Operation Siderno

My friend Gunny has had this picture on his living room wall in suburban Philadelphia since he was a kid.  The well dressed men are his grandfather Antonio's two brothers, Celestino and Silvio in front of Silvio's store in the town of Siderno, in the region of Calabria right near the toe of Italy.  Gunny has always dreamed of heading back to Siderno and finding family.  Brian and I were along to make sure it happened.

Step 1, we successfully arrived in Siderno.  Not by train, but by car.

After eating at a bar, I simply asked the waitress to look at the first photo and ask her if she recognizes the building.  Lo and behold, she points us to the building.  It's now a music store.

We go inside and the owner is no longer anyone related to the Scarfo (Gunny's surname) family but he knows of Antonio and starts looking in the phone book for the people he knows who can help us out. He tells us to come back in an hour after he closes.

But we step outside and see, across the street, Scarfo Jewelry.  This is a step in the right direction.

We go inside and talk to the owner and his family, he's a Scarfo, but not the right branch of the family  He immediately gets on the phone to call someone he knows must be related to Gunny.

15 minutes later....BINGO.  Gunny's grandfather Antonio's brother, Silvio's grandson, also named Silvio (is a dead ringer for George Clooney) comes in.  Within two hours of arriving, we have exceeded all of Gunny's expectations.

We go back across the street and learn that the store the older Silvio ran was a store that sold wedding presents and other reception items.  We learn that the older Silvio was the first person in Siderno to drive a car and the first person to have a telephone and he made money off of it.

We learn that the older Silvio was quite a business man, always dressed with a coat and tie and was not a man to be messed with!!!

We go get coffee and the younger Silvio gets on the phone and makes some calls and then says...."you want to go see the older Silvio's house?"

"Of course!"  And then we're in the car and arrive five minutes later at the house.  The house was, in its time, the largest in Siderno.

All of a sudden all kinds of relatives are pouring out of the house.  Gunny is trying his best to keep them straight.  Who's related to whom.  It's fun to watch.

Gunny speaks no Italian, so they are trying their best to speak English and I am trying to translate.

This woman is one of the elder Silvio's daughters.  She is the younger Silvio's aunt.  The younger Silvio's mother passed away suddenly last year.

Gunny!  So happy in front of the family compound.

Our luck CONTINUES.  Turns out the younger Silvio's sister, Ketty, is in town from New York City, which is also where Gunny lives.  We have dinner together and not only does Gunny find family here in Siderno but one of his family members also lives in NYC.  The connections continue.

The next day, we come back to Siderno and spend some time at the beach.

Gunny holding the family tree that we've finally managed to create!

Another relative!!  Not blood though.  This man is Ketty and young Silvio's father, who married the older Silvio's daughter.

That evening, Silvio and his family took us out to dinner.

Toasts were made and plans were hatched for young Silvio's family to visit Gunny in NYC next year.  Brian, Gunny and I were invited back to Siderno anytime.  It was an unbelievable trip for Gunny and I'm glad to have helped make him make the family connections he's always wanted.

Lastly, Operation Siderno allowed me to officially visit and set foot in the only region of Italy I had yet to visit, Calabria.  I've been to all the regions of Italy before I've hit all 50 states in The United States!