Category: 2025

The image above is a photo taken by Irene Zampin of her 2025 presepio.

Over the years on the website, blogs at Christmas time have reflected traditions of families here in Australia and in Italy. Many of us recall the celebration of Christmas in our childhood days – the kinds of rituals that were practised in our families – religious meanings, decorations, foods and gift-giving.

In some families, Christmas rituals have been brought to Australia by the first generation of the Veneto market gardeners. And other groups of migrants have also transported their practices. Some people have created Christmas customs that their grandchildren and great-grandchildren now enjoy.

In this blog, you’ll read about two main traditions and some excerpts from some people who spoke about the meaning of Christmas in their families in their oral history interviews and that were used in previous blogs.

The nativity scene or presepio

Of course, the most common tradition is the presepio or the nativity scene. Some families create their cribs using figures and other items that have been collected by earlier generations.

Others make presepi with different themes and find materials to make their own unique settings. For example, Irene Zampin made her presepio this year and featured two locations, A sheik’s home in the desert and the nativity in Bethlehem. In Italy, the presepi are enjoyed in public spaces as well as in people’s homes.

The Christmas tree

The universal symbol of the Christmas tree is interpreted in different ways by families who maintain the tradition of ‘dressing’ the tree sometimes by three generations who enjoy the opportunity of using decorations collected for many years.

The Christmas tree is also a focus in public places. In a recent car trip to Victoria, a variety of Christmas trees featured different aspects and the star at the top created the symbol of light and hope.

Christmas celebrations – from oral history interviews and previous blogs

Creating the Christmas tree

Lina Campagnaro, 13th March 2014

I remember most vividly … the Christmas tree because we had a big — pine tree out the front on Valetta Road and Dad would go and yeah, cut off a branch and Mum would or Dad would put it in a bucket full of sand and Mum would dress it up either with material … and then because there were not a lot of decorations, she would put up some balloons … it was always made out of either balloons and lollies and the most important thing were cherries when you could find them then, those double-stemmed cherries where you can just hang [on your ears]. And that was just a tradition my Mum had, and I carry on with now.

Special food at Christmas

Food is special at Christmas and families have their particular traditions that have come from childhood. Milva Rebuli nee Zampin, interviewed on 27 March 2016, recalled Christmas lunches prepared by her mother who was born in Australia and her father who was born in the Veneto region – and shared with her siblings.

We always had a nice Christmas …  had our Christmas lunch … but it was all Italian, it wasn’t Australian, no roast turkey, it was always something special, Italian style.

 

 

Generosity at Christmas

On 3 May 2020, Aida Innocente wrote a blog about her father, Angelo Innocente and his work manufacturing pine boxes for packing tomatoes and celery for market gardeners to sell their produce at market. She remembers that market gardeners organised their accounts before Christmas and brought gifts:

My Dad had clients from all over Italy and other parts of Europe. As a child I remember these clients – Calabrians, Neapolitans, Bulgarians, Slavs, Greeks – dropping in to our home before Christmas to settle their accounts. Dad always made sure he had plenty of beer on hand. His clients brought fresh produce as gifts. I now look upon these Christmas visits as a great symbol of the meaning of Christmas – peace and harmony to all men of all lands and faiths.

Veneto Club and Trevisani nel Mondo Christmas celebrations

Both the Veneto Club and the Trevisani nel Mondo in Adelaide have held celebrations for Christmas which have been enjoyed by their members over the years.

Looking back over the year

This year, two people who participated in the Veneto market gardeners’ oral history project have died. We remember Johnny Tormena (29/11/1927 – 6 April 2025) who was interviewed in 2012, and Roma Bordignon nee Zampin (19/06/1938 – 10/12/2025) whose interview was in 2017.

Blogs in 2025

It’s been wonderful to collaborate with people who have contributed family stories and photos for blogs. Thank you to people who have contributed to the blogs this year:

• Lina Campagnaro nee Ballestrin – 26 January
• Frank Rismondo – 9 March
• Christine Rebellato nee Mattiazzo (from 2021) – 6 April
• Amanda Rossetto – 4, 18 May
• Alex Bennett – 15 June
• Bertina and Diana Buratto – 29 June
• Deni Conci, Romano Rubichi – 12 October
• Maureen Griguol and daughters, Debra and Paula – 26 October
• Guido Cavallin and daughters, Lina and Ann – 9 November
• Piero Fioretti – 23 November
• Gianna Gallina nee Contarin – 7 December.

You can re-read any of these blogs if you put the name of the person into  the search function on the landing page of the website.

Website management

Thank you to Michael Campbell who has managed the Veneto market gardeners’ website for 11 years. His constant background work has made the website accessible, viable and safe. I really appreciate his generosity and skills he has given over so many years.

Changes for 2026

Next year there will be some changes to the system of publishing the blogs. They will be produced monthly and there’ll be a different way of sending them out to subscribers. You’ll read more about this in January.

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Wishes for the season

In a time marked by conflicts, fear and unrest across the world, I am sure that we all yearn for peace, hope and resolution.

I wish you all a happy festive season with opportunities to spend time with your loved ones and to make connections with relatives here and overseas.

