Tunes from a Tuscan Guitar: The Life and Times of an Italian Immigrant

This is the story of Ottorino Bianchi, an Italian who came to the United States in 1906 in search of the American Dream. Told with narrative, dialogue, historical facts, photos, and sketches of traditional handicrafts, it is the story of the emergence and transition of Italian American culture in Northern California...especially in San Francisco.

Ottorino witnessed the development of San Francisco's North Beach into an Italian-American enclave rich in culture. He became a commercial crab fisherman, and watched Fisherman's Wharf become a buzzing commercial center. He experienced the great earthquake of 1906, and the destruction, loss, and grief that preceded the building of San Francisco anew.