A Sicilian Family Reunion
Guest post by Jeff Castellana
Growing up in Rochester, New York gave me a sense of pride in my Italian heritage. The area is known for its Italian-American population, with a wealth of great Italian joints to prove it! My parents are originally from Corning, NY which is a smaller city about two hours south of Rochester, and it’s also where my grandparents are from. As a child, I remember visiting my grandparents and getting the first taste of my Italian background. Myron Castellana, aka my “Papa” (which I referred to him as), came from a large family of 8 children (with 3 sisters and 4 brothers) who were all very close. When they got together to celebrate there was always massive amounts of Italian delicacies. Some of my early childhood memories included picking swiss chard and tomatoes for homemade pasta sauce with my Papa in the garden and hearing faint stories of our Sicilian heritage. Over the years, as most adolescents do, I lost interest in where I was from…only to have the spark come back into my life as we were about to spend 3 months in Italy!
Before our trip, Jen and I had talked about how cool it would be to try and discover some of the regions where our ancestors are from. We thought it could be neat to have the chance to visit one of these spots during our travels. So we took this DNA test called ancestery.com where you send in a swap of your spit and after a few weeks you would receive some interesting results about where your ancestral line started. Little did I know this would be the start of a family discovery beyond my wildest expectations!
Fast forward to September: Our first destination is Florence and fate had it that my Uncle Bobby (who is the son of one of my Papa’s sisters named Josephine) was there visiting at the same time with friends! After trading emails, we coordinated a lunch get together. As we dove into some delicious gnocchi at Trattoria Za Za talks of our travels had come up, along with the mention of our plans to visit Sicily. My Uncle Bobby shared the story of him and his father traveling through Italy when he was younger, and how they had sought out the original town in Sicily where the Castellanas (and Recottas) were from. He painted such a memorable picture of enjoyment and discovery as he talked about how incredible it was to walk the streets and see the faces of his distant relatives. As he told the story I had goosebumps of excitement imagining the possibilities of visiting this town.
Me and Uncle Bobby in Florence
As we arrived in Rome for the month of November, the idea of a side trip to Sicily became more of a reality as we found cheap one-hour flight options and a car rental that would cost less than a ticket to the Colosseum. After my uncle provided me with the name of the town in Sicily where the Castellanas are from (called Caltavuturo), I reached out to my Aunt Mary Jo (my dad’s sister). My aunt had compiled detailed information about the Castellana family history, which I thought would come in handy in trying to track down someone related to me while in Sicily. She sent me a thorough document full of names, dates, and even old photos of my Papa when he was younger (thanks again, Aunt Mary Jo!).
Myron "Papa" Castellana (back row, second from left) with siblings
Myron "Papa" Castellana "Papa" (back row, far left) at a birthday celebration
Our next step was to book our trip to Sicily! We kept the trip short since we didn’t know what to expect. The chance of connecting with long lost relatives didn’t seem very likely. We decided to fly into Palermo, rent a car, then drive to Caltavuturo to spend one night. From there, we booked two nights in Catania before ending with one night in Palermo.
As we looked for a place to stay in Caltavuturo, the Airbnb stars aligned for us - there was only one option, and it was called “Grandma’s House” (kind of fitting)…I messaged Tomasso, the Airbnb host, to mention why we were coming to Caltavuturo and ask if he knew of any Castellanas in the area. To my surprise, he responded back with a “yes,” so I sent him the name of my Papa’s grandfather, Gesualdo Castellana, who had been born in Caltavuturo and was the first descendant to migrate over from Sicily to the US. The unknown anticipation of what Sicily would be like, and if there was any chance I could actually meet one of my distant relatives, kept me up in wonderment for the next few days.
After a sleepless night for the both of us, we were up and out the door shortly after 6am on our way to the airport for our flight to Sicily. Once we landed in Palermo, we picked up our little Fiat and were on the road to Caltavuturo!
Sicily’s landscape was beautiful and much more mountainous than either of us realized!
