UN: britto08
Time Period: 1906
Country/ies of Origin: Italy (go to U.S.)
LN: De Fiore
DH:
Orlando Cesare (20)
DW:
Ginevra Teresa (19)
Orlando and
Ginevra have both grown up in the Tuscan countryside near
Florence, and both have been poor their entire lives.
Ginevra was the daughter of a famer who had never been able to make much of a living. She lost both her parents at age seventeen, and she has been taking care of her little brother
Adamo and her little sister
Teodora since then.
Orlando met her soon before her parents died, passing through her village as a peddler. The two had a mutual love of music and books, and he gave her trinkets. He was an only child orphaned at the age of ten, and he had been living with a cruel uncle until he was eighteen, then began peddling to make his living. They had been engaged before
Ginevra's parents died and were waiting until they could afford a wedding. That day took a year and a half to come. Then
Orlando came to
Ginevra with exciting news. He had saved up enough money to buy the two of them and
Ginevra's two little siblings passage to
America. All of them were excited; though they loved Tuscany, there was nothing left for them there. So they packed up and after a few months in
Florence, where
Orlando and
Ginevra married, sailed to New
York. They have settled in New
York City, in a decent apartment above a dry goods store that the kindly owner, an Irishman named
Thomas Doyle, has let the young couple rent cheaply. They are rapidly learning English, and
Orlando is working for
Doyle as a delivery man while
Ginevra cleans the shop. Her load is light, as she is expecting the couple's first child.