As long time fans of Maria Pasquale, we were both so excited to chat with her in this week's episode. Maria is born in Melbourne to Italian parents and grew up with a very strong connection to her Italian heritage. Her connection to Italy is so strong that she decided to move to Rome over 10 years ago where she is now based. She has established herself as an award winning international food and travel journalist, her lifestyle blog HeartRome has readers in over 100 countries. She has also created an Instagram page HeartRome which shares an insiders view of Rome. During this time she has also published 4 cookbooks, these books are more than recipes, they include stories, history and beautiful images. See the link below for more details on Maria's work and to purchase her books.

In our chat Maria told us about her story, her decision to move to Rome and we loved hearing about her most recent book- Mangia: How to eat your way through Italy. We enjoyed our light hearted discussion about the differences between life in Italy and life in Australia including the beach and somehow we even ended up discussing fast food in Italy! It was such a pleasure to chat with Maria and hope to enjoy a gelato with her in Rome someday soon.

HeartRome

We teamed up with content creator Massimo Corrente in this week's episode. Massimo is a proud Italian Australian based in Melbourne and is doing an amazing job and keeping our culture proud and strong for the next generation. He achieves this is fun and light hearted ways such as being crowned the title by Sooshi Mango as 'The Fully Sickest of Them All'. Beyond the silliness and laughs Massimo is completely authentic is his passion for and knowledge about Italian Culture with a strong connection to his family in Italy and an impressive grasp on the language.

We had many laughs in the chat, it felt as though we were chatting with a young cousin. We were left feeling proud and inspired and are looking forward to seeing what adventure is next for Massimo.

For more information follow Massimo on Instagram @masscorrente

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We always love talking about food so we were delighted to be joined by Chef Luca Guiotto in this week’s episode. Luca has spent his entire professional life as Chef, training in Italy where he was born in the Veneto region. His career has taken him all over Italy, next to Switzerland, then to Sydney for a number of years then to Adelaide where he is now based with his family. Luca told us of his experience working as a chef in Italy and how this compares with Switzerland and Australia. We also chatted about how cuisine and the experience of dining out has evolved over the years. Luca told us about his current work which is a very interesting and unique adventure. He has created his own business, Aromi Dining, which has a niche role in the market as a business offering Private Chef Experience, Specialised event catering and consulting. For more information or to get in touch with Luca, see the link for his website: Aromi Dining | Private Pasta Classes, Events & Catering, Consulting | Adelaide, SA

Music featured in this episode is by the incredibly talented Melbourne based musician Michael Cristiano. These tracks are from his recent album 'Mai Finira'

Web: www.michaelcristiano.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themichaelcristiano

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themichaelcristiano

Spotify:⁠ Mai Finirà - Album by Michael Cristiano | Spotify⁠

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/au/artist/michael-cristiano/923321690

We were thrilled to get a chance to chat with Michael Cristiano ahead of the release of his new album 'Mai Finira'

Michael was born and raised in Melbourne to Calabrese immigrants. His talents as a musician were obvious from 6 years of age and Michael describes his father as being influential and supportive on his journey as a musician. Michael has had a long and successful career in the music industry as a performer, a composer and a producer. His most recent work is 'Mai Finira'- an album of original songs with Italian lyrics. As soon as we heard these songs we could immediately feel the passion in Michael's music. In our chat Michael explained to us how he became inspired to create 'Mai Finira'. We were both so interested to hear this story and we have become big fans of his work, especially 'Mai Finira', the Italian lyrics bring something extra special. We are so excited to share this chat and Michael's new album with our listeners. See the links to find out more about Michael and to listen to 'Mai Finira'

Web: www.michaelcristiano.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themichaelcristiano

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themichaelcristiano

Spotify: Mai Finirà - Album by Michael Cristiano | Spotify

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/au/artist/michael-cristiano/923321690

How exciting for us to be joined by a real life Opera star in this episode! Naomi Johns, of Sicilian heritage, is based in Perth and joined us for a chat ahead of her upcoming performance in 'Opera at the Quarry' 14th-16th November at the Quarry Amphitheatre- tickets available via the link: ⁠West Australian Opera - OPERA IN THE QUARRY (waopera.asn.au)⁠

Naomi told us about her connection with her heritage and the Italian language which came from a close bond with her Nonna, we heard how her journey started from a young age and she fascinated us with some information about Opera. Naomi’s passion for Opera is inspiring and it was so interesting for us to hear about this special world, Josie even learned something new at the very end of the episode! To find out more about Naomi listen to the episode and check out the link: ⁠Naomi Johns | Opera Australia

In this episode we were joined again by Station Manager of Radio Italiana 531, our friend Marco Petta.

Marco recently had an amazing experience attending the Melbourne Italian Festa and we loved hearing his stories, especially about 'Turismo delle Radici' which is an organisation which helps to connect Italian Australians with their Italian heritage- check out their Instagram profile for more information.

Another festival coming up soon is the Adelaide Italian Festival- 1st November- 10th November- and we heard some details about what to expect at this festival from Marco. As always it's a great pleasure to chat with Marco about things happening across the country that help keep our connection to our Italian heritage strong.

This time Marco also had some questions for us- 'What is our favourite place to visit in Italy?' and -'These days- what counts as a 'big night'?' Listen to the episode to hear our answers....!

We are joined again by our friend Mauro Daviddi, last time we heard his fascinating personal journey, this time he shared some of his vast knowledge of Italian history in a discussion about Central Italy. This is a part of Italy, historically and geographically that is less well known in popular culture compared to North and South Italy. Mauro's enthusiasm is palpable as he explains the history of Central Italy and describes the influence of Central Italy in the present day. We both learned a lot in this episode and we are sure our listeners will find this discussion very insightful.

We had a lot of laughs in this week’s episode with our guest, stand up comedian Anthony Locascio. Anthony has performed across Australia and internationally over the past couple of years, in our chat he told us about his current show Pappou which is a tribute to his Greek Grandfather.

With Anthony being half Italian and half Greek, we ended up chatting about the different cultures and asked him the question- ‘are Italians and Greeks the same?’ Listen to the episode to hear what Anthony has to say about this!

We had so much fun recording this episode and are looking forward to seeing him perform Pappou later this month. Don’t miss out, see the link for your tickets:

A N T H O N Y L O C A S C I O (@anthony.locash) • Instagram photos and videos