The Italian Radio Hour

This week on The Italian Radio Hour - Welcome to a special edition of The Italian Radio Hour, presented in collaboration with Istituto Mondo Italiano in celebration of the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World. This year, we invite you to travel with us beyond the well-trodden tourist paths and into the heart of ancient Italian food traditions—those flavors, stories, and techniques that many first-...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour : PUGLIA, a culinary journey through the land, the ingredients, and the people with Flavia Giordano. We are traveling to Italy’s sun-drenched heel — la Puglia! — a land of whitewashed villages, olive groves, colorful markets, and centuries-old culinary traditions. Joining me is Flavia Giordano, tour guide, food educator, founder of Spaghetti ABC, and author of P...

Today on The Italian Radio Hour , we step into a trulyinnovative corner of the culinary world—one where tradition meets transformation. Our guest is Tara Punzone , acclaimed chef, owner of the first 100% plant-based Italian restaurant in the United States Pura Vita, and author of the vibrant cookbook Vegana Italiana . Born and raised in a lively Italian family in Brooklyn, Taragrew up surrounded b...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour - Today, we have a very special episode where history, family, and the sweet traditions of Italian pastry come together. We are joined by Robert Zerilli, whose family founded the iconic Veniero’s Pasticceria in New York — a beloved institution for over a century. Alongside him is Germana Valentini, an award-winning Italian journalist and author, who has chronicl...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour: ABRUZZESE is a language, not a dialect What if you could finally say that what your grandparents from Abruzzo spoke wasn’t a dialect, but a language? How did the Abruzzese language develop, and what makes it unique? In this episode, I chat with Prof. Roberta D'Alessandro, Chair of Linguistics, Syntax and Language Variation, and Head of the Linguistics Divis...

Did you know that Triora is the village of witches? That Pacentro is the birthplace of Madonna's grandparents? That Spello hosts a yearly "infiorata"? This week on The Italian Radio Hour - 🎙️ Join us for an enchanting journey through Italy’s hidden gems with Fiorello Primi, President of I Borghi più Belli d’Italia. From mountain hamlets to coastal villages and centuries-old tradition...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour - I am delighted to welcome Gabriel Zuchtriegel, Director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. Born in Germany, Dr. Zuchtriegel is one of the youngest ever to hold such a prestigious position in the world of archaeology. His work has breathed new life into Pompeii, one of the most extraordinary windows into the ancient world. His recent book, The Buried City—U...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour - Today we’re diving into one of my favorite topics: what it really means to pack up your life, cross the ocean, and start fresh in a new country. For some, it’s chasing a dream, for others it’s a leap of faith — but for everyone, it’s life-changing. Joining me today are two wonderful guests whose stories beautifully mirror one another in different ways. First,...

Today, I am very excited to welcome back The Italian Radio Hour Katie Parla. Her passport might say “Born in the USA” but her soul belongs to Rome. No one knows Rome better inside and out as a food er, culinary guide, and bestselling author, Katie has spent the last twenty years eating, researching, and, let’s be honest, obsessing over Rome’s food culture. Her brand-new book, ROME: An Ode to Rome’...

Today, I have the great pleasure of welcoming AntonioScasserra , Director of the MUVES – Museo delle Vestimenta inCampobasso, Molise. Unlike most museums, MUVES is not housed in an officialinstitution, but rather within the private residence of Antonio and his wife—atrue labor of love and preservation. The museum safeguards an extraordinary collection of traditional dresses,antique photographs, je...

Think you know Italians? Michelle Darren—actress, director, acting coach, and the creative force behind The Italians . Born to a Milanese mother and raised between cultures, Michelle has lived in New York and brings a unique lens to stories of identity, family,and what it means to be Italian and Italian American. She not only directed but also starred in The Italians , blending personal inspiratio...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour: Isabella Dalla Ragione, known as Italy’s “Fruit Detective,” has spent her life uncovering forgotten varieties of pears,apples, figs, and cherries—sometimes by reading the brushstrokes of Renaissance paintings as botanical clues. Through her foundation Archeologia Arborea ,she has revived hundreds of ancient fruit trees, safeguarding biodiversity and cultural me...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour - Today, I am joined by award-winning filmmaker Peter Miller, whose work has consistently brought stories of cultural icons, history, and the human spirit to the screen. In his documentaries from Sacco & Vanzetti, to Frank Lloyd Wright to the most recent “Marcella”, Peter often spotlights subjects whose lives resonate far beyond their own fields. In his late...

