Italian Friends: Catching Florence Between Trains
THERE WERE three hours between trains. Plenty of time to see Florence. ``You can't see Florence in three hours,'' my Italian friends said. After all these years, they still do not understand us American tourists.The train pulled in at 2:34 p.m., and the man in the tourist office handed me a map on the fly. The nearest great art, he said, is in the church across the street. It's a painting by Giotto, two stars in the guide book and worth a...
Italian Friends: Mexican pride shows through art
As a child growing up in Chicago, Tony Galigo didn't relate to his Mexican heritage. "My Italian friends didn't speak their language," he recalls. "Most of us really wanted to be American rather than Mexican or Italian. We just wanted to be assimilated into the country."The 46-year-old printmaker said things are very different today.With minorities slowly becoming the majority in the United States, Galigo said...
Italian Friends: Classic Italian desserts are flavorful and low in fat
A few years ago, some Italian friends came to tour the states for the first time. Because they had been eating - and enjoying - American food in their travels around the country but were perhaps a little homesick, I prepared an Italian-style menu for their visit to my home. They were pleased with the pasta and fish, but I have no doubt the thing they enjoyed most was the big bowl of ripe fruit for dessert.In restaurants and homes, a bowl of assorted fruits is placed on the table after...
Italian Friends: Goodby, Columbus
If Columbus' Italian friends had thrown him a farewell party on the eve of his voyage, what would they have served?We can easily think of things they wouldn't have served: cornmeal polenta, potato gnocchi, tomato sauce. There would have been no zucchini or pasta e fagioli or penne all'arrabbiata , either (squashes, beans and red pepper are New World crops too). And no desserts containing cioccolata, of course.Hey! What's left? Some...
Italian Friends: Barry Lorge
LOS ANGELES -- I expected to find my Italian friends apoplectic when I arrived at the Sports Arena yesterday for the evening rounds of an Olympic boxing competition that has been accused of Ugly Americanism. I had just watched Howard Cosell railing on ABC-TV about the gross injustice done an Italian heavyweight named Angelo Musone, who was awarded a 3-2 victory by the judges who watched him fight American Henry Tillman, but had the decision reversed by an appeals jury, 5-0. Musone, who...