Category Archives: Sundays at the Center

November-December Newsletter

The Mosaico November-December Newsletter is available. Click here to review and print the current newsletter. For past newsletters and instructions on printing the newsletter, go to the Newsletter page.  Upcoming events described in the Mosaico.

  • November 17  – Thanksgiving Dinner Meeting at St. Rose Parrish Hall
  • November 30 – Sunday at the Center Movie – Fernando and Carolina” 
  • December 19 –  Christmas Dinner Meeting at St. Rose Parrish Hall
  • December 6 – Travel Seminar at Italian Cultural Center
  • December 28 –  Sunday at the Center Movie – Roman Holiday
  • January 10 – Crab Feed at St. Rose Parish Hall
  • January 17 – Painting Italy Workshop at the Cultural Center

September-October Newsletter

The Mosaico September-October Newsletter is available. Click here to review and print the current newsletter. For past newsletters and instructions on printing the newsletter, go to the Newsletter page.  Upcoming events described in the Mosaico.

  • September 11 – Italian Class for Travelers at the Center 
  • September 15  – Monthly Dinner at St. Rose Church – Celebrating the Region of Sicily
  • September 28 – Sunday at the Center Movie – Towards Evening 
  • October 12 – Italian Rootstock Festival at Santa Rosa Vinters Square
  • October 17 – NBICF 30th Anniversary Dinner at St. Rose Church – History program, musical entertainment and a special menu celebrating the Region of Liguria.
  • October 26 –  Sunday at the Center Movie – City Island

July-August Newsletter

The Mosaico July-August Newsletter is available. Click here to review and print the current newsletter. For past newsletters and instructions on printing the newsletter, go to the Newsletter page. Upcoming events described in the Mosaico.

  • July 12 – Pittura Italia – Painting Italy Workshop at the Cultural Center
  • July 16  – Pizza e Birra Party at the Cultural Center
  • July 27 – Sunday at the Center – Movie: La Grande Bellezza
  • August 1 – Italian Heritage Night at the Oakland A’s Game
  • August 10 – Winemaker Dinner at the new Rosso’s Rosticceria
  • August 23 –  Rummage Sale at the Cultural Center
  • August 31 – Sunday at the Center – Movie: I Love You to Death

Afternoon in Italy’s Gardens

AN AFTERNOON IN ITALYʼS GARDENS – Sunday, May 18, 2-4 PM

Come be inspired and learn about classic Italian garden design, history, and ideas for your own garden with Cathy Edger, an active member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD). Sheʼll be sharing with us her extensive slide collection of these amazing gardens. Visions of large potted citrus and the limonaia, tunnels of shrubs, dramatic double staircases, sunken gardens, theatrical gardens and more have all stood the test of time.

Garden near Lake Como

Garden near Lake Como

In 2009 Cathy, a former park ranger, along with her 92 year old mother-in-law and 20 fellow members of the APLD visited various villa gardens in Italy. For two weeks they traveled from Lake Como through Tuscany stopping to see gardens from the early Renaissance in the 15th century through the Romantic period of the 19th century. Now you too can visit these gardens with a little armchair traveling with us. A $5 donation is requested for this event. We will have refreshments available for purchase. Please RSVP by calling the NBICF Center at 591-9696. Space is limited so please reserve a seat.

Sundays at the Center – April Movie

Sunday at the Center – 2:00-4:00 pm Italian Cultural Center

Activities at the Center provide interesting Italian movies, operas and lectures. The doors open at 2:00pm and the program begins at 2:30pm. 

April 27, 2014 – Movie – Enchanted April 

Two cloistered, married English women (Josie Lawrence, Miranda Richardson) impulsively rent an Italian villa and embark upon a vacation without their spouses. They are joined by two other ladies, the high-flown aging widow Joan Plowright, and elegant upper-crust beauty Polly Walker, whom they have never met. Under the spell of an exotic new locaion, the foursome are in for quite a few life-altering experiences, many of them amusing, and not a few very surprising. Impeccably accurate in its recreaion of European manners and mores in the 1920s. Enchanted April is sheer bliss from fade-in to fade-out. In English.

Please call 707-591-9696 to reserve your seat at no charge. 

Sundays at the Center – Movie

Sunday at the Center – 2:00-4:00 pm Italian Cultural Center

Activities at the Center provide interesting Italian movies, operas and lectures. The doors open at 2:00pm and the program begins at 2:30pm. 

March 23, 2014 – Movie – The Spaghetti West documents the film genre referred to as Spaghetti Westerns. 

These movies were made in Italy during the 1950s and ‘60s, where production costs were very cheap and the terrain offered perfectly believable sets. While Sergio Leone became the most well-known director that succeeded in the genre, a number of famous film personalities such as Clint Eastwood and Ennio Morricone established themselves in these Westerns. The film utilizes clips of some of the most famous scenes. In English and Italian.

Please call 707-591-9696 to reserve your seat at no charge. 

Sundays at the Center

Sundays at the Center – Movies, Opera, Lectures

Activities at the Center continue providing interesting Italian movies, operas and lectures. The doors open at 2:00pm and the program begins at 2:30pm. Refreshments will be provided. Please call to reserve your seat at no charge. See the current newsletter for descriptions of these programs:

February 23 – Movie – Golden Door 

Desperate and poor Southern Italian family seeks a way out, and, having heard reports of rivers running in milk and coins falling off of trees, leave their stony rural cottage and buy passage to America. The trip to the boat, aboard the boat, and at Ellis Island is one of wonder and hope and usually very little dialogue. A magical movie that succeeds in illustrating the other, humble, ordinary and tough passage to the new world without mafia dons or violence. The huge disadvantage of illiteracy is beautifully illustrated here, and the risks associated with leaving behind everything. Amazing, touching, real. The customs and rules of early 20th century already seem archaic, even though it was less than 100 years ago.

Activities at the Italian Cultural Center

Sundays at the Center – Movies, Opera, Lectures

Activities at the Center continue providing interesting Italian movies, operas and lectures. The doors open at 2:00pm and the program begins at 2:30pm. Refreshments will be provided. Please call to reserve your seat at no charge. See the current newsletter for descriptions of these programs:

November 24 – Movie – Swept Away with Giancarlo Giannini
December 8 – Opera – Hansel and Gretel
December 29 – Movie – The Red Violin

Italian Conversation Incontro at the Center – See Language page for details.

Book Club

Do you enjoy discusions about Italy and our Italian culture? You are invited to join the monthly book group meetings. The group meets at the Center on the third Thursday of each month at 7:00pm. New members welcome. Call the office for information on current selections, see the current newsletter. 

See the current newsletter, Mosaico Culturale, for more information on these activities.