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How The Sicilian School Is Rewriting the Renaissance Narrative: Anne Maltempi Illuminates Sicily’s Overlooked History

The narrative surrounding Renaissance Italy has long been centered in the north, thanks to the influence of the Medici family, Dante, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Botticelli. Culturally rich Southern Italy and Sicily, however, have been left out of the conversation, and for far too long, argues Anne Maltempi, an assistant professor of history at the University of Mount Union and founder of Instagram’s @The_Sicilian_School. Through her teachings in the classroom and via social media reels, she invites students to appreciate the ways Renaissance Sicily stands apart, shaped by its Greek, Arab, Norman, and Spanish influences on the arts, sciences, and humanities.

 

Sicily is a strong part of Dr. Maltempi’s identity as a daughter of Sicilian immigrants from Oliveri, within the Province of Messina. She grew up speaking Sicilian thanks to her closeness with her paternal grandparents, who had moved to the United States, and her maternal grandparents, with whom she often spent summers. But as she shared with me, it wasn’t initially part of her planned career path. 

We discussed how the stars ultimately aligned, how and why she has embraced social media, her favorite chapters and heroes from Sicilian history, why Sicily has been overlooked, her latest project, and where she hopes to shed light.

 

 

What inspired your career path?

When I started graduate school, I wanted to study English literature because I was a big Shakespeare fan. So, my first master’s degree is in Shakespearean literature.

 

I realized that through that program, I was called more to history. As a scholar, I liked the historical aspects of Shakespeare’s world almost more than I liked the literature itself, so I decided to pursue history.

 

Since I was studying Shakespeare, the next logical step seemed to be to study Tudor-Stuart Britain and see what the kings and queens were doing.

 

That field was saturated, and I was struggling to be inspired. So I said, “I know about the Renaissance, but I never hear anything about Sicily in the Renaissance. I’m Sicilian, and I wonder what was going on.”

 

I found that nobody studies 15th and 16th-century Sicily much. There’s a lot of stuff about the Middle Ages and later in the modern period. So, I would say I was led to that partly because of how I grew up, having been to Sicily so many times and not really understanding its history or becoming familiar with it other than my own family history and linguistic ability.

 

I grew up speaking Sicilian and later acquired Italian. That was a big bonus because it allowed me to further research that field. Sicilian scholars during the Renaissance did not speak Tuscan, like Dante in the Middle Ages; they spoke their own vernacular—a version of Sicilian. Picking up a 16th-century Sicilian document was really cool. Having language as a tool has been the bedrock that allowed me to continue on this career path.

 

Tell us about the Sicilian School you’ve created on social media.

I started the Sicilian School last July. I had been thinking about starting a social media page for a couple of years, partly because the job market for academics is not very great. I thought this would be an opportunity to teach my passion. I figured I may not have a classroom in the university, but maybe I can get one online and just build it myself.

 

I talked to my husband, and he said, “Look, you really love your work. Why don’t you stop talking about a social media page and just do it? Maybe that’ll be a good creative outlet for you.”

 

So I did my first reel at some point last July, which was a comparison of Michelangelo’s David to the genius of Palermo. I was expecting to get, I don’t know, five views. I wasn’t going into this with high hopes. Overnight, I got 500 views, and a bunch of people were commenting pretty positively. And that was all really validating.

 

My husband was right. It did become a really fun, creative outlet for me because then I got to think about other reels I wanted to do and series I wanted to start, and it just kind of snowballed from there. 

 

Which chapter of Sicilian history fascinates you most and why

I will say my period, the 15th and 16th centuries, though it’s really a toss-up. The history of the Middle Ages is great, too, because it’s multicultural. There are pockets of Greek speakers, Arab speakers, and Jewish communities; of course, you have the Normans and the monarchs. You constantly have people coming in and out, so it’s really interesting from that aspect. 

The Middle Ages period is also fascinating from a political and governance aspect because Roger II and Frederick II proposed progressive documents from our perspective. They had constitutional-style documents, and they were administratively trying to make a cohesive connection within their kingdoms. 

We mistakenly think that women didn’t have much power in that system, but the power that they actually had is pretty impressive. So, I love the Middle Ages from that perspective.

 

I also love my period, because I think it really serves as the other half of the narrative of the Renaissance. After all, there are still a lot of writers, artists, and culturally elevated people in society. But the process is developing in a slightly different way because Sicily’s not a city-state like Florence. It’s actually part of the Habsburg Empire in my period. And there’s some influence from Spain. It is decidedly less multicultural in that period because the Spanish essentially kicked out everybody who was not Catholic or forced them to convert.

 

But what I like politically about my period is that you see the contention between the noble Sicilians and Imperial Spanish representatives. I like looking at that because for so many years in modern history, the idea that’s put forward is that Sicilians were this economically destitute, not very well educated, kind of people who were doomed to failure. When you look at the exchange between

these political figures, you see that Sicilians had a lot more power and agency than we tend to think of in that period.

 

We tend to think Florence was the big center of Renaissance culture, and that’s why it’s important and why we study it. But the truth is, the Renaissance was a big movement happening in different ways in different places, and Sicily offers one of those new perspectives into how Renaissance culture and thought developed in that period, which is not necessarily so centered on Florence.

 

The Cathedral of Cefalù in Sicily is a renowned example of the Norman-Arab-Byzantine architectural style.

Why has Sicilian history been overlooked?

That’s the million-dollar question right there. And there are a lot of reasons. To start, linguistically, it’s hard. Because you’re going to the ancient period, where you can actively find documents in Latin, Greek, and Arabic, and in the Middle Ages, you’re getting into early types of Italian vernacular, but really more so, early types of Sicilian vernacular. 

I grew up speaking Sicilian dialect, but I grew up speaking a form of Sicilian dialect from the forties and fifties when my grandparents came. When I opened a 16th-century Sicilian book for the first time, I was like, “What am I looking at here? It’s like a modern English speaker reading Shakespeare for the first time or reading Chaucer for the first time.

 

So linguistically, it’s a complicated area of the world. It’s also a complicated area of the world simply because of its history. It’s one of the most dominated islands in human history. So you’re going in relatively quick succession from the Greeks to the Romans, to the Arabs, to the Normans, to the Spanish. I mean, a bunch of people are there, and this is not to mention little groups like the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, Vandals, Berbers, and everybody else showing up there. So that’s complicated.

 

I also think there are historiographic tendencies. Scholars of history, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, paid a lot of attention to Western Europe. And by Western Europe, I really mean North-Central Western Europe, places that were culturally mixed because of these proposed difficulties that I outlined previously, get ignored.

 

Sicily, particularly in the scope of Italian history, is one of the only areas in Italy that was under Arabic rule for a significant amount of time. And I do think there is a racial aspect to it. A certain marginalization comes with studying the history of a place that may be considered uncivilized.

 

I also think the Reformation played its part because there was a lot of Reformation propaganda against very Catholic spaces, particularly Spanish Catholic spaces, and Sicily was a Spanish territory. Sicily became this place where it’s hard to study, while having some topics that may be a bit controversial to study. So, for those reasons, I think Sicily gets marginalized.

 

View within the Cathedral of Cefalù

You are writing a book. What can you tell us about it?

