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One of the select few to qualify for and successfully complete Navy SEAL training, Anthony Lanzillotti embarked on an illustrious career that spanned 37 years and included five deployments, tours of duty in 10 countries and an assignment at the Pentagon. The older of two children, Anthony Lanzillotti was born in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicag...

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It's Opening Day for the Morton House Museum’s 2025 Season today from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 501 Territorial Road, Benton Harbor, MI 49022. The Morton House Museum, “The Home of Benton Harbor History,” kicks off its 2025 season featuring this season’s exhibit: “Benton Harbor’s Little Italy: A Kaleidoscope of Cultures.”  The Little Italy neighborhood...

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Papa Leone XIV, il primo papa italoamericano Nuovi Consolati onorari italiani a Boise Idaho e a Cleveland Ohio Due nuovi collegamenti aerei inaugurati tra Italia e Stati Uniti: Roma-Denver e Napoli-Chicago  Il successo straordinario di Nonnas, il nuovo film di Netflix  La statua di Colombo rimossa da New Haven, Connecticut, trova finalmente una ca...

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May 2025 Happy 50th anniversary to the NIAF and welcome to John Calvelli, its new Chairman of the Board

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NIAF (National Italian American Foundation) is the most important organization representing the Italian American community, and this year it celebrates its 50th anniversary. 2025 is also a year of change for its Chairman of the Board, and since last April, this crucial role has been held by one of the best people I know: John Calvelli. John is an e...

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Much is being written and on TV about Pope Leo's connection to New Orleans. Little is being noted that one of his maternal great-great-grandfathers, Giacomo Martino, was born in 1806 in San Remo Italy.  Louisiana-Italians are celebrating this connection to the Vatican. Giacomo Martino’s name became Jacques Martinez in the 1820s after he arrived i...

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Pope Leo XIV also has Italian ancestry, similar to Pope Francis, who came from across the world. Robert Francis Prevost's grandfather was born in Italy on June 24, 1876, the feast day of St. John, the patron saint of Turin. The individual listed as John R. Prevost in a death certificate and a 1950 census could very well have been born in Italy as G...

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Before it was prime San Francisco tourist turf, Ghirardelli Square was pumping out chocolate for a gold-crazed city. In 1852, Italian immigrant Domingo Ghirardelli turned his failed mining dreams into something sweeter – starting with a little shop that grew into the massive brick chocolate factory we now know as SF’s favorite square. Here’s the st...

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Two Italian New Haveners, Francesco Coiro and Peter S. Saldibar, contributed some astonishing artistic vision and talent to Yale’s collegiate Gothic buildings in the 1920s and 1930s. Sadly, like many craftsmen of the era, they received no recognition during their lifetimes. The two artisans will finally get their due during a lunchtime webinar f...

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Danielle La Monica La Vecchia Rauso’s ancestors immigrated from Palermo in the 1890s. Her great-grandparents Peter and Mary La Monica started their small fish store at the market on 13th Avenue in Brooklyn in 1923. At the time there wasn’t a Garden State Parkway and very few bridges, so they eventually wound up moving the family operation to the Ca...

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