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Watch us on i-Italy | TV NYC LIFE - Channel 25 Every Sunday 1:00PM in the NYC metropolitan area on all cable operators and on the air. Web: go to www.i-ItalyTV.com Mobile: download our app and connect to your TV Tales of Unusual Italian Women

SpecialSpecial Issue Issue Watch Video Massimo Vignelli How Italian Designers Gaetano Pesce Flavio Manzoni Antonio Pio Saracino Conquered America (pags. 60-69) Design by Flavio Manzoni, Director of the Ferrari Style Center Style Ferrari the of Director Manzoni, Flavio by Design

Also in this issue ● Remembering Umberto Eco ● Our Lampedusa/Ellis Island Controversy Continues ● Starbucks or No Starbucks? ● Italy’s Worldwide Ambas- sadors: Quality Food and Top Chefs ● Made in Italy vs. Italian Sounding ● And much more...

Events Dining Out & In Ideas Tourism Italy in New York: Where to Find an Italian Living Italian in New Discovering Abruzzo, Culture, Art, and Coffee in NYC ● The Many York: Fashion, Design, The Green Region Special Events Ways of Mozzarella Books & Music That Has It All

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Web, Print, and Television for the Italian experience in America Contents staff&info

Free Issue

All Things Italian in New York Year 4, Issue 3-4 Spring 2016 $ 4.50

Watch us on i-Italy | TV ➜ ➜ NYC LIFE - Channel 25 Every Sunday 1:00PM 27 43 in the NYC metropolitan area on all cable operators and on the air. Web: go to www.i-ItalyTV.com Mobile: download our app and connect to your TV Tales of UnUsUal ITalIan Women Amoris Laetitia: Starbucks SpecialSpecial Issue Issue Watch Video massimo Vignelli How Italian Designers Gaetano Pesce flavio manzoni antonio Pio saracino Conquered America (pags. 60-69) Modernization Without Doesn’t Spell Focus Revolution The Apocalypse! Design by Flavio Manzoni, Director of the Ferrari Style Center Style Ferrari the of Director Manzoni, Flavio by Design ■ by Gennaro Matino ■ by Alberto Baudo

Events Dining Out & In Ideas Tourism Italy in New York: Where to Find an Italian Living Italian in New Discovering Abruzzo, Editorial My Mentors 6: Alberto Cribiore Dining Out Special Culture, Art, and Coffee in NYC ● The Many York: Fashion, Design, The Green Region Special Events Ways of Mozzarella Books & Music That Has It All ■ by Letizia Airos Learning to Give Credit Cafes and coffee shops Where Credit is Due i~Italy NY ➜08 ■ by Lucia Pasqualini ➜49 www.i-ItalyNY.com Samantha Cristoforetti, Astronaut Joe Bastianich’s Italian trattoria Grounded in the Stars A Bis of Pasta and the A magazine about all Things Italian in New York City by Maria Rita Latto & Letizia Airos Perfect Wine Events ■ by Paola Aurisicchio Year 4 - Issue 3-4 ➜11 Spring 2016 Giorgia Caporuscio, Pizzaiola Everything Italian in NYC ➜50 A Woman’s Job Is Never Done Eataly’s new rooftop Editor in Chief ■ by Letizia Airos Letizia Airos ➜33 ‘Sabbia Brings You to the [email protected] Italian “Thingness” Across Italian Riviera the World ■ by S.F. Project Manager Ottorino Cappelli ■ by Siân Elaine Gibby [email protected] ➜35 Dining In Staff & Contributors The Material Painting of Natasha Lardera, Bianca Soria, Mila Verdiana Tenaglia (editorial coordination); ■ by Mila Tenaglia Bringing Italy to your family table Michele Scicolone and Charles Scicolone (food & wine editors); Rosanna Di Michele (chef); Mila Tenaglia (events); ➜41-43 ➜52 Maria Allen (fashion); Judith Harris, Italy in the City Italy’s True Ambassadors: Maria Rita Latto, Virginia di Falco(Italy Events Calendar Fine Cuisine and Top Chefs correspondents); Stefano Albertini, ➜14 April-May 2016 ■ by Judith Harris Giuseppe Basso, Dino Borri, Enzo Capua, In memory of Umberto Eco Dominique Fernandez, Fred Gardaphe, Reflections on An Italian Icon ➜54 Jerry Krase, Gennaro Matino, Lucia ■ by Anthony Julian Tamburri The Many Ways of Pasqualini, Fred Plotkin, Marcello Mozzarella Saija, Francine Segan, Anthony Julian ➜16 ■ by Luciano Pignataro Tamburri (columnists & contributors); Come Find Us at Cinecittà! Matteo Banfo, Ennio Serafini, (TV & ■ multimedia team); Francesca Maltauro, by Giuseppe Basso ➜56 Lorenzo Lasagna, Megan Loiacono, Being Italian Versus Camilla Santinelli (interns); Will Schutt, ➜18 Sounding Like One Athena Mellor (translation); Robert The new Consul General in New York ■ by Dino Borri Oppedisano (editorial supervision); Representing a ‘Global Italy’ Alberto Sepe (web & mobile); Darrell ■ by Letizia Airos ➜57 Fusaro (cartoonist); Lilith Mazzocchi Dining Out How to Prepare (layout); Andrée Brick (design) ➜22-25 Parmigiana di patate For advertising contact: The Debate: Immigration Policy in ■ by Rosanna Di Michele USA: Italian Media Corp. Restaurants+Pizzerias+Wine Bars [email protected] Italy and the American Lesson / 2 ITALY: First Media Adv ➜58 [email protected] Can Lampedusa Be an ➜42 A favorite dish... Main Offices Opportunity for Europe? Starbucks or No Starbucks? From Abruzzo: Lamb Ragu New York ■ by Marcello Saija ■ by Rosario Procino with Pasta alla Chitarra 28 W 44th Street New York, NY, 10036 ■ by Michele Scicolone Tel. (917) 521-2035 Good, Bad, and Ugly ➜ ... Paired with the right wine Rome 43 Via Montebello 37 at Ellis Island Let’s advertise it for what it Understanding 00185 Roma -Tel. (366) 747.8348 ■ by Jerome Krase is: an American Coffee Bar Montepulciano d’Abruzzo ■ by Fred Plotkin ■ by Charles Scicolone

Copies printed this month: 50,000 We wish to express our special thanks to the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute of CUNY for its continued support of our work Continued ➜ www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April-May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 5 i-Italy|NY ➜ Contents

Ideas Tourism

Are you going to Italy soon? Style: Design, Fashion & More ➜77 ➜60-69 “Best place where to live” Special: How Italian Abruzzo: The Green Region Designers Conquered That Has It All America ■ by Goffredo Palmerini

➜60 ➜80 The Icon: Remembering Massimo My L’Aquila Vignelli (1932-2013) ■ Bookshelf: Italian Reads by Mario Fratti Design Is One & Listens ■ by Letizia Airos ➜75 ➜81 Italian Jazz Meet Rosanna, Chef d’Abruzzo ➜63 ➜70 A Tribute to Those Who Culinary Wonders of The Radical: In Conversation with Jhumpa Lahiri Want It Abruzzo maestro Gaetano Pesce In My Words ■ by Enzo Capua ■ by Otylia Coppola A Tool for Social Criticism ■ by Lucia Pasqualini ■ by Mila Tenaglia ➜73 ➜65 Rolling With Life’s The Dream Maker: Meeting Ferrari Changes Design Head Flavio Manzoni ■ by Fred Gardaphe Synergic Design Thinking ■ by Letizia Airos ➜74-75 ➜68 Suggested Readings The Emerging Talent: Antonio Pio Saracino in His Own Words Universal and Timeless ■ by Susan Powell Donload our iPhone App

Where To Find Us in New York

Government and Educational Institutions: Consulate General of Italy (690, Park Ave) ● Italian Cultural In- stitute (686 Park Ave) ● Italian Trade Commission (33 E 67th St) ● Italian Government Tourist Board (686 Park Ave) ● Scuola d’Italia G. Marconi (12 E 96th St) ● John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, CUNY (25 W 43rd St) ● Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò, NYU (24 W 12th St) ● Inserra Chair, Montclair State University (1 Normal Ave Montclair, NJ) ● Italian American Committee on Education (18 E 41st St) ● Collina Italiana (1556 3rd Ave) ● CIMA - Center for Italian Modern Art (421 Broome St) ●

Bookstores, Showrooms & Galleries: Rizzoli Bookstore (1133 Broadway) ● Poltrona Frau (141 Wooster St) ● Cassina (151 Wooster St) ● Cappellini (152 Wooster St) ● Alessi (130 Greene St) ● Casa del Bianco (866 Lexington Ave) ● Scavolini (429 W Broadway) ● Guzzini (60 Madison Ave) ● Bosi Contemporary (48 Orchard St) ● Boffi Soho (31 ½ Greene St) ● Ierimonti Gallery (24 W 57th St, s. 501-503) ●

Gourmet Stores: Eataly New York (200 5th Ave) ● Di Palo (200 Grand St) ● Citarella (2135 Broadway; 1313 Third Ave; 424 Avenue of the Americas) ● Agata & Valentina (1505 1st Ave; 64 University Pl.) ● A.L.C. Italian Grocery (8613 3rd Ave, Brooklyn) ● Mikes’s Dely, Arthur Avenue Market (2344 Arthur Ave, Bronx) ● Jerry’s Gourmet (410 South Dean St, Englewood, NJ) ● Giovanni Rana Pastificio e Cucina (75 9th Ave) ● La Panineria (1 W 8th St) ● Cucina Mia (1898 Victory Blvd., Staten Island) ●

Restaurants, Pizzerias & Wine Bars: Acqua Santa (556 Griggs Ave, Brooklyn) ● Addeo & Sons (2372 Hughes Ave, Bronx) ● Azalea (224 W 51 St) ● Borgatti’s (632 E 187th St, Bronx) ● Cacio e Vino (80 2nd Ave) ● Crave It (545 6th Ave) ● Epistrophy Cafe (200 Mott St) ● Fabbrica (40 N 6th St, Brooklyn) ● Felice 83 (1593 1st Ave) ● Felice 64 (1166 1st Ave) ● Forcella (485 Lorimer St, Brooklyn) ● In Vino Veritas (1375 1st Ave) ● Kestè (271 Bleecker St) ● L’Arte del Gelato (Chelsea Market, 75 9th Ave) ● Le Cirque (151 E 58th St) ● The Leopard at des Artistes (1 W 67th St) ● Madonia Brothers (2348 Arthur Ave, Bronx) ● Mozzarella e Vino (33 W 54th St) ● Osteria del Principe (27 E 23rd St) ● Osteria del Circo (120 W 55th St) ● Pastai (186 9th Ave) ● Piccolo Fiore (230 E 44th St) ● Pizzetteria Brunetti (626 Hudson St)● Paola’s Restaurant (1295 Madison Ave) ● Il Posto Accanto & Il Bagatto To Go (190 E 2nd St) ● Quartino bottega organica (11 Bleecker St) ● Ribalta (48 E 12th St) ● Risotteria Melotti (309 E 5th St) ● Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto (283 Amsterdam Ave) ● San Matteo (1739 2nd Ave) ● Sirio (795 5th Ave) ● Stella 34 Trattoria at Macy’s (151 W 34th) ● Tarallucci e Vino (163 1st Ave; 475 Columbus Ave; 15 E 18th St) ● Club Tiro a Segno (77 MacDougal St) ● Trattoria L’incontro (21-76 31st St, Astoria) ● Via Quadronno (25 E 73rd St) ● Villabate Alba (7001 18th Ave, Brooklyn) ● Vivoli Gelateria at Macy’s ● (151 W 34th St) ● Zero Otto Nove (15 W 21 St) ● Zibetto (1385 6th Ave; 1221 6th Ave; 501 5th Ave) ● Zio (17 W 19th St) ● To be added to our distribution network write to [email protected]

6 | i-Italy ny | April-May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org i-Italy|NY ➜ Editorial

Editorial Mediating Cultures

➔ Letizia Airos Produced by i-Italy TV in collaboration with ANFE and with the support “Caspita, chesto è ccafè... È ciucculata! of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vedete quanto poco ci vuole per the series examines the transitions rendere felice un uomo: una tazzina di between generations of Italian caffè presa tranquillamente qui fuori.” Americans as told by five sets of grandparents and their grandchildren: “Damn, that is coffee… It’s almost Matilda Raffa Cuomo and Amanda chocolate! See how little it takes to Cole, Joseph Tusiani and Paola Tusiani, make a man happy: just a leisurely Aileen Riotto Sirey and Emma Bankier, cup of coffee outside.” Rosaria Liuzzo and Mara Sparacino, John P. Calvelli and John D. Calvelli. Rather than with a canonical poem, Catch it this spring every Sunday at this issue begins with an excerpt 1 pm on Channel 25/NYC Life, or on- from a comedy by the great Italian demand on our WebTV and YouTube Backstage from our video-project “Grandparents and Grandchildren in Italian America.” dramatist Eduardo De Filippo. What From the left: Matilda Cuomo, Letizia Airos, Mila Tenaglia, Amanda Cole channel. Stay tuned for more info… I wouldn’t give to introduce his work and maybe a book! and its daily life philosophy to the world! But let’s cut to the coffee, to commemorate another recently enduring presence in this city and Thanks, NIAF! that very Italian (Neapolitan, in De departed Italian legend, Umberto Eco, in our hearts, for his friendship, I’d like to take this opportunity to Filippo’s case) source of joy. here remembered by fellow semiotics the generous advice he provided as thank President of NIAF John M. scholar Anthony J. Tamburri. we were just starting out, and for Viola and his splendid team for Starbucks or No Starbucks? Also in this THICK spring issue, Lucia designing our logo and our Fiat 500. welcoming us in Washington DC for With a spring this unpredictable, Pasqualini profiles Alberto Cribiore We also sit down with three a cycle of excellent interviews, about coffee is increasingly called for. In the in her “My Mentors” series and acquaintances readers will remember which more soon. We particularly following pages you’ll find a list of Joe Bastianich talks about his new from past issues: Ferrari design head appreciate the trust NIAF placed in places where you can sample Italian trattoria in New York. Professor Jerry Flavio Manzoni, guru of radical design us by launching a joint program for coffee. It may not be Naples, but New Krase and his Palermitan colleague Gaetano Pesce, and an emerging star Journalism and Italian-American York still has some great finds. Marcello Sajia also pick up where in the field, Antonio Pio Saracino. Affairs. NIAF is offering two While your cup of Joe is brewing, they left off with their discussion of 10-month scholarships for young enjoy our takes on the media immigration. Our best wishes to New York’s Americans of Italian descent to intern controversy surrounding the opening The issue also marks the debut of new Consul General at i-Italy! The application deadline is of Starbucks in Italy (Will it work?) … our new columnist, CEO of Cinecittà So, we continue our work as June 30. So, guys—hurry up! and tell us what you think using the Giuseppe Basso, who spotlights the communicators and cultural ashtag #iItalyStarbucks on Twitter, rebirth of Hollywood on the Tiber. mediators by reporting the Italian And Last… Facebook, and Instagram! presence in America. And it is in … but not least, a special thanks to Design Talk that spirit, that we present you our everyone following us on the web Stars, pizza, and much more… Our special section about Italian exclusive conversation with Consul (www.i-italy.org), on TV (NYC Life) There are a lot of great stories in design coincides with Milan’s re- General Francesco Genuardi. We wish and in print (hint: you’re just holding this issue. First up is a feature of opening of the Triennial Exposition him well as he sets to work in this it!). Our readership keeps growing by two Italian women, an astronaut – after a 30-year hiatus – and New diverse, spirited and very Italian city. the day and we now have +180,000 and a pizza chef, who may appear York’s Design Week. followers on Facebook alone. Did I say worlds apart yet who bring the We open with a remembrance of Now, on our next project that i-Italy rocks? same determination to professions Massimo Vignelli, an icon of Italian News. We just wrapped up our first typically believed to lie outside the design in New York and around the installment of “Grandparents and female domain. Nor could we neglect world. Vignelli remains a constant, Grandchildren in Italian America.” ([email protected])

The TV show for all things Italian in New York

Watch us every week on Sunday at 1:00 pm

channel 25 (HD 525) time warner - werizon fios - rcn - comcast - directTV & on air channel 22 cablevision If you miss us on TV, every Monday a new episode is posted online at i-Italy.org | i-ItalyTV.com | youtube.com/iItaly Better yet, download our free iPhone app from iTunes and connect to HD television with your Apple TV device www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April-May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 7 ● ● PEOPLE: THE FIRST ITALIAN WOMAN IN SPACE Samantha Cristoforetti: Grounded in the Stars

Italy’s first female crew member in the European Space Agency has become a point of pride among young women not just in Italy but everywhere. The engineer/aviator/military astronaut has tackled her work with great professionalism and originality, especially during her recent mission to outer space. All of Italy followed her in real time, on TV and on the web, and her star-born Twitter feed brightened many people’s days.

by Maria Rita Latto and Letizia Airos feel overpowered by your emotions. It’s all very gradual, natural. There’s no moment ●● We reached Samantha by phone, a three- when you say, “How will I ever handle all party conference call connecting New York, these feelings!” Rome, and Geneva. Our first question had to be asked, especially for the other members of our Is it true you wanted to be an astronaut generation, who began to dream in 1969 as they since you were a kid? What sparked the watched the first man walk on the moon. desire?

How did it feel to touch down on earth It’s totally true but I’m not sure what after your amazing adventure in space? sparked it. In part the allure of the stars, in part the adventure, reading science A physical sensation prevails: there’s a fiction, teachers at school talking about violent impact with earth and then there’s astronomical geography. I think it was a a strong physical sensation – related to combination of things. weight – after spending six months of floating weightlessly in the capsule. It’s Germany, America, Russia, France—you’ve tough to carry your whole body again, to traveled the world. How much of Italy still lift objects. It’s all very tiring. I’d say that is runs in your veins? the prevailing sensation. That’s tough to evaluate, to express in How about after that physical sensation, terms of percentages. Italy is the place when your emotions kicked in? I was born, where I grew up. I spent my entire childhood in Italy. It’s where I There’s not a specific moment when you studied. I think that you carry that with

8 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Italy, Alps and the Mediterranean (ESA/NASA). Samantha Cristoforetti on her 200th day in space (ESA-NASA).

Looking at Italy from space is you your whole life, even if, like me, the majority of your adult life has been spent thrilling. It’s a very well defined outside Italy. But there’s no doubt Italy is a shape that is quite luminous in the fundamental part of my identity. dark. It’s particularly beautiful to see What does it feel like to look at Italy from the country at night, looming above the space? Mediterranean. There’s a special moon It’s thrilling. Italy is easy to identify. It has a very well defined shape that is quite over the Mediterranean. Italy is one of luminous in the dark. It’s particularly the most picturesque views—not just beautiful to see the country at night, looming above the Mediterranean. Often for an Italian but for everyone, I think. there are cloudless nights when you can www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 9 see these beautiful reflections of the moon. There’s a special moon over the Mediterranean. Italy is one of the most picturesque views—not just for an Italian but for everyone, I think.

In 2009 you were selected by the European space agency. What was it like to realize your lifelong dream was beginning to take shape?

As I said before, it dawns on you gradually, not all of a sudden, since the selection process is very long. It lasted a year. People are cut at every stage of the process. By the final stage there were just ten of us and it was clear that at that point my chances were pretty good. It didn’t come as a surprise. Primarily I felt very relieved, because you’re there and you’ve almost made it and yet you’re still waiting for them to call and say yes or no. There’s always the chance you’ll have to bid your dreams goodbye. It was a relief, therefore, a great relief to receive the call. A ton Taking pictures of the Earth from the Cupola of tension that accumulates in the days (ESA/NASA). Training in space (ESA/NASA). Training in the full-scale mockup of the Soyuz leading up to the call suddenly evaporates. capsule (ESA/ S.Corvaja)

Did being a woman make it harder to realize this dream or were there other challenges?

I’ve never been a man, so it’s hard to compare…

What did you bring with you in space? Books? If so, which ones?

I brought a few books but I read next to nothing because up there you don’t feel like reading, since you can read elsewhere. I brought with me books with a symbolic value: Calvino’s Palomar, Saint-Exupéry’s Flight to Arras, Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

What’s on the menu in space? Freeze- dried food, we imagine… It was fun to watch you doing that up would be safe, that there wouldn’t be any Everything. The menu in space is a lot there from down here… accidents. longer than you’d think… Sure, freeze- dried food, preserved food, meat. Yes, it was very cute. And I’m happy for the You wrote many tweets from space that team that made the coffee machine. became famous among young people too. Pasta? Did you miss earth? It wasn’t just a game or a publicity stunt. Yeah, we had some pasta. Freeze-dried That should be clear. Everything you do No, I didn’t. Maybe the one thing I missed fusilli with shrimp. It really wasn’t that bad! in space, even an experiment like that, was a warm shower; months of washing benefits research... with damp towels doesn’t leave you The whole world watched you making feeling that clean. But besides that, I really coffee in space. What did it feel like to do Right. It was seen less as an experiment enjoyed myself. Of course there are a lot of that, as an Italian? and more like a small technological things on earth that are missing in space, demonstration, since a liquid espresso but you’re not in space forever, so I didn’t I have to say it was more a pleasure to be machine at high temperatures and under concentrate on what was missing. Actually, able to drink coffee than a symbol of my high pressure is hard to make, and we I concentrated on having a good time in Italian background. I mean, it would have made it in space partly to resolve a safety space. I’d be back on earth soon enough. been a wonderful gift for anyone who likes issue. A few technical solutions had to be coffee. invented to guarantee that the machine What was the dominant emotion you felt

10 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org from up there on earth? ● ● PEOPLE: THE FIRST ITALIAN PIZZAIOLA IN NEW YORK

Every day there was something different. It’s a very particular aesthetic experience. It varies a lot. There isn’t one thing that ranks above another. In fact there is no ranking system. A Woman’s Job Was it harder to adjust to space or when you came back to Earth? Coming back to earth may have been more Is Never Done difficult. In part because in space you’re really buoyed by the fact that there’s this adventure beginning, it’s all one big discovery. I was very quick to adjust to it physically too. I was lucky in that regard; some astronauts are sick for days. I, on the other hand, didn’t experience any nausea. I felt well from the start. Space welcomed me with open arms.

What would you most like to do now, professionally speaking? What’s the next frontier? Last century, many people dreamed of setting foot on the moon, but then things turned out a little differently…

As far as long-term goals are concerned, I would like to go on a mission to the moon, to set foot on the moon by the end of the next decade. Before then, I hope to get the chance to go back to the space station. And I definitely don’t want to have to wait another ten years. Giorgia Caporuscio Generally speaking, what are the most important future missions in space? Giorgia Caporuscio may not be an astronaut, Definitely to execute the [space shuttle] transition program well, and at the end but her occupation is fairly uncommon among of the space station program, return to women. For her, making pizza and teaching exploring the moon. The mission is at hand, too, in the sense that if the space people how to make pizza – in America no less – is station should last until 2024, as we expect and hope, and if we want to avoid a mission. This is the story of how a young woman a gap between this program and lunar exploration, we have to start working now, from a small city took a gamble and won big. find funding... And it must be a realistic, sustainable program that could bring us a step at a time to the end of the next decade by Letizia Airos I’d been attracted to this world ever since I was to have missions with astronauts on the a little girl.” Giorgia’s father, renowned pizza surface of the moon. ●● She’s made the rounds of New York chef Roberto Caporuscio, had been in New for sometime now, yet other American York for many years prior to her arrival. His How has your family felt about your work? cities are beginning to recognize the petite, most famous pizzerias are Kestè on Bleeker They’ve been a bit worried at times, dark-haired young woman whose features Street and Don Antonio on West 51st. obviously, but deep down they’ve always show off her deep Italian roots. Giorgia been very happy. Caporuscio may not be an astronaut, a How does a young woman decide to go famous scholar or a soccer player, but her work in New York before she’s turned Yet Samantha can’t remember when she first occupation is still fairly uncommon among twenty? realized she wanted to become an astronaut. women. The pizzaiola was born in Terracina, Nor when she told her parents. It was as if a small city between Rome and Naples, and I was 19. At that age, you still don’t know it was her destiny, written in the stars. “It’s despite its apparent simplicity, her story what you want. I sort of came on a whim, something that you lose a little when deserves to be told. “Hospitality school led hoping to learn English. The first few you grow up,” she adds. “No one really me to the restaurant industry,” says Giorgia, months were pretty rough. I had no friends. remembers the first time. It’s as if that was greeting us with flour-caked hands. “Of It was just my father and me. But after two always the way it was.” ●● course, it was also my father’s line of work, and years, I told myself, “I’m staying for good.” www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 11 What happened to make you feel that way? Was there a turning point?

I’m rather shy and my father has always pushed me to break out of my shell. He sent me to Miami to teach people how to make pizza. I knew how to make pizza – I’d learned it from him – but I didn’t know how to teach. I pulled my hair out I was so afraid! But it went really well… I’d thought I was so young, but [my students] treated me as their elder. That was when I realized that I could go further here than in Italy, that I could be appreciated for my know-how despite being a woman.

What’s the hardest part of your job?

The hardest part is interacting with male pizza chefs. “A woman make pizza?” they say incredulously. Let’s just say it’s unusual. In fact, I used to stay out of sight when I was getting my start. I wanted people to appreciate the product without knowing a woman had made it. It took a long time to assert myself, not only because I was a woman but because I was also the boss’ daughter! It might seem easier, but it’s the exact opposite.

What is it you like about making pizza?

It seems very simple. All you need are tomatoes, flour, water, salt and yeast. But it’s much more complicated than that. I’m not a cook. I don’t know how to cook. But I’m really good at making pizza. It takes passion and views of women. But I did it! I may be a You mentioned earlier that women have perseverance. woman, but I’m a lot like my grandfather— always made pizza, while men were the ones stubborn. who ran pizzerias. In Italy it’s still widely Teaching people how to make pizza is now considered a male occupation. Why? your day job… Have you taught any women? It’s a question of mentality. Women stayed Yes. It’s hard but a lot of fun. You never know Sure. It’s still hard for them, and I get it, but at home. That’s still often the case. No who you’re going to work with. I’ve taught meeting me gives them confidence. Do you one expects them to know how to handle an airplane pilot, chefs who have a lot more remember that film with Sophia Loren where the entrepreneurial side of the job. They experience in the kitchen, and I have to adapt she makes fried pizza? Women have always themselves don’t expect to. They think that accordingly. made pizza; they just didn’t leave the house to they’ll have to quit as soon as they have a make it. family. What is it like being a female teacher? How much time does it take to learn how to And what does your father think? They always regard me skeptically, since I’m make pizza well? twenty-five and a woman. They look at me We made a bet as to whether family or work like I’m a monster. “What is she going to say?” My course lasts ten days. The hardest part would finally win out. I think I could handle they wonder. I always start out by saying that is using your hands. Once you’ve learned working and having a family. I think that I will make them do what I did, teach them the ‘secrets’, it takes a lot of dedication and in Italy I would have always been seen as everything I know, and while they’re learning persistence to stay in practice and find your someone who should stay home and cook. from me, I’ll be learning from them. I’ll learn own style. The ones who really succeed are Fortunately that idea of women doesn’t exist how to be a better teacher. My students very passionate. It’s a bit like playing an in New York. Americans don’t look at me like appreciate that. instrument. You have to be an artist! I’m a freak. Three years ago I won the pizza championship here and there were other Have there been students you’ve had greater You also teach people about the culture women who competed. We’re slowly gaining difficulty teaching? surrounding pizza. ground.

Some men. Partly because to learn how to I cover a whole unit on the culture and You teach, manage the staff, and make pizza. make pizza you need to feel the dough with tradition. It’s like giving out passports to go What do you like best? your hands, by touch, and that’s a big part of to Italy. I teach students about how we think my training… My father knows how I teach. about pizza, the combination of flavors. And I Making pizza is the best. I used to a lot more… Sometimes he worries… especially with always ask my clients about their backgrounds students from cultures that have narrower so I know how I should be teaching them. How do you get along with your dad’s partner,

12 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org we met again in New York, while I was making pizza and he was waiting tables.

And it was “love at first pizza…”

Yes, I taught him how to make pizza. He teases me now. He says he’s getting better than me. But it’s not true, even if he’s on the right track…

What would you say to a girl who wants to get into your line of work?

Don’t get discouraged! Be persistent and courageous. It can be hard but it’s very satisfying. I hope a lot of women get into this line of work. Here and in Italy. Even in Japan there are a lot of young female pizza chefs nowadays!

And there’s a project in the works to break out on your own…

I’d like to open my own place, without my dad, though with his guidance. When I first got started, I would never have imagined myself saying that, but it’s true. I don’t want anything big. I want to take it step by step. I would like to open a small place in keeping with the Italian tradition, with an Italian feel, yet which is young and speaks to young people.