It’s a work in progress. It is a historical text based on my dissertation. I’m basically looking at the work of five Sicilian intellectuals who were alive in the 15th and 16th centuries. I am reading their works and analyzing them to see how they defined themselves as Sicilian. Do they see themselves as Sicilian, or do they see themselves as Spanish because they’re part of the Spanish Empire? Or do they still see themselves as descendants of Normans, Romans, or Greeks? How do they define themselves?

 

I think the process of identity formation highlights a lot of those missing spots in history that can be filled because you have to look at how they conceptualize their own history and what they feel is artistic and culturally viable, including island culture. How do they feel about living on an island? Do they define themselves by the fact that they’re living on an island?

 

All of those things go into it. So, that’s what my book is about. Each chapter is going to be a different intellectual with their work, analyzing it specifically for those purposes, looking at whether they see themselves as Sicilian. And what, if so, did being Sicilian mean in the 15th and 16th centuries?

 

Queen Constance, the mother of Frederick II, is a favorite.

You’ve featured several women who stand out in Sicilian history. Who do you particularly admire?

There are two that I really love, and one might be glaringly obvious. I love Queen Constance. I think I have four or five reels on her. She’s the mother of Frederick II, and she is one of the baddest ass women, I think, in medieval history. I just love her. I don’t know if half the stories about her are true. I hope to God that they are, I mean, maybe it’d be nice if she weren’t an assassin and killed her husband. I don’t know if she actually did. I’m pretty sure that’s just a conspiracy theory.

 

I think the coolest thing about her, aside from the story that she had a baby at 40 in the middle of a town square, is that she was Sicilian. She loved Sicily and retained rulership of Sicily even after marrying the Holy Roman Emperor.

 

Now granted, her husband didn’t really care so much about ruling Sicily. He just wanted the benefits of being married to the Queen of Sicily. But who cares about that? She said, “I’m going to make the laws here, and you just sign off on them.” And that’s what happened.

 

It also kept her constituents happy because the Holy Roman Emperor had created some contention by marrying her. A lot of people in Sicily were concerned that they would lose their rights to the Holy Roman Empire. Her maintaining rulership of Sicily actually quelled quite a few rebellions because they said, “OK, so our queen is still our queen, and she’s still going to do stuff for us.” And that made a big difference.

 

She knew she wasn’t stupid, and he knew that, too. He wasn’t stupid either. It was also politically beneficial for him, but I still think that’s pretty cool.

 

Adelaide del Vasto, mother of Roger II
 

One of the other women I really like is Adelaide del Vasto. She was the mother of Roger II. And we don’t know as much about her as Constance because she was illiterate. So, the sources we have from her are dictated. But she was a Lombard, originally the Lombard Princess, but really fell in love with Sicily and ended up staying there the last few years of her life. She actually left most of her wealth to a monastery in Sicily, where she ended up spending her last few years.

 

I’d like to learn a little bit more about her. I feel like there’s something more there that I just haven’t been able to find yet. So that’s kind of my secondary project. After I finish my first book, I want to look more into her. She’s just really intriguing and fascinating to me. So I’m going to see what I can find.

 

What do you hope to share with your students and audience?

Minimally, I hope they enjoy what they’re seeing, and through my work, recognize that there are a lot of places in the world and that all of those places have a culture, a significant contribution to make to broader society.

 

I want them to see that different people had different things to say, that all of those things are important, and that they provide something relevant to the world we live in now.

 

 

 

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The Partner Who Believed in My Novel Before I Did

Today, I celebrate 19 years of marriage to Matt Sirolly, my greatest champion, critique partner, and friend. Without Matt, The Last Letter from Sicily might never have been completed. I might never have received the two-book publishing deal that also brought Beneath the Sicilian Stars into the world.

I started writing what would become my debut novel in a creative writing class, inspired by my grandparents’ story of being separated during World War II. After writing several thousand words, I shared with Matt that it might have the potential to become a novel. He agreed and encouraged me to keep going.

I wrote on and off, but eventually, I set it aside. Who was I to think I could finish a novel, let alone publish one?

Later, over our anniversary dinner, Matt asked, “How’s the novel coming along?” I shook my head. In my mind, there was no longer a novel. But he told me not to give up, and I didn’t want to let him down.

So I picked it back up and returned to it in earnest. When I reached the part set in Cagliari, Sardinia—where my grandfather had been stationed—I struggled. I had never been there, and the scenes felt hard to bring to life. Matt suggested we travel to Sardinia and rent an apartment for a month. That trip turned out to be exactly what I needed. I finished the novel in a Marina District apartment, and we even toured World War II bunkers with a professor from the University of Cagliari.

Of course, finishing a novel is only part of the journey. Publishing is another challenge. I queried a few dozen agents and received rejections because, as one agent put it, “No one’s buying World War II fiction.” I felt discouraged. Matt suggested we create our own press and publish it ourselves. I loved the idea.

But then I discovered Storm Publishing, a UK-based traditional publisher that had just signed Lelita Baldock for her heartwarming World War II novel, The Baker’s Secret. I decided to pitch them.

Within a week, I was able to share their enthusiastic reply with Matt. The commissioning editor loved the story’s angle, the Sicilian setting, and the fact that it was inspired by my grandparents.

I had only one name in mind when I wrote the novel’s dedication.

So today I raise a glass to Matt, on this special day and always. Everyone deserves someone like him. I just happened to be lucky enough that he chose me. I look forward to all the chapters ahead, knowing we are in this together.

 

Matt and Lindsay on their wedding day in Temescal Gateway Park, Pacific Palisades, California

 

 

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Etched in Stone: Preserving Cleveland’s Italian Heritage at IAMCLE

An estimated 4 million Italians emigrated to the United States between 1880 and 1920, most seeking economic opportunities. About 25,000 of those people settled within seven neighborhoods of Cleveland. Many were scalpellini (stone carvers). Their hands and tools shaped many local buildings and structures, including the iconic Guardians of Traffic (the namesake of the city’s baseball team) on the Hope Memorial Bridge.

Setting stories of Cleveland’s Italian heritage in stone is mission-critical for the Italian American Museum of Cleveland (IAMCLE). Museum Director Pamela Dorazio Dean leads the charge, serving as both the Director and Curator of Italian American History at the Western Reserve Historical Society.

With a focus on “Faith, Family, and Ambition” in the Italian American experience, Pamela and her team showcase exhibits and offer events and educational programming, including Italian language and culture classes, as well as walking tours of Cleveland’s Little Italy, where the museum is located.

In addition to sharing the stories of Cleveland’s Italian immigrants and the IAMCLE’s founding, Pamela provided further details about the museum’s history, events, offerings, and goals.

 

 

What is the history of Italian immigration to Cleveland?

Cleveland has a pretty sizable Italian community. We’re in the top 10 in terms of the number of people who still identify as having Italian heritage in Northeast Ohio.

They came mostly from Southern Italy (south of Rome) and Sicily. And for Cleveland, a lot of them came from the regions of Abruzzo and Molise, which used to be one region until the 1960s, when Molise broke off. So a lot of the older Italians still say they’re from Abruzzo, but that’s only because the regions used to be one. Many of them were stone carvers or sculptors—scalpellini, as they call them in Italian. And a lot of them were general laborers looking for work because none was available in Italy. They could not improve their station in life. It was a hopeless situation. So, they left Italy and came to the United States.

