The New York Times' Patricia Brooks gave Cotto's Wine Bar and Pizzeria a "Very Good" rating in the newspaper's region section, published Friday online.   The Italian restaurant at 51 Bank St. has "had a good bit of success" at creating "the ambience of a Roman trattoria in downtown Stamford," Brooks wrote in her review.   Read more &...

Ugo DiMare enjoys baking and loves his family, but never dreamed of mixing the two. Running a bakery shop is so much work, DiMare thought. He did not want to burden his daughters. Despite his worries, they blended. "We used to sweat to make a $100," said one daughter, Maria DiMare-McGrath, 59. "My father felt it was a hard life, and he d...

During the most recent election night in Stamford, John Mallozzi was greeted with handshakes and congratulatory backslaps in a private room at Zody's 19th Hole which the Democrats had rented as its victory headquarters.   An ebullient Italian American known for his candor, Mallozzi looked almost bashful. After all, he was not a candidate. Bu...

by Martin B. Cassidy The city's first Italian-American mayor — remembered most for the purchase of Sterling Farms during his one term in the late 1960s — died Friday at the age of 86. Giordano died of natural causes at Virtua Hospital in Voorhees, N.J., his daughter, Esther-Marie Giordano, said. Giordano, a former teacher and director of the...

An Italian-American couple, who fell in love in Rome during World War II, died within an hour of each other in Stamford, Connecticut. Guiseppe and Livia Fortuna were married for 69 years, had four kids and moved to a house in Stamford's Cove neighborhood in the early 1960s. They raised their four children in the United States, and stayed in th...

By Korey Wilson University of Connecticut Stamford will host its second annual Italian American Heritage Celebration on Thursday, Oct. 8. The annual event highlights Stamford's Italian-American community and heritage with a lecture, food, crafts and music.   "We're really excited about this because during our initial event last year, w...

On Sunday, Rita Derubeis, 65, stood outside Sacred Heart Church with her friend Anna Gentile, 63, recalling growing up on the city's West Side as children who had immigrated from Settefrate, Italy. "We went through a lot of stuff," said Derubeis, who immigrated to Stamford in 1958 when she was 7. "We had to go to Naples for blood tests to make sur...