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When Dominic D. DiFrancesco was campaigning for American Legion national commander, one of his stops was in Massachusetts. It was there that Past National Commander John P. “Jake” Comer, knowing DiFrancesco’s Italian heritage, took his guest to the North End, known as Boston’s Little Italy. “He was a great lover of Italian pastries, and when he cam...

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On the surface, Mary Cona was just another Italian girl from the North End. She was a devout Catholic, a supportive wife, a loving mother. However, diving into the details of her remarkable life through her eyes in her autobiography, “Destino: From Italy to Kansas City,” Mary was shaped through many hardships into an artist, entrepreneur, philanthr...

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The 96th annual Italian Feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian will be a celebration of tradition, cultural pride and fun for the whole family Sept. 11-12 on Warren and Porter streets in East Cambridge. The entertainment lineup includes national recording artists that have become legends in the music industry. This year’s Feast headliners are music icon...

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Westborough residents spoke in favor of the town retaining Columbus Day as a holiday at a Select Board meeting on Aug. 24. In turn, they opposed the position of the town’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, whose chair Cara Presley encouraged the Select Board to replace “Columbus Day” with “Indigenous People’s Day” at a July 20 meeting of the Selec...

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In Italy, there is a certain combination of magnificence that any ordinary tourist can capture in a casual photo. It is the magnificent, frescoed interior inside a 15th-century palace set in a cobblestoned city surrounded by pine-laced countryside. But rarely do photos capture all those multiple levels of ravishing beauty and arresting grandeur at...

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Closeness can feel unusual these days, but a year-and-a-half into the global pandemic, the St. Alfio Society is encouraging folks to come out for the Feast of Three Saints — a tradition of togetherness. A two-day feast will be hosted this weekend, Sept. 4 and 5. With COVID-19 concerns in mind, organizers say the latest city rules will be followed,...

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In a five-minute video posted to Instagram Tuesday, Damien DiPaola announced that his North End restaurant Domenic’s will permanently close. DiPaola, who also owns Carmelina’s in the North End, cited both the pandemic and a new perspective on life as the reasons for its closure. “I opened Domenic’s about seven or eight months before the pandemic, a...

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Boston’s North End streets filled with thousands of visitors and the smell of delicious Italian food all weekend long. Sunday was the culmination of the yearly four-day festival for Saint Anthony’s Feast and St. Lucia’s Feast. After a year off due to COVID restrictions, the feasts were back in full force this year, bringing in projected crowds of o...

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It is a reunion the likes of which neither you nor your progeny of several generations are likely to see again: a cycle of paintings by Renaissance master Titian commissioned by Prince, then King, Philip II of Spain on themes drawn from antiquity via Ovid. One of these is a central canvas in the collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Th...

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After years of bankruptcy, the Italian government is finally replacing Alitalia with a new national airline, Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA). It remains to be seen how different the new airline will be from Alitalia, given that ITA intends to purchase some of Alitalia’s assets, potentially including the branding and planes. As of now the plan is for I...

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