The Land of Our Grandmothers: A Nostalgic Journey from Italy to Canada, and Back Again

To celebrate Mother’s Day and the matriarchs who anchor our families throughout the generations, we revisit a story from Zoomer’s May 2015 issue in which writer Mike Crisolago returns to Italy – the country his grandmother (Nonna) left six decades earlier – to explore the roots of the family and traditions he grew up with in Canada.

 

There’s a prayer the Italian immigrants recited as they huddled within the hulking ocean liner MS Vulcania en route to Canada in the early autumn of 1952 – a plea to Our Lady, Star of the Sea, to keep “from us every storm and any danger to the soul and body.” My Nonna, 28 at the time and clutching my infant father, sat among them.

It took nine days to cross the Atlantic from Sicily, an Italian island known for exports including sulfur, seafood and the Mafia. As far as I know, my family had no stake in any of them. They arrived at Halifax’s Pier 21 on Sept. 18 and Nonna hopped a train to Toronto to meet her husband, my grandfather (Nonno), who’d arrived one year earlier to the day.

 

As it has for so many generations of immigrants, Canada, for my grandparents, represented an opportunity to build a new life – an elusive luxury for modest farmers, especially women, in post-war Italy. They took whatever jobs they could find, raised a family – including my dad’s two younger sisters, who were born in Canada – and, a few decades later, I came along.

Growing up half-Italian in Canada wasn’t without its cultural quirks. For example, every paisan knows the pain of their bare legs sticking to a shrink-wrapped couch. And, while I loved hearing Italian folk tales, I’m still not really sure who Topo Gigio is. But the fundamental tenets that my grandparents imported were the values that anchored our cultural character – il cibo, il fede e la familigia. Food, faith and family – from Christmas feasts and midnight mass to making our own tomato sauce in the backyard beneath the glare of the early September sun. And that’s precisely the cultural foundation that I took with me as I travelled back to the old country in the spring of 2015.

More than six decades after Nonna prayed to Our Lady, Star of the Sea, on her way to Canada, I prayed for a plane seat with decent legroom on the way out, embarking on the return voyage she never took back to Italy and shuttling via tour coach through a cross-section of the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside.’

 

I didn’t expect to find the same country Nonna left behind. But perhaps the roots of the experiences and traditions that shaped her character remained – the spirit that every passenger on the MS Vulcania clung to during that long Atlantic voyage toward a new life.

 

The Flavours of Italy

 

Our group touched down in Rome, and the cobblestones glistened with fresh rain as Belinda, our tour director, led us to Ristorante 4 Colonne for a dinner of pasta and veal while a striking soprano in a black lace dress serenaded us.

Anyone who has visited Italy, or even an Italian person’s home, knows that Italian dining is an event to be savoured, with fresh food served course by belt-stretching course until you think you can’t possibly eat another bite. And then, inevitably, you manage to muster room for a few more.

You can imagine my surprise, then, when I heard it said that the slow food movement, which champions the use of local organic cuisine, is really catching on in Italy. It’s a claim that would have most Italians choking on their carciofi alla romana. This, of course, is a country where olives are dubbed “green gold” and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is the most shoplifted item.

For Nonna, who didn’t even own a refrigerator until she moved to Canada, all food was slow food, from farmed crops to that handmade tomato sauce. Chef Boyardee? Who’s that? Enzo’s son from down the street?

After our Roman welcome, we returned to our hotel before waking early the next morning to visit the Vatican Museum, where we climbed the winding Bramante Staircase, which is closed to the public – our guides boast some serious connections. Later, we bid the Eternal City arrivederci en route to the hilltop town of Orvieto, where we sampled the aromatic drip of chef Lorenzo Polegri’s six-hour old olive oil at his renowned Zeppelin Restaurant.

 

But it’s San Gimignano, nicknamed the Medieval Manhattan for its ancient towers that loom over the Tuscan landscape, that reminded me most of Nonna. Despite its nickname, you won’t find an Italian Woody Allen waxing neurotically within this wonder of the Middle Ages.

