I’ve been spending a lot of time writing about my time here in Italy that I have let some important milestones pass in my journey to dual citizenship so I’ll recap for you here.
1 — I have every document I need now. A local genealogist in Calabria was able to get the certified copies of the three Italian documents. He sent them to me in February but they didn’t arrive until after I left for Italy in March so I haven’t seen them yet. But I know they are what I need.
2 — I was able to visit San Fili. My parents, my husband and I stayed in San Fili for three nights in early May. It was wonderful. We met many people and enjoyed explaining about our family heritage. We hired a translator and guide to help us with the Comune office and to my surprise, she arranged a lovely meeting with city officials. They gave me flowers and a certificate and were very happy to meet me and my dad. It was a magical day and I’m so pleased that we were able to make such an important connection. We went to the village where Angela and Guiseppe were born, we stood in the church where they were baptized and the bigger church where they were married. It was wonderful to be there and stand on the same land as they had.
3 — One night, I was scrolling through Facebook and someone from the dual citizenship group posted that San Francisco had just released a bunch of new appointments. The appointment that I got in December is for May 4, 2027. I quickly hopped on my laptop and was able to secure one of the new appointments for July 1, 2025. Almost two years sooner !! I’m very excited that now I think I will have my passport before I’m 60.