuesday, he assembled the kind of feast a loving nonna would serve to her family at Sunday dinner. Pasta, meatballs, sausage, chicken cacciatore, etc. It was the kind of meal where you wipe the marinara off your chin and push yourself...

The cover of Fra Noi reads “Embrace your inner Italian”: words that inspire us to explore every aspect of our heritage and community. In my case, the catchy phrase opened the door to the Italian Cultural Center at Casa Italia. An oasis of italianità in Stone Park, the center is home to a hardy band of volunteers who truly live this calling. I paid...

Frank Sommario will be sworn in for a two-year term as president of the National Italian American Bar Association. The ceremony will take place at NIABA’s annual general membership meeting on June 10 at Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago. Sommario previously served as executive vice president of NIABA and chair of its Budget Committee. A...

The California-based restaurant The Italian Homemade Company has its eyes on Chicago, hoping to enter Illinois for the first time in Fulton Market, located at 947 W Fulton Market.With five locations across California, The Italian Homemade Company is already known as one of the best Italian restaurants in the state. Now, the owners have applied for...

IndyCar Series driver Graham Rahal announced Friday that he will open a luxury motorcycle dealership next month in Carmel before moving it to his future headquarters in Zionsville. Rahal Piaggio Indianapolis will sell motorcycles, scooters and mopeds under Italy-based Piaggio Group’s brands Piaggio, Vespa, Aprilla and Moto Guzzi. The 3,000-square-f...

A new gelato and drink cafe is bringing Italian treats and a relaxing atmosphere to Portage Park, just in time for warmer weather. Ciao Ciao Gelato & Cafe, opening this weekend at 5355 W. Irving Park Road, aims to liven up the Portage Park corner and be a spot where visitors feel welcome, said co-owner Marco Alt. “I want people to feel like [they’r...

Lavazza, the 127-year-old iconic Italian coffee company, has announced the grand opening of its newest state of the art training facility on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, IL. The Chicago training center will be host to a series of exciting events during its opening weekend. Coming off the heels of two successful training center openings in West...

A half century at any job is something to celebrate, but Sam Gullo is marking five decades as the barber at one of Chicago’s most iconic buildings, the Civic Opera House, home of the Lyric Opera. Gullo and his family arrived in Chicago from Caccamo, Sicily, in 1961. “I came here with my father and brother,” Gullo says from his shop on the 15th floo...