To all,
I had the great pleasure of speaking to Aureliano Lalli-Persiani today. We spoke for quite awhile on his cell phone. I'm not sure how long because the conversation darted from one interesting subject to another. He is still the president of the Amici di Torricella association. As president he said we have is permission to reprint and translate anything written by himself or which has no expressed author. In all other case, he believes it is a good idea to get the approval of the author. He asked me to draw up a list of authors. He will then provide us their contact info.

Regarding contact info, Aureliano does not email or use the internet. Therefore, I'll have to do everything by snail mail. I got his address in Rome, and I will write him a letter with my address and a list of authors. In the meantime we can go ahead with translations, etc.

Aureliano is an enthusiastic supporter of our project. Unfortunately, the Amici di Torricella project did not receive the support he had anticipated. That is why he quite producing the newsletter. He believes some of those that remained in Torricella are suspect of those who left like himself. I said perhaps we'll have the same problem. He didn't think so. We are too faraway to be a threat.

Aureliano has lived in Rome for ages now. He maintains a house in Torricella and one in Gessopalena. I believe his father's side of the family is from Gessopalena. I note that Lalli and Persiani are not names you see in Torricella. We also spoke about the origin of the name Persiani. Apparently, his ancestors came from Persia, ended up in Tuscany and then made their way down to Gessopalena.

His house in Gessopalena is quite unique. It's very old and reflects the stone masonry of a time gone by. He cordially invited me to dinner at his place in Gessopalena the next time I'm in the area. I'm sure the invitation extends to all of us working on this project.

Aureliano also informed me that Torricella has produced a lot of well know people. I told him we have a page on our site dedicated to notable Torricellani. He said he'll get on his daughter's computer and check out our site. In any case, I said we'd also like stories about other Torricellani, like himself. He said he'd put together a brief history of his life and all his accomplishments as a TV producer. He also mentioned Gianni Materazzo, one of the authors of the Amici di Torricella who wrote several mystery novels. Aureliano has apparently made some of them into TV mysteries. He also said that he produced a video of Dan Fante, the son of John, who visited a Torricella a few years ago (I'll have to ask him for a copy). In any case, Aureliano said he will try to put together histories of other Torricellani that could be of interest to our website. He is in contact with many Torricellani both in the Rome area and elsewhere.

Angela, thank you once again for putting me in contact with Aureliano. It's great to get his support. His home address and phone number are:
Aureliano Lalli-Persiani
Via Leonessa, 28
00189 Roma
Phone -06-33253806
I forgot to ask him if he speaks any English, or at least, reads English.
Dan/Donato