We love getting to meet new friends through this podcast and this week we have another to introduce to our listeners- Denise Renzi. Denise is originally from the beautiful city of Modena in Italy and is now based in Bendigo where she is pursuing her dream of becoming a professional boxer. Currently she is an amateur boxer and competes in the Victorian Amateur Boxing League. It was so interesting to hear her story of becoming a boxer, as well as her story of how she came to live in Australia. We also discussed boxing as a sport and how it is strong in the Italian culture. Denise has a big fight coming up this weekend and we wish her all the best. We look forward to catching up with Denise again for another episode in the future. To see more about Denise you can follow her on Instagram via the link below:💎 Denise Renzi Boxer 💎 (@denise_renzi_boxer) • Instagram photos and videos

It's almost Valentine's Day so for this week's episode we caught up with a couple who just love to celebrate this occasion, our Aunty Mimma and Uncle Rolly. Aunty Mimma is our Dad Melo's youngest sister and her husband is our Uncle Rolly. We love their story of an Italian Australian woman marrying an Australian man. It was a lot of fun going listening to the story of how they met, meeting each other's families and how they are still very much in love after more than 25 years of marriage.

We are very close Aunty Mimma and Uncle Rolly, we always have a lot of fun and a lot of laughs when we all get together and this chat was no exception. We know our listeners will enjoy a few laughs while listening to this one.

We love having our friends join us on the podcast, this week we are joined by Laura Cortellazzi. Laura's story is unique and fascinating. Laura immigrated to Australia with her parents at the age of 18, she was born in France to parents of Sicilian heritage however her dad was actually born in Australia before moving back to Italy as a child. Living in France Laura grew up with French as her first language but learned Italian through her family, she later learned English a teenager.

We heard the story of how Laura met her husband Anthony who is a long time family friend of ours, of course we debated which food is better- French or Italian? We also discussed how Laura identifies her heritage and we enjoyed hearing about an Italian family moving to France then to Australia all the while maintaining a strong connection to their Italian heritage.

Our dad Melo joins again on the podcast, this episode is in honour of our Nonni, those who we are still lucky enough to still have with us and those passed. We thought it was good timing as this episode airs a few days after what would have been our Nonno Rocco's 100th birthday and also the birthday of our Nonno Benito, he has also passed.

We heard Melo's memories of the Nonni he had in Australia and of his experience as a Nonno to his three grandchildren. We enjoyed this chat, telling stories and celebrating the special place of Nonni in an Italian Australian family.

Meet the Millimaci's, Joseph and Fiona, a married couple who are very well known within the Perth Italian community. We were lucky to have Joseph as one of our first guests in 2023 and for this chat his lovely wife Fiona joined us as well.

We loved hearing the story of how they met and became friends bonding over mutual friends, a shared Italian heritage and a strong passion and love for languages. The friendship blossomed into a romance, they married, had a family and both have had long fulfilling careers as language teachers.

This was definitely one of our chats that could have gone on for hours. It was so interesting to hear Fiona's story of time spent living in Canada as child before her family ultimately made the decision to return to Australia, she has a very unique experience of living as both an Italian Australian and an Italian Canadian, as our listeners know the Italian community is very strong in Canada.

We look forward to our next catch up with this vibrant couple!!

Our good friend, the incredibly talented Etta D'Elia is back for a chat, we talked about so many things, food of course, the impact of Italian immigration on Australian culture and we were so excited to hear about her new show 'From Naples with love.'

In case you missed our last chat with Etta- episode 23- Etta is a successful Jazz performer, having studied classical music in Italy prior to moving to Australia. Her 2024 show 'Buonasera Signorina was a hit and she is back at Fringe World Perth with her new show 'From Naples with Love' which will bring the audience a celebration of the city of Naples with classic Neapolitan songs reimagined in a Jazz style. And for some extra fun- there is a pre-show demonstration 'From Naples with Cheese' by La Delizia Latticini. The show is family friendly, you can bring your Nonni and your kids! We can't wait to see the show and we are so proud to help promote it, as these are the events that help to keep our Italian culture alive and celebrated in Australia.

The show is 31st January, 1st and 2nd February at the State Theatre Centre of WA Courtyard. To hear more about the show listen to the episode, there is a discount code available for our listeners and to book your ticket follow the link but be quick as it's selling fast!! From Naples... With Love! l State Theatre Centre of WA, Perth

In our first episode of 2025 we bring you a chat with Francesca, the creator of OzItaly, a unique concept which offers Australians the opportunity to experience life in Italy like a local. We have all the details in our chat, OzItaly which began in 2018, is a cultural exchange program where Australians are hosted by an Italian family for a period of 1-3 months. Participants and host families choose each other via a process facilitated by OzItaly. Francesca, a native Italian spent many years living, travelling and working in Australia and her understanding of the two cultures is a big part of what makes the program work so well. Participants must be over 18 years of age and purchase their airfare to Italy, once they arrive all expenses are covered- in return they are asked to speak English with their host family so the family is able to learn and practice speaking with a native English speaker. OzItaly also offers Australians an opportunity to have work experience in Italian schools, alongside a teacher to assist students to learn English. For more information or to apply for the program see the links below for the website and Instagram:

OZITALY – Italy Calling Australia ITALY CALLING AUSTRALIA - cultural exchange programme (@ozitalyofficial) • Instagram photos and videos We loved chatting with Francesca and the opportunity to provide our listeners with this information, we always enjoy hearing experiences of Italians who have travelled to Australia, our chat touched on many topics including food as it wouldn't be an episode of the Italian Australian Podcast if we didn't!!

This is our last episode for 2024 and we have thoroughly enjoyed the journey with our podcast this year. This episode was recorded on Boxing Day in person just us two so there was plenty of time for sibling banter! We chatted about our D’Aqui family Christmas, debated which was the best panettone we tried this season as well as looking ahead to our New Year’s Eve plans and what’s ahead for us in 2025. We are excited for some of the guests we will chat with and are we will to bring our listeners Italian Australian content each week in 2025. We wish everyone a happy and safe end to 2024 and thanks to everyone who has supported us. Buon Anno a Tutti!