ItaliAnthony: Private Italian Lessons and Tutoring in Texas

Join us in 10 DAYS for the 5th annual 100 Days of Dante Reading Group starting August 25th!
Over the course of 31 weeks, we will journey through Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso with Dante, ending our journey on Easter Sunday.
Sign up using this link: https://100daysofdante.com/ #

🚨🚨🚨TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE🚨🚨🚨

You can now purchase your tickets to the 2025 DFW Italian Festival! (link in bio 👆)

Single-entry tickets for Saturday and/or Sunday:

Adults (21+): $10

Young Adults/Kids (ages 11-20): $5

Kids 10 & Under: Free

DFW Italian Festival The DFW Italian Festival returns for year 3 with authentic Italian food, wine, live music, and fun for the whole family!

"My family's Italian last name was changed at Ellis Island."

This is something that we Italian Americans are often heard to say, but take a look at this informative piece from the New York Public Library to learn why that is almost certainly not the case.

https://www.nypl.org/.../07/02/name-changes-ellis-island

One local example concerns the "Miller" family of Dallas.

Though we no longer have a Little Italy, the history of early-twentieth-century Dallas is full of Italians who opened mom-and-pop neighborhood grocers.

One of these was the store located on Allen Street and run by the Vito and Frances (Scalise) Miller family. You may be saying, "Miller doesn't sound very Italian!" And you would be right!
According to a Dallasite of Italian origin, the Millers' original last name was Amodio/Amodeo. When Vito's father Castanzio [sic?] Amodio immigrated from Sicily, he couldn't read or write. At immigration, when they asked him his name, they couldn't spell it. So, they asked what he did for a living...and he said he was a "miller". Thus his surname became "Miller."

However, an alternative story with a more prosaic origin is reported by a death notice for the elder Miller, and it states that a foreman at Castanzio's place of employment in Louisiana changed it because he couldn't pronounce the Italian last name.

Is your "American" last name different from the Italian surname of your ancestors?

Tonight at Lamberti’s Ristorante & Wine Bar with the Italian Club of Dallas!

One of the most rewarding things about what I do is the variety of experiences that my work affords. I recently recorded an episode on Dante for “The Pillars” podcast. That episode is released today.

“The Pillars: Jerusalem, Athens, and the Western Mind” tells the story of the prophets, philosophers, and poets who created the West.

"Rabbi Dr. Mitchell Rocklin guides listeners through more than 3,000 years of Western history, offering a coherent, civilizational story of how the West came to be—along with a deepened understanding of the challenges it now faces. Western civilization can only be understood as the product of a transformative and ongoing collision between the great traditions of Jerusalem and Athens—between the religious spirit of the Jews and the philosophical spirit of the Greeks.”

Rabbi Rocklin was a consummate host and knowledgeable interlocutor. I hope you enjoy the episode!

Episode link: https://lnkd.in/gqCsaCZv

Learn more about The Pillars and the Lobel Center here: https://lnkd.in/gtS6SRci

The 3rd Annual DFW Italian Festival is rapidly approaching…

www.dfwitalianfestival.com

Want to improve your Italian and your knowledge of Italian culture, history, and literature?

Join us again for 2025-2026 beginning in August!

If you have joined us in past years, 100 Days of Dante has more to offer.

Every time you read The Divine Comedy, you will gain new insights, especially with the help of our 10-minute Canto videos.

Sign up today for another journey with 100 Days of Dante. Let's read together!

www.100daysofdante.com

When we think "bespoke"—usually an object made for a particular customer—we think objects like suits, clothing.

Due to Anthony's deep and broad experience with Italian language, culture, history, and literature, he offers "bespoke" Italian lessons suited to any need and designed for individuals.

🧑‍💼Are you a business professional who travels and/or works in Italy?

✈️Are you a flight attendant who needs to qualify for a USA-Italy route?

📖Do you want to learn how to read Italian? Translate Italian?

🇮🇹Do you desire to learn about Italian culture alongside an expert?

We will design a "bespoke" suite of lessons JUST for YOU.

What sort of services does "ItaliAnthony" offer?

✅premier-level private lessons based on more than 20-years of experience teaching at the university level
✅tutoring and private lessons for all levels, all ages, and all contexts
✅lessons for travelers
✅lessons for business professionals
✅interpreting
✅translation
✅cultural workshops

Reach out to [email protected] to learn more!

One of our favorite podcasts is the (just-ended) Great Books podcast by John J. Miller. Over a remarkable run of 371 episodes, Miller began each episode by asking his guest--also some of our favorite speakers, writers, teachers--what makes "Such and such" a "great book"?

As one would expect, authors treated in the podcast include Virgil, Homer, Thucydides, Dante (of course!), Douglass, Goethe, Confucius, Ann Frank, Plato, et al. There are also a fair number of Italian authors and works, including the following:

o Umberto Eco’s “Il nome della rosa”
o Carlo Collodi’s “Pinocchio”
o Ludovico Ariosto’s “Orlando Furioso”
o “The Travels of Marco Polo”
o Niccolò Machiavelli's “The Prince”
o Giovanni Boccaccio’s “The Decameron”
o Dante’s “Inferno”
o Dante’s “Purgatorio”
o Dante’s “Paradiso”
o Giorgio Vasari’s “The Lives of the Artists”

Here is an example of the episode on Vasari: https://www.nationalreview.com/.../episode-54-the-lives.../

What other Italian works would you classify as "great books"? We have some ideas! Let us know.

See the full list here:
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-great-books/

🇮🇹 Comic of the Day: a Church-Italian mashup 😁

Italian Comic of the Day:

We had to love this -themed cartoon that a friend sent us from the .

Artist: