Longmont resident Cinzia Wallace was born and raised in Italy, and met her husband Eric — an American — when he was working as an officer at the Aviano Air Base near her hometown of Cordenons.
The couple moved to Longmont in 1993, and had three children, but Wallace never forgot her roots.
“Because my family members — my mom, my dad, my sisters and my nephews and nieces — were still in Italy, I always found the time just to bring our children, every summer, to visit my relatives,” she said. “All three of my children are very lucky, because they were exposed to two different cultures.”
Her children committed to learning Italian, so they could speak with their grandparents, Wallace said.
“At the age of 80 years old, it’s a little bit challenging to just become familiar with another foreign language,” she explained.
One of her children, Naomi Wallace, loved to visit her mother’s Italian hometown and listen to a pair of bells that rang daily.
“Naomi fell in love with that tower bell, because every day they just sound at noon, or when there’s a Mass, or any other special occasion,” her mother said. “And of course, the sound is beautiful — to be able to hear two bells going on for about five minutes, and it is very sweet — relaxing, the equivalent to meditation.”
Her daughter decided to get a tattoo of the bell tower on her arm — an inked symbol of the closeness she feels to Italy.
“For Naomi, she feels like my hometown is just around the corner — not 8,000 miles away. The way she talks about her grandparents, it seems like she still thinks they are (physically) very close to her.”
Naomi Wallace’s tattoo — and her family’s story of emigration and the love that ties her American and Italian family members — was featured in an article on the front page of the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero Veneto di Pordenone.
“This story caught the attention of a few journalists not because of the tattoo, but because of the action taken,” her mother explained. “The tattoo Naomi has now on her arm is a symbol of love and devotion to both cultures.”
Despite Naomi Wallace’s love of Italy, she plans to stay in Colorado — she and her husband have purchased a home in Longmont. But her ties to her mother’s homeland will remain.
“It’s beautiful to see that even if there’s such a long distance between the families, we are able to just connect with passion and love and commitment,” Cinzia Wallace said.
