"My friends and I grew up on Scorsese and Coppola, and we've had all those films about the Italian-American experience," he said.

Casa Belvedere, another landmark in Staten Island related to the Italian-American experience.

Many playwrights took the Italian-American experience as a subject; the comic figure Farfariello, played by Eduardo Migliaccio, was a sketch of the Italian immigrant.

His story shows how 'The Godfather' is actually the bizarro world of the real Italian-American experience.

What makes "Umbertina" stand out is its focus: while other books have been written about the Italian-American experience, they tend to focus on men or the mob.

They are nearly as varied, and they succeed admirably in conveying the feel as well as the facts of Italian-American experience.

There are other reasons we do not have novelists who write of the Italian-American experience.

Jerre Mangione (Mar. 20, 1909 - Aug. 16, 1998) was an American writer and scholar of the Italian-American experience.

"Saturday Night Fever," starring John Travolta, was set in Bensonhurst, solidifying the neighborhood's reputation as a center of the Italian-American experience.

Anna Monardo is an American novelist of the Italian-American experience.