Discover and reconnect to your family’s history and Italy in the most meaningful way. Are you Italian or Sicilian by heritage and want to learn more about your roots or the place of your ancestors? What better place to discover your Italian heritage than in Italy or Sicily itself, with your own personal private guide to lead you through the town of your ancestors and the Archivio di Stato. Your own professional genealogical researcher and translator will guide you through in-depth research as together you sort through documents about your ancestors and discover the town, including history and legends that only a local would know. Maybe you have living relatives in Italy you have never met, or an address you’ve heard about all your life, or a town your parents or grandparents have talked about for years. Connect with relatives, share stories, enjoy authentic meals together, and develop life-long relationships. With this experience you will be met at the airport, provided private transportation to the town of your choosing in Italy or Sicily, with a boutique hotel pre-arranged. You and your family will be provided your own personal English and Italian speaking professional genealogical researcher who will work with you including a consultation as well as real-time hands on research both in the town itself and at the Archivio. And while you’re in Italy, why not discover more about the culture, cuisine, and history of the town of your ancestors with your own local English and Italian speaking cultural guide, leading you through food traditions and the history of the town and region. With our guides, you will feel more like a friend than a tourist. This experience would be a great way to start off your upcoming Italy adventure or wrap it up in the most meaningful way before returning home. Length: 4 days/3 nights
Window into one day: Wake up in your boutique hotel in Sicily. Discover the local Sicilian food tradition of granita col brioche (with the tupo!) for breakfast. Meet your professional genealogist in a relaxed environment such as the local coffee shop for a consultation. Walk around your ancestral homeland as you introduce yourself to the town with the help of your own personal local expert. Hear stories, learn traditions, get a feel for the place of your ancestors. Eat a leisurely lunch together at a spot locals love, then head over to the Archivio di Stato into which you will be admitted as you and your genealogist immerse yourselves in real-time hands-on research about your ancestors. Aperitivo with a spritz and a view before your delicious Sicilian cena (dinner), looking forward to your research continuing the following day.
Meet the La Greca family: The La Greca’s are a very special family and forever friends of STC. Amy grew up with Joe La Greca when they were kids on the block together. Joe is 2nd generation born in the US and his family is from Campobello di Licata, Sicily, Provincia di Agrigento. Joe’s father Charles La Greca was a second father to Amy (still is). Charles traveled to Sicily to discover more about Licata, his roots, the town, family and local traditions, and meet living relatives. Read below for a window into his story.
Charles’s father Calogero (a popular name in Sicily, particularly in the province of Agrigento, associated with the cult of Saint Calogerus the Anchorite) who was a member of the Italian Cavalry born in 1901 followed his brother Salvatore La Greca from Sicily to New York in the 1920s where he settled with his family. Years later with young Charles and Charles’s brother Sam (Salvatore was also his given name) in tow, the entire family moved to California where Charles had a family of his own. Joe La Greca is his first son.
Joe La Greca now has two sons and a daughter of his own, remains very close to Charles and also remains close to Sicilian traditions from the old country, honoring his beautiful Sicilian heritage nearly every day and teaching it to his children. Charles, Joe, Joe’s children Nicholas, Anthony, and Grace all make sausage every year together the way Charles was taught to make it by his brother Sam who was a butcher. Joe grows his own tomatoes and other vegetables. Joe cooks for his family every night, and Anthony is the young chef of the family who is a master pasta and sugo maker thanks to Joe passing on the knowledge, family recipe, and tradition.
Discovering your heritage can be profoundly fulfilling. Charles passed down to Joe, and now Joe’s children, that which was passed down to him – the beautiful traditions, recipes, and culture of his town in Sicily which will forever be alive in this wonderful family thanks to him.
“The most important thing I passed on was a feeling of family. Joe and Meg both have that. That’s why we’re all still 3 miles apart” ~ Charles La Greca.
Contact us here if you would like to discover more about your Italian or Sicilian heritage.
Find details about who we are here.
Read Amy’s blog on The Art of Aperitivo in Italy here.
