“Lassala j.” Leave it alone. “Statte zitt.” Be quiet. And “manc’ p’ ’a capa spaccata” — not a chance, not even in your wildest dreams.

Growing up in the Bronx, Laurinda Stanton heard her father use these dialect expressions. “My parents sometimes spoke Italian as a kind of secret language. My siblings and I picked up fragments without always understanding what they meant,” she recalls with a laugh. Years later, those words would lead her back to her family’s roots.

After living in Westchester County, Rockland County and New Jersey, Stanton began looking for something different: a slower, quieter, more authentic life in a place she could call home. She also wanted her children to understand where their family came from.

Laurinda Stanton

“I wanted to live more slowly, more peacefully, more simply, more authentically,” she said. “And I wanted to know my roots, and I want my children to know their roots as well.” 

Her search led her to Santa Croce del Sannio, a small town in Italy’s Campania region featured in Rai’s television series Radici d’Italia*. Like many communities in southern Italy, the village has lost residents to emigration. For descendants of those who left, its streets and homes offer a tangible link to family stories carried across generations and an ocean.

A Family Scattered Across America

In Santa Croce del Sannio, the Zeoli name seems to be everywhere. But the family’s branches extend far beyond this small town in southern Italy, reaching across the United States. Descendants return from Washington, New York, Arizona, California and New Jersey to visit ancestral homes, meet relatives and piece together their shared family history.

“It’s pride, attachment, the search for one’s origins,” says Nicolina Zeoli, a local resident. “It’s something truly moving.”

The Village Written in Stone

Santa Croce’s history reaches back to the Samnites, the ancient people who inhabited this part of Italy. The town also lies near the Regio Tratturo Pescasseroli-Candela, a historic transhumance route connecting Abruzzo and Puglia that shepherds once traveled with their flocks.

The village’s past remains visible in its architecture. Family emblems carved above doorways identify the people who once lived behind them. The Zappone family’s emblem, for example, features an oak tree, a crowned animal and a hoe — symbols of the agricultural life that sustained generations.

Other landmarks include a historic fountain, a market established by royal decree in the late 18th century and a church built from local stone with the help of residents.

An Old Remedy, Remembered by Hand

Life here feels far removed from the pace of American cities, and some traditions have survived almost untouched. Along the old transhumance route, Angela Maria Zeoli gathers seeds from medicinal plants to make soaps and cosmetics, drawing on knowledge passed down through generations.

She also remembers a cream her grandmother made for chilblains, using clarified pork fat, calendula, chamomile and lavender.

“As children, we would walk to school through the cold, sometimes carrying pieces of ice and going without gloves,” she recalls. “That’s why we would get chilblains.”

A Song Brought Back to Life

The village’s history also lives on in the notes of its historic pipe organ, commissioned in the 1730s from Mauro Gallo, an organ maker from Naples.

The instrument was restored with local support and a contribution from Nancy, an American who came to Santa Croce to explore her roots and found a second home there. Its restoration has brought new life to an old musical tradition, allowing the organ to accompany a historic Ave Maria once again.

The Taste of Home

At Palazzo Galanti, restored by its owner, Conte Giuseppe Galante, traditional recipes offer another taste of local life. One is taccozze con i ceci: diamond-shaped pasta made with whole-wheat flour, water and olive oil, served with chickpeas and wild fennel gathered along the tratturo. Wild fennel also flavors local cured meats. Then there are scorpelle, a traditional sweet made with flour, eggs, sugar and honey.

A Way Home

For generations, Santa Croce del Sannio has been a place people left in search of work and opportunity. Many built new lives in America, carrying memories of their hometown in family names, stories and expressions that endured even as Italian faded from daily use.

For Laurinda Stanton, the words her father used in the Bronx became a starting point for discovering the place they came from.

What once sounded like a secret language became a way home.

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*Radici d’Italia is a Rai television series produced as part of the “Roots Tourism” initiative promoted by Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and funded by the European Union’s NextGenerationEU program.