Some of them made money in the U.S. and then returned to Italy or sent money home, but the large majority stayed. In Cleveland, they initially settled in a neighborhood known as Big Italy. It was where the city center was, where the market district was located, where all the produce came through. It had been a Jewish community before the Italians moved in.

As the Italians were coming in the 1880s, they found inexpensive housing near places where they could find work, and the Big Italy neighborhood provided those things. It wasn’t until around 1885 that the Little Italy community started to form.

The area where Little Italy is now located was owned by the Cozad family, whose house is still standing just on the outskirts of Little Italy. They used the land for fruit orchards. They began selling off the land in the mid-1880s, and people began settling there. It became known as the East End of Cleveland. Then, when the Italians started coming in the late 1880s, it became known as the East End Italian Settlement. Eventually, it became known as Little Italy.

Cleveland’s Little Italy

Tell us the story of the Italian Museum of Cleveland’s founding and its role in the Italian community.

The first museum in Little Italy was founded by a group of volunteers who lived in the neighborhood. They ran it from 1985 to 2007. It was all-volunteer, people concerned about preserving the history of the neighborhood, especially at a time when it was changing. A lot of the original Italian families had moved away. University Hospital and Case Western Reserve University are nearby and were buying up properties in the neighborhood.

This museum was a way to keep the museum and the neighborhood grounded in the past. It provided a home for many of the families that used to live in the neighborhood. When they would return to the neighborhood, they could go there and see various photos of the neighborhood’s past, First Communion class photos, old buildings, and old friends.

The two ladies who were running that museum, Lauretta Nardolillo and Eva Maesta, whom I met in 2007, were in their early eighties and said they needed to step away from the museum. No one wanted to pick up where they had left off. So, they donated all of the museum’s collection to the Western Reserve Historical Society, where I worked and am still working as a curator of Italian American history.

I cataloged and organized all of the materials. When that museum closed, I realized there was a hole left in the neighborhood. People know it’s a historic neighborhood, and they know it’s an Italian neighborhood. But there was really nowhere for them to explore and understand what the neighborhood was about, who the people were who made it, and all the contributions they made to not only that neighborhood but to Northeast Ohio.

I had been talking about it within the Italian community for a while, and I finally got funding from the Italian Sons and Daughters of America. Basil Russo, who lives here in Cleveland, is the national president of that organization. He agreed with me and thought my vision for a museum was exactly what the neighborhood needed, what the Italian-American community needed, and what the city of Cleveland needed to understand our contributions.

Often, in our community, people fall back on the mafia stories. And while that is a part of our culture and part of who we are, it’s a very small percentage; less than 1% were involved in the mafia, but it gets 110% of the attention. So we wanted to emphasize the more positive aspects. The museum received funding in 2020. We didn’t open right away because of the pandemic, so we ended up having our grand opening in October of 2021.

 

The Italian American Museum of Cleveland focuses on “Faith, Family, and Ambition.”

What kind of exhibits can visitors expect to see at IAMCLE?

We’re very small. We only have about 900 square feet of exhibit space. It’s basically one long rectangle in an old building built in 1902 in the Little Italy neighborhood. It was a bank, and then it was home to Presti’s Bakery, which is still very popular in the neighborhood.

Right now, we have an overview of Italians in Cleveland. It’s called “Faith, Family, and Ambition,” and it defines the values of Italian culture that helped the immigrants be successful and settle in the United States, specifically in Cleveland. We have photographs and some objects on display.

We tell the story of the stone carvers, which is very important not only for settling the Little Italy neighborhood but because the Guardians of Traffic, who our baseball team is now named for, were carved in Little Italy by immigrant stone carvers from a town called Oratino, Italy, which is in the Molise region. A lot of people are unaware of that and that’s a great story., People are more interested in learning the history of those statues because our baseball team changed its name to the Guardians.

Next month, we will be opening a national traveling exhibit on Louis Prima, the Sicilian singer who was born and raised in New Orleans and became very popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He was just an amazing musician, but quite a character. He helped popularize not only jazz in general, but also Italian music, because he often sang in Italian. That exhibit started in New Orleans. It was also at the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles and the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City. It will come to Cleveland and be here through the end of the year.

IAMCLE visitors trace Cleveland’s Italian American history from emigration to Big Italy and Little Italy.

What events and programming does the museum offer?

We want the museum to be a community gathering space instead of just a place where people come and look at exhibits. We want to bring the community together and teach them about Italian and Italian American culture.

One of our popular offerings is our Italian language classes. We partner with Dr. Paola Basile, who is a professor and head of the Italian Studies Program at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, and a native of Rome, Italy. She is an excellent teacher, and those classes always fill up. People are very interested in learning the Italian language.

We also offer classes where we explore the different regions of Italy, again taught by Dr. Basile. There are 20 distinct regions in Italy, each with its own traditions, foods, and interesting UNESCO sites. Dr. Basile reviews all of the interesting information about the region. Then, at the end of class, we taste food and wine from the region, which is very popular. People love having some wine and a little taste of Italy after class.

Another of our offerings is walking tours of the Little Italy neighborhood in the summer months, in partnership with an organization called Take a Hike. They offer historic tours throughout the city of Cleveland.

What’s really cool about the Take a Hike tours is that they have actors playing characters from the neighborhood during the tour. For this year’s tour, we will have stone carver Domenicantonio Mastrangelo, who helped carve the Guardians of Traffic, and Rocky Colavito, an Italian-American baseball player who played for the Cleveland Indians in the 1950s. It’s going to be a really fun tour.

We offer other events that pop up along the way. Sometimes, authors will contact me, somebody who has written a book about Italy or their Italian family history, and we’ll have author talks, meet-and-greets, and those kinds of things.

What do you ultimately hope to share?

I hope the museum will help people understand that our culture is more than food and the mafia. We’ve made significant contributions, as shown here in the city of Cleveland and the region of Northeast Ohio. I especially want people to learn about the impact that the stone carvers made in our city and region. That’s one story that has kind of gotten lost in history.

Little Italy is adjacent to Lake View Cemetery, a beautiful park-like cemetery founded in the 1870s. Many of the monuments and headstones there were carved by Italian and Italian American stone carvers.

Italians have also contributed to buildings in downtown Cleveland. So, there’s the artistic aspect of the Italian immigrants that a lot of people don’t think about immediately. They think about the greats like Michelangelo, but these ordinary Italians also had many artistic skills that they learned while they were in Italy and brought over with them.

Italians have been influential in business and politics, the arts, and the construction industry. We want to bring that story of who we are and how Italians helped make Northeast Ohio a great region through our contributions to the forefront, and we do that at IAMCLE.

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Keeping Traditions Alive: Inside Akron’s Sicilian-American Women’s Club

Among the many Facebook Groups dedicated to Sicilian heritage, you’ll find only one Sicilian-American Women’s Club. With more than 3,600 online followers and about 60 active club members, the Akron, Ohio-based organization was founded in 1934 by a group of Sicilian immigrant women to preserve their cultural heritage and provide a community for those of Sicilian descent. Its motto—fraternity, charity, elevation, and discipline—is embodied by what President Vita Signorino Moore calls “strong-willed and dynamic women.” 

