For so many of us Italian Americans a yearning to journey back to our ancestral roots’ lives on today. This August, I along with several cousins and close paesani families made a recent trip to Italy and our ancestral town, Comune di Biccari in which we share a historical connection to the Italian enclaves of Philadelphia. Our Italian immigrant ancestors were from Biccari, a medieval town located in the Regione of Puglia/Provincia Foggia.

This pilgrimage was with families who have direct and documented ancestral ties to Biccari. Through extensive genealogy research started years ago by my cousin Erick Lucera along with Giuseppe and Gennaro Lucera relatives in Biccari, it was established that over one-thousand townspeople emigrated from Biccari to Philadelphia during mass migration.

This research effort resulted in a book titled “Birth of New Biccari in Philadelphia” that tells the story of how a “New Biccari” paese was established in Philadelphia.

Our group of descendants with family surnames of Lucera, Frignito, and Galdi all share in the historical connection of Philadelphia and Biccari. As descendants, our family’s Italian immigrant ancestors were part of the Great Arrival to America and early 1960’s timeframe who settled in Philadelphia. As a group, we planned to meet up in Biccari for a special event that takes place in August, the festa of San Donato, the patron saint of Comune di Biccari. This highly regarded event brings hundreds back to their roots in Biccari.

Prior to travelling to Italy, we planned and organized to meet with the mayor (Sindaco Gianfilippo Mignogna) of Biccari and fulfill a dream we all had about showcasing our gratitude and ancestral connection of Biccari to Philadelphia. A noteworthy highlight of this pilgrimage was the opportunity to present a plaque to the mayor in the piazza Umberto during part of the San Donato festival. This plaque symbolized the appreciation we all shared between our Italian ancestral roots and Philadelphia. Along with the plaque, we presented to the mayor a small replica of Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell. The plaque was presented to the mayor on August-8. The plaque inscription (bilingual) follows:

“In memory of the Biccari ancestors who established a “New Biccari” in Philadelphia as a vibrant cultural mecca transferring the traditions across the Atlantic. May the spirit of the Biccarese community continue to flourish as descendants return to the village to experience family history, local traditions, and picturesque views in the most authentic way. Presented by the descendants of “New Biccari” in Philadelphia – August 2023”

“In memoria di tutti gli antenati di Biccari che hanno stabilito un “Nuovo Biccari” a Filadelfia come una vibrante mecca culturale trasferendo le tradizioni attraverso l’Atlantico. Possa lo spirito della communita Biccarese continuare a fiorire mentre I discendenti tornano al il paese per vivere la storia familiar, le tradizioni locali e le viste panoramiche nel mondo piu autentico. Presentato dai discendenti di “New Biccari” a Filadelfia - Agosto 2023”

On one day of our journey, we walked along the Galdi family olive groves in Biccari, and thereafter we made the trek over to the Biccari cemetery where we walked among the many family gravesites of distant relatives who were related to our immigrant ancestors who emigrated to America.

Our paesan, Lucia Galdi Marone, her husband Jim and her father Michele hosted all of us over to her family house (Piazza Duomo) for dinner one night in Biccari. Her house had been in her family for years.

On this recent trip and prior ones, some of us were able to make our stay at the Santa Lucia restaurant/hotel run by the Ioanna family. Our hosts Gabriele, Riccardo and Momma Lucia Ioanna welcomed us like famiglia and often made us meals fit for royalty. It was great to spend precious time with our Lucera cousins Giuseppe, Marcello, Michele, and Riccardo.

Other days in Biccari for us were filled with walking the narrow passageways of the town, which most likely were the same walkways of our ancestors. Nightly we gathered in the various piazzas to take in the three days of San Donato festa events. We attended the mass at the Biccari mother church of Maria SS. Assunta along with the statue procession of San Donato. The parish priest, Don Leonardo Catalano took us on a tour of Chiesa Maria SS. Assunta where we ascended to the church bell tower some five stories high where we had a birds eye-view of Biccari.

Social media and specifically the Facebook page “Biccaresi nel mondo” (Biccaresi in the World) has played a big part in connecting so many of us who share in the ancestral roots of Comune di Biccari. The pilgrimage of ours reinforced not only the desire to visit our ancestral roots, but to also experience the rituals and traditions that so many of our Italian immigrant ancestors had practiced before venturing to America and even once they were in America. For me, my cousins and our fellow paesani who made this trip no doubt have an affinity for “two flags, one heart”!  A trip like ours is truly a heartwarming experience and makes us proud Italian-Americans ready for our next return visit to our roots in the boot; Comune di Biccari!

About the author:

Richard Leto is a third-generation Italian-American born and raised in the Italian enclave of South Philadelphia (South Philly). He is the grandson of Italian immigrants who emigrated to America during the Great Arrival and settled in South Philadelphia. On his paternal side his grandparents Francesco and Caterina (Tropiano) Leto emigrated from Santa Caterina dello Ionio (Calabria). On his maternal side his grandparents Aniello and Elisa (Basile) Lucera emigrated from Comune di Biccari (Puglia).