Rovinj was amazing. The small fishing village turned beach town was a beautiful mix of locals and tourists. While many flock to this unique island in Istria for its beaches and family-friendly nightlife, we singled this out as part of our trip because of the Sponza-family history there.

Great grandpa with cousin Johnny at 8810

My grandfather’s father was from this town and I grew up listening to family legends of Rovinj and our relatives that hailed from there. My great grandfather came to the US in the late 1910s, met my great grandmother and settled in Brooklyn. They had three children, Angela, Bruno and Antonio (mio nonno) and in 1936 they bought the house that I spent most of my life in, 8810 in Bensonhurst. After my great grandmother passed away, Antonio Sr. visited Rovinj and decided to move back home and remarry a woman named Ita.

In 1973 my Uncle Bruno and his family went to visit his father in Rovinj and at the last minute my mom joined the trip. I’ve looked at her red leather photo album from this viaggio more times than I can count and told myself that one day I would make the trip myself. When Chris and I were brainstorming where to go for our vacation after the Bar, Rovinj came up and we thought it would be a great addition. We arrived from Dubrovnik on Thursday afternoon, settled into our apartment and called Lidia, my grandfather’s cousin. Much to our surprise she wanted to meet right away and through broken Italian and English, we met her and her granddaughter Daria 30 minutes later.

Mom on her trip in 1973 (I know I thought it was me too!)

A little about Lidia and her family; every family has its famous stories that turn into family legend over time, for us that is Lidia and her father Giovanni.

In the late 20s my Great-great Uncle Giovanni, Antonio Sr.’s younger brother, came to the US at the age of 18 as many Italian youths did, looking for more opportunity. The story I always heard was that he was an experienced cliff diver who saw the Manhattan Bridge and decided it would be perfect to dive off of-in the middle of January. He taped his hands and did a perfect swan dive off of the Bridge, survived and was picked up by a passing tugboat. Not speaking a word of English it was written in newspapers that he attempted suicide, but changed his mind on the way down. This of course was completely false. He was quickly sent back to Rovinj, which at the time was under Italian rule and back to the Sponza family. Word spread quickly of his record breaking dive and Hollywood was calling my Great grandfather looking for the young daredevil.

The other famous story we always heard about Uncle Giovanni was that when the famous St Eufemia statue fell down in 1946, he strapped it to his back and free climbed it back up the side of the tower and it‘s current resting place. This tower is the highest point in the city and can be seen from almost everywhere in the city.

His daughter Lidia, was equally as famous in our family. A professional rower, we heard from different family members that she was a 2 time Olympic rower and discus thrower and trained national champions in Ex-Yugoslavia.

This was who we were about to meet and I was both excited and intimidated. Lidia and her grand daughter Daria waited for us outside of a local museum. I immediately knew who Lidia was. Although, later in her years, she was extremely strong looking and her athletic build was tanned to perfection. Her grand daughter Daria is 14 and tall and slender and thankfully well versed in English.

We introduced ourselves, hugged and then quite abruptly were on our way to get a quick Sponza tour.

We started at her and her brother’s (another Bruno) apartment in the Old City. It is a beautiful apartment that has a balcony overlooking the harbor, but they no longer live there primarily because of the loud discotech that resides below. I had so many questions and we dove right in using old pictures as a guide in the telling of our family’s history.

My first question of course, what was the true story about Uncle Giovanni and the Manhattan Bridge?

She began “allora…” Uncle Giovanni did come to the US at the age of 18 to stay with his brother Antonio in Brooklyn in the late 20s. He had a friend in New York that was also from Istria and the two young men set their sights on opening an Istrian-Italian restaurant in Brooklyn. In the New York Times, Uncle Giovanni saw an article where a man who dove off of the Brooklyn Bridge and survived was given $10,000 as an award. He then turned to my great grandfather and said “I am going to do this.” Antonio not believing his younger brother, laughed and thought he was joking. Giovanni then went to the bridge and studied it, making sure he would be able to successfully complete the dive. On January 6th 1927 in the New York cold, Giovanni stripped down to his swimsuit, waited for a boat to be within reach and dove off the Manhattan Bridge. The boat immediately scooped him up and brought him to the hospital, his only injury being minor bruising.

At the hospital he was interviewed and without being able to speak any English, it was determined that this was a suicide attempt. My great grandfather tried to speak with the reporters to clear up any miscommunication, but by that point it was already printed and no one was willing to correct the story. Hollywood did call Antonio asking him if Giovanni would be interested in auditioning for Tarzan in the latest rendition of the movie.

Lidia continued saying that 25 years later there was some kind of slander trial against several newspapers for printing the incorrect story, however by this time Uncle Giovanni no longer wanted to continue pursuing this.

My second question was for Lidia about her career. No, she did not participate in the Olympics, rowing was not recognized as a female sport when she was competing. However, she was national champion of Ex-Yugoslavia 11 times and trained the Yugoslavian rowing team when they came in 2nd in the Olympics. She proudly brought out a number of medals and awards she had at the house. This was incredible to see! She still trains the rowing club and is considered a local hero; in the short walks we took with her several people came up to her to say hello and rolled out the red carpet at any restaurant she took us to.

