The Story of Carosa
In August of 1987, Christopher Carosa, grandson of Giovanni Pietro "Peter" Carosa visited Italy with three of his college classmates. Their itinerary, besides including the usual tourists sites, features a very small village in the L'Aquila province of Abruzzo. They call this village "Fontecchio" and from there nearly 70 years before, a young Peter left for America with his father Pasquale.
As Chris and his half-Italian friend Mike wondered outside the walled village that hot summer day, he spoke in fractured italian inquiring as to the whereabouts of one "Nunzia, le sorella del Padre Pietro." Nunzia was to be his contact to find his father's godfather, Angelo Rosetti, a Providence College art professor who spent his summers in his paese. After each door repeatedly slammed in their faces, Chris, Mike faithfully following him, tried one last door...
An Angry Husband, an imagined shotgun and a Desperate Plea
Chris lightly knocked on the door. Mike, now fearing the entire village stalked the "ugly Americans," waited tentatively several paces behind. No one answered. Chris knocked again, this time a little louder. Still, the house remained silent. Chris looked back at Mike, who's nervous brow began to show beads of sweat. One final time, Chris rapped at the door and waited. As his left foot moved away from the portal in apparent surrender, the door slowly opened. A woman, not quite middle-aged, appeared from the darkness inside.
The vision initially stunned Chris. As his eyes adjusted, he saw the burly middle-aged husband looming in the background, warily eyeing the two strangers at outside his door. The dim light did not prevent Chris from getting full view of the man's giant torso illuminated by his white sleeveless undershirt. Chris meekly offered to the woman his request to locate Padre Peter's sister Nunzia. The woman just shook her head in mock ignorance.
From the corner of his eye, a dejected Chris saw the husband. In his wildest imagination, he foresaw a shotgun, two fresh graves in the frontier lands of the eastern Apennines and headlines concerning two missing Americans. His mind raced. Almost instinctively, he blurted out a desperate plea: "Mi chiamo Cristoforo Carosa!" My name is Christopher Carosa...
Wine, Song and Smiles
In an instant, the demeanor of the native changed markedly. From the depression-era scowls of lowly serfs emerged the beaming smiles witnessing the return of the Prodigal Son. In reality, they never heard or imagined a "Christopher Carosa," but the surname provided all the evidence they needed. These two men, so they came to know, did not come from some Roman governmental agency as they initially suspected. These two men - or at least one of them - represented their family. They gave Chris a familial embrace and invited both him and Mike in for wine and food.
After listening to their tale, they immediately understood the Americans' mission. They told the boys they could do one better than finding Nunzia, they could find Angelo himself! Within minutes after having been telephoned, Angelo appeared at the very same door that Chris and Mike had thought portended their doom. Soon, the artist had introduced the two to nearly everyone in the small walled "city" of Fontecchio - and nearly everyone of them was called "Carosa..."