Your Pizza Montanara earned you a major award. But what’s your favorite pizza to make? don Antonio Starita, an icon in the Neapolitan Don Antonio, your father… You work with pizza industry? another “member of the family,” too. La Kestè. It has tomato sauce, bufala mozzarella, arugula, and shaved Parmigiano- We get along spectacularly because, you know, My boyfriend, Raffaele! Between him, my Reggiano. It’s a classic, simple but always he’s a touchstone in Italian gastronomy. Having father, and don Antonio, I’ve been blessed with special. him for a teacher was the best. And he had men! He’s a restaurant manager. I met him in fun teaching me. For me, making pizza is more America a year ago. While I was in Atlanta my relaxing than doing yoga or going to the gym. father hired a guy from Formia, a city close to Simple but special. A little like you! Work is stressful, but making pizza is relaxing. mine. We had some mutual friends. And then Best of luck, Giorgia! ●● Some men may be difficult students. To learn how to make pizza you need to feel the dough with your hands, by touch, and that’s a big part of my training… My father knows how I teach. Sometimes he worries… especially with students from cultures that have narrower Giorgia and her father views of women. Roberto Caporuscio www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 13 A DYNASTY IS BORN The father-daughter team of Roberto and Giorgia Caporuscio have won Best Pizza in New York an unprecedented 6 times between their two, New York-based pizzerias, Keste Pizza and Vino and Don Antonio by Starita.

kestepizzeria.com donantoniopizza.com ● ● REMEMBERING UMBERTO ECO: JANUARY 5, 1932 - FEBRUARY 19, 2016 Reflections on An Italian Icon Eco was one of Italy’s best representatives of all that is Italian: he was smart (an understatement, to be sure), amiable, flexible in thought and manner, and someone who wore his fame very well and, further still, never made you feel uncomfortable in his company. Indeed, he was one of the few, the very few most approachable “famous” Italians I have met thus far in my four-plus decades of interaction with the haute monde of Italy. Umberto Eco and his personal library. Photo by Martin Grüner Larsen (Flickr.com) by Anthony Julian Tamburri* indelible experience overall. A year and interpretive direction, one that has, ever one-half later, I met Eco for a second since, made me look at a text (written, ●● Umberto Eco passed away Friday, time, in Berkeley, California. He had been visual, or figurative) in its many signifying February 19. With his death, Italy has lost invited by a couple of departments, Italian, possibilities. one of its best representatives of all that is Rhetoric, and the like. I had already come As I stated above, we didn’t speak much Italian: he was smart (an understatement, to know Umberto Eco the semiotician, both more about semiotics during that second to be sure), amiable, flexible in thought and as a speaker and on paper; this was, in fact, meeting. We spoke, instead, about Liguria manner, and someone who wore his fame the period of his English edition of his A and nineteenth-century literature. More very well and, further still, never made Theory of Semiotics, a book that went on to specifically, about Bordighera and Giovanni you feel uncomfortable in his company. influence generations of students/scholars Ruffini. When Eco heard that Bordighera Indeed, he was one of the few, the very few of interpretation theory; a few years before was, at that time in my life, a regular haunt most approachable “famous” Italians I have the debut of Eco the novelist. of mine during the summers, he asked met thus far in my four-plus decades of But we didn’t really talk that much about me if I had read Giovanni Ruffini’s novel interaction with the haute monde of Italy. semiotics; initially, though, that is how the Dottor Antonio. Of course, I thought he was I met Umberto Eco in the mid 1970s, first conversation began. I mentioned to him pulling my leg. But, alas, I learned about in New York at the 1974 MLA (Modern that my introduction to semiotics came a new nineteenth-century writer that Languages Association) convention. via semiology, having first read Roland evening, and indeed went on to read the He was part of a session dedicated to Barthes’s Elementi di semiologia years earlier; above-mentioned novel, but in its original Italian semiotics; an anomaly, to be sure, he smiled as we discussed what we — he, I English, Doctor Antonio. Yes, Ruffini wrote especially for Italian studies, then and should say — thought the main difference that novel in the 1850s while exiled in now to some degree. It was a glancing was between semiotics and semiology. England after the failed 1848 attempt of moment, to say hello, but it was an For me, I must say, it sent me in another Italian unification. And I learned this at a

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underscore, the articulations of one of of interpretation and postulated, instead, People have and Italy’s truly public intellectuals. that, in the literary, for example, while will refer to My favorite four books of his are, by now, the encounter between text and reader classics. A Theory of Semiotics (1975/1976) may very well engender a plethora of Umberto Eco as any and The Role of the Reader (1979) constitute interpretations, it does, in the end, have and all of the following: my own analytical base of interpretation; its limitations. A short cut, so to speak, to and I pass on those thoughts with delight Eco’s notion of the production of meaning writer, linguist, to my students when I teach both literature is readily accessible in his lesser known and interpretation theory. My favorite two essay, “Intentio Lectoris: The State of the Art” philosopher, novelist, novels, in turn, are The Name of the Rose and (Differentia, review of italian thought 2 (Spring semiotician, journalist, The Island of the Day Before, two different 1988): 147-68). What Eco basically tells us is worlds of centuries ago that, through that one’s reading strategy (intentio lectoris) etc. He was all of that, as his narrative skills, Eco has rendered must be in ample conciliation to the intentio he was also the contemporary in many ways. operis (the make-up of the text), since any Perhaps one of our greatest gifts from reader’s intertextual arsenal must always, academy’s intellectual Umberto Eco is his untangling of a plethora to a certain degree, be context sensitive; in of interpretation theories that abounded, some way or another, that is, the reader’s rock star! One thing is in modern times especially, from Charles decodification must jibe in some way guaranteed for sure, Sanders Peirce to Jacques Derrida and with the text: as he said, “to privilege all those who populated the worlds of the initiative of the reader does not … Eco shall not be lost in semiotics, structuralism, deconstruction, guarantee the infinity of readings” (155). In our memory! post-structuralism, and the like—and let so theorizing, Eco saves us from the vortex us not forget the postmodern, as well. The of interpretative chaos that has its origins major questions being, “Where exactly does in the many unintended mis-readings of the meaning lie?” or, another way of asking various in-vogue interpretation theories cocktail party, from Umberto Eco, and not the question is, taking from our own John that have come down the pike over the past in the regular graduate seminars offered on Ciardi, “How does a text mean?” What Eco century and one-half especially. Italian fiction. did was to reconcile for the most part the I last saw Umberto Eco at the United This was vintage Eco, I came to understand various theories of interpretation and bring Nations a bit over two years ago, where over the years. The expert in what some forward a theory that is most generous he delivered a lecture entitled “Against see as an exceedingly esoteric field that to all involved, author/artist and reader/ The Loss of Memory.” He was vintage Eco. is semiotics, Eco could talk to you about spectator alike. His A Theory of Semiotics People have and will refer to Umberto the most seemingly banal to the most and The Role of the Reader, together with Eco as any and all of the following: writer, ostensibly inscrutable, and he did so in a The Open Work (1962/1989), might very well linguist, philosopher, novelist, semiotician, most satisfactorily accessible manner. He constitute a set of three works in which Eco journalist, etc. He was all of that, as he was was, as well, a popular voice, an academic developed his notion and concept of textual also the academy’s intellectual rock star! intellectual who was willing to change interpretation and its myriad possibilities. One thing is guaranteed for sure, Eco shall registers and speak to the more general Nonetheless, Eco was also a pragmatist not be lost in our memory! ●● public: hence, his weekly column, “La (no pun intended), realizing that while a bustina di Minerva,” for Italy’s best-selling text/work of art might possess a very wide * Anthony Julian Tamburri is Dean, John D. magazine L’Espresso; his topics varied from range of interpretations after its encounter Calandra Italian American Institute, and popular culture to the most serious of with its reader/viewer, Eco was also wary Distinguished Professor of European Languages political issues. They constituted, I would of the free-flowing, all-encompassing act and Literatures

i-Italy had the pleasure of meeting Umberto Eco in November 2011 when we were asked by the Italian Cultural Insititute to film the entire proceedings of the international conference “On the Ashes of Post- Modernism: A New Realism?” The eight-hour long philosophical marathon featured some of the best known Italian and American thinkers in the field. It was part of the Framework Program “Slowness and Quality” promoted by La Fondazione NYC. It was an intense and fruitful occasion to debate the state of the art in philosophical studies and approaches towards reality, in times when reality itself is increasingly complicated and hard to categorize systematically.

Participants included: Umberto Eco, Hillary Umberto Eco on i-Italy | TV Putnam, Maurizio Ferraris, Paul Boghossian, Scan the QR code to watch the video or go to YouTube.com/iitaly Giovanna Borradori, Akeel Bilgrami, and Ned Block.

www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 15 ● ● ROME’S FACTORY OF DREAMS: THE MYTH REAWAKENS Come Find Us at Cinecittà! Giuseppe Basso has worked at Cinecittà for roughly ten years, three as the studio’s CEO. Now he’s launching a column in i-ItalyNY to celebrate the return of Rome’s Hollywood on the Tiber heyday.

by Giuseppe Basso* Clockwise: ● The premier of “The ●● The Italian premier of Quentin Hateful Eight” at Cinecittà’s Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” last Teatro 5. ● Giuseppe January 28 was only the latest in a slew of Basso interviewed on the developments at Cinecittà. The director set. ● Basso with Maestro himself attended the screening in the Ennio Morricone, Quentin Tarantino and the cast of mythic Teatro 5, along with Kurt Russell, “The Hateful Eight.” Michael Madsen and Ennio Morricone. The even was all about numbers: 888 invitees flowed into Teatro 5 to watch a 70mm film featuring 8 stars in a 188 minute long movie with a 12 minute (Photos by Daniele intermission and a 3:48 overture by Cametti Aspri) maestro Morricone. There may have been more guests than the 888 Mr. Tarantino taking too long, as if we might not finish have restored Rome to its Hollywood-on- wanted, yet somehow we managed it on time. I have been at Cinecittà for the-Tiber heyday. The Italian tax credit, to seat everyone so that they could almost 10 years, three as the CEO, and yet which has finally made Italy competitive immerse themselves in the 188-minute even when my team leaders tell me not with Canada, England and South Africa, is long Ultra Panavision 70 experience. For to worry, I can’t. Then suddenly the set generous and effective: 25% of everything the occasion, we recreated a set with a comes into its own, our painters bring it spent in Italy is returned in the form of a mountain cabin covered in snow in one to life with color. And we remember why discount on all forms of taxes. corner of Teatro 5. I can only imagine they’ve called us the factory of dreams Tarantino and the actors’ surprise at since 1937. You can’t get used to it, you And then, there’s Rome! finding a reproduction of their western can only have a strong dependence on it I sincerely believe that Italy has a lot more set! all, the need to see more, and more, and to offer than just a tax credit. For starters, more. we have Cinecittà, the most beautiful place Blowing people’s minds to work. And all around Cinecittà is Rome, We like to blow people’s minds at 2015: A banner year the warmly receptive, eternally beautiful, Cinecittà Studios, whether they’re our Since launching day, tens of thousands of uniquely stylish city. guests or our clients, and take pride in people have had the chance to see “The We’ll meet again and often, I hope, as I report the fact that we’ve made it a habit of Hateful Eight” in Teatro 5. If there were an the latest news from Cinecittà. And if you doing our own sets and special effects. award for most profitable reproduction, happen to be in Rome, pay us a visit. Just Every time we clean up the studios after I believe we’d be in the running to win. take the A train to the Cinecittà stop, the a shoot is done, we destroy everything, That successful event was the perfect gateway to a mythic world. See you soon. ●● wipe the floors, and clear away the dust way to celebrate 2015, a banner year. The and ruins of the latest creation. Then new Italian tax credit system has helped we start over again. It amazes me. I lose bring major productions to Italy; Spectre, * Giuseppe Basso is the Chief Executive Officer, sleep. It always seems as if the new set is Ben Hur, Zoolander 2 and other films Cinecittà Studios S.p.a.

16 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Darrell’s Corner

by Darrell Fusaro *

The key to getting started is to lower the bar. Self-imposed perfection is stifling. Let yourself off the hook. And never argue with a hunch. Go with it, it’ll take you places more remarkable than reason would allow.

* Cartoonist, humor activist and great friend of i-Italy, Darrell lives in Los Angeles with his wife Lori and their furry four-legged friends, Mr. French, Gabby, Francis and Enzo. He is the author of What If Godzilla Just Wanted a Hug? and co-host of The Funniest Thing! with Darrell & Ed podcast. www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | February-March 2016 | i-Italy ny | 17 ● ● MEET FRANCESCO GENUARDI, THE NEW CONSUL GENERAL OF ITALY IN NEW YORK Representing a ‘Global Italy’ Originally from Palermo, born in Brussels, former Press Secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and married to an Argentinian whom he met while serving in Buenos Aires. A ‘global Italian’ who knows how diverse, complex, and rich is the Italian community abroad. by Letizia Airos

●● We met him as soon as he landed, on his second day of serving as Consul General of New York. Seated beside the Italian and Francesco Genuardi European Union flags, Francesco Genuardi fielded our barrage of questions, beginning at the beginning: in Brussels, his birthplace. “My parents worked there; specifically, my father worked for the European Community,” he tells us. “Originally from Palermo, he was a member of the first wave of Italian officials who left Italy to contribute to the European ideal in Brussels.”

So you could say Europe is in your blood. Yet Brussels is also a city that has seen record- breaking waves of Italian immigrants. What do you remember about the city?

I spent the first eight years of my life there. They were formative years yet of course my age precluded me from being deeply aware of the Belgian or Italian-Belgian situation. However, Brussels has remained very dear to me; it was a landmark in my diplomatic career at NATO from 2002 to 2005. That provided me with the occasion to explore the wealth and variety of its social spheres, the Belgian population, and, in particular, the huge historic Italian community that exists in Brussels.

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Our task, as representatives of Italy’s institutions, at the service of the embassy in Washington, is to constantly strengthen the bond between Italy and the U.S. and show Americans what Italy today is all about.

Any memories of your diplomatic career you’d care to share?

I entered diplomacy in 1993. I was in Rome Consul General Francesco Genuardi with consuls Chiara Saulle, Roberto Frangione and Isabella Periotto until 1998; those were my first formative years, a wonderful time, which lasted longer than place now connected to New York. I met with of Italian descent represents the crux of the usual, during which I dealt with economic the town mayor, various officials, and members relationship between two countries as closely and multilateral issues, environmental of the de Blasio family. It was a wonderful linked as Italy and the United States. I would protection in particular. I have very fond experience; I sensed there was a kinship, a like to point out the importance of the recent memories of that experience, in part because feeling, a kind of direct line between Sant’Agata meeting in Washington between President it gave me the chance to get to know New de’ Goti and New York. I was able to glimpse Obama and our new ambassador, Armando York; I’d come here often for the United firsthand the people there and how proud Varricchio, during which Mr. Varricchio Nations conferences on sustainable growth. they were that one of their descendants is now presented the president with his credentials. That was during the famous 1992 summit stewarding such a major U.S. city. And who can What we saw on that occasion is the strength in Rio on environmental protection. At that forget the long line of great Italian-American of the bond between Italy and the U.S. and time climate change talks were becoming mayors of this city... how crucial the Italian-American community increasingly organized, which is to say, the is in this regard. Our task, as representatives concept was emerging that diplomacy must There’s another country that played an of Italy’s institutions, at the service of the be able to prevent international crises with important role in the career – and not only the embassy in Washington, is to constantly more robust environmental protection. Of the career – of Francesco Genuardi. Tell us about strengthen that bond and show Americans many wonderful memories, I also remember Argentina. what Italy today is all about. The community the time I was press secretary for the Ministry is the expression of that relationship between of Foreign Affairs, handling one of the best It was the first place I was stationed abroad, Italy and the United States. aspects – media relations – that I freely admit is as vice consul, from 1998 to 2002. It was a passion of mine. an extraordinary experience that made an There is also the new wave of immigrants. impact on me, professionally speaking, since Can the institutions do more to reach out to Let’s talk about this new assignment, shall it was there I first encountered the power and those people? I’m thinking of the ‘Meet the we? presence of the Italian community abroad. The New Italians’ initiative recently launched Italians have contributed a lot to the birth and at the consulate, meetings between young New York… On the one hand, it is familiar. On growth of major nations like Argentina and the people and various Italian professionals in the other, it isn’t, seeing as it has changed so United States. It was also crucial to me from a New York. much in recent years. It’s a great privilege to personal point of view: I had the good fortune be the Consul General here. It’s one of – if not to meet my wife there. She is from Buenos That is crucial to how the Italian consulate the – world’s capitals. And it is a deeply Italian Aires. It’s difficult to describe the Italians in should operate. A part of the Italian community city. You can sense the power and presence of Argentina in just a few words. The history is is made up of young people who have taken Italy on every corner: economically, culturally, very intense – passionately Argentinean and advantage of the enhanced mobility that socially. So for me it’s an honor and a big passionately Italian. People there manage characterizes the times and chosen to move responsibility. to combine both cultural heritages in a very here. The consulate must be able to interact natural, very potent way, and I believe there’s a with them; ‘Meet the New Italians’ is one way Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio is of Italian sense of mutual admiration between them. It’s of doing so and I intend to continue and build descent. Before moving to New York, you quite fascinating. upon that initiative. I would like to convey actually visited the place his family comes to this new generation that they have the from. How come? Let’s talk about the Italian community in the support and ear of Italian institutions, and United States. What do you think Italy has to that we understand and will respond to their Yes, I went to Sant’Agata de’ Goti, where the offer Italian Americans? And, vice-versa, what problems and aspirations. We have to get the mayor’s grandparents come from. While I was can Italian Americans offer Italy? authorities at the consulate involved as well preparing for my new assigment, I felt curious as, perhaps, other generations from the Italian as well as compelled to visit such a beautiful The large swath of the American population community who have been rooted here longer. www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 19

That’s what the Italian consulate general has The large swath begun, using the strategies outlined by the embassy, and I think that’s a course of action of the American we want to follow increasingly. It’s also a way population of Italian of telling Italians of the new migration – let’s call it the new mobility – that we are here and descent represents the ready to listen to them, to help try to start a conversation between the various Italian crux of the relationship entities here. We have to structure all of these between two countries entities, try to offer all of our services and take advantage of our wealth. I’m convinced that as closely linked as many emigrants will return to Italy. But if some Italy and the United don’t return to Italy, we’re not going to consider them “a brain drain” in today’s increasingly States. The community globalized world, but an asset to treasure here in New York with the same level of intensity. is the expression of that relationship between Francesco Genuardi and his wife Isabel talking to Let’s discuss America’s Italophiles, or Italics, Italy and the U.S. Matilda Cuomo at the recent gala of the National as some people call them. There’s a lot of love Organization of Italian American Women. for Italy here…

It’s an extraordinary love that places greater and large, linked to Italian culture. There are an excellent staff, at the level of vice consul responsibility on those of us who represent the structures like the Casa Zerilli-Marimò at and other employees. It’s a priority of my Italian institutions in New York, because we NYU, CUNY’s Calandra Institute, the Italian consular mandate to bolster and improve have to be on top of this extraordinary demand Academy at Columbia, the Centro Primo Levi consular services in order to achieve an even for Italy, whether it be human, professional, … All centers that play an important role higher degree of customer satisfaction. We creative. Not only do we have to seize upon it; in what we call Sistema Italia – the “Italian are doing and will do this by augmenting we also have to grow it and give it structure. System.” How important is it for you to involve the technological component involved in Making a strong, choral presentation of Italy in these academic centers in your initiatives? administering consular services, which is New York is fundamental. I keep underscoring essential. We must upgrade to keep pace with how during my mandate I want the Italian That is also a strategic point; our relationship the times; there’s room for improvement still. institutions in New York to work as a team, with universities is crucial. We’re talking about We are already working on that at this early under the direction of the Embassy. That way how to prepare for the future, the future of stage. And we will work on it during this period. the consulate general, the Italian Cultural coming generations, how to prepare for the At the same time, we have to strike a balance Institute, ICE, Banca d’Italia and the Chamber world we’ll have to confront in only a few years. between our technology and humanity. of Commerce are members of an orchestra that I know there’s a large and significant presence We can’t forget that we are Italians and we must play well together and appreciate and of Italian professors in the major universities Italians not only need to see a computer, a multiply this love for Italy by strengthening in New York and its neighboring states. I know terminal, and a printer but we also, rightly even more the economic and cultural there are joint structures between American so, want to see a person with whom we relationship between Italy and the United universities and Italian institutions. I’m can interact to resolve our problems. The States. I’m thinking of tourism, food, fashion, thinking of the Italian Academy of Columbia, consulate will continue and expand its culture, film… NYU’s Casa Italiana, the Calandra Institute, missions – nicknamed “the Consulate and the Centro Primo Levi – which works in Beyond the Walls” – to meet all the citizens This love for Italy has led more and more the Jewish Italian community – vital and very in the consul’s domain, from Newark, NJ, for Americans to want to learn the extraordinary prestigious structures that serve to maintain example, where our office was unfortunately Italian language. It opens a door not only and help expand this link between the two closed, to Connecticut. to spread the culture but also to make academic cultures. We have to concentrate on investments in our country, business, and that kind of integration even more and also You mean Italy isn’t just food and wine, art commerce. count on the enormous quantity of American and fashion, but also technology? This is students who come to Italy to study. The usually overlooked. The recent exhibit at the The Italian language is a lynchpin. It is not structures you mentioned are “oil wells” for Cultural Institute, “Make in Italy,” made the only a means to rediscover your origins Italy’s soft power abroad! same point while also recalling the strong and identity but also a means to bolster our human component behind it, technology on economic presence and American tourism, Let’s talk about consular services. Maybe I a human scale. which is already thriving in Italy. It’s a means ought to have begun by asking you about of expanding our presence on the New York that; after all, that’s the first job of a consulate. I don’t think it would hurt us to strive every food scene even more. I think it’s a major But first I wanted to get to know the Consul day to strike a better balance between priority which the Minister of Foreign Affairs General a bit. Consulates have changed technology and the human component, but Paolo Gentiloni, among the myriad problems a lot over the years. From a technological I don’t think that we can aim – like other and myriad priorities facing foreign politics, standpoint, how important is that change? countries, particularly Nordic countries echoed during a “question time” session in – to hide the human face administering the chamber. Responding to a deputy elected Thank you for asking because it gives me the such services. We’re the country that abroad, he said that one of Italy’s priorities is opportunity to reiterate what I said to the produced Olivetti as well Humanism and the to support and strengthen the teaching of the staff as soon as I got here. And I’ll take the Renaissance, and we have to combine the two. language. opportunity to emphasize that I inherited a consulate general that was run by Natalia Good luck, Consul General, from everyone at i-Italy There are many different universities, small Quintavalle in a superlative manner, with and our loyal readers! ●●

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Read more on An ongoing discussion i-Italy.org

In the past issue of i-ItalyNY we published an abridged version of the address that prof. Marcello Saija, of the University of Palermo, had delivered at the international conference “The Idea of the Mediterranean” (Stony Brook University, NY, November 2015). In it prof. Saija provocatively stated his desire that “Ellis Island became the future of Lampedusa.” To stimulate discussion on professor’s Saija’s controversial opinion, we asked his colleague Jerome Krase, Emeritus Professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY, to comment on it. The exchange now continues as the two authors review their original positions and try to find a common ground while refining their arguments.

● ● OUR ONGOING DISCUSSION: IMMIGRATION IN ITALY, AMERICAN LESSONS Saija: Lampedusa As An Opportunity for Europe

in the U.S. today, he is probably right—but In Italy we must change our thinking about that’s not the issue. My point of comparison immigration and see it as an opportunity and was between what happened on Ellis Island during the Great Migration and what happens not as a burden. For this vision to work, we need today on Lampedusa. And here I think lies the greatest difference in our positions. On this to begin social planning along the lines of the point I believe that Krase’s judgment is short- American model during the Great Migration—to sighted and a bit reductive. create many carefully organized and operated Not just immigrants, but manpower It is perfectly true that during the period of Ellis Islands along the contested southern the Great Migration, roughly between 1870 and 1920, the United States sought not just shores of Europe. immigrants but manpower. And in that sense it succeeded by welcoming millions of by Marcello Saija * “there (Ellis Island) was better than here workers. This pragmatic mindset is exactly (Lampedusa).” In fact, the difference was and the same one that created Ellis Island and ●● I agree with much of what Jerry Krase is enormous. I don’t need to describe again its mechanisms of reception. The history of has written in response to my article in what’s happening on Lampedusa. I wrote that immigration through Ellis Island was defined the previous issue of i-ItalyNY. However I story for all to see. Moreover, I don’t think by a project of social engineering. When believe that in describing the differences it’s necessary now to discuss the attitudes of Ellis Island began to operate at full capacity between Ellis Island and the experience at America (both in its institutions and across in 1892, distinctive ethnic enclaves—Little Lampedusa it is simplistic for Krase to sum society) toward Latinos and Muslims. If Krase up my position as implying, merely, that sees a resurgence of racism and xenophobia (continued on page 24)

22 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Read more on i-Italy.org

● ● CAN (AND SHOULD) ELLIS ISLAND BE THE FUTURE OF LAMPEDUSA? Krase: Good, Bad, and Ugly at Ellis Island

by Jerome Krase * Since we have limited space, here I will try I understand why to provide a few alternative views with a professor Saija would ●● My i-ItalyNY pen-pal Marcello Saija special focus on Italians. The first is as to and I agree that although impractical, if their welcome to America. be happy if what not pie in the sky, everyone has the right to fix their residence where they want in the Italians as “non-whites” degrading happens today to world. I also understand why he would “… the American Race migrants in Lampedusa honestly be happy if what happens today In 1906, speaking on “The Immigration to migrants in the Mediterranean was Problem” Robert DeCourcy Ward warned was a little more like even a little bit like that which happened that Slavs, Italians and Jews because of to migrants in America 100 or more years their high birth rates would “degrade” the what happened to ago.” I must warn the unsuspecting reader “American race.” Other contemporary critics migrants in Ellis however that there is lots more about the of Southern Italian immigration warned great wave of immigrants that crashed that Italians were a threat to America Island. But let me try to on America’s dangerously rocky shores because they were not “white.” In fact it between 1880 and 1920 on which we don’t has been argued by some experts that the provide an alternative see eye to eye. So these conversations epithet “guinea” was “derived from a name view with a special may turn out to be long running. Most attached to slaves from part of the western Americans would be pleased with the African coast.” The poverty of Southern focus on Italians, who overly generous view of the proverbial Italy was so great during the latter part of were not exactly welcome mat for the despised minorities the 19th Century that a transoceanic traffic who were funneled through Ellis Island was created for “Italian Slave Children.” welcomed to America ... to many places and eventual situations unknown. (continued on page 25) www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 23 (Marcello Saija: continued from page 22) Brooklyn, contained a loan desk. This is the or, worse, as a dangerous nuisance. For this immigrant experience in the United States vision of migration as a benefit to work, we Italies as well other ethnic neighborhoods— of the first two decades of the twentieth would need to begin social planning along were already established in Manhattan century. the lines of the American model during the and Brooklyn in New York City, in Chicago, Great Migration—to create many carefully Boston, Hartford, Providence, San Francisco, Ten, hundred, thousand Ellis Islands! organized and operated Ellis Islands along the Paterson, and in many other places. During Compare this experience to what is contested southern shores of Europe. that period, the federal government was happening today in Europe and then ask if My personal opinion is that people have the vigorously trying to combat the padrone there is or is not any difference. One might right to settle anywhere they want to, even system and diminish the power of its bosses argue that “the US needed to search for an though I realize this might be an impractical by heavily promoting the creation and immigrant workforce, while Europe today goal. In the end, I’d honestly be happy if growth of immigrant mutual aid societies. does not.” And it’s true. But are we completely what happens today to migrants in the Of course, that plan never got as far as to sure there are enough farm workers in Europe Mediterranean was even a little bit like that directly offer immigrant workers 3,000 jobs to meet the demand? Are we confident that which happened to migrants in America 100 in the silk mills of New Jersey or 150 in the the labor market for all European economic or more years ago. ●● watch-making factories of Connecticut, for sectors is in fact saturated? I really don’t think example. But the government knew very so. And we can only change our thinking * Marcello Saija is Professor of History of well that these silk mills and watchmakers about the value of immigration when we International Institutional Relations and many other companies throughout the see it as an opportunity and not as a burden at the University of Palermo. United States had already begun to avoid the padrone bosses by recruiting workers through mutual aid societies.

