I haven’t added a post for some time because I haven’t had much to say. I started searching for my birth mother in 2000. After my adoptive mother passed away, I did some preliminary research on ways to proceed with the process of finding my roots and reclaiming my Italian Citizenship. I stumbled across a small group on Facebook called “Italiadoption”. It was a group of Italian orphans who were adopted by mostly American families starting in the 1950’s through the 1960’s. All children abandoned for many different reasons and surrendered to the Catholic Orphanages throughout Italy. I myself was raised in such an orphanage in Sardegna till the age of five when I was shipped off to the U. S..
I joined this then small group on Facebook and struck up a relationship with the group founder. John Campitelli. John was a fellow orphan who had the same experiences as I did and was very happy to help me with my search. I would like to think that in the over 20 years that John has been guiding me through all the Italian bureaucracy and medieval Italian Judicial system that we have become friends. But mostly it was the unflinching support and compassion he had for all of us that stuck with me. John was always ready to talk and help you through each tedious step of the process. I know I would never have succeeded with out his help and the support of the entire Italiadoption group.
As I explained to John my main goal was to find my birth mother. I was realistic I had no expectations of physically ever meeting my mother but I just wanted to know who she was. In 2017 after much hard work and waisted time I succeeded which I have wrote about in previous blogs. Now that that was accomplished I set out to get my Italian citizenship restored. This required several trips to the Italian Consulate in Philadelphia and much red tape and as I finished getting my paper work submitted with all the required documentation sent to the commune in Sardegna that would make my citizenship official Covid hit. It was another almost two years before I finally got the news that I was now officially recognized as an Italian Citizen.
Now the next step was getting an Italian passport. This process was not as bad as everything else I did to this point. Still it was stressful and required one more trip to the Italian Consulate in Philly. In October 2023 I finally achieved my ultimate goal and received my Italian Passport.
I don’t expect most people to understand how important this was to me personally. But I want to thank all the people who have helped me along the way. My wife who always supported and understood what I was trying to do. My two daughters who lent their love and support. And even more importantly John Campitelli and the Italiadoption group.
I Am Franco 