Background
I was born May 19, 1987 in Livorno Italy to an American father and an Italian mother. We lived in Livorno until 1992 when my father retired after serving 25 years in the U.S. Air Force and after which he decided to move our family to his hometown in Hancock, NY. We went from a medium sized Italian city to one of the smallest American towns I have ever been in.
From the very beginning my parents wanted to make sure that I learned both Italian and English so that I would be able to communicate with both sides of my family. Being able to communicate in two languages fluently is a skill I am thankful they wanted me to have. It has allowed me to keep in touch with my mother’s family and speak to them with little difficulty regardless of the amount of years I have been living in the states.
When we moved to my dad’s hometown I spent the school year attending Hancock’s elementary school that went from K-4th and later Hancock Central that held 5th-12th grade. Hancock is a very small school district where all the students know each other and the teachers are familiar with each student and their family.
During the summers, my family would rotate between spending it in Italy with my mother’s family and staying in Hancock with my father’s family. When we were in Italy, we would live with my mother’s family and enjoy the wonderful Mediterranean climate while site seeing on the way to visit different family members starting from Milan in the North and ending in Calabria in the south. We always had a blast. If we stayed in Hancock, my grandmother and her best friend would take us every day to a lake in Pennsylvania where we would spend the entire day swimming. It wasn't Italy but it was always fun.
