Forty Days in Italy Con La Mia Famiglia: How to Research Your Italian Roots & Travel to Italy on Your Own Terms

When people asked Anthony Fasano about his nationality, he always replied, “I’m Italian,” without understanding the depths of what that meant. After 35 years of saying this, and with the birth of his third child and the aging of his grandparents, he decided that vague response wasn’t good enough anymore. He decided he was going to learn everything he could about his Italian family roots. Over the next two years he:

• Recorded countless conversations with elder relatives about their recollection of the family history;
• Researched online genealogies and built a full family tree with images and documentation;
• Found and connected with living Italian relatives in both Naples and Sicily;
• Learned how to speak conversational Italian
• Planned and embarked on a life-changing 40-day trip to Italy with his wife and young children, to meet his newfound relatives for the first time.

The good news is that, like you, Anthony isn’t an expert in any of these fields, but he was still able to navigate them — and now he wants to help you do the same.

The first part of this book provides step-by-step guidelines for researching your family roots, learning Italian, and planning a voyage of discovery trip to Italy.

The second part of the book takes you on Anthony’s 40-day Italy trip so you can feel the emotional roller coaster that is connecting with your Italian relatives or simply visiting your ancestral villages. Now, every Italian American can experience the feeling of reconnecting with la famiglia.