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by Adriana Albi Davies, Ph.D.
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It is through these seeds, that, ultimately, Italian became a part of the program of studies for the Alberta curriculum. Parents, such as Lina
Urso, lobbied for an Italian language program. In 1971, Tony Falcone and
Tony Caria got materials from the Government of Ontario and Tony Caria introduced Italian at the grade 7 level at Sacred Heart School and also used some of the Dante materials. In 1973, Tony Caria introduced it at Archbishop O'Leary;
in 1974, Tony Petrone introduced it at St. Joseph's High School;
in 1975 Carmelo Rago was to succeed him at Sacred heart.
These schools all had a significant student population with
Italian ancestry. But for the program to survive and
flourish, it needed to appeal to other students.
In 1976, Manuel DaCosta, who was working for the Secretary of State's
office in Edmonton, got them a $7,500 grant to create a workbook.
The work was taken on by Tony Caria as the administrator and Tony Falcone as the language
teacher. In 1982, a proposal was sent to the Edmonton Catholic School Board to move the program from "a system-based option to a provincially recognized core language option." Tony Falcone and Tony Caria were then given 15 days off work by Ed Levasseur to work on the curriculum, which was
piloted in 1983. Edmonton Catholic then sold it to Calgary Catholic. A province-wide committee was created by Alberta Education and a provincially-accepted program
followed, based on the original curriculum developed in 1994. In 1997, the Department of Education assigned the revision to Calgary teachers.
Having Italian studies at the University of Alberta and later at the University of Calgary was an important milestone. Dr. Enrico Mussachio came from Italy in 1962 to teach the first Italian courses at the
University of Alberta. The majority of his first students were drawn from the community. The program grew beyond language courses to include Italian literature and culture.
On Dr. Mussachio's retirement, Dr. Massimo Verdicchio has headed the program
assisted by Dr. William Anselmi. Dr. William Anselmi is
Associate Professor. The program also has linkages to Italy through the program at Ortona that is an outreach program of the University of Alberta.
 Established by Dr. Elena Fracchia of the History Department (formerly Classics), it has been gaining visibility and appeal. She and her husband Dr. Massimo Gualtieri were also responsible for popular archaeological digs, begun in the early 1980s at Rocca Gloriosa and other sites. It was also their dream to bring a major archaeological exhibit to the Provincial Museum of Alberta. This
came to fruition (without their involvement) in October, 2002 when
Ancient Rome opened, curated by Joel Christianson.
Italian community influence has sometimes been startling, no more so than in the issue of
Albertans being able to make home-made wine.
Alberta legislation prohibited this but did not stop Italians from making wine.
So long as the police did not know, it was considered to be all
right since the wine was not for sale. However, on occasion, old rivalries prompted anonymous calls to the police who then had to act on the information. Parallel occurrences happened in Calgary and Edmonton. Antonella Fanella notes:
Late one night in 1964, some 17 families in Bridgeland were raided by the
RCMP, who smashed demijohns filled with wine, took away wine-making equipment, and fined each family $100. Other families, fearful of being arrested, drained their wine supply into the sewer.
Anger over the raids created a strong sense of community cohesion. Alberto Romano and Elia Martina, along with a few others, hired a lawyer. Through petitions and various appeals to the public, they successfully lobbied the provincial government to allow winemaking at home. In 1967, a new law was passed that permits families to produce 25 gallons of wine for every person over the legal drinking age. 1
Parallel
 events happened in Edmonton, though not a raid as large as in Calgary. Even within the Italian community, the Calgary/Edmonton rivalry is a powerful force. However, with respect to winemaking, a truce was declared.
In 1964, a committee was struck involving Tony Falcone,
Frank Spinelli, and Lorenzo Bagnariol from Edmonton and Alberto Romano and
Elia Martina from Calgary.
 They obtained signatures on a petition and asserted that the wine was not for sale but for their own use. They succeeded in changing the legislation and, by the mid-1980s, there was a boom in wine-making in
both cities. More than 30-50,000 cases of grapes are sold annually by
Edmonton's Italian Centre Shop. Today, winemaking is a common pursuit and many specialty stores have sprung up to support it; however, the Italian Centre Shop still sells the majority of grapes and materials required.
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