The beginning of Lucca

A young girl carrying a battered suitcase walked up a dusty road. She had traveled with her parents and younger brother and sister for many days. They left Boston weeks earlier, crossing the Atlantic to return to their family home in a quiet farming village in the province of Lucca.

Visitors were a rarity in Piano di Coreglia. People returning from America was a happily anticipated event. As word traveled through the shops and fields, townspeople would come out to greet their friends and family.

Looking out of his farmhouse window Luciano Vanni watched as Rina Alfoni slowly walked by with her parents and siblings. Luciano turned to his father and said, “I’m going to marry that girl someday.”

And he did...ten years later. They remained happily married for 61 years.

That was the beginning of my Italian family from Lucca.