Defeating the padrone system The padrone system typically created workers who were unhappy and unproductive by exploiting them heavily. Bosses would keep enough of every paycheck that the immigrant worker was unable to buy the prepaid ticket that would help someone else back home come to the United States. So it was that a very specific piece of federal legislation caused a dramatic growth between 1892 and 1924 of the number of mutual aid societies across the country. These societies soon became the main vehicle of Americanization, welcoming migrants freed from bosses, teaching them English, and finding them jobs. The Mutual Aid Society of Salina Island on Mulberry Street in lower Manhattan was responsible for the naturalization of some Notwithstanding 2,000 of its members between its founding in 1898 and 1923. Of course, the federal the many government did not engineer this process hardships our entirely on its own or by itself, but rather by encouraging other institutions. And this immigrants went governmental role was an integral feature of the Ellis Island model. through when they arrived in America The Ellis Island model Search the massive Ellis Island immigrant hundred or more years arrival database (www.ellisisland.org) and ago, I’d honestly be look (as I did for all Sicilian immigrants from 1892 to 1924) at the addresses of happy if what happens American contacts given by arriving immigrants: these addresses are almost today to migrants in the always those of the banks that issued them Mediterranean was their prepaid tickets. You will also find the name of the guarantor marked in the even a little bit like that same box. In the early years of Ellis Island, which happened to guarantors were likely to be labor bosses, but were gradually replaced by a relative or migrants when they an officer of a mutual aid society. After 1900, the contact address is often listed as that disembarked on Ellis of the societies themselves, many of which, Island. like that of the Contessa Entellina society in

24 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org (Jerome Krase: continued from page 23) Italians as quasi-slave workers 1880s Irish American critic noted “The In many cases Italian laborers were paid Italian was all too ready to ask for public The New York Herald reported on one of lower wages than “native whites” or assistance.” And, that the absence of “manly many “raids” on Italian padrones who “negroes,” making them more desirable qualities” separated Italians from others in either through contractual arrangements employees. This fact of life was the America. with parents or kidnapping sent hordes of justification for many riots against Italian juvenile minstrels out to beg in the streets workers who also were eager to work as The New Orleans Italian lynching of New York and Philadelphia. In one cellar “scabs” during strikes. Southern Italian Much is made of the operation of Ellis “home” for the children the police and peasants were seen by Dixie plantation Island at “full capacity” in the year 1892. reporters found “an abominable place, the owners as potential replacements for Although there are other incidents of Italian breeding ground of disease and the abode freed black slaves. The Italian government immigrants being lynched by racist mobs, of roaches and vermin.” In 1870 there was even cooperated in several “experiments” and massacred during anti-labor violence a “Riot in Mamaroneck.” Irish and Italian at population transfers, which were such as in Ludlow, the most (in)famous laborers clashed over jobs. The end result unsuccessful. The problem was Italian took place in New Orleans on March 14, of the battle as reported in The New York Sun peasants were too difficult to control. Late 1891 when, as Patrick Gallo wrote: “a mob was: “The Italian population of Grand Park 19th and early 20th Century American of 6,000 to 8,000 people, led by prominent was Driven Out The Women and Children press accounts conveyed the message that citizens, descended on the parish jail to get Sheltered in the Town Hall of Morrisania Our “dagoes” were “dangerous,” “lazy,” “filthy,” the “Dagoes.” State and local law officers, Home War of Races.” “cruel,” “ferocious,” and blood-thirsty.” One and the governor who was in the city at the time, stood by and did nothing, the mob hanged two of the suspects from lampposts, and lined nine of them up in front of the prison wall and blasted their bodies with rifles, pistols and shotguns, taking less than twenty minutes for their grim work.” The victims of the mob had been accused of killing the New Orleans Superintendent of Police whose dying words were “The Dagoes shot me...the Dagoes did it.” He did not recognize his killers. Neither did any other witnesses. The Mayor of New Orleans therefore ordered the police “to arrest every Italian you come across.” About 150 were arrested. When the courts began finding them innocent, the New Orleans Times Democrat called for “All good citizens ... to attend a mass meeting ... to take steps to remedy the failure of justice...,” resulting in the largest mass lynching in American history. Public reactions were as good as could be In the early 1900s, expected. Theodore Roosevelt considered it “rather a good thing,” and The New York contemporary Times agreed: “the Lynch Law was the only critics of Southern course open to the people of New Orleans.” To preserve American (dis)honor President Italian immigrants Benjamin Harrison apologized to the Italian warned that they were a government for the slaughter of these and other Italians in America and gave a $25,000 threat to America indemnity to the families of 18 victims. Some years later, Joseph E. Persico wrote because they were not “Vendetta in New Orleans” “Not everyone “white.” In many cases who studied the case shared this judgment. During the diplomatic sparring between Italian peasants were the United States and Italy, the Department of Justice had been ordered to look into paid lower wages than the incident. After reviewing the eight- “native whites” or hundred-page transcript of the Hennessy trial, a U.S. attorney, William Grant, reported “negroes,” and were that the evidence against the defendants seen by Dixie was “exceedingly unsatisfactory” and inconclusive. And later, all charges plantation owners as outstanding against those who had survived potential replacements the prison massacre were dropped.” ●● for freed black slaves. * Jerry Krase is Emeritus and Murray Koppelman Professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY. www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 25 26 | i-Italy ny | February-March 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Amoris Laetitia: Modernization Without Revolution

by Gennaro Matino *

fter the two synods on the family belief that they should not fall into the trap Many people have been abandoned or decided Aconvened in October 2014 and 2015, of rallying behind one irreversible law. But it to take other conjugal routes. Many face an the publication of Pope Francis’s highly would be ungenerous not to recognize that unpredictable economic future, and raising anticipated apostolic exhortation, Amoris the text is a sweeping and cogent outline of the children, the conversations and arguments new Laetitia, or “The Joy of Love,” had raised hopes Church’s attitude toward Christian matrimony relatives entails, comes at too high a cost. For and concerns before he’d even written it. and the family unit in a complex society many, this is all for the good. Nevertheless, says The press rushed to predict a major – even increasingly removed from the Catholic the Pope, to silence the Christian model of the revolutionary – shift. Yet upon reading it, tradition, and how it means to disseminate family goes against freedom. there appears to be no major shift, far less a that old and new vision in a world where there revolution. Expecting one overlooked the exist myriad forms of conjugal life, myriad ven those with opposing views of heated debate between the synodal fathers couples. Emarriage would find it hard to imagine and the majority, marriages based who fiercely on the sacrament opposed tampering being so obsolete with so much as a or demanding as hair of the Catholic to be impractical. doctrine concerning Understanding marriage. The the difficulties of exhortation turns separation and out to be business embracing those as usual, despite who live outside the indisputably the sacrament novel openness, of marriage especially the Pope’s does not mean jubilee counsel/ placing fidelity urge to endorse his and infidelity proposal that no one on the same feel excluded from plane. Marriage ecclesiastical life. is a wonderful experience, the is counsel is Amoris Laetitia, Hreally aimed at and the family unit the extraordinary an undeniable ministers empowered to judge – on a case ur society has changed dramatically; asset. The Pope’s statement does nothing but by case basis – “irregular” couples, who, after Oignoring that disincarnates the Gospel. reiterate that fact; what else could it do? a process of conversion and penitence, The world is rapidly evolving, compelled by could inch closer to the Eucharist. People new ideas that modify our fundamental values. he media will inevitably concentrate who are divorced or remarried “are not Right or wrong, that is the state of things. It’s Ton the few “openings” for “irregulars,” excommunicated,” and one must “guide, hard to ignore what has become of couples in ignoring the fact that the Church may be discern, and integrate weakness” when recent years. Divorce is now our daily bread, reconsidering the viability of a holy marriage facing complex or “irregular” situations. Cases and new family models have emerged. On not open to everyone, better practices for should be judged individually: “The divorced the other hand, “equal consideration needs to preparing the sacrament, providing counsel who have entered a new union… may find be given to the growing danger represented to couples, and emphasizing holy matrimony themselves in a variety of different situations by an extreme individualism which weakens as a Christian vocation. Their focus isn’t which should not be pigeonholed or fit into family bonds and ends up considering each primarily those who haven’t done it but those overly rigid classifications.” As Francis notes, member of the family as an isolated unit, who, having to choose which conjugal route “In some cases, this can include the help of leading in some cases to the idea that one’s to pursue, do so reasonably and maturely. sacraments. I want to remind priests that the personality is shaped by his or her desires, confessional must not be a torture chamber, which are considered absolute. The tensions * Gennaro Matino teaches Theology and History but rather an encounter with the Lord’s mercy.” caused by an overly individualistic culture, of Christianity in Naples, where he runs the parish of SS. Trinità. He has written several So: no law, no regulation, no provision. Case centered on amassing possessions, generate books and collaborates extensively by case. Pope Francis reiterates his long held within the family intolerance and aggression.” with both traditional and new media.

www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 27 ● ● SNEAK PREVIEW: OUR NEW VIDEO PROJECT Grandparents & Grandchildren in Italian America

Nonni e nipoti nell’America italiana

Our new project explores the relationship between different generations and is narrated firsthand by Italians in America. Grandparents and grandchildren tell their stories in a conversation that touches on central issues concerning Italian identity.

The first conversations made by the i-Italy staff will run on our television show, i-ItalyTV, which airs every week on NYCTV (Channel 25 & 525). Immediately after airing, they will be made available on the web.

A warm thank you to our initial participants: Matilda Raffa Cuomo and Amanda Cole, Joseph Tusiani and Paola Tusiani, Aileen Riotto Sirey and Emma Bankier, Rosaria Liuzzo and Mara Sparacino, John P. Calvelli and John D. Calvelli.

While we’re finalizing the first series, we’d like to ask you all to help transform this project into a great social adventure by sharing with us your own family stories and conversations with your grandparents or grandchildren. You can even use your cell phone to take your videos! Join us on this extraordinary journey into the Italian soul in America. Write to: [email protected].

STAY TUNED FOR THE FIRST SERIES THIS SPRING ON TV & ONLINE

Produced by

Realizzato con il sostegno del Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale Direzione Generale per gli Italiani all’Estero e le Politiche Migratorie ● ● MY MENTORS 6 | ALBERTO CRIBIORE Learning to Give Credit Where Credit is Due

Lucia Pasqualini Photo by Iwona Adamczyk Alberto taught me a basic rule of meritocracy: the importance of giving credit where credit is due. He taught me that one’s reputation may be built day by day through concrete action; it does not derive from a role or by Lucia Pasqualini * September 2012. I had seen Alberto only a few times, and back then he did not even position; an approach ●● Ieri ero al Met per Elisir e ho provato i nuovi know who I was. I included his name on a sottotitoli in Italiano. Brava, funzionano proprio list of people who might support a project that I have found so bene. Io ero scettico ed invece Lei ha avuto ragione for instating Italian subtitles for Italian deeply grounded in a portare avanti il progetto ed io sono felice che Lei operas at the Met, seeing as he is renowned mi abbia convinto a partecipare. Grazie. Alberto. for being one of the greatest opera lovers the American culture. and one of the largest benefactors of the “Yesterday I was at the Met to see Elisir and came Met among the Italian community in New across the new Italian subtitles. Bravo. They work York. 2013 marked the 200th anniversary of fill the gap. That is why we made a proposal very well. I was skeptical, yet you were right to the birth of Giuseppe Verdi, and the Italian to introduce Italian subtitles exclusively for pursue the project, and I’m very happy that you Consulate decided to commemorate Verdi Italian operas, in order to facilitate people’s persuaded me to participate in it. Thank you. with a special initiative. For many years, The understanding of the original libretto and Alberto” Met had subtitles for the operas, and they allow them to better appreciate the melody were available in many languages, except and beauty of the opera itself. After an I received this email from Alberto Cribiore Italian. That very peculiar omission has exchange of ideas, Peter Gelb, the general just a few days after the opening of the become the origin of a debate among many manager of the Met Peter Gelb accepted Metropo-litan Opera season back in Italians living in New York. It was time to our proposal under the condition that we www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 29 audience. Now, I am aware that there was no reason to be embarrassed. Alberto Cribiore on i-Italy | TV That night, Alberto taught me one of the most important leadership lessons of my Scan the QR code to watch the video or go to YouTube.com/iitaly life and a basic rule of meritocracy: the importance of giving credit where credit is due. He taught me that people are judged by results, and one’s reputation may be built day by day through concrete action; it does not derive from a role or position; an approach that I have found so deeply grounded in the American culture. Thanks to Alberto, I have permanently incorporated this very simple rule into my private and professional life.

After the subtitles project he became very cordial toward me, and I started to see him with different eyes as well. Alberto is a very active member of the Italian community in New York and I usually met him solely during official events. He is not only involved with the Italian community; he is also the founder of the Bocconi Students Association in New York and has always would be responsible for raising the funds Luisi. We had quite a fervent discussion, been an important point of reference for the project. We were not surprised at his at the end of which Alberto consented to for the Consulate; he is a member of the request, and the Consul General assigned support the initiative. Nevertheless, when Italian Welfare League and the Columbus me to oversee the task. I hung up the phone, I wasn’t completely Citizen Foundation. I gradually realized how happy about the outcome. I had the feeling peculiar his circle of friends and contacts It was my first fundraising experience, that I did not persuade him completely was for an Italian, born and raised in Italy. one that turned to be very illuminating and that he only said yes because I was In fact, having understood the importance and showed me New York from a different so insistent. This left me feeling a little of working together, he is one of the very perspective. With the precious guidance bittersweet. few Italians deeply in touch with the Italian- of Lisa Calello, I started to think about American community. For this reason I was all the people who love opera, the many The email he sent me after the premier of not surprised to learn that Alberto accepted Italian-American organizations and Elisir was completely unexpected and made to be the Grand Marshall of the Columbus companies who could support a project of me realize that everything really is possible Day Parade in 2015. He is the first Italian this magnitude. I visualized this initiative in New York. I would have never thought born in Italy to have been granted the honor. to be an example of the cooperation the Vice Chairman of Citibank would have Only a few Italian celebrities have ever been among the different components of the taken his time to send me a thank-you Grand Marshalls in the past. This happened Italian community in New York. In no note! With this very simple gesture, Alberto in a different context and position. Being a time I’d received the support of Italians, taught me many lessons. He showed me the Grand Marshall today implies receiving the Italian–Americans, and all of the prominent strength of being able to change one’s mind, honor and the responsibility to support the Italian-American organizations and the importance of setting priorities and Columbus Citizen Foundation in its mission, Italian companies. There was only one finding the time for everybody, and how a and Alberto did that with great generosity name absent, yet it was a name I could very successful executive operates. and intelligence, aware of the fact that not imagine missing from the list of being part of the American culture involves numerous supporters: Alberto Cribiore. In fact, Alberto did much more. During the becoming an active member of that circle. His participation in the project held a very Gala of La Fondazione in 2013, Alberto was special meaning. I asked Lisa to contact his awarded for his extraordinary commitment Alberto is an extraordinary role model and a assistant to check if he received the letter to the arts. On that occasion Alberto was mentor for many Italians living in New York, of the Consul General and to stress the fact interviewed for a short video realized including me. I am very grateful to him for that his involvement in the project was very by the i-ItalyTV team, which was shown the amazing example he has set for many important to us. during the award ceremony. In front of people and on many occasions. the entire Italian community in New York, You proved to me that exceptional people A few days passed before I received a phone and in the presence of the Consul General, care about individuals and their personal call from Alberto Cribiore. He told me that Alberto mentioned the project of the growth. It is up to us to grow the seeds of he was basically in favor of introducing subtitles in Italian at the Met and thanked the lessons that life offers us every day. the original libretto, as they did at La Scala me personally for having taken the lead in Milan, but skeptical about the outcome. on the initiative. At that moment my heart Grazie Alberto, il tuo esempio mi ha dato coraggio He was afraid that it would have the effect stopped beating. I could not believe he was ed insegnato che osare con garbo, convinzione ed of summarizing the text. I told him the really saying that. I felt like everybody was intelligenza funziona! ●● agreement with the Met was to use the looking at me, and they probably were! I original libretto, and that I would personally was blushing. His words were so unusual oversee the realization of the project with for Italian standards and I was not used to the help of the Principal Conductor, Fabio being acknowledged in front of such a big * Former Vice Consul in New York

30 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org ITALIAN CULTURE AT HOME IN NEW YORK LA CULTURA ITALIANA A NEW YORK

24 West 12th Street www.casaitalianaNYU.org www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | February-March 2016 | i-Italy ny | 31

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THE JOHN D. CALANDRA ITALIAN AMERICAN INSTITUTE’S ANNUAL CONFERENCE Conferences & Seminars For the full calendar point and shoot with your smartphone, or go to This is only a selection of the forthcoming Italian events in New York. presentation Book respect fortheknowledge and sew hasgiven meapowerful learning from scratch how to some ofmy own clothes, and tailor. Irecently began making Italian/Italian American the Exhibits Arts & & Theatre Cinema herself worked foryears in the tailors, andanothercolleague family memberswhoare colleagues have immigrant two ofmy Italian American lore ofItalian tailors. At least www.i-italy.org Concerts Music & www.i-ItalyNY.com |April -May 2016 |i- Events up residence across theglobe. citizens have moved andtaken emerged outofItaly asher variety of “things” thathas one inanapparently endless my imagination, butitisjust manifestations, hascaptured Italian tailoring, inallits for her, by herItalianmother. wears—lovingly fashioned, just skirts oneofmy coworkers like thehandmadeblouses and hopeless desire tomakeclothes of thecloth. Inow have a skills ofthesemenandwomen an abject admiration forthe hems, have engendered inme my crooked seamsandirregular struggles andpricked thumbs, the Calandra Institute. My industrygarment before joining produced, factory-made object crocheted doily) toamass- from thehand-crafted (a things modified by humans, defined, includes allobjectsand Material culture, broadly discarded orcherished them. people whoowned orcarried absorb the movements ofthe and sometimesspeakfor objects andnon-objectsparallel media. The movements ofthese texts, archives andcollections, clothing, religiousephemera, landscapes, monuments, any number ofdifferent things: understood thatwe canmean And whenwe say objects, it’s no matterwhere they are? doesn’t love Italianthings, a fascinatingtopic, forwho and ItalianIdentities.” It’s Objects: MaterialCulture 29-30) istitled “Migrating international conference (April The Calandra Institute’s 2016 Material culture & Wine Food Italy & Design Fashion ny |33 Events

The conference hall of the Calandra Institute widest nets we have thrown, in terms of encouraging scholarly creativity. Of course, all of our conferences spark such creative “thinking outside the box,” but the parameters yielded some particularly enticing paper proposals, and we are tremendously excited about the people who will be attending and the topics they’ll explore. So, attendees of the conference (two entire days of concurrent sessions) can expect to hear about such wide-ranging matters as city planning in Ethiopia, art-making in POW camps in the United States, Renaissance embroidery, Attendees of the conference can expect to hear about such Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s hat, odd objects people sent wide-ranging matters as city planning in Ethiopia, Sacco and Vanzetti in jail, and art-making in POW camps in the United States, Renaissance the surprising significance embroidery, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s hat, odd objects people of fig trees, among myriad others. For more information sent Sacco and Vanzetti in jail, and the surprising significance about this year’s Calandra of fig trees, among myriad others conference, “Migrating Objects: Material Culture and Italian Identities,” please be in touch (Olivetti typewriter), including commodities. How objects are communities. We’re particularly with us at the Institute, and we the visual arts (The Sistine used to communicate, store interested in new approaches would love to see you there; Chapel), architecture (Fascist memories, and elicit narratives to material culture that draw the conference is free and open colonial modernism in Eritrea), are the concern of this from the social sciences and to the public. You can look for and landscapes (a Little Italy). conference. the humanities, discovering me: I will be the one wearing Objects circulate and are unexplored perspectives and my badly fitting homemade interpreted in many different The conference expressions. clothes. ●● spheres, whether it be domestic The conference’s focus is on When we issued the call for spaces, popular culture, material culture in Italy, its papers for this conference, * Communications Writer and sacred realms, or the world of colonies, and its diasporic it was, in a sense, one of the Editor, The Calandra Institute

Italy on the go: on cable, on the air, on the Web & on your iphone.

That’s right. You can catch us every Sunday at 1 pm on NYCTV Channel 25 (Time Warner – Verizon FiOS – RCN – Comcast – DirecTV & on air) or Channel 22 (Cablevision). And if you miss an episode, you can still download our free iphone app from iTunes and connect to any HD television with your Apple TV device. Got it? Buona visione!

34 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Events

● ● ON DISPLAY AT THE ITALIAN CONSULATE GENERAL IN NEW YORK UNTIL MAY 9 The Material Painting of Verdiana Photo by Robert Banat Robert by Photo

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The visionary work of Consulate General. Stretched someone’s house for the first paper, frescoes. “Making this Verdiana Patacchini on out and with her hands in time, to make you curious exhibit happen is all thanks to her lap, the sculpture – by about all these objects. Roberta Buldini, a curator and view at the Consulate Verdiana Patacchini, or Virdi “Invited by the Consulate, I gallery owner who works in General of Italy, which – monopolizes the room. had the privilege of mounting New York and Rome, where she continues its initiative to There’s also a painting on the exhibit before opening runs the Galleria Emmeotto, canvas, “Arazzo” (Tapestry), night in celebration of which invited me to be the foster young talent in and another titled “A New President Mattarella’s visit. artist for this exhibit. Not to Italy. The latest effort is Technique I’m Trying Out,” a It was a privilege, and I really mention vice consuls Isabella “Unconscious Mind: Matter huge collage made with iron appreciated it. I thought it was Periotto and Chiara Saulle and Primordial Figures in and Styrofoam. The “material” a very generous act for the and, naturally, the new Consul painting plays with different work of a young artist.” General Francesco Genuardi, the Visionary World.” matter, leaving viewers with Verdiana is the kind of painter whom I got to know as a result The pictorial universe of a bewildering visionary world. who approaches her materials of the exhibit.” the artist known as VIRDI That is, at least, the joint effect spontaneously – “it’s a way of of Unconscious Mind: Matter and expressing myself” – enchanted Marrying art and is curated by Roberta Primordial Figures in the Visionary by a rough, unfinished quality language Buldini of Rome’s Galleria World, the exhibit inaugurated clearly linked to the materials Virdi relishes telling us about Emmeotto. on March 17 at the Italian being used. It’s as if the work how, thanks to her artwork, Consulate General and on view had many strata and were she has been able to encourage until May 9. seeking out feelings, sensations kids to study Italian. An Italian by Mila Tenaglia “I wanted my works to ‘live’ in mixed with consciousness. teacher from Paramus High the Consulate hall,” says Virdi, She likes to challenge herself School in New Jersey, Costanza ●● A woman with a serious “like furniture. I sought to by using different materials, Campagna, suggested a trip to gaze drinks in the room at the recreate the feeling of entering like Styrofoam, acids, metals, the Consulate with American www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 35 Events students of Italian so that they could see the exhibit. “Their enthusiasm was incredible,” says Virdi. “I’ve discovered a large Italian community in New York. During his meeting at the Guggenheim with President Mattarella,

Governor Cuomo reminded Lasagna Lorenzo by Photo everyone that the number of Italian Americans in New York is equal to the population of Rome! Incredible!” “Our country has a huge cultural impact on language and literature and thanks to the immensity of our artwork, aside from being one of the most beautiful places on earth! So I’m not surprised at how loved we are abroad, too, nor that there is an effort in the States to keep the culture healthy and pass it down to young people.”

Journey to New York Originally Umbrian but Roman Pavilion directed by Vittorio “Mediterranean: The Faces of industrial buildings that by adoption, while enrolled Sgarbi in 2011, as well as Metaphor,” and would later, house over a hundred artists’ at the Academy of Fine Arts other artistic prizes and art naturally, land in New York, studios, exhibition spaces, a Verdiana immersed herself in festivals, before she was where she has worked for a foundry... Everything serves the paintings and sculptures of recognized internationally. long time and feels at home. to facilitate the artists’ work. Carlo Guarienti, to whom she Her anthropomorphic images “Right now I’m doing You have the opportunity to would eventually apprentice. composed of signs and words a residency at Mana come into contact with tons Her artistic achievements flew to Mexico and London. Contemporary in New Jersey. of people every day, emerging began at home and included She debuted during Italian It’s a great opportunity. I and established artists, who her involvement in the 54th Culture Month in Monte Carlo, have a studio in a beautiful come from various cities and Venice Biennale, at the Italian participating in the project arts center. There are four cultures.” ●●

April 29 PEN World Voices Festival: Free Expression and Literature Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò (NYU), 24 West 12th Street ◗ www.casaitaliananyu.org ◗ www.pen.org

● Presented as part of The Literary Mews – a festival within the (NYU), Kubati will discuss his work and will reflect more broadly World Voices Festival held by the literary and human rights orga- on Italian literature of migration and on the cultural politics of the nization PEN – more than 150 writers from thirty countries read in genre. venues from Lower Manhattan and Harlem to The Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. Here are two events that take place on Friday, April 29 Kairos Italy Theater presents Characters in Search of a Country at NYU’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò. Based on Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello 6:00 pm Voyage of No Return: Finding Identity Between Albania, Italy, and The Six Characters of this classic play’s title search for an author to America. A conversation with author Ron Kubati allow them to tell their stories. In Kairos Italy Theater’s version, the 5:00 pm characters are immigrants in search of a country where they can Ron Kubati immigrated to Italy from Albania in 1991 and began tell and live their own stories. Using words written by Pirandello, writing in the language of his host country, exploring themes of in Italian, English, and other languages, KIT presents a piece that nostalgia, identity, and belonging. In dialogue with Rebecca Falkoff reflects upon the contemporary problems of migration.

36 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Events ➜ Calendar

● International Symposium by The Global Dante Project of New York. daily Directors: Maria Luisa Ardizzone (NYU) and Teodolinda Barolini (Co- calendar lumbia University). Presented by NYU’s Department of Italian Stud- ies, Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò and Apr 6 Medieval and Renaissance Center in collaboration with Columbia Uni- versity’s Department of Italian and Panel Discussion: Italian Academy for Advanced Stud- Italy and Europe in ies in America. Sponsored by Intesa the Age of Chaos Sanpaolo. 6:00 pm Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò (NYU), 24 West 12th Street Apr 12 ◗ casaitaliananyu.org ● On the occasion of the publication Gian Giacomo of L’età del caos (2015, Mondadori) by Migone: The United Liuzzo & Associates is dedicated to securing Federico Rampini, this panel discus- States and Fascist nonimmigrant working visas and status, U.S. sion will feature historian Simona Italy Colarizi (author of Novecento d’Europa), 6:00 pm permanent residence, corporate compliance writer and journalist Federico Rampi- Italian Cultural Institute of New programs, citizenship, naturalization, and ni (La Repubblica) and journalist David York, 686 Park Avenue expatriation matters for its clients. As a firm Usborne (The Independent). The event ◗ iicnewyork.esteri.it/IIC_Newyork is part of the Hon. Frank J. Guarini ● Gian Giacomo Migone is Professor whose practice is exclusively focused on U.S. Series in Public Affairs. of History of Euroatlantic Relations Immigration and Naturalization law, we at the University of Torino, Italy. He successfully represent all foreign individuals is the author of Problemi di storia nei Apr 7 rapporti tra Italia e Stati Uniti (1971) and and corporate entities. From artists to Banchieri americani e Mussolini (1979), multinational corporate executives, Liuzzo & New York’s Italian and he has written numerous essays Associates assists its clients in determining Exile Press and the concerning Euro-Atlantic relations the most appropriate and efficient strategy to Civil War. Bénédicte before, during, and after the Cold Deschamps, Paris Diderot War. meet their objectives. University Given the prominence of immigration issues 6:00 pm Diodata Malvasia’s in today’s political climate, recent arrivals to John D. Calandra Italian American Writings on the sister Institute, Queens College (CUNY), of San Luca and Their the U.S. are in need of reliable and 25 West 43rd Street Miraculous Madonna comprehensive advice upon which to base ◗ qcpages.qc.edu/calandra 6:30 pm their future plans. Liuzzo & Associates is ● The Risorgimento in Italy sparked Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò a wave of political migration. In the (NYU), 24 West 12th Street ideally positioned at the forefront of United States, Risorgimento exiles ◗ casaitaliananyu.org immigration regulatory changes, keeping pace played an essential part in the birth ● Presentation of the Writings of Dio- with evolving laws as well as our clients’ of the Italian-American press. When data Malvasia (c. 1533–after 1617) ed- expectations. Piacenza-born Giovanni Francesco ited by Danielle Callegari and Shan- Secchi de Casali founded the first non McHugh (Toronto: Iter; Tempe, enduring Italian-language newspa- AZ: CMRS, 2015). A panel discussion per in New York, L’Eco d’Italia (1849), about women both religious and his intention was primarily to voice secular, early modern and modern, the exiles’ political views about the and the tools and methods they future of Italy. Yet because he chose to employed in the pursuit of creative remain in the United States, he had to expression, with Danielle Callegari adapt his newspaper to his American (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa), environment. Shannon McHugh (NYU), Meredith Ray (University of Delaware), Lynn Westwater (George Washington Uni- Apr 8 versity). Moderated by Virginia Cox (NYU). One Penn Plaza, Suite 2016 • New York, NY 10119 Dante’s Vita Nuova: Tel: 212.736.2100 • Fax: 212.736.2159 Archaeologies of a [email protected] • www.liuzzolaw.com Text 6:30 pm Download our Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò iPhone app (NYU), 24 West 12th Street ◗ casaitaliananyu.org www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 37 Events ➜ Calendar

Apr 13 Apr 20

Accademia Until May 13 Concert: Derek Lee Bizantina Ragin, countertenor 6:30 pm Ancient Inspirations: & Mark Markham, Lincoln Center, 10 Lincoln Center piano Plaza 6:30 pm ◗ lincolncenter.org Paintings by Vincent The Italian Academy for ● The Italian period-instrument en- Advanced Studies in America semble Accademia Bizantina, known (Columbia University), 1161 Baldassano Amsterdam Avenue across Europe for its dramatic flair, John D. Calandra Italian American ◗ italianacademy.columbia.edu will illuminate hidden sides of Viv- Institute, Queens College (CUNY), aldi with this rare repertoire. Artistic ● Countertenor Derek Lee Ragin and 25 West 43rd Street director Ottavio Dantone’s “supreme pianist Mark Markham will perform musicianship” (Guardian) will be on a program of Italian arias by Handel display in his New York conducting Inspired by his time as a visiting artist at the American Academy along with works by Samuel Barber debut. An all Vivaldi program. Con- in Rome, Vincent Baldassano’s exhibition showcases the rich and Aaron Copland, American spiri- certos for cello, bassoon, and strings; history and beautiful antiquity of this Italian city. tuals, and the world premiere of We selected arias. Pre-concert lecture by The artist was strongly influenced and inspired by the churches, Are Beautiful by composer Jonathan Susan Orlando at 6:15 in the Stanley temples, and the ancient Mithraic sites that he visited during Dawe, with an original libretto by H. Kaplan Penthouse. Alastair Boag. his time in Rome. In these paintings one can see the similarities between Baldassano’s depictions and some of Rome’s most Apr 15 famous ancient structures, such as the Pantheon. Baldassano Apr 26 also attributes much of his inspiration to his Italian-American Roberto’s Concert culture and his connection to Italy; his mother was born in Book Presentation: 7:00 pm Puglia near Foggia, and his father’s family was from Sciacca Peter Carravetta & Casa Italiana Zerilli- in Sicily. Richard Milazzo Marimò (NYU), 24 West 12th Street The paintings in this exhibition depict the ancient arches that 6:00 am ◗ casaitaliananyu.org can be found in Rome and throughout Italy. Baldassano uses John D. Calandra Italian American ● Institute, Queens College (CUNY), An evening with the music of Ro- materials such as burlap and rice paper to create a unique berto Scarcella Perino, composer in 25 West 43rd Street texture and look. By mixing watercolor with acrylic, Baldassano ◗ residence at Casa Italiana Zerilli Ma- qcpages.qc.edu/calandra also creates vibrant, colorful shapes that merge together. rimò. Maestro Scarcella Perino will ● The presentation of two poetry present two world premieres: Piano Baldassano did not expect to create these works during his time books will be moderated by Rolando Sonata No. 2, dedicated to Patrizia in Rome, bringing with him a few brushes and some gouache Perez, poet, critic and Hispanist at Di Carrobio, and String Quartet No. 1. paints. He had no idea that in 2012 the visions of these arches Hunter College/CUNY. Richard Mi- Other works being performed include would appear in his mind. He adds that his time in Italy was lazzo, poet, art critic, independent Variations on Mozart’s Variations and not the only inspiration for these works: he credits some twenty scholar and author of A Tattoo in Mo- Piano Concerto No.1, arranged for piano years creating other work that also showcased similar shapes. rocco: Poems 2007 (Modena, Galleria and string quartet. Roberto Scarcella The works in Ancient Inspirations differ from his others because Mazzoli, 2015). Peter Carravetta, poet, Perino has written three operas (Ver- of Baldassano’s use of the unique cutouts of shapes that are critic, cultural historian, and author di, Merli e Cucú, A Caval Donato, and of The Other Lives (Toronto, Guernica, present in these paintings. Blackout) and three ballets (Colapesce, 2014). Copies of the books will be Constellations, and Basket-Dance). available for purchase.

