Two Italian stories

This ship (image by courtesy of The Ellis Island Foundation) brought my grandfather Ismaele to the United States in 1901. At that time a young carpenter, he had already partecipated as a soldier in the unfortunate Italian campaign to Ethiopia.

Ismaele (first left in the following picture taken on Christmas 1913) took up a successful career in housebuilding in Cleveland, Ohio, where his children - including my father Rino (first right) - were born.

In 1920 he returned to Italy with his family.

Some of his great-grandchildren live today in a nice Roman house built by him.
 
 

 

I had also another grandfather: Ferdinando. A self-made-man himself, he migrated to South America as a young taylor in the early 1900's.

Ferdinando returned some years later to set up family and become an esteemed tradesman in Macerata.

But work was not everything in his life. The following picture portrays him (center, moustached) playing bocce in the 1950's with Beniamino Gigli (first left), the famous opera singer.