Italia and Jessiah discovering their roots

“Being American is a state of mind, being Italian is an identity”, this phrase is what led Jessiah to want to embark on a journey with her mother Italia Oliver Senese to discover their Italian roots.

Jessiah is a 21-year-old half-Italian and half-Irish young man who lives in California near Los Angeles, the city where everything is found but also the fiction of everything. “Don't try to amaze me because in Los Angeles we have everything in a gigantic version, but sometimes we don't have the soul!”.

He lives in a multicultural world and perhaps this has given rise to his need to know himself better. “When you are aware of your identity it is easier to exchange cultural wealth with others without being afraid of losing it or getting lost.”

Jessiah knew his Irish half better but not his Italian half so he started his research from the first clues his mother gave him. His maternal grandfather Lello was born in Rome in a street in the Appio district in 1939 and after a few days he moved to Alatri to stay with a wet nurse while his mother remained working in Rome as a seamstress.

Since the 19th century, Ciociaria was renowned for its wet nurses who fed all the Roman nobility, but the story of Raffaele Senese (known as Lello) was different. In fact, he remained in Alatri until the end of high school and then joined his mother who emigrated to America in search of fortune.

While he was growing up with his foster brothers, the war came and everyone was displaced across the countryside. The older brothers carried Lello on their shoulders to a safe place to await the end of the conflict. They were a real family and his bond with Alatri had a name: Pietrino Tagliaferri.

Not only were they brothers in the milk, but they were brothers all their lives in the heart. Once Pietrino even went to visit him in America where Lello had become an established scientist, he had married and had a beautiful daughter to whom he had given a beautiful name: Italia.

Jessiah did genealogical research and blood tests but above all he worked on the internet for months and years until he found that Pietrino Tagliaferri had become the president of the National Amateur Football League of the province of Frosinone.

He wrote to his email address and this message changed the lives of many people: his mother Italia and her second husband (also of Italian-Irish origin), his father, Letizia Senisi (creator of the Rooting program) with his collaborators, of the councilor Tommaso Amodeo of Rome, of Pietrino Tagliaferri, of the mayor Maurizio Cianfrocca of Alatri with his staff, of Paolo Novi of the DMO Alta Ciociaria and finally also mine.

Jessiah created magical encounters and I believe that today we are all a little richer and planning new bridges between Italy and the USA. Maybe new job opportunities or moments of leisure, but we are all certain that this journey is the beginning of a journey and not its final moment.

The arrival in Rome of Jessiah and his mother was almost surreal, the maximum beauty of the place but the area of ​​the forum and the Capitoline Hill is not where the real Romans meet. This had created a small prejudice on the Italian nature of the center of Rome which in fact cannot be considered a symbol of the Italian lifestyle.

Letizia organized a special meeting with Tommaso Amodeo, councilor of the municipality of Rome, who took us to the terrace of the Capitoline Hill where it dominates the area of ​​the forums up to the Colosseum and the area of ​​the Trajan markets. And in the middle in the distance you can see the Sacco Valley enclosed between the Castelli Romani and the Prenestini Mountains.

I don't know if they realized how lucky they were to live this experience, Letizia makes things appear natural but behind every moment there is a great job of weaving a canvas.

A cake on the Caffarelli Terrace, from which you can also admire the recent large 13-meter statue of the reconstruction of the Colossus of Constantine commissioned by the mayor, concluded the part of the discovery of Rome. But then we went to discover the Romans.

If the center is full of tourists, Via Cibrario in the Appio district is full of Romans and Italia and Jessiah were able to breathe the spirit of their father in the street where he was born.

Via Cibrario and Via dei Fori Imperiali are certainly not comparable but they both have a unique charm for those who love the real Rome and want to feel the scents and sounds of the city.

I told Jessiah not to worry because he would enter the heart of the Italian identity starting from the second day in Alatri, in the heart of Ciociaria.

The first big surprise was the arrival in Alatri, a magical place shrouded in history and the mystery of its great cyclopean walls (polygonal for historians) of which we still don't understand how they were built. It is said that together with other cities in Southern Lazio it was founded by the God Saturn, but this belongs to legend.

Of course, the shape of the acropolis and its walls has particular correlations with the constellations and an international conference on the latest historical and scientific discoveries was underway in the library.

The arrival at the municipality was electrifying: welcoming them were the mayor Maurizio Cianfrocca and the councilor delegate for culture Sandro Titoni and, above all, Pietrino Tagliaferri who had many photographs of his childhood together with Lello.

Together with Paolo Novi of the DMO Alta Ciociaria, the mayor had organized a real meeting with the Ciociaria culture starting from the young musicians and dancers of the folk groups "Gli Paes Mei" and "Aria di Casa Nostra" who dragged them into an overwhelming dance local.

In the enchantment of the library cloister, together with the mayor and the administration we awarded the Town Ambassador Award to Italia Oliver Senese, but I must confess that if Italia was moved by the words and by the meeting with Pietrino, Jessiah smiled for the first time of joy. I saw his lips widen as his eyes finally shone.

From folk music to the musical research of the Trillanti group (https://www.itrillanti.com) guided by the experience of the young Mattia dell'Uomo, who studies singing and membranophones (tambourines) at the conservatory, and who has rediscovered the ancient songs of farmers from Alatri and nearby municipalities.

Together with his friends they have a workshop in the center of Alatri where they teach how to make ciocie and sell local handicraft products. Italy made its miniature ciocie and immediately afterwards we were entertained by a small concert for harmonica, classical guitar and voice which literally revived Jessiah's Ciociarian roots, given his work as a music producer.

The lunch in the fraschetta with Ciociaria delicacies and cutting of the cake with the mayor concluded the first part of an unforgettable day. Perfect weather, perfect location, perfect group of people.

Pietrino then took them to revisit all the places where they lived and where the photographs were taken while the discovery of the Acropolis awaited them in the evening.

Who knows if the energy that this magical place releases has convinced us to organize a next trip with the organization of a spiritual meditation event in Alatri? I really think so.