Current work by Apr 19 visual artists Calori & Maillard, Adventures in Francesca Grilli Italian Opera with 6:00 pm Fred Plotkin: A Italian Cultural Institute of New Conversation with Maria York, 686 Park Avenue Agresta ◗ iicnewyork.esteri.it/IIC_Newyork 6:30 pm ● The Premio New York brings prom- Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò ising younger Italian artists to New (NYU), 24 West 12th Street York for a residency at the Interna- ◗ casaitaliananyu.org tional Studio and Curatorial Program ● This season’s sixth and final Italian (ISCP) in Brooklyn, with the support Opera “adventure” with Fred Plotkin of the Italian Academy, the Italian will feature the young Italian soprano Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Maria Agresta, a rising star who has Vincent Baldassano Italian Cultural Institute in New York. already appeared in major roles at La Scan the QR code Calori & Maillard work with sculpture Scala and the Paris Opera. She makes on i-Italy | TV to watch the video and performance. Francesca Grilli’s her Met debut this season as Mimì in installations and performances focus La Bohéme. on the intensity of intimate stories.

38 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Events ➜ Calendar

Apr 28 May 5

Gayatri Spivak and May 23 - 28 Cheryl Della Pietra Jacques Derrida’s reads from Gonzo On Grammatology Girl: A Novel 4:00 am IDACO’s Second 6:00 am The Italian Academy for John D. Calandra Italian American Advanced Studies in America Annual NYC Festival Institute, Queens College (CUNY), (Columbia University), 1161 25 West 43rd Street Amsterdam Avenue ◗ qcpages.qc.edu/calandra ◗ IDACO (Italian Dance Connection) is a platform for Italian artists visiting italianacademy.columbia.edu ● and living in New York, and for New York artists who want to take part in Alley Russo is a young aspiring ● Jacques Derrida’s revolutionary novelist who arrives at Walker a dialogue with Italian culture, exploring and sharing their unique paths approach to phenomenology, psy- Reade’s compound in the Colorado through movement, choreography, and the visual arts. This festival is choanalysis, structuralism, linguis- Rockies hoping to become his assis- tics, and indeed the entire European curated and produced by Flusso Dance Project in collaboration with the tant. Aging literary lion Reade has tradition of philosophy—called de- Italian Cultural Institute New York and in partnership with Vivo Ballet, gone off the deep end. Struggling construction—changed the face of Anabella Lenzu/ DanceDrama, Umanism, INSCENA Festival, and Mare to finish his overdue manuscript, criticism. It provoked a questioning Nostrum Elements/ECS. he falls into the wild lifestyle that of philosophy, literature, and the hu- made him a legend. Alley tries to man sciences that these disciplines coax a novel out of Reade while bat- would have previously considered tling his procrastination, vampiric improper. Forty years after Of Gram- schedule, substance abuse, and ca- matology first appeared in English, sual gunplay. Derrida still ignites controversy, thanks in part to Gayatri Chakra- vorty Spivak’s careful translation, May 6 which attempted to capture the rich- ness and complexity of the original. Opening of Panorama Europe 2016 May 2 6:00 pm MoMI - Museum of the Moving Emergency Exit: Image, 36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria Young Italians ◗ movingimage.us May 23-24 Abroad ● Co-presented by Museum of the 6:30 pm Location & time TBD Moving Image and the European Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò Dance workshops for professionals during the event week Union National Institutes for Cul- (NYU), 24 West 12th Street focus on composition & choreography and contemporary ture (EUNIC), Panorama Europe is a ◗ casaitaliananyu.org dance. There will also be two creative residencies in New York unique showcase of sixteen con- ● A documentary about Italy and City prior to the week’s event, offering open rehearsals to temporary European features. how the last 20 years of politics have donors and professionals, including feedback sessions and Panorama Europe gives New York affected younger generations. Thou- discussions. audiences what may be their only sands of young Italians, more than chance to see acclaimed films from 70% of who are college graduates or the festival circuit on the big screen. May 24 at 6:00pm professionally trained, leave their Program TBA. Festival Partners in- Opening Event country every year. Most remain clude The Italian Cultural Institute Italian Cultural Institute of New York torn between a desire to pursue bet- of New York. ter global opportunities and a strong 688 Park Avenue attachment to their roots. May 25, 26, 27, 28 at 7:30pm May 7 The IDACO “Experience” May 3 Sheen Center (Black box theatre) Giorgio Morandi 18 Bleecker Street Open House Le Conversazioni Four evenings dedicated to the innovative projects of Italian 6:00 am 6:30 pm or international choreographers and artists. CIMA - Center For Italian Modern Casa Italiana Zerilli- Art, 421 Broome Street Marimò (NYU), 24 West 12th Street ◗ italianmodernart.com ◗ May 28 at 5:30pm casaitaliananyu.org ● In honor of Frieze NY and NYCx- The IDACO “Experiment” ● In 2006, Italian writer, film director Design, CIMA is offering a free Gior- Sheen Center (Black box theatre) and professor Antonio Monda found- gio Morandi Open House. Come en- ed Le Conversazioni, a global literary 18 Bleecker Street joy the Giorgio Morandi exhibition festival that takes place in Capri, New One show dedicated to the experimental projects of young in CIMA’s exquisite and intimate York and Rome, with friend Davide Az- Italian or international choreographers and artists. loft setting. CIMA’s installation, its zolini. It has been ten years since Anto- third, focuses on Morandi’s rarely nio Monda brought to the stage writers seen works from the 1930s — the from all over the world. Program TBA. decade when the artist reached full www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 39 Events ➜ Calendar

artistic maturity and developed his art and cultural life in the first half of ● Director Bartlett Sher’s new pro- distinctive pictorial language. Un- the twentieth century. Born in Ven- duction of Verdi’s masterful Otello, May 9 - May 10 til now these works have remained ice to a wealthy Jewish family, she which opened the Met season last relatively little known outside of was notorious above all as a mistress September, returns for a second run, New York Debut of “BEAUTIFUL… UPLIFTING.” the 25th IBLA Grand Italy. and biographer of Mussolini. CIMA with Aleksandr Antonenko and Željko -JESSICA-JESSICA KIANG,KIANG, THETHE PLAYLISTPLAYLIST welcomes the art historian Rachele Luci reprising their roles as Othello Prize Winners Ferrario, on the occasion of the pub- and Iago, respectively. Hibla Gerzma- Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò “A SUBTLE, COMPASSIONATE STUDY OF May 10 lication of her new book, Margherita va joins the cast as Desdemona, and (NYU), 24 West 12th Street ◗ Sarfatti: La Regina dell’arte fascista Adam Fischer conducts. casaitaliananyu.org GENDER AND CULTURE.” A Tribute to poet (Mondadori, 2015). ● Celebrating its 25th Anniversary, -THE-THE PLAYLISTPLAYLIST Giorgio Bassani the IBLA Grand Prize International “POWERFUL.” “MAGNETIC.” 6:00 pm Until May 16 Music Competition has become one “POWERFUL.” “MAGNETIC.” -ALEXANDRA HUDSON, -SCREENDAILY Italian Cultural Institute of New May 19 of the world’s cultural treasures. -ALEXANDRA HUDSON, -SCREENDAILY REUTERS York, 686 Park Avenue Salvo: Io sono il Held each year in early summer in ◗ iicnewyork.esteri.it/IIC_Newyork Concert: Roberto migliore the magnificent southeastern corner ● In collaboration with the Primo Gatto Ierimonti Gallery, of Sicily, in the quietly beautiful and Levi Center, the Italian Cultural In- 6:00 pm 24 West 57th Street charming Baroque city of Ragusa- stitute will host a special event to Italian Cultural Institute of New ◗ ierimontigalleryusa.com Ibla, this competition has proven to commemorate Italian novelist Gior- York, 686 Park Avenue ● Salvo: Io Sono il Migliore, is a retro- be a consistently world-class show- gio Bassani. A poet, essayist and ◗ iicnewyork.esteri.it/IIC_Newyork spective of the work of Salvatore Man- case for musical talent of the highest intellectual, Bassani is recognized ● Roberto Gatto is an Italian jazz gione (1947-2015), known as Salvo, order. internationally for his memorably drummer who has performed with from the eighties to the present. In his elusive characters, the many ways Lee Konitz, Chet Baker, Bob Berg, paintings, Salvo pits characters and in which they defy stereotypes, and Tommy Flanegan, Joe Zawinul, and images of the past against a highly Until June 17 WINNER NORA EPHRON PRIZE his uncanny portrayal of Italian soci- Joe Lovano. He has composed mu- contemporary imagination. His is an BEST FEMALE DIRECTOR Matteo Montani: LAURA BISPURI ety between the end of Fascism and sic for film, led his own jazz group art of description and classification, TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL the post war period. 2016 marks the and been a member of prominent where the importance is not given to Once Upon a Time centenary of Bassani’s death. Neapolitan singer Pino Daniele’s the emotional and narrative event, Life, Again ensemble. but rather to objective data. The Elkon Gallery, 18 East 81th Street May 12 ◗ elkongallery.com EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT CITY CINEMAS Apr 27-May 30 ● The Elkon Gallery in association VILLAGE EAST CINEMAS STARTS FRI. 4/22 strandreleasing.com Shakespeare in with Isabella Del Frate Rayburn is 2ND AVE AT 12TH ST • 800-FANDANGO #2708 Atelier With Carlo ongoing Exhibition: Luisa pleased to announce its first exhibi- Colla & Sons Gardini tion with Italian artist Matteo Mon- Marionette Company events Casa Italiana Zerilli- tani. From the onset of his career, 6:00 pm Marimò (NYU), 24 West 12th Street Montani’s work has been associated FROM THE PRODUCERS OF THE GREAT BEAUTY AND YOUTH Italian Cultural Institute of New ◗ casaitaliananyu.org with the use of large sheets of sand- York, 686 Park Avenue ● An exhibition of works by Luisa Gar- paper. The pictorial architecture of ◗ iicnewyork.esteri.it/IIC_Newyork Until May 5 dini. Curated by Isabella del Frate Ray- the paintings produced with this “ ● On the 400th anniversary of burn. Sponsored by Maurice Kanbar. unique technique is mostly organized CINEMATICALLY Shakespeare’s death, Carlo Colla & La Bohème Employing a variety of media – draw- according to a system of signals and ” Sons Marionette Company will pay Metropolitan Opera ing, collage, painting and sculpture information, where the fluid color DAZZLING. tribute to the English bard. Mari- House, 30 Lincoln Center – the Ravenna-born, Rome-based art- masses of inconstant lines and den- - VARIETY onettes have been in the Colla fam- Plaza ist creates works infused with a pen- sity convey a sense of transcendence, ◗ metopera.org ily for seven generations—over 200 chant for hybridity and juxtaposition almost a journey. “ ” years! Based in Milan, Carlo Colla ● Puccini’s unforgettable tale of in ways that trigger the mind and the IMPECCABLY PERFORMED. & Sons continue to share the rich love, youth and tragic loss returns in senses. - THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER tradition of Italian puppet theater Franco Zeffirelli’s classic production, Until Jun 25 all over the world. Their intricate perhaps his most beloved staging of productions create a miniature all. Maria Agresta, Hei-Kyung Hong, May 2 - May 16 Giorgio Morandi - universe onstage, so full of life that Susanna Phillips, Ailyn Pérez, Bryan Art Installation you might forget someone’s holding Hymel, and Quinn Kelsey are among IN SCENA! Italian CIMA - Center for Italian Theater Festival Modern Art, 421 Broome Street the strings. the artists to appear as the young Pa- JULIETTE BINOCHE LOU DE LAÂGE GIORGIO COLANGELI risian lovers in the bohemian setting Different Venues ◗ italianmodernart.org that brings the Latin Quarter to life ◗ inscenany.com ● Continues the third season of the May 17 on the stage of the Met. Dan Ettinger ● The 15-day festival returns and will Center for Italian Modern Art, dedi- conducts. offer 5 fully staged productions from cated to Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964), Margherita Sarfatti Italy, among other events and activi- one of the best known Italian artists 6:00 am ties, as well as the third edition of the of the 20th century. The exhibition fo- CIMA - Center For Italian Until May 6 Mario Fratti Award. The shows, which cuses on the artist’s rarely seen works A FILM BY PIERO MESSINA Modern Art, 421 Broome Street will take place in different locations from the 1930s-the decade when Mo- ◗ italianmodernart.com Otello in all five boroughs of New York, will randi reached full artistic maturity EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT LANDMARK THEATRES ● A conversation about Margherita Metropolitan Opera be presented in Italian and English or and developed his distinctive picto- SUNSHINE CINEMA Sarfatti, journalist, critic, art patron, House, 30 Lincoln Center with English subtitles, curated by Kai- rial language. These works until now STARTS FRI. 4/29 143 E HOUSTON ST, (212) 260-7289 and founder of the group Novecento, Plaza ros Italy Theater in collaboration with have remained relatively little known ◗ who profoundly influenced Italian metopera.org Montclair State University. or exhibited outside of Italy.

40 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org “BEAUTIFUL… UPLIFTING.” -JESSICA-JESSICA KIANG,KIANG, THETHE PLAYLISTPLAYLIST “A SUBTLE, COMPASSIONATE STUDY OF GENDER AND CULTURE.” -THE-THE PLAYLISTPLAYLIST “POWERFUL.” “MAGNETIC.” -ALEXANDRA-ALEXANDRA HUDSON,HUDSON, -SCREENDAILY-SCREENDAILY REUTERS

WINNER NORA EPHRON PRIZE BEST FEMALE DIRECTOR LAURA BISPURI TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL

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FROM THE PRODUCERS OF THE GREAT BEAUTY AND YOUTH “CINEMATICALLY DAZZLING.” - VARIETY “IMPECCABLY PERFORMED.” - THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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A FILM BY PIERO MESSINA EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT LANDMARK THEATRES SUNSHINE CINEMA STARTS FRI. 4/29 143 E HOUSTON ST, (212) 260-7289

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●● WILL STARBUCKS OPENING IN MILAN BE THE END OF COFFEE CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT? Starbucks or No Starbucks?

The Seattle-based multinational chain that reinvented coffee and cafes in America has decided to open in the Bel Paese. The first branch is slated for opening in 2017 in Milan, and public opinion is already split. Will Starbucks succeed in conquering Italy? Not a chance, said Neapolitan restaurateur

Rosario Procino, co-founder Fitzcarraldo’s Managing partner of the pizzeria Ribalta in Henry M. Rich Manhattan, during his appearance on CNN with Richard Quest. by Rosario Procino Italy? Starbucks is taking a humble NO STARBUCKS: ... but Rome and Naples will position, promising to respect the because Italy reject it! ●● The opening of Starbucks country’s traditions. That may be Starbucks might drum up some in Italy is what I would call true, but I have my doubts that needs to maintain and interest in Milan, arguably Italy’s collateral damage of modern Starbucks will change its modus protect its own most European city, but not globalization. Clearly, the operandi. Will it serve up a heavier, exactly the capital of our coffee American company’s desire to creamier espresso in a ceramic cup traditions. culture. But I doubt it will have expand is more than legitimate. at the bar, as the Italians take their NO STARBUCKS: any success in a city like Naples Of greater interest is seeing how coffee? Or will it serve “watered because I don’t get the or Rome, where coffee is almost Italy will react. The country has down” coffee in a takeaway cup? a religious ritual, aside from long been considered the home Knowing corporate America’s point of a double attracting a very young customer of coffee or, as they say in the line of thinking, I’m sure that espresso. base that is always on the U.S., espresso. Starbucks will try to impose its NO STARBUCKS: lookout for new trends to follow philosophy on Italy, too, without until the next one arrives from Too many changes adapting its wares to meet the because it calls its across the ocean. As history would have it, it was demands of the host country, smallest serving an Italian café that first inspired essentially putting the ball in the “Tall.” Why say ‘No’? the founder of Starbucks to open Italians’ court. What will win out? Starbucks or No Starbucks? a store in Seattle. Yet, as often A drive to change or respect for NO STARBUCKS: I say No Starbucks, since happens during ocean crossings, tradition? because I don’t like it. Italy derives strength from many things – too many – have Plain and simple. maintaining and protecting its changed. Starbucks offers several Success at first, in Milan... own traditions. varieties of coffee missing in Italy Personally, I think that Starbucks I say No Starbucks because I (single, double, latte, tall, venti, could be moderately successful may drink a Caramel Frappucino don’t get the point of a double grande, Frappuccino, and so on); the in the beginning, thanks to the every once in a while and chalk it espresso. tradition of standing at a bar has novelty of the endeavor, the fad up to a decent caffeinated drink, I say No Starbucks because it calls vanished; and ceramic cups have of the moment, and later become but I don’t think they’ll ever go to its smallest serving “Tall.” been replaced by paper. What will a safe space for American tourists Starbucks for their daily dose of I say No Starbucks because I don’t happen when the store opens in visiting Italy. In the end, Italians coffee. like it. Plain and simple. ●●

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●● THE END OF THE WORLD ISN’T NEAR. YeT. Starbucks Doesn’t Spell The Apocalypse! Photo by Lorenzo Lasagna Lorenzo by Photo

Why hasn’t Starbucks opened by Alberto Baudo an interest in Seattle’s invasion. ● Starbucks wasn’t born store in Italy until now? Will But the questions pile up: Why yesterday. It opened in 1971. It it succeed? Will it hurt small ●● So Starbucks is opening in Italy. hasn’t Starbucks opened store in has 25,000 stores around the The magazine Gambero Rosso, one Italy until now? Will it succeed? world. businesses? Will it change of the gatekeepers of fine dining Will it hurt small businesses? Will ● People like Starbucks. Its brand Italians’ habits? Only time and drinking in Italy, recently it change Italians’ habits? Only is trendy and it makes excellent will tell, but we can make our published a wonderfully written time will tell, but we can make our coffee served in a comfortable and well-researched article titled modest predictions if we examine space with free Wi-Fi designed to modest predictions if we 10 Reasons Why Starbucks in Italy the hard data: make you feel at home. examine the hard data, says is a Catastrophe. Despite the title, ● Starbucks is the largest chain Obviously there are plenty of old Alberto Baudo, owner of the article isn’t all negative; the of coffee shops in the world, not and highly regarded cafés in Italy. Williamsburg’s Fabbrica magazine didn’t rush to defend our in franchising but in terms of real But they’re the exceptions that traditions. On the contrary, it took estate. prove the rule.

Just an American Watch Fred Plotkin’s Coffee Bar “Coffee” on i-Italy|TV

by Fred Plotkin

Caffè of course means I am troubled by the idea of Starbucks opening in Milan because coffee but in Italian it it confuses what quality coffee is. This happens to be a very fine means so much more. company in terms of the environment, the proper treatment of its It is the place where employees and various forms of social policy. However, its founder, you go to have a coffee. Howard Schultz built the legend of his company on his discovering But above all, it means the classic Italian coffee bar in Milan and bringing its traditions to that wakening in the the U.S.A. Starbucks, which is sui generis, does not reflect an Italian morning. It means that model in terms of style and service. moment of pause alone Most especially, its over-roasted coffee beans are a gross exaggeration or with a friend in the in terms of flavor and the enormous size of its cups are distortions afternoon. When you say that do not correspond to anything an Italian would know or like. to someone, “Andiamo a prendere un caffè”, what that means is not Starbucks adds all kinds of syrups and flavorings to its coffee drinks, only “Let’s go have a coffee” but let’s spend time together. Let’s take something that is very un-Italian. The food Starbucks sells is inferior a break from our busy lives, share it, and then go on with our lives. to the wonderfully yeasty and airy brioche with apricot jam that is the They call it “la pausa caffè”, the pause for a coffee. Il Caffè Italiano, traditional accompaniment to a morning cappuccino or the delicate which is just espresso, to me is also the exclamation point at the end savory tramezzini sandwiches that come later in the day. Starbucks of a magnificent Italian meal. There are other kinds of coffee and does not serve alcoholic beverages while Italian coffee bars do. If there are coffee drinks but that is not for me. I like ‘un caffè espresso Starbucks wants to open stores in Italy, it has the right to. But it should all’Italiana senza zucchero’, without sugar. Just a beautiful espresso. be advertised for what it is: an American coffee bar.

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Objection #1: Starbucks coffee Milan. That’s where he realized is nasty and Italian coffee is the there was a totally new market best in the world. to make up. Actually Gambero Rosso recognizes that “Italy isn’t Objection#3: OK, but Italians the number one consumer are in the habit of taking their of coffee per capita, but in all coffee differently: three drops likelihood it is the country standing up and off to work. A where the drink plays the far cry from those American big most crucial social, cultural gulps! and anthropological role. The “habit” argument makes me Nevertheless, as has happened smile every time. For decades to many other excellent Italian the most hardened habits have commodities, coffee has been been continuously discarded in abused and degraded over the favor of other, decidedly more years, and is now a shadow of European and international its former self.” Setting aside ones, and yet we continue to tastes for the moment, let’s try take refuge in our castle of to understand how the Seattle provincialism in the name of coffee company achieved defending a tradition. its global success. Starbucks Example: “In Italy people want has over 30 blends of coffee, corner stores, not chains!” said ranging from the most famous some. Meanwhile Zara, H&M, blends to local selections to OBI, MediaWorld, Ipercoop, and reserve roasts. Their website similar companies bred like even has a feature that will rabbits, leading myriad local recommend the best coffee shops to fail. or blend for you personally, Example: “In Italy people eat depending on how you answer well! We don’t want American three specific questions. How hamburgers!” said some, while many cafes in Italy can say the at the same time McDonald’s, same? And how many in Italy Burger King, American Graffiti, know that at Starbucks you can Alberto Baudo and the gourmet hamburger “design” your own espresso? in his Lavazza-powered took the peninsula by storm. coffee bar at Fabbrica Then there’s the part-hipster, Example: “Italians drink Restaurant and Bar part-metropolitan ambience in Williamsburg. wine, not fermented malt!” that young people armed with Meanwhile beer’s everywhere iPhones are drawn to like bees and everybody has a friend who to flowers; the free Wi-Fi; the to the short synopses provided Nowhere in the constitution brews his own in his garage. courteous and competent staff them. No one in a traditional of coffee does it say that Birrerie are chockfull of young that asks you what you’d like Italian bar can teach you these coffee must cost a euro. It’s an people open to new things. and writes your name on your things, and the result is that, anachronistic belief, a cultural Only two things in Italy are personalized cup; the large, of all the populations in the throwback belonging to an Italy sacred and inviolable: soccer clean and totally livable spaces; Western World, Italians may that is disappearing and will (we’re all super coaches) and the fact that you don’t need a know the least about coffee. So continue to disappear more mammas. There’s nothing key to go to the bathroom; the much for being the home of the and more rapidly, composed wrong with having everything fact that there aren’t limits to ‘tazzulela’.” of amateur baristas who open else up for discussion. how long you can stay; the fact a business by placing all their that, on average, they’re better Objection #2: But coffee in Italy trust in machines bought on Objection #4: Why is Starbucks than we are at making coffee. costs 1 euro and at Starbucks it loan, in labels provided to them only opening now? It must Again according to Gambero costs 3! by some coffee company, and have been scared to compete Rosso, “Setting aside tastes If Starbucks really does sell in bars furnished by a “trusted” with our cafés, huh? and technical considerations espresso for 3 euros, it’ll be an supplier. Wrong again. Starbucks has regarding the quality of blends, outrage, writes one noted Italian The truth is that a successful already opened stores in 67 for millions of people around the expert. True, yet not for the model can’t be built by selling countries that offer greater world, Starbucks is their coffee reasons you’d suppose. Rather it coffee for a euro. To attract guarantees for the colossal touchstone. Thanks to Starbucks will be an outrage because they’ll clients willing to spend more, investments needed to open (its menu and its shelves have figured out long before us you need to spend more. them. Why drive yourself crazy stocked with retail), these people that people are willing to pay Starbucks took that risk in getting entangled with Italian know that there is no such thing more, even three times more, for 1982 when its visionary CEO bureaucracy, high tax rates, and as “coffee,” but rather “coffees”, a reliably good coffee served in a Howard Shultz, then Director of a political class that can’t quite which come in a variety of pleasant environment. Starbucks Marketing, went so far as to put be trusted? It didn’t invest in blends from a variety of sources. won’t be a huckster if it succeeds his house up in order to embark Italy until now not because it Thanks to Starbucks they learn in its endeavor, but we’ll be the on a new project as ambitious considered the country better what sustainability means. They chumps. What it will mean is that as it was unheard of. And it’s than others but because, alas, are up to date on characteristics they – not us – knew how to teach ironic to note that he got the it’s worse, at least in terms of and areas of production thanks customers the cost of quality. idea after visiting a café in opening a business.

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Does i-Italy Starbucks?

It is true that a magazine, even an This country is, as it should be indeed, a Italian magazine, doesn’t need to have a sea of regular American coffe. position on this issue. Making room for In this sour situation, spotting a all positions is our must. But let’s face it: Starbucks shop may be, even for New York is a damn spoiled Italian city Italians, a true blessing! It tells you that when it comes to coffe—and not only! you’re as close to an espresso as you can As you will see in the next few pages, possibly be outside Italy. And we speak there’s plenty of places in the City where by experience. Recently in Washington you can sip a good Italian-style espresso, DC for a series of high-end interviews not to mention a macchiato, a cappuccino with i-ItalyTV, we were risking a crisis and even a “marocchino.” of abstinence when we finally spotted a But what about the rest of the States? In microscopic Starbucks shop. Look at the most places you can drive hundreds of picture to the right: Matteo, our Director miles without ever stopping for a coffe. of Photography, was truly moved...

