Cheese Shops We Love: Claudio Specialty Foods
In the heart of Philadelphia's historic Italian Market, Claudio Specialty Foods embodies timeless Italian traditions and exceptional cheese craftsmanship. Since Claudio Auriemma and his wife Salvatrice founded the shop in the 1950s, this family-owned gem has become a cornerstone of the community, offering customers an authentic taste of Italy with...
How Italy's core hotel investors are weighing risk before the deals market heats up
Hotel investors have returned their attention to Italy but are being very choosy about where they park their capital as they assess risks. Hotel owners and investors who have been active in Italy for years are looking to be aggressive now before outside investors catch on. Guy David Heksch, chief operating officer at London-based Omnam Investment G...
Super Artists: cartoon illustrator Al Plastino
This past week a local school on Long Island honored the memory of cartoon illustrator Al Plastino. He was one of many Italian Americans who crafted the comic books that every boy in the country grew up with — Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and the Legion of Super-Heroes. I’m not a collector or devotee of comics, but in tracking down...
The Rise of Panettone and Pandoro in Italy and Abroad
As soon as leaves begin to turn, panettone starts showing up in pastry shops and markets around Italy. But the sweet — a cross between a bread and cake which legend says first appeared at the court of Ludovico il Moro in the 16th century in Milan — isn’t only an Italian holiday staple. According to La Confederazione Pasticceri Italiani (Conpait), g...
A Sign of Great Things to Come
There’s no place like home, especially in the heart of Cleveland’s Little Italy neighborhood. And what better place for the Northern Ohio Italian American Foundation (NOIA) to establish its new, permanent headquarters, now open at 12018 Mayfield Road? This past December, the NOIA executive staff moved in while work on the interior design progresse...
Targa Florio, oldest car race in the world
In the evening, we would get into the car and drive to the curve or straight stretch we had scouted out in the days before. Armed with blankets—the spring nights were still chilly, especially in those mountainous or hilly areas—we would park and lower the seats of the cars only some of us owned, settling in to sleep. But not before sinking our teet...
Italian Beef’s Golden Age
If you told me Mr. Beef was Chicago’s most popular tourist attraction of 2024, I’d believe you. Having never been to the River North stand (I’m a Johnnie’s or Al’s gal), I decided to join the line of folks who had flown into town and proceeded directly, suitcases in hand, to the restaurant on which the one in The Bear is based. Despite all the ques...
7 New Ways To Experience Italy This Fall And Winter
Italy has much to offer every season. Here are new ways to experience the country this fall and winter, in destinations ranging from the Alpine north to Sicily. Discover Bormio before the Olympics. The much anticipated Olympic Winter Games Milan Cortina 2026, will take place, obviously, in Milan and Cortina, but there will be a lot of action in oth...
SCIM / Julia Lovejoy Cuniberti: The Midwesterner who Adapted Italian Culinary Traditions for American Kitchens
When: The November 20 2024, 18:00 (Local time) - Where: Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago - For a fee: No On the occasion of the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World, the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago presents an event dedicated to the tradition of the Mediterranean diet, inspired by the theme Mediterranean Diet and Heritage Cuisine: H...
We Tried Making Our Own Pasta at Italian Kitchen
I have many passions in life, and among the top is pasta. I even honeymooned in Italy! My husband will tell you it was because we wanted to see the sights, but really it was for the pasta. Alessandro De Luca is the head chef and co-owner of Italian Kitchen (540 W. McDaniel St., Springfield), alongside his sous chef and co-owner, Jennifer Morris. Af...
A Travelogue: Bread in Puglia and Pizza In Naples
At the end of September 2024, I accompanied a group of The Perfect Loaf readers through southern Italy’s olive tree and cobblestone-lined streets. Though I’ve been to Italy many times to visit family, it was my first trip as a tourist and a guide of sorts, and if I’m being honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Would the conversation flow? Is...
Inside the new Little Italy Museum and Cultural Center in San Jose
With the new Little Italy Museum and Cultural Center in San Jose now open to the public, people got their first chance to explore the restored house on West St. John Street at Sunday’s Little Italy Festival. Anyone who toured the old Beltramo house during the groundbreaking ceremony in 2020 can attest that architect Sal Caruso — and a team of build...