Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
GENERAL
Fra Noi
3800 Division St.
Stone Park, IL 60165
Phone: 708-338-0690
Facebook: Fra Noi
Twitter: @franoi
E-MAIL
info@franoi.com
BOARD
Lewis Affetto
Paul Basile (Editor)
Stephen Fiorentino
Nicholas S. Giuliano
Anthony Spina
Senatore Renato Turano
Attorney & Registered Agent: Anthony F. Spina
FRA NOI (ISSN 10914218) is published monthly at $36 per year by Fra Noi Inc. Copyright ©2023, Fra Noi Inc. All rights reserved. “Fra Noi,” “Embrace your inner Italian” and “Italian American Voice” are all federally registered trademarks and service marks belonging to Fra Noi Inc.
I have been on a pilgrimage to find a crisp biscotti for dipping in coffee, tea or vermouth.
I ordered from two places since February but they were not as hard as I remember and slightly fell apart.
Our local Italian deli/restaurant has what they call quaresimali, which are very hard but I can’t find harder.
I ordered from an espresso coffee machine maker and from the Biscotti Brothers. (I sent an email but never got an answer from BB.)
try the almond biscotti from Costco–altho not always available.
Looking to hire a caregiver for my sister who is blind. Does everything her self, no lifting, bathing,or medications. Please call for more info, 6days /24 hrs. 847-965-3138. 100% Sicilian. Main dutuies, Cooking & house care. Thank you
Chris Bellina
I am searching for information on Antonio Borsato. I recently inherited my father’s collection and would like to add pieces but information on him is very sketchy. I am aware of the Borsato Museum in Northlake. Thank you very much.
I have been looking to buy some Scala italian sausage but can’t seem to locate anywhere that sell’s it. If anybody know’s where I can purchase it I would greatly appreciate the help in locating where to buy some. Thank You for your help.
Pistoia, July 4, 2017
Dear all,
We are a group of Italian associations and organizations gathering folk artists and promoting folk concerts. We are reaching out to you now to propose a new Folk Festival, which will focus on Italian popular music and dances from before World War II. The artists participating in our festival are both internationally renowned professionals and young musicians who are making a name for themselves on the music scene. If you are interested in this initiative of ours, we will be glad to send you both video and audio materials on it.
While striving to be original, we look at such models as the Taranta Festival in Southern Italy and the Quarrata Folk Festival (near Pistoia). We greatly admire their artistic directors, that is, the famous musicians Claudio Carboni and Riccardo Tesi, respectively. Like the organizers of these two celebrated festivals, we too wish to help the audience rediscover their origins and the music of their ancestors. As such, our event will provide a full immersion in popular Italian culture, its dances, rhythms, dialects and melodies. Also, our festival will join music with Italian cuisine, thus making it possible for participants to discover (or rediscover) old recipes, what you may call “Grandma’s Recipes”! To this purpose, we will hold a cooking contest as part of the festival.
To pull off this major event, we can rely on the collaboration of very experienced colleagues from our own province, that is, Pistoia. Among them are the members of the Luigi Tronci Foundation. As some of you may know, the Tronci family has been making musical instruments since the 18th century. In the following century, they produced church organs and collaborated with such musicans as Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and Pietro Mascagni, making percussion instruments for their operas’ premieres. Today the Tronci family owns U.F.I.P., the famous brand of plates and percussion instruments. Suffice it to say that the Rolling Stones have been using U.F.I.P. cymbals for many years now, as the Beatles (that is, Ringo Starr) did before them.
Thanks to such a strong network of collaborators in our own territory we look forward to establishing a series of partnerships with other cities, both in Italy and abroad. In the latter case, we are thinking of Italian communities living outside the peninsula and yet very much connected with their own culture and family origins.
If you wish to learn more about our festival and all related initiatives, starting with the program that we are now in the process of drafting (proposals are welcome, by the way!), please feel free to email me. I and the two festival directors (Claudio Carboni and Riccardo Tesi) will answer you as soon as possible.
All the best,
Prof. Riccardo Fagioli (President of “Associazione Culturidea”, Pistoia – Tuscany, Italy)
P.S. if you have Facebook and you want to see our pages you can see at Fondazione Luigi Tronci, Quarrata Folk Festival, Associazione Culturidea provincia Pistoia
It’s always a pleasure receiving Fra Noi. I’ve lived and worked in Italy for over 20 years. I can assure you that your culture articles and language instruction are always accurate. Fra Noi makes me so proud to be an Italian American. Thank you.
Hello
I live in Lake Bluff, IL.
My daughter wants to take Italian Lessons. Any recomendations?
Thanks
To Paul Basile:
Paul, I just finished reading my recent copy of Fra Noi. Thank you and everyone involved in putting the issue together. I want to especially thank you for your message about your mother and her heritage. I too am the son of my Italian father and my Croatian mother. What a wonderful blend of cultures. I grew up in Pilsen involved with my mother’s family. However, every Sunday we dutifully visited our Italian family in the Taylor Street Little Italy. Early on, my mother learned how to make authentic Pasta “gravy” from our nonna. Since our bus ride home had us transferring across the street from the Calabrese pastry shop, we got to know and love wonderful canollis. In later years my Croatian mother purchased the forms and made the pastries, shells and filling. You brought back many memories of my blended family heritage. Thank you and continued success with the magazine.
Thanks for your kind words, John.
I’ve received many positive comments about the my mom’s column.
She’d be tickled by the response.
Paul