Growing up Italian, I am so lucky to have experienced the craziness of what it is like to come from a very big and loud family. Not only that, but I have learned so much from heritage that it makes me proud to call myself Italian. While being Italian, comes some joys and struggles that define our heritage. Either way, I'm happy to have grown up in a home where the food taste phenomenal, the wine is homemade, and family is everything.
Sunday dinners usually occur at 2:00pm.
My family is not the average family that has lunch and dinner on Sundays.
You know Christmas was about to get real when Nonna brought out the struffoli.
No Christmas is complete without Nonna's struffoli.
This must be laying around your kitchen somewhere. 
Before my dad got all fancy with his coffee machine, this was his original way of making his daily (maybe even more than one a day) espresso.
And you'd get in trouble if you didn't make your father's espresso right after dinner.
Your dad even has his own wine cellar in your basement filled with hundreds of bottles of his homemade wine.
It's extremely convenient to have a wine cellar.
This defines what your end of summer will look like.
Because you know Nonna will definitely be inviting you over to make tomato sauce at the end of August.
You knew about Nutella WAY before it even became popular in America.
And you got made fun of for bringing it to school with Italian bread.
This Saint is hanging up somewhere in your house, along with other statues of Saints.
One of your parents most likely has a name that no one can pronounce.
Donato, need I say more?
And the majority of the women in your family are named Maria
It was a huge deal to bring your significant other around your family for the first time.
I'll never forget how scared I was for my boyfriend to meet my entire family.
There was no such thing as daycare when you were little, there was Nonna.
I was lucky enough to have both of my Nonna's watch me when I was little.
You absolutely hate when non-Italian's try to butcher names of Italian items.
Ri-cot-ta, Moz-za- rella, No-key
You're lucky if you've found a friend who is just as Italian as you are.
I'm so thankful for my college friend who knows my struggles of being Italian.
This is considered a "snack".
Peep the homemade sausage and straight from Italy cheese!
The struggle of having to say "Hello" to every single family member at a family function.
And you've even contemplated skipping over some people at some point.
However, you're happy to come from a big Italian family because without them, life wouldn't be complete
