The Guglielmo Marconi Award, the Order Sons of Italy in America’s (OSIA) highest honor, is named for the Nobel prize-winning Italian physicist who invented wireless telegraphy. It is presented biennially to an Italian American who has made significant contributions to the United States. This year’s honoree is Senator Maria Lorts Sachs, who served a...

Giorgio’s on Hillview is replacing the former Mercato Pizzeria & Bar (previously Ocean Blues, The Table, Zoria) and is expected to open in mid-July. Co-owners Giorgio Guastella, who was proprietor of Mercato for the past year, and Elena de Luca, both native Italians, have given Michael Garey “carte blanche” as operating consultant in redoing the en...

It’s only fitting that the first few conversations Roman couple Silvia Rapone and Umberto Naro had about opening their own Italian bakery in Florida took place at a table in their favorite restaurant. As they discussed the idea of owning an Italian cafe and bar that would serve pastries and offer wine and espresso, they divvied up the responsibilit...

Just a few weeks ago, my Lunch Bunch Buddy and I were bemoaning the scarcity of Italian restaurants in Wichita Falls. Lo and behold, no sooner did we write that review and a brand new Italian restaurant opens - downtown of all places. After seeing the newly hung sign, and a few Facebook raves, we quickly made our way down to Solorzano’s Italian Cui...

To close out this year, Sarasota Film Festival had one of its most famous frequent visitors speak at length about his career. Oscar-nominated actor and director Stanley Tucci, who has attended the festival numerous times including Saturday’s closing ceremony, participated in an hourlong conversation Sunday at Florida Studio Theatre. David Edelstein...

The opera, L'italiana in Algeri, (The Italian Girl in Algiers), by Gioachino Rossini, (The Barber of Seville, William Tell, Ivanhoé), bears an avant-garde theme contemporary to the struggle women are still facing today - some sense of equality. The opera buffa, (comic opera), written in 1813, when Rossini was 21 years old, was reportedly completed...

If you have to book a big table for a family reunion, Café Barbosso is the place for you. The noise you make catching up on each other’s lives won’t make a dent in the boisterous din already going on. There’s the TV at the bar, clumps of people ordering pizza having a rousing time, folks getting up to check out the art for sale on the walls, or cha...

While the 2017 season of the Sarasota Opera marks the first time in 29 years that Verdi is not on the program, many things remain the same. "The mission hasn't changed," says Executive Director Richard Russell. "To do opera very well the way the composer intended, as we do, is increasingly rare in the opera world right now. What you'll see with us...

Since he was an adolescent growing up in Italy, chef Maurizio Colucci of Primo! Ristorante (8076 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. 359-3690; primo-ristorante.com) was learning the ins and outs of culinary mastery. He brought his passion for authentic fare and flavorful cooking to his own restaurant, which opened in Sarasota in 1986, and Colucci has kept...

by Susan Rife   Italian guitarists Matteo Mela and Lorenzo Micheli, who perform as "SoloDuo," will present a concert of classical guitar music as part of the GuitarSarasota series, at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota, 3975 Fruitville Road, Sarasota. SoloDuo has performed throughout Europe, Asia, and the...