My great-grandfather Luigi Gizzi came over from the town of Ceccano, Italy, to the United States in 1903. He lived in San Francisco until he died in 1956, leaving behind four kids, a house on Lombard Street in North Beach and something else that he likely never dreamed of: the opportunity for his descendants to ditch the American Dream and leave.
Like many others around the country , I have thought of late that dual citizenship seemed like a good idea, and thanks to Luigi, it was something I could pursue. I was eligible because of a policy called jus sanguinis, otherwise known as “the right of blood.” Simply put, this meant you could become an Italian citizen if you had a direct relative born in Italy after March 17, 1861, the date of the formation of the modern Italian state.
While I had learned about this opportunity a couple of years ago, I only recently had gotten all the necessary documents organized. Yes, I had slow-walked the entire process, but, still, everything seemed to be in place. I just had to send in the documents and I would land that coveted passport. It was going to be so easy…