One of four children, Al Bertolani was born in Chicago to Albert and Florence Sweeney Bertolani. The family lived in an apartment on Harrison and Claremont Streets. His paternal grandparents, who had emigrated from Lucca in Tuscany, lived below them on the first floor.
Family gathered at his grandparents’ home weekly, and Bertolani’s grandmother spent days preparing Sunday dinner for her 10 children and their growing families. “I remember my dad telling me each family used to give my poor grandmother a dollar,” says Bertolani. “She had to scrounge around to find enough food at a price to feed them.”