On the road to Caltavuturo
Caltavuturo was in the mountains and was a lot more remote than I would've expected. We met our Airbnb host, Tomasso (whose English was as non-existent as my Italian was), who helped check us into “Grandma’s House.” It certainly felt like grandma’s house - neither of us were convinced that grandma didn’t die right in the bed we slept in! It was like stepping back in time with old, original furnishings in a traditional multi-storied narrow home with a different room on each floor (kitchen and dining on the first floor, living room on the second, one bedroom each on the next two floors). The views from each of the balconies and the top floor terrace were breathtaking as they overlooked the mountain landscape!
The views from atop Grandma's House
Using the Google Translate app, Tomasso started to share some exciting news with us: He had found my relatives and had organized a dinner with them that evening (holy shit, jaw-drop face expression). If that wasn’t enough he asked if we were hungry and said to come by his house in an hour for lunch. WOAH. This day immediately and unexpectedly turned into a pinch yourself type moment. I mean, I figured this was a complete longshot and really only expected us to have a quiet wander around a sleepy town without meeting any relatives. It quickly, amazingly became the best case scenario instead!
We went to Tomasso’s home for lunch which felt like an episode of Anthony Bourdain. He fed us a feast of local traditional lunch food including sfincione (Sicilian pizza, topped with anchovies), pickled tomatoes, peppers, and olives, and even busted out the homemade red wine he had stored in the closet.
Walking into Tomasso's place
During lunch, his daughter Francesca arrived from Palermo, where she attends the university. As the only English-speaker in the family, she became the great translator for the rest of the time we spent with them! She told us her father runs a tourism activities company called Identità Madonita that takes visitors climbing (the mountains) and more. Tomasso and Francesca took us on a tour of Caltavuturo in his 1972 yellow Land Rover (badass). It was crazy watching him navigate around the narrow cobblestone streets - it was like being on an amusement park ride through an old Sicilian town!
Jen and I with Tomasso and his vintage Land Rover
They took us to see the ancient ruins of the old Caltavuturo, built by the Arabs around the 10th century. Not only were the ruins fascinating, the panoramic views of the “new” city below and the surrounding landscape was incredible. You could actually see the mountains and the sea from the old castle, and to top it off we took all this in as the sun was setting over the mountains - truly magical!
Next, they took us for a quick peek into a garage to see an olive oil production, where locals bring their own olives to be made into olive oil. Most everyone has their own olive trees from which they make their own oil (try to beat that Whole Foods).
Our final stop was to the local museum, where we enjoyed our own private tour. I had the opportunity to learn a little more about the history of Caltavuturo and some of their traditions like The Opera dei Pupi.
A photo inside the museum of local futbol star Tanino Castellana
Handmade puppets for traditional theatre performances
During our outing, Francesca told us that my relative Gaetano (Tanino) Castellana was the president of the Sicilian folk organization of Caltavuturo (traditional dance and music) that travels all over the world to perform in UNESCO-esque festivals. Conveniently, Francesca was a member of the organization (dancer), which had set the wheels in motion for connecting me with my long lost relatives! Unfortunately, Gaetano was out of town visiting his son in Amsterdam (his son Vincenzo lives in Amsterdam and his daughter Alice lives in London), but they were able to connect us with Gaetano’s brother Calogero ("Charlie"). It was meant to be because Calogero had a passion for researching his ancestors/the Castellana family tree, so he had a wealth of information to share.
Calogero picked us up at our Airbnb for dinner, and we met more of the family (including his wife Antonietta, his son Simone, his sister Giuseppa and her husband and Gaetano’s wife Anna) at the restaurant (Alter Ego). For dinner, we enjoyed a spread of more local foods - cheeses, meats, focaccia, pizza with anchovies and olives, followed by pasta with mushrooms. Oddly enough, Caltavuturo was having a “Fungi Ferla” (aka mushroom) festival that weekend!
