Their names might not be familiar, but their stories will likely feel so. In the end, all stories resemble one another – even in their differences – because they belong to us. They transcend time, and anyone who shares their own story may realize how much it echoes those of others.

Take Nina Siciliana, for instance. Around 1240, she was a poet and one of the earliest writers to use what we now call the Italian language. She wrote in the vernacular and is even cited by the Accademia della Crusca. Very little is known about her, and some even question whether she existed at all.