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Italian citizenship is in high demand, especially for individuals with Italian ancestry. Many people, upon discovering an Italian ancestor in their family tree, seek to apply for citizenship. While the application process itself is relatively straightforward, delays have become common, especially when applying through Italian consulates abroad, which are often overwhelmed with requests. As a result, applicants can face waiting times of several months or even years. With the rise of remote work, some individuals are choosing to move to Italy and apply for citizenship directly at a local City Hall (Comune). While this can sometimes expedite the process, it’s …

Can two centuries of Italian diaspora across the globe fit into a 30-second sound bite or a 280-character tweet? “No, no and no again,” say the faculty of the fourth edition of the Italian Diaspora Studies Summer Seminar. Sponsored by the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute and Roma Tre University, the session took place in Ostiense, a southern quarter of Rome. The 16 participants arrived from Turkey, Canada and Italy, and from California, Colorado, Indiana, New York, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania in the United States. The IDSSS is the dream child of a team of innovative scholars who have supported …

This is the time of year when we look back at what we can be thankful for. Of course, there are the material things that we can see and touch. In the case of the Roseland, Pullman and Kensington neighborhoods, many of those things can only be view in our mind’s eye. Living in Pullman, I can still visit many of the locations where businesses and family homes from my early years in the area were located, although I do sometimes have to visualize what you used to stand on what is now an empty lot. For instance, at one …

Over the years, I have taught a lot of people how to read Italian birth records. However, having plowed through a lot of birth records recently, I need to promote the use of the “annotation” that may appear on the birth record. A lot of information can appear in an annotation that might not be available on a regular record. It might refer to an event that took place in a town that has no records available to us, or a year that is too recent for FamilySearch to release to us. So what is an annotation? Usually in a …

Twenty-eight miles north of Chicago, Highwood was home to a large, Italian-immigrant community from the early 20th century up to the late 1980s. Many families from our home province of Modena settled there. As is usually the case in mass immigration, it started with families calling connected families, who in turned called others to their new home. Highwood was a place that offered plentiful job opportunities for men with trade backgrounds — that was because of Fort Sheridan. Fort Sheridan was home to the United States Fifth Army, a base supporting 5,000 military and civilian personnel at its peak. It …

If you own a property in Italy, this article may be of interest to you, even more so if your property is vacant. Recent changes in Italian law aim to protect property owners from unauthorized occupation, a concern for many, especially those living elsewhere or abroad. On Sept. 10, Italy’s Parliament (Camera dei Deputati) approved a proposed law focused on enhancing urban security and reinforcing property rights. A key issue addressed by this legislation is unauthorized occupation, which has been on the rise. The new law introduces provisions to ensure quicker recovery of properties and stronger penalties for illegal occupants. …

Alain Delon, the renowned French actor who rose to fame in the 1960s with iconic European films like “Purple Noon” (1960) and “The Leopard “(1963), passed away in August at 88. Known for his striking good looks and rebellious, aloof characters, Delon is considered one of French cinema’s most enigmatic figures. His characters had a lasting impact on international cinema during a career that spanned half a century. Delon was sought after by some of the most prolific Italian auteurs, including Luchino Visconti, Michelangelo Antonioni and Valerio Zurlini. The film that launched his Italian career was undoubtedly Visconti’s 1960 drama …

The Italian verb  entrare  is often used to describe physically entering a place and can be translated as “to enter,” “to go in” or “to come in.” In fact, the Italian and English verbs entrare and enter are cognates; both verbs share a common origin in the Latin language. Also, along with carrying the same primary definition,  entrare and enter have a similar sound when pronounced in each language, and are used in a similar way. Besides the basic meaning of “to enter a place,” entrare  and enter are also the verbs used to give direction to performers. For instance, the …

Around 1987, there was a man who had a vision for Italian genealogy.  His name was Dr. Thomas Militello, from California and eventually Nevada.  Dr. Tom had trouble trying to find genealogists who were researching the same towns as he was, and what surnames they were researching.  Keep in mind that this was the late 1980s so ancestry.com and FamilySearch did not exist as we know them today and social media was years in the future. Dr. Tom founded a group called POINT, which stands for Pursuing Our Italian Names Together.  The objective of POINT was to get people to …

Summer is definitely behind us but, as we head into fall, the season has left us with some wonderful memories. Those include some great events presented by the Pullman National Historical Park Rangers and their staff, the beginning of the construction of a Chick-fil-A on 111th Street, the opening of the Pullman Club Café, the transformation of the off-track betting facility into offices for Chicago’s Red Line extension project, and the clearing of houses on 116th Street to make way for the project. St. Anthony’s Parish has seen the ordination of its new deaconate couple, Mario and Graciela Delgado and …