Roots of a Tree in Sicily
It was late afternoon just before my citizenship ceremony with the mayor of Montelepre when, my associate and friend Ottavia, my Citizenship Advisor, Francesco, and I headed to the historic Norman-era tower in the city center for a tour with Vice Mayor Giusi Ciulla. After all the years visiting my family in Montelepre, I had never visited inside the tower.
The Ventimiglia Tower is quite a jewel for a small town, constructed between 1433 and 1435. After numerous restorations, the Ventimiglia Tower Montelepre is undoubtedly one of the best-preserved Middle Ages structures in Western Sicily.
The tower was built to honor Archbishop Giovanni Ventimiglia, an enthusiastic Christian, and aimed to strengthen the Church of Monreale. He was a leading proponent of the new Church of Monreale during the era of the Western schism. The Cathedral of Monreale is located in the nearby mountain town of the same name, and is one of the most magnificent cathedrals you can visit. The mosaic depictions of the Bible throughout the grand church are like no other church in the Western world.
The tower stands on the top of a hill overlooking the surrounding valley. The interior is divided into three floors. On the second floor, the Civic Museum of Montelepre is filled with archaeological artifacts found in the area.
The tower houses some of the remains of the ancient Greek city of Hykkara, which was located at the foot of Monte d'Oro, between the territories of Montelepre and Carini. Many of these items from Hykkara are housed in the Regional Archaeological Museum of Palermo (called Museo Salinas in Palermo), so to have these important and highly- and historically-valued items in the tower is significant.
Some remains of the ancient Greek city of Hykkara
After our tour, we enjoyed viewing the marvelous sunset from the roof of the tower. It was an exciting tour and having the time to take in this culturally important site brought me closer to my ancestral home.
Even before I took my first trip to Italy, I had heard about the opportunities Italian American descendants could gain through Italian citizenship from a parent or grandparent. So, you can imagine after traveling to Italy for many years and owning a tour company, I would be very interested in gaining my own Italian citizenship. As luck would have it, it turned out I indeed had the qualifications to become a citizen, however, the process was not so easy.
The first hurdle was making the determination of which family member I would use to submit my application. The first thing I did was hire a law firm to help me with this process, who I found from an advertisement in a Sons and Daughters of Italy newsletter email. They had been doing this sort of thing for many years and I thought, instead of trying to gather all the documents necessary and making the application on my own, it would be wise to hire the firm. There are two ways to make an application, one is to go through the Italian consulate that covers the location you live in or take up residence in Italy and apply through the local commune (town hall). I was able to do either, so I asked if the law firm could help me with either way, to which they said yes. This was my first mistake.
This law firm was very skilled and capable of applying through the various consulates across the country, so they proceeded to prepare my case as they would for a consulate application. Although my mother was born in Italy, it turned out the simplest ancestor to make application under was my grandfather, Francesco Gaglio. This was a tedious process, which required them to obtain official records of my ancestors and for myself. Then have each state provide an apostle to confirm the document as genuine. Next, all the documents needed to be translated into Italian. This takes time under normal circumstances; however, it was March of 2020 and the coming pandemic shut down the process in the first few months and made it ever so slow as the pandemic continued.
This wasn’t the worst of the situation; the process of making an appointment with any Italian consulate is difficult and time consuming. This is especially the case in Miami, where I needed to apply. You see, you can’t make appointments beyond three months out, however, there were no appointments available within the three-month period. Just to get a consulate appointment could have taken several years. Tack on the complications of the pandemic and the process seemed hopeless.
That’s when I decided to take up residence in Italy in 2022, in my ancestor’s hometown of Montelepre to be more precise and make application there. Well, this is where my mistake came to be. When I was in negotiations to hire the law firm to do the work, their answer to the question if they could help me if I decided to apply in Italy as a resident, was a half-truth. They could help me alright but quoted outrageous costs to do so. So outrageous that it was clear to me they didn’t want to be involved in that process, so by pricing it in such a way, I would just go away.
My advice to any Italian Americans who want to go through this process is to know which method way you want to use to apply (consulate or as a resident in Italy) and then find the help that specializes in that method. At that point, I had to find another company to help with the application in Italy. I discovered there are many companies and law firms out there that provide this help. Don’t think you need to use a law firm; I found several companies that have good reputations you can use that are not law firms. The people I decided to hire, Chris, at Lorenzoni Dual Citizenship Services, and Francesco, at 007 Italian Records, specialize in helping applicants apply in the hometown of their ancestors, which was exactly what I intended to do.
They also worked with me on customizing an agreement which fit my situation completely. They provide applicants with services like finding a place to live, getting all the paperwork for residency, getting a cell phone, transportation needs and so on. However, after visiting Sicily for ten years and having most of those things covered, I only needed them to help with the application for citizenship part. Once that was received, I could then apply and obtain my Italian identification card and my Italian passport.
