Welcome to the village where my grandfather grew up!
“Michael! Is that you? Come in and have some espresso!”
Years after my grandfather, Papa, moved away to America, the streets still echo with the sounds of his past. Literally. In 2010, while walking the streets with my family, we heard a yell from a balcony. "Michael! Is that you? Come in and have some espresso!" As it turns out, the one yelling was Bettina, Papa's cousin and last living relative in Serino. At first I thought, what are the chances, but then I remembered that I was in a village in southern Italy. It's just not big enough to miss the five loud Americans walking down the street.
We went upstairs, met her pet birds, and ate lots of homemade bread with chocolate. It made me joyful to think about my Papa growing up in such a small town where the spirit of connectivity and family lives on a powerful way. I thought back to the stories he would tell about growing up there.
Papa lived and worked together with his parents and his six siblings: Giuseppe (Jo), Maria (Mary), Nicolina (Lina), Nicholas (died as a child), Concetta (Connie), and Angelo. The way to make a living was to harvest chestnuts, and boy were there a lot of chestnuts. Chestnut woods filled the rolling hills of Serino. Where they were lacking, more got planted. Today, whenever we eat chestnuts, I think of the Papa. He would complain about having to pay for his expensive, imported post-dinner snack, saying, "I planted those trees!" I can't even imagine the blood, sweat, and tears that went into those trees. Although, I do get a pretty good idea every time he says how women would just go into labor in the middle of the trees and then carry the baby down the mountain.
Papa's parents were Angelo Roberto and Amalia Cianciulli. My great grandparents travelled back and forth from Serino to America many times to get their kids settled before finally moving back to Serino. Only two of the siblings never made it to America, Nicholas and Angelo. Angelo died in a Nazi camp after being taken as a prisoner of war when he refused to surrender. This fact, my Papa never knew. Nicholas died as an infant in Serino. Nicholas and Angelo are buried with their parents in Italy. The rest of the siblings all set up camp near each other in Essex, Connecticut. Giuseppe, Maria, Nicolina, Concetta, and Orazio of the small Italian village became Uncle Jo, Aunt Mary, Aunt Lina, Aunt Connie, and Papa of Ivortyon.