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The Italian Language Foundation

Promoting and Supporting Italian Language Education

Pizza Dreams Come True: Italian Inspiration in America

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Thank you to Amy Riolo for this wonderful blog post contribution.

Did you know that pizza is the world’s most popular food? Believe it or not, we also eat more pizza per capita in the United States than in Italy! The concept of pizza restaurants was introduced to America by Italians, and are now a thriving part of our American economy. In 2021, pizzerias alone generated around 45.59 billion U.S. dollars in sales. This month, we are featuring a prominent Italian American who made his American dreams come true through pizza making.

Award-winning restaurateur, pizzaiolo, and owner of Washington DC’s legendary Il Canale, 90 Second Pizza, and A Modo Mio, Joe Farruggio, was born in Sicily and began his career as a teenage dishwasher in New York City in 1970, just five days after he  came from Italy on a ship called Michelangelo with his family. “When I started working as a dishwasher, I was making $90 a week, working 60 hours. At another job, I was paid $120, working 60 hours. In the Village, I was making $215, and then I went to work at Queen Pizza for $250, working less hours. Shortly after that, I got a better offer to go work in Brighton Beach,” he stated in his recently released memoir, My Name is Joe And I Am a Pizza Man, An American Story. 

In 1977 he moved to Virginia and noticed that the presence of the Italian culture and authentic cuisine was scarce in the nation’s capital, he says in My Name is Joe And I am a Pizza Man, An American Story (Fourth Lloyd Productions, 2022). The memoir, now available on Amazon, is co-written with award-winning, best-selling author Thierry Sagnier and offers valuable lessons for anyone searching to make their dreams come true. My Name Is Joe And I Am A Pizza Man, An American Story is the quintessential immigrant story, an entrepreneur’s tale of rags to riches, demonstrating that with courage, intelligence and instinct, anything is possible.

IL CANALE AWARDS-WINNING RESTAURANT

Mr. Farruggio’s award-winning restaurant, Il Canale is the only restaurant in D.C. to receive the top culinary honor from the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce and the National Institute of Tourism. Il Canale was named “One of the 70 Best Italian Restaurants and Pizzerias in the World” and  one of Yelp’s “Top 100 Places to Eat” 2022. It also holds the coveted Gambero Rosso title for being a “Top Italian Restaurant” In Washington, DC, and many other distinguished honors. Within a few years of opening, Il Canale became a celebrity hot spot in the heart of DC’s Georgetown neighborhood.

“If I can do it, they can do it,” says Joe Farruggio, when discussing anyone who has a goal to be met, with a smile. He firmly believes that the extraordinary situations and challenges which he overcame will provide hope to those facing their own difficulties or who would like to transform perceived limitations. Equally inspirational and thought evoking, Mr. Farruggio’s biography motivates readers to follow their passions while increasing their profits.

One of Joe Farruggio’s favorite activities is sharing his life and business lessons with students and entrepreneurs of all ages. For this reason, he was awarded the prestigious Premio Eccellenza Italiana award for Lifetime Achievement just a few days ago on October 14. In a ceremony conducted simultaneously between the Casa Italiana in Washington, DC and The Vatican in Rome, Italy, Mr. Farruggio accepted the honor and vowed to continue giving back to both the Italian and the American cultures which have enabled him to realize his full potential.

Click here to learn more about Joe Farruggio’s series of upcoming events which can be viewed here.

The Rhino statue of Brescia: discover Stefano Bombardieri’s incredible work of art

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LEGGI IN ITALIANO

There is a rhino in the heart of Brescia, a city in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy, situated at the foot of the Alps. The wild animal does not come from the remote areas of Africa, but it is a figment of Stefano Bombardieri’s imagination. Stefano Bombardieri is a conceptual artist and sculptor who became famous for his bronze statues of wild animals and mythological figures. Both the size and the placement of the statues make his work impossible to forget.

Bombardieri always aims at creating fictional and confusing works of art that leave the public speechless. The hanging in mid-air rhino caught everyone by surprise when first placed in Quadriportico della Vittoria. Tourists and locals have been wondering about the meaning of such a bizarre statue, which could be hidden in the full name of the masterpiece: “il peso del tempo sospeso – rinoceronte” (literally: The Weight of Suspended time – Rhinoceros”.

This is not the first time that the Italian artist chooses wild animals as enormous subjects of his works. There seems to be a connection between the artist’s works and environmental topics such as the exploitation of natural resources and the consequential destruction of the wildlife habitat.

The statue is today a must-see tourist attraction for contemporary art enthusiasts and curious tourists, which will remain available to the public and free until December 2022.

