Prologue

Welcome to my blog - “A Year of Firsts”.  This blog is dedicated to my grandparents, Loretta and Angelo Gentile, and my Mom, Carmela Gentile Miller.  

Angelo Gentile (Grandpop)

Loretta Gentile (Grandmom)

Gentile Wedding
April 30, 1917

Carmela Gentile Miller (Mom)

How did I get to this point in my life - ready to move to a different country, leave everything I know behind?  It wasn’t as if I was born and raised in a very Italian environment.  My sisters and I did grow up knowing about our family’s Italian heritage, knowing our grandfather immigrated to Philadelphia (through Ellis Island) from Italy and knowing there was family still living in Italy.   Our mother moved to Chicago from Philadelphia after marrying our father in the late 40’s.  She left most of her family and Italian relatives behind.  Mom would cook Italian - home made pizza on Saturday nights, spaghetti, lasagna and of course pizzelles at Christmas.  But no other Italian traditions were really part of our daily life. 

In the summer, however, we would travel back to Philadelphia to visit family.  We would then get our dose of Italian heritage. We would also travel to the “jersey shore” - Wildwood Crest to be exact - to visit our grandparents - Loretta and Angelo Gentile.  There we were definitely immersed in the Italian way of life.  Grandpop would speak Italian when he didn’t want anyone to know what he was saying.  Grandmom would cook Italian - homemade pasta, sauce, meatballs.  It was wonderful. Grandpop had a great garden, complete with a Fig tree that I believe might have came from Italy.  He would cover that fig tree in the winter to protect it.  Of course there were grape vines full of wonderful purple grapes but I am not sure he ever made wine with them.  It wasn’t until my first trip to Italy that I came to understand a bit more why he might have moved to the jersey shore - there were many similarities to his land in Italy - near the sea and a great growing climate for vegetables. 

In grade school, and high school I would do reports on Italy - so there must have been a connection deep inside of me.  In a 10th grade Civics class we had to do a family story. I loved writing about my grandfather.  I sent him a letter asking him to describe his country.  He hand wrote a beautiful story about Italy.  I have that handwritten letter and that high school report to this day.  In the report I said that I wanted to travel to “Acquavella” someday to see my grandfather’s home.  Funny but my teacher wrote - “Im sure you will get to Acquavella some day.”   Little did he know what would finally happen.

Once out of college and making my own way in life I would continually tell my mother - let’s go to Italy!!  I was willing to pay her way - now that I was a career gal.  She always declined until my unrelenting persistence paid off.  She agreed to go.  Two of her sisters had traveled to Italy in the 60’s - and even traveled to Acquavella and met the family.  In addition she had a first cousin in Philadelphia that traveled frequently to the village and would keep the families connected.  He would bring presents from the states and would bring photos back and forth of the families.  I wanted my mother to have this same experience but as I would come to find out she never really had the desire to do this.  She agreed to go on the trip and we decided to do a “Perillo Tour” in October, 1996.  Well as most of you know my Mom passed away in January of 1996 and never took that trip.  I was heartbroken but decided to take the trip anyway.  After her passing I found various cards and letters to my mother encouraging her to “take that trip to Italy”. She must have spoken of this trip to others and her true desire to NOT go.   

But I would go for her.   

So the year was 1996 and I was planning my first trip to Italy with my sister Susan.  We decided to  move forward with the Perillo tour.  We would take a tour to visit the major cities of Italy as well as traveling south to Naples and the surrounding area.  This would allow me to possibly visit the Gentile family in Acquavella.  After the Philadelphia cousin had passed on, the connection between the families was broken and no one was really communicating.  The Italian family had wonderful memories of this cousin and during many future trips to Italy I would hear stories of his travels and visits.

Once our trip was planned I began working the side trip to visit family.  Remember this was the 90’s so no cellphones, email, internet, Facebook, etc.  So how would I contact the family?  An Aunt had an old address for the family.  I wrote this long letter and explained who I was, what I was doing and that I wanted to come visit while in Italy.  Remember now no google translate so I paid a translation service to translate the letter into Italian.  I mailed the letter and then waited……….

One day before Sue and I were to depart I received a letter in the mail.  The letter was in Italian, of course, and I could not read one word.  I could at least tell it was from the family.  I packed it and figured I would find someone from the tour company to help me translate the letter once in Italy. 

I had decided I could leave the tour for one day while we were in Sorrento, Italy.  That was the closest we would be to Acquavella and we were there for a few days so it afforded me the opportunity to take a side trip.  The hotel and the tour staff assisted me.  I hired a private car to drive me to the village.  In addition the hotel helped arrange for me to purchase flowers and candy to take to the family.  The driver would take me to the bank first to get money, then to the florist and candy store.  What seemed like small tasks turned into major time delays.  The bank wouldn’t wait on me - the driver finally came in and raised a fuss and helped - but that literally took an hour.  By the time we were on our way we had lost a few hours - then a three hour drive - we got lost - but we finally made it to Acquavella.  I still remember driving into the village and I could see a group of people standing outside a building.  That must be the family I thought. and sure enough it was.  I believe it was 3 or 4 people - 2 first cousins of my mothers and a second cousin, Angela.  

I was only able to spend three hours with the family that day (thanks to the bank fiasco and getting lost).  They gave me a wonderful tour of the village.  We each shared many photos of the families (we even had some of the same pictures).  We had some wonderful Italian pastry. But unfortunately I could not communicate with them and I remember feeling so frustrated.  My cousin, Angela and I would sit next to each other.  We each had a note pad, pen and a dictionary and did our best to communicate through pictures, pointing at words in our dictionaries and ultimately just smiling at each other.  They invited me to stay and eat but time was short.  They walked me to the car and I have vivid memories of how sad I was that I had to leave.  I had to say goodbye and the tears just started flowing.  I had made a special connection that day and I knew my life was going to change because of it.  

That was the start of many trips to Italy.  Each time becoming more and more immersed in the culture, meeting more and more family members and recognizing that this was where I was meant to be.   For many years I thought I would live between both countries but somewhere along the line I learned I could secure my Italian citizenship and decided that I would make Italy my new home.  

So here I am, now a dual citizen (both American and Italian) retired after 39 years with Honeywell and days away from taking a one way trip to Italy.  I know there will be ups and downs and at some point I will wake up and say “OMG - what in the world have I done” - or maybe not.  Either way I am excited for my new adventure.  Learning to speak the language (better than I can today), learning how to cook more Italian food, learning the culture, history and finally documenting the Gentile Family Tree.  I have the data but now retirement should allow me the time to finally record it electronically for future generations to see. I do hope I can instill my passion for Italy and our heritage in my nieces and nephews so the “tree” can continue to grow along with the story.      

I know my first year in Italy will expose me to so many new things I decided to share them thru this blog.  The first time I buy a car, the first holiday, the first…….. whatever.  I plan to share my experiences and hope you enjoy my journey. I will share photos as well.  Hope you enjoy my Year of Firsts!

Baci e abbracci,

Karla (KK)