Back in 2019 I started a Facebook page called Amici di Orsara with my intention to bring people that have moved away, visited once, or have never been to come back to their roots. The song by Imagine Dragons called “Roots” often plays in my head while working on the page. I often visited Orsara as a kid and continued to, long after my dad passed away.

But it was Christmas of 2019, the last time I visited my late dad’s home town, that it occurred to me that Orsara needed my help. My aunt and uncle spoke of how the winter feels desolate and I remembered how alive I felt running the streets as a kid, without my parents.