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Butler, Pennsylvania, is a long way from Italy. After a vast earthquake destroyed Reggio Calabria on Dec. 28, 1908, Vincenzo Sanzotti decided to leave his home in Italy and find employment elsewhere. American steamship companies advertised free transportation to America for workers needed in the coal mines. Vincenzo left Calabria and arrived in the...

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My parents immigrated from the picturesque town of Isca sullo Ionio in Calabria. In 1964, after completing his two years in the Italian army, my father, Saverio, left Italy to meet up with his father, Domenico, who had already been in the United States. He found work right away in a clothing factory, then eventually in his trade as an auto mechanic...

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The museum was happy to host researcher and photographer Valerio Geraci originally from Palermo, Italy, now residing in Paris, France. Valerio arrived in America and began his travels through the south documenting Italian communities for his book, starting in Little Italy, AR and then from Tontitown he journeyed to Lake Village, AR and onwards out...

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Join us (13028 First Ave. S., Burien WA) for a special guest speaker event at Casa on Monday, June 12, at 6:30pm with Dr. Kathleen Brush. America was created from groups of unwelcome immigrants persecuted in Europe. Italians were the last group of America’s European immigrants. Padrone and the arrival of millions of Italian immigrants, Italian-Amer...

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Sicily is not situated in the south of Italy, as you might believe, nor is it at the farthest reaches of Europe. Sicily is the heart of the Mediterranean. It has been for centuries, and it could be again if we change our way of thinking. It could be a place where the sea is not the border between tourists’ dreamy beaches and migrants’ broken dreams...

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Chances are you’ve seen the stories promising that you can move to Italy, live la Dolce Vita, and get paid to do it. Thanks to incentivized moves, ex-pats have been reviving depopulated villages across Italy, living amid sheep-grazing fields, olive groves, and charming hamlets. Whether lured by the promise of cheap rentals, not paying property taxe...

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The second book in my New England pottery book series, The Moses B. Paige Company: The Last of the Peabody Potteries (published by Historic Beverly, 2020), told the story of Moses Paige (1847/48-1941), who was born in Weare, N.H., before he moved to Winthrop, Maine, for school, around the age of ten. Once he reached adulthood, Paige became a farmer...

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Many Italians flee from desolate, poor rural areas in search of a brighter future elsewhere – but one retired, well-off London couple in their 60s has made the opposite move. In 2012, Keith and Sandy Webster permanently ditched the expensive English capital to live the dolce vita dream in a depopulated southern Italian village in the Basilicata reg...

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Rosario and Theresa Napoli emigrated from Naples, Italy, and the Calimeri and Franchina families left Messina, Italy, to start a new life in America. Like many brave souls, “they simply sought a better life” (Alano). The Napolis raised three children, Alfred (Fred), Ida and James (Jim). Anthony Calimeri and Josephine Franchina met in 1917 and were...

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Famiglia is everything! Like so many other Italian American descendants’ it was time to gather, reminisce, and celebrate our Italian roots. The opportunity to gather, reconnect, share and pass along family history is what a reunion is all about and to do so across multiple generations/family lines makes for a memorable event. On April 29, 2023 a “B...

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