Highlights

Sept. 21 marked the 70th anniversary of the Rocky Marciano-Archie Moore fight of 1955. It was Marciano’s last bout and final knockout of an opponent. He retired the following year with a 49-0 record, 43 of which were knockouts. He’s the only boxer to retire undefeated. Sadly, he died in a plane crash at age 46 in 1969. Such a career should be ripe for the silver screen, but Marciano’s back story was too humdrum for Hollywood. However, the champ’s short life did make it to television in 1979 starring Tony Lo Bianco and again in 1999 starring Jon Favreau. …

Although little-known today, Enrico de Tonti carried the rich heritage of Italy into the annals of European explorers. His Italian roots of resilience and tenacity — traits forged in a region long ruled by foreign empires — were keys to his survival in the wilderness of 17th-century North America. Tonti was born around 1649 in a coastal town near Naples to Lorenzo de Tonti and Isabelle di Lietto. The family moved to Paris soon after his birth so his father could escape persecution after an unsuccessful revolt against the city’s Spanish viceroy. Raised in Paris, Tonti grew up among émigrés. …

Photos by Rebecca Branconi A century after his great-grandparents left a small Laziale town for America, Steve Decina has reversed the voyage, choosing to raise his children in the land of his forebears. I will never forget the first time I saw San Donato. I had just crossed the Apennines from Pescara and descended into the Val di Comino. I drove, awestruck, into the gently lit village nestled into a notch between two snow-dusted mountains. It was incredibly beautiful — it reminded me of a presepe, the elaborate Italian Nativity scene that often sets the Holy Family among life in …

A capacity crowd watched the Italian national team dominate its American counterpart during recent tournament play in the Chicago area. Italian volleyball fans in the Chicago area were delighted this summer to watch firsthand as the Italian national men’s team took on Team USA at NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates. The crowd was near the arena’s capacity of 11,218 and while the vast majority were wearing red, white and blue, there was a small but mighty contingent of fans supporting Team Italy. A few Italy fans waved the Tricolore and sang along to “Inno di Mameli” during the national anthems …

It all began with a journey. Not in the rhetorical sense of the term, but with real steps, into emptying villages, along silent streets, alongside faces filled with expectation and questions. It was the summer of 2015, and I had an urgent need: to tell the story of Basilicata not as a remote place, but as a space of possibility. Thus was born #IdealPlace — more than a project, a gentle obsession. A way of saying that even in territories considered peripheral, new words are being generated, visions capable of touching the heart of Italy’s transformations. Not just beauty, but …

I have my Grandmother Anna Anzalone Tinaglia’s old Italian “La Sacra Bibbia” from when she lived in the North Side neighborhood once known as Little Sicily. Her copy is well-worn and annotated by her. It’s from the American Bible Society, which gave out Bibles to new immigrants in America. It is a translation by G. Diodati, an Italian Protestant. It isn’t sanctioned by the Catholic Church, and for centuries it was prohibited. Giovanni Diodati was born in 1576 in Switzerland to a noble Protestant family from Lucca. Protestant exiles, his family had fled the Inquisition to find refuge in the …

All across Italy, private homes have been converted into public museums that spotlight aspects of the nation’s history while celebrating the individuals who helped shaped them. After you’ve marveled at the grandeur of the Colosseum, wandered along the endless halls and galleries of the Uffizi, and glided on the canals of Venice, Italy’s hidden gems — its house museums — are ready and waiting to immerse you in intimate histories, personal collections and unique glimpses into the lives of some of the country’s most fascinating figures. Far beyond the tourist trail, you’ll discover rich and engaging stories within the walls …

Most people are familiar with the traditional diatonic harmonica’s long, wailing notes and chords on blues and country songs. Yet there’s another version of the instrument that allows the musician to tear through three octaves of sharps and flats. Once cherished in jazz, classical and folk circles, the chromatic harmonica is disappearing from the musical landscape, and Enrico Granafei is one its few remaining masters. Granafei was born and raised in the Italian region of Calabria region, and as a young man took an interest in guitar. “I enrolled in a classical guitar course at the conservatory,” Granafei says from …

New Orleans, 1919. The cobblestone streets are filled with fancy carriages as well as carts pushed by vendors, many of them Italian American, selling fresh fruit, shrimp and oysters. As gas lanterns light the nighttime streets of the French Quarter, a new music is being born. Part ragtime, part blues, part march music, it’s called jazz. Decked out in high-collared shirts and dark suits and with their hair slicked back, Cosimo and the Hot Coals transport audiences back to that magical time when a new sound was born in New Orleans. Based in Milan, the band regularly performs throughout Italy …

A new Netflix series adaptation of “The Leopard,” based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s seminal novel, is captivating audiences worldwide. Directed by British filmmaker Tom Shankland, the series revisits the iconic tale first brought to the screen by Luchino Visconti in 1963. Set against the backdrop of 1860s Sicily during the Risorgimento, the film follows Prince Fabrizio Salina (Kim Rossi Stuart), an aging aristocrat witnessing the decline of the Sicilian nobility and the rise of a new social order. As Garibaldi’s forces land in Sicily, the prince reflects on the now-fleeting aristocratic way of life. His nephew Tancredi (Saul Nanni) …