Moore, who is Sicilian on both sides, with a mother who came to the U.S. as a child from Partanna and a father who arrived as an adult from Marsala, shared more about the club and its activities. She also spoke about how the organization aims to reach younger generations while carrying on traditions. And she expressed her hope for what members will take away.

 

 

What were your reasons for joining the club?

It gives me satisfaction to hold on to memories. There’s a lady there, and every time I see her, I get tears because she has my grandmother’s eyes. She’s so sweet, and I look at her, and I’m like, “This is my nonna!”

 

It’s like, why not hang out with a group of ladies who remind you of your relatives? And they act like them. It’s comical in a way because they’ll say something familiar, or there’ll be a hand gesture or something.

I want to preserve that tradition and history there. And why not have that? Everyone asks, “If you could bring someone back…” This is my way of reviving my childhood and memories by attending the meetings and experiencing the culture, people, and their dynamics. 

What I enjoy, too, is that when people come, they’re always made to feel welcome. We usually introduce them and have them share where they’re from. And there’s always someone in the group—no matter what—who says, “Yes, I know someone from that area” or “I know exactly where it is.” 

Some of them have never been to Sicily. It also gives them the gift of, “Oh, this is someone who actually may know or can tell me about my town that you’re not going to get from looking online or from a Facebook post or whatever.” You’re hearing it directly from someone.

 

 

The club is passing its recipes and stories onto the next generation.

 

What are some of your signature events and activities?

On March 12, we had our St. Joseph’s dinner. We celebrated St. Joseph Day, which is a big event in Italy. Starting last year, we switched it up a little bit. We all bring in a covered dish, but we also make a donation.

 

If you look at the authentic St. Joseph’s table, it’s a presentation of foods that you provide. But we bring canned goods and non-perishable items. One of the ladies is heavily involved with an area organization called Good Neighbors, so we filled a vehicle this year and last with canned food. We donate food to the local communities with our St. Joseph table.

 

Each month, we’ll have a theme depending on what’s happening. But the biggest event we all participate in is the Summit County Italian-American Festival, which is generally held in July in downtown Akron. We are known for our cookies. People come from everywhere, and they want our cookies. I would say each member donates anywhere from six to twenty dozen cookies. So we sell quite a few cookies and do pizza fritti and cannoli.

 

We always have a Christmas party, we have a picnic, and we go on excursions. We’ve attended several events at the Italian American Museum of Cleveland.

We’ve brought in speakers, an opera singer, a lady who sold chocolate—whatever interests someone. 

 

The Sicilian-American Women’s Club brings cookies to the Summit County Italian-American Festival.

 

Tell us about your famous cookbooks.

When COVID was happening, I saw a Facebook post from someone who went to my high school with a picture of a cookbook. It was all beaten up. And he said, “The publisher is no longer publishing this. Is there anyone who knows anything about this group? I would love to have another copy.”

Well, it just so happened that he graduated the year behind me. I contacted him and said, “You’re talking to the president. And yes, we’re aware of this cookbook.”

It came out right when I was in college. There was a copy in my parents’ basement.

 

He said, “I have some downtime. What if I reorganized it, and we print it?”

 

So, during COVID, he did this, which is very gracious of him. He added an index showing the people who contributed to this cookbook, most of whom are now deceased. There are 300 to 400 recipes.

 

It has been great for us because, during the pandemic, everyone else was stagnant for a year. We didn’t meet in person, but we were making money because we printed a thousand cookbooks, and they disappeared in a heartbeat. Everybody was buying them. We had porch pickups and everything else.

 

We ordered another thousand and still have about 300 left. It was a great money-maker for us when everyone else was losing. It’s just the original recipes, but we beefed them up a bit and organized them better. 

 

The legendary club’s cookbook

 

How are you reaching younger generations?

I’ve succeeded in bringing my daughter on board, and she is now the recording secretary.

 

At Christmas time, we have a party and invite guests and everything, but at the end, we do this bambina song; we’re singing a song and a rosary to Jesus. I remember the very first time she came there. I remember looking at her and seeing how that was something new for her. It’s bringing on those histories and things you wouldn’t necessarily know.

 

The other thing is when we use the cookbook and make the cookies. My daughter looked in the cookbook and found one that made 13 dozen cookies. It would be the easiest recipe to make because then we wouldn’t have to make two or three batches. Between the two of us, we were trying to put this together (and these are recipes written years ago), and we’re trying to figure it out.

It has been very rewarding to experience it with my daughter, instill it, and pass it on. I believe for a lot of the members, having the younger generation along with the older ones… They’re enjoying that. And they like that because—believe me—a lot of advice is provided in these group meetings! There’s a lot of openness and a lot of caring for the group. And I think the younger generation sees this. 

 

Each event is a celebration of Sicilian sisterhood.

 

What do you hope members gain from their experience?

I hope they continue to understand the group and further understand the culture, the reasons these people made the food, and the traditions they passed on. 

 

 

 

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Beneath the Sicilian Stars Virtual Launch Party with Author Lindsay Marie Morris

 

Thanks to all who joined me for the release of my newest novel, Beneath the Sicilian Stars (Storm Publishing, July 2025). I’m also so grateful for our party host, Catherine Maita. July 8’s party brought readers together from near and far (from across the United States to India!) to celebrate a tale of family, resilience, and the enduring ties that span an ocean and generations.

Beneath the Sicilian Stars is my attempt to bring overlooked history to light and honor the resilience of ordinary people during extraordinary times. I believe these stories matter—not just to remember the past, but to remind us how fear can too easily overshadow compassion, and how immigrant communities have historically managed to endure even through the darkest times. Thank you for watching, for reading, and for supporting my journey.

 

Click here to see a list of where and when you can catch my future appearances (many are virtual).

Poggioreale in America: Connecting Descendants Through History, Heritage, and Hope

When Sarah Campise Hallier’s father unexpectedly passed away in 2012, she realized she didn’t have much information about his side of the family or her Sicilian roots. It awakened a passion for genealogy, and in 2019, her research led her to a distant Texas cousin, Ross Todaro, Jr., who had recently co-founded a group called Poggioreale in America (PIA).

 

Ross invited Sarah to a reunion in College Station, Texas, organized for people like her, descendants of Poggioreale, Sicily. There, she encountered 300 people who shared her connection to the Trapani Province town.

 

Later that year, she traveled to Sicily on a Poggioreale in America-sponsored trip. Fifteen people stayed for nine nights in the 500-person town. Each day, the group was bused to a different Sicilian locale, allowing Sarah to see the island’s western side. She also saw the remains of her great-great-grandfather’s house at Poggioreale’s original site, now a ghost town.

More than 200 people died in a 1968 Belice Valley earthquake. It decimated Poggioreale and forced the evacuation of about 4,000 residents. Some moved to a newly erected village just over two miles south. Others relocated elsewhere in Sicily. But many left Italy completely, heading to the United States and Australia.