You may, however, meet Sergio Dondoli, owner of Gelateria Dondoli and two-time Gelato World Champion. In his white lab coat, Dondoli cuts an Albert Einstein-like figure with shorter hair. And his genius – he invented saffron cream gelato – is just as apparent.

“At home,” he announces to the entire Piazza della Cisterna, “if you are unlucky, the ice cream is six months old. In my shop, if you are unlucky, the gelato you buy is 24 hours old.” It’s a pride of workmanship that stretches from San Gimignano to Nonna’s kitchen.

 

Later, at the nearby Borghese estate, seated at one long candlelit table, dinner began with pasta, artichoke risotto, fried zucchini and olive and sausage balls. Then, the main course of lamb, chicken and beef, followed by dessert. And, of course, more vino. The one difference between this and Sunday dinner is Nonna would have packed us the leftovers to take home.

 

The Land of the Saints

 

“The best way to go back to the Middle Ages? Take the escalator!” our local guide Marco declared when we pulled up to Assisi, a town raised high above the surrounding region. Marco wasn’t joking – an escalator carries you up the hillside to the main gate and a breathtaking view of what some call la terra dei santi – the land of saints – in recognition of the vast number of venerated men and women who hail from Umbria.

We explored Assisi’s sloping streets – many adorned with vibrant religious murals – while Marco and Belinda unravelled the stories of the multiple saints who’ve called the town home: most notably, St. Francis and St. Clare. The 13th-century Basilica di Santa Chiara houses both the blessed San Damiano Cross, revered for miraculously speaking to St. Francis as he prayed, and St. Clare’s bones. Across town, you’ll find the seventh largest church in the world – St. Mary of the Angels.

 

A serenade of church bells echoed above the clamour in the piazzas, beckoning the faithful to prayer. In the bowed pilgrims, I saw Nonna at her kitchen table with her rosary and dog-eared prayer book, flagged with prayer cards collected from the funerals of loved ones over the years.

Gliding through the mists of the Val di Chianato, where Italian legend says Noah settled following the Great Flood, we stopped in Cortona near a trail lined with cyprus trees. As I gazed upon the patchwork of farmland aglow with the morning light in the valley below, it occurred to me that, had Nonna and Nonno lacked the strength of faith to leave Italy to take a chance on a new life for their family in Canada, I’d probably be tending an Italian farm right now, too.

After all, like for many others, Nonna’s faith is her lifeblood, from devout worship to divine comfort to calling me every year on Sept. 29 – the feast of St. Michael the Archangel – to wish me a happy “Name Day.”

I considered this as I took in the 15th-century Santa Maria delle Grazie al Calcinaio church, which houses an image of the Virgin Mary said to perform miracles, huddled in Cortona’s hillside, as well as the centuries-old candlelit procession of the Festival of Madonna Della Salute through St. Mark’s Square – which we observed on the starry night we navigated the Grand Canal into Venice on the final leg of our trip.

 

Family First

 

Back at Nonna’s kitchen table, salami and bread in hand, I was brimming with questions about our family’s history. First and foremost – why had she never returned to her homeland?

The answer was simple: “Famiglia.” Six years after she arrived in Canada, Nonna explained, the rest of her relatives followed. Her family, it turns out, is what defines her home-land. Not the other way around.

At Nonna’s 90th birthday party in 2014, family and friends gathered to celebrate. She led a conga line and danced with my father – 62 years after carrying him across the Atlantic. [Editor’s Note 2024: Nonna celebrated her 100th birthday this year with food, drinks and dancing at a party with family and friends.]

When Nonna came to Canada, her family lived in one bedroom. Now, they fill a banquet hall. We all raised our glasses to her: “Buona fortuna!”

Sure, Nonna’s Canadian now, but sometimes Italian says it best.

 

A version of this story was originally published in Zoomer magazine’s May 2015 issue.

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