Profiles

Go back in your Italian ancestry — back beyond your childhood and those of your parents and grandparents. Go back to a time before Italy, before the Roman Empire, even. Now, imagine some ancient Etruscan mystic fashioning a goddess invoked in a magic spell to chase away bad luck. She is probably some 2,700 years old. No wonder she shows her age today. We know this ancient, benevolent presence today as La Befana, Italy’s good Christmas witch. And a pair of Fra Noi veterans who’ve contributed to our magazine since the 1980s now keep her memory alive: Lionel Bottari and …

Carlo Caprio would certainly forgive you if you thought his rock band’s name was Scivoloso Quando Bagnato. After all, that’s how Slippery When Wet translates into Italian. And the Oak Lawn native Ñ aside from being a formidable frontman and lead singer Ñ is also a first-generation Italian American who speaks the mother tongue with a Napoletano twist. Aside from his immediate kin, “Most of my family still lives in Italia,” says Caprio, who turned 41 in November. “Growing up in an Italian household was a great influence, just knowing my parents came to America from another country. I remember …

Paul Barile has so many talents you need a smartphone app to track them. He can dish a blues guitar licks one minute, and dish dirt on Italian beef sandwiches via his culinary blog the next. And when he’s writing poetry, or acting, or getting ready to release a new novel, he’s a playwright who tackles the stage like no other. “I feel blessed to be able to do this — to do all of what I do,” says Barile, 50, a Berwyn native who lives on Chicago’s Southwest Side. “Having a strong and loving Italian family was instrumental in …

For Jeff-award winning actress Paula Scrofano, the journey to accomplished actress began from childhood; growing up in the Cleveland area, she was surrounded by art, music and the magic of Italian culture — which explains how she learned at least a dozen songs in Italian by her high school years. The daughter of a Sicilian father (from the town of Augusta) and a Czech-Hungarian mother, the Riverside, Ill. resident stars as Frau Schmidt in “The Sound of Music.” This Chicago-area production of the award-winning Rodgers and Hammerstein musical runs through Jan. 8, 2013 — you read correctly, 2013 — at …

Opera owes much to Italian culture, but you might be hard pressed to find young, talented Italian Americans carrying the torch in large numbers these days. So it’s a good thing soprano Jamie-Rose Guarrine has stepped up. At the tender age of 33, she’s turning heads for her work with the Sante Fe Opera, the Chicago Opera Theater and the Utah Opera — where Opera News praised her portrayal of Susanna in “Le Nozze di Figaro” as “light, flexible and vibrant — well suited to the part of a scheming maid and romantic ing?nue.” “I was extremely fortunate to grow …

There’s a long tradition of great Italian rock drummers, from Dick Boccelli (Bill Haley and the Comets) to Carmine Appice (Rod Stewart) and Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa). That’s the old guard; make way for the new: Chicago’s Dan Leali has performed with everyone from Grammy-nominated artist Peter Himmelman to jazz-funk group Liquid Soul (with whom he shared a Grammy nomination for the 2000 recording “Here’s the Deal”). And if you’ve seen Leali play, look out: Here’s a guy who does it all, from sweet finesse timekeeping to powerhouse throb to demolish a brick wall. “My older sister had had a …

There is an old saying in Italian culture: “Families are like a fortress.” Tucked away in west suburban River Forest are two small businesses started by an Italian immigrant who wanted to create a fortress for his family and a business for his five children. Frank Bertolli is the proud owner of Bertolli’s River Pizza and Frank’s Deli, located at 7973 and 7971 Lake Street respectively. All five of his children — Carlo, Tony, John, Nora and Marilda — have had a hand in Bertolli’s success. Bertolli was born in 1949 in Mola di Bari. He came to the United …

When a young man works behind a deli at age 15, does he dream one day of owning it? Pat Roberto did. Most high schoolers work evenings, weekend and summers mowing lawns, babysitting or painting homes. But Roberto’s part-time job blended his Italian heritage with his quest for the future. “I had jobs here and there at Calabria Imports,” describes Roberto. “I always had the time in the summer to work at the store behind the deli, as a stock boy or a cashier. I grew up in it.” Spending the majority of his extracurricular life at Calabria Imports set …

Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.” Michael Mangini wholeheartedly agrees. When you’re sipping a Chianti at your favorite local ristorante, chances are good that it was made available by Mangini’s company, Tuscany Distributors of Illinois. After all, Mangini’s company distributes about 200,000 bottles of wine a year in the Chicago area alone. “We are the exclusive distributor for 230 different Italian wines,” Mangini explains. “Our wines come from all over Italy: Sicily, Lombardia, Venice, Naples, Bari and, of course, Tuscany.” Mangini was introduced to the wine business by a friend who owns Tuscany …

Celebrating 25 years in business is a quite an accomplishment. But when you hear the founder of the company is only 42, you have to ask, “How did he do that?” Meet Gino Fioravanti. A River Forest native, Gino is celebrating his silver anniversary in the irrigation and landscape lighting trades. Gino was a regular teenager growing up. He was a star on the Oak Park & River Forest High School wrestling team and got along with everyone. But he was far ahead of his classmates when it came to entrepreneurial spirit. Going into his senior year, Gino and classmate …