As they say in Italy Italians were eating with a knife and fork when the French were still eating each other. The Medici family had to bring their Tuscan cooks up there so they could make something edible.

Italians come to ruin most generally in three ways women gambling and farming. My family chose the slowest one.

And just when we were at the end of our design process there was the news that the Italian government and the U.S. government had signed an agreement to fly the first Italian astronaut on that flight.

I can design a collection in a day and I always do cause I've always got a load of Italians on my back moaning that it's late.

My mother is Italian and my dad's Irish. In my family we're expressive. Nobody holds back.

Our last jam session was this past Christmas. Dad played his harmonica mom sang in English and Italian and I played guitar. I'm so happy that we could share that musical experience for one last time.

People who have not done their research on me do not know that I am European born in Copenhagen Denmark to an Italian father from Napoli and a mother from Alabama who was singing opera and went to Europe met my dad fell in love and then moved back to Rome where I was raised between Rome and Hamburg.

I watched Italia '90 with my Mum and Dad and my brother you know leaping around the house when the penalties were on... It would be great to be part of that to have that kind of impact.

I wanted to be a skinny little ballerina but I was a voluptuous little Italian girl whose dad had meatballs on the table every night.

And we have a little herb garden which survived the winter thanks to global warming. It makes me feel like a cool old Italian housewife that I kept my rosemary alive outside all winter.