Recensioni

In September of 2016, my Mom, Dad, and I set out on a month-long trip around Italy, from Milan in the north to Sorrento in the south. As an Italian-American family from Boston, MA USA, we had the goal of visiting Mondavio, the rural and remote Italian medieval village where my Dad’s grandfather was born and lived prior to immigrating to America in the first half of the 1900s.

Upon our arrival, we made our way from Milan to Padua by train with a few stops along the way. After several days in Padua, we had the pleasure of meeting Andrea Barbera for the first time when he walked into our hotel lobby to pick us up for our drive down to the Marche and Abruzzo regions. You could tell a lot about Andrea within the first 5 minutes – he was extremely friendly, approachable, knowledgeable, patient, funny, professional, accommodating, well-dressed and classy (kind of like James Bond).

Andrea was our designated driver on our important journey into the ‘past’ to see where we came from, assigned to us through his Uncle Claudio’s driving service that my Mom had hired to make the trip much easier. On our 4-hour drive south, Andrea took us through San Marino, where we saw spectacular castles that could easily serve as Game of Thrones backdrops! The scenery was truly extraordinary.

Upon arrival into Mondavio, Andrea was extremely helpful and assisted in every aspect of the visit. He helped us to organize and maximize our time there and he facilitated connecting us with long-lost family members by asking around the medieval village until we finally found Dad’s relatives. It was a once-in-a-lifetime, heartwarming experience. Our relatives were so welcoming and hospitable. They invited us into  their apartment where we spent time getting to know each other.

Andrea helped us bypass the language barrier since we don’t speak Italian and they didn’t speak English. Connecting with Italian family who we’ve never met before would have been close to impossible without Andrea’s assistance. When our visit was complete, Andrea drove us another 4 hours south to the village of Rivisondoli, where we had visited before and where my Mom’s mother is from. After helping us settle into our hotel, Andrea departed. 

We had such a great experience with Andrea. He was SO much more than a driver and a guide. We may have visited Italy with the intention of meeting long-lost relatives, but in the end we acquired a new family member in Andrea. The time we had together during our trip, driven by our genealogical mission, brought us all closer together. In 2017, we visited Italy again and met up with Andrea and hired his services to take us to some more amazing places based on his local and intimate knowledge of Italy.

He is highly recommended by us.