Profiles

Equality is this year’s theme for International Women Day, #EachForEqual - ‘An equal world is an enabled world’. We chatted with Italian scientist Paola Magni, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Science, Murdoch University, Perth & Deputy Dean & Director of SCRIPT at Murdoch University Singapore. Paola is an adamant advocate of women. She challenges the stereotypes reinforcing the importance of diversity, inclusion and equality of female gender in Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine (STEMM). - Photo Martin Jason

Boxing was once very popular amongst Italians and notably children of Italian migrants, who took to the sport as a way to build their confidence and self-defence skills. Many Italians punched their way to the top and made their mark in the boxing realm. We looked back on some of the most famous Italian boxers.

I recently chatted with Gianni Vitellone, Director of Pronto Travel/Vita Italian Tours in Collingwood, about his life and love of all things Italian. (Photo Wide Shut Photography)

I was recently asked to do the courtesy of driving an elderly Italian-born gentleman to an appointment some 13 kilometers from where he lives. It was meant to be an easy task: we were to merely drop off one item and pick another, he navigated while I drove, and the round trip should not have taken much more than a half hour, even in heavy traffic. Alas, the whole trip took a lot longer than anticipated. (Photo Wide Shut Photography)

She told me that she was tall. Very tall. I spotted her arrive from across the bar and from over the top of the coffee machine. She was indeed tall, but also very elegant and refined.

She looks like any other 80-year-old Italian woman. Her body is weathered but lithe. Her hair is cut into a smart bob. She sits at a café with her arms folded, gazing into the distance. In another image, she is at the stove, her great grandson playing at her feet.

A departure is always good, or at least ‘good enough’. Joseph Conrad said that even if we leave during gloomy weather we still have the open sea in front of us deploying endless possibilities; intoxicated by a fresh start, we feel the architect of the marvels there are in the world.

“Are you Italian?” “Yes, but I was born and raised in Australia.” “Well, you’re Australian then.”

A life taken during a random act of terror, Melbourne icon Sisto Malaspina was cruelly ripped away from the breathing fabric of the city in the recent Bourke Street attack on 9 November, 2018, as he generously offered his help during the commotion – only to be fatally stabbed instead.

Today’s story is one I have longed to share with you for a while now. It is the tale of two Italian women – one Italian by birth, and the other Italian in spirit. They are Vincenza and Melinda Aloisio. Mother and daughter.

There is no doubt that restaurant owner and Pizza Chef Ashlley Walliss is in his element when he’s in the kitchen of his South Fremantle Pizzeria, L’Antica.

Melbourne businesswoman and philanthropist Susan Alberti is not Italian, but she delights in being mistaken for a native speaker. ‘I feel good when I speak in Italian and they respond, and they think I’m Italian. That’s how you know you’re doing it right’, she says.

She has a warm smile, curious blue eyes and she walks as though she’s gliding gently over the floor. Years have passed since she was last on a catwalk, but it seems that hers is a gait you never lose.

Finally, after one year and a half of living my dream in Australia, I decided it was time to go back home to see my family and friends, and to enjoy the Italian summer in my hometown Stigliano, Basilicata!

Her Facebook page has nearly 300,000 followers from all over the world; her videos on Youtube are widely clicked: she is known as the web’s best ever Nonna. She’s a little over a metre tall and 80 years old but her smile and charisma are explosive. So is her attitude to certain things; tattoos is one, she hates them.

The man sat in front of me, coffee in hand, is not the man I have seen in action. Today he is poised, articulate and composed. With grace and unabridged honesty he recounts the ups and downs of his life journey. So far, in all my encounters with him, I have been his audience: I sit gripped, hanging on to every word.

How two "paesani" from a little town in Basilicata happened to meet unexpectedly for the first time in a Queensland holiday suburb

Daniele Ciurleo-Larubina’s essence of his mastery lies in the seemingly effortless ability to transition from musician to composer, from arranger to conductor.

I would like to acknowledge the Jadawadjali and the Wotjobaluk peoples as Traditional Owners of the Wimmera region, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present, and the Elders from other communities of Victoria.

A lot has been written about post-war immigrants and their quest to build a new life in an unfamiliar and remote land as Australia still was in the middle of the last century. Little account has been given of their children’s experiences as they grew up torn between two cultures, wrestling with society’s push to mainstream or marginalize them.

There are many stories of Italian migrants who came to Australia with nothing more than a suitcase and were able to achieve great success in their business undertakings: stories of hard work, endurance, determination and, in some cases, extraordinary fortitude in the face of dire circumstances.

I miss it. I really miss that feeling of wandering around, as I used to do in my home country, stopping, as soon as I’d get peckish, for a quick bite & chat at one of my favourite street food traders, no matter the time. No need to sit down nor spend a fortune for a snack on the run that can easily turn into a main meal, and only for a couple of bucks!

A natural talent for defining new and old spaces, Tommaso Spinzi is an Italian-born interior designer and owner of Melbourne-based company Spinzi Design. After ending his academic career with a Diploma in Surveying, Tommaso worked in the construction industry before moving to Lugano, Switzerland, to collaborate with a prestigious architect studio.

For those who grew up hearing the iconic song for Coppa Del Nonno’s commercial, “Joy, I feel good, I feel fine”, Gisella Cozzo’s voice might already be endeared to those childhood memories and fondness for ice cream.

For those who grew up hearing the iconic song for Coppa Del Nonno’s commercial,“Joy, I feel good, I feel fine”, Gisella Cozzo’s voice might already be endeared to those childhood memories and fondness for ice cream.