Some stories of the Texan Italian Monthly will be about other Italian communities that Texan Italians should know about; while other stories will be about Texan Italians individuals, organizations, and companies.
Today’s story is about the Italian community of the beautiful city of San Diego, a city we recently visited for a work trip. While we were there, we hooked up with the wonderful Victor Laruccia, a person very active in the community, who invited us to attend the monthly gathering that happens one Sunday a month at the House of Italy. The House of Italy is a really nice building located at the beautiful Balboa Park, which has been a meeting point for Italians, Italian Americans and Italian enthusiasts since 1935.
I have to say that we were amazed by the warm hospitality we received at House of Italy. Everyone there was extremely nice and made us feel really welcomed. We were also very pleased that many of them had watched our Texan Italian Stories series!! I have to admit I felt a bit like a celebrity. = )
There were different people presenting different things that day. One presentation was about the San Diego Italian Film Festival, an event that is now on its 10th year and has been very important for the community at House of Italy and the entire Italian American community of the United States. It is by far the biggest and most organized film festival focused on Italian films that exists in our country. We met Antonio, the festivals creative director and his right hand, Diana, both some of the most passionate people that we have met. They told us many things about the festival that you can check out in the video.
Another guest speaker that evening was Dr. Joe Pasquale who is a professor at the University of California in San Diego in the Engineering and Computer Science department. He gave an amazing presentation about Roman engineering, and showed the audience how some of the most iconic Roman structures such as the Pantheon and the Colosseum where made. He also explained how the passion and knowledge that Romans had for geometry played a crucial role in the building of structures that are still standing in Italy, some of them for more than 2000 years old!!
All in all it was a great experience and we encourage all Texan Italians to reach out to these guys and to plan on attending the San Diego Italian Film Festival in October. I would like to personally thank all the kind people from the House of Italy and especially Victor Laruccia for inviting us and introducing the Texan Italian Stories to San Diego.
If you are wondering what happened to the subtitles. .. the answer is simple... We really want you to learn Italian!! :)
That means we are making the script available for you download and read. This will allow you to improve your Italian and it is a simple but effective method that we have successfully tried with the ITAL education videos that are implemented in Italian classes at the University of Texas. We highly recommend you try it.
Download the script for only $2,99 here: https://gum.co/gzoYV
Contact us if you have any stories you want to share and feel are important to the Texan Italian community!!!
Music featured in video by Jean de Oliveira