We may be expats in Bergamo, but my husband’s roots are in the far south of Italy, the toe of the boot. His maternal grandfather left the small town of Cittanova in 1905, returning only once to retrieve his wife and young son and escort them back to Pennsylvania.

Cittanova is in the far southern region of Calabria in the Province of Reggio Calabria across the Straits of Messina from Sicily. Situated at the foot of the Aspromonte mountain range, it has a current population (2022) of just under 10,000.

Our first visit to Cittanova was in 2011 and had a two-fold purpose. First, although we had made many trips to Italy, we had never visited my husband’s ancestral home. Second, we needed to visit the Comune to clear up some discrepancies in my application for citizenship by marriage. Our bed and breakfast hostess, Manolita, graciously offered to accompany us to the Comune to translate as we spoke no Italian at the time.

Imagine our surprise when, at the Comune, we were asked if we wanted to meet my husband’s relatives! We had no knowledge of relatives still living in Cittanova. Twenty minutes later my husband’s second cousin and her husband arrived at the town hall.

We spent the next 12 hours with the new found relatives. With true Southern Italian hospitality, we were shown around not just Cittanova, but all its surrounds. At the time I spoke no Italian at all. Aided by two friends of the family who spoke French (my French used to be passable before learning Italian) and English (a Cittanova man returned from Boston where he had owned a pizzeria) we managed to communicate. And so our relationship began.

Over the years we’ve returned many times with American friends and family to enjoy the hospitality of Maria Teresa and Mario and to learn more about Cittanova.

The day after our arrival on our current trip we visited the Comune to clear up another discrepancy in my registry data. While the consulate in Philadelphia had me correctly registered as married (how else could they have given me citizenship by marriage?!), my data in the National Registry listed me as single. With the help of Maria and Alessandro in the Registry Office we were able to clear up the matter, paving the way to successfully register our apartment in Bergamo.

With the “official” part of our visit cleared up, we proceeded to enjoy wandering through the Friday market. Held every Friday morning throughout the year, it’s common to encounter acquaintances — even for us! Sprawled across several streets there are fruit and vegetable vendors, cheese, meat, clothing, household goods.

Walking through the Villa Comunale (city park) offers a cool respite from the heat. Cittanova is perhaps best known for this lovely park and also for its processing of the local specialty, stocco. Stockfish (or cod) is sourced from Norway where it is caught and dried and shipped to Cittanova where it is processed by the company Stocco & Stocco.

And we encounter a friend of the family, Rocco.

This evening, Saturday, is the wedding of Francesca and Antonio, beginning with the marriage ceremony in the park and followed by a reception in Taurianova. It’s the reason for our current visit and will be our first Calabrian wedding experience (first Italian wedding experience was a celebration in Puglia in 2019 for Francesca’s sister).