{"id":6581,"date":"2023-08-22T07:01:49","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T11:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/?p=6581"},"modified":"2023-08-22T07:07:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T11:07:55","slug":"from-genoa-to-thunder-bay-the-adventures-of-the-romeo-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/22\/from-genoa-to-thunder-bay-the-adventures-of-the-romeo-family\/","title":{"rendered":"From Genoa To Thunder Bay: The Adventures Of The Romeo Family"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br><strong><em>Rosa Romeo-Carina for Transformations Canada &#8211;<\/em><\/strong> For anyone else, August 20, 1967 was an ordinary day. For my parents, Filippo Romeo and Giovanna Bruzzese, it was their wedding day. Giovanna was more than happy to marry Filippo because he had a good heart. He was also living in Genoa, in Northern Italy, and he had his own barber shop there. To the bride-to-be this meant that there was no chance of ever emigrating to America!<a href=\"https:\/\/www.transformationscanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Romeo-1.jpg\"><\/a><\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"393\" height=\"570\" src=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-13.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"6582\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-13.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/?attachment_id=6582\" class=\"wp-image-6582\" srcset=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-13.jpg 393w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-13-207x300.jpg 207w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-13-41x60.jpg 41w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-13-62x90.jpg 62w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 393px) 100vw, 393px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"456\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-9.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"6583\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-9.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/?attachment_id=6583\" class=\"wp-image-6583\" srcset=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-9.jpg 456w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-9-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-9-43x60.jpg 43w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-9-64x90.jpg 64w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 456px) 100vw, 456px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"453\" height=\"544\" src=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"6584\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-1.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/?attachment_id=6584\" class=\"wp-image-6584\" srcset=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-1.jpg 453w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-1-250x300.jpg 250w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-1-50x60.jpg 50w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-1-75x90.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 453px) 100vw, 453px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption\"><sup>Filippo, Giovanna and baby Vincenzo in Genoa, in 1968. \/ Filippo (left) standing with friends outside his barbershop in Genoa.  \/ Giovanna and Filippo on their wedding day in 1967. \u00a0Source: Courtesy of the Romeo family.<\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>Filippo was born in the small village of Mammola, nestled in a picturesque valley in the southern Italian province of Reggio Calabria. From a young age, Filippo started working as a barber\u2019s assistant to learn the trade. At the age of 12, he moved to Genoa where he lived with his zia (aunt) Rosina and zio (uncle) Nicodemo. They supported him while Filippo\u2019s father, Vincenzo, worked in Novara (in Lombardia) as a gold miner. Filippo\u2019s mother Palmina (La Rosa) remained in Mammola to raise her youngest child Giuseppe in familiar surroundings. Filippo planned to take the trade he learned in Mammola to excel in northern Italy as a barber.\u00a0 In time, he opened a successful barbershop in Genoa and began living on his own.<\/p><p>Meanwhile in the smaller village of Chiusa, overlooking Mammola, Giovanna Bruzzese was the last born to her parents Filippo Bruzzese and Filomena Mazzone.&nbsp; Giovanna already had a taste of northern Italian life.&nbsp; She lived with her brother Natale in Genoa. While she was deciding where she should settle, she moved back to Chuisa with her parents. Filippo returned to Mammola for a visit with his family during the same time.<\/p><p>He met up with Giovanna\u2019s sister Gina at the market.\u00a0 She mentioned to him, \u201cMy sister is back and if you are interested I would like for you to meet her.\u201d\u00a0 It was love at first sight.\u00a0 Filippo Bruzzese mentioned to Filippo Romeo, \u201cGiovanna is my last child to marry. I have no land to give you.\u201d\u00a0 Filippo replied, \u201cIt is Giovanna that I love. I have no interest in her dowry. We will get married and live in Genoa.\u201d<\/p><p>On September 29, 1968, their first child Vincenzo was born. Everything was going well in Genoa, until the eventful day came. In 1970, they received a letter from Giovanna\u2019s brother Peppe in Brooklyn, New York. It read, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come to America because barbers make a ton of money in America? Let me find out what you need to do.\u201d Filippo thought, \u201cWell if it was better, maybe we should consider it.\u201d<\/p><p>Giovanna, the traditional Italian wife, supported her husband. When the news came back from Peppe, his letter explained that Filippo would have to come to New York first, find a steady job and then at least six months later his family could join him. Well Filippo was not going to leave his new bride and his two-year-old son Vincenzo alone. He loved them too much to leave them for such a long time.<\/p><p>The next correspondence was from Giovanna\u2019s sister Dina Mazzaferro in Thunder Bay, Ontario. When she caught wind of the situation, Dina wrote a letter to her younger sister in Genoa saying: \u201cIf you and Filippo still want to come, the whole family can come all together to Canada.