In the 1930s, Frank Donatelli allowed customers to stop in and pick up grocery items they needed from Donatelli’s Italian Food Center on Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield – without paying. They could give him money later. “My grandfather started accounts for Italian immigrants,” said his grandson Russell Donatelli. “They paid what they could when they c...

Despite the weather and light rain, there was a modest turnout at the Columbus Day Parade that was held on Saturday in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood. Pittsburgh Steelers great and NFL Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris served as the Grand Marshal. The parade started on Liberty Avenue near West Penn Hospital and continued through Bloomfi...

About 30 community members joined a virtual community meeting on Sept. 29 to discuss Pittsburgh's Columbus Day Parade that is scheduled for Sat., Oct. 9, in the Bloomfield neighborhood. At the meetings hosted by the Bloomfield Development Corporation, four people were given the chance to address the group, and they shared opinions strongly for and...

Pittsburgh’s Columbus Day Parade is coming back this year. Scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 9, organizers say over 100 bands, floats, organizations and businesses will take part. Steelers great Franco Harris will serve as the grand marshal.  It’ll start near West Penn Hospital and head down Liberty Avenue through Bloomfield. The 30-year trad...

Allegheny Township’s Rosalie Casper spent a few weeks working on her stage presence before her debut pageant appearance Sunday at Little Italy Days in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood. That’s all the preparation the 5-year-old needed. Rosalie was named Miss Little Italy in the 4-to-6-year-old division at the region’s largest annual festival cel...

Little Italy Days has returned after a 2020 absence caused by the COVID pandemic, and Bloomfield’s street festival is picking up right where it left off. The festival has grown massively over the years, and 2021 continues that trend with booths stretching several blocks on Liberty Avenue. Little Italy Days has become so big that some Bloomfield res...

In a 1913 issue of Poetry magazine, Ezra Pound listed his rules for the Imagist school that included “the natural object is always the adequate symbol.” And, like much in our march toward civilization that began millennia ago, humans have found it best to imitate nature when finding practical solutions to an everyday problem. One of the most fundam...

Pat Pecora recently was officially inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Chapter, his ninth hall of fame induction. The Pitt-Johnstown wrestling coach and athletic director had to wait a year for the induction ceremony as the 2020 event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Joining Pecora in the class was...

Pittsburgh United FC, the newly formed United Premier Soccer League club, announced a signing Thursday that it hopes will make a major impact on its roster when it begins play in the fall. It’s not a striker or goalkeeper. It’s a scout. The team announced the addition of Nicola Martini as its director of scouting. Martini has worked as an intermedi...

Most major events in our area were canceled last year due to COVID and there were fears more cancellations would occur this year. But Tuesday, there is word the popular Little Italy Days in Bloomfield will return this summer. Businesses were devastated by COVID-19. Bloomfield got hit especially hard when it had to cancel its little Italy Days, whic...