"Claudio Bianchi has lived alone for many years on a hillside in Southern Italy's scenic Calabria. Set in his ways and suspicious of outsiders, Claudio has always resisted change, preferring farming and writing poetry. But one chilly morning, as though from a dream, an impossible visitor appears at the farm. When Claudio comes to her aid, an act of kindness throws his world into chaos. Suddenly he must stave off inquisitive onlookers, invasive media, and even more sinister influences"--

The first cookbook from this little-known region of Italy celebrates the richness of the region's landscape and the allure of its cuisine, featuring recipes for easily accessible, fresh-from-the-garden Italian food from a Calabrian native.

Out of Calabria is the story of a privileged Calabrian family that emerged from poverty by a circumstance of war and the unswerving fortitude of one man; and of how the young women of his family refused to bend to the mores and traditions of the times, pitting them against their social order and their own father. Caterina and Concetta Zinzi each rebelled against their famed and highly esteemed father when he attempted to force the traditions of the times upon them, arranging their marriages to men of his choosing, based on dowry and family background. Raised as high spirited and independent women, both daughters sought out the men of their own preference and forced their will upon their controlling father. The doggedness of their pursuits resulted in their decline in social status and their eventual emigration to the United States. Caterina's attraction to a handsome field hand leads her into heated disagreement with her father, who is bent on marrying her to a man of wealth and promise. Moreover, he harbors a secret about the man she loves that would never allow him to be accepted into the Zinzi family. Concetta's man, also of very modest means, is required by his greedy family to marry an elderly rich woman, forcing him into an unhappy and faithless marriage; and, eventually, to a bigamous relationship with Concetta. To escape the influence and outmoded customs of Calabrian society, both women find that they must leave Italy. There, they experience the travails and attainments of Italian immigrants in turn-of-the-century America. It is a story of contradiction, of rebellion by women in a society that presumed their obedience and adherence to tradition. And, it is a story of the enormous love that is possible between a man and woman, when they forsake everything to be together, flouting tradition in the face of disgrace and family disharmony. It is a story from out of the past that is relevant even today. Taken from real life occurrences in the author's ancestral maternal family, it is reminiscent at times of aspects of Melania Mazzucco's Vita and the coarse brutality of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.

This volume of the Documentary History of the Jews in Italy illustrates the history of the Jews in Calabria from the end of the fourth century, where the first archaeological evidence of their presence appears, to 1541.

An effortlessly artful blend of travel book, memoir, and affectionate portrait of a people Calabria is the toe of the boot that is Italy—a rugged peninsula where grapevines and fig and olive trees cling to the mountainsides during the scorching summers while the sea crashes against the cliffs on both coasts. Calabria is also a seedbed of Italian American culture; in North America, more people of Italian heritage trace their roots to Calabria than to almost any other region in Italy. Mark Rotella's Stolen Figs is a marvelous evocation of Calabria and Calabrians, whose way of life is largely untouched by the commerce that has made Tuscany and Umbria into international tourist redoubts. A grandson of Calabrian immigrants, Rotella persuades his father to visit the region for the first time in thirty years; once there, he meets Giuseppe, a postcard photographer who becomes his guide to all things Calabrian. As they travel around the region, Giuseppe initiates Rotella—and the reader—into its secrets: how to make soppressata and 'nduja, where to find hidden chapels and grottoes, and, of course, how to steal a fig without actually committing a crime. Stolen Figs is a model travelogue—at once charming and wise, and full of the earthy and unpretentious sense of life that, now as ever, characterizes Calabria and its people.

An authentic guide to the festive, mouthwatering sweets of Southern Italy, including regional specialties that are virtually unknown in the US, as well as variations on more popular desserts such as cannoli, biscotti, and gelato. As a follow-up to her acclaimed My Calabria, Rosetta Costantino collects 75 favorite desserts from her Southern Italian homeland, including the regions of Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Puglia, and Sicily. These areas have a history of rich traditions and tasty, beautiful desserts, many of them tied to holidays and festivals. For example, in the Cosenza region of Calabria, Christmas means plates piled with grispelle (warm fritters drizzled with local honey) and pitta 'mpigliata (pastries filled with walnuts, raisins, and cinnamon). For the feast of Carnevale, Southern Italians celebrate with bugie ("liars"), sweet fried dough dusted in powdered sugar, meant to tattle on those who sneak off with them by leaving a wispy trail of sugar. With fail-proof recipes and information on the desserts' cultural origins and context, Costantino illuminates the previously unexplored confectionary traditions of this enchanting region.

A child of Italian immigrants and scholar of Italian literature paints an intimate portrait that blends together history and the unusual to show how his 'two Italies' join and clash in unexpected ways.