The 120th Tontitown Grape Festival begins Tuesday on U.S. 412 west of Springdale with an evening of carnival rides, free live entertainment and a grape stomp. The festival will continue through Aug. 11 with other activities and food highlighting the town's Italian heritage, including the festival's infamous grape ice cream. Hundreds of volunteers o...

A title character plays only a supporting role this week at the Tontitown Grape Festival. That's the grape itself, now relegated to cameo appearances at this venerable yearly celebration, whose roots date to 1899. It's the case that not a lot of grapes are grown today around this Northwest Arkansas community, settled near the end of the 19th centur...

When the first settlers from Sunnyside sat down to a harvest picnic in 1898, the thought of a Ferris wheel or carousel in eyeshot of the church house doors would have been inconceivable. Just as hard to fathom, though, would be the idea that the supper would become a tradition that would span a century and more. This coming week, the 119th Annual T...

THE cellar is flooded and Chris Ranalli worries about snakes. From the safety of the back door, he points out the sturdy walls—two feet thick, as if to withstand Mediterranean earthquakes—and the elegantly vaulted ceilings. “They lived in the top two storeys and made wine in the basement,” explains Mr Ranalli, who now tends the 100-year-old vineyar...

If you think that the story of the Italian explorers and the territory now called "United States of America" stops at Cristoforo Colombo and Amerigo Vespucci, you probably never heard about Giovanni Caboto (the fact that English is the language spoken in the US can be directly attributed to England's claims in North America, based on his voyages),...