Christmas Party 2023

On Sunday December 10th, 2023, we had our Christmas celebration at the Italian Athletic Club in Stockton. There were around 130 in attendance – a great turnout! As usual, polenta was the mainstay of the meal. It was prepared superbly by the staff of the Athletic Club as were all the accompaniments. Carlo Soliván of The Don Giovannis entertained us with his amazing voice. Master of Ceremonies Attilio Mussi made various announcements and acknowledged in particular those who have been with the club since the 1980s and 1990s.

Members contributed an abundant array of raffle prizes, such as gunny sacks of Costa family walnuts, preserves and jams by Prevedelli Farms, grappa, etc.

We’d like to extend a huge thank you to the Trentini of Stockton who worked tirelessly to make this such a wonderful celebration. We’ll avoid mentioning names out of fear of forgetting someone.
Grazie mille to all of you!

Photos by Rhonda Mussi

Fall Picnic

On Sunday 24, 2023 nearly 60 of us gathered at Lafayette Reservoir for our end-of summer picnic. Unfortunately, a swarm of wasps also wanted to partake in the celebration.

We managed to fend them off and enjoy the delicious items members brought.

Noteworthy were the luganega, homemade Trentino sausage, made by our vice-president Lino with the assistance of board member Alice. They were accompanied by Giuseppina’s polenta, which Attilio masterfully grilled up along with the luganega.

We were delighted to welcome some first-timers to the club, including Lyn Flaim Healy with her husband David and son Glenn. Lyn’s paternal grandfather was from Villa Banale, and her paternal grandmother was from Comano Terme. Both villages are in the Valli Giudicarie. Lyn maintains contact with her relatives in Trentino, including her cousin Giorgio Flaim, who lives in the original family home in Villa Banale.

Paul and Wendy Rossotti of Sacramento also joined us for the first time. Paul’s maternal grandparents, immigrated to Utah from Brez in the Val di Non. Paul’s mother, Rena (Rina), is a longtime member of the club.

Carlo Soliván of The Don Giovannis entertained us with his remarkable voice. He was joined by new club member Glenn Healy. Glenn is an opera singer who sings and acts professionally. How fortunate we are to be surrounded by such talent!

Pictures: Sara, Alice, Michela

Spring Festa at Sapore Italiano

On Sunday, May 21, 2023 our club gathered at Sapore Italiano in Burlingame. The amiable owner of the restaurant, Elio Durzo, treated us to an excellent meal with impeccable service.
We introduced two new members to the club, Stefano Abbasciano, an attorney, and Stefano Mazzalai, a marketing operations manager. Both are originally from the city of Trento. Stefano Abbasciano’s family operates a well-known cheese factory in Trento, Caseificio Abbasciano.

We welcomed David Pizzorno to the club at our Christmas event. This time we had the pleasure of meeting his wife Crystal and son Luca. David’s Trentino family, last names of Pilati and Torresani, is from Val di Non. David journeys often to Italy to visit family and ski.

Theresa Yob came to a club event many years ago but then lost contact with us. Her family is originally from Val di Non. She was not the only Yob at the event. Legacy members Ralph and Rosie Yob were accompanied by their son Tony, daughter Vicky and grandkids Brittany, Bradley and Zoe.

Several made the long trek from the Central Valley, including the Costa’s and Mussi’s, Michael Oliveri and legacy members Adriana Antoniolli and Nelly Mussi.

Christmas Party

Great turnout to our Christmas gathering on Sunday, December 11th in North Beach, the heart of San Francisco’s Little Italy..

It was wonderful to see so many new members and to be able to spend some time together.

It takes a village to prepare an event like this.We would like to thank:

Luca for coordinating with Sapore Italiano and Padre Mengon; also, for setting up the tables and procuring the panettone, the Trentino Pinot Grigio and numerous supplies.
Dan for coordinating the event, keeping track of the attendees and ordering the trophy for Rosie and Ralph Yob.
John and Sarah for putting together the gift baskets, the marvelous decorations and keeping our books in order.
Maria and her husband Mark for organizing with Padre Mengon, buying the pandoro, setting up the tables and taking care of the raffle tickets.
Giuseppina for contacting Padre Mengon and the singer Carlo Solivan
Padre Mengon for offering the location and saying mass
Carlo Solivan, Giuseppina, Laura and Gemma for keeping us entertained with their beautiful voices during the celebration.
Elio of Sapore Italiano in Burlingame for the great food.
Alice and Michela for serving the food, opening the wine and cutting the pandoro and panettone.
Lino and Janet for helping with the raffle, procuring the red wine and offering grappa and liqueurs.
All the board members for putting countless hours in the organization of the event.
Rosie and Ralph Yob for being such amazing members and opening their house for many events
All the members who brought gifts for the raffle.

