Our good friend Joseph Sgambelluri AKA The Italian Aussie Cook joined us again for a chat about Italian traditions which are still carried on in Italian Australian families today. These traditions include pig day, sauce day and wine making. We always enjoy having a chat and a laugh with Joseph. Listen to this episode for some inspiration and motivation to carry on your family traditions.

Anthony Cortellazzi is back again for a chat about soccer, this time we are breaking down Italy’s performance in Euro 2024 and asking the question- what went wrong? Was it all Spalletti’s fault? Join us as we break it down game by game and discuss what needs to change for the Italian National team to be competitive in the World Cup 2026.

In this episode Lukas finally got a chance to tell Josie and the listeners about his extensive research into family history. Lukas explains how to access Italian records online and gives some advice on how people can start their own research. Often what is found in this research is surprising, the stories of our ancestors are just waiting to be discovered. Another way of finding answers about family history is DNA testing. As part of this chat Lukas and Josie compare their DNA results as siblings- who is ‘more Italian?’ Hear the answer in this episode!

What a fun time we had recording this episode! We were joined by our new friend Adriana Cefalà, an Italian Australian from country Victoria who is now living in Piemonte, Italy. Adriana is the host of her own podcast, English with an Aussie. We had so much to talk about and no surprise we didn’t get through half of the topics on our list- partly due to the Malocchio caused by Lukas! Listen to the episode to hear how this played out.

What an absolute honour it was to have a chat with an icon of Western Australia, the ‘Spud King Tony Galati. A proud Italian Australian and founder of a chain of successful farmers markets named Spudshed, Tony is famous for his long battle with bureaucracy which ultimately saw a change to laws which greatly benefited local farmers. Tony told us about his experiences as a child born to Sicilian immigrants in the 1960s, the importance of family and keeping traditions alive. He also told us a little bit about his battle with the ‘Spud Board’ and of his desire to fight for what he knew was right. We were lucky to catch Tony for this chat which was recorded the day before he flew to Italy on a trip focused on sourcing Italian grocery items which will be introduced at Spudshed stores in the future. We were so excited to hear about this and we thoroughly enjoyed recording this episode.

We loved chatting with Ada Guglielmino, the host of a local radio show ‘Hashtag Italia Radio’ in this episode. On Radio Fremantle 107.9FM every Thursday 5pm-6pm, the show is spoken in Italian and includes music, news for the local Italian community, art, culture and movies, with guests and interviews from Australia and Italy. The great thing is if you miss the live show you can listen back via the on demand section on the website https://radiofremantle.com.au/shows/hashtag-italia Ada is originally from Piemonte, Italy and moved to Fremantle over 10 years ago. We chatted about her story and how she came to host Hashtag Italia radio.

Italians love the piano accordion, you hear the piano accordion, you hear Italy! So how great is it to know we have a very talented young piano accordion player right here in Perth. We were so happy to have Samuel and his mother Marina join us for a chat. Samuel is just 8 years old and we loved hearing the story of him choosing the learn the piano accordion, just like his Nonno. Josie was thrilled to get a live show in her living room. Samuel’s interest and pride in his Italian heritage is easy to see as he told about his love of cars, gave us a phrase in Italian and told us about how he enjoys both preparing and olives. And don’t forget about Mum- Marina is a long time Italian teacher and we also thoroughly enjoyed hearing about her experiences and her passion for passion on traditions and the language to the next generation.

Biagio Versace, the host of the popular ‘Mindpositivo’ podcast and radio presenter joined us for a chat in this episode. Lukas has discovered we have a connection with Biagio through our shared Calabrese heritage, we thoroughly enjoyed exploring this as well as the importance of keeping our culture alive and the rise of podcasts in the changing world of media.

Our Dad Melo is back on the Italian Australian Podcast!! He was the person who taught us how to play Italian cards when we were kids and it was great to have a chat with him in this episode. He tells us about some of his memories of playing cards with his Dad and relatives. We also discuss the many varieties of Italian cards and how that reflects the regional differences of Italy as a whole. Plus we ask the big question- what is your favourite Italian card game???

It’s a big week for Perth! This Friday AC Milan and Roma play at Optus stadium so we decided this was a great time to have a chat about soccer. For this episode we were joined by our good friend Anthony Cortellazzi, originally from Sydney, he became our neighbour then our friend. He truly has a passion for soccer as a player, coach and spectator and we loved recording this episode with him. We also thank our sponsor for this episode ‘That Little Gelato Cart’ https://www.thatlittlegelatocart.com.au/