Can a man turn 90 and decide to return to celebrate it in his hometown of Carpineto Romano?
And can a large family spread between Australia and Canada decide to all come to Carpineto Romano to celebrate this anniversary together?
This is the story of Romano Campagna and his large family. For his love for Capineto Romano, together with the mayor Stefano Cacciotti we have awarded Romano as Town Ambassador of Carpineto Romano.
The story of Romano is special, his family is large and in the post-war time there are 10 brothers and sisters who live in a small house in the center of the town right in front of the imposing Palazzo Pecci, that of Pope Leo XIII.
The mother sees almost all of her children leave one by one for Australia, which at the time was over a month away with a very long journey by ship, and a daughter Angelina who had followed her husband to Canada. I can't even imagine the pain of this mother.
When it is Romano’s turn to leave, Australia closes the landings and he is forced to choose Ottawa in Canada, where one of his sister lives and when arrived at the age of 25. Here, there is a job waiting for him but above all a large community of villagers.
His first son Marco, the organizer of the big party, told me some emblematic episodes: “until I was 6 years old, I lived in the community of the Carpinetani (with some other Italians) and we played in the traditional Italian way but above all we spoke in dialect. When I left Little Italy to go to school, I realized that canadian spoke English and French and I was surprised. It was as if I had met Canada for the first time at 6 years old even though I was born in this huge country!”.
This cultural shock is told to me by different people but with different meanings: some had it between Italy and Canada, some between Canada and Italy. It all depends on the different generations of emigration.
For example, Nadia, daughter of a brother of Romano, is an interior designer who grew up in Canada: “I had my first shock when I came to Italy for the first time and saw the free life I could have in the country where I was controlled by invisible analog cameras: the looks of the women who sat chatting in the alleys of the historic center”.
Claudia and Marco are a couple who live in Melbourne and Claudia is the daughter of one of Romano Campagna’s brothers who had managed to arrive in Australia before the closure of landings. Their life was truly intercultural and at a certain point in their lives they felt the desire to return for a year to live in Carpineto Romano.
At the time they only had a small child and the houses in the historic center did not have showers and other comforts they were used to in Australia: “We brought a camping shower from Australia, and we had put the tent on a hula-hoop. Then we went to get water from the fountain in soft bags that were easy to lift”.
Her husband Marco is originally from Abruzzo and he too has a similar story to Marco Campagna in Canada: “I spoke Italian until I was 6 because I lived mostly in the Italian community. My father was a WOG and it wasn’t easy to fit in with the others. Right after school I started working as a carpenter and at 20 I opened my own construction company, which I still run, but I didn’t have my first English friend until I was 30. Today being Italian is trendy and everyone searches their family tree for some Italian ancestor, but in the beginning we weren’t seen as people outside of society.”
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