Photo Credit: Maria Polli Mortati, John Zanoni, David Pizzorno, Alice Amigassi

Legacy members

At our 40th anniversary on May 14th, we gave special recognition to the legacy members of the club; that is, those who have been members since the 1980s.

Back row: 

Ramona Krausnick Antonioni, San Bernardo, Val di Rabbi and Verla, Val di Cembra; 
Josephine Agostini Costa, Cologna (Pieve di Bono); 
Laura Floriani Vitlacil, Bieno, Valsugana; 
Adriana Salvadori Antoniolli, Bondo (Sella Giudicarie);
– Lino Rizzi, Cloz, Val di Non;
Bob Zanoni, Cloz, Val di Non and Vermiglio, Val di Sole.

Front row: 

Rosie Yob, Ralph’s wife; 
Giuseppina Piasente Alvarez, Pieve Tesino;
Ralph Yob, Sporminore, Sfruz and Lover, Val di Non;
Antonio Vitlacil, Borgo Valsugana; 
Nelly Antoniolli Mussi, Roncone and Agrone (Pieve di Bono);
– Ruby Franch Zanoni, Cloz, Val di Non;   
Olga Degregorio Disney, Spera (Castel Ivano), Valsugana.

Giuseppina and Laura were founding members.

Luca Dorigatti, new President

During our 40th anniversary celebration the presidency of the club was transferred from Giuseppina Piasente Alvarez to Luca Dorigatti.

Giuseppina felt it was time to pass the leadership to a younger generation. Giuseppina has spirited one of the most active clubs in Northern America. She has a passionate desire to promote our culture to a new generation of Trentini. She welcomes with open arms the flow of newer immigrants who have come to find success in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in California.
The new president is Luca Dorigatti, a native of the city of Trento.
Luca has held various roles in our community. From 2013 to 2018 he was the US Consultant to the Province of Trento. From 2013 to 2018 he was the US Coordinator for the Trentini nel Mondo Association, and from 2018 to 2021 he played the same role for the Western US.
From 2000 to 2008 he was our club secretary and for the past 10 years he has been a board member. Giuseppina has placed us in good hands by passing the presidency to Luca. 

Giuseppina will remain on our board and will certainly continue to play a pivotal role in our affairs. We express our sincere admiration and gratitude to Giuseppina and Luca for their dedication to our community.

Our club was founded on February 9, 1980 with the assistance of Dr. Bruno Fonza, who was visiting from Trentino. Initially, there were only 30 members. The current club roster contains more than 200 households. Giuseppina has been president now for over 30 years. Soon after our club was founded, the Trentini nel Mondo Association conferred upon our club a formal letter of recognition. During the anniversary event, Giuseppina handed this letter of recognition to Luca, symbolizing the transition of leadership. Luca was also presented with a cycling jersey, the same one worn by the world champion from Trentino, Francesco Moser.

Our club was founded on February 9, 1980 with the assistance of Dr. Bruno Fonza, who was visiting from Trentino. Initially, there were only 30 members. The current club roster contains more than 200 households. Giuseppina has been president now for over 30 years. Soon after our club was founded, the Trentini nel Mondo Association conferred upon our club a formal letter of recognition. During the anniversary event, Giuseppina handed this letter of recognition to Luca, symbolizing the transition of leadership. Luca was also presented with a cycling jersey, the same one worn by the world champion from Trentino, Francesco Moser.

On the left Giuseppina receives a standing ovation

40th Anniversary Celebration

On Saturday May 14th, the Circolo Trentino di San Francisco celebrated its 40th anniversaryat the Prie Winery in Lodi on May 14 th , 2022.
This celebration was postponed 2 years due to the pandemic. The owners of the winery welcomed just over 100 Trentini. Prie is one of the few wineries in the US that produces Marzemino, a typical wine from Trentino mentioned in Mozart’s opera, Don Giovanni. Each table featured this exquisite varietal plus other fine wines. Michael Zampiceni played an array of Italian songs to keep us all entertained. After lunch our president Giuseppina Piasente Alvarez led a group of members in song, including the Hymn to Trentino (Inno al Trentino). Our club prides itself in having members of all ages, young, not so young and in-between. This was in full display at the anniversary. There were two infants. Leonardo Bonadiman was accompanied by his parents who recently moved to California and little Nolan Holober was accompanied by his 95-year-old great-grandfather, Antonio Vitlacil, the oldest attendee.
During our 40th anniversary, we gave special recognition to the legacy members of the club; that is, those who have been members since the 1980s and we transferred the presidency of the club from Giuseppina Piasente Alvarez to Luca Dorigatti.
Armando Maistri, President of the Trentini nel Mondo Association, and Mattia Gottardi, representative of the Province of Trento, wrote letters to the club congratulating us on reaching this milestone. We thank Trentini nel Mondo and the Provincia autonoma di Trento for their solidarity and kind words.