After our short, but informative stay at her apartment, I asked another question my mother sent with me; what happened to her grandfather’s house at Via Nello Quarantotto No. 7? We quickly left the apartment and made our way along the harbor to a tall house on the other side of the city (5 minutes walking, its not a big city). The house was 3 stories tall and echoed my home at 8810. There was an elevated porch made shady by grape vines and a fig tree that faced the water and on it was a woman seated facing us. Lidia began speaking with her in rapid Italian-we just smiled and nodded.

Lidia introduced us as the cousins from New York. We were immediately ushered in and welcomed with heaping glasses of wine, hugged and were told to sit down. More women came out to say hello and we began to put the pieces together of who was who. The first woman we met was the niece of my great grandfather’s second wife, Ita. Then another petit woman with dark hair came out and introduced herself as the daughter-in-law of Ita, her husband, Ita’s son, has since passed away. Three younger women came out after and these were Ita’s grand daughters. I had my mother’s album with us and we poured over the pictures, each of them telling me who was who and how we were related. It was a whirlwind of names and questions, but very informative. Lidia and Daria had to part a little earlier in the evening so we stayed and stumbled through questions and answers with my poor Italian and charade-like gestures. They explained that my great-grandfather had lived there with Ita after they were married and that he built the fence and planted the fig tree and grape vine that still stood above us.

We finished our wine, said our goodbyes to Via Nello Quarantotto No. 7 and quickly grabbed a bite to eat. We followed this up with a drink at the Café Mediterranean bar that sits facing the water. It was the perfect end to our first day.

The next morning we got up early and made out way to the Church of the patron St. Eufemia (pop quiz: this was the statue that Uncle Giovanni replaced). The church sits atop a hill overlooking the rest of the island and we were able to climb the steps (if you can call them that!) to the very top. From here we were able to get a great 360 view of the city. We wandered around a bit and decided to stop for a quick bite and drink before heading back to the apartment for a reprieve from the heat.

Lit three candles for Aunt Angie, Uncle Bruno and Grandpa — Lit three candles for Aunt Angie, Uncle Bruno and Grandpa

We later met Daria and Lidia again at 5:30pm near our apartment. She picked us up by car and took us to the cemetery where my great grandfather and her father are buried. I think I am the only one to see his grave from my family as no one returned to Rovinj after he died in 1982.

Lidia then brought us to where her parents are buried and on Uncle Giovanni’s tomb stone under his first name is written “American.” Lidia went on to explain that this was his nick name because of his Manhattan Bridge jump.

We returned to the city and Lidia treated us to some ice cream. Have we mentioned how hot it has been in Croatia?! After dessert we returned to Lidia’s apartment where she showed us a family tree going back as far as she was able. It would be a bit difficult to go through here, but I am looking forward to going through it in great detail with everyone back in the States.

From here we parted with Lidia and Daria and made plans to meet with Lidia’ son and wife the next day. Chris and I had a great typical Istrian meal and returned back to our favorite spot, Café Mediterranean for a night cap.

The next morning we went back to Café Mediterranean for a coffee and a swim. The water is crystal blue and a great escape from the heat. We spent an hour or two swimming and tanning and then walked around the village looking at different shops on our way.

Later that evening we met Lidia’s oldest son David and his wife Goranca, the parents of Daria. We joined them for a coffee at the foot of the St. Eufemia. What we thought might be an hour meeting turned into 3 and we learned even more about the family and our new found cousins. David is a computer engineer and his wife is a doctor and Daria, also an only child, is a talented artist and will be starting high school this year in Zagreb. We were so happy to meet them and discussed our families on both sides of the world in greater detail. David told us about his grandfather, Giovanni and the St. Eufemia statue. He said that Uncle Giovanni was the only one in the village who could climb above the highest landing on the tower. He created the first part of the scaffolding and then was able to make it strong enough for others to come up after him to put the statue back in its place. David also said that since Giovanni was the last to come down, he quickly etched a picture of the Manhattan bridge, a calling card of his, at the very base of the statue. Because he was instrumental in putting the statue back up, Giovanni was awarded a large sum of money from the town, which he used to buy the 2 apartments that Lidia and her brother own.

The next day Chris and I took the morning to go to Rosso Island, which is a short ferry ride away from Rovinj. We went swimming and tanning and swimming and more tanning for a larger part of the day and came back a little more rosso then we wanted.

We got showered quickly and made our way to meet David and the rest of the family for dinner. Lidia took all of us to this wonderful Istrian restaurant along the coast, which happened to be owned by one of her former students. We were greeted warmly and enjoyed great conversation and good food on our last evening in Rovinj.

We took a final walk around the island and Lidia showed us the house where my great grandfather and her father were born. We said our goodbyes here and promised to keep in touch.

I wasn’t sure what to expect during this short trip to Rovinj, but I do know that whatever I did, it was very much exceeded. It is very rare to reunite with distant family and reconnect in such a powerful way. We are so thankful for how welcoming Lidia and the rest of her family were while we were in Rovinj. I was also so happy to share this experience with Chris-thanks for making the trip with me darling.