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When Martinez Vice Mayor Debbie McKillop was invited to meet a delegation from Pittsburg’s sister city, Isola Delle Femmine, in the Palermo district of Sicily, she thought she simply would be representing Martinez, whose most famous native son, Joe DiMaggio, traced his ancestry to that Italian city. What she found instead were family ties of her ow...

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Albert Innaurato, a playwright who enjoyed spectacular success for a time in the late 1970s, including having a play run on Broadway for more than four years, has died in Philadelphia. He was 70. His cousin Stephen Paesani said Mr. Innaurato was found dead in his bed on Tuesday, and had probably been dead for two days. The cause was not clear, Mr....

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What better place to be noticed by a professional Italian singer than through a video of you singing at a restaurant in Italy? That's how Lower Burrell's Colin Aikins was discovered by Italian singer Giada Valenti, a Venice native, who saw and heard him performing through a friend's post on Facebook. The young tenor's voice inspired Valenti so much...

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Think pizza in Italy and the first image that will likely spring to mind is that of a Neapolitan-style pie: relatively small, circular, and leopard-spotted by char from the blistering heat of a wood-fired oven. While these southern Italian-style pizzas are becoming easier to find — at Anthony’s Coal Fired in Mount Laurel; at Villa Barone in Colling...

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Last year, I chatted with Philly musician and chef, Mariano Mattei, about his appearance on the Food Network’s “Cooks vs. Cons.” At the time, he revealed his plans to open a pizzeria in Point Breeze and we even got to see the space before renovation began. Flash forward to this year and the Mattei Family Pizza is officially open to the public and w...

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Italian Heritage Day is an annual program offered by the Senator John Heinz History Center that occurs on the first Sunday of October. The main objective of Italian Heritage Day is to offer fun, interactive activities for families to learn about Italian American history and culture together. All activities, which are facilitated by local organizati...

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In his native city of Campania, Italy, Dr. Antonio Giordano shops at local markets for fresh ingredients to make caprese, an Italian dish, which he always pairs with a glass of wine. “You cook a bit of olive oil, onion and tomato together, and then throw the pasta right in,”  said Giordano, a biology professor. “It’s fresh, it’s healthy and it is t...

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When the long-simmering controversy over the statue of former Mayor Frank Rizzo reached the screaming phase this summer, city officials invited the public to offer suggestions for the monument’s future. Over the course of three weeks – late August to September 15 – more than 3,600 submissions were received online. (A lot of them are repeats or mess...

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The second annual Washington Italian Heritage Festival will be held from noon to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Community Pavilion on South Main Street in downtown Washington. The festival will feature activities for all ages, including the crowning of Little Miss Italy at 2 p.m., a “grape stomp” and wine-tasting competition at 3 p.m., Tarantella folk danc...

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It’s not an invasion, but for some in Hazleton, Pa., it feels like one. The northern Pennsylvania town is the home of Republican congressman Lou Barletta, whose 2018 campaign for Senate against incumbent Bob Casey has just begun. Barletta, the polished Italian American, looks the ambitious type in both style and CV: He served as mayor of Hazleton f...

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