Tag archives: Italian
Mother Nature forced the cancellation of a flyover by the Italian Air Force’s answer to the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels – the 63-year-old Frecce Tricolori aerobatics team. The occasion was a Festival Italiano held at the Cabrillo Pavilion marking the first visit of the Los Angeles-based Italian Consul General Raffaella Valentini to our Eden by […]
Maybe you’ve seen everyone’s Facebook and Instagram feeds covered in pictures of this summer’s European travels. Well, mine was no exception as I recently returned from a wine, food, and travel extravaganza in the Lombardy region of Italy. I genuinely believe that wanderlust is a part of my genetic makeup. There’s an unparalleled exhilaration in […]
After nearly 30 years, the mudslide of 2018 put an end to her elegant Trattoria Mollie on Coast Village Road. She opened a new Mollie’s next to the Granada on State Street, but COVID-19 crushed that endeavor too. Armed conflict broke out in the Tigray region of Ethiopia in 2020 and the country is now […]
Fittingly enough, a variety of spaghetti was on the menu when local historian and Noozhawk scribe Erin Graffy spoke to members of the Montecito Bank & Trust’s MClub about our Eden by the Beach’s rich Italian heritage, which started from the Piedmont region in the late 19th century. The influx continued from the Veneto region […]
You do not have to travel to Italy to experience the delicious food that comes from its rolling hills and cobbled streets. Andrea Girardello and Brian Dodero opened Aperitivo at 7 W. Haley St. in October of 2020, inspired by the Italian emphasis on choosing fresh, quality ingredients rather than intricate preparations. The namesake? “Aperitivo” […]
On a personal note, I remember Italian screen legend Gina Lollobrigida, who has died in Rome at the age of 95. I had a delightful dinner with the actress at a boffo bash in Punta del Este, Uruguay, when I flew there from New York to attend a champagne-soaked party for 550 guests hosted by […]
I’ve known Mollie Ahlstrand for more than 30 years. Her high-end Italian restaurant on Coast Village Road was there for more than 25 of those years. But, the fires, the floods, the debris flow, and other disasters took their toll and she moved her place to Santa Barbara three years ago, only to run into […]
Giving Santa Barbarans yet another reason to venture out for wine is Aperitivo, an Italian-inspired wine bar from owner-operators Brian Dodero and Andrea Girardello – two food and beverage veterans who met while working at the Four Seasons Biltmore. Taking its name from the Italian tradition of gathering after work for a pre-dinner drink and […]
Street painting artists have been compared to masochists, in that their hobby of drawing with chalk on the sidewalk has become an obsession, back pain and sore knees ignored in a mission that is exhibited annually on the pavement in front of the Santa Barbara’s Old Mission during the I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival […]
The Italian Cultural Heritage Foundation of Santa Barbara held a beautiful luncheon at La Cumbre Country Club recently to host the honorable Silvia Chiave, Consul General of Italy. Advisory board member Fred Sidon opened with a welcome to the more than 80 people who attended this very special luncheon. Board president Bill Vollero gave the […]
Because I lived in Napoli, Italia, for three years and my son was born there, I have a soft spot for all things Italian. Of course, Don and I said, “yes,” when invited by our Italian friends Dr. Jim Barbabella and Frank and Jean Umanzio to a Ferragosto picnic in lower Manning Park. The group […]
