The grandfather and mother of the third U.S. institutional office were born in the Molise country.
CAMPOBASSO – Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, the first Italian-American to be named to the third institutional office of the United States of America, this morning, accompanied by her husband and other family members, visited Fornelli, the Molise town that was the birthplace of her maternal grandfather and her mother, who later moved to the United States.
A tour of family sites and the historic center, lunch with her loved ones, and then arrival at the Auditorium, where she was welcomed by the mayor, the U.S. consul in Naples, the president of the Region and the president of the Province of Isernia. Here the ceremony took place at which she was conferred honorary citizenship and given the keys to the city.
“We are particularly honored by this visit,” is the comment of Governor Donato Toma, who is in Fornelli today, “not only because this is an eminent personage, known all over the world, but also because it is a testimony to what Italian Americans of Molise origin have been able to accomplish, to the goals they have reached with sacrifice and merit. We thank Nancy Pelosi for coming to Molise and hope that she will return soon, perhaps on vacation, to get to know, more calmly and more closely, our beautiful territory. Cordial greetings to the consul, who will be leaving Italy shortly.”
