There's something about Christmas that makes us nostalgic, weepy even, about Christmases past. My father, a world-class weeper, was certainly not immune from that. I came across this Christmas memory in a 1981 letter he wrote to me while he was listening to Italian Christmas songs, more than 40 years after leaving Gaeta. (An article … Continue reading 58. Zampognari
Is it better to live in an apartment with light, heat and a toilet? Or to live in a cave with your extended family, your chickens and a donkey? This was the question that the government of Italy asked itself in the 1950s when faced with the "shame of Italy": people living in these primitive … Continue reading 57. Matera Immaginata
I love my Christmas tree. Every ornament has great sentimental value to me. Some date back to 1952, when my mother, celebrating her first Christmas (with me!) in Somerset, Massachusetts, ordered them from the Sears Roebuck catalogue. Others signify political leanings, or depict my children at various ages, or identify me as a dog lover. … Continue reading 56. Ornamenti
It was puzzling enough when my cousin posted a Facebook photo of her granddaughter dressed as a "vampiretta" for Halloween. As far as I knew, Italians made a big deal of All Souls Day, November 2, getting together with family and visiting the cemeteries where their loved ones are buried. Italian cemeteries, by the way, … Continue reading 55. Black Friday?
For my 66th birthday yesterday, I chose to go to Sorbillo for lunch, the Manhattan outpost of my daughter Maria's favorite pizzeria in Naples. And authentic it was, with Italian-speaking staff and customers, and a pizzaiolo whose only words to us were "No speak English." It is hard to imagine a time when pizza was … Continue reading 54. Mr. Pizza
I was stunned to read in the New York Times that in the town of Lodi, Italy, children who are no longer eligible for lunch subsidies because of new draconian rules, and therefore had to bring a lunch from home, have been barred from eating in the lunchroom with their classmates. The new regulations and … Continue reading 53. Lunchtime
Every ten years, we have a fight about the census. Who and what should be counted, and how should it be done? For most of us, it is of passing interest: clearly important in theory, but not so much on a personal level. Yet the census can provide us with all sorts of very granular … Continue reading 52. The Melting Pot
For my daughter Maria's birthday dinner, we went to Bamonte, an old-school restaurant in the former Italian neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Open since 1900, it is the primo of Italian-American cuisine, what would be called a "gravy restaurant" in Philadelphia. On offer was every item one might expect at an American Italian restaurant, ranging from … Continue reading 51. Comfort Food
I just finished an amazing book, War in Val D'Orcia, by Iris Origo. Iris was an Englishwoman married to an Italian marchese. During World War II, they turned their 15th-century Tuscan farm estate, La Foce, into a home for refugee Italian children whose homes were in populated areas that were susceptible to bombing, or who … Continue reading 50. War Times
Saturday night, the Swarthmore College community got a message from the Provost regarding Indigenous Peoples Day, formerly known as Columbus Day. She wrote: "... the choice to celebrate Columbus served multiple purposes in the United States: to many, it was aspirational in attempting to end anti-Italian and anti-Catholic bigotry while simultaneously to many others, it … Continue reading 49. Columbus Day
Gigi's Italia 