One foot in Italy One foot in America: I am an Italian American

 

As an Italian American do you feel that you have one foot in America and one in Italia?

The Italian American dilemma...

Street Parking!

When I tell people in Italy I am Italian American,  they seem  'surprised' and not sure what that means.    I wonder if Italians really think Italian Americans are true  Italian?   Certainly not the same as a native Italian.

What about Italians who immigrated to the USA.   Did they consider themselves Italian Americans?Perhaps this is how an immigrant feels when they arrive at their new destination.  But when I arrive in Italy every year, I feel as if I have come Home to Italy.


Cafe in Piazza San Marco, Venice

I often wonder what traditions are the same in Italy that  families observed in America.   So I started to ask Italian Americans what traditions do they remember.

Did it matter where you lived in the USA?
     Were traditions practiced in the northeast differ from those in the Midwest or West coast? 

Where is your family from?
What impact did the region your family immigrated from have on  family traditions.   Did Venetians observe the same holidays as Sicilians?

Cloister in Capri

Since many first generations Italians are no longer with us I  have a sense of urgency to find the answers to these questions and many more.

So I am asking all my fellow Italian Americans to take a few minutes and tell me what  you remember about living as an Italian American?

   Topics can included of course food, holidays, did you speak Italian at home.   More interesting topics have been mentioned in the few interviews I have done:   making wine in the basement, the entire family meeting for Sunday dinner, at weddings the bride carried a bag for 'donations',  having a family garden,  viewings for funerals held at home, multi generational households.

 The list goes on and on.    And a few surprises popped up on my first few interviews:   relatives who had been 'away at college' really meant they had been incarcerated!

A memory I still have is of a  favorite aunt who had beautiful furniture covered with custom fitted plastic covers and how in the summer your legs stuck to the couch!        Italian may have  been spoken at home only among the adults almost as a secret language or when they wanted to swear in front of children.

View over Sorrento marina

Food was an ongoing theme.   And lots of food.   Holidays especially featured both Italian foods and an 'American roast or turkey'.   There is an ongoing battle over if you called it sauce or gravy.      Parts of NYC insist it was 'gravy'. But across the river in NJ it was always sauce. And I can remember my mother starting the sauce on Saturday and cooking it all day for Sunday's dinner. 

Loyalty to the family and your family responsibilities came first.     Respect for your grandparents who were the head of the family.    Secrecy. .......

Field Trip

Tell me where your family immigrated from so we can compare practices.   I want to explore
superstitions, folk stories, religious practices, patron saints  and even games you played.  I remember visiting Pepe in Sorrento on his 'naming day'.  I thought this was his birthday but it was explained that you have a patron saint that you were named for and celebrated that day.     During the short visit at his office  a number of friends came in to congratulate him on this day.....I thought I was part of a soprano episode.

Will anyone be able to tell me more about  the courageous Italians who helped allied soldiers who found themselves behind enemy lines.      Or the USA  Italian internment camps during WWII.

There is so much to learn and your comments will send me in search of answers.   I return to Italia in October and will search for some of the answers.



If you would like the complete survey when it is published, send me an email:  http:www.hometoitaly.com   under comments
 

Sunday with Yle in Lecce, Puglia: the Chocolate Festival!

This Sunday we find Yle at the chocolate festival in Lecce!   Almost everyone loves chocolate and now you can experience the trill through Yle's description.
You can almost smell and taste the wonderful treasures she finds at the festival....

Our guide, Yle

What would life look like without chocolate?

By Ylenia Sambati
 
This will be a very special Sunday! Since my awaking I knew that tons of chocolate were right calling me in the main “Piazza” (Square) of Lecce, my beautiful baroque city. An event totally devoted to chocolate in any possible shape and made by artisans from all around Italy. I was excited like a little girl..chocolate is a very important part of my daily food program..every night after dinner – Love it! – I have a little “quadratino” of dark chocolate so as you can imagine this event in my town meant a lot of joy and caloric photos to me              

                                                                                                           Before heading  to the

Piazza, I went to the Sunday farmer market to shop for some fresh vegetables (and balance a good salad with a big chocolate dessert). There are several Sunday farmer markets actually, it’s always up to you were to shop: a couple are in town and some others by the ocean. This time I decided to visit the one in town because I did not want to waste time and go to the choco market as soon as possible.

On my way to the Piazza, I enjoyed another delicious break with a cappuccino and a “cornetto”, just like the typical Italian breakfast usually is. It is always difficult to choose a bar for breakfast in Italy because most of the time they display irresistible things!