But to conclude this list extraction is. And once and for Starbucks. Offer different competitors who are better of slightly provocative all we can dispose of the belief products for a well-established prepared for Starbucks. observations, I’ll add a few that because Italians have target. The move shouldn’t demoralize other reasons why we should espresso pumping in their veins, There’s still time. We have a year. or de-motivate people. It should consider this opening as a great they don’t need to be educated It could be they’ll even find you spur us to keep working. Because opportunity for our country in espresso, that somehow we’re ready and waiting. the fewer new competitors on and our more open-minded born perfect. the market, the more room there entrepreneurs. Instead we need to keep better Opportunity #3: They’ll make is for professionals who know records, offer more choices, room for new businesses. how to do their job. Opportunity #1: We can really make an artisanal brand, maybe It’s sad to say, but many small In short, take it easy, the start to talk about coffee in a even toast our beans ourselves, cafes will close. Starbucks will Frappucino isn’t going to serious and meaningful way. and obviously sell them for three lead us to more meaningfully become the law of the land. If Café owners could and should euro. That’s how you vanquish a reflect on what is happening to you think it’s nasty, no one is learn how to explain where giant like Starbucks. our own businesses. And those going to force you to drink it. the blend they’re selling comes who aren’t at the top of their Each of us can continue to pick from, what a ‘purge’ is, and Opportunity #2: Attract game will be wiped out. Some up a cup of Joe at the local café what the best temperature for customers disappointed by by Starbucks, some by local for a euro. ●●

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Dining Out Special Cafes and coffee shops by Paola Aurisicchio

“When I die, bring me coffee, and you’ll see me rise like Lazarus,” machines and pairing it with homemade desserts and pastries. said renowned playwright Eduardo De Filippo who, like any good Italians wake up by preparing coffee, spreading the aroma of the most Neapolitan, would never have turned down a cup of coffee. It is this popular drink in the ‘Bel Paese’ throughout their homes. Yet there is no same habit that unites all Italians, incapable of beginning their day precise schedule for drinking a good cup of coffee; you can savor an without first savoring a morning coffee. But is it possible to find an espresso just after lunch, in the middle of the afternoon or after dinner. authentic Italian espresso in New York? Yes it is, and we have chosen So, along with Italian flavors, New York coffee shops are also adapting a number of cafes and coffee shops that serve a high-quality espresso; Americans to the customs of Italians—who, even in the “Starbucks respecting Italian traditions by making it exclusively in Italian coffee capital,” often sip their coffee perched at the bar.

to the quality of the coffee, homey atmosphere and typical Italian custom of drinking your coffee at the bar. Zibetto Espresso Bar has expanded and opened a new branch in the heart of Manhat- tan, upholding its tradition dedicated to four words that in Italian all begin with M: blend (“miscela”), grinder (“macinadosatore”), espresso machine (“macchina espresso”) and the hand of the barista (“mano dell’operatore”). It is on these bases that the coffee shop has built its promise; to brew an original espresso coffee with careful attention, a true blend and the use of typical Ital- ian machinery, but still at a reasonable price. The espresso, cappuccino and macchiato can also be served in the ‘summer’ style - that is with cold milk or with cold foam on the cappuccino. And this is just a small sample of what you can try at the Zibetto Espresso Bar; Iconic Neapolitan actors Peppino De Filippo and Antonio de Curtis (Totò) at a cafè in La Banda degli Onesti (1956) to truly feel like you’re in Italy you must also savor one of their cream donuts, you can try a unique coffee blend from - which today has two branches in New sfogliatelle, tiramisu or cannoli. Upper Bologna in a small and rustic yet ele- York - carries a long Italian tradition East Side gant setting. Savor an espresso, double that can be seen in the menu. Both a Macchiato Espresso Bar espresso or macchiato alongside small sandwich shop and a restaurant, Via 141 East 44th Street Da Capo Piedmontese desserts such as “Baci di Quadronno is the perfect place to relax % (212) 867-6772 ◗ 1392 Madison Avenue Dama” (“Lady’s Kisses”). Da Capo also and sip an authentic cappuccino after www.macchiatocafe.com (917) 526-8112 % offers a selection of Italian sandwiches, visiting one of the Upper East Side’s ◗www.dacaponyc.com cuisine traditional the most classic being made with Par- museums. Amongst its specialties ambience modern cuisine traditional ma ham and buffalo mozzarella. there is also a coffee known as “ma- price $$ ambience rustic rocchino”, one of the many varieties price $$ Via Quadronno of Italian espresso; a small cappuccino ● “Single or double shot?” you’ll be 25 East 73rd Street with a pinch of cocoa powder. asked at the Macchiato Espresso Bar - ● Serving the typical “granita” (a sort % (212) 650-9880 though it wouldn’t be unusual to also ◗ of Slushy made from sugar, water and www.viaquadronno.com hear it in Italian - when a single shot flavorings) that Sicilians normally eat cuisine homemade isn’t quite enough to wake up. The at breakfast, a barista wearing the fa- ambience friendly Midtown name Macchiato Espresso Bar doesn’t price mous and traditional Sicilian hat called $$ Zibetto Espresso Bar leave much to the imagination; their a “coppola” and a long bar to sip your 1221 6th Avenue specialty is an espresso coffee or mac- coffee. The island in the south of Italy ● There is a small street in the Porta % (646) 838-6364 chiato, served with a dash of milk. This has inspired Da Capo, a coffee shop Romana neighborhood of Milan where ◗ www.zibettoespresso.com midtown coffee shop uses a unique opened by the same owner as Zibetto a young baker named Giuseppe Tusi blend prepared by baristas of a store cuisine traditional Espresso Bar which has transformed used to prepare sandwiches in the late called “Macchiato 44” and is best en- ambience friendly an old bagel shop in Carnegie Hill into 1960s. It is from that street name, via price $$ joyed alongside a pastry. The atmo- a new cafe to drink a coffee or have Quadronno, that the story of this cafe sphere is deliberately modern though a snack. At Da Capo, which in Italian began, arriving in Manhattan between ● Step into this Midtown cafe and with a touch of the more traditional means ‘to restart from the beginning’, the turn of the century. Via Quadronno you’ll be transported to Italy, thanks Italian, such as the long bar where you

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can stop to order an espresso and drink Its name is Piccolo Cafe and its phi- right there, perched at the counter. The losophy is to not only bring a piece of menu of the Macchiato Espresso Bar in- Italy to New York, but also to respect cludes breakfast and also a selection of the environment. All of the wood in various sandwiches and salads. So just the cafe is recovered from an ancient like in Italy you can enjoy your coffee Venetian villa and the Italian ambi- after a sandwich. ence is accentuated further by a vintage collection that belonged to the grandparents and Italian friends of the owners. The Piccolo Cafe has four Flatiron branches in Manhattan and in each Lavazza (at Eataly) one you will find a wide selection of 200 5th Avenue Italian products, beginning with good % (212) 229-2560 coffee. The coffee grains have come ◗ www.eataly.com from various parts of the world, including Brazil and South America. cuisine typical/modern They are then toasted in Trieste and ambience classic price $$ turned into a coffee blend. Along with breakfast, the Piccolo Cafe offers typi- ● Inside Eataly, a symbol of Ital- cal Italian sandwiches with ham and ian excellence, you can’t miss the mozzarella. And if you wish to dine chance to try one of the oldest and in the restaurant, there is also a vast most famous Italian coffees, Lavaz- selection of homemade pasta dishes. za. “The more you down it, the more it lifts you up” (“più lo mandi giù e più ti tira sù”) is the historic slogan Greenwich of the company, founded in 1895 in Village Turin by Luigi Lavazza. Today Lavaz- za has become one of Caffè Reggio the symbols of Ital- 119 MacDougal Street ian espresso abroad. %(212) 475-9557 ◗ www.caffereggio.com There’s no better way to start the day or to fin- cuisine old style ish a meal than by savor- ambience sophisticated ing an Italian coffee while sur- price $$ rounded by Italian flavors inside their Fifth Avenue store. Yet there is more than just coffee and cappuc- ● A coffee machine cinos on the menu here; the Lavazza from 1902 displayed store also serves sandwiches made in the centre of the with the most authentic Italian in- room, paintings from the gredients. Amongst these is the Val- 16th century and a true Ital- dostano, prepared with cooked ham ian cappuccino. In the heart of Green- and Fontina cheese, and the Tiro- wich Village is one of the oldest cafes lese, with smoked ham and Asiago in New York, taking its name from Reg- cheese. gio Emilia, the city in Emilia Romagna that is home to the famous Parmesan Caffè Vergnano (at Eataly) cheese. Caffe Reggio opened in 1927 200 5th Avenue and is one of the pioneers of the cap- % (212) 229-2560 puccino in New York; espresso coffee ◗ www.eataly.com The traditional Neapolitan coffee maker, orCuccuma , reinterpreted by and milk whipped to foam that Italians Kimbo, the leading coffee company in Naples cuisine traditional/piemontese drink only at breakfast, accompanied by ambience classic a croissant. Seated at the small tables price $$ of Caffe Reggio, a number of celebrities of Italian flavors, in Eataly on Fifth have sipped a cappuccino, including ● An authentic Italian espresso Avenue. Stopping at Vergnano and Gramercy the actor Al Pacino. Still today the cafe from 1882; Vergnano coffee has a ordering a coffee is like immersing Piccolo Cafe continues to be a regular celebrity hang- 134 year long history, beginning yourself in an Italian atmosphere 157 3rd Avenue out, both for New Yorkers and tourists. in a small store in a little village and savoring the experience of a %(212) 260-1175 Though famous for its cappuccino, over in Turin, Piedmont. The quality of true coffee prepared at home, but ◗www.piccolocafe.us the decades Caffe Reggio has expanded the grains— chosen from various enjoyed instead at the little counter its menu to serve not only breakfast but cuisine typical countries around the world—, the of the bar. You can choose between ambience cozy also lunch and dinner. Amongst their high level of attention to the vari- espresso coffee or a macchiato with price $ many specialties there is, for example, ous phases of preparation, and the a dash of milk, paired with a home- the Canarino Voltaire in honor of the use of exclusively Italian coffee ma- made dessert, pastry or croissant; an renowned philosopher of the French chines means you cannot help but ideal way to start the day or to take a ● Sample an authentic Italian espres- Enlightenment; a generous breakfast of find yourself at home in this temple break from work. so in a friendly and cozy atmosphere. poached eggs on a bed of rice to start the www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April-May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 47 Dining Out ➜ Restaurants+Pizzerias+Wine Bars

day, of course accompanied by a good with a good coffee. The philosophy weaker coffee, the Ferrara Bakery of- Bakery you can also order a bagel with coffee. Due to its calm yet sophisticated of the cafe is to bring a slice of Italy fers a cappuccino and macchiato— cream cheese and salmon. atmosphere, Caffe Reggio lends itself to New York with a close attention to espresso coffee with a dash of milk. particularly well to a day spent relaxing high quality and authentic ingredients. The Bronx sat at one of the many small tables. Take Homemade pastries like croissants or Brooklyn a break during a frantic day surrounded donuts filled with cream or chocolate De Lillo Cafe & Pastry Shop by Italian art and flavors. can accompany a good coffee. Williamsburg 610 East 187 Street % (718) 367-8198 Filicori Zecchini Veniero’s Pastry Fabbrica Restaurant & Bar ◗ www.delillopastryshop.com 42 East 46th Street 342 East 11th Street 44 N 6th Street % (212) 867-1888 % (212) 674-7070 % (718) 218-7045 cuisine traditional ◗ www.filicorizecchini.it ◗ www.venierospastry.com ◗ www.fabbricanyc.com ambience homey price $ cuisine old style cuisine typical cuisine innovative ambience casual ambience classic ambience modern/industrial price price $$ price $$ $$ ● They left Calabria in search of the American Dream. It was 1925 when ● An Italian story which begun in ● They began serving coffee at the end ● Italian cuisine revisited with a mod- the two brothers, Rocco and Joe De 1919 in Bologna inside a small store of the 19th century and after a while ern touch, a space decorated with a Lillo emigrated to seek their fortune in founded by Aldo Filicori and Luigi also started baking biscotti. This is a large mural by a Brooklyn artist and America and to bring a piece of Italy to Zecchini. Today it continues to pass story of emigration, the values of the a name to remember the factories of New York. There is well over a century on its passion for coffee by select- Italian family and the memories of the Williamsburg. On the waterfront of of history behind the De Lillo bakery in ing its own grains and guaranteeing tradition behind Veniero’s bakery, one Williamsburg you will find Fabbrica, the Bronx, a place where you can en- a quality product based on a strong of the oldest in New York, opened as an Italian restaurant with a distinctly joy a true espresso coffee. Today the and decisive aroma. Filicori Zecchini far back as 1894 by Antonio Veniero. Italian-style menu: antipasto, primo De Lillo bakery evokes a homey Italian has linked its name to three shops Emigrated from a small village on (starter), secondo (main) and a good atmosphere inside a large space, where in Manhattan where you can sample the Sorrento coast, Veniero began his coffee to finish. The atmosphere is ele- cakes are displayed on the counter. an authentic espresso, enhanced by business with coffee and biscotti. He gant as light filters in through the large Sicilian cannoli, Neapolitan baba and its title of “certified Italian espresso”. made it through the Great Depression windows; Fabbrica is the perfect spot chocolate and cream desserts perfectly There are a variety of blends on of- of the 20s, and by the 60s he had ex- to stop and savor Italian flavors and to complement an authentic Italian cof- fer, including the “Gran crema” for panded to become one of the most re- sip an authentic Italian espresso. Or- fee prepared with care and love. Just a more mild flavor or “46th & Madi- nowned Italian bakeries in New York. der a coffee to conclude your dinner a stone’s throw from Arthur Avenue, son”, the result of a synergy between In a classic environment with painted or to start the day, pairing it with one this street in the Bronx has long since Italian and American tastes. Coffee ceilings and Venetian decoration, Ve- of the many desserts prepared skill- become another Little Italy. The De is the perfect drink to start the day, niero’s is the ideal place to enjoy a slice fully by the chef. Amongst these, the Lillo bakery is the expression of that paired with a croissant or one of the of cake accompanied by a good coffee. tiramisu is a standout item; a dessert community, a spokesperson for the many varieties of chocolates found at Cannoli, sfogliatelle, biscotti and even prepared by soaking biscuits in coffee authentic flavors of Italy. the bar of Filicori Zecchini: flavored the great cheesecake: at Veniero’s ev- and covering them with a cream made with orange, vanilla, spices or cara- eryone can pair a coffee with their fa- from mascarpone, eggs and sugar. mel. vorite dessert. A-Roma Bakery Cafe Staten 475 Grand Street Island % (718) 388-8182 East Village Little Italy ◗ www..aromabakerycafebk.com Pasticceria Bruno 676 Forest Avenue cuisine italian & american Tarallucci e Vino Ferrara Bakery & Cafe (718) 448-0993 ambience casual % 163 First Avenue 195 Grand Street ◗ www.pasticceriabruno.com %(212) 388-1190 % (212) 226-6150 price $ ◗ www.taralluccievino.com ◗ www.ferraranyc.com cuisine homemade ● A small neighborhood cafe with a ambience classic cuisine homemade cuisine traditional price huge variety of homemade pastries, $$ ambience casual ambience homey price $$ price $$ amongst which are some incredible ● Bruno Pasticceria opened in 1973 donuts—soft dough, circular-shaped aiming to bring Italian excellence to ● Inspired by the Italian saying “tutto ● This spot was established in 1892 pastry covered in sugar. Yet these New York. In 2008, they cut the ribbon finisce a tarallucci e vino” (“it all ends with the idea of creating a place are only one of the specialties at the on their shop in Staten Island, where with biscuits and wine”), or that in the where lovers of the Italian opera A-Roma Bakery Cafe, located in Wil- Italian chefs delight our taste buds end everything will be fine, Tarallucci could go after a performance, to re- liamsburg and popular for its break- from breakfast until lunch and dinner. e Vino invites you to sip a good glass lax and play cards while drinking a fasts. There is a distinct Italian tone in Amongst the specialties of the bakery, of wine accompanied by tarallucci, a coffee accompanied by biscotti or the choice of drinks, beginning with you cannot miss Italy’s most popular small flour-based item resembling a dessert. Since then the Ferrara Bak- the espresso coffee, macchiato and drink—espresso coffee prepared with biscuit, though savory. Founded by ery, located in the heart of Little Italy, cappuccino along with their more re- careful attention to quality and using two Italians, Luca di Pietro from Abruz- has passed through five generations, freshing versions, such as cold milk exclusively Italian coffee machines. zo and Lorenzo Baricca from Emilia expanding its menu to include over and iced coffee. These drinks accom- Espresso, macchiato and even cap- Romagna, Tarallucci e Vino has four 200 specialties of traditional Italian pany a number of pastries that vary puccino can be sampled at Pasticce- branches in Manhattan with a warm pastries. Managed by the Lepore fam- from meringues to tiramisu, from ria Bruno, alongside a slice of cake, atmosphere typical of Italian cafes and ily, this warm and homey cafe also filled croissants to cannoli with ricotta biscotti or perhaps the house specialty small restaurants. Notably, in their East serves good coffee to accompany and cream. Though the Italian touch named “Torta del secolo” (“Cake of the Village store you can try a true Italian the traditional Neapolitan and Sicil- is somewhat small, it is paired with Century”), a chocolate mousse with a breakfast, which of course must begin ian desserts. For those who prefer a an American tradition; at the A-Roma layer of pears and hazelnuts.

48 | i-Italy ny | April-May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Dining Out ➜ Restaurants+Pizzerias+Wine Bars

●● JOE BASTIANICH INVITES YOU TO DINE TRATTORIA-STYLE AT LA SIRENA in CHELSEA An Italian Trattoria: A Bis of Pasta and the Perfect Wine

The concept of the trattoria I’ve introduced fuels famed restaurateur Joe Americans to Bastianich’s new restaurant, everything from the which recently opened a enoteca, the pizzeria, stone’s throw from the the osteria to the most Meatpacking District in classic Italian Chelsea. In this elegant and restaurant. Now I’m cozy locale, Bastianich—now trying to teach them a TV icon in Italy for his what it means to dine participation as a judge on in a trattoria the cooking show ‘Master Chef Italia’—is teaching Americans how to “share” sporting a blue blazer and a white shirt. food, thanks to another The young entrepreneur, Italian dining import: the bis who already owns numerous of pastas. restaurants in the city, including Del Posto and Babbo, is also the co-proprietor of over thirty restaurants scattered across by Paola Aurisicchio the globe, alongside his mother, celebrity chef and writer Lidia ●● “I’ve introduced Americans to Bastianich, and Mario Batali. everything from the enoteca, the pizzeria, the osteria to the most Educating Americans classic Italian restaurant,” said With La Sirena, however, restaurateur Joe Bastianich. “Now Bastianich is also driven to I’m trying to teach them what it educate Americans. Besides means to dine in a trattoria.” His championing certain ingredients, new Manhattan restaurant is all he is becoming a spokesperson about simple, authentic food that for another idiosyncrasy of revisits the concept of a trattoria Italian dining: family-style in a modern and elegant key. If eating. So chef Joseph Laurano trattorie in Italy are small, family- is offering a bis of pastas, i.e., run affairs connected to popular the option to order two different culture and good local cuisine, the kinds of pasta dishes to taste entrepreneur’s new venture on 9th with your dining companions. Avenue between 16th and 17th “I recommend the bucatini with Street is an updated version aimed spicy octopus and San Marzano at contemporary diners that still tomatoes as well as duck preserves the warm ambience of mezzelune,” says Bastianich. For its Italian counterpart. the meat course, he suggests It’s called La Sirena. The branzino, orata or else a steak new 400-seater was opened for two paired with the perfect by the famed entrepreneur floor of The Maritime Hotel, an what, for me, is one of the most Italian wines. “I know Americans in collaboration with Chef enormous space not far from the beautiful corners of New York,” aren’t programmed to share,” Mario Batali, the established Meatpacking District, with lots of continues Bastianich, “why did he goes on, “but La Sirena is restaurateur and expert in the natural light and a 40-foot marble I call it La Sirena? Because I liked founded on the concept of the history and culture of Italian bar that divides the patio and the idea of a 50s style retro name,” bis, and I’m happy that the idea cooking. connects the two dining rooms. he says, sitting on a couch in one is thriving. Besides,” he adds, La Sirena is located on the top “I couldn’t turn down a venue in of the restaurants two rooms, “Americans love pasta.” www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April-May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 49 Dining Out ➜ Restaurants+Pizzerias+Wine Bars

A tough critic Bastianich spends a lot of time in Italy, the country where he became famous in part for his participation as a judge on the cooking show Master Chef Italia, along with Bruno Barbieri, Carlo Cracco, and Antonio Canavacciuolo. The show is the Olympics of Italian cuisine. And he is a tough critic! He gets angry, throws dishes and is known for his litany of Italian bloopers, “Vuoi che muore?” (“Are you trying me to kill this”) he says when a plate isn’t to his liking, rather than the correct “Vuoi che muoio?” (“Are you trying to kill me”) in Italian. “But I’m even tougher on my own restaurants. I dish it out ten times worse,” he says, clearly La Sirena enjoying himself. 88 Ninth Avenue “But not when I go out % (212) 977-6096 to dinner. Then I try to ◗ lasirena-nyc.com relax. Usually I prefer to eat Korean and Japanese in New York. Rarely Italian.” So what dish could Bastianich As for Americans, they should Bastianich has also been a judge never refuse? “Chicken with learn how to cook meatballs. for five seasons of Master Chef USA is show business,” he says, potatoes, sweet red onions, “Because they’re simple,” he says. USA, yet the restaurateur notes, “while Master Chef Italia is the and rosemary made by my “You can keep them in a fridge and “There’s an enormous difference story of people whose life can be grandmother in the iron pan she’s both adults and kids like them. Call between the shows. Master Chef changed by cooking.” used for fifty years,” he responds. it multipurpose food.” ●●

OPENING SOON Eataly’s New Rooftop Wil Bring You to the Italian Riviera

With those picturesque words, Nicola Farinetti, CEO of Eataly USA, describes his latest project to open on Fifth Avenue. After the success of Baita (Italian for “Lodge”) this winter, the Eataly team is now replicating the Italian coast—north and south—with Sabbia (or Sand), built to resemble the beaches of the BelPaese. Hang out in one of its many “cabanas” and enjoy a carefully crafted menu showcasing piadine from the Romagna region and delicious appetizers like fish skewers and fresh fruit. The wine list is extensive, as is their list of colorful, summery cocktails, perfect for a day at the beach. Or on top of 5th Avenue. “We want to tell you a story. One with the carefree vibe of vacationing Bubbles abound too. Not just prosecco but high quality Italian on the Italian Riviera. We start in Rimini and Riccione, then travel up sparkling wines like Ferrari. The whole affair has a playful, ironic and down Italy’s beautiful coasts. Amalfi. Cinque Terre. Porto Ercole. feel. As Farinetti says, “It’s something we’re doing for ourselves, to Cilento. And we do it Eataly-style, bringing a fresh summery Italian tap into the creativity of our young team, which enjoys constructing, vibe to our rooftop.” inventing, creating things.”.

50 | i-Italy ny | April-May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Eataly’s New Rooftop Wil Bring You to the Italian Riviera

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●● A CAMPAIGN TO EDUCATE THE WORLD TO THE QUALITY OF ITALIAN CUISINE Italy’s True Ambassadors: Fine Cuisine and Top Chefs

Ministry will coordinate will feature prominently at promotion of our international sports events, country’s haute cuisine including the Olympic Games Fundamental within the deep-rooted Italian culture, its and its quality enogastronomic to be held this year in Rio De multi-faceted cuisine is also an ambassador helping to put products worldwide through our Janeiro. Countries to be featured Italy’s best foot forward. In recognition of this, recently the network of cultural, consular during the first phase of this and diplomatic posts,” said ambitious program include the Foreign Ministry in Rome hosted a meeting at which a Foreign Affairs Minister Paolo U.S.A., China, Russia, Brazil, and worldwide campaign to promote high quality Italian Gentiloni. “The top Italian chefs the Emirates. Promotions will cuisine and wines was launched. Top chefs participated. will be on hand to help us. Our then be extended to Australia, goal is to promote the real ‘Made Turkey and elsewhere in Europe. “Together we are winners, and that is why we are here in Italy’ abroad so as to reinforce The initiative is partly a today,” the noted chef Carlo Cracco said. in coming years our position continuation of the success among consumers on foreign at Expo 2015 in Milan enjoyed markets, and to win new ones.” by quality Italian foods and by Judith Harris among others, Italian chefs and Secondly, selected foreign chefs wines. The government of sports authorities. Presenting will be enabled to attend master Premier Matteo Renzi credits Fundamental within the deep- the campaign were three cabinet classes teaching the subtleties Expo for helping to boost Italy’s rooted and multi-faceted Italian ministers: Agriculture Minister of Italian haute cuisine and its agro-alimentary sector foreign culture, its cuisine is also an Maurizio Martina, Foreign finest wines. The aim is also to earnings to $41 billion, up ambassador whose role is to Minister Paolo Gentiloni, and make better known the benefits 7.5% over the previous year. put Italy’s best foot forward. Education Minister Stefania of the Mediterranean diet itself “This extraordinary result,” In recognition of this, on Giannini. — a global educational goal said Agriculture Minister March 15 the Foreign Ministry whose importance was stressed Maurizio Martina, “signifies in Rome hosted a meeting at Launching the “Italian by Education Minister Stefania that our objective of raising which a worldwide campaign Cuisine Week” Giannini. foreign earnings from the to promote fine Italian cuisine Events within the promotional Third, foreign chefs under sector to $55 billion by 2020 is and wines was launched. The campaign are to begin with 30 years of age will be able absolutely within our reach.” meeting brought a hundred or organization of an annual to apply for scholarships to Important for a nation where so international diplomats and Italian Cuisine Week, to be held attend cooking schools in Italy. youth unemployment is an cultural figures together with, every November. “The Foreign Not least, Italian Cuisine Days aggravating problem, the

52 | i-Italy ny | April-May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Dining In ➜ Taking Italy to your family table

Until now too pastas abroad reflect an upsurge little has been in the pasta cottage industry, particularly in Campania and done to let people Puglia. What could be called know what our top craft pastas have become a favorite of chefs everywhere cuisine is all about. who cater to gourmet clients. But together we are The slow drying process, which requires up to four days, requires winners, and that is time, patience and space, along why we are here with equipment that keeps today. air moving and the heat at the regulated temperature of around — Chef Carlo Cracco 40 to 45 C degrees. “We have sold our craft pasta even to the Fiji Islands,” proud producer Nicola Russo, founder of the Pastificio Artigianale Nicola Russo, who comes from number of young people working by the 14th century, Tuscany from which I am quoting, see: Cicciano near Naples, told a in the sector has increased moved into the gastronomic cibochepassione.com/storia. reporter for La Repubblica daily. during the same period by 16%, forefront. A bread enriched with it.html) His family firm dates from the he said, representing 20,000 honey, spices, dried figs and 19th century, but he struck newly employed. raisins was developed in Prato, Pasta on the rise out on his own in 2011. “Our With 280 foods and 523 products and is believed to have been worldwide secret: top quality ingredients to officially certified for quality, a precursor of the Milanese Today’s hungry world is ever begin with, and then slow, slow Italy ranks foremost in Europe. panettone and the panforte of more eager to devour that drying.” Giovanni Assante, head It stands top in world wine Siena. traditional Italian resource, of the Gerardo Di Nola Pastificio, production, with almost 50 Italian Renaissance banquets pasta, as statistics demonstrate. says that his company exports million hectoliters (1,320.8 are thoroughly documented, In 2005 Italy produced some some 60% of its production, million gallons) annually. While like that in Castel Sant’Angelo 3.2 million tons of pasta, but primarily to the U.S.A., Europe, promoting this, at the same time in Rome in 1593. A gastronomic by 2014 the figure had surged Brazil and Peru. His is another the new campaign goals will writer named Vincenzo Cervio to almost 3.7 million tons, with cottage industry pasta from near include reduction of food waste, reported that it was attended a further boost in production Naples, but even in the north of fostering school education by 1,000 people, who dined and in exports last year. Pasta Italy, craft pasta production is on in healthy eating for young on pheasants whose feathers sales figures reflect this renewed the rise. Italians, continuing to guarantee were shimmering with gold popularity worldwide. Dried protection of consumers, and leaf. Three lions were made pasta remains the biggest money Italy as an “integrated development of programs for of pasta reale, and there were earner, but egg-laced pastas, system” feeding the indigent. cold dishes in molds of lions, such as fettuccine, and “pasta Educating the world to the tigers and eagles. At the end of farcita” (that is, with a filling, as quality of Italian cuisine and The rich history of Italian the meal a model of the Castel in ravioli stuffed with pumpkin, its gastronomic as well as food Sant’Angelo itself appeared, and mushrooms or cheese), are also historical and cultural roots Behind the novelties is Italy’s out of it flew live birds. (Those ever more popular, both in Italy has thus become imperative culinary sophistication with its who read Italian will enjoy and abroad. for Italy’s government, food deep background. The ancient reading “Cibo che Passione, La Along with industrial producers and top chefs. This is Roman banquet, which featured storia della cucina Italiana,” production, today’s best-selling part of a broader effort to make such delicacies as flamingo Italy work “as an integrated tongues and spit-roasted rare system” abroad—the main birds, was mythical, but ended goal indeed of the Foreign with the fall of the Roman Ministry’s Direzione Generale Empire in 476 AD. After a lengthy Sistema Paese, a department gastronomic hiatus during the specifically dedicated to the barbarian invasions, around the promotion of what is called 9th century the Arab colonizers “Sistema Italia,” now headed by of Sicily introduced new manners Ambassador Vincenzo De Luca. of cooking which included dried Everyone at the meeting agreed pasta, in use by nomad peoples on this admittedly difficult but because it was easy to transport. ambitious and long-needed From Genoa and Naples its use goal. spread to France and Spain. “Until now too little has been Monasteries kept meat off the done to let people know what menu, but in the l3th century our top cuisine is all about,” the foods improved, with the revival noted icon-chef Carlo Cracco of ancient traditions and with commented. “But together we are innovations such as spices winners, and that is why we are and cane sugar. Fairly wealthy here today.” ●●

www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | February-March 2016 | i-Italy ny | 53 Dining In ➜ Taking Italy to your family table