La statua del rinoceronte a Brescia: scopri l’incredibile opera d’arte di Stefano Bombardieri

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C’è un rinoceronte nel cuore di Brescia, una città lombarda situata ai piedi delle Alpi. L’animale selvaggio non proviene dalle selvagge lande africane, ma è frutto dell’immaginazione dell’artista bresciano Stefano Bombardieri. Stefano Bombardieri è un artista concettuale diventato famoso per le sue statue in bronzo di animali selvaggi e figure mitologiche. Sia le dimensioni sia il posizionamento delle sue opere le rende impossibili da dimenticare.

Bombardieri mira sempre a creare un’ambientazione fittizia e confusa che lascia lo spettatore senza parole. Il rinoceronte appeso a mezz’aria ha colto tutti di sorpresa quando è stato posizionato per la prima volta nel Quadriportico della Vittoria, a due passi dall’omonima piazza. I turisti e gli abitanti locali si sono interrogati sul significato di questa statua bizzarra che potrebbe essere celato nel nome completo dell’opera “Il peso del tempo sospeso – rinoceronte”.

Non è la prima volta che l’artista italiano sceglie animali selvaggi come giganteschi soggetti delle sue opere. Sembra esserci una connessione tra i lavori dell’artista e la tematica ambientale come, ad esempio, lo sfruttamento delle risorse e la consequenziale distruzione dell’habitat della fauna selvaggia. 

La statua è oggi una tappa turistica obbligata nella città sia per appassionati d’arte contemporanea sia per turisti curiosi e rimarrà aperta al pubblico e gratuita fino a dicembre 2022.

 
 

Pasta: How it Was and Should Always Be

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By Gabriele Lombardo, a passionate wine expert from Sicily, Italy, studying at WSET 3 while working on many projects, all connected to international tourism. His love for story-telling brought him to the writing world which, together with his acting experience, helped him develop a charismatic style, both in person and on paper.

A few days ago, during one of my age-long discussions with my chef (and mother) about the pros and cons of pasta dishes, we both realized that I still had to write something about it and, being in Italy, that was not acceptable. Mother reminded me that there’s an amazing ‘Pastificio’ with a Sicilian-only and hand-crafted pasta production literally fifteen minutes away from my place so we took the car and went straight for it, hoping that someone would bear my endless stream of questions. 

After a brief car drive, we found ourselves in front of this intriguing building, surely a little old but still lively,   only two stories tall but as long as a train. The welcoming looking alley showed us the way to the first available parking spot and, full of high expectations, we entered ‘Pastificio Barbagallo. 

I was wandering around, reading about ancient varieties of wheat, nutritional values and pasta-making techniques that I knew very little of when I decided it was time for questions. And it was exactly when I was about to test my luck with the first person I could find that a young woman wearing lab-like clothing showed up, waving her hands towards me.

Agata Barbagallo, heir to the Barbagallo legacy and current leader of the company, greeted me with energy that no covid mask could have hide before pointing out two empty chairs and sitting on one of them. From then on, I let myself get carried away with the enthusiasm that followed each of my many questions, barely able to write down the river-like flow of information aimed at me. 

The building is more than 100 years old, built back in 1911 thanks to Agata’s grandfather, who bravely decided to turn the old family vineyard into the place we can see today and started the pasta-making business, together with the grinding of wheat and the extraction of essences from many fruits and flowers, which they exported all the way around the EU.

Always putting a lot of effort on sharing all the knowledge they gathered during the decades of activity, they kept on working with local farmers even when the world was moving towards massive productions, being loyal to their intent and finding themselves in a much nicer position now that the awareness of customers has risen quite noticeably.

But we’re still missing something. As if everything I told you wasn’t enough, there’s one more process that makes the real difference when we are talking about flavors and texture: Drying.

We all know patience makes the difference in the kitchen and this is yet another proof of it: time and low temperatures will make sure your pasta will end up being soft on the outside but harder on the inner part.

Techniques and traditions are of utmost importance, but Agata and her sisters decided to take the business to another level, focusing on their ecological impact and producing not only organic, high-level pasta, but also a completely recyclable packaging for most of their products.

So, from Ancient Sicilian wheat varieties to soft, rich flours, ready to be turned into some of the best pasta you could find, everything happening here, following traditions but led by innovative thinking.

