With the step into the 21st century the Australian food landscape has become widely diverse, with this vast nation’s food industry also heavily influenced by foreign values and trends – particularly in the urban areas.

When the world thinks of Italians at lunchtime, most of us picture a long table, a carafe of wine in the centre, multiple courses and a limoncello at the end just to really send us into a deep afternoon sleep. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? But, according to Mauro Sanna from Pausa Pranzo in Preston, the stereotype is outdated. (In the photo Mauro e Diana partners in business and in life)

‍Italians are aware of the uncertainty of their present and future. In fact, 69% of Italian citizens feel insecure thinking about the future, 17.2% feel pessimistic, and only 13.8% see their future as a harbinger of expectations. (Photo Pixabay)

Since the 1500s, the Italians have developed an enviable coffee culture. A culture many other countries also enjoy today.

Italy has stopped. It's on lockdown. Everybody is home. Everything is frozen, stuck in a suspended limbo. Life comes out of the daily dimension to enter a new one, timeless and space-less. The empty streets and piazze are the oneiric dream of 60 million Italians. Every aspect of modern life has been affected in the effort to stem the Coronavirus pandemic.

Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA) and the WA Italian Club have joined together to make a difference by hosting the very first Biggest Ever Blokes’ Lunch (BEBL) in Perth on Friday 3rd April 2020 to support Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA).

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.

Almost every day in Italy, there are stories on the radio of young Italians who left their country and travelled to Australia in search of a better life. Many rarely return, if at all. But we don’t hear as much about the Australians who have chosen to reverse the process and end of up living in Italy permanently.

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

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)

Rosaria Zarro has acted as VMC Commissioner since 2017, when she was first appointed for this role by Minister for Foreign Affairs Robin Scott acting on behalf of the Daniel Andrews Labour government in Victoria.

It seems the wave of Italian migration to Australia, particularly Melbourne, just keeps getting bigger. Postwar migration saw Australia’s first Italians forming small communities around the city of Melbourne, creating “Little Italy” on Lygon street, Carlton. So, it makes sense that Carlton is the location to hold the annual Italian Festa, which unfortunately, draws fewer crowds every year. (Photo- Source freemelbourne.com.au)

Barbecued, stir-fried or roasted, there’s no doubt that Aussies love their meat. Consuming on average nearly 100 kilograms of meat per person per year, Australians are among the top meat consumers worldwide.

Back In 1929, the University of Western Australia (UWA) became the first Australian university to appoint a professor of Italian, Francesco Vanzetti. Vanzetti, from Venice, was a true pioneer for the Italian language in Western Australia. When he reached retirement age, he lobbied for the University to create a full Italian department and refused to retire until his dream was realised. 20 years later, the University finally fulfilled his wishes and he retired at the age of 85.

Committed as we are to fueling the controversy over the Italian ‘decline’ (as defined by the Italian economic newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore), we often forget about the reputation that the Italian system has earned and maintained in various sectors for several decades.

The benefits of bilingual experiences in young children have been researched and documented for years. A plethora of resources exists to support parents and caregivers who are trying to establish a bilingual home for their little ones

From 18 to 24 November, the Embassy of Italy will be hosting the fourth edition of the “Week of the Extraordinary Italian Taste”, an initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation that involves all the Italian institutions abroad.

Miriam La Rosa is a Melbourne University-based curator from Sicily currently involved in the cross-cultural and cross-regional artistic project “Preservation is an act of political warfare. An exchange artist residency between Sicily and Australia”. The Italian promotional, cultural organisation CO.AS.IT is hosting a documentary screening and exhibition opening on 12th November and running until the beginning of 2020. (Photo - from left to right - Kade McDonald, Jesse Gibbs, Miriam La Rosa, Regina Pilawuk Wilson, and Xena Wilson. Mondello beach, Palermo, Sicily. 28 July 2019. Photograph: Timothy Hillier)

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.

The female who’s who of the Italian business community gathered Wednesday evening 23 October for the launch of the Italian Business Women’s Network, hosted at Ferrari Brisbane.

For 10 days only, six artworks created in response to the Holy Shroud of Turin using an ancient technique and colours of Piraccini’s own invention, invite you to embark on a historical, scientific and artistic journey whilst provoking dialogue and contemplation.

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

Ron Howard, the acclaimed director of “Solo: A Star Wars Story” (2018), “The Da Vinci Code” (2006), “A Beautiful Mind” (2005), “Apollo 13” (1995) and many others successful movies is back to the music documentary. Now, with “Pavarotti”, the director has pushed himself in a different, unexplored world: that of Opera.

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

This year it took seven months for humankind to exhaust the natural resources that planet Earth provides in one calendar year. 29th July symbolically marked the date when humanity begins to use the resources of the future and to live on credit.

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.

Brunswick South Primary School, Victoria’s first Italian bilingual school, is a fascinating example of the positive power of Italian language education. I spoke with teachers Ivana D’Aprano, Lucy Curatolo and Nancy Cozzo to better understand the reality, challenges and joys of facilitating an Italian bilingual program. (photo Wide Shut Photography)

Nowadays, online slot games are a million miles away from the original clunky machines that they evolved from. Instead of featuring the classic fruit symbols of old, they are now usually based on hit things in popular culture.

Currently, in Australia, online gambling is limited to a handful of registered sports betting sites, and residents don’t have access to online casinos or poker sites. This is down to the strict tightening of the Interactive Gambling Act in 2017.

Politicians, entrepreneurs and notable members of the Italian community in Western Australia attended the 72nd Italian National Day celebrations last week at the Perth Town Hall.

Homemade lunch at Nonna’s, Italian school on Saturdays, traditions of sauce making season, salami and olive. These are a few of the precious memories each founder and member of VITA share and hold dearly. Although each born in Australia, VITA representatives have Italian background.

The Sardinian Cultural Association (SCA) of Melbourne has just turned 30 years old and is set to achieve further goals in fostering the cultural well-being of the Sardinian immigrants−including their children and grandchildren−and their ties with their original homeland.

With a few exceptions, men continue to monopolize all positions of power. Not just in politics but in all major industries and institutions, including those preserving, managing and displaying art collections. It is a fact that most of the world’s great museums and galleries remain firmly under male control.

West Australians were the first in the country to get an exclusive look at the Italian naval ship FREMM (European Multi-Mission Frigate) ITS Carabiniere. The state of the art vessel, which boasts the turbine power of 60 Formula One cars and has the capacity to generate enough electricity to a city of 12,000 inhabitants; arrived in the Port City of Fremantle on January 25, as the first stop in the navy’s one-month visit to Australia.

On May 11th 2016, the Italian Parliament approved a law giving the green light to civil unions in Italy. On that fragrant spring evening, to celebrate this historic accomplishment, people gathered in front of the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

Carlo Guaia, a third year Bachelor of Arts student at the University of Western Australia, is a staunch believer in the “fair go” spirit of Australia. For a growing number of people such spirit is long dead and gone but not for him who has put it into practice through a community organization he founded late last year, with the aim of bringing Italian and Australian scholars, professionals and students together.

Sophia Loren’s visit to Melbourne as a special guest of “La Dolce Italia” Gala Charity Dinner to raise funds for the Alannah & Madeline Foundation, was but a flickering moment in the long and impressive career of the most famous actress Italian cinema has ever produced.