ti voglio bene
il mio nonno e di sorrento, ma lui parla solo inglese con me in california.
my nonno is from sorrento (italia), but he speaks only english with me in california.
nonno (pictured far right), alongside our favorite waiter at parucchiano + my zio (great uncle tony on the left), back in their hometown, circa last june 2023.
it’s always so special to me visiting sorrento with nonno + our famiglia. last summer, 19 of our italian-american family ventured to sorrento together, to explore the sights, reconnect with lost cousins, & root ourselves in the italian heritage we so often don’t get to experience on that level. the food, the music, the culture, the laughter, the friends, the family, the town. it’s something really beautiful & exciting that allows us to draw near together & experience ‘la dolce vita’ once every so often growing up.
the parents; my mom, my aunt, my second cousins & uncles/aunts, (really everyone’s an aunt or uncle twice removed at this point), all travelled back and forth to italy often as they grew up, and while i’ve had the privilege of making my way back to our family’s hometown 5 times now over the years, it’s always a blessing when we can get everyone together, and have those long three-hour 40 person dinners, & jump into regina giovanna all together, or grab a peroni at marina grande.
it’s been a huge part of my life to have my italian culture so prevalent & so intentionally carried on by nonno, as he and uncle tony were the only ones to leave italy and move to california (& florida). i feel so appreciative that they didn’t let the italian side of our family fade as the years passed, but did their best to incorporate, even beyond a time when being an immigrant was not so welcomed in the united states during their initial transition.
his reasoning for not teaching us italian growing up was twofold— 1) “we need to learn ourselves” (as he was the only one in our immediate family who actually spoke it and communicated in his native language..although i disagree with that one because i could be bilingual right now!) & the other 2) it was looked down upon to speak another language when he first came to the usa back in the 60s. so english it was & english it’s been, until i had the opportunity to study in italy once (& now again), and am excited about the potential of becoming more than just ‘conversational’, and to the point where i may be ‘fluent’ & able to not only communicate with individuals in and around me in italy, but with my family down south..although many of them speak neapolitan & that is an entireeeellly other language altogether (ha).
but one thing nonno taught me is ‘ti voglio bene’, or ‘i love you’, and i haven’t decided if i am going to get it tattooed on my body or not yet, so for now, while i decide, this blog post will do. xx
