Travelers come to Italy to seek out its splendid art cities and stunning resorts, but increasing numbers of visitors* with Italian heritage (60-80 million people worldwide can claim descent), are looking beyond the typical vacation itinerary to plan trips that will help connect them with their “roots.” (In the U.S. Italians are the fifth largest ancestry group. During years of peak emigration, many Italians also settled in Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Australia and various European countries.)
To help those with Italian lineage connect with their long-ago family histories, Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has developed a roots-based tourism initiative called Italea; its web platform, Italea.com (available in four languages), was launched earlier this year. Giovanni Maria De Vita, a counsellor at the Ministry, who heads up the Italea/Roots Tourism project, says the goal is to support “every step of the rediscovery journey—from family-historical research to organizing personal travel experiences in Italy.”
Italea has branches in each of Italy’s 20 regions (in addition to the national platform), he says, supported by genealogy experts, travel designers and tour guides to help ancestry tourists connect to their heritage. De Vita notes that the Italea site has had more than 75,000 registrations in the six months since its launch.
Italy designated 2024 as the “Year of Roots Tourism in the World,” which, in addition to the website debut, has been marked by a series of cultural events in more than 800 small towns throughout the country. The Italea platform has also been presented in various cities in the U.S., as well as in Toronto, Montevideo, São Paulo, and Melbourne. (In New York City, it will be introduced from October 9-15.)
Searching For Your Past
In an era of mass tourism, where one-of-a-kind experiences are high on discerning travelers’ must-have lists, a roots trip may well be the ultimate form of custom travel. “People are looking for a part of themselves through a place,” says Antonella Riccardi, head of tourism at Italea Liguria. “Over time we lost a lot of links, but now we hope to create new bridges to the past.”
The starting point, of course, is recreating a family tree. Civil records are readily available from the 1800s, but some town and many church documents go back centuries more, to the sixteenth century, the latter thanks to the Council of Trent (1545-1563), when Catholic Church leaders ordered parishes to register all births, marriages and deaths. Over the years members of my extended family and their researchers were able to source one branch of our family, with the surname Sforza, to 1545. (This was an independent project and not connected to Italea.)
State Archives in Parma. Many civil records are now available online. (Photo by Edoardo Fornaciari/Getty Images)
Scaling that family tree can take a while, although Italea says initial research might range from several days to weeks, depending on the complexity of the lineage and how far back someone wants to go. Italea provides time and cost estimates for requested ancestral projects upon completion of a form on the site.
Italea also gives suggestions on how to get started on a search (many records are now available online). Among the places to check out are FamilySearch.org, a free genealogical site with extensive resources, and the Ancestors Portal, or “Portale Antenati,” with a large collection of Italian civil records. But enlisting a researcher in the area who knows local archives well can save a lot of time and effort in not only finding the right records but also in deciphering them—the oldest documents were often written in Latin with beautiful medieval calligraphy.
It’s fascinating to watch a family tree grow. The results can be especially poignant, as you learn the particulars of relatives you will never know, but whose lives were integral to your existence. Keep in mind that the number of great-grandparents doubles with each generation, so you could potentially find 128 fifth-great-grandparents; 256 sixth-great-grandparents, and so on.
Planning An Ancestral Journey
Once you have information about where your ancestors were born, married, and died, you can request information from Italea about organizing a trip to the places that you feel will have the most resonance. You’ll be asked to indicate specific areas of interest for a trip, like additional genealogical research, potentially meeting with long-lost relatives, and preferences for broader sojourns to get to know the culture and history of your ancestral area.
In addition to the customized hometown itineraries, there are thematic roots tours to consider. For example, those whose ancestors sailed from Genoa to the New World might be interested in a two-day Italea itinerary that highlights the city through the perspective of its emigrants with stops in the city’s medieval centro storico; the port with its ancient docks where many ships left for North and South America; the Italian Museum of Emigration, MEI, with interactive exhibits chronicling the expatriation experience; and the Museum of the Sea and Navigation, to understand the conditions faced by emigrants as they traveled by steamship and ocean liners across the Atlantic.
Putting together a roots itinerary involves more extensive planning than for other types of travel to Italy, but Italea believes that the time invested will yield many benefits. Ancestral tourism can shed light on many lesser-known areas of the country, an important objective in a place where popular destinations are suffering from overtourism. “Our goal is to promote the variety and uniqueness of every corner of Italy, highlighting the particular traditions and culture that define each Italian region,” says De Vita.
There are the indelible pluses, too. “We’re trying to find a more humanistic side of travel,” says Antonella Riccardi. “Something more tucked into the soul.”
*According to De Vita, government travel reports estimated roots tourism at 10-15% of overall tourism to Italy before the pandemic. While 2023 data have yet to be confirmed, he says that early estimates are suggesting a significant increase, as much as 11% over 2019.
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