This is a story about a Montpelier family finding their people in present-day Italy. But the story began in 1885 with the birth of Carmelo La Terra Bellina (“Carmelo” meaning “the beautiful earth”) in Pozzallo, Italy, a small city on Sicily’s south coast.

The city’s location on the Mediterranean contributed to its value as a seaport and reflects the island’s multiple layers of war and conquest from pre-historic settlers to Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Moors, Normans, and finally the Bourbons. During World War II, allied troops landed just west of Pozzallo as part of Operation Husky.