It was so exciting to compare each family's research (I had brought along a print-out of the robust document that my aunt had compiled) to find the matching names and dates. As we started looking over both sets of records, we noticed there was a connection with Gesualdo Castellana (Papa's grandfather) and the dates of his birth (1866) had matched what Calogero had. It turned out that Gesualdo's brother Vincenzo was the direct descendant (great-grandfather) of Calogero and Giuseppa, and that we both stemmed from Gesualdo and Vincenzo’s father Gaetano Castellana (born in 1829). We all started freaking out with excitement!!
Come to find out that Calogero’s side of the family had not heard from Gesualdo since leaving for America so the connection was essentially lost until now! Interestingly, Calogero had visited New York and went to Ellis Island to research his side (Vincenzo) and found the dates of when he arrived. It was fascinating to think of our distant relatives coming to the United States to try to find us, too!
The evening flew by and ended with Calogero inviting us to have lunch with more of the family on our way back through to Palermo, how could we say no to that!!
Me and Giuseppa
We woke up after a great slumber and got ready for the day. We had planned to see Tomasso to checkout/say goodbye, so we met him and Francesca at his office. Though we thought it would be a brief goodbye, they told us that their nonna (Francesca’s grandmother) was preparing a traditional lunch for us at noon, so it turned out we were extending our departure by a bit!
Back at their house, we enjoyed a full family authentic lunch cooked by their adorable "nonna." She prepared a Sicilian version of lasagna made with anchovies, greens picked from the countryside, raisins, bucatini noodles, and of course, homemade tomato sauce. It was the perfect meal to send us off on our way to Catania.
Nonna and her lasagna!
Best Airbnb hosts ever!!
As we arrived back in Caltavuturo a couple days later, we met Calogero for aperitivo at a tiny bar for arancini and wine, then we went to his sister's house for the main event: a lunch with the extended Castellana family! There was: Calogero, his wife, and his son; Giuseppa and her husband; Calogero’s mother (Giuseppa); Gaetano’s wife (Anna); and two of Calogero’s aunts (sisters of their father who’s also conveniently named Vincenzo). Needless to say understanding this family tree is not easy with many of the same names being passed down from generation to generation.
Me with my two distant great aunts!
Giuseppa made a ridiculous feast - it was more food than we would have at Thanksgiving, for fewer people. We sat close and cozy directly within the kitchen!
First course was antipasto with lots of pickled things (mushrooms, olives, peppers), cheese (pecorino, heaping plate of ricotta, cacio cavello), bread with olives, caponata. Everything was locally sourced.
Second course (which Jen regrettably thought was the "main" course) was a heaping bowl of pasta filled with all the goodies; it had eggs, prosciutto, beef, and peas, all together as a pasta dish with spaghettio-type rings called antinelli, a classic Sicilian pasta.
Third course was breaded mushroom, steamed greens, potatoes, sausage, and spinach omelette.
Fortunately, we took a break before tackling dessert, which included 3 homemade cakes, almond/honey toffee from the festival, and a box of goodies from a local pasticceria including little cannoli. In between, we stopped to see the saint statue of Calogero's namesake saint, which he started a festival for.
After, we finished with espresso and Calogero took me through the historical documents he found at the local church, and I got to fill out my branch of the Castellana tree on Calogero's handmade map (so cool!). We can now date back our heritage all the way to 1767 with Leonardo Castellana! He then presented me with a very thoughtful handwritten letter authenticating our kinship.
Official records from the church
Me and Calogero
We said our goodbyes, then Calogero took us down to the festival to meet Roberto, who was a descendant of Castrenza (the sister of Gesualdo and Vincenzo). As we enjoyed some local folk dancing, we realized in that moment all three descendants of the Gaetano Castellana bloodline were together for the first time!
Me, Roberto, and Calogero Castellana
Traditional Sicilian folk dancing at the Fungi Ferla Festival
As we left Caltavuturo in a thick of fog, I looked back at what an extraordinary experience had occurred. You can call it fate or God’s will, but sometimes you just have to let your soul lead you places you never thought you would end up. I feel truly grateful for the story I can now share.
