I would like to open my second issue as editor of Italica by conveying my best wishes for a restful winter break to our editorial board, publisher, contributors, gracious peer reviewers, and readers. May we enjoy our favorite vacation spots and the company of our beloved ones before the start of a new academic semester, filled with hopes of new achievements.Issue 99.2 includes a variety of thought-provoking articles on literature and language while providing a special focus on the Sicilian writer Giovanni Verga, who died January 27, 1922. I am very proud to share essays authored by Gabriella Alfieri, president of the Fondazione Verga and academician of the Crusca, Andrea Manganaro, vice president of the scientific council of the Fondazione Verga as well as member of Italica's editorial board, and Antonio Di Silvestro, faculty member in the Department of Scienze Umanistiche and director of the Centro di Informatica Umanistica at the University of Catania. The celebrations of the writer Verga, father of the Italian verismo, started January 27, 2022, and will conclude in the month of December 2022 with a conference sponsored by the University of Catania and the Fondazione. Both institutions have planned and implemented together all the scholarly, cultural, and editorial engagements related to the local author, interacting with various other entities, at the national and international level. Among these are the University of Toronto (Canada); Université de Paris 3 – La Sorbonne – Centre Zola (France); Universitad de Salamanca and the Universitad de Sevilla (Spain); and Università Statale di Milano, Università di Pavia, Università di Firenze, Università di Siena, Università per stranieri di Siena, Università di Palermo, Università di Messina, Accademia della Crusca, Centro di Studi Filologici e Linguistici Siciliani di Palermo, and Società di Storia Patria per la Sicilia orientale (Italy). Throughout the year, the Foundation has also been advancing the digital distribution of the writer's work, with the support of the Ministry of Culture. In December 2021, the Sicilian filmmaker Lorenzo Muscoso launched the “Verga 100” event with a series of theatrical, cinematic and musical appointments throughout the Italian and European territory. On January 27, 2022, he launched the official book of the centenary, announced the postage stamp dedicated to the novelist made in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Development, and organized the broadcasting of Jeli il Pastore, Cavalleria Rusticana, and La Lupa. This focus is our humble homage to the unforgettable work of literary luminary Giovanni Verga.Buona lettura!