It all started with the Italian Soul blog, my high school ‘all-year’ project in 2015 that I still continue today. Through Italian Soul, I’m on a journey exploring my maternal Italian heritage, searching for my ancestors, as well as collating stories, and of course recording my nonna’s delicious recipes. I’m sharing my ancestral journey with the world to hopefully encourage others to do the same in finding out who lead to them, and even to find some unknown relatives along the way.
After finding extensive information about my ancestors and extending my family tree back generations, I decided to create Souls of Lunigiana. This site aims to provide the descendants of people from the historic Tuscan Lunigianese villages of Taponecco, where my nonna came from, and Apella, where my nonno came from, with information to help them research their ancestors and find out more about who lead to them. Lunigiana is a mountainous region in Italy dissected by the Magra river, covers an area which runs from the Apennines to the Mediterranean Sea, now belongs in part to Toscana (Tuscany) and in part to Liguria. It takes its name from Luni, a Roman town, which became the principal urban center on the northern Tuscan coast. Some contend that the name Luni refers to the moon, a celestial body whose beauty is made all the more attractive when framed by the white-peaked Apuan Alps and high Apennine mountains.
The pure joy that my nonna and nonno expressed when showing them the ancestor research I had done inspired me to create Souls of Lunigiana, and I hope I can build up an insightful and informative site for every Lunigianese descendant of Apella and Taponecco to explore. I gladly accept any help from anyone with information to contribute.
Charlie Aitken – Founder of Italian Soul.
This is dedicated to my Nonna Elisa and Nonno Ilario.
In memory of their parents, and to all the migrants who brought their food and culture to Melbourne.
Italian Soul 
Hi, Charlie.
Complimenti per il tuo lavoro di ricerca (e per la tua padronanza della lingua italiana).
Assieme a Sirio, mio marito, stiamo esplorando Italian Soul e cercheremo di raccogliere storie, racconti e altro che potrà arricchirne la documentazione.
Per ora ti rinnoviamo i nostri auguri, a te ed ai tuoi familiari.
A presto.
Doretta
LikeLike
Hi Charlie I read with interest the stories of Apella and Taponecco my birthplace in 1947.
In regards to the WW11 stories the Landini family of Taponecco i.e. my grandfather Abramo during the Partigiani he actually hosted during this period in his home, there is a book written by Professor Ricci who headed the Partisans and in the book he lauds my grandfather for his assistance. In fact my grandfather was then taken as a prisoner of war to Germany where he spent around 2 years then before returning home.
My heritage is that both my parents brother and sister from Taponecco married a brother and sister from Apella. Therefore my cousin Mario Maffei recently tragically killed in front of his home in Monti di Licciana Nardi, who was a visionary and entrepreneur in creating Montagna Verde with his family wife, Carla children Barbara and Luca. He was remembered as a saviour of Apella and Taponecco and the heart and soul of Lunigiana. The funeral held in the church of Monti was celebrated by the bishop and with I understand 10 priests and every newspaper and journals of the region were in recognition of a great man.
You will recall that Barbara and I in 25 December 2018 were hosted Rai 3 recounting all about the good food from Apella and the emigration to Australia of myself.
Trust that I find you and your family well.
Kind regards
Henry Landini
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Henry, nice to hear from you! Sorry for the late reply. I hope you are doing well.
What a time that was that your nonno Abramo experienced, there are so many incredible stories.
I hope to record more documents on the Landini family. I will let you know if I find anything that may interest you.
I am still reeling the passing of Mario, what an amazing human being. I am so humbled by the courage of Carla, Barbara and Luca on continuing his legacy. Montagna Verde grows better and stronger every day.
I remember that TV program well! It is great to see Montagna Verde still getting media coverage, which they deserve!
All the best and hope to hear from you again soon.
Kind regards,
Charlie
LikeLike
Good Morning Charlie,
good to hear from you, I happened to stumble across your interest in the communities of Taponecco and Apella and as you know I have links to both with my late father Peter Landini from Taponecco and my late mother Ercolina Maffei from Apella the aunty of the late tragic accident to Mario from Montagna Verde. Mum unfortunately I believe had Covid passed on to her from the carer we had appointed, and at over 94 she was one of the first Italians to die of the illness and as you know we were unable to travel to Italy due to all the restrictions that applied at the time .
As well growing up in the fifties I had contacts with your great grandparents Ettore and Ines as well as Illario and Lisetta. I happened to be in Italy when your grandfather Illario celebrated his 80th birthday. Unfortunately as time has gone on I have lost contact with many of the people of those communities as we moved to Sandringham and most of the people still live in the northern suburbs and as fathertime has caught up with all of us as many have passed away. I myself in 2023 had Prostate cancer but thank God at this stage am free of the disease.
I trust that you and the Travaglini/Bastiani family are in good health.
Kind regards
Henry
LikeLike
Hi Henry, good to hear from you again. I would love to create some more profiles on the site for your ancestors. If you have some time, email me at ciao@italiansoul.life and include any information you like (birth dates etc.). Hoping to improve the recordings of paesani more this year after a bit of a lag in research.
I remember hearing of your dear mum, that must have been such a difficult time. My Nonni speak fondly of her.
I wish I had the chance to meet my bisnonno Ettore, you can see the article I wrote on a bit of his history. I really enjoyed researching it all. I hope we can connect some day. My parents and I only live in Armadale, and nonni still in Rosanna.
Wishing you lots of good health.
Talk soon,
Charlie
LikeLike