The tiny house in front of Palazzo Pecci

According to Mayor Stefano Cacciotti, there are more Carpinetani outside Carpineto Romano than in town, and this is due to the long history of emigration that began in the early twentieth century.

Thus, the day dedicated to Carpinetani in the world takes on a new meaning every year of village pride but also of love for one’s roots.

The administration had organized a celebration in city hall with the presentation of the Town Ambassador Award to Fiorella Lepre, a guided tour of Palazzo Pecci with one of the descendants of Pope Leo XIII, and a polenta-based lunch at the fraschetta in the Rione Sant’Agostino.

After the official part, I immersed myself in the spirit of the day, trying to exchange a few words with some of the ‘children of Carpineto in the world’, and each of them gave me incredible stories.

The first one I spoke to was Angelo Gavillucci, who was missing a leg and moved around with crutches. “But he never stopped wandering around the alleys of Carpineto and going up and down the countless stairs of the historic center,” his friends told me. Angelo lived between Melbourne and Ottawa and in his free time he was an ice hockey goalie. A sport that he continued even when he was left with only one leg. At a certain point he came into contact with the Italian team that needed to strengthen its defenses and his dream was to participate in the Paralympics for the Italian team. He even arrived in Italy but in the end this dream could not come true: fortunately the dream of Carpineto has always been welcoming.

While we are waiting to reunite the whole group at monumental Pecci palace entrance, each person points to the small, tiny house in front of us and talking with his/her neighbour.

I asked my host Fiorella Lepre, who literally knows everyone, for an explanation: “the house belongs to the Campagna family and when Mrs. Giuseppina Cavone (who had married Pietro Giovanni Campagna) died, she left written in her will that it should not be sold but left available to all her children and their descendants to keep the roots with Carpineto alive.”

The lady had 10 children, 4 went to Australia, 4 to Canada and only 2 daughters had returned to live in Carpineto. Her pain at having lost so many children must have been immense, only filled by the joy of having a family full of love and respect for their family.

These days, Romano Campagna (known as Tortoriglio) lives in the little house opposite the palace and he came to Italy to celebrate his 90th birthday.

Riccardo lives in Ottawa almost by chance, at 18 years ago he had applied to go to Australia to join his brothers but at that time the country had closed immigration and so he went to Canada at the invitation of his sister.

When his brothers learned that he was coming to Carpineto to celebrate his 90th birthday, they started buying plane tickets and now the guests from all over the world at Riccardo's party have exceeded 80 people.

Of course, the little house cannot compete with the palace, but I enter Palazzo Pecci filled with the love that those small walls emanate and then I am overwhelmed by so much beauty.

Palazzo Pecci has remained practically frozen since the time when it was one of the homes of Pope Leo XIII, the one of Rerum Novarum but also the first technological pope. He is responsible for the introduction of photography and also the first film in the history of the Vatican. According to a descendant of the pope, and our guide inside the palace, the film of the pope was made by Americans even before the Lumiere brothers. The picture of the jubilee and the procession in the Sistine Chapel is made thanks to a photograph and the faces of the people are so realistic that a visitor was able to recognize one of his ancestors in those faces.

After the family portrait room, we entered a side room where some of the Pope's gifts are displayed (such as a case with special stuffed Australian birds, a gift from an ambassador during the jubilee) and an entrance to the Pope's private chapel. We then left his bedroom, crossed two rooms with period clothing and finally found ourselves in the private courtyard for an aperitif with a toast with a view of the beautiful Lepini Mountains.

Lunchtime: everyone at the fraschetta in the Rione Sant'Agostino to eat polenta, one of the traditional dishes in the hearts of the Carpinetani, and I found myself at the table with Sandra, a New Zealander who came to stay a month in Carpineto Romano.

Sandra had been to Carpineto 30 years ago, when there were still few bathrooms and showers were done with sprinklers. She was enchanted and came back to see how the town had changed and spent the whole lunch with an Australian lady from Sydney telling how hard but true life in the town was in the past.

A heavy summer downpour refreshed the air and made everyone move from the side tables so I got to know the smile of Romano Campagna and his son Marco.

Happy birthday Romano!!!