● ● THIS SPRING: AUTHENTIC MOZZARELLA FROM PAESTUM HITS NEW YORK The Many Ways of Mozzarella Photo: Alessandra Farinelli Alessandra Photo:

LUCIANO PIGNATARO, a journalist for Naples’ Il Mattino—the leading newspaper in Southern Italy—has spent the last three decades writing about agriculture and enogastronomy. His is the longest running column on wine in an Italian paper. He is the representative of two southern regions for Slow Hanz Beck at at the 2015 edition of LSDM Wine, Slow Food’s wine guide, and head of the Southern branch of the Guida Ristoranti Espresso. Le Strade della Mozzarella mozzarella di bufala. Nine years great stock in making quality His blog, now one of the most ago they decided to create an goods, following a scrupulous frequented in Italy features (LSDM) is one of the first reviews of wine, restaurants, international conference in manufacturing process, pizzerias, pastry shops and Italian food festivals and honor of the product. Le Strade constantly striving to do better cheeses. He has published many di Mozzarella became the one with a clear drive to preserve the one dedicated guides to wine and books on specifically to mozzarella. It veritable international cuisine this incredible product and the Neapolitan cuisine. is held annually in the conference held in the south, land it comes from.” among the first in Italy. For For more info, visit ancient city of Paestum, this year’s conference, we got What can we expect at the 2016 www.lucianopignataro.it south of Naples, the land of a chance to talk with the two conference? Anything new? mozzarella di bufala. And founders. Alberto Sapere: “Over the last whole world now it is going When did it occur to you two years we’ve begun to look Another “added value” this international: it has to hold an international abroad. Last year we were in year is the conference’s established editions in conference focused exclusively Paris and London. This year expanding “menu”; in New on mozzarella di bufala? we’ll be in Paris again and – York you will talk about Paris, Geneva and London. exciting news – we’ll cross mozzarella di bufala as well This coming May LSDM will Barbara Guerra: “The first the ocean for the first time, as Pasta di Gragnano, Pizza be in New York—say the two ‘Le Strade della Mozzarella’ stopping in New York on May Napoletana, extra virgin olive event took place in 2008. In 17th and 18th. The project is oil, Mediterranean fish and founders, Barbara Guerra the eight years since, it has evolving, and we’ll be turning quality produce. and Alberto Sapere. grown exponentially. Now it our attention toward the has transformed into a bona entire food/farming system. “We’re ready to take this crucial fide conference of auteur For us, bufala mozzarella and step,” concludes Guerra, “and by Luciano Pignataro cooking. A lot of work has the animal that produces bufala will remain key to our gone into interrogating the it are symbols of Italy’s discussions of territory, thanks ●● Barbara Guerra and merits of the product and the uniqueness and biodiversity to the interpretative powers of Albert Sapere are two young riches of its origins. Various and especially the added value great cooks and the most famous entrepreneurs from the ancient producers have answered of our artisans, whom we feel pizza chefs, and directly involve city of Paestum, the land of the call, people who place compelled to introduce to the those who work in New York.” ●●

54 | i-Italy ny | April-May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Dining In ➜ Taking Italy to your family table

Photo:Alessandra Farinelli Photo: Alessandra Farinelli Alessandra Photo:

Photo by Alessandra Farinelli Photos by Francesca Massa

Some international mozzarella chefs at the 2015 edition of LSDM: Sang Hoon Degeimbre , Chris Puglisi, Marianna Vitale, Kobe Desramaults May 2016: Reinterpreting Mozzarella in New York

MAY 17 An afternoon meeting dedicated to chefs with tastings of Italian products and cooking demos. Show room PENTOLE AGNELLI Some Chefs involved: 126 Fitth Avenue ● Pasquale e Gaetano Torrente from Italy ● Fortunato Nicotra chef Felidia Restaurant NY ● Massimo Bebber chef Sirio Restaurant NY

MAY 18 An afternoon meeting dedicated to chefs with tastings of Italian products and cooking demos. Neapolitan Express 232 East, 111th Street Some Chefs involved: ● Pasquale e Gaetano Torrente from Italy ● Fortunato Nicotra chef Felidia Restaurant NY ● Massimo Bebber chef Sirio Restaurant NY

Loosely translated as “the many streets of Now LSDM is launching a two-day event in mozzarella,’’ Le Strade della Mozzarella is New York. It will involve famous chefs and held every year in Paestum, one of the main pizza makers, and important brands of the production areas of mozzarella di bufala. Made in Italy Food&Wine industry. They Since 2011 it has been involving Michelin will showcase their top products, offering starred Italian and international chefs tastings, matchings and cooking demos coming from all over the world, pizza and where mozzarella will go along with some pastry-chefs, food craftsmen and producers of Italy’s Food&Wine best products and to experiment with mozzarella and other brands. Two days of meetings, discussions, buffalo milk based products and to promote contaminations, reinterpretations of an the authentic Italian food culture. They meet Italian symbol – Buffalo Mozzarella from to honor the “white pearl”, its texture and Campania PDO, a unique product– all over history. Last year for the first time LSDM went the world: Pizza, San Marzano tomatoes, abroad, with a European tour bringing the Extra virgin olive oil, Pasta di Gragnano. Their best Italian chefs and products in three main goal is to promote the awareness of Italian cities. Paris - November 2014 to Carrousel typical and local quality products, and to Du Louvre, Geneva - February 2015 to Four foster a mutual understanding between Season Hotel de Bergues, London - February producers, chefs, and conscious and curious 2015 to Baglioni Hotel. consumers. www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April-May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 55 Dining In ➜ Taking Italy to your family table

●● BALSAMIC, PARMESAN, EVOO, TOMATO/TOMATO, MUZZARELLA, BOLONI, BOMBONZOLA Being Italian Versus Sounding Like One

The business of using unsuspecting consumers could fraudulent names or images easily be confused by the Italian- to evoke Italy has hit sounding name. The discovery of wood in stratospheric numbers. Never cheese is only the latest scandal before has the problem of regarding what we eat. In “Italian sounding” been so, November, a few of the most widely distributed olive oil well, audible. manufacturers—this time in Italy—were accused not only of failing to label the exact origins by Dino Borri of their product but of selling low-quality “virgin” oil as “extra ●● According to recent data, in virgin” oil. 2009, 20 billion euros worth of The list of products being hawked authentic Italian food products as Italian may have no end: were exported, while roughly estimates suggest that over 60 60 billion euros of low-quality billion products are sold as Italian imitation products were sold at a even though in actuality they are discount price around the globe. not Italian. This means that, for every can of Among the most frequently tomato sauce or authentic peeled “forged” products are tomatoes, tomato, for every carton of pasta sauces, vinegar, wine, and cold or bottle of extra virgin olive cuts. Only a few of the latter are oil from Italy, there are three from Italy. For example, only products that use bogus Italian three kinds of DOP prosciutto images, colors, labels, and names can be imported in the US: to trick consumers. The numbers Parma, San Daniele and Toscano. change, however, if we examine Furthermore, in the U.S., you the issue geographically. The still cannot find cured meats like North American market rakes salami and coppa that are made in 24 billion euros for “Italian by Italians with 100% Italian Sounding” products, compared to several American producers, Trying to quell the polemical ingredients. to just 3 billion euros it earns leading to the discovery of high tone, one professor from the for authentic exports. That percentages of cellulose content, Department of Nutrition and Use the language means that only one out of eight for the most Food Studies properly products is actually Italian. part consisting The North at New York Continuing to slap Italian names of ground wood American University came on products that come from God Cheese, and other pulp and paper out saying that knows what country confuses scandals in four different market rakes in 24 cellulose may consumers, who can’t tell up Cases of fraudulence aside, our brands distributed billion euros for not necessarily from down. image has suffered indirectly, by major national “Italian Sounding” be cancerous; it Of course, I don’t have a magic such as during the latest scandal chains. The study may actually be solution to the problem, but one surrounding a few cheese found levels of products, compa- healthy. In fact, it’s important strategy for proving manufacturers in the U.S., when cellulose as high red to just 3 billion considered a fiber the origin and quality of a a series of articles appeared as 8.8%, while euros it earns for and is present in product is to use the language on websites and newspapers experts from a laxatives and many properly, and greater education revealed that “parmesan” cheese research center authentic exports. other drinks. And in concerning who chooses to sell distributed and sold in the U.S. in Wisconsin That means that the case of cheese, Italian products and who abuses contains non-dairy ingredients say that an only one out of eight it acts just like a them. such as wood pulp cellulose. acceptable level fiber. Why? The study began with a is between 2 and ‘Italian’ products is Despite the fact Firstly, because certified products Pennsylvania cheese manufacturer 4%. (Is cellulose actually Italian. that none of these (bearing the label DOP, IPG, DOC, in winter 2012 and has since spread even acceptable?) brands is Italian, DOCG, etc.) bear names that

56 | i-Italy ny | April-May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Dining In ➜ Taking Italy to your family table indicate a particular quality and Retailers, importers and of emigration. The Direction Where to find THEM origin, names that acts as a kind restaurateurs who use and of Italians Abroad and the of safeguard. publicize Italian products in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Eataly There can’t be a real Parmigiano world must act as ambassadors are responsible for helping 200 5th Avenue Reggiano and a fake one, since of these cultural/gastronomic Italian citizens who reside ◗ www.eatalny.com the very fact that a product is basics, and instate a policy of abroad. Their responsibilities called Parmigiano Reggiano saying what is from Italy and include the promotion of the means it isn’t fake. Nor can the what isn’t. Italian language in the Italian original contain cellulose! community, that is to say, the Proper language and correct Food, like culture, depends children of Italians who live spelling should be the first on language abroad and want to sustain a indicator for making wise I believe in the words of relationship with their country purchases. my dear friend and ex-vice of origin.” DiPalo’s So let’s start calling products by consul of New York Lucia I would also add that everyone 200 Grand St. (at Mott St.) their god given names. Pasqualini when she said: who loves food must love ◗ www.dipaloselects.com My name is Dino Borri, not “Remaining aware of one’s Italian products, and Italians Daino Bore. Parmigiano mother tongue is fundamental have to be the first ones to Reggiano is not ‘parmesan.’ for all Italians who decide, teach our foreign friends the Neither is Grana Padano ‘grena,’ whether by choice or necessity, proper names of our products. nor gorgonzola ‘bergonzola,’ nor to live abroad. Italy has Culture depends on language, Mortadella di Bologna ‘boloni.’ been and still is a country as does peace and unity. ●● Citarella 2135 Broadway 1313 Third Avenue 424 Ave of the Americas ◗ www.citarella.com How to Prepare

Parmigiana di patate

by Rosanna Di Michele Agata & Valentina 1505 First Avenue 64 University Place ◗www.agatavalentina.com SERVES 4 PEOPLE

2 lbs. Yellow potatoes n 5 oz. Sliced ham n ½ lb. Asparagus n 7/8 cups Parmigiano reggiano n 3 ½ oz. Smoked mozzarella n Small container of béchamel n Garlic n Parsley n Freshly ground black pepper n Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions Morton Williams 908 2nd Avenue ● Peel, wash and cut potatoes into ¼ inch 311 East 23rd Street slices and season with oil, black pepper and 1565 1st Avenue salt ● Wash the asparagus and slice thinly ● ◗www.mortonwilliams.com Place the asparagus in a pan and cook for 5 minutes with the parsley, garlic, oil and salt

● Coat a casserole dish with two spoonfuls of

béchamel then add the potatoes, asparagus, smoked mozzarella (cut in chunks), parmesan and ham ● Repeat the process twice more and top the final layer with the remaining parmesan and béchamel ● Bake at 350 degrees Jerry’sGourmet ● for 45 minutes Serve hot. 410 South Dean Street Englewood, NJ ◗www.jerryshomemade.com

www.rosannacooking.it

www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April-May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 57 Dining In ➜ Taking Italy to your family table

A favorite dish...... Paired with the right wine by Michele Scicolone by Charles Scicolone From Abruzzo Lamb Ragu Understanding with Pasta alla Chitarra Montepulciano d’Abruzzo

● Raising sheep has always Pecorino Romano completes l find it in NYC been one of the Abruzzo’s the dish. Vintry Fine Wines 230 Murray Follow Charles primary occupations so it is In a large skillet, cook the oil, Street (212) 240-9553 n not surprising that both the onion, bell pepper, and pepe- America’s Wineshops 398 Third on i-Italy.org meat and cheese they produce roncino until the vegetables are Avenue (212) 679-1224 n play an important role in the tender, about 10 minutes. Add region’s hearty and rustic cook- the garlic and cook 1 minute ing. more. ● Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Lamb is a key ingredient in Stir in the lamb and cook, is a red wine made in the Abruzzo’s signature ragu, stirring frequently to break up ruggedly mountainous region simmered with wine, sweet any lumps, until it is no longer of Abruzzo in east-central Italy. bell peppers and the region’s pink about 15 minutes. Add It should not be confused with beloved pepe- the wine and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, roncino, red chile Serves 6 to 8 simmer until it a similarly named wine made peppers. The n 2 tablespoons olive oil n 1 evaporates. Stir in Tuscany. Montepulciano thick ragu is typi- medium onion, finely chopped in the tomatoes. d’Abruzzo is made from cally served with n 2 large red bell peppers, Add the bay leaf, the Montepulciano grape pasta alla chi- seeded and chopped n 1 small and salt. variety, while Vino Nobile is tarra, homemade dried peperoncino, to taste n Bring the sauce named for the Tuscan town of spaghetti made 2 garlic cloves, finely to a simmer and Montepulciano and is made on a guitar-like chopped n 1 pound lean reduce the heat primarily from the Sangiovese wooden instru- ground lamb n ½ cup dry red to low. Cook, stir- grape variety. ment that cuts wine n 1 (28- to 35-ounce) ring occasionally, The Montepulciano grape is the pasta sheets can Italian tomatoes with until the sauce is grown in other parts of Italy into perfect their juice, chopped n 1 bay thickened, about but it reaches its greatest square-shaped leaf n Salt to taste n 1 1 ½ hours. expression in Abruzzo. strands. Made pound pasta alla chitarra or Bring at least 4 The DOC in Abruzzo extends with semolina, thick spaghetti n ½ cup quarts of water between the Apennine foothills the thick strands freshly grated Pecorino to a boil. Add to a few miles inland from the remain chewy Romano the spaghetti Adriatic Coast. and are a perfect and cook stirring The best wines are made from leather, dry fruit and spice. companion to the flavorful frequently until the pasta is 100% Montepulciano. These wines can last for 30 sauce. A generous sprinkle of tender. Meanwhile, remove the Under the Italian law years or more. bay leaf from the sauce. Spoon Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Montepulciano d’Abruzzo a thin layer into a large heated must contain at least 85% is a wine that goes very Follow Michele serving bowl. Drain the pasta Montepulciano grapes and up well with food. Homemade on i-Italy.org and place it in the bowl. Top to15% Sangiovese. The wine spaghetti alla chitarra dressed with the remaining sauce and must be aged a minimum of with lamb ragu is one of the cheese and toss well. Serve hot. five months before it can go region’s iconic dishes. Other on sale. In order to be labeled regional specialties include Riserva, it has to be aged for 3 meat stuffed fried olives, years with some time in wood. crepes baked with cheese and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is a meat sauce, and grilled or deeply colored and rustic red roasted lamb. wine, medium to heavy bodied, There is also a Rose labeled with hints of cherry, pepper, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, spice, plum and a touch of known as Cerasuolo, meaning blueberry. These wines can be cherry red, a reference to its drunk young. However in the color. It is dry and elegant hands of the right producer with a slight hint of red fruit the wine reaches great and is a perfect complement heights, and can be rich and to lighter dishes like chicken elegant with hints of tobacco, or fish.

For more about cooking, go to www.MicheleScicolone.com For more about wine, go to charlesscicolone.wordpress.com.

58 | i-Italy ny | April-May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org From Italy with love!

Authentically Yours, Francesco Cirio Coliseum - Roma 1856

Francesco Cirio was the canned vegetable industry pioneer, starting back in 1856. Nowadays his Cirio brand is loved throughout Italy along with 70 countries all over the world. With top quality produce from a huge farmers Cooperative, Cirio products are controlled from “seeds to table”. The exquisite taste of our juiciest Italian tomatoes is created with

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Come in Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter www.cirio1856.com Facebook.com/CirioUK @CirioUK Ideas ❱❱ Style FASHION, DESIGN & MORE

● ● THE ICON: MASSIMO VIGNELLI (1931-2014)

SPECIAL ISSUE How Italian Designers Conquered America Design Is One

There’s a reason we’re bringing you a special design issue this spring. Firstly, because during the month of May, New York gets decked out for a host of parties, events and fairs where you can admire, touch, and try out materials and objects. We’re talking about two mainstay events: the first is NYCxDe- sign, also known as Design Week, which actually lasts two weeks, during which there are seminars, conferences, and expositions dedicated to everything from furniture to architecture. The event is held in various locations throughout the city from May 3-17. The second is the International Contem- porary Furniture Fair (ICFF) specifically dedicated to luxury interiors and high-end furniture, which brings together the biggest players on the international scene. ICFF takes place at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center from May 14-17. Once again this year, the events will showcase the best in Italian design, with famous brands and emerging talents who will knock your socks off.

Below are the relevant websites where you’ll find catalogs and detailed schedules for the events. But if you’d like to stroll dre- amily though the city, don’t forget to stop by Soho’s so-called Italian design district, where you’ll find the showrooms of Cappellini, Alessi, Cassina, Poltrona Frau, Scavolini and Bof- fi. Design becomes synonymous with Made in Italy in these elegant stores located side-by-side. A few design week events will take place in the neighborhood, among their stunning one-of-a-kind work. And if you want to keep dreaming, head to Chelsea for the ICFF at the Javitz Center on 11th Ave at 38th Street (www.icff.com). Here you can admire the latest efforts from top international furniture brands and emerging talents, including unique furnishings, seating, wall covering, carpe- ting, accessories, lighting, kitchen, bath, outdoor furniture and Massimo Vignelli more. The fair hosts more than 500 exhibitors from more than Photo by Iwona Adamczyk 30 countries. Italy, of course, is one of the main participants.

The second reason for this special issue is that, after a twenty- Two years since his passing, we remember a man, a friend, year hiatus, Milan has just kicked off theTriennial Internatio- and a great designer who left behind traces of Italy nal Expo. Its theme? “The 21st Century: Design After Design.” The expo will take place from April 2 – September 12. This im- throughout New York. Massimo Vignelli worked in a wide portant event showcases how design has been a vehicle for range of fields, in interior design, environmental design, transporting Italian culture to the world. That’s been particu- package design, graphic design, furniture design, and larly true in the United States. In fact, it was here, during the product design, and his clients at Vignelli Associates famous “Italy: The New Domestic Landscape” show at MoMA, that the slogan “made in Italy” was coined in 1972 to connote included high profile companies such as IBM, MTA, Poltrona the high quality and distinction of Italian products. Frau, Knoll, Bloomingdale’s and American Airlines.

To celebrate the bond between Italy and the United States in the field of design, we have prepared this special issue you’re holding in your hands, in which we present four of the best by Letizia Airos The light poured through a huge Italian designers, each one of whom, in his or her own way, window and extended into an has left an indelible mark on New York and Americans’ con- ●● The first time I interviewed elongated living room. ceptions of Italians. him, I entered his home gingerly, I will never forget it. The silence almost afraid, having imagined was profound but it was as if the house would be a temple of music had just been playing in design. Turns out, it was a temple. the background, maybe Mozart…

www.i-Italy.org Ideas ➜ Style

Design Vignelli, clothing line for men and Ifwomen, You 1992 Cannot Find It, Design It Tired of being a fashion victim penalized by having lapels, shoulders, and waist by Massimo Vignelli* Designcontinuously Vignelli, changing clothing inline their for proportions men and women,and lengths, 1992 I began to look for alternatives, but I could not find anything in the Tiredmarketplace. of being a Therefore,fashion victim according penalized to our by motto,having “if lapels, you cannotshoulders, find andit, design waist it,” continuouslyI started to changing design a linein their of clothing proportions that andwould lengths, follow I began the body to look rather for alternatives,than focusing buton I couldfashion not trends. find anything in the marketplace.A normal men’s Therefore, jacket according is full of details to our that motto,make “if no you sense cannot at all. find The it, lapel’sdesign originalit,” I startedfunction to hasdesign been a lineerased; of clothing pockets thathave a wouldlittle follow roof (to the prevent body rather water thanfrom focusingraining on in?)fashion The trends.breast pocket has no real function A normaleither, andmen’s buttons jacket on is thefull sleevesof details have that makeoutlived no sense their at original all. The purpose. lapel’s original Shoulders functionexpand has or beencontract erased; according pockets to have the whims a littleof rooffashion (to preventdesigners. water Pants from have raining pleats, in?)which The breastare difficult pocket to has iron; no areal crease function in the either,center, and continuously buttons on the pushed sleeves out have by the knee; outlivedand often their a originalcuff at the purpose. bottom Shoulders as a perfect expandreceptacle or contract for dust according and other to trash.the whims They of fashionhave a frontdesigners. fly and Pants therefore have requirepleats, a belt whichto adjust are difficult sizes. to iron; a crease in the center,I eliminated continuously all this pushed nonsense out by takingthe knee; anda oftenmore arational cuff at approach,the bottom reducing as a perfect the receptacleconstruction for dust of the and jacket other from trash. 54 They pieces to have10. a Placing front fly the and pockets therefore on front require and a backbelt to adjustseams, sizes. eliminating lapels and all visible I eliminatedbuttons, eliminating all this nonsense the fly byand taking the crease in a morethe pants rational and approach,replacing areducing belt with the an elastic constructionwaist; this ofclothing the jacket responds from 54to bodypieces needs to 10.rather Placing then the constricting pockets on them.front and I designed back seams,a sweater, eliminating made lapelswith same and allfabric visible of the buttons,suit rather eliminating than knitted the fly wool and sothe that crease when in theworn pants with and the replacing pants it a becomes belt with an an informal elastic waist;suit. this Varying clothing the respondsjacket and to thebody fabric needs ratherprovided then constrictingalternatives them.for different I designed functions a sweater,from business made attirewith same to formal fabric attire. of the The suitblack rather tie thanversion knitted is in woolblack so velvet that whenwith a worncummerbund with the pants and ita becomesregular black an informal tie. suit.Lella’s Varying role theat firstjacket was and in the fabricselection of providedfabrics alternativesand in design for criticism. different functions from business attire to formal attire. The black tie version is in black velvet with a * Given all the objects designed by Massimo Vignelli that are located in New York and its museums, we decided to publish a not-so-well-known cummerbund and a regular black tie. drawing he made in the early 1990s, when he decided to stop “being a fashion victim” and create his own clothing line. The drawing and Lella’s role at first was in the selection of accompanying text are taken from Designed with Lella, an electronic book he assembled a few months before dying to celebrate his lifelong fabrics and in design criticism. partnership with his beloved wife. He made the book available in pdf format free of charge. The unedited excerpt above appears on page 91.

At the end of the room, on the helped me understand my own own language. ‘My style is minimalist’ left, was a big black desk. There decision to live in New York. He championed the cleanest, Here I am, remembering – not was a metal sheet, the kind used It was a short (regrettably) but simplest approach to design. a little nostalgically – the time to cover roadwork in NY…only he intense relationship. I spent a I vividly remember talking to him I stood in front of his hidden could have thought of using it to lot of time with him as his friend about a change he made to his bookcases, in a space where every draw on. Seated around his desk, – an honor for me – and as a own house. I find analyzing the contour had been thought out, we taped our first interview. It journalist. That’s how I had the personal choices of a designer is including the profile of its owner was there – though I didn’t know good fortune to realize some of the best way to fully investigate and architect. it yet – that we would have other the conversations that appeared his thinking. “Beautiful, huh?” said Massimo. long, timeless chats… periodically, fragments of which Books covered his living room “My style is minimalist. Every That day I began by asking why here follow. table. Lots of books. I was stunned language has its own rules; he’d left Milan. to discover that Vignelli had everyone has his own style and “It was too small,” he replied, Design vs. Vulgarity figured out how to restore order to rules. That’s why every house quickly and without hesitating, “Good design is responsible that space “with a beautiful hidden is different. My style is more as if he had thought about it so design. It expresses intellectual bookcase” he’d seen at Ikea! minimalist. You need to keep many times, “too provincial. elegance rather than the contrary, No high-end designers? I asked. subtracting until you’re left with The ceiling was too low. I came vulgarity,” Massimo Vignelli Just a piece of furniture from Ikea something.” The bookcases from to New York thinking that the used to say, without a trace of that anyone can afford? Ikea were a case in point. ceiling would be higher here, only aloofness or snobbery. “Yes,” he answered. “You can to discover that here the ceiling He was punctilious, yes, but never find excellent design pieces there! ‘Design Is One’ doesn’t exist at all!” boring. He “believed” in discipline Good, clean designs made with a His answer marked the beginning but not in dogma; he was minimum amount of labor and Everything about the house of our friendship. Now I know. disciplined and dynamic, flexible great modularity. That’s how you of Massimo and Lella Vignelli In a few incisive words Massimo and coherent, even if he spoke his do design.” suggested a life devoted to www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 61 Ideas ➜ Style design, an intellectual journey will remember the famous culminating in his famous subway map he designed for slogan: “Design is one.” the MTA in the 1970s, whose What does that mean in rigorous features could not be laymen’s terms? I asked. superimposed on a map of the “Design Is One was the title of city because its stops didn’t my lecture,” said Vignelli. “The correspond. (It was replaced by idea goes back to the Viennese a more realistic if less elegant [Adolf] Loos, who believed drawing years later.) that an architect must know But there are plenty of other how to make everything, from places in New York – to say a spoon to a city. Loos was nothing of museums – that speak against specialization because Vignelli’s language, including specialization led to entropy spaces, objects, posters, and entropy led to the end of Massimo Vignelli on i-Italy | TV furniture. creativity. Indeed, you must Our first interview with Massimo. Scan the QR code to watch One important trace can be be able to design everything— the video or go to YouTube.com/iitaly. found in Soho’s Italian design furniture, graphics, packaging, district, where Poltrona Frau’s agendas, books, even the clothes showroom produced many I’m wearing.” Educating Clients and a designer. works, including the very famous Vignelli shared that belief And did that notion give rise “[Artists] are the opposite of and still modern “Intervista” with his lifelong companion, to the concept of coordinated designers. Design is always chair, commissioned in the late designer Lella Vignelli, whose images, on which you based your bound by its relationship to ‘80s by TG2, then a budding masterpieces have yet to be relationship with clients? others. Self-expression is the news show on Italian TV whose properly recognized. “Yes, the total coordination of job of artists. The artist answers first set Vignelli designed. As he “Lella has designed amazing an image is essential. One image to no one. The designer always himself tells it: jewelry,” said Vignelli. “We for everything, from the logo of a answers to someone. A client, “It became the famous Studio 10: designed what I’m wearing. I museum to its catalogues to the the public. If you want to make pearl-grey with a zinc floor, 32 designed the watch too. We’ve exhibitions. Or for a company. a fork, you have to make a fork monitors and two red armchairs designed everything in our You begin with the logo to get someone can eat with, not one in the foreground. This was a new house, the chairs, the tables; I to the product, the letterhead, that makes it impossible to eat. invention, a new way to broadcast designed the books I often read. I the packaging, the store, the You can’t make a knife that’s just the news (and a departure from live in a space almost completely displays.” a blade or just a handle, because the anchorman format). The designed by me. With few In Vignelli’s opinion, a system of striking the right balance of blade armchair was called “Intervista”; exceptions.” visual identity allows something and handle is essential to using an evolution of the bucket-style to differentiate itself and become it. The first part involves the chair, it was carefully designed for unmistakably recognizable. object itself, the next involves maximum comfort and a posture From Europe to America Not many clients caught on who is making the object. That that does not alter tone of voice. “I love my work because ‘design when Vignelli first explained doesn’t mean that there’s no It is an example of how a project is one,’” he used to say with an this notion to them. Today it’s room for invention, of course, but can morph into a communicative, unmistakable smile. “It’s one become common wisdom. there are restrictions.” not to mention political, tool.” profession, one attitude. As Italians, we have a long history Designers, Not Artists Traces in New York Designers, not Stylists of codifying design in this way. I once asked him what the New York speaks Massimo I’m pleased to conclude with this It has existed for centuries. It difference was between an artist Vignelli’s language. Many brief (too brief!) remembrance was the same for Leonardo da of Vignelli with another answer Vinci. In Italy, after the war, we that struck me deeply when I Massimo Vignelli had to do everything ... architects designing the tri-color first heard him tell it and speaks like myself did everything... Fiat 500 for i-Italy. volumes about his rigor. The discipline was the same. Massimo worked hours When asked about the difference The way of thinking, coming pro bono on this project between designers and stylists, he turning our little car up with solutions, was always into “something nobody replied: the same. The mental process has designed yet.” “Everything depends upon was the same and the mental A sign of friendship method. For example, when a process was discipline. This and appreciation fashion designer creates a style, we will never forget. didn’t exist in American culture. he doesn’t follow a designer’s American culture is a culture of method. He follows a stylist’s. specialization. Ours, on the other Styling is futile, disposable. Design hand, is a culture of generalists. is not. Design is timeless. And Specialists didn’t arrive in Europe that’s why it’s facing a crisis, not till later. So in 1977 America, design itself, but the mechanism architecture faced a crisis. In behind it... A lot of young people Italy we thought, ‘But in Europe think they’re doing design when architects do everything! Not just they’re really stylists. They don’t houses but furniture!’ That’s how understand the mental process of I got my start in America, doing design. They think the answer to a the same thing we did in Europe.” situation is to restyle it.” ●●

