For my money, the best food in Italy (and therefore the world) is in Sicily. While Americans are most familiar with the wonderful food of Naples, particularly pizza and pasta with red sauce, Sicily’s blend of cultures, having been conquered at some point over the past three millennia by all the countries surrounding the Mediterranean, … Continue reading 153. Street Food of Palermo
If I won the Megabucks, I wouldn’t change much. I wouldn’t quit my job, or buy a second home, even in Italy. I’d still drive my fourteen-year-old Hyundai, and shop at Target and Marshall’s. I’d pass on Michelin three-stars and eat at greasy spoons and little ethnic holes in the wall. There’s only one life … Continue reading 152. Prima Classe
My father taught me two true things about Easter Saturday. At 11:00 AM, for one moment, the Mediterranean turns from salt water to fresh. Also at 11, worms crawl out of the Easter pastries. Lamb cake or bunny cake? A tough decision at Termini Brothers One can imagine that the second was told to little … Continue reading 151. Easter Saturday
My father had a crackpot theory that all American popular music really came from Italy. But on further thought, maybe he had a point, particularly in the mid-century pre-Beatles music scene. There were the Elvis hits "It's Now or Never" ("O Sole Mio") and "Surrender" ("Torna a Sorrento") that took classic Italian songs and gave … Continue reading 150. Bobby Ridarelli
I have finally found the one person in the universe who is more into Italy than I am: Katy Clarke. Katy is a young(ish) Australian woman who is married to an Italian-Australian, and has built an empire of mostly free resources all about travel to Italy. There's her Untold Italy podcast, where she and other … Continue reading 149. Untold Italy
I finally got my chance. I’m a fairly frequent traveler to New Orleans, and I’ve always been intrigued by its American Italian Cultural Center and Museum. But whenever I happen to pass by it for one reason or another, it’s been closed. The Piazza D’Italia outside the museum So yesterday was my lucky day. I … Continue reading 148. New Orleans
An article in this morning's New York Times caught my eye. It seems that Florence's legendary Uffizi Gallery, chock full of Botticelli, Michelangelo, Caravaggio and the like and easily one of the top ten classical Western art museums in the world, is trying to jazz things up and appeal to a younger, more diverse crowd … Continue reading 147. Art in Venice
When I moved to Philadelphia, I started hearing Italian-Americans talking about their Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes, a tradition with which I was not familiar. Of course, I do remember Christmas Eve, like Fridays, as a Catholic sacrificial fasting day, on which one was required to forgo meat. But my father never spoke … Continue reading 146. The Feast of the Two Fishes
One of the beauty parts of travel is that it stays with you, even long after you return home. The sights, the sounds, the smells -- the adventures, the triumphs, the unexpected -- are all to be savored in the months and years that follow. Even the catastrophes (one hopes) are not too catastrophic, and … Continue reading 145. Scenes of Italy
If you ever needed to win a debate as to whether Italy is the greatest food country in the world, you could do it with just one word: Autogrill. The chain of highway rest stops has reliably excellent sandwiches, pastries and pizzas, great coffee, and the larger ones have pasta, salads and entrees, too. Italians … Continue reading 144. More Food
Gigi's Italia 