Roots in Calabria

Chuck, of course, is of Italian descent, with his maternal grandparents from Naples and his father's parents from Calabria, a southern province of Italy. His paternal grandfather, Natale Calvano, was born in Cosenza, a small Calabrian city and his grandmother (Concetta) was from the nearby coastal town of San Lucido. Grandfather Calvano died before Chuck was born, but grandmother Calvano lived next door during Chuck's entire childhood and he grew up on stories about and references to San Lucido. He has had a lifelong desire to see the town, but despite many visits to Italy had never had the chance to go there.

Recently, he had business in Naples where Kathi joined him and they planned to drive the 180 miles to San Lucido. While Chuck does not know of any close relatives in San Lucido, his cousin, Rea (who lives in Illinois), has visited a cousin of hers who lives in the town. So Chuck and Kathi took a ride through the beautiful mountain and farm countryside south of Naples, arriving in San Lucido on a Friday evening. Using Rea's contact information, they met Rea's cousin (Franco Filippo) on Saturday morning in the town square, from which Franco drove them on an auto tour of the town and its immediate surroundings.


[The first 2 pictures show the square in San Lucido and Chuck with Franco (left) in the square, joined by a friend of Franco's who had lived in Chicago in Chuck's old neighborhood and was able to provide a small amount of translation help.]


In the tradition of Italian hospitality, he and his wife (Palmira) invited us to their home where Palmira served a fantastic lunch that seemed to consist of seven or eight courses. A delightful visit for the rest of the afternoon then followed. This was made rather more amazing in that neither Franco nor Palmira speak English and Chuck's Italian is extremely limited while Kathi's is just about non-existent. Despite this obvious limitation, the conversation (of about four hours) was entirely delightful and made much use of Chuck and Franco's in-born Italian talent of using their hands to communicate.


[A picture shows Kathi with Palmira in the Filippo home and the last one shows Chuck before the San Lucido war memorial.]

Some additional pictures of San Lucido (and some taken on our drive there) are at:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2578013#135787919