Searching the Amalfi Coast for Long-Lost Family Ties
Tracing their lineage along the Amalfi Coast, an Italian-American clan finds past glory—and infamy
WHILE searching for our roots on a recent pilgrimage to southern Italy, my family and I realized we’d have to take the good with the bad and, at times, the ugly. In the town of Amalfi, somber posters hung everywhere on ancient walls depicting a diabolical-looking character in a black hood. Turns out he was a distant relative.
Sicardo, the brother of Prince Siconolfo—one of my nobler Lombard ancestors—was the real-life villain in “Amalfi 839 AD,” a musical then playing locally. The plot details a key historical moment when...