[Above: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]
I actually had intended on this entry being posted prior to last weeks Super Bowl game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. Both cities have a long history with our Cisalpine people. Green Bay, which is a port city in the Great Lakes, ties in with our century-plus history in that region. Pittsburgh ties in more with our history in some of the bigger cities of the northeast.
Green Bay's Cisalpine history seems to tie in more with the north Cisalpines, while Pittsburgh simply counts a sizable number of Tuscans in it's "Italian-American" population. Pittsburgh, of course, is a bigger city. Green Bay, interestingly, also has a Tuscan population. All of this should be thought of in a historical sense, as well as a modern one.
In Pittsburgh, the Tuscan heritage is largely from the Lucca province. There is a seemingly large Lucchesi nel Mondo group there. Also interesting, and maybe someone can clue us in more on this subject, is evidence of chain-migration over many decades from Lucca. Green Bay also has some ties to Tuscany. There is a group there called the Green Bay Italo-Americano Club, which was founded by a native of Lucca.
[Right: Green Bay, Wisconsin]
Like so much of our history on this side of the Atlantic, we always have to fill in the blanks. There is not a lot written about people from specific areas and their shared experiences. We do know that the port cities of the Great Lakes, and the surrounding area, were areas of settlement for Cisalpine people; and western Pennsylvania was also an area of sizable Cisalpine settlement.
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