I can’t recall the last time a film was as simultaneously popular and polarizing as “Green Book.” The story about the unlikely friendship that blossoms between a casually racist Italian-American bouncer and an elitist African-American concert pianist during a road trip through the South in 1962 was a fan favorite, earning $322 million at the worldwide box office. It also cleaned up during awards season, netting Oscars as well as Golden Globes for best picture, supporting actor and original screenplay. But the cinematic rendition of the real-life sojourn taken by Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga and Don Shirley attracted as much …

Nowadays, there are as many ways to tour Italy as there are cities to visit and sights to see. You can travel with a companion, charting your own course and booking everything yourself, or you can sign up for a large-group tour that takes you by the hand and attends to every detail. And then there are the countless small-group options dedicated to exploring the country’s many facets and out-of-the-way places. When my wife and I decided to celebrate our 35th anniversary in Italy, we invited my family along for the ride. From that tiny seed a truly magical adventure …

Frank Perrecone and Frank Fiorello were honored at the Greater Rockford Italian American Association’s annual Hall of Fame and Special Recognition Awards Banquet. A principal at the law firm of Ferolie and Perrecone, Hall of Fame inductee Perrecone is a former chairperson of GRIAA and a long-time volunteer at its events, including Festa Italiana. Special Recognition Award recipient Fiorello of Las Vegas established the Pumpkin Path in Caledonia, the main setting for the 10 children’s books he has written and illustrated. He also is the former newsroom artist and illustrator at the Rockford Register Star.

William Blair financial advisor Thomas Salvino has been named to the Top Wealth Advisors in America list by Forbes magazine for the second year in a row. He was named to Barron’s Top Advisors in America list from 2015 to 2017, and he was also included among the 20 Rising Stars of Wealth Management by Institutional Investor News in 2007, the same year he received the Outstanding Advisor Award from Registered Rep Magazine. A member of the Salvino Wealth Management Team, Thomas, along with his brother John and father Al, manage customized investment portfolios for individuals, families, trusts and foundations.

When the Representative Assembly of the National Education Association recently voted in favor of replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day, it offered precious little by way of justification. Here is the full text of its resolution: “The National Education Association believes that the history of colonization needs to be recognized and acknowledged in every state. To do so, the Association believes that the name of the current holiday known as ‘Columbus Day’ should be renamed and recognized as ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Day’ in recognition of the early indigenous peoples who were living in the United States before colonization by European …

A feeling of dread always comes over me when I read a passage like this one from the news release for “Bottom of the Ninth,” which trumpets its Italian-American street cred. “The film is about a man who returns to the Bronx after serving 17 years in prison for a violent mistake he made as a kid, ultimately robbing him of a professional baseball career and the love of his life.” “Here we go again,” I thought. “Another film that leans too heavily on tired Mafia tropes instead of standing on its own two feet.” The foreboding persisted throughout my …

Both a haven and a springboard for exploring Italy and the rest of Europe, Loyola’s Rome Center has been attracting generations of families like the Turanos since opening its doors in 1961. Ivy League schools are known for their legacy enrollments: students who attend because their parents attended and so on through the generations. It’s a point of pride for the families and a tribute to the quality of the institutions they attend. But East Coast powerhouses like Harvard and MIT don’t hold the patent on generational devotion. The John Felice Rome Center has been inspiring family loyalty since Loyola …

Dustin Hoffman and Toni Servillo in Two acting legends are teaming up for an upcoming Italian film. Dustin Hoffman and Toni Servillo are currently in Rome shooting Donato Carrisi’s “L’uomo del labirinto” (Into the Labyrinth), the follow up to his successful 2017 feature debut, “La ragazza nella nebbia” (The Girl in the Fog). Shooting began on March 18 and is expected to last for seven weeks. The firm centers on a young woman, played by Valentina Bellè, who wakes up in a hospital bed with a broken leg. Disoriented and unable to remember anything, she finds herself in a room …

In the two decades since its founding, the Chicagoland Italian American Charitable Organization has created a remarkable legacy of giving. Each year, the group provides hundreds of needy families with full Thanksgiving meals, presents tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships to college-bound students and bestows tens of thousands of dollars more upon veterans in need and other worthy causes. “None of what we do would be possible without the involvement and support of our members,” says CIACO president Bob Urbinati. “That’s why we decided to present our Humanitarian of the Year Award in memory of deceased members at this …

“Money makes the world go ’round,” or so they say. But in the world I live in, volunteerism is every bit as precious as cold, hard cash. At Fra Noi, we have Dan Serafini, a retired financial systems programmer who emailed me out of the blue one day with an offer of help. He came along just as Mary DeSanto was stepping down as our longtime mailing manager, and Dan now assembles our monthly renewal notices, with lunch as his only material reward. The Italian American Veterans Museum is run by an all-volunteer board that’s rich in both talent and …