Because spring is not that far – despite the snow in Italy – my attention was captured by some lovely bikes on sale. We have wonderful itineraries in the countryside or by the ocean – although a bike ride amidst the Leccese baroque stone is a must - and a bike ride is always a good idea to stay fit, breath some uncontaminated air and take the chance to stop in little coloured villages. I will probably contact the number on the sign and ask the price of this old bike.

I walked to the Piazza and what my eyes saw was unbelievable: any shape and kind of chocolate with plenty of artisans asking all the same question:
          “would you like to taste?"  

My first (of many) stops was in front of a giant Rocher, something the kind boy cut like parmesan although it was chocolate.
Probably my enthusiasm was contagious on that shape because several people stopped and even without tasting it they just bought!
Next to me there were some Chinese tourists that I supposed were going to take hundreds of pictures, but I can honestly promise, they were more interested in tasting than anything else (so did I).

Romantic chocolate is another good excuse to eat it and choco hearts were actually all around me.  Legend has that Valentine’s Day is for lovers and I always suggest to my friends to offer chocolate rather than flowers.

Italian Nonna Wanted to Rent!

I need a Grandmother in Italy!  As an Italian American I had a glimpse of daily Italian life in an American contex. Visiting my grandmother during summers, the cousins would learn to paly cannasta. One day Nonna showed us how to make one type of pasta. .    But since I have lived in Italy twice for periods longer than a vacation, I realize I need a nonna.


Italians are wonderful, gracious, kind and will help you whenever they can.  But I noticed as an outsider in a town of 17,000  I was not accepted.  Everyone planned their days around their family.  Dinner was at home with the family. Someone without a family did not fit in.

So I need to rent a Nonna.   Do you have anyone you think would be interested in applying for the job?

I would walk Nonna to the market to select fresh fruit and veggies.  I would learn how to pick the best zucchini, how to chat with the vendors at the cheese stand and ask about their families.   I would carry the shopping bag back to Nonna's apt; Then we would cook!   I would learn how to make the perfect pasta, how the vietello should be cooked and so much more.

And Nonna would tell me stories of life in Italy when she was young.  I would know about the festivals and what special foods they had for easter and for Christmas.    Oh I NEED A NONNA. 

Please apply.

Artist in Sorrento

 While traveling to visit my family's village in Petina Italy this October, I stopped in Sorrento .  

After spending 3 months there on a sabbatical 2 years ago it was difficult to return. This is a small city with a truly small town heart. I walked all the streets I remembered, noting the stores or businesses that had moved or changed.   In October there were visits by cruise ships and the groups of tourists that visit all the shops in the main area.
I headed to the park at the overlook to see the incredible view That I took for granted on the 89 days I was allowed to live in a perfect city.

While on one of my walks I stopped in at an artist gallery I had seen before. Being on a "sabbatical budget" did not allow me to shop, but this trip I visited Sepe Vetri D'Arte on Via Giuliani, 19. This is one of several east/west streets that will take you to the sea.

I had a wonderful conversation with Yvonne Adriaens the artist/owner of the shop. Besides art, business and Sorento, we spoke about life and how at a "certain age" you finally become free!

You can visit her shop at www.sepeartglass.com. Many of her creations are in the photos attached.

More later on the special items she made me and how I used this to "pay it forward"


The written before about my fascination (have to be careful, I sono stati Told I repeat myself) with the concept of "do we change or effect the lives of the people we meet while traveling or do they only change us?"

The bus in Italy hates me.....

NEVER take the bus!! i have written about riding the bus to Fiuggi with 25 teenagers
I have taken the bus to Fiesole but that was the end of the route and i could not get lost, but i have been left in a small town during the FOUR hour lunch hour because the bus did not run and today I took the BUS from Hell.

i have not done the amalfi coast bus because i understand it is very scary but today i was in Capri
and wanted to see Anna Capri and you must take the bus or go by taxi. the bus was packed and one of the riders pushed me into the stairwell so that he could be more comfortable. As we go up the mountain the bus is within 3 inches of the edge of the road. i tried to tell the driver i wanted to get off but noticed even if i wanted to walk back there were NO sidewalks. buses, cars, motorskooters were all careening up the hill around curves. All i saw was the thousands of feet to the bottom or into the sea.

So i shall keep my vow to NEVER take the bus. This week i shall take the ferry to Salerno.