 

Thus began a second major wave of Poggiorealesi emigration, seven decades after the first. About 4 million Italians—most from the south and Sicily—arrived in the U.S. between 1890 and 1920. Many fled rural poverty after Italy’s Risorgimento; others followed family and job opportunities. The Poggioreale diaspora settled in New Orleans, Texas’s Brazos Valley, and, in the case of Sarah’s family, Fresno, California. 

After that first reunion and Sicily visit, Ross and co-founder Tina Anderson asked Sarah to join the PIA team. She’s served on the board for five years and is currently the managing editor. It’s a natural fit for the writer and Appetito magazine associate editor. But Sarah wears many hats.

 

In addition to managing the quarterly newsletter and helping oversee website and social media communications, she’s helped with reunions and the college scholarship fund. The group raised $15,000 in 2022 and 2023 for college students who are also descendants of Poggioreale.

 

“The sense of community is important to me, especially with my dad not here anymore,” Sarah says.

 

She continues to help grow the organization, hoping to strengthen the Poggiorealesi community across generations.

 

Sarah Campise Hallier with PIA co-founders Ross Todaro and the late Tina Anderson.

Tell us more about Poggioreale’s history.

The town itself was established in 1642, and we can trace my family back that far. In 1968, a devastating earthquake in Sicily affected Gibellina, Salaparuta, and Poggioreale.

 

There’s a lot of controversy surrounding that earthquake. It was pretty devastating in Poggioreale. When we interviewed the people in the town who never left, they said the government came in and decided that the town was uninhabitable. So, the government established barracks at the foot of the hill.

 

For the better part of 15 years, the families would sleep in the barracks at night, but during the day, they would travel back up to the town, go into their houses, cook, and just hang out in the piazza. There are still people in the town who lived through this and are still alive.

 

One Poggioreale resident told me, “The concrete unions came in and built a new town at the base of the hill.” Many survivors of the earthquake still live in the new town, but the ghost town up on the hill is a reminder of the sadness from over 50 years ago.

Some say the town probably could have been salvaged had it gotten into the right hands, but the government is now helping the town turn it into a tourist destination. They’ve started a little museum and renovations in some of the buildings so that tourists can visit safely.

 

Sarah Campise Hallier and her brother, Dr. John Campise, in Poggioreale Antica in front of the ruins of their great-great-grandfather Mariano Campisi’s birthplace. 

 

What are PIA’s future plans?

Poggioreale in America, Junior is a subdivision of PIA. They worked with the board to create the college scholarship program, and they’re trying to grow that right now. It’s been stagnant over the past year, but recent donations have sparked an interest in revamping the program for this coming year.

 

A PIA 2023 calendar was sold to raise funds for the college scholarship program.

 

What keeps you involved?

I had my Italian citizenship recognized in 2021 through the San Francisco Consulate via the Italian Jure Sanguinis law. I’ve been an amateur genealogist for decades, learning it all from my mom. While I was growing up, I watched her traipsing through cemeteries—all of the stuff you did before the internet came around to find out your family history. So, the genealogical perspective is probably what I enjoy the most—being able to find your roots. I do a lot of work with expanding our family tree and helping others within the organization do that, too—just as a fun side project. But I just feel a connection to the part of it that brings us all together.

 

Reunion organizers Marilyn and Jack Henley, Jack Anderson (husband of late President Tina Anderson), Anna and AJ Tusa (owners of Briquette Restaurant), Cav. Pietro Maniscalco from Australia, Father Rigoli (Pastor Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church), and Sarah Campise Hallier at the 2025 PIA Reunion in New Orleans

It’s absolutely amazing that thousands of people all over the United States came from this small town in Sicily. My daughter attends UT Austin. She was born and raised in California, and did a blind roommate pairing during her first year in college. In the first couple of weeks of being in her dorm, she found out that her roommate’s great-grandparents also came from Poggioreale. We’ve been trying to figure out if we are related or not.

 

Little things like that make you think, “Wow, it’s pretty incredible,” and to just be able to get together… I’ve been able to meet first cousins I never knew I had.

 

Sarah Campise Hallier’s Campise cousins at the 2023 PIA Reunion in Bryan, Texas

 

 

 

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From Carlentini to the Cornhusker State: Reviving Omaha’s Forgotten Sicilian Ties

Omaha might not be the first place that comes to mind when considering a community with a rich Italian heritage. However, Italians are, in fact, the Gateway to the West’s fourth-largest ethnic group. Two-thirds of that population claims roots in the small Syracuse Province town of Carlentini, Sicily. Their ancestors first arrived in the late 19th century, pursuing opportunities with the railroad and in construction, smelting, and meatpacking. The Carlentini families brought their devotion to Santa Lucia, their town’s patron saint, leading to the 1925 founding of Omaha’s annual Santa Lucia Festival.

 

Within the waves of immigrants from Carlentini, a widow named Lucia Ciculla arrived in 1913 with her daughters in search of a better life. Her family has lived in Omaha’s Little Italy for generations. Today, her great-great-granddaughter Sheri Kanger, director and co-founder of the Sicula Italia Association and co-founder of the Carlentini Omaha Association, is working on strengthening the connection to her ancestral home. After much coordination and trips back and forth to Sicily, Sheri hopes to see the two locales linked as sister cities later this year.

 

Sheri shared the inspiration for the Carlentini Omaha Association, its path to sister city status, their accomplishments, and what the organization hopes to deliver.

  

 

What led you down this path toward connecting Carlentini with Omaha?

My whole journey started in 2011 when I started asking my grandfather questions about his grandmother. He told me she was buried right down the street, a few blocks from my grandfather’s house, up on a hill.

 

My grandfather told me how close he was to his grandmother, and that’s the part that got me because I was so close to my grandparents. When he passed away in 2014, I told my husband, Ken, “Nobody’s buying Grandpa’s house. Let’s buy it.” 

So, we sold our 3,400-square-foot home and bought a 950-square-foot home. Shortly after that, I went to the cemetery and archdiocese offices and said, “I don’t quite know where my grandmother’s buried. Can you give me some information?”

 

The gal asks, “Well, when was she buried?” And I’d seen a photo from my sister, so I said, “On her headstone, it just said her first and last name, the year she was born, and the year she died.” I showed the photo, and they said, “Well, we need to know what month.”

 

It dawned on me that in 2011, when I was asking my grandpa questions about his grandmother, he said she was really sick and dying of cancer when it was close to the festival time. He remembered looking out the window with his grandmother on the edge of her bed. The saints were coming down the street, the band was playing, and the whole procession was going by. So I knew it was late August since it’s been celebrated at the same time for years and years.

 

I said, “Let’s start with August.” So, the lady went and got these big books because they weren’t in the computer system. She went down the list, through all of August and all of September, and found my great-grandmother’s name and that she died September 29, 1939.

 

She got me the plot map, and it dawned on me: I remembered my grandfather saying he didn’t like that her cameo was missing, that it must have fallen off and broken, and that it bothered him that her picture was not on the headstone anymore. So, I just blurted out, “Do you have a lost and found?”

 

The lady turned around and pulled a cookie tin from a file cabinet. She opened the lid and pulled out three cameos. One was a young soldier, the second was an old woman who didn’t look Italian, and the third was someone who looked like she could be related.