 

A WOMAN OF INFLUENCE

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Author of over thirty traditionally-published books for young readers, Margo Sorenson spent the first seven years of her life in Spain and Italy, devouring books and Italian food and still speaks (or tries!) her childhood languages. Her most recent Adult/YA novel, SECRETS IN TRANSLATION (Fitzroy Books, October 2018), takes place in Positano, with plenty of Italian conversation filled with mystery and seasoned with lighthearted banter. www.margosorenson.com

Because Women’s International Day is this month, I wanted to share with all Italian language lovers the story of my amazing Italian professor at UC Berkeley, a truly international woman. After we moved to the U.S. from Italy when I was seven, I spent the next few years trying hard to fit into a culture I hadn’t grown up in. There was definitely a sign on my forehead that read “Clueless.” Also, to my surprise, I found out none of my school friends spoke any language but English, so, that put an end to my speaking Italian, despite my parents’ urging. I just knew speaking Italian was going to make me even more different from everyone than I already was. So, I locked up my precious Italian language in my memory bank, hesitating to even peek inside, afraid it would make me too sad. Then, the teen years took over: Beach Boys, homework, friends—and my Italian receded into the past—I thought.

For a naïve, wide-eyed Freshman who had just turned seventeen, UC Berkeley was a huge, scary campus. As I searched the course catalog, I looked for a course that might be helpful and welcoming and that would make me feel less alone among the thousands of students so far from my Southern California home. Something in my heart tugged at me when I read the Italian Language Department course descriptions, and I thought, why not? I probably had the Italian vocabulary of a seven-year-old, with some Barese and Napolitano mixed in, and, my parents told me, the accent of a Southern Italian, so what could possibly go wrong?

I was excited and a bit nervous, opening the door of my beginning Italian class. The students were all Americans, as was I, but unbeknownst to me, I still had an Italian heart. I was about to find out.

My professoressa, Sra. Caterina Bess, was vibrant and energetic, and the air crackled around her. Of course, la bella figura ensured she was dressed stylishly, too. She began the class with a rapid volley of Italian, which I understood most of, but, as I looked around, I realized no one else did. Suddenly, I felt an overwhelming feeling of relief and recognition—as if I’d met a dear friend after a long absence. I was home. Then, she welcomed us in English, and the class began. One of the first things she asked was that each of us recite in front of the class an Italian sentence that she’d written on the board. I can’t remember what it was, but I knew what it meant. What I do remember is, once I’d said it aloud, she stared at me intently, hands on her hips, and snapped, “Where are you FROM?”

Right then, I knew where I was from—I was from Italy. 😊 My accent had given me away—in a good way.

That was the beginning of a special time for me. Sra. Bess became my friend and my mentor, and I babysat her young son, Michael, from time to time. She was my rock and my anchor in the midst of the turmoil at Berkeley (yes, those years!), and I could count on her for wise advice.

The Italian class was a kick. She made it lively and fascinating and we all enjoyed our time together, even the memorization of the ins and outs of Italian grammar. Remember, I had a vocabulary and grammar of a seven-year-old and had never formally studied the language; I had learned it by osmosis with my own and my parents’ Italian friends during my precious four years in Italy. Sra. Bess held us spellbound one class session, recounting the story of how she would ride her bicycle as a young girl during WWII in Italy, carrying messages for the Resistance. Yes, her life was in danger, but she did it for Italy, so it was worth the risks.

One memory I will never forget, and which helped distill for me what being an Italian could mean, was the day President John F. Kennedy was shot. I was on campus that day when I ran into Sra. Bess. With an anguished expression, she said, “Oh, Margo! What a tragedy! The Italian department is coming to my apartment. Please, as an American, can you come and explain this to us—how this could happen?” Thus it was that I spent that terrible day, watching the news with, talking with, commiserating with, and crying with Italians, who were so stricken that someone so young with such promise could be cut down. Many Italians feel emotions strongly and don’t hesitate to show them—so different from many Americans whose culture I had adopted. It confirmed for me once again how special Italy and Italians are and how precious being able to speak Italian could be. Sra. Caterina Bess was truly an international woman in every sense of the phrase and inspired so many of us to cherish the precious Italian language and culture.

So, when I hear spoken Italian, it strikes a deep chord, bringing back not only my Italian childhood, but also the heartwarming experiences that have accompanied speaking the language with others, along with Sra. Bess. It takes me home, again.

Contact Us

TELEPHONE: (212) 461 0094

PHYSICAL ADDRESS:

Italian Language Foundation, Inc.
8 East 69th Street
New York, New York 10021

MAILING ADDRESS:

Italian Language Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 112
28 Maple Place
Manhasset, New York 11030

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Word of the Day

  • leggero: light

    Part of speech: adjective Example sentence:La custodia in tessuto leggero protegge il gioiello dalla polvere. Sentence meaning: The light cloth casing protects the jewel from dust.