Citizenship update

Here's some good news. Shortly after my previous post on this topic went up, I heard from Peter, our citizenship guru, that my children and I have effectively been recognized as legit Italian citizens by the Italian government. Woot!

At least, this is what I understand from Peter's somewhat baroque explanations of what has gone down. Apparently the Italian consulate in New York has at last certified that none of the three of us ever renounced our Italian heritage, clearing the last legal hurdle to being recognized.

Before we can claim any concrete benefits, though, Montagano, our sponsoring town in Molise, has to pull together all our records (birth certificates, marriage records, and so on) and transcribe them into the town's own record system. Then the whole collection has to be sent along to the national government as well. Once that's completed, we can return to Montagano, see all our pals there, have a drink at the Circolo Union, and get our official Italian identity documents. When that might be, Peter was unable or unwilling to guess, but I'm fairly confident we'll be able to take care of this sometime this spring.

Prosciutto di Parma, salame, and torta fritta (fried bread)

Danny took this photo at a celebratory lunch shortly after we got the good news. Prosciutto and soft puffs of bread cooked in hot lard are a local tradition and a delicious combination.

I just hope our Southern Italian friends don't feel betrayed by our decision to make our Italian base in the north. Maybe we should bring them a whole Parma ham as a peace offering.