FAMIGLIA di SCALCINI

We know next to nothing about Nonno’s great grandparents and grandparents except that Scalcini’s were known to live in the Sondrio region of Italy, near Morbegno. On March 8, 1849 Carlo Scalcini appeared  in the Opera “Giselle” at La Scala.  Cesare Scalcini, from Morbegno, was a design engineer and in 1861, created the plans for a castle of wood that housed the new concert bells for the parochial church and  Agostino Scalcini was a councilman of Morbegno from 1864-1887.

Col. U. Scalcini and Leopolde Scalcini 

World War II brings us two more Scalcini’s, one in the Italian Army and the other in the Italian Resistance.

Col U. Scalcini served with the Italian army  52nd Infantry regiment in a campaign in Ribnica in the Province of Ljubijana,  September 2, 1943.  During this campaign many crimes of war were committed against the people of Ljubljana There is still a group documenting this part of World War II.

On the opposite side of the coin, Leopolda Scalcini, with the Italian resistance during WWII, was instumental in keeping the Spluga Pass through the mountians of Italy into Switzerland open. He was a resistance officer of artillary in the first group of partisans in Colico in the Valtelina defending the pass into Switzerland. He was captured with 34 other partisans at the cabin of St. Peter. The 34 were executed on December 29, 1944 as they tried to escape.

On December 31, 2005 a plaque was dedicated commemorating these men’s successful defense of the bridges of the far north.

Two more contemporary Scalcini’s are  Alba Cinzia Caldi Scalcini and Gustavo Scalcini. Alba is described in the Provincial News in an article “The Women of Valtellina and Valchiavenna”  as a figure of beauty. She was born in Morbegno in 1870. She married a professor of philosophy at the University of Torino. It was here that she began her studies in classic and modern liturature. She was a writer of both prose and poetry. She became an impressive feminine figure in world of publication. She died in 1960. Gustavo Scalcini, is a senior editor of the Argentinian Paper Telam. He has written many articles in the area of animal rights and a major work about the Chilean and Argentinian hero, Calfucura, titled Un  Héroe Vuelue a Su Pueblo (A hero Returns to His town) Many emigrants from Pientedo went to find their fortunes in South America, especially Argentina. This points to the fact that Gustavo, too could be a distant cousin. Only more  extensive  research will reveal our ancestral connection

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