BUON FERRAGOSTO a tutti from The Italian Radio Hour! In this week's episode, The Italian Garden Project and FIG FEST (Sept 14th) with Mary Menniti. Today, I’m especially excited to welcome someone I not only admire for her work but also know personally — Mary Menniti, the founder of The Italian Garden Project. Mary has made it her mission to celebrate and preserve the traditions of Italian-Ame...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour, we welcome Carmen Amato—an award-winning author whose gripping Galliano Club series brings the gritty world of Italian-American life during Prohibition roaring back to life. Carmen grew up in Rome, New York, surrounded by stories—especially those told by her grandfather, a deputy sheriff whose tales could rival any crime novel. But Carmen’s own journey is just...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour - What if learning a new language didn’t have to be a struggle? What if your brain already knew how to learn—if only someone could show you how to unlock it? Today, I am joined by Elisabetta Maccani, a neurolanguage coach from Trento, Italy, who blends neuroscience, coaching, and education to transform how we learn languages. Seen our common experience helping p...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour: LivTours: Let your Dreams begin! Planning a trip to Italy? Travelling with children? Want a memorable trip? Concerned about overturism? This and much more in our conversation with Kristin Karstensdotter, co-founder of Liv Tours, the boutique tour company she launched in Rome with her husband, Angelo Carotenuto. Originally from the Nordic countries, Kristin’s jo...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour - Few names evoke the enchantment of Italy quite like Frances Mayes. The best-selling author of Under the Tuscan Sun invited us all into her life in Cortona, a town she helped put on the literary map. Through her lyrical prose, we’ve wandered olive groves, savored local feasts, and rediscovered the meaning of home and belonging. Today, we welcome Frances back—no...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour: Women of the Mafia with Prof. Felia Allum (University of Bath). Over the last twenty-five years, there has been a growing debate about the role of women in Italian Mafias. Prof. Allum's research challenges traditional narratives that portray mafia women solely as passive figures or victims. Instead, she explores their active roles within criminal organizati...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour - Today, we’re taking you to the rolling hills of Oltrepò Pavese—an under-the-radar wine region in northern Italy that’s quietly producing some of the country’s most elegant Pinot Noir and sparkling wines. And who better to take us there than Francesca Seralvo—a woman who quite literally grew up among the vines. Francesca is the third generation behind Tenuta Ma...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour: Behind the scenes of "C'e' ancora domani" - In conversation with Yonv Joseph. I'm so excited for today’s conversation with our multitalented guest Yonv Joseph. You may recognize him as the American soldier in "C’è ancora domani", alongside Paola Cortellesi. In postwar Rome, Delia, a working-class woman dreams of a better future f...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour - Alessia Discovers a Spider Web. When Storytime Dances the Italian Tarantella with Anna Harsh and Alessandra Aozora. Join me in welcoming two incredibly talented women whose collaboration brings together dance, storytelling, and visual art in a beautiful way. Anna Harsh is the founder of Allegro Dance Company, known for promoting and preserving Italian folk tra...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour - Recently, I had the pleasure to spend time in Bari and have a one-on-one mini orecchiette class with the one and only Nunzia, known to the world as the Queen of Orecchiette. A true icon of Bari Vecchia, Nunzia, with her expert hands and welcoming smile, has become a living symbol of Apulian culinary traditions. Her working station outside her home under Arco B...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour - In the 1950s, a New York radio station created ‘La grande famiglia’, a program for Italian Americans sponsored by a Progresso tomato company. The mechanism was simple, but ingenious: in exchange for ten labels as proof of purchase, a correspondent would go and record the voices of relatives in Italy. In a world without a telephone, the thirteen seasons of the...

This week on The Italian Radio Hour - "Only in America could the son of an uneducated carpenter receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine". This is how Dr. Louis Ignarro, Nobel Prize Laureate for his research on Nitric Oxide premises his interview when asked if anyone is his family was a scientist, doctor, a pharmacist or else. On Oct 12, 1998 at noon, while boarding a plane from NY to go to N...