HG loves (not neccesarily in order): Italian food, HG’s brilliant son-in-law, Profesore MR; HG’s beautiful and accomplished (half Italian and bilingual) granddaughters, Ms.A and Ms. S. Add to the list of HG’s Italian loves: Fra’ Mani and O Gelato.
Based in Berkeley, California, Fra’ Mani makes superb, handcrafted Italian cured meats, sausages and salami. 
HG tasted Fra’ Mani’s Salume Rossa yesterday. This is a cooked salami with origins in Bologna that tastes a bit like a cross between mortadella and cured salami with all of the virtues of both.
I also discovered that Whole Foods (in Santa Fe) stocks O Gelato products and happily purchased the mind-blowing O Gelato Salted Butter Caramel. OG is a tiny, Mom and Pop operation in Sante Fe, with one little shop in a mall. But, to gelato lovers its products are worshiped with religious fervor. Glad that a big operation like Whole Foods has discovered this very local company and is giving it a showcase.