Welcome to Friday Dolce Vita readers! We just got a container from Italy to restock on some much loved goodies…and we have some fabulous new products for you too! Stay tuned!

Construction continues at the store as we get closer to our goal of opening in the fall. And we are also hard at work improving bugs in our website, and developing a platform to buy our wines online!

But enough about us, here is what has been going on in the Italian world this week.

– CNN tallies the growing death toll of the European migrant crisis, many of which pass through Italy.

– However, on a small positive note, 3,000 migrants were rescued by Italians in the Mediterranean this week.

– Now for some less grim news. The New York times writes about Italian neighbors who built a real-life social network through an online social network. A delightful story of cooperation in a neighborhood that makes us feel all warm and fuzzy about Italian life.

– In the gossip column, Jozef Wesolowski, a papal ambassador and the highest-ranking Catholic official to be put on trial for child abuse and child pornography charges, died in his room early Friday. He was scheduled to be on trial last month, but it was delayed when he fell ill. We guess retribution will come in heaven.

– Via Umbria is interviewed for the travel blog Oliver’s Travels!

– There’s a great deal of public awareness in Italy about celiac disease. All Italian children are tested for it by the age of 6! Italian restaurants are becoming more celiac friendly, NPR reports, because they truly feel pity for those who cannot participate in the most important aspect of Italian culture: eating together. Did you know we carry gluten-free pastas made it Italy right here in the us at Emporio?

– Italy is cracking down on Mafia corruption in Rome. A trial of 59 defendants caught up in the Mafia Capital scandal is due to start on Nov. 5.

Cheers to the week-end!

Ci Vediamo

Via Umbria