Columns

While we were in Italy, we spent alternating weeks at the nearby farms of my two sets of grandparents. At each place, I was able to spend a lot of time with my young cousins who lived locally or in Rome and came to stay with us with their mothers during the week. My Roman uncles came out when they could on the weekends, often decked out in short-sleeved white shirts and brown gabardine pants. Rome was only a 90-minute drive north, but one uncle, Mario the Evangelist minister, lived with my aunt and three kids in Taranto — 200 …

  Many Italian Americans spend years restoring a family home in Italy, purchasing an apartment for retirement or holding on to property inherited from parents or grandparents. Far fewer stop to consider what will happen to that property when it passes to the next generation. While considerable attention is usually devoted to purchasing or maintaining property in Italy, less thought is often given to what may happen to that property in the future. Depending on the circumstances, the absence of coordinated estate planning may create additional formalities, delays or uncertainty for heirs. A U.S. will is not necessarily ineffective in …

The verb fare, which means “to do” and “to make” is ubiquitous in conversational Italian, as it is found in innumerable special expressions. Fare is used to convey different types of shopping, as well as to express one’s occupation, talk about what you have (or don’t have) to do, how much an item costs, taking a photo or a trip. Learn how to use fare to sound like a native Italian in almost every situation! In the last blog in this series, “Facciamo Shopping!” or “Let’s go shopping!” we learned how to describe the act of shopping in Italian.  You may …

A new exhibition in Cold Spring, New York, is bringing the luminous legacy of Murano glassmaking into focus through the work of Japanese artist Yoichi Ohira. “Yoichi Ohira: Japan in Murano” is on view at Magazzino Italian Art until February 2027. The exhibit showcases the work of Ohira who became a leading figure in the design of Venetian glassworks on the island of Murano. The exhibition highlight the uniqueness of Ohira’s art across the decades of his career. Ohira’s earliest Murano works blend Venetian glass techniques with his own style. These pieces show balanced shapes, clear surfaces, and striking color …

On the late afternoon of our arrival in Italy in July 1960, my weary family and I found ourselves at the house of my maternal grandparents. It was time to settle down to a banquet that had doubtlessly taken my newly-met aunts and great-aunts a prodigious number of hours to prepare. In the company of a dozen adults and a gaggle of kids, I partook of prosciutto e melone, a savory soup with tiny meatballs, homemade manicotti, chickens that had been scavenging carefree in the yard that morning, roast rabbit with diced rosemary potatoes, and a “contorni” of assorted vegetables …

  This month’s column comes to you under the auspices of current events. As most of you know, I’ve written the book “Petals from Roseland: Fond memories of Chicago’s Roseland, Pullman and Kensington neighborhoods.” I’ve sold more than 1,000 copies of the book, and I still have copies available for purchase. Recently, one of my readers contacted me via email to tell me how much he enjoyed the book. He then asked me a question that led to this column: “Have you sent a copy of your book to the pope?” I hadn’t even thought of it, but it was …

For many Italian Americans, owning a home in Italy has always carried a special emotional appeal. A small apartment in Florence, a pied-à-terre in Rome, a house in Naples, a retreat in Bologna or another historic city: the dream is often simple. Use the property for part of the year, rent it out when not in Italy, and allow the home to help cover its own costs. Until recently, that model was relatively easy to understand. Not effortless, of course — nothing involving Italian bureaucracy is ever free hassle — but manageable. Today, however, short-term rentals in Italy have become …

How do I say, “I am going shopping in Italian?”  Well, that depends on the type of shopping to be done!  The different Italian phrases that describe the act of “going shopping” are listed in the tables below.  Notice that all Italian shopping phrases use the verb fare, which means “to do” or “to make.” Grocery Shopping fare la spesa to do the grocery shopping to do some grocery shopping (the grocery shopping = la spesa) (groceries =  la spesa / i generi alimentari)   General Shopping fare spese to do the shopping (clothes, shoes, or other personal items) fare …

A newsman once interviewed Don Hewitt, who ran “60 Minutes” as executive producer for decades. (He was Mike Wallace’s boss!) He asked Don why “60 Minutes” was a runaway success and most of the other news magazine shows were not. Don answered rather quickly, “It’s four simple words. Tell Me A Story.” Many of us who research our family tree can get caught up with the nuts and bolts of finding the basic vital facts of our family members: When and where were they born? When and where were they married? When and where did they die? These six basic …

Recently when I was sitting at my computer, an old column from more than 10 years ago popped up. I received a lot of comments on it and realized that there is still an interest in the things I wrote about so many years ago. As a result, I’ve decided to present some of the information from that and another column a while back. I hope you all enjoy this look back at the past. Let me say that many of us have left Roseland, but we’ve never left behind the people, places or good times that Roseland gave us. …