\u201d This idea sounded all the more appealing to Filippo. And so the adventure begins!<\/p><p>Filippo and his family needed to get a mountain of paperwork in order before their departure. The entire Romeo family had to go for a thorough medical examination in Messina, Sicily. Upon their return home, Filippo had to go for an interview with the Canadian Consulate in Rome. During this busy period, a travel agent was taking care of their airline tickets. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>After passing the medical exams and Filippo\u2019s interview, they finally received the green light to immigrate to Canada as a family.\u00a0 They also received their Italian passports. And so, the Romeo family was finally all set to go to beautiful Thunder Bay.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure><p>On September 23, 1970, Filippo, Giovanna and Vincenzo boarded a plane for the very first time. Eight hours later they arrived in Toronto, Canada. This was a new world, with a different language and absolutely no one there they recognized! There they were, just the three of them! The moment came when the immigration officer examined their passports and stamped their document with the famous words, \u2018immigrant \u2013 landed\u2019. What an emotional thing to experience.<\/p><p>When they arrived in Toronto, Vincenzo had the flu and wasn\u2019t feeling well. Giovanna was thirsty and she wanted some water. Filippo tried to get some water but the waitress didn\u2019t understand him. He pointed to a sink to help the waitress understand. As it turned out, getting water was the least of their problems! The travel agent in Italy, had booked airline tickets just as far as Toronto. The family\u2019s final destination was Thunder Bay. An airline agent working for&nbsp;<em>Alitalia<\/em>&nbsp;helped them out. They had to purchase three more tickets from Toronto to Thunder Bay. This was an unexpected extra expense that the young family had not budgeted for.<\/p><p>They finally boarded the last plane from Toronto to Thunder Bay. Sitting in the first row of economy class, Filippo noticed the passengers in the row in front of him were being served better food than what he was being offered. Filippo said to the attendant, in Italian, \u201cI\u2019ll wait for that food.\u201d Well he didn\u2019t get any food at all because the food he wanted was only being served in business class.<\/p><p>Their arrival in Thunder Bay was greeted by Giovanna\u2019s sister, Dina, and her husband Natale, as well as Natale\u2019s brother, Domenic and his wife, Cathy. Upon their arrival in Thunder Bay, only one of their two trunks arrived. The second trunk, which contained all of their wedding gifts arrived later. However, everything was stolen. Imagine how they must have felt \u2013 miles away from their homeland and their families with all of their sentimental items suddenly gone.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"627\" height=\"466\" src=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"6585\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-4.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/?attachment_id=6585\" class=\"wp-image-6585\" srcset=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-4.jpg 627w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-4-300x223.jpg 300w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-4-600x446.jpg 600w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-4-81x60.jpg 81w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-4-121x90.jpg 121w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 627px) 100vw, 627px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"416\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-14.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"6586\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-14.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/?attachment_id=6586\" class=\"wp-image-6586\" srcset=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-14.jpg 416w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-14-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-14-40x60.jpg 40w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-14-60x90.jpg 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 416px) 100vw, 416px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"429\" height=\"558\" src=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-15.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"6587\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-15.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/?attachment_id=6587\" class=\"wp-image-6587\" srcset=\"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-15.jpg 429w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-15-231x300.jpg 231w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-15-46x60.jpg 46w, https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-15-69x90.jpg 69w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 429px) 100vw, 429px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption\"><sup>A souvenir photo of the Romeo-Carina family vacationing in Niagara Falls, Ontario in 2015 \/ Filippo, Rosa and Giovanna on Rosa\u2019s wedding day in 2005. \/ Filippo, Giovanna, Vincenzo and Rosa pose for what sadly became our last family portrait together, in December of 1993. Source: Courtesy of the Romeo family.<\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\"><div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.transformationscanada.com\/narrative\/from-genova-to-thunder-bay-the-adventures-of-the-romeo-family\">Read more here <\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rosa Romeo-Carina for Transformations Canada &#8211; For anyone else, August 20, 1967 was an ordinary day. For my parents, Filippo Romeo and Giovanna Bruzzese, it was their wedding day. Giovanna&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1477,1328,1112],"class_list":{"0":"post-6581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-immigration","9":"tag-immigration-story","10":"tag-italian-canadian-2"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Romeo-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6581"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6591,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6581\/revisions\/6591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}