2. Valentino and My Family: Southern Italian Roots

Rudolph Valentino was born in Castellaneta in the Region of Puglia (Apulia), Province of Taranto in Southern Italy. My family also comes from Southern Italy–my mother’s side from further north in the Region of Puglia (Apulia), Province of Foggia and my father’s side from about as far south as possible…Campofelice di fitalia, Province of Palermo, Sicily. The maps below and a brief summary of the key locations in the lives of Valentino and and my family illustrate our Italy.

(If images do not appear on mobile phones or tablets or on the WordPress app, visit the GALLERY tab for a duplicate location map…although sometimes it won’t appear there! Quixotic WordPress…)

Brown areas designate Southern Italy

Connections: Southern Italy

VALENTINO

Castellaneta (birthplace) Region: Puglia; Province of Taranto

Taranto (moved here age 9) Region: Puglia; Province of Taranto

Perugia (age 11.5, sent to the Boarding School for Orphans of Italian Health Professionals, technical school with liberal arts, arrived October 1906) Region: Umbria; Province of Perugia

*Nervi (age 15.5, Agricultural Institute of Saint Ilario of Liguria, arrived October 1910, graduated end of October 1911) Region: Liguria; Province of Genoa (Northern Italy)

Campobasso (Brother Albert served here as General Secretary of the City of Campobasso, early 1920’s) Region: Molise; Province of Campobasso

*Juan-les-pins (South of France, Hudnut/Rambova estate) Commune of Antibes, in the Alpes-Maritimes, in southeastern France, on the Côte d’Azur

MY FAMILY

Casalnuovo Monterotaro (origins, mother’s side) Region: Puglia; Province of Foggia

Campofelice di fitalia (origins, father’s side) Region: Sicily; Province of Palermo

Torre del Greco (my great uncle returned here to his wife’s home, mid-1950’s) Region: Campania; Province of Naples. A comune in the Metropolitan City of Naples.

Campobasso (current home of relatives on my mother’s side) Region: Molise; Province of Campobasso

*Locations outside Southern Italy

KEY LOCATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH RUDOLPH VALENTINO AND MY FAMILY