 

She looked like my sister, and I remembered my grandpa saying my sister always reminded him of her. She’s got these blue eyes—bright, light blue. My mom had those eyes, and it’s a very rare recessive trait. In this black-and-white photo, you could tell that the eyes were light, so I took a picture of them. I sent the picture to my sister, and she said, “Where’d you find her?” And I said, “Is that her?” And she said, “Yes.”

 

I said, “Well, I just left the archdiocese.” She said, “Go back.” I went back, and all three cameos were still lying out on the shelf on the counter. I grabbed my great-great-grandmother’s and I left.

 

I had it remade because I knew retelling that story would be hard if I put that same cameo back on. I told my great aunt, who would be my grandfather’s sister, and she insisted on paying for a new cameo.

 

We had a little ceremony with my great aunt and one of my cousins. My son, my niece, and my sister were there. We all went and put this thing back on with glue, and to this day, it’s still on there. It’s been there for almost 10 years.

 

I brought the original cameo back to my house. I have my grandparents’ remains, so I put the cameo on the box of remains.

 

Sheri Kanger’s great-great-grandmother’s cameo

Tell us how and why the Carlentini Omaha Association formed.

I went to Carlentini with Ken in 2017, and our marriage was blessed in the mother church there. There was this instantaneous connection—just being in that city, feeling like these are my roots. I am half Italian and a quarter Carlentinese, but those are some strong roots!

 

It was so inspiring to me. I had been a member of the Sons and Daughters of Italy. But when I returned, I became part of the Santa Lucia Festival organization and the American Italian Heritage Society.

In 2018, Santa Lucia Festival’s members wanted to take a trip to Carlentini for the 400th anniversary of the celebration of Santa Lucia in 2021. I stood up at a meeting before I even talked to my husband, and I volunteered to put the whole trip together. People were excited, and at that point, 100 people wanted to go. But when I told them, “There’s a $500 deposit, and this is what the actual amount is,” it changed. So, roughly 50 of us planned to go to Italy in 2021.

 

As I was putting this trip together, our mayor in Omaha was also working on a sister city relationship with France because Omaha Beach has that connection with Omaha, Nebraska. I thought, “There’s got to be something we can do with all the Italians I’ve grown up with.”

 

So, I contacted the Omaha Sister City Association (OSCA). When I finally got a response and met with them, they told me certain requirements were involved. They didn’t think people in Omaha would be interested in having a sister city with Carlentini.

 

I said, “I think you’re wrong about that. I just came back from there in 2017, and there are people here and there who would both be interested in formalizing this relationship because we’ve always had this sister bond.” I mean, even symbolically, in my own family, the three sisters who were separated from each other, cousins who have been separated across the world for generations.

 

I met with a lady named Carmelita De LaGuardia, who has a similar background to mine. Once she found out I was putting this trip together for 2021, she said, “My family’s out there in Carlentini; they want to know who you are.” I told her my family history and that I was a Ciculla. She said, “I’m Ciculla, too. We’re related!”

 

She and I decided to contact OSCA and set up a meeting. We met with them and shared information about the enclaves, the Italian population, and all of the things those people did to create the city as it is today.

 

The person from OSCA looked at both of us and said, “Why haven’t Omaha and Carlentini already been sister cities? This is amazing information.” They wanted to know more, so I wrote and submitted the application in 2020.

 

My husband was the deputy chief of police then and had cabinet meetings with the mayor of Omaha. Mayor Jean Stothert just happened to come across this application from OSCA, saying they wanted to establish a relationship between Omaha and Carlentini. And she said, “Why is Catania applying for a sister city when France is not solidified, yet?”

 

My husband responded, “It’s Carlentini.” 

 

The mayor asked, “How do you know?” And Ken responded, “My wife submitted the application for Carlentini to pursue the sister city connection.”

 

She then said, “I’d like to go to Italy. This would be kind of a neat thing. Tell me more.”

 

Our 2021 trip actually derailed because of COVID. The mayor then went up with my husband, me, and an OSCA representative in 2022. It was shortly after that that we formalized the “friendship agreement.” It’s like your engagement before your wedding ceremony, so to speak. In August, the formalization of Carlentini as a sister city will occur.

 

Mayor Jean Stothert signs the Carlentini-Omaha sister city “friendship agreement,” while Carlentini Mayor Giuseppe Stefio simultaneously does the same.
 

In 2020, when we were all in shutdown mode, we needed somebody on the other side in Carlentini who could also speak English and help us facilitate and get this moving. It just so happened that my travel guides had to pivot while in shutdown and were doing these live feeds from different cities and places. They ended up introducing the world to a travel guide named Eleanora Formica, who would be my travel guide.

 

I contacted her on Messenger and said, “My family’s from Carlentini; this is their name.” She said, “I went to school with your younger cousin, Laura.”

 

We started an instant friendship, teamed up with Carmelita, and started the Carlentini Omaha Association. We signed documents in Carlentini in October 2020. From there, our relationship was like a sisterhood, the three of us girls. We thought of all kinds of programs, projects, and events that could better strengthen that bond between our two cities moving forward. We’ve since had six different grade schools involved in pen pal programs. We’ve had three galas and have done all kinds of different things.

 

On this end, Carmelita, three others, and I started the Sicula Italia Foundation to help fund programs we would do with Carlentini. Then, it took a different route. Some of us found that it would be easier to do individual projects.

In November 2023, I got a call from an elementary school teacher and Eleanora in Carlentini. They wanted to do a physical exchange and bring elementary school children to Omaha for a week. I set up an itinerary and a place for them to stay.

 

I did not have any funds. Since the Carlentini Omaha Association was actually in Carlentini, this was going to be a challenge to do on my own. I contacted Omaha Public Schools with the signage at the bottom saying Carlentini Omaha Association. They sent me a contract back with Carlentini Omaha Association at the top.

 

I said, “I can’t do this with just my name, so I went ahead and formed Carlentini Omaha Association U.S.A. Incorporated. That’s how we were able to reach an agreement with the Omaha Public School system and have the kids from Carlentini come over.

 

The kids loved being in Omaha for the week. They met kids of Carlentini descent, which was a big plus for them. They started new relationships and friendships.

 

Two community events took place at the Sons and Daughters of Italy Hall, where they worked with me and hosted a potluck dinner one night and then a genealogy meeting another night with the kids. My husband helped me put together a big program with the Police Athletics for Community Engagement program (PACE). We had kids from Omaha who were of Carlentini descent playing with kids from Carlentini on a team called Carlentini Omaha Association, fully outfitted with soccer gear, playing against kids who were of primarily Hispanic descent with PACE, playing the game that’s universal to the world: soccer.

 

Over 150 people attended this event. It’s just something that’s near and dear to my heart, and I want to continue strengthening that relationship.

 

Omaha kids welcome exchange students arriving from Carlentini.

 

What do you hope to share with your community?

I taught for 26 years and had a project in one of my classes where the kids had to show pictures of their families. I called it the “All About Me” project. Knowing who you are and where you come from is important, and diversity makes us understand and appreciate each other more. Those differences make us understand each other and not hide that we’re not all the same.

 

Understanding different cultures and respecting, honoring, and continuing traditions is important. It’s also important for the people in Carlentini and for us to be able to help fund projects and continue to work with them.

