Project Description
June 2022
Thank you Southern Italy Travel! Mirella and Stefano, you’ve taken us on an incredible ancestral journey over the last several years. The destination is great, too!
We started with researching our ancestors in multiple branches of my family, just to build a family tree. Your work was top-notch – accurate and thorough. The best part was you visited our ancestral towns and found information and records you can’t find on-line. Thank you!
Even better, after we decided to visit, we enlisted your help in finding any relatives in our ancestry village in Abruzzo. We did not expect you to find anyone, but we decided to take a chance. What a fantastic surprise you had for us when we arrived!
You found 8, convinced 4 to meet us, introduced us, and helped everyone overcome the language barrier in getting to know each other. Now, we are talking on our own with our “new” cousins and exchanging the histories of our families. And, who knows what will be next? Thank you!
But the very best was the full-day tour of the village. You knew the town, its history, the places, and the streets and homes of our ancestors so well – I bet it was better than what the residents even know.
You took the time to find great pictures from ‘back in the day’ of our ancestors. As a result, you turned a ‘boring’ family tree into a strong sense of how our ancestors lived, worked, and worshipped – and their struggles. We can now see where some of our traits came from, too! This was remarkable.
There’s one special thing you did that I want to highlight.
We arrived the day before our tour. We visited a small museum that’s dedicated to their famous Italian artist. He is known for painting scenes of the miserable conditions in this town in the 1800s. I had wondered if he painted the homes and streets of our ancestors — before photography was available. I was very disappointed to see a sign on the front door that said, in Italian, “closed for 2 weeks” and we wouldn’t be there when it opened. I even asked our B&B host if she could find a way to get us in. But the next day, to my shock and surprise, you had already convinced and scheduled the manager to open it for a private tour with her. And – yes, there was a painting of the street and homes where my grandfather and his family lived!!! We are so fortunate.
Mirella and Stefano – your service is outstanding, and you created a wonderful experience for us. Clearly, that’s because you put your heart and soul into this. You care to make a difference – and you did.
Grazie Mille!
Jim Berardone
