On October 18, 2025, Anna Romano Milne hosted the unveiling of a new permanent exhibit at Ottawa’s Centro Storico Italo-Canadese. "Donne Di Ottawa: Ci Siamo Anche Noi!" honours Italian women who have made lasting contributions to Canada’s capital.
“My cooking classes are intuitive. No mixers. No measuring cups. It’s the way your Nonna’s in the small Italian village made their pasta. They understood their environment, the weather, the humidity. I don’t just teach them how to cook. I teach people to understand what they’re doing. I teach them to connect to the ingredients, to the culture behind that recipe,” explains entrepreneur and Italian culture guru Daniela Sfara.
The Queer Italian-Canadian Artists Project is seeking to give visibility to the lived experiences and creative production of Italian-Canadian artists who belong to the LGBTQ+ community. The project brings together writers, performers and visual artists who are exploring what it means to be both queer and Italian-Canadian.
The Italian-Canadian Collective is a new non-profit organization founded by Agata De Santis. Based in Montreal, the Collective’s mission is to create and promote cultural projects for and about the Italian diaspora of Canada. Our first initiative is a year-long Canada-wide survey to better understand today’s Italian-Canadian community.
On Thursday, March 13, 2025, over 260 individuals gathered at a restaurant in Montreal’s east end borough of Rivière-des-Prairies to celebrate being Italian. Nothing else. Nothing more. Conceived by Steve Vecera of Insieme Montreal, La Cena’s fifth edition was bigger than even Vecera himself anticipated. "La Cena is a chance for people to come together, to converse, and to have a great time with other Italians from the community."
“It really started as something fun to do in my spare time. I never expected that I would be doing shows at Place des Arts, at Place Bell, in the U.S.,” explains Ralph Buttino. VMG Entertainment is probably best known for its Italian Bad Boyz of Comedy series. Buttino gambled on a unique concept: a roster of three up-and-coming standup comics of Italian origin in an Italian reception hall. Buffet dinner first, then the entertainment. Target audience: the Italian community of Montreal. It worked.
Despite a crowded calendar of events marking Italian Heritage month, over 200 people gathered at the Columbus Centre in Toronto for an evening of music, poetry, skits and camaraderie. Organized by L'Eco Dei Dialetti, the event celebrated creative voices with a passion for dialect.
In April, the Associazione Molisani di Ottawa hosted a banquet to celebrate a springtime tradition that dates back to the mid-800s, called la Carrese. The successful multigenerational event was a hopeful sign that the fate of this small Italian social club has turned a corner.
A new book created by Montrealers with origins in Molise is bringing together stories of tradition, family and cooking. The book is titled "Dalla valigia alla tavola: A journey through Molisan culinary heritage" and is published by the Federazione delle associazioni molisane del Québec.
For half a century, the St Anthony of Padua Church Choir has been a source of pride for the Italian community in Ottawa. The choir’s inaugural performance took place on Christmas Eve in 1973 and marked the birth of what would become an enduring tradition of dedication and service.
During the long winter months of 19th century Italy, women gathered in rural villages to spin wool, exchange stories, and sing songs. This tradition inspired the creation of the not-for-profit community organization called Ottawa Italian Women’s Filò. Building on the concept of women gathering per filare la lana, this group seeks to preserve and celebrate the thread that binds us from one conversation to the next and from one generation to the next.
Sara was getting older and was feeling restless and thought about leaving the family farm. She was receiving letters from a young man, Corrado, who had immigrated to Toronto from Abruzzi, Italy, in 1954. He was looking for a bride and through a friend discovered that Sara was single. Sara remembers reading his letters and liking his photograph. His dark hair and handsome features stood out. There were other suitors, but she rejected them and yearned for a better life outside of a small town.