 

 

 

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Vermont’s Italian Spirit Endures: From Stonecutters to Cultural Stewards

The history of Vermont’s Italian American community was shaped in stone and later bulldozed in the name of progress. But in the end, those were only structures, for its spirit lives on, thanks in part to the efforts of the Vermont Italian Cultural Association (VICA). 

Starting in the 1880s, skilled stone cutters and carvers from Northern Italian cities, including Carrara, emigrated to the state, pursuing high-paying jobs in a place with hills and lakes reminiscent of their home. Many found work carving headstones at the Vermont Marble Company, which had operations in Proctor and Rutland. Later, more Italian immigrants settled in Washington County’s Barre, the self-proclaimed “Granite Center of the World,” where they worked the quarries and carving sheds.  

As the Italian immigrant population grew, families gravitated toward Vermont’s largest city, Burlington, and formed what would later become known as its Little Italy. However, starting in the 1960s, the city embraced a philosophy of urban renewal and razed over 140 homes, businesses, community centers, schools, and gardens in favor of new commercial developments.

While the Greater Burlington Italian American community lacked a physical heart, its love and devotion to its heritage inspired VICA’s launch in 1983. The group’s passionate push to preserve connection and identity has evolved into a statewide network that partners with cultural organizations, such as opera companies, film festivals, music groups, and authors, to deliver Italian-themed events and programming.

VICA President Lisa DeNatale moved to the Green Mountain State 25 years ago. For her first 15 years, she was largely unaware of its Italian presence. Once she discovered the rich heritage and history, the descendant of Sicilians from the Enna Province town of Pietraperzia felt called to preserve it.

Lisa shared more about Vermont’s connection to Italy, the organization’s history and current offerings, and her leadership goals.
 

 

VICA President Lisa DeNatale in Venice, Italy

 

Tell us more about Vermont’s Italian immigrant history.

To tell that story, I have to say a little bit about my own background because I’m half Sicilian; my grandparents came from Sicily. My father, Giuseppe Salvatore DeNatale, was born in the U.S. I grew up outside Boston, where there’s a very large, prominent, and active Italian and Italian American community. It was common for us to get together with my grandparents for Pasqua, name days—you name it. And it was always a very important part of my life.

 

I met my husband and moved to Portland, Oregon, where we stayed for 10 years. We moved to Vermont 25 years ago, totally unaware that there was really an Italian community here, and stumbled upon it after being here for 15 years or so.

 

I guess it just never occurred to me that there would be an Italian community in Vermont. It was not the place you heard about Italian immigrants coming to. But as I’ve learned, it was an important destination for Italians, primarily those from the north initially.

 

In the late 19th century, Vermont had granite and marble quarries. When these were discovered and/or developed, they needed skilled carvers. A large population of Italian immigrants, mainly men, came here from Carrara and many northern towns, and then more came from the Naples area. They came to Barre (not to be confused with Bari, Italy) and the Rutland area, where the quarries were.

 

They had a very strong Italian immigrant presence in Barre, where they built the Socialist Party Labor Hall. One testament to the work of these men is Hope Cemetery, where many Italian immigrants are buried. It’s also where many stone cutters cut their monuments and mausoleums, so it’s really an outdoor museum.

 

From the late 19th to the early 20th century, there was a great Exodus from Italy; more and more people came here to support Italian families and businesses. Some came to Burlington and formed a tight-knit Italian neighborhood. They might have started as fruit peddlers and then opened markets and businesses.

 

There was a very strong Italian community here in Burlington, where Italian was heard on the streets. What has remained is this very strong Italian culture, Italian tradition, and an appreciation for what Italian immigrants brought to Vermont.

 

The Vermont Italian Cultural Association is the primary organization whose mission is to preserve and promote Italian culture so that we don’t forget that Italian immigrants made many important, lasting contributions to Vermont and the country.

 

I was doing some research and discovered that Stanley Tucci’s paternal grandparents first came to Vermont. They settled in Northfield. His grandfather learned how to cut and worked in the slate sheds. He came when he was 14 years old, which was when many came to this country, met his wife, married, and lived in Northfield, Vermont, until they moved to New York, where they opened a monument company.

 

I’m sure there are many stories like that of others who came here and since moved on to other parts of the country and became prominent carvers and stone cutters for many of the monuments you see throughout the United States. 

 

VICA members make pizzelle.

How and why was the VICA founded?

Some Italian Americans and Italians came to Vermont, some to teach at the university, and they were leaving places like Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. When they came here, there was no organization. They believed they were drawn to one another and felt it was really important to form a community and begin to recognize the contributions, culture, and heritage that preceded them.

We just celebrated 42 years since the organization was created. It didn’t start as a nonprofit. It started with people getting together in someone’s living room or a local community center. It’s been about 23 years since we officially became a 501 (c) 3.

 

We’re an all-volunteer organization. We don’t have any paid staff. We don’t have a building or a hall where you can have events. The organization was really founded by families and individuals in the Greater Burlington area. It’s the largest city in the state and home to many colleges and universities. So it was started here, but our membership is statewide. We have members living outside the state because we offer virtual programming. We also have a number of business partners who are spread throughout the state. Those partners are a combination of Italians and Italian Americans who opened businesses producing or selling Italian products. Several native Italians here in Vermont make salumi and pasta, bringing all the Italian traditions and methods to Vermont. Because we don’t have a physical space, these partnerships allow us to really have a large footprint in the state.

 

VICA Carnevale

What events and activities do you host?

Vermont is not a large state—we have fewer than a million people. It’s easy to network, so we have been creating business partnerships and relationships with cultural organizations. We have several opera companies here, the International Film Festival, and Upper Valley Baroque. There are just so many cultural organizations that we partner with to bring Italian music, film, opera, food, wine, or history to our members and the greater community.

 

The music director of the Opera Company of Middlebury, Filippo Ciabatti, is also the director of Orchestral and Choral Programs at the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College. A native Italian, Filippo has presented several online lectures. We just did one on Puccini because the Opera Company of Middlebury will be performing La bohème this summer.

 

Our events really run the gamut. We host writers and have wine-tasting events, cooking classes, and Italian language conversation groups. We also have a very strong relationship with the Italian Consulate in Boston, which has jurisdiction over Vermont, so we’ve done events in partnership with them. In March, we celebrated Carnevale with a fundraiser for our scholarships and grants program.

 

The events can be completely tied to an Italian feast or a celebration, such as Liberation Day, or they could just be because we have something interesting to share with our community. There’s really something for everybody. 

 

VICA members play a game of bocce.

 

What do you hope to share with your members and the community?

What we really want to do, first and foremost, is just remind people of the depth and the richness of Italian heritage here in Vermont. Maybe we don’t necessarily appreciate or understand things about particular aspects of Italian culture—even if it’s just wine tasting and hearing about the different regions of Italy and the wine.

 

More than anything, it connects to those things that are deeply a part of who we are. Whenever we get together, I always have a story, or someone shares a story with me, that we just immediately connect on. Maybe it’s the way we had dinner at our nonna’s house.