40th Anniversary Celebration

We’d like to announce the date for our 40th anniversary celebration:  Saturday, May 14th at 12pm.  

Be sure to mark your calendars for this special outdoor event at the lovely Prie Winery in Lodi:  https://www.priewinery.com.  

We plan on making this a festive occasion for adults and children alike.  We will provide more information further on.  

Tickets will be $45 for adults, $25 for ages 12-18, and children under 12 free.  PAY HERE

Passages 2021, Remembering those we lost.

Max Peter Cologna

Longtime club member Max Peter Cologna passed away in Roseville, California on June 20, 2021 at the age of 88. Max’s parents were from Castelfondo in the Val di Non. They immigrated to Rock Springs, Wyoming, the destination of a multitude of Trentini. There Max was born. When Max was 10 the family settled in Ogden, Utah, the site of another large Trentina community. To this day both Rock Springs and Ogden have active Trentino clubs. Max was named after his father, Massimino Pietro Cologna (1892-1977), son of Giuseppe Cologna and Maria Marchetti. His mother, Pierina Casilda Ianes (1905-1999), was the daughter of Pietro Ianes and Carolina Lorenzetti. Max entered the army and was stationed at Ford Ord Military Base in Monterey. He fell in love with California and a woman of Calabrese origin, Jackie D’Andrea. They married and had 3 boys, Paul, Tom and Matt. Max ran a liquor store in San Francisco. The couple lived in San Mateo for 37 years and then moved to Roseville to be closer to family. Jackie passed away in 2019. They had been married over 60 years. Max was particularly close to Olga Disney and Rena (Prevedel) Rossotti, two others of Trentina origin, that had journeyed from Ogden to California. He loved to sprinkle conversations with a few phrases of Nones, the language of the Val di Non.

John Wood

John Wood (1941-2017) passed away at the age of 76. John was an active club member and very proud of his Trentino roots. His maternal grandparents were Giovanni Avanzini and Maria Zuech, both from Brez in the Val di Non. They immigrated to Rock Springs, Wyoming, the destination of many Trentini. They named their first child Americo, honoring the country of his birth. The family then moved to Goldfield, Nevada. Amerigo perished just before the age of 2 from cholera and is buried in the historic town cemetery. Four children followed, Mary, Elmo, Ruby and Juanita. Ruby was John’s mother. John’s Trentini grandparents owned the Lucky Strike Winery in Goldfield. This business was primarily a bar and liquor distributorship. The winery also hosted poker games and other types of gaming. They gained the right to distribute liquor from the outskirts of Reno all the way to Las Vegas. It was a very profitable business until Goldfield went into demise. The mines were producing less gold and silver. That was followed by a devasting flood in 1913, a fire a decade later and finally prohibition. The family then moved to Reno where they opened a small grocery store and hotel. John received an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Reno and an MBA from JFK University. He was active in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. After years with PGE, he retired in 2007. John was also a member of the Air Force Reserve. John loved a good polenta or canederli supper accompanied by red wine and capped off by a bit of grappa. He affectionally recalled how his grandmother Maria used the polenta stick as a threatening disciplinary tool. John leaves his loving wife of 54 years, Pat, plus three children, Michelle (Keith), Renee (Richard) and John Norman (Jeanette) and 3 grandchildren, Christopher and Nicholas Lam and John Austin Wood.

2021, New members:

John Zanoni

Last year we sent out an appeal for 2 new board members and for 2 youth board members. John Zanoni has stepped up to fill one of the positions. All four of John’s grandparents came from Trentino, Zanoni, Franch and Flor from Cloz in the Val di Non and Panizza from Vermiglio in the Val di Sole. His parents, Bob and Ruby (Franch) Zanoni, are longtime club members. Bob was the club’s Central Valley Representative for years and was instrumental in putting on the Stockton holiday celebration. John and his wife Sarah were both born and raised in Stockton and both attended Sacramento State. John recently retired after working 40 years as an accountant, serving the construction and real estate industries. The couple lived for 30 years in Las Vegas, but now they spend most of their time at their second residence in Reno to be closer to parents and family. John and Sara have 4 kids and 4 grandchildren. Two of their kids participated in the Trentino youth exchange program, Amanda in 2004 and Connor in 2012. John stated: “I’m joining the board to stay connected with other Trentini,
expand my knowledge of heritage and relationship with others in the club, and help recruit other Trentini and youth to join and be involved
“.