Casa Italia

I'm on my way to Stone Park to experience a little slice of Italy. Hey Pete. Hi Dawn, welcome to Casa Italia. Casa Italia is where you can pray, play and learn all things Italian. We do many different programs. Children's Day Camp, we learn how to sing in Italian, how to cook Italian, how to garden. And we also have our home for all Italian American organizations to host their meetings in different equities. If I'm not Italian but I find it so interesting, this is something that I can participate in. We want everyone to come in, look at our different muse It's just a great place where people learn about the Italian community. It's a place for our children, our grandchildren, our grandparents. This is really about keeping that feeling of Italian culture alive. We have an extensive collection of Italian books. We have a collection of over 6,000 books. They deal with history, they deal with fiction, non-fiction, all variety of subjects. You can really come in here and you can learn about Italian communities and some of the struggles they went through when they first came here. I see things Look at the great Italians in the poster. Mario Andretti, Rocky Marciano, to the best ever. Dawn, I'd And Molto Lietto di Conoscertla. Ron, I mean, he got me when he started saying all those romantic Italian words. I don't know what he said, but I loved it. What should I say back? Grazie. Oh, I You are a founding member of Casa Italia, so why was it important to you to start this? There was a group of us that felt that there was a need for all the organizations to have a home, socialize, and pass on all the traditions to our future generations. And I will send you upstairs to see Father August started the Italian Cultural Center 50 years ago. Thank you for your time, and I'm going to see Father August. Thank you. I know that I'm going to see a replica of St. Peter's Basilica, but you really don't understand how magnificent this is until you come and actually see it. This is so much bigger than I thought it was going to be. Well, just in case you cannot go to Rome, This is the exact replica of St. Peter's Basilica that's in Rome. Exactly. It took about one year to take the exact measurement, and it is done in the right scale, one to one hundred. So it's really the heart of the Christian community. Italian culture lives on right here in Casa Italia in Chicago. I absolutely feel it alive and well in me. I can'thank you enough Father August, and I think I'm going to keep looking around. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. God bless you. Ciao.