Tomorrow, January 6 is the Epiphany, a date commonly celebrated in the Catholic church and cherished throughout Italy. If you aren’t sure what the Epiphany is, you can read up on it here. But please come back. I grew up in a large Catholic family in Texas and have never celebrated the Epiphany. In fact,...Read More
This is the first full week of Christmas celebrations in Italy … presepi are being blessed at local churches, lights are strung across streets, children are singing Christmas carols and preparing for school programs. It is enough to make me want to sing Jingle Bells and start roasting a turkey. Oh. But wait. They don’t...Read More
The Christmas season may be in full swing in other places throughout the world, but for those of us in Italy … TODAY is the day. In case you missed it, we are smack dab in the middle of a Four-Part Series on Celebrating Christmas in Italy. Here are Part I and Part II. However,...Read More
One of my favorite childhood memories is of celebrating Halloween with my 28 first cousins, my sister and our friends all rounded up at grandma’s house for her annual Halloween Party. We’d all dress up – parents, too – and make a campfire, bob for apples, smack around a few pinatas and go on a...Read More
* This post was originally schedule for Friday, October 24. Due to site issues Thursday-Friday, it has been reposted here today. Thank you for your patience and enjoy! Imagine this. It is your (insert young age here) birthday and you live in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. (I’m talking about Italy here.)...Read More
It’s no secret Italy abounds with natural beauty, stunning people and ageless architecture. And the food ain’t bad, either. But what goes on behind the scenes? Where do the stereotypes end and the real Italy begin? Frequent visitors to the bel paese have witnessed death-defying collisions on Italian roadways, know you can’t find a decent,...Read More
I am continually amazed at the random and rather unflattering things you can learn just by listening to the locals talk to one another. For example this week I learned that GOBBU is Calabrese dialect for “hunchback” and CAPONA means “big head.” Nice, huh? Wanna know the context in which I heard these words? Peppinu...Read More
Superstitions are a topic close to my heart having grown up with an Italian-American grandmother and now living in southern Italy, where Roman Catholicism and mysticism live in surprising perfect harmony. That phenomenon is worth a whole post, and indeed books have been written on the subject. Perhaps someday I’ll wax theoretical, but for today,...Read More
“Chi ha moglie ha doglie” We were last discussing what common denominator ties weddings together world-wide. If not flowers, cakes, veils, or favors…what could it be? That only leaves one thing! Well, technically that leaves a lot of things…but today we are talking about il regalo di nozze, otherwise known as, the wedding present. This...Read More
And, no! This is not referring to the lack of regularly seen sconti throughout Italy, but rather. Salt or no salt. On your watermelon, I mean? All summer, at the amazement, and sometimes utter disguist of the Italians, I have added a dash of sale to my watermelon. Well, I finally got one Italian to...Read More