It also turned out that I didn’t need most of the documents the law firm obtained (and charged me for, I might add) to make the application at the Montelepre town hall. Maybe the consulate requires the other documents, but for this process, I just needed my grandfather’s birth and death certificate, same for my father and my birth certificate and divorce agreement (only the summary of the divorce agreement which meant I only needed 3 pages translated instead of the entire 30-page agreement).
My advisor Francesco, an attorney who is very skilled at researching records and making these applications, completed all the forms for the town hall, who then submitted them to Rome. After an investigation with the various American consulates where each of us lived, they discovered that neither I nor my father ever renounced Italian citizenship. Because my father was born before my grandfather renounced his Italian citizenship and he never renounced it, I was a candidate to claim citizenship. An interesting fact is my uncle, my grandfather’s youngest child, cannot have the same right I have, since he was born two years after my grandfather obtained his US citizenship and in doing so, renounced his loyalty to the King of Italy and the country. The same goes true for my uncle’s children, they do not have that right.
It was official; I was now an Italian citizen. In just over 30 days, the goal of getting citizenship was complete, compared to going through the consulate, which would have taken well over five years.
Francesco then helped with the ID card and the most coveted document, my Italian passport. If I had started with him and his American stateside partner Chris in the first place, I’m sure I would have saved thousands of dollars. However, I didn’t care about that, I was a citizen and the loop back to Sicily was complete. My grandfather left Italy in 1912 and I returned in 2022 to regain that citizenship!
How lucky I was to obtain this citizenship. The pandemic was over, well at least all the restrictions that were imposed on us were over. Italy was exploding with tourists, and such was the case with my business. I went from spending three months a year in Italy before the pandemic, to having so many tours in 2022, requiring me to stay far beyond the 90-day limit for non-citizens. Little did I know how important my citizenship would be for my business to grow. A true blessing for sure.
The tour season of 2022 was coming to an end, and it was time to celebrate with my Sicilian family this wonderful gift I received from my grandfather. I was overwhelmed with joy and wanted to share that joy with the people around me with a grand party (which included several guests of my Sicily tour)! But before that, a special citizenship ceremony was held by the mayor of Montelepre, Giuseppe Terranova, in his office. There were over 20 people there to witness, including several of my family members, my tour guests, and the people from the town hall who helped with the application. Of course, my new and dear friend Francesco was there, who without my knowing, conspired with my cousin, Emanuela, to have her fly into town to join in the celebration. Emanuela is like a daughter to me, and it brought tears of joy to my eyes when they surprised me with her attendance at the town hall.
The mayor started the ceremony with a kind statement of “one of Montelepre’s own” coming back from America to become part of this community. He gave me a plaque of the town crest, a certificate of citizenship, and a book of the significant history of Montelepre. There were smiles all around the room, Americans and Italians celebrating this monumental day. Then, countless photos of me were taken, holding up my gifts and passport with various guests.
Afterwards, it was off to the party. My dear friend Carlo helped me make all the arrangements at the local hotel Costello di Giuliano, and I asked him to perform the music with his singer. The hall was decked out as if it were a wedding, and the menu consisted of all fish, an antipasto of various shellfish and calamari, two pasta dishes with fish, and a main course of whitefish and salmon. My poor tour guests must have been exhausted from touring all day, so they had to bail out after the second pasta dish, taking the van back to their hotel in Palermo.
The guests enjoyed a night of dancing to Carlo’s music; I even had the opportunity to play a song from my father’s piano playing CD, which is on YouTube. Even Zia Vita was dancing with my cousins and Ottavia. At that time, Zia Vita had just turned 90 and had recovered from a broken ankle the year before. I continued to get showered with gifts, this time by my family. It was one of the most amazing and emotional days of my life, to celebrate this right to reclaim the citizenship my grandfather lost.
Zia Vita dancing
The party went into the night, and wisely, I rented a room in the hotel and passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow. We still had one more day of our Sicily tour to complete, a visit to Monreale, and a family pasta-making luncheon with our family in Montelepre. My guests truly enjoyed my citizenship ceremony and party, and then topping it off with a family luncheon was a perfect way to end the tour.
With the tour ended, there was still one last thing I wanted to do...to plant a tree in the town’s urban park dedicated to my grandparents and symbolizing the roots of the tree representing the roots of my family in Montelepre. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and a group of family members, friends and even the mayor came to watch the falso pepe (fake pepper) tree planting. It’s a wonderful feeling I get each year when I return to town to see this tree take root and grow, just like the relationships I now have with my family and friends in Montelepre.