62 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Ideas ➜ Style

● ● THE RADICAL: A Conversation with maestro Gaetano Pesce A Tool for Social Criticism

Gaetano Pesce: Portait. Left:Italy on the Cross. Model, 2011. Photo by Sebastian Piras. Courtesy of Gaetano Pesce’s Office

What do Americans think of Italian design? We asked one of or existential message. That is When instead the best-known and most provocative practitioners in the how design acquires cultural of simply relevance: “When instead of field, Gaetano Pesce. Here he reflects on the deeper meaning simply creating a practical object, creating a practical of design as a comment on reality both innovative and something to sit on or eat with, object, something to experimental. Though his concepts were initially new to an we succeed in making people sit on or eat with, we think,” says Pesce. “Ultimately American public, it has always appreciated Italian design, that’s the role of art.” succeed in making particularly the radical brand promulgated by Pesce, since, people think. as he puts it, “Diversity is one of the great qualities of our You are a major figure in Italian Ultimately that’s the current moment and as individuals we are responsible for design, particularly “radical design.” Do you like that role of art . one another.” Naturally, we took advantage of the description? You’re known as opportunity to ask him about his latest projects, too… being a great “provocateur.” of Modern Art, “Italy: The New Domestic Landscape.” On that I can’t be the one to answer that. occasion, the slogan Made in by Mila Tenaglia stirs in the art market. Design is That’s up to the public to whom Italy was coined, a symbol of also an exploration of existential my work is dedicated. If being exceptional quality. Can you tell ●● Gaetano Pesce is an artist problems; Pesce has expressed radical means looking ahead and us about that exhibit and what whose political stances have such concerns without hiding experimenting, then that’s me. it has meant for you, for Italian long kept him one step ahead his disappointment in the Bel As for being a provocateur, I don’t design, and for the image of Italy of his time. Today he is an icon Paese, as in his famous “Italy do it on principle; provocation in the United States? of the creative avant-garde, on the Cross.” For Pesce, art implies novelty, invention and known around the world for and design means engagement, discovery, and sometimes I’ve That exhibit was extremely the close link between his means casting one’s lot with the happened to embody that. important in establishing Italy’s Italian background and his self- people. In his work he strives landmark contribution to the expression. Never one to hold to combine practical demands In 1972 you participated in a history of design. Looking back 44 his tongue, he frequently causes with a philosophical, political famous exhibit at the Museum years later, Italian design remains www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 63 Ideas ➜ Style

Gaetano Pesce, Sunset in New York. If being radical the most important, on account Below, some of maestro of its creative talent, sure, but Pesce’s works and means looking more importantly its industries. his tools of trade ahead and experi- For me, that exhibit was the photographed in his studio start of a way of considering menting, then that’s design as a comment on reality; me. As for being a in my opinion, that’s what it provocateur, I don’t continues to be, and it will be more and more. In other words, do it on principle; design as art. I always thought provocation implies design would become the art of novelty, invention the future, which isn’t a given yet but people talk that way more and discovery, and and more. I thought so at the end sometimes I’ve of the ‘60s and I believe so today. happened to embody The situation of design is to Photo: Paul Barbera, Courtesy of Gaetano Pesce’s Office Pesce’s Gaetano of Courtesy Barbera, Paul Photo: that. usher in a far vaster culture.

How is Italian design perceived outside our with the idea for the Porta country, particularly in the Molino tower in Padua? US? Do you think we still Your proposal for the project have something to “teach” sought to use art to pay the world? tribute to a place. Can you tell us what happened? What’s Design in the United States going on with the project? isn’t design; it’s redesign, a reiteration of something already I attended high school in Padua, seen or a product derived from so I have long been familiar with marketing. I’m convinced that that tower where Galileo worked Italy, on the other hand, has long out his theories and discoveries. been the country that comes For a long time I wondered why closest to manifesting innovative Padua hadn’t celebrated Galileo design. in such a way as to attract visitors and let the world know that this Since 1983 you have been in great genius of ours had spent New York regularly. You live an important part of his life here, work here, and have there. More recently I tackled completed many projects that the problem by dedicating more by now have become part of the time to a project called “Padua city and its Italian spirit, from Honors Galileo,” to pay tribute architecture to collectibles to to the place where he made his furniture. Some of your work is discoveries. I’ll be presenting the on display in the city’s major The Padua project: a path along the Bacchiglione river will connect two town council with the results museums, including MoMA historical buildings dedicated to scientist Galileo Galilei and artist Giotto. The of that work soon. I hope they’ll and the Met. Is there a work pavement is decorated with question marks, symbols of intellectual curiosity. accept it, so that there will be of yours here you like most? a new attraction, among the One we might point out to our many extraordinary jewels readers? Padua already has, first and foremost the Scrovegni Chapel. There are two. One finished, the I’d also add that in the past, other not. The first is 1981’s “New Italy carried out projects that York Sunset,” a sofa that speaks were copied throughout the to the identity of a city that’s world for their innovative power. probably in decline. The other is Look at Brunelleschi’s dome. a project I made after 2001, when Palladio’s classicism. I wonder the Twin Towers were destroyed why that doesn’t happen more by those imbeciles. My idea was in our country, why the building to respond to the pessimism projects fall under the category of terrorism with an image of of construction rather than optimism, a positive outlook architecture. using the “I Love New York” logo, an image beloved by the whole What would you say to a young world. Gaetano Pesce on i-Italy | TV person hoping to embark on a One of our interviews with Gaetano Pesce. Scan the QR code career like yours? Architecture is another passion to watch the video or go to YouTube.com/iitaly. of yours. How did you come up Be curious not conservative. ●●

64 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Ideas ➜ Style

● ● THE DREAM MAKER: MEETING FERRARI DESIGN HEAD FLAVIO MANZONI Synergic Design Thinking

How is a new Ferrari born? Synergy between designers, I think the prestige that comes Center, which was created in engineers, and technicians is at the heart of the famous with designing a Ferrari depends 2010 as an operating branch on both. First of all, there’s the within the Maranello factory. Maranello automaker’s continued success. At Ferrari Design very powerful and deep-seated What does it do? they have adopted a special method that allows designers to symbolic value that the Ferrari step outside their purely stylistic roles and have a say in brand represents in the collective We work on the development, imagination, which is reinforced style, and construction of models selecting projects, the common goal being the manufacture by the leadership role Ferrari and prototypes. We’re “in-house” of excellence. has long played in the world of and work closely with the various automobiles. Second, and just as engineering departments. We also important, are the technical and have a “modeling” department by Letizia Airos designer and Ferrari’s Senior Vice performance requirements of and an area dedicated to President of Design. We sat down to these cars, which lead to a series visualizing virtual models. ●● Geneva. Motor Show. Inside talk to our “old friend” whom we’ve of particularly limiting restrictions. [Founding the Center] is a the “salon of salons” of Europe’s had occasion to see several times in That’s the real challenge for significant chapter in Ferrari’s automobile industry, the atmosphere New York. We couldn’t let him speed architects and designers. Every recent history, which has is electrifying. The occasion is not to off without finding out how the latest new car emerges from an now united the ascribable be missed by those employed in the Italian design came to be and where it awareness of which technical competencies in the creative- industry as well as car lovers who are will take us. elements will meld with a design. design field with an important happy just to dream in the passenger We are constantly working on operating function that is always seat. This year the dream of dreams, Designing a Ferrari is the finish highly complex subjects, but growing. The goals of the new as far as concerns Italy, is once more line every car designer dreams that’s key to designing a Ferrari: it department include responding to linked to Ferrari. The legendary of crossing. Why is that? Is it the originates from the configuration the diversification of production manufacturer’s new design miracle honor of working with legendary of all the components and models in series and limited- marries innovation and technique. brand, cherished the world over? technological aspects that come edition series; fostering tailor Yet again ushering in this new Or is it the challenge of working into play. made automobiles; contributing creature—the Ferrari GTC4 Lusso—is on such a sophisticated and to the development of an Flavio Manzoni, the Sardinian-born efficient “technological body?” You direct the Ferrari Style innovative language and rock- www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 65 Ideas ➜ Style

Interacting with engineers and aerodynamics specialists is all in a day’s work for the Ferrari Design team. It generates creative solutions that are important not just aesthetically but also on a functional level.

in different fields. Therefore the job of the designer is to connect technical requirements with formal requirements, and simultaneously develop a digital 3-D model and “a real” one, in a fruitful commingling of state-of- the-art technology and manual labor. It’s a fascinating model for working, based on an idea you’ve expressed before: that the visual arts and design—taken at awareness and understanding their fullest meaning—are closely of technical restrictions that related and share the same roots. the designer finds himself faced In your professional experience, with. It’s a roundabout path. Not how have you combined infrequently, technological and creative invention and technical regulatory aspects or production planning? needs generate creative solutions that are important not solid brand identity that is in step and have a say in selecting Tackling complicated technical just aesthetically but also on a with the importance assigned projects, with a common goal questions and interacting with functional level. to aesthetic beauty as one of the being to make an excellent engineers and aerodynamics determining factors of Ferrari’s product. specialists is all in a day’s work Technology, sportsmanship, DNA. for the Ferrari Design team. innovation, research, aesthetics, One of the peculiar things Our Style Center was built to be beauty, memory, passion: You mean synergic design. about Ferrari Design’s modus flexible and foster exchanging they’re recurring terms, distinct The designers at the Ferrari operandi is that very synergy roles to our advantage. That yet complementary categories. Style Center do more than just established between designers, flexibility enriches everyone What is it that holds them all “stylize”… engineers, and technicians. That involved, from a professional together? What is the “Ferrari dialogue often complements and human standpoint. A new mood” (to use a particularly Exactly. Ferrari Design’s the proposals of specialists Ferrari design is sparked by an trendy expression)? What is the proximity to the company’s other departments, in particular the Development Center, facilitates our sharing tasks and constantly exchanging information. That interaction allows my team of designers to step outside their purely stylistic roles, which could be reductive,

66 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Ideas ➜ Style

Left: Flavio Manzoni, Director of the Ferrari Style Center and Ferrari’s Senior Vice President of Design. Center: Manzoni and his team. Below: The Ferrari GTC4 Lusso

Newborn Ferrari GTC4 Lusso

The latest creation in the automobile series industry, the Ferrari GTC4 Lusso designed by the Ferrari Style Center under the direction of Flavio Manzoni is currently camped out at the Geneva Motor Show, where it’s a crowd magnet. Ferrari’s new grand touring four-seater with a shooting brake silhouette has redefined the profile of a coupe. Its balanced volume is in keeping with a performance car and comes equipped with a front-engined V-12, four-wheel traction, and plenty of interior room. “For a long time,” says Manzoni, “we wondered whether to pursue the idea of an architecture of volumes. In the end we did, for the usability and versatility such a solution consented. By inserting the spoiler and lowering the roof, we were able to achieve the perfect proportions.” mood behind every automobile, of a car into a truly artistic and The name alludes to the historic 250 GT Lusso (1962), one of Enzo Ferrari’s enclosed with each new product? technical experience, actual and most beloved cars, and the 330 GTC (1966), nodded to by the rear fender industrial. Last but not least, air vent detail. The allusions are subtle, however, and have been fully The elements on your list can’t there’s its design, which, broadly absorbed to generate captivating new forms, rather than as a pretext for be divorced from each other. speaking, consists in a designer’s They form part of the path the depth of thinking as well as digging up historic details. company has embarked on and sensibility and attitude. If you look carefully at the design of the GTC4 Lusso, you’ll be blown continues to advance with new away by the harmonious design that creates atrompe l’oeil effect, visually stimuli and goals. Every Ferrari So, tradition meets innovation. lightening the side of the car and giving a fascinating, fresh impression of can be seen in three different That typically Italian combo – more three dimensionality. ways. The first is connected to characteristic of a country with The GTC4 Lusso’s interior is also the result of a totally new design, context, to Maranello and the such a long history and a creative including an innovative dual cockpit specifically designed to incorporate surrounding area, to the spaces bent recognized around the world we live and work in, to the – lies at the heart of the Ferrari new technological devices like the 10.25-inch touchscreen as well as a people we meet. Some means legend. That explains why Ferrari second, multi-functional screen for the passenger, so that s/he can share of still invoking the charismatic remains at the top of the design in the thrill of driving. personality and presence of world, the leader of the evolution of However different, the F12 TDF and the GTC4 Lusso exemplify what its founder, Enzo Ferrari. Then the automobile in the 21st century, Manzoni calls “a linguistic code that is common to and distinguishes the there’s the creative aspect, the with one eye on the past and one work of Ferrari Design. kind that turns the blueprint eye aimed at the future. ●●

www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 67 Ideas ➜ Style

● ● THE EMERGING TALENT: ANTONIO PIO SARACINO IN HIS OWN WORDS Universal and Timeless

Named one of the ten most promising Italian architects in the United States, Antonio Pio Saracino kicked off 2016 with public art projects across the globe, in Dubai, Los Angeles, Paris and, naturally, New York. Over coffee, we talk about Italy’s contributions to the design world in the U.S.

by Susan Powell

●● Elegance, sharp lines, strips of light cutting across geometrical shapes. Looking at the work of Antonio Pio Saracino—Pugliese by blood, now living between Rome and New York—you can’t help but think about how the artist marries urban space and nature. No matter whether it’s a piece of furniture, a sculpture or a building, nature remains fundamental to Saracino’s work. A consummate multi-tasker, he is one of the most prolific and creative architects of his generation, Antonio Pio Saracino having successfully collaborated Photo: Rodolfo Martinez with prestigious entities such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest, Interior Design, Vanity Italy in New York for the Year of Italian Culture in Fair, Wallpaper and Vogue. Among Saracino’s monuments the U.S. with the support of the Some of his work belongs to belonging to the city is an Italian government and ENI, a the permanent collections of imposing set of sculptures multinational energy company. the Brooklyn Museum, the in Bryant Park called “The (There isn’t an Italian alive who Museum of Art and Design Guardians: Hero and Superhero.” doesn’t recognize ENI’s logo, a in New York, and the The twelve-foot tall marble and six-legged dog who spits fire; the Powerhouse Museum steel sculptures, inspired by logo was created by Luigi Broggini in Sydney. Michelangelo’s David, were made and later refined by Saracino himself.) New York is the place Without knowing it, passersby where the idea of living become part of his work, making Saracino’s art, despite its together, of uniting different complexity, accessible to a wider cultures, is a reality. The idea public, a means for residents of integration and respect is to interact with the space they the most powerful force we inhabit. “Design is nature,” says the have in this city. Every day I try architect. “In past centuries, to figure out how to create signs nature was a source of and designs for a world that is inspiration for architects and designers. Its forms, its beginning to bring people and structures, its organizing cultures together . principles. Architecture and

68 | i-Italy ny | April-May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Ideas ➜ Style design objects are made with architectural forms of “artificial materials extracted from nature. paradises” in a post-natural THE VIDEO Design represents a continuation world. of that via its constructive “Artists have become architects The Making capacities. Our pursuits are and sculptors engineers,” made using a natural “product”: says Saracino. “In our age we humanity. The objects we create are experiencing the same of the Guardians imbue our surroundings with the redefinition where a more fluid In 2013, while Antonio Saracino was greatest and most sophisticated culture is allowing us to explore meaning.” new ideas and build a new creating his twin sculptures “Hero and New York has been Saracino’s reality.” Superhero,” dubbed The Guardians of creative and professional home Design, therefore, is a synthesis Bryant Park, i-ItalyTV followed him every for over ten years. He loves the of functionality and beauty. It step of the way, from the Dunby quarry, city for its ability to blend artistic establishes a bond between those where he selected his marble on one ambitions, functional demands interacting with it that is both dusk-till-dawn day; to the Precision Stone and multicultural groups. aesthetic and emotional. “New York is the place where the Studio on Long Island where the statue idea of living together, of uniting Italian Heritage, was built; to the Equity Office where different cultures, is a reality. The International Presence engineers, architects, and sponsors met idea of integration and respect Despite his flair for the to discuss the details of the installation. is the most powerful force we contemporary, Saracino makes The outcome was a compelling, have in this city, and it makes a point of reiterating how much emotional video which was displayed on me so proud to be a resident. I Italian history and cultural has a large digital screen in Times Square on find it very inspiring to connect influenced him. with so many different cultures “[In Italy] I studied the the day of the inauguration. every day and figure out how to importance of design to a create signs and designs for a culture’s identification and world that is beginning to bring evolution, how crucial it is for Antonio people and cultures together in design and architecture to instill a universal vision, in continuity in a city’s residents a sense of Saracino with nature.” belonging, happiness and pride. on i-Italy | TV Certainly my Italian heritage is Architecture/Design an important part of my design Scan the QR code to watch the video Saracino’s style is a hybrid of vision.” or go to YouTube.com/iitaly experimental design grounded in Saracino has continued to work in a solid architectural background, Italy. He is currently completing and Americans have admired his a building in Lanciano, Abruzzo, combination of traditional Italian and new projects in Florence and cultural institutions in France and series of twin polished, stainless design and manufacturing skills. Puglia are in the works . Europe; that he is also at work on steel rings of different heights Furthermore, the development Honored, he informs us that a new monuments in Los Angeles and radiuses assembled on top of new digital technologies and project underway in the French and New York; and that he has of each other and shifted from the parametric approach have city of Carcassonne has just been recently finished architectural their vertical axis to create two made it possible to re-envision acquired by the Centre Pompidou, projects for Dubai’s new district, dynamic, iconic figures. objects and create new designs & one of the most important d3, as well as the design for a “The ‘Life’ sculptures are visually Museum in Dubai. unstable at the same time And he is now working on that they maintain an internal two sculptures that will be stability,” he explains. “Life is unveiled in the coming months fragile and vulnerable yet life is for Manhattan’s New York- strong and resilient. Life is about Presbyterian Hospital? finding that unique balance “The project, Life, was between inner and outer forces commissioned by an anonymous that unfold during our existence. donor for the historic entrance The visual unbalance, contrasted to the New York-Presbyterian with the structural stability of Hospital on 68th street, on the the sculptures, asks viewers to Upper East Side of Manhattan,” reflect on the balance that one Saracino reveals. New York- must strive to achieve in nearly Presbyterian is one of the all aspects of life, as well as the top-ranked clinical and medical fine line between strength and research centers in the United fragility. They remind us that life States. Their motto, “Amazing is a treasure, something to be things are happening here,” preserved and cherished.” reflects each life they have saved Pedestrians take note: in cities and the progress that their school around the world you might of research has achieved. find yourself admiring, perhaps The Lanciano Building Saracino’s Life consists of two by chance, one of Antonio Pio sculptures, each composed of a Saracino’s works. . ●● www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April-May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 69 Ideas ❱❱ Bookshelf italIAN readS AND listenS

● ● A DIPLOMAT’S PERSPECTIVE ON AN EXTRAORDIARY AMBASSADOR OF ITALIAN ABROAD Jhumpa in My Own Words

In Other Words Jhumpa Lahiri Knopf 2016 ➤ pages 256 Jhumpa Lahiri in Rome ➤ $ 12.31 (paperback) (Photo by Liana Miuccio)

Conversing with Jhumpa discovered her books when mind. A couple of days later, I Loving languages I lived in New York. A friend met the director of the Center The book is about the story of Lahiri in Rome was an of mine gave me Interpreter for American Studies in Rome, a profound love for the Italian immense joy. The way she of the Maladies as a present. and he mentioned that Jhumpa language, the kind of love talked about her relationship Nevertheless, I hadn’t known Lahiri was going to present her that I have personally felt for with Italian is pure poetry, about her deep passion for the book there the following week. languages from a very young Italian language, nor that she What a thrill! He asked me if I age. Languages have always that poetry which comes both had spent three years in Italy wanted to be part of the event. fascinated me. At six, I wanted from the heart and that other learning Italian. The result of her I don’t even remember what I to learn English. When I was mysterious place, the brain. I stay in Rome was a book written said, but I guess it was “yes,” 14 I convinced my parents in that language, In altre parole (In because the day after I received to send me to a summer asked Lahiri if she was happy Other Words) a sincere ode to the an invitation to be part of a camp in England; I refused in Italy. She answered that it Italian language, makes Lahiri panel for which I was to be the to talk to them for a week was the happiest period of an extraordinary ambassador of moderator. until they finally consented. Italian abroad. In altre parole describes Lahiri’s At the time, my English was her life. I couldn’t help but I planned to purchase the personal journey of learning miserable; my pronunciation think of Italians’ own, quite bilingual version of the book Italian, a language she considers and comprehension were very different perspective of the during my next journey to a place of affection and reflection. limited. In spite of all my efforts country. New York, when something Her account of the journey and my profound passion for unexpected happened. One is poetically and magically the language, I always had the Monday morning I received a touching. Her words took me impression of not speaking it by Lucia Pasqualini * copy of her book in my office. An back to my own personal story; well enough. Dictation was a young American woman who every chapter reminded me nightmare. Once I got a D: I still ●● Life is full of beautiful loves Italy and whom I have tried of a chapter of my life. I had remember vividly that defeat. surprises. I have been following to help settle in here, sent it to not expected Lahiri’s world Nonetheless, I did not give up. I Jhumpa Lahiri for years, having me: it was as if she had read my would turn out to be my world. had several pen pals and I used

70 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Ideas ➜ Bookshelf to spend a great deal [lot] of time awareness that there is no such writing to them. [Each summer] I thing as the perfect knowledge went to England every summer, of another language no matter and yet my English was never how much time and energy you good enough. My improvements dedicate to it. The surprising were miniscule; in my eyes, discovery that you do not belong everybody spoke better than me. to your mother tongue, either, In England I met a girl my age, but to a wider and much more who spoke English marvelously. relative dimension. I admired her immensely and Being a diplomat brought me to marveled at her knack for the China. I had never considered language. She was my role studying Chinese and had model. If she made it, so could I. hitherto felt indifferent to I had exactly the same feelings the language. Nevertheless, that Lahiri so impressively when I was assigned to the describes in her book: a Italian embassy in Beijing I continuous sense of failure. decided to study Chinese. I One of the first chapters of could not conceive of living in Lahiri’s book is dedicated to China for four years without the dictionary, which made communicating with the local me smile, since on Sunday population in their own language. mornings I used to read a I ended up finding Chinese very monolingual dictionary. I would fascinating and stimulating. spend hours looking up new Learning Chinese opened my words and checking their proper personal door to China. My pronunciation. I always kept a knowledge of Chinese is limited, dictionary handy. I had many. but I dream of one day giving a They were all torn, like the one speech in Chinese! with the green plastic cover Conversing with Lahiri in Rome that Lahiri bought at the Rizzoli was an immense joy. The way bookshop in Boston before her Lucia Pasqualini (right) moderating a panel discussion on Jhumpa Lahiri’s she talked about her relationship first trip to Italy. When I walked, In Other Words at the Center for American Studies in Rome with Italian is pure poetry, I used to think in English. In my that poetry which comes both imagination I created stories and on my own experience and A shared experience from the heart and that other situations in English. It was my feelings, the sense of constant Lahiri’s impassioned mysterious place, the brain. I way of practicing the language. inadequacy in approaching determination to learn Italian asked Lahiri if she was happy I went to college to study a new and difficult language was the same as mine. And her in Italy. She answered that it political science, where I like German. Her arrival in experience in Rome was the was the happiest period of her grew to realize that I wanted Rome in the middle of August same I had in Germany: the life. I couldn’t help but think of to understand the world and reminded of my arrival in Trier endless notebooks full of words, Italians’ own, quite different that languages were the key as an Erasmus student. I didn’t words that you fall in love with perspective of the country. to opening many doors, the know where to go and I was not at first sight then vanish the day instrument with which to sure I would be able to explain after in that incomprehensible Thank you Jhumpa communicate with people from myself or even ask where the ocean called the brain. The Thank you, Jhumpa, for being all over the world and hence dormitory was. I knew I could implacable effort to be part of a an extraordinary ambassador better understand the human speak English but I urgently world you love profoundly yet of the Italian language and of condition. I decided to study wanted to become a part of that will never completely be a part all the languages. Thank you German, a language and culture world. Immediately. of. The unrequited love. The final for sharing with us your fear, that interested me greatly. In which is the same for me and high school, I had been struck many others. I may never speak In Other Words is at heart a love story—of a long and sometimes difficult by Caesar’s De Bello Gallico, a perfectly, but I have learned courtship, and a passion that verges on obsession: that of a writer for text about German customs. not to be afraid to express another language. For Jhumpa Lahiri, that love was for Italian, which Then I studied Kant and became myself in any language. People first captivated and capsized her during a trip to Florence after college. fascinated with his thinking are more understanding and Although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterward, true mastery and the categorical imperative. less judgmental than we are always eluded her. I wanted to understand him with ourselves. The beauty of Seeking full immersion, she decides to move to Rome with her family, for better, to read Kant in his own learning languages lies in the “a trial by fire, a sort of baptism” into a new language and world. There, she tongue. process of learning a language begins to read, and to write—initially in her journal—solely in Italian. In I don’t know if German chose me and a culture, the essential key Other Words, an autobiographical work written in Italian, investigates the or I chose German. It was love at to understand others and to process of learning to express oneself in another language, and describes first sight, the kind of love Lahiri dialogue with them. ●● the journey of a writer seeking a new voice. felt for Italian from the moment Presented in a dual-language format, this is a wholly original book about she encountered it: a true, * Former vice consul in New York, exile, linguistic and otherwise, written with an intensity and clarity elective affinity. Lahiri’s magical Lucia Pasqualini is now Head of not seen since Vladimir Nabokov: a startling act of self-reflection and a world opened a door that I had the Office for Promotion of Italian provocative exploration of belonging and reinvention. kept half closed for many years. Language Abroad for Italy’s Ministry Page after page led me to reflect of Foreign Affairs in Rome www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 71 Ideas ➜ Bookshelf