 

The most important thing is to connect as a community through those things that we share that maybe we’ve lost sight of because we are a little farther away generationally. Younger people, and we have quite a few younger members, are also seeking that kind of understanding and connection because they’re farther away generationally from their ancestry. That’s really what we want to accomplish. 

 

 

VICA members enjoy an Italian dinner together.

 

 

 

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Where the Crust Is Thin and the Roots Run Deep: The Story of Zaffiro’s Pizza

Step through the door at Zaffiro’s Pizza at 1724 North Farwell Avenue in Milwaukee, and you’ll find yourself immersed in the past while perfumed by the scents of garlic, tomato sauce, fried seafood, and freshly made pizzas. It’s a classic 1950s pizza joint with red-and-white checkered cloths draped over tables with salt, pepper, and Parmesan shakers. 

Set in the Brady Street neighborhood—one of Milwaukee’s three historic Italian enclaves—the restaurant has been family-owned for 71 years. Its story began with Librorio “Bobby” and John Zaffiro, whose parents arrived in the United States in 1913 from Santo Stefano di Camastra, Sicily.

The brothers opened Rock-a-Bye Tap in 1951, just a few years after the end of World War II, when American soldiers returned from Italy with newfound cravings for pizza. The bar was located in another historically Italian neighborhood, the Third Ward, which was hungry for familiar cuisine. So, the Zaffiros decided to start serving pizza.

As Italian food grew in popularity, so did the Zaffiros’ business. Bobby opened Zaffiro’s Restaurant on Farwell in 1954. It had just a few tables and a service bar. Bobby used his mother-in-law’s recipes to prepare pasta dishes and lasagne. But the star of the menu was his super-thin crust pizza. 

By 1970, it was clear Zaffiro’s needed more space, so Bobby acquired the barber shop next door and added a dining room and a full bar. John made the pizzas while the more extroverted Bobby worked front of house. You could often find him making people laugh from behind the bar.

John retired in 1988, and Bobby passed away a year later. Bobby’s wife, Rose, and their two sons, Mike and Joseph, took over Zaffiro’s until Joseph left the business in 2007. Rose passed in 2008, and Mike and his family have held full ownership to this day.

The restaurant has weathered economic downturns, neighborhood shifts, and the COVID-19 pandemic, but for 71 years, it has remained standing, retaining its original decor and recipes. Sure, there have been changes, like its partnership with Marcus Theatres, which introduced regional theater-goers to the Zaffiro’s brand, and expanded delivery service, which became necessary starting with the pandemic. But at the end of the day, Zaffiro’s mission remains intact. It’s all about building a community around good food.

Mike shared Zaffiro’s history, business growth, challenges, and more. 

 

 

Quite possibly the world’s thinnest pizza crust

 

What inspired Zaffiro’s super-thin pizza crust?

My father and my uncles took a road trip to New York, and they saw how big pizza was. At that time, there might have been one pizza place in Milwaukee. My dad said, “I’m going to put pizza on the menu at the bar.”

 

He worked tirelessly to figure out how to make our crust, which is the thinnest crust in the world. It was through a lot of trial and error.

 

He wanted thin and didn’t want it to droop. My dad always said about the pizza they tried out East, “Some of those pizzas are falling down.”

 

They serve in eight slices with mostly triangular cuts. We do 16 with square-cut slices. It’s known in Chicago as “tavern pizza.”

 

Why has it been so important to preserve the original recipes?

It comes down to this: When I’m behind the bar, and someone comes in and hasn’t been in here for 20 or 30 years and says, “It tastes the same,” that’s what I want. My father really stressed that you don’t mess with the recipe.

 

Tell us about your partnership with Marcus Theaters and how that came about.

They came to me in 2008 and asked if I was interested. At that time, I was looking to open another place, but I decided to take the jump. They know what they’re doing and have been terrific with us.

 

They do everything. It’s a licensing agreement, so I don’t have to worry about anything. They’ve got my name and my recipe. They were selling our pizza at Miller Park for three years.

 

They sell our pizzas in their theaters throughout the Midwest. They have three regular sit-down restaurants, and then in all the other theaters, they have it so you can bring your pizza into the theater with you. 

 

What challenges have you faced?

The recessions over the years and 9/11 really hit us. All you can do is keep plugging away. Thank God we were able to stay in business and make enough to keep it afloat.

 

During COVID, we had to close the dining area. We had been delivering to downtown businesses during the day and decided to start delivery from the evenings until closing time to keep the business alive. We now deliver during all opening hours, and it’s a big part of our business.

 

Mike Zaffiro worked behind the bar crafting Wisconsin Old-Fashioneds and more for decades.

 

How has your location on Farwell, near Brady Street, benefited you?

I’ve always wondered how it would have worked if we were somewhere else. When people say “Location, location, location,” I believe that. We have location, location, location, but with a terrific product. You can have the location, but it’s no good if you don’t have a product that goes with it.

 

We’ve been in the community for a long time. With the area’s apartments, you have turnovers. So people will be there for three years, and then you don’t see them for a couple of years, and then all of a sudden they’re coming in with kids. And they keep coming back.

 

Rebecca, Mike, Rose, and Michael Zaffiro

 

What is the future of Zaffiro’s?

Both of my kids are working here, so they’re the next generation. That’ll be the third generation.

 

The restaurant hasn’t changed much since we’ve been here. We’ve often thought about remodeling, but customers say, “Don’t do that.” And I agree with them. 

 

Take your pick from deep-fried appetizers and old-school pasta to sandwiches and, of course, pizza.

 

What do you hope to share with customers?

We’ll just keep continually giving them a good product and good service at a reasonable price. I think we’re Milwaukee’s oldest pizza place now. We’ve gotten great press throughout the years, but it all comes back to the quality of the food. 

 

 

 

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How Food Shaped the Allied Invasion of Sicily in 1943

When and where did the U.S. first enter World War II in Europe? If you said D-Day, you’d be forgiven, as much has been said and produced related to the invasion of Normandy.

What most people forget was that the Allies’ first European landing was actually in Sicily from July through August of 1943. So-called Operation Husky began as a massive amphibious and airborne campaign followed by a six-week-long land operation involving more than 150,000 ground troops. 

Coverage of the event was carefully choreographed, with the media releasing photographs and newsreel footage of crowds cheering, women handing out flowers, and soldiers giving chocolate bars to children.

While writing The Last Letter in Sicily and Beneath the Sicilian Stars, I had the opportunity to tour Catania’s Museo Storico dello Sbarco in Sicilia 1943, where I gained a deeper understanding of this event from the Italian perspective. In truth, there was a fine line between liberation and invasion. Yes, these soldiers brought food and pushed out Nazis. But the campaign also cost the lives of 135,000 Italian troops.

Later, I stumbled on a fascinating project called “Food, Hunger, Migration and the American Myth in Sicily at the Time of the WWII Allied Landing,” produced by Teresa Fiore, the Theresa and Lawrence R. Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies at Montclair State University, and students at Montclair State University. The team conducted a series of interviews with individuals with memories of the arrival of the Allied Forces in Sicily in 1943, the late phase of Fascism, and the post-war period.

 

It’s a reminder that the history of war isn’t written by battles alone, but also by hunger, nourishment, and the stories passed down around the table. From these quiet legacies, several scenes in my historical novels were born.

 

 

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