From Italy to Ellis Island: How My Grandfather’s Journey Shaped My Life (Updated Version)

By Piero Lorenzo

In 2015, just a few weeks after emigrating from Italy to California, I began a completely new chapter in both my life and my real estate career. After 13 years working in real estate in Florence, Italy, I was now starting over as a real estate agent in Santa Cruz, California, USA. Very quickly, however, I realized how difficult it would be to compete with local agents. They had spent decades building relationships and trust within the community, many of them knowing their clients since childhood. I, on the other hand, had just arrived from over 10,000 kilometers away, with almost no network, very few contacts, and an accent that clearly revealed I came from another world. Despite the incredible support I received from Keller Williams, I understood that if I wanted to survive and succeed, I had to find my own path. Something unique. Something authentic that no one else could replicate.

Then, in May 2015, something extraordinary happened that changed my life forever. My wife and I spent a week in New York, and one of the places we visited was Ellis Island, the symbolic gateway through which millions of immigrants entered America in search of hope and a better future. There, among old immigration records, I discovered the official arrival record of my grandfather, Francesco Lorenzo, who had arrived in the United States in 1913 at just 17 years old, completely alone, leaving Calabria behind in search of a better future, just like so many Italians of that generation.
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Reading his name on that page was one of the most emotional moments of my life. It felt as if time suddenly disappeared, and I could physically feel the weight of his courage, his fears, his hopes, and his sacrifices crossing the Atlantic Ocean over one hundred years earlier. 

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“The original Ellis Island record of my grandfather Francesco, who arrived in America in 1913 — just 17 years old, alone, from Calabria. On the left, his portrait, which I have always carried with me.”

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Only recently, however, did I discover something that completely changed my understanding of my grandfather’s story. A few days ago, I found an old photograph of a framed certificate showing that in 1971, just months before his death, my grandfather had been awarded the honor of “Cavaliere di Vittorio Veneto” by the President of the Italian Republic, a recognition reserved for veterans of World War I. Until that moment, I had always believed that he had voluntarily returned to Italy after a few years in America. Instead, I suddenly realized something very different. Italy entered World War I in May 1915, and my grandfather turned twenty in January 1916, the typical age for military conscription at that time. This means that after only two or three years in the United States, while he was probably trying to build a new life in America, he was most likely forced to return to Italy to fight in the war. In other words, he did not leave America because he wanted to. History forced him to leave.

​After the war, he returned to Tropea, the small town that had shaped his roots, where he met my grandmother and began building the family that would eventually make my own life possible.

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"Online confirmation from the Italian Presidency website showing the 1971 recognition awarded to my grandfather, Francesco Lorenzo, as “Cavaliere di Vittorio Veneto” for his service in World War I."

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But during my research at Ellis Island, I noticed something unusual. The immigration record listed my grandfather’s last place of residence as Santa Croce Camerina, Sicily, rather than Tropea, his actual hometown. The museum docent explained to me that these kinds of mistakes were very common at Ellis Island because of confusion, dialects, language barriers, and exhausted immigration officers trying to process thousands of immigrants every day. Even his age was incorrect. The record listed him as 15 years old, while in reality, he was 17.

A few days later, after returning to California, something happened that, even today, I still struggle to explain rationally. I received a phone call from a Sicilian woman living in Santa Cruz, California. She wanted my help selling her property in Sicily, possibly to American buyers. Do you know where her property was located? Can you guess where? Exactly. Her property was located just a few kilometers away from Santa Croce Camerina. Yes, the exact same place that had mistakenly appeared on my grandfather’s immigration record only days earlier at Ellis Island.
And if you think about it, there was another incredible coincidence: I had just moved to Santa Cruz, California, which, in Italian, literally translates to “Santa Croce Ca...”
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At that moment, I froze. I remember goosebumps covering my entire body. For the first time in my life, I felt as though my grandfather, a man I had never met because he passed away one year before I was born, was somehow guiding me toward my true professional path. That moment changed everything.

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Me in New York, from Ellis Island, looking toward the future — carrying forward my grandfather’s dream.

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First, I wanted to help that Sicilian woman sell her property in Italy to American buyers. Second, I realized that this was exactly what I was meant to do. I decided to specialize in International Real Estate. I immersed myself day and night in studying, learning, and understanding how to create a method that could truly work across two completely different countries, cultures, and real estate systems. Slowly, through experience, mistakes, persistence, and countless hours of work, I developed a highly unusual approach: helping Americans purchase homes in Italy while bridging two different worlds with trust, transparency, and personal guidance.
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Today, more than a decade later, I have helped countless American families achieve the dream of owning a home in Italy. Since 2019, through my own brokerage, Lorenzo International Real Estate, I have built a unique model that combines the best aspects of both the American and Italian real estate systems, making the buying process smoother, clearer, and far less stressful for international buyers. Many of my clients purchase properties in Italy completely unseen before closing because they trust me to guide them honestly through every step of the process.
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And every single time I "hand over the keys" to a new home, I think back to that day at Ellis Island.

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"Original 1913 advertising poster of the Italian steamship company “La Veloce.” My grandfather, Francesco Lorenzo, boarded the steamship Europa from Naples on February 25, 1913, arriving in New York in March 1913 at just 17 years old, completely alone, in search of a better future in America."

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I think about my grandfather crossing the Atlantic Ocean alone at 17 years old, on a long and uncertain journey toward a country he had never seen before. No internet. No smartphones. No Google Maps. No email. No social media. No AI. Only courage, sacrifice, resilience, and faith in the unknown.

And then, just as he was beginning to build a new life in America through hard work and determination, he was forced to leave everything behind and return to Italy to fight in a brutal war, because refusing to return would have meant being considered a deserter. That thought still gives me chills.

Even though I never had the chance to meet him, I carry him with me every day. Today, inspired by his courage, resilience, sacrifice, and determination, I continue to work relentlessly to grow both personally and professionally, always trying to honor the journey that he began more than a century ago.

Sometimes, deep inside, I feel that my journey to America one hundred years later was not just a coincidence. Maybe, in some way, I am finishing the journey he was never allowed to complete.

CIAO NONNO!! 
By Piero Lorenzo

![COVER PHOTO – Ellis Island]
Me at Ellis Island, where my grandfather Francesco arrived in 1913.

​2025-26 Blog - By Piero Lorenzo