• A Letter from the Editor, Truby Chiaviello
• Travel/Hidden Treasures
• Italian Language
• Readers’ Corner
• Reviews
• Wine and Spirits
• Food
  

First Edition 2026 also includes:

• iCub - Italy’s new robot is one of the most advanced in the world.
• La Mortella - The beautiful sprawling Italian estate was designed with music in mind.
• The Vikings Take Italy - How and when the Viking invaders took control of Southern Italy.
• The Women of Italy's Silent Films - From stars to filmmakers to Tweedledum and Tweedledee
• Armani/Ristorante - Less than a year before he died, Giorgio Armani opened a new restaurant in New York.
• Great Year to Come: The best of Italian cuisine.

COVER FEATURE - POPE LEO XIV
An American in the Vatican

Robert Francis Prevost was born in Chicago on September 14, 1955. He was elected pope by the College of Cardinals on May 8, 2025. The first of the Augustinian Order to reach the papacy, he took the name Leo XIV. His ascent marked a moment few had imagined—and many are still absorbing.

FEATURE ARTICLES

POPE LEO XIV - MOMENTS OF FAITH AND HISTORY
The Pope Meets World Leaders
JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Giorgia Meloni, Luiz Lulu da Silva, and more.

COME OUT ICUB 
The World's Top Robot Stays Hidden
Italy leads the way in embodied AI, and yet, few people know it.
talian scientists and engineers have brought to life an actual robot in iCub, yet, they have chosen to keep this sentient being locked up inside a lab in Genoa.
iCub—coming soon to a store near you? Not!

LA MORTELLA
The beautiful sprawling Italian estate was designed with music in mind
On the volcanic island of Ischia, where the earth once burned and hardened into black lava cliffs, a composer built a garden. Not a formal Renaissance parterre, not a Medici display of geometry and power — but something more intimate, more lyrical. A place where music took root in stone.

THE VIKINGS TAKE SICILY
How and when the Viking invaders took control of Southern Italy
The first Vikings appeared in Italy in 1016. They numbered less than forty. They were “Christianized” Vikings from France who arrived in the Pugliese town of Monte Sant’Angelo to pay their homage at a cave site, believed to have once been visited by the Archangel Michael in 493 AD.

THE WOMEN OF ITALY'S SILENT FILM ERA
Long overdue tribute to Italian female film pioneers
They founded production companies, directed films that challenged social norms, and shaped cinematic narratives with a boldness that still resonates today. Their place in film history conveys a fresh and compelling perspective on the origins of cinema—and on the women who helped invent it.

ARMANI/RISTORANTE
Less than a year before he died, Giorgio Armani opened a new restaurant in New York
A prince of fashion gave New York one of its finest restaurants before he died in September 2025. Armani/Ristorante is the place to dine at 760 Madison Avenue.

A Great Year to Come - We feature the best of Italian cuisine. 

 

• A Letter from the Editor, Truby Chiaviello:  Goodbye Columbus and Goodbye Bears in Chicago
  Two symbols of Chicago’s spirit of rugged determination and resilient innovation seem all but lost.
  
• Hidden Treasures - Milan’s Loggia dei Mercanti
  In the heart of old Milan lies an architectural curiosity for those who pause, listen, and speak softly. The Loggia dei Mercanti, within the compact Piazza dei Mercanti, conceals an elegant acoustic secret: A whispering gallery formed not by grand intent, but by medieval geometry and stone.
  
• Language: Richard Nixon's “Silent Majority” Speech Is Translated in Italian—Four figures came forward in the Watergate saga— one of them was Italian and the three others were Italian Americans.
  
• Wine & Spirits: An Amaro Made From Dandelions
• Readers' Corner: Holy Week in Sicily by Michael Ranieri
• Readers’ Corner: Memories of a Bronx Delivery Boy by Joseph Longo

  And...Book Reviews in this Edition…

  LA SCALA MAGICA/THE MAGIC LADDER
  A Collection of Poems
  By Nino Provenzano
  Translated by
  Gaetano Cipolla
  Published by Arba Sicula
  https://arbasicula.org
  Available at Amazon.com

  THEY MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE
  By Ray M. Vento
  www.rayvento.com
  Available at Amazon.com

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