Street food and the cultural openness to unfamiliar flavours.

This year Italy is celebrating Fellini who was born in Rimini on 20 January 1920

Since the 1500s, the Italians have developed an enviable coffee culture. A culture many other countries also enjoy today. From the ritual morning coffee to the hit of espresso after a big meal, many of us cannot live without our caffeine fixes. But just how much would you be willing to pay for the perfect cup of coffee?

Dear readers, some of you have been to Italy, on a short trip, or a long one, or perhaps a semester at uni. You may have WOOFed your way around Umbria, or undertaken an Artist Residency in Rome. At some stage you certainly came to the stark realisation that Spaghetti Bolognese is not a thing.

Elise Valmorbida’s critically acclaimed novel The Madonna of the Mountains is winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction 2019. It has been shortlisted for further literary prizes and translated into several languages.

Sardinian Cultural Association (SCA) made a contribution of $6,000 per annum to Marcellin College to enable a 16 year old Convitto Nazionale Student studying English and travel to Melbourne for a period of 6 weeks. During his stay the student will be studying at Marcellin College and be hosted by the family of the student who has been selected to travel to Cagliari.

The Italian people have had a huge effect on the United States, from food to film and everything in between. People of Italian ancestry, or Italian Americans, make up the fifth-largest self-identified ethnic group in the United States and between 1820 and 2004, almost 5.5 million Italians immigrated to the United States.

Sassy.x is a highly successful fusion-type restaurant. Modern and funky but still steeped in traditional Italian culinary traditions.

Around a week ago, in the main space of the Italian Cultural Institute, I was sitting in the audience amongst friends, university lecturers, guests and invitees, including the newly appointed Ambassador, and there in front of me was a 17 year old boy with no Italian background, performing a main role in a farce by Dario Fo. Listening to his fluent Italian, and noticing his confidence and well-rehearsed comic timing, I realised that Italian language and culture in Australia is cherished, and its dissemination is quite successful. The state of Italian culture in Australia is healthy. (Photo: Laura Napolitano - Director of the Italian Institute of Culture in Melbourne)

The Fairbridge Festival, held in May this year, took on a special Italian theme. Folk legend Riccardo Tesi and the superb Banditaliana enchanted audiences with their contemporary, virtuosic take on music from the oral tradition in central and northern Italy. (Above: Fairbridge Festival closing parade - Photo: David LeMay)

A stones throw from the centre of Melbourne lies a suburb called Carlton. It is home to the Museo Italiano, CO.AS.IT, the Dante Alighieri Society and the Italian Historical Society. The bars and cafes on popular Lygon Street are diverse, some are historical establishments, with touters thrusting menus into the hands of passers by, the love projects of post-war migrants. (Above: John Hajek - Professor of Italian Studies at the University of Melbourne - Photo: David Hannah)

At Brunswick South Primary school, the children are not ‘taught’ Italian, they simply use the language to learn 50% of their curriculum. The school has been running a bilingual program since 2017. One unseasonably cold, windy spring morning, we took the opportunity to get to know some of these students, Melbourne’s future Italian speakers, and find out some of their favourite things about Italy, Melbourne, and life.

The Jewish International Film Festival is in full swing and it is a fascinating time of the year for avid cinemagoers looking for films outside the mainstream, that challenge and engage all at once. Screening at a number of cinemas nationwide, the festival attracts a culturally and ethnically diverse audience and 60 films from 23 countries are classified according to 3 main categories (Feature, Series, and Documentary), thus appealing to a wide range of tastes. In Melbourne (as in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra) the festival this year runs from 23 October to 21 November and is hosted by the Classic Cinemas Elsternwick, the Lido Cinemas Hawthorn, and the Cameo Cinemas in Belgrave.

Have you ever dreamed of buying a home in an Italian village? What about owning an investment holiday villa in the beachside towns on the southern coast? Where would one even start to begin to investigate how to go about purchasing and owning a slice of Italian property? It can seem complicated or frighteningly fraught with financial uncertainty - or is it?

For the first time in Melbourne, Mimmo Cavallaro brings us his dynamic and passionate modern mix of traditional Calabrian/Italian folk music in this one night only event! The folk music master will perform in Adelaide,Shepparton, Melbourne, Sydney and Wollongong

Wandering through the streets of an Italian city, a contemporary visitor may occasionally come upon small golden tiles, set into the pavement and each inscribed with a name and several dates and details (‘arrested on’ and ‘deported from’) explaining the fate of someone who once lived in the given location. (Often the following words include ‘assassinated’ or ‘killed in Auschwitz’). (Photo: Stumbling stones in Turin) - Source: guidatorino.com

Acclaimed Italian filmmaker Mimmo Calopresti, noteworthy for his 1995 drama ‘La seconda volta’ and ‘La parola amore esiste’ (1998), winners of three David Di Donatelli Awards, has excelled also in documentary filmmaking and wants to bring the lives of everyday people to the screen, shedding light on human experiences and stories that concern all of us. (Images from the Opening Night of the Lavazza Italian Film Festival in Melbourne: Palace Cinema Como: 20 September, 201

‘If I could, I would like to end my career sitting in a piazza telling stories and, at the end of my life, weave through the crowd with my coppola in my hand’. This was Andrea Camilleri’s response when asked why, at the age of 93, he had not yet decided to retire.

Italy has again become a country of emigrants. Today, a large number are highly educated people who take their talent abroad in search of better career opportunities and professional benefits. Thirty thousand Italian researchers leave each year, while only three thousand qualified scientists migrate to Italy. In recent years, the media, policymakers and scholars have used the term ‘brain drain’ to describe this phenomenon.

Winner of two Nastro d’Argento awards and one David di Donatello award, Edoardo De Angelis’ dark and sombre Il vizio della speranza (2018) reminds of his narrative and cinematographic style in forerunner Indivisibili (released 2016 and also set in bleak and desolate Castel Volturno in the rough outskirts of Naples). - Image published in the Hollywood Reporter 17 September, 2018 https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/vice-hope-1144004

Lemons carry symbolic importance and become a metaphor for life in Ciro D’Emilio’s sombre but captivating debut feature and coming-of-age story Un giorno all’improvviso (2018), which premiered at the Venice Film Festival the same year as its release. (Image published in Screen Daily: 6 September, 2018 https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/if-life-gives-you-lemons-venice-review/5131972.article)

Feel good movie Bangla, with high audience ratings and awarded a Nastro d’Argento for best comedy in 2019, is light-hearted while at the same time it delivers an important social and political message. (Photo published by the IFFR, 2019 https://iffr.com/en/persons/phaim-bhuiyan)

It is December but the sun is pounding over Rome and transforms a winter’s day into the subtle suggestion of an early Spring. Everything is ready. In Vatican City, thousands of pilgrims are crowding into the Colonnato del Bernini in a kind of Christian apotheosis, full of emotion.