Did you know that Taylor Swift has Cilento origins?

Taylor Swift has roots that sink into the heart of Cilento, and in particular in Castelnuovo Cilento, a small village in the province of Salerno. The story of the Cilento origins of the international queen of pop begins with Carmine Carlo Antonio Baldi, born in Castelnuovo Cilento in 1862. When he was 14, in 1877, this young man from Cilento emigrated to the United States with his father Vito and his brothers, and went to live in Philadelphia.

He started working as a fruit sellerand especially lemons: his small business proved profitable and allowed him to accumulate his first savings and expand his business. The climb to success continued unabated in the following years, with the opening first of a stone quarry and then of a coal shop.

Over time, Carmine Baldi became a real point of reference for the local Italian community and created his own small economic empire. He founded the First Italian Exchange Bankone bank that offered financial services to Italian immigrantshelping them save and send money to their families in Italy, and became editor of an Italian-language daily newspaper, The Opinionwhich reported news and job opportunities to members of the Italian community, and which sold twenty thousand copies a day.

Carmine Baldi he was also a philanthropist (like Taylor, on the other hand): he organized numerous initiatives to support Italian immigrants, facilitating their integration into American society and, at the same time, preserving Italian cultural traditions.

According to the reconstruction of Giuseppe Galzerano, writer and editor from Castelnuovo Cilento, and also based on the book Philadelphia’s King of Little Italywritten by Charles Douglas, Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, In 1885 Carmine Carlo Antonio Baldi married the twenty-five year old Luise Eurindine Sorbenheimersister of a Philadelphia lawyer, with whom she had seven children. In 1896 Louise Baldi was born, who married Charles Gwynn Douglas: from their marriage, in 1920, was born Rose Douglas (the name is a tribute to Rosa, mother of Carmine Baldi), who is Taylor Swift’s paternal grandmother. Rose married Archie Dean Swift and from their union were born Archie III, Douglas and Scott: the latter is the singer’s father.

The Municipality of Castelnuovo Cilento enthusiastically welcomed the news of the artist’s Cilento origins, hoping that the singer will one day be able to visit the village. And, to promote this possibility, it has decided to naming a street after his ancestorin the hope of being able to welcome the queen of pop in his ancient village.