Guest Posting : Becoming an Italian

This is the first of a series of guest postings by Insider’s Italy clients who write about their experiences on trips we have planned for them.  The author, Janet, is from Los Angeles. 

“Over the last 30 years Marjorie Shaw with Insider’s Italy has planned many wonderful trips in Italy for my husband and me.

One trip, in 1997, is especially memorable because it had a profound impact on my life.  My Sicilian grandparents immigrated to the United States in 1914 bringing with them their eldest child, Rosalia, aged two.  In 1918 they died in the flu epidemic, leaving Rosalia and three other children.  The youngest, my mother, was only six months old.  She spent most of her childhood in an orphanage and did not know that she had a brother and two sisters.  Her three siblings located her when she was a teenager and helped to put some pieces of the family puzzle together.

My mother did not inherit any Italian cultural traditions or any knowledge of our family in Italy.  Maybe that is why I was especially interested in finding my roots in Sicily.

Insider’s Italy located my family and planned my first trip there to meet them.  Marjorie coordinated a vivacious translator and guide, Annalisa, who helped us so much.  She spoke English beautifully and really seemed to enjoy the family interactions.  Another notable recommendation from Marjorie !  I think clients should know that Insiders’s Italy arranges for the best guides.  They are experts in their fields and are also excellent company.

When we took our first trip, Marjorie advised me to take family photos.  My Aunt Rosalia’s son George was stationed overseas (I presume Italy) and he at that time visited the family in Sicily.  It must have been in the 1950s.  So I took a photo of George.   My cousin Salvatore recognized him and remembered George’s visit of nearly half a century before.  This was a special moment.

Marjorie planned a personal itinerary of enormous detail, and arranged that we be accompanied by her professional driver, Gustavo.  She booked us into a charming hotel in Rome and arranged for an excellent guide of the Vatican and the Coliseum. My mother and I were the only members of the group who had traveled abroad so it was thrilling to see my family react to the sights in Rome.

Gustavo drove us to Calabria where we took the ferry to Sicily.  This was the first time for any of my family to cross the Straits of Messina and “return” to the island which my grandparents and Aunt Rosalia had left in 1914.  We explored Taormina and area and then Agrigento before venturing off to Santo Stefano Quisquina.

Santo Stefano Quisquina, population 4500, is the town where my grandparents were born and were married.  Being there was an incredible experience and quite emotional.  We stayed with family and they kept us busy the entire time!

We brought back Annalisa, our initial translator, and she and Gustavo were at work from dawn to nightfall translating everything for us.  Everyone loved them both.  We had amazing conversations with our family.

The family took us all around the town of Santo Stefano, to the cemetery where our ancestors are buried, to a cousin’s farm, to a nearby town that had a religious celebration and to a special church with holy relics.  They also hosted an open house and invited all relatives near and far!  It was so interesting to meet them all and to hear their stories.

The women spent all of their time cooking multi-course lunches and dinners, all prepared with great love.  I had never experienced hospitality like that!  They had two large tables set up in the kitchen for dining and were forever preparing more wonderful food in a basement kitchen that they would not let me enter.

I smile when I think of how my Sicilian family ate cookies for breakfast, but nevertheless insisted on providing corn flakes for the Americans.

For the trip back to Rome, Marjorie coordinated a lovely hotel in Amalfi so we could experience one of Italy’s most beautiful places. Marjorie organized a series of special adventures and discoveries, and booked wonderful restaurants.  All along we knew we were in good hands with Gustavo at the wheel, but we were especially glad when we saw how skillfully he drove the van on the winding, narrow roads on the coast.

This most memorable trip ended with a night outside Rome and a very special farewell dinner, coordinated by Marjorie, before our flight home.

How wonderful it was for all of us to get to know our Italian family and to experience our culture —  a culture that previously we had never known.

I left with a sense of great pride knowing the Italian family that is mine.  Marjorie suggested that I might qualify for Italian citizenship so I did the research, made an application, and succeeded in getting it.

I feel that I have closed the circle with my grandparents by becoming an Italian.”