● ● MARISA LABOZZETTA’S ‘LINKED STORIES’ Rolling With Life’s Changes

A master at capturing the The author internal and external Marisa Labozzetta forces that bring change has previously published Some- into the lives of her times it Snows in characters Labozzetta America (novel), reminds us that Stay with Me Lella (novel), and supernatural and the At the Copa (short common provide ways of stories). dealing with the ups and downs of the loves and losses of family life. before, realizing that grief can’t Thieves Never Steal in the always overcome the loss that Rain: Linked Stories by Fred Gardaphe caused it. Rosemary and Nate, Marisa Labozzetta Guernica Editions another middle-aged couple ➤ pages 198 ●● Thieves Never Steal in the are introduced in “Deluxe ➤ $ 20.00 Rain, is Marisa Labozzetta’s Meatloaf,” where they meet for fourth book of fiction, her a dinner that signals the end of second of short stories. These Rosemary Ficola their marriage, something that but all of her characters teach stories differ from her first Jasinsky, this is takes Rosemary, a successful us much about our own lives. collection, At the Copa, in that your life and it has just advice columnist, by surprise. The female cousins who are they are linked, meaning there Rosemary’s answers to her the protagonists in each story are familiar characters and been erased, a man said. readers often contains a recipe come together in “Comfort Me, settings throughout the ten You didn’t want to mary an for some food that will aid in Stranger,” to save Rosemary stories; this makes the fiction Italian? You didn’t want dealing with the problem she when the depression from her ring like a novel by the time you a mama’s boy? her mother addresses; without a clue, or a divorce makes it impossible finish reading them all. recipe for her own problems, for her to continue her advice Labozzetta’s previous work has chimed in. Well mam- Rosemary deals with this loss column. Joanna, Nancy, garnered critical attention and mas’ boys stick around by emptying her sorrows in the Barbara and Angie, all take awards such as a Pushcart Prize home. Then, Do over! Her street outside the restaurant. turns responding to Rosemary’s for At the Copa—also a finalist Labozzetta is a master at readers, each failing to meet for the prestigious John Gardner childhood voice called, capturing the internal and the reader’s needs, yet together Fiction Award in 2009, and pleading for a second external forces that bring they succeed in saving their Sometimes it Snows in America chance. As though she had change into the lives of her wounded cousin, though was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer characters, and expressing everyone is worried about the Award. One of the stories in this been cheated in a game of them through a variety of roommate she takes in to help new collection, “Forecast for a hopscotch. Her stomach voices. Whether it’s self ease her loneliness. Sunny day,” won the Watchung muscles tightened, and perceived (and obsessed) The final two stories bring us Arts Center Award for Short she fought the pad thai’s obesity, as in “Pretty Face” or into the world of dealing with Fiction in 2010. The author a mistaken reading of how aging and dying parents, and carries her award-winning skills desire to find its way back good others have it, as in “A in these stories the characters to new levels in this work. up her throat. Every day Perfect Father,” the author come together to help and In “Villa Foresta,” the opening she dished out advice, explores the strengths of her sometimes hinder each other story, Joanna and Elliot, a characters so thoroughly that as they face new challenges. middle-aged couple who have confident that she posses- their weaknesses seem natural In this, as in the other stories, lost a young daughter to an sed the recipe for holding partners. You can’t have the Labozzetta reminds us that early death by accident, travel everything together. For good in life without the bad, supernatural and the common to Italy to get away from it all and somehow you have to learn provide ways of dealing with only to find themselves closer the first time in her life she how to live a life balancing the the ups and downs of the loves to their daughter than ever was speechless. two. Some succeed, some fail, and losses of family life. ●●

72 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org The largest university-wide research institute in the Americas dedicated to the study of the Italian American experience

The Institute publishes three books series and a scholarly journal, Italian American Review. The Historical Monograph Series rescues from oblivion texts that have fallen out of print. Transactions publishes studies that are longer than the usual journal article but shorter than a monograph. Studies in Italian Americana publishes full-length books, be they single- authored or collections of essays.

qcpages.qc.edu/calandra

42-45_Bookshelf.indd 42 1/22/13 2:18 AM Ideas ➜ Bookshelf

Darkness for the Bastards song, Un giorno mi dirai performed by of Pizzofalcone the group Stadio. Maurizio De Giovanni Europa Editions Biscotti, not Just Cookies The Young Bride ➤ $ 320 ➤ $ 17.00 A stunning collection of recipes Alessandro Baricco (Translated by Ann Goldstein) Europa Editions BOOK ● One of with a design twist ➤ pages 192 ➤ $ 18.00 the most successful Italian Ciao Biscotti ● “One of life’s pleasure crime fiction Domenica Marchetti is sitting down to a cup BOOK ● A young writers, Maurizio Chronicle Books of coffee and a plate of woman whose de Giovanni here ➤ pages 144 ➤ $ 18.95 hand has been biscotti,” says author, Do- takes us into two promised to a menica Marchetti.. “Bite seemingly un- noble family is related crimes: into a biscotto and you whisked away to a kidnapping and a burglary of a are biting into a slice of prepare for mar- high-class apartment. A connection Italian — or more accu- riage at the fam- is not made until the inspector Lo- rately, Roman — history”. ily villa. In a novel jacono, known as “The Chairman,” Ciao Biscotti is a collec- that depicts the young woman’s en- starts to work on the case. Like all tion of 44 recipes that trance into a fantastically strange fam- of De Giovanni’s novels, Darkness for illustrate step by step, in ily, international best-selling author the Bastards of Pizzofalcone is set in a concise and clear way, Alessandro Baricco gives us an eroti- contemporary Naples and offers an cally charged and magical story that the ingredients and the insight into the criminal underworld depicts a cast of mysterious characters preparation of the fa- and the police battle in this most fa- who live outside the rules of causation. mous southern Italian city. . mous twice-baked Italian cookies. Did you know For All the Gold in The Numero Zero that “biscotto” really does World Umberto Eco mean, ”twice baked?” Massimo Carlotto Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Here are not just tradi- (Translated by Anthony Shugaar) Europa Editions ➤ pages 208 ➤ $ 24.00 tional recipes using clas- ➤ pages 192 ➤ $ 15.00 sical ingredients, but also bold combinations (browned butter ● BOOK Set in and Toblerone, fig and fennel, spiced and iced ginger, almond 1992, the book BOOK ● A rob- and aged Asiago cheese, just to name some) that bring the con- and foreshadows bery gone wrong cept of taste to a whole new level. the mysteries ends in murder and follies of the The recipes, each enhanced with captivating illustrations and in northwest following twenty photographs by Antonis Achilleos, transform the biscotto with Italy. A police in- years. It is a frag- traditional flavors, such as chocolate, hazelnut and fruit – as vestigation turns ile love story be- well as new ones, savory, spicy or “fantasy.” Enjoyed with a good up nothing, and tween two born espresso, dunked in a cappuccino or in vin santo, these fresh two years later losers, a failed ghost writer and a vul- versions of an internationally loved Italian culinary tradition Marco Buratti, nerable young woman who special- will please everyone’s tastes. “The Alligator,” is asked to look into izes in celebrity gossip but who cries the robbery by a twelve-year-old boy over Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. whose father was a victim of the And then a dead body suddenly ap- crime. Crime novelist Massimo Car- For more on Domenica Marchetti visit www.domenicacooks.com pears in a back alley in Milan. Novel- lotto delivers a unique perspective on ist, literary critic, philosopher, and se- the criminal and social dynamics of miotician, Umberto Eco died recently contemporary Italy. at the age of 84, an enormous loss for world culture. Eva Sleeps Francesca Melandri Sanremo 2016 (Translated by Katherine Gregor) Import Europa Editions ➤ $ 24.99 ➤ pages 352 ➤ $ 18.00

music ● A compi- BOOK ● ThThis lation on two CDs forthcoming mo- that collects the tion picture and song presented Elle magazine’s during one of Italy’s book of the year most famous music festivals. Among tells the story of this year’s singers are some of the a woman, Eva, new names of the Italian music - as living in northern well as such well-known ones as Pat- Italy. Eva receives ty Pravo, Enrico Ruggeri, and Zero As- an unexpected message from her soluto. The CD features the winning mother’s old friend Vito. Vito, who

74 | i-Italy ny | April - May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Ideas ➜ Bookshelf

had an affair with Eva’s mother dur- but alsoof instability and movement. ing his time as a policeman in the late Square, on the other hand holds much sixties, has fallen ill and would like to importance in human life, as a church- ITALIAN JAZZ see Eva one last time. It is time for Eva es, monuments, and games are square- to find out the truth about her family based. Finally, the triangle represents A Tribute To Those Who Want It and her past. a key design connective, between the natural environment and creative Lombardy: 127 work. Munari’s is a little “enciclopedia Destinations For of these mysterious forms and their Discovering Art, History, importance in culture and life. and Beauty Philippe Daverio Lost Words Rizzoli USA Nicola Gardini ➤ pages 180 ➤ $ 18.00 (Translated by Michael Moore) New Directions ➤ pages 2224 ➤ $ 14.95 BOOK ● Art critic Philippe Dave- rio takes readers BOOK ● Setin the through one of It- outskirts of Milan, aly’s least-known where residents by Enzo Capua regions to dis- gossip, quarrel, and On our tour of jazz at i-Italy, we have been revisiting important instru- cover its beauty, conspire against ments—and, as a result, phenomenal musicians—that form the story of ranging from the each other, the book the music, both in America and in Italy. And we intend to continue along plains in the south, to the foothills of narrates the story of that path, because it’s important to pique the interest of people who don’t the Alps, and the beautiful villas on Chino, an impres- know the music well. Yet I’d like to pause for a brief interlude to pay hom- Lake Como. sionable thirteen year old boy and his age to all the lesser musicians, the minor enthusiasts who will never reach encounter with Ms. Lynd, an elderly, eru- the heights of the major talents. I’m not talking about dilettantes or those Not all Bastards are from dite British woman who has just moved who get their kicks playing for friends on the weekends. No, instead this is an ode to mediocrity. I will try to explain what may seem like an awkward Viennat into the same building. Not only will Ms. Lynd become Chino’s companion and tribute. Journalists, critics, and music industry professionals often receive Andrea Molesini an absurd number of CDs, links to download albums, and other materials Grove Press good friend, but she will introduce him that pile up—often in the corners of our homes. “What are you whining ➤ pages 352 ➤ $ 26.00 to the world of literature and a new way of thinking about life - offering him a coun- about?” someone might say, a little irritated, “at least you don’t have to terpoint to the only version of reality that buy that stuff!” And s/he would be right, in part, since a small slice of this music is really worth the trouble of being looked after. BOOK ● An- he has ever known. But then there’s the rest, the vast majority, which consists of (sometimes) drea Molesini’s unlistenable noise, unoriginal music, poor performances, superficial and exquisite debut Cinema pointless songs. Occasionally it angers us and we start thinking about novel—winner of Andrea Bocelli how much time we’ve wasted and the inexorable accumulation of stuff, the prestigious Sugar Music ➤ $ 9.99 when what we should take into consideration—something important, Campiello Prize— something I dare call fundamental—is the very thing that makes those portrays the unbeautiful albums precious: they were almost always made with the depths of heroism MUSIC● The fif- passion and daily devotion of unskilled musicians hoping to be heard, and horror within a northern Italian teenth -studio album praised, loved. For them, music is a means of conveying great emotion, village toward the end of the World of the renowned even if it seems small to others. That is why these musicians, who will War I. This book is an unforgettable Italian singer and never become famous, deserve to be supported, listened to, and advised portrait of the erosion of tradition songwriter, Cinema with the kind of affection reserved for those who know that every day and the fall of an Italian aristocratic contains classical re-makings of Oscar- there are other people who, because they don’t listen to music or only family, whose personal battles burn awarded songs, sung in Italian, English, put it on in the background, are quite willing to say such minor artists with more fire than those of the war and Spanish. The album, enriched with are wasting their time. That they’re losers, good for nothings. They’re not; happening around them. duets and collaborations with interna- playing music with heart and passion is never a waste of time. Never, even tional artists, ranked third on UK Album for the talentless. Because that is how you give society—so desperate for Bruno Munari: Square, Chart fourth in Italy, tenth on the Billboard success stories—a blast of awareness, levity, sounds that caress our faces hardened from chasing after power. Circle, Triangle 200 in the United States. Bruno Munari For years—decades—Italian jazz has always been considered a younger Princeton Architectural Press Giro del mondo sibling, composed of musicians of the kind I just described. And yet all of ➤ pages 288 ➤ $ 21.87 Ligabue these musicians not only fed the idea that jazz is a genre of music that Warner Music Italy has nobility, a heart Italians can appreciate; they also laid the foundation for what was to come, encouraging and helping develop hidden talents. ● ➤ $ 67.99 BOOK In the early They are partly responsible for Italian jazz’s current importance, its roster 1960’s Italian design of major performers, some of who are true geniuses. This is not the space legend Bruno Mu- MUSIC● A compi- to name either the mediocre stars of music past or the major talents of nari published his lation of live songs music present. Yet it’s important to say, once and for all, that without visual case studies from Ligabue’s tour those past performers we wouldn’t have today’s leading lights. This is on shapes: Circle, in 2014-2015. It in- a tribute to those who want it, who want to continue to play and make Square, and, later, Triangle. Using both cludes 3 CDs and 2 music, who provide us with the gift of their passion and are unafraid of an historical and anthropological ap- DVDs that aptly showcase the artist’s being misunderstood. We really need them. proach, Munari describes the circle as ability to churn out hits even after . a symbol of perfection and divinity nearly 30 years of fame. www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April - May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 75 The village of Scanno (Photo ADA) Most photographs in this section are by Archivio D’Abruzzo (ADA) . Printed with permission. The Archivio D’Abruzzo can be visited at: www.dabruzzo.it.

76 | i-Italy ny | April-May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Tourism ❱❱ Abruzzo Are you going to Italy SOON?

●● DISCOVERING THE WONDERS OF THE REGION NAMED ‘BEST PLACE WHERE TO LIVE’ The Green Region Has It All

Beautiful seaside, golden beaches, and marvelous mountains: Abruzzo has it all—and more. Ranked as one of the best places in te world where to live, this is a truly intriguing land, extraordinarily rich in natural beauty, great art, splendid urban architecture, secular traditions, and a culture enriched by hospitable people. Here, people pull their chairs out into the The Majella massif in the Central Apennines (Photo ADA) street, kids play outside, After centuries of being labeled a harsh land of imposing and and people do their remote mountains where only gruff pioneers and shepherds shopping at street markets. could carve out a life, in the last few years Abruzzo’s appeal has And the cooking revisits been ascendant. Visitors discover a truly intriguing land, ancient recipes for preparing fish, lamb, goat, extraordinarily rich in natural beauty, great art, splendid urban and wild boar. architecture, secular traditions, and hospitable people. by Goffredo Palmerini *

●● Abruzzo has an inexhaustible wealth of artistic gems, suggestive ancient traditions, and a wide variety of flavors. Its landscape ranges from the vertiginous white summits of Gran Sasso, Majella and Sirente to green hills quilted with splendid villages that drop off dramatically into the intense blue of the Adriatic. Abruzzo is full of woods, its nature untrammeled. A third of the region is protected, thanks to three national parks (Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo – the Vasto: Punta Aderci oldest in Italy – Parco del Gran * Goffredo Palmerini is a prolific writer and journalist, former deputy Mayor of L’Aquila and president of the Abruzzo chapter Sasso and Parco della Majella), of ANFE (Associazione Nazionale Famiglie Emigranti). Author of several books on his region, he is one of the best-known “Brand the regional Parco del Velino Ambassadors” of Abruzzo in the world and its chief, though informal media relations strategist. www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April-May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 77 Tourism ➜ Abruzzo

Sirente, and a large number of In Abruzzo all natural oases, earning it the one needs to do nickname “The Green Region of Europe.” Paradise pure and is choose between simple, Abruzzo is home to climbing the sheer many species of animals and cliffs of Gran Sasso or birds that have survived the threat of extinction, as well as an playing winter sports extraordinary variety of plants. in the mountains; Abruzzo has always been a wild between visiting the landscape, one of rare beauty. All who encounter it remain wonderful cities of intrigued, forever mesmerized, art or exploring its almost bewitched, like countless enchanting villages; foreign writers and travelers who visited the region and wrote between lakes or fabulous passages about it. That rolling hills; between is to say nothing of Abruzzo’s vast sandy beaches native sons and daughters, includng Gabriele d’Annunzio, and the rocky shores Ignazio Silone and Mario on the green coast Pomilio, to name just a few who where an emerald sea may be better known in the U.S. is speckled with Ranked Among the Best ‘trabuccos.’ Recently the Huffington Post published an article on the 12 best places in the world to retire. is healthy and the landscape The American news outlet dotted with vineyards, small awarded Abruzzo fifth place, towns, stone houses, and various behind Algarve, Portugal; Cayo, castles. Here, people pull their should come as no surprise. But all that has changed in Belize; Medellin, Colombia; chairs out into the street, kids After centuries of being labeled the last forty years with the and Pau, France, beating out play outside, and people do their a harsh land of imposing and creation of highways making seven beauty spots in Central shopping at street markets. The remote mountains where only it possible to travel from Rome America and Asia. According cooking revisits ancient recipes gruff pioneers and shepherds to L’Aquila in an hour, and to to HuffPo, Abruzzo stands for preparing fish, lamb, goat, could carve out a life, in the Pescara, Chieti, Teramo, and out for its beautiful seaside, and wild boar. last few years Abruzzo’s appeal other cities on the Adriatic in golden beaches, and marvelous There are a host of other has been ascendant. The two hours. Now Abruzzo is at mountains. The region’s human attributes that make Abruzzo one misconception stemmed from a the center of Italy, thanks also side doesn’t hurt either: without of the best places in the world dearth of transportation routes, to an airport connecting it to huge crowded cities, major to live, too, so the Huffington which, in the past, made it the rest of the country, Europe, industry or pollution, the air Post’s flattering assessment hard for the region to develop. and the world.

A wine region in Abruzzo (Photo: ADA)

78 | i-Italy ny | April-May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Tourism ➜ Abruzzo

Transumanza (transhumance) L’Aquila: The Fountain in the Abruzzo Apennines: of the 99 Cannelle. the traditional twice yearly (Photo Mauro Vitale) migration of sheep and cows from the highlands to the lowlands, and vice versa. (Photo ADA)

with ‘trabuccos.’ Beachgoers funerary objects, they’ve will find it all along Abruzzo’s turned up sophisticated ruins, 100-mile long coastline. precious jewels, and priceless In short, visitors will discover ornaments, evidence of the Italic that Abruzzo has a lot more civilizations in the region. Indeed, A cornucopia of Sasso or playing winter sports in variety than they might have centuries before Christ, the surprising gems the mountains and high plains; imagined, perhaps under the ancient populations of the region Abruzzo’s visitors – tourists are between visiting the wonderful illusion that it was still stuck famously joined forces in order coming here in growing numbers cities of art or exploring its in its centuries-long isolation. to fend off the Romans during – discover a truly intriguing land, enchanting villages (out of 253 Instead they will find a striking, the Social War, before eventually extraordinarily rich in natural listed in the exclusive Most kind, and welcoming people and forming alliances with Rome and beauty, great art, splendid urban Beautiful Villages in Italy Club, a a cornucopia of surprising gems, its citizens. architecture, secular traditions, whopping 22 are from Abruzzo); as surprising as the discoveries and a culture enriched by between lakes or rolling hills; archaeologists have made in The Eagle Reborn hospitable people. Now all one between vast sandy beaches to the last two decades, digging Since the Bronze Age, Abruzzo’s needs to do is choose between rocky shores on the green coast up numerous necropolises historical importance has been climbing the sheer cliffs of Gran where an emerald sea is speckled intact. Rather than crumbling embodied by places such as the region’s capital city, L’Aquila, the queen of the Apennines. The city (its name menas ‘The Eagle’ in Italian) is currently rising out of the rubble left by the disastrous 2009 earthquake, and is more beautiful than ever. One of the most precious artistic sites in Italy, its vast and important historic center is surrounded by almost 4 miles of city walls that have now been magnificently restored. L’Aquila’s singularity dates back to its founding in 1254, when 99 surrounding castles (castrum) united, each doing its best to erect its own neighborhood in the new city, following an harmonious – rather than haphazard – urban plan. In Traditional fishing machines the history of urban planning, called Trabucchi are a typical L’Aquila was the first city to be component of the Chieti area on the Abruzzo coast fortified and constructed at the same time. It wouldn’t happen www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April-May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 79 Tourism ➜ Abruzzo again until 1703, when Saint Renaissance. Not to mention Lago Barrea Petersburg was founded. The (Photo: ADA) major goldsmiths, carpenters, second largest city in the southern potters. Their works turn up on Kingdom after Naples, L’Aquila treasure hunts through small enjoyed broad independence. It country churches, monasteries, had its own laws, fiscal privileges, magnificent cathedrals, in places and the freedom to coin its own like Sulmona, Chieti, Atri, Teramo, currency. For three centuries, Tagliacozzo, Penne, Giulianova, until the middle of the 1500s, it Città Sant’Angelo, Ortona, was one of the most prosperous Guardiagrele, Lanciano, Vasto, and important cities in Europe, and other centers. trading wool and saffron. By the Once in Pescar,a you find latter half of the 1400s, it had yourself in the “jewel of the opened both a university and Adriatic,” a lively, dynamic city one of the first printing presses, that trades freely with towns thanks to a student who interned Anversa. and cities on the Balkan coast. with Gutenberg, the inventor of (Photo: ADA) As a transport hub, it serves a the press. large commercial and industrial In 1294 in L’Aquila, with area that stretches as far as Francis of Assisi in attendance Chieti, a beautiful ancient city among others, Celestine V was that, like Pescara, has a good crowned pope. One of the most university. luminous spiritual figures in The strip of hills in Abruzzo is history, Celestine instituted dominated by a series of orderly the first Christian jubilee, the vineyards; the region produces ‘Perdonanza’, which, thanks to excellent wines that compete at a papal bull honored by local top levels around the world. Wine authorities, has been celebrated is one strong suit of the region. annually for 722 years in L’Aquila. Others are oil, pasta, salami, and Celestine V, the first Pope to resign institutes of music, theater, and along the road skirting ancient traditional sweets. Abruzzese his post five months after being film; a research university; and Tratturo, where flocks of sheep cuisine revolves around excellent, elected, has made a powerful a nuclear physics laboratory were once herded across nearby grass-fed meat as well as tasty impact on Abruzzo’s spirituality. located underneath Gran Sasso, region of Puglia. Inside the legumes and vegetables. Land His magnificent hermitages were where scientists all over the world churches are extraordinarily around Fucino Lake is farmed. bravely carved out of the rock of study the origins of matter in the beautiful frescoes, paintings, The region’s long tradition of great Majella and Mount Morrone, and, absence of cosmic rays. and sculptures. Who would have cooking owes a debt of thanks in the 1400s, his spirituality was thought that so many fine artists to the famous cooking school at reinforced by the Franciscans, Beyond L’Aquila could have been born in a place the Villa Santa Maria. Excellent San Bernardino da Siena, and San Heading away from L’Aquila believed to be as isolated and places to taste Abruzzo cuisine Giovanni da Capestrano. in the direction of Pescara and backward as Abruzzo was, artists can be found in the city of Teramo L’Aquila is now a vibrant cultural the Adriatic, you’ll encounter who have no reason to envy the and in the countryside. Get going, center, home to prestigious wonderful Romanic churches greats of the 14th century and Abruzzo’s waiting for you! ● ●

I never gave importance to that Motto. Only lately I L’Aquila and its Piazza realized it is true. My L’Aquila del Duomo All my teachers and friends have those qualities. by Mario Fratti* I realized that those qualities are in me too. It is very easy for me to be kind and cordial I was born in L’Aquila- July 5/1927. A beautiful city up with everyone. An enjoyable pleasant way of in the clouds. Pure air, snow for three months a year. communicating warmth and friendship. Strong? A pleasant environment. Serene families enjoying Like many of my friends I do not smoke, I do not drink, I life, what life offers them. Not much. never used drugs. Healthy mind in healthy body. I loved Theatre but I had chance to see only three Another quality of strong people? or four performances a year. I was always at the Persistence. We have that. Library (Sotto i Portici) , reading hundreds of books, In my lectures I tell young people that they will all thousands of plays. My two brothers ( Gustavo and probably be rejected nine times out of ten when Fernando) were often there. My father Leone had trying to achieve they aspirations. I tell them “ Don’t no time for the Biblioteca Tommasi but he bought be discouraged. Persist”. Many contact me years papers everyday. He gave them to us. He suggested later and tell me they have succeeded. we should read newspapers every morning to know Shortcomings of the Abruzzesi who are still living in what is happening in the world and in our Abruzzo. Italy and the Abruzzesi who live in NYC ? What can I say about the qualities and shortcomings They love to enjoy a good dinner with families and of the Abruzzesi? There is a ritual description of the relatives. They seldom find the time to go to the * Internationally acclaimed playwright and drama inhabitants of our Region. “ Forti e Gentili” ( strong Theatre. They do not know what they miss. critic. Author of many works, he is best known for his and gentle) . They miss discovery and knowledge. musical Nine (inspired by Fellini’s famous film, 8 1/2)

80 | i-Italy ny | April-May 2016 | www.i-ItalyNY.com www.i-Italy.org Tourism ➜ Abruzzo

●● DINING THE ABRUZZO WAY: MEET ROSANNA, YOUR PERSONAL CHEF IN NEW YORK Culinary Wonders of Abruzzo

With her devastating smile and torrent of energy, Rosanna di Michele began her culinary “emigration” www.rosannacooking.it from Abruzzo, eventually landing in New York and the Her first was at the Marymount School. “On those occasions, I greater metropolitan area. realized that my simple, authentic Careful to preserve recipes with real Abruzzese tradition, Rosanna serves flavors were piquing people’s up the genuine flavors and interest.” So, trip after trip, as she got to gastronomic treasures of know more and more people her homeland. in the American community, Rosanna realized that the great city, the image of which she’d grown up with on the TV, might by Otylia Coppola have room for her and her brand of Abruzzese cooking. ● ● Brought up among pots and “Both in my kitchen and my pans, the smells of basil and day-to-day life,” she says, her fresh-cooked pasta, and the flavor eyes shining, “I try to combine of authentic tomatoes, Rosanna my experience in Italy with my is used to gathering around a experience in New York. The table for good food. “When I was a result is a perfect mix of New York young girl, my job was to cook for scruple and organization, and the my little sisters,” she says. “While carefree flair of nostra bella Italia.” my friends were cooking for their dolls, I had real people to feed, Abruzzo: the Rugged since my parents were at the and the Gentle restaurant.” Abruzzo is often overlooked by You can see where this is going, people who, right or wrong, are right? A young girl grows up to only familiar with the country’s run the family restaurant. Wrong. famous cities, Venice, Florence, Rosanna decided to pursue a Rome. Yet once you encounter different thing altogether. Yet she Abruzzo, you’re not likely to Rosanna Di Michele never abandoned her passion for forget it. The Huffington Post cooking. recently called the region, with its What is sometimes taken for mountains on one side and sea granted is the courage it takes to on the other, “the world’s fifth leave a secure job and try cooking not only for Italy but New York, Both in my the city of her dreams. kitchen and my Rosanna Cooking’s day-to-day life, I try to American Adventure combine my “During dinner one summer, one of my guests was an American experience in Italy couple. They were getting their with my experience first taste of dishes from my in New York. The region. That August evening is when my American adventure result is a perfect mix began.” of New York scruple Partly for fun, partly as a and organization, and challenge to herself, Rosanna Rosanna on“Nogreatest i doubt-Italy region our | naturalT forV quality resources of life.” invented a new world: she began If you missed it on TV, scan the QR code to watch the video the carefree flair of traveling to New York to cook or go to YouTube.com/iitaly nostra bella Italia. for the couple and hold events. www.i-Italy.org www.i-ItalyNY.com | April-May 2016 | i-Italy ny | 81 Tourism ➜ Abruzzo factor into our local products One major Drying and have spawned our ‘surf and Spaghetti alla Chitarra turf’ cuisine. Obviously, change characteristic (Photo ADA) is synonymous with growth, and of Abruzzese Abruzzese cuisine is constantly cooking is to respect evolving. For example, its use of spicy chili pepper. You could tradition. Our never do our dishes without mountains and sea it, but increasingly it is used are the foundation as a final touch, to make our dishes mild…” Nevertheless, of many recipes one characteristic of Abruzzese handed down from cooking is to respect tradition. “Our mountains and sea are generation to the foundation of many recipes generation to handed down from generation preserve our to generation to preserve our customs. Some examples are customs. And no Campotosto mortadella, Solina doubt our natural bread, Ventricina dell’alto resources factor into Vastese (Vasto-style sausage), Seven Virtues Minestrone. Then our local products there’s Mazzaferrata di Cupello and have spawned artichoke, Bocconotti, Ricotta our ‘surf and turf’ cheesecake, Caciocavallo di Grotta, Aquila-style salami, cuisine Mosto Cotto, Vasto-style soup…” with the Abruzzese company Pecorino, an excellent wine that Abruzzese cellars at its most Rosanna could keep going Collefrisio, becoming the has been called “a red disguised pure. In recent years Abruzzo Of course you could speak as brand’s ambassador and as a white”; our region holds the is producing a lot of sparkling highly about the wine, beginning promoting good quality reds record in Italy for producing the wine, too, i.e., the classic with Montepulciano di Abruzzo, and whites. most Pecorino. Falanghina IgT Abruzzo DOC Spumante.” one of the best know wines in “We also have Trebbiano, is one of the oldest varietals – We hope you’ll get a chance to the world, and lighter rosés like the most widely planted probably the oldest in the world – sample one of Chef d’Abruzzo the famous Cerasuolo. For a long varieties of white grape in and was adopted by our neighbors Rosanna Cooking’s dishes time, Rosanna has collaborated the region. And then there’s in Campania. It can be found in soon! ● ● PEA SALAD WITH WHITE BEANS, The Abruzzo countryside SHRIMP AND FRESH HERBS (Photo ADA) S ing

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