Italy’s tourism authority, together with the country’s foreign ministry, is preparing a major program called “Turismo delle Radici” (or Genealogy Tourism), which is set to unspool in 2024.
Contributing to the program is Il Viandante Edizioni, a publishing company based in Pescara, Italy, that will, in July, publish Hollywood Nasce in Abruzzo (Hollywood is Born in Abruzzo), a new book in Italian that was written by Dom Serafini and Generoso D’Agnese about the so-called “Abrulywood.”
India has Bollywood. Nigeria has Nollywood. Australia has Aussiewood. And now there’s Abrulywood, which references the Abruzzo region in central Italy where an astounding number of major Hollywood stars originated. Examples include Dean Martin, Madonna, Al Martino, Henry Mancini, Patty LuPone, Perry Como, Alan Alda, and many more.
Serafini is the editor-in-chief of VideoAge, and D’Agnese is a contributor to the Vatican daily, L’Osservatore Romano. Some of the personalities spotlighted in the book were previously featured in Serafini’s Sunday column for the Italian daily Il Messaggero.
In addition to offering up the stars’ biographies, the book spotlights the towns where they all originated… just like the famous bus tours in Hollywood in which tourists visit the stars’ houses. In this case, readers will “visit” the stars’ towns of origin.
The informal association with the Italian government-sponsored Genealogy Tourism program is to induce tourists to visit a little-know region that’s close to both Rome and Naples, but far away, if not lost, from most tourists’ itineraries. Without the Hollywood connection, it was feared that most tourists would depart to more popular sites like Rome, Florence, or Venice, following a short visit to Abruzzo.
This is despite the fact that Abruzzo resembles California with its tall mountains (both arid and green), vast natural parks, wide sandy beaches, and even native bears and eagles. Some of the small villages where a good number of Hollywood stars originated are medieval enclaves that could even be featured on Christmas cards.
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