The Old Country
    Joe’s travelogue from one of his journeys to his birthplace introduced Utah readers to the little Calabrian town of Pedivigliano, whose many emigrants chose the American West for their new homeland. The town and stories he heard there served as inspiration for Joe’s new novel, Restoration, to be released in November 2011.
    The town’s web site - pedivigliano.asmenet.it/ - offers a detailed history, current information (although in Italian) and lots of photos, like this view, left, from the piazza.
    Below it is a photo gallery from the Costanzo family album offering a rare glimpse of Pedivigliano as it once looked. These photos date from the 1920s to the present and  include some that Joe shot during his first trip back to his birthplace in 1972.

Click on map to locate Pedivigliano on Google Maps

“Fly thought, on golden wings;
Go, alight upon the slopes and hills
Where the sweet breezes of our native soils
Are scented, soft and warm.”
                                      Giuseppe Verdi - Nabucco