Buon natale e buon anno!

Madeleine Regan
21 December 2025

This blog introduces a significant elder in the Veneto community in Adelaide, Gianna Gallina, and includes details of
a family Christmas tradition.

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 In the image above, Benvenuto and Giovanna Manera are seated with their 10 children. Gianna stands between her parents, Riese Pio X, c 1939.

Gianna Gallina nee Contarin remembers that she was about 9 years old when she began singing in the church choir at Riese Pio X. She has always loved singing and has been a member of choirs in Adelaide for more than 60 years.

Gianna’s family background

 

Gianna was born in Riese Pio X on 21 December 1933. She was the last of 10 children born to Giovanna Manera and Benvenuto Contarin. She had five sisters and four brothers. Gianna was especially close to her eldest sister, Bianca, who had a significant role in raising Gianna.

 

 

 

Their father was a merchant who had a stall at local markets. As the children got older, their mother assisted her husband with the work outside the home. Her parents sold goods at different times of the year. For example, in summer, the stall sold watermelons whereas in autumn, the focus was on selling fruit trees and olive trees.

After Gianna completed primary school, she learned sewing and embroidery and fed the animals in the family home.

She admits that she was quite spoilt being the last child in the family, and did not have to work very hard at the time.

The family lived next to the parish church and the Contarins kept an open house with people always coming and going. However, Gianna’s life was limited, and she was not permitted to have a social life. She remembered saying to herself, “I’ll have another life, a different future from being in Riese.” The idea of being with her sister, Bianca, who had migrated to Melbourne sparked her imagination.

A new landscape with Bianca and Melbourne

Bianca was 20 years older than Gianna and had always had responsibilities in the household because she was the eldest daughter and looked after the younger children. She had worked for her parents in the markets after her fiancé, Giovanni Parolin, left for Australia in 1939. On 19^th June 1948, Bianca arrived in Melbourne  and on the same day, married Giovanni.

After Bianca had gone to Australia, Gianna had missed her very much. When she was 19 years old, Gianna defied her mother’s wishes and decided to visit Bianca. Her mother only gave permission after one of her brothers, Guido, offered to accompany Gianna on the trip. Gianna remembered that her sister asked her to bring a special delicacy – horse meat salami and in those days, it was possible to include food in the luggage. Gianna and Guido arrived in Melbourne per ‘The Australia’ on 5 March 1953.

 Although it was not easy to find work, after two or three weeks, Gianna found a job in a clothes factory in Carlton where she finished off men’s clothes with hand-sewing. She enjoyed the work and stayed for two years.

 

Marriage in Melbourne and a move to Adelaide

When Angelo Gallina began visiting Bianca and her husband every second day, it was clear that he was interested in Gianna. Angelo, who had arrived in 1951, was also from Riese, 6 years older than Gianna and he had known her older sisters and brothers.

 

Gianna had not planned to stay in Australia indefinitely and was not really interested in Angelo’s attention. But he was persistent and one day, he appeared with a ring – a sure sign that he was making a commitment to her. They decided to get married. Angelo wrote to her parents and asked them to accept him as a son-in-law with the promise that he would look after Gianna.

Angelo did not like Melbourne and wanted to move to Adelaide where his sister, Norma, was living with her husband, Albino Berno. Gianna recalled, “I was very disappointed about leaving my sister.”

Gianna and Angelo married on 30th July 1955, and enjoyed a reception in a mechanic’s shed owned by a friend with about 50 guests. Gianna recalled how happy she was that her brother Guido made a special trip from Italy to accompany her to the church for the wedding. Within two days, the newlyweds were on the train to Adelaide.

The extended Berno family met the newly married couple at the Adelaide railway station and Pietro Berno helped them to buy a bed before the shops closed because it was Saturday morning. They were then guests at a big welcome lunch at the home of Pietro and Antonietta Berno. At the time, in Adelaide, accommodation for a married couple was hard to find and they had a room in the house of a Berno cousin where they put the new bed. Gianna laughed as she remembered that this was their honeymoon!

 A home in Adelaide

It took a few years before Gianna and Angelo were home-owners. For the first couple of years, they lived in a shed on Berno market gardens at Flinders Park. They bought a block of land on Grange Road that already had had foundations laid for a house. Angelo cleaned second-hand bricks every day after he returned home from work at GMH. Gianna worked in the Pope factory at Beverley, and they both rode their bikes to their jobs. They did not want to have debts, so they gradually built the house as they paid for labour and materials. In 1959, the house was mostly finished when they moved in, the year that Lucio was born.

 

Sonia was born in 1964. When Angelo’s parents, Augusto and Elisabetta Gallina, arrived in Australia, also in 1964, they lived with the family in the house on Grange Road, Fulham Gardens.

 

 

 

When  Gianna started work, her parents-in-law helped to look after the children. Gianna enjoyed her employment in the supermarkets (IGA, Foodland and Drakes) where she was supervisor of the continental delicatessen section of the supermarkets for 23 years.

Connections to Italy

The Contarin family was close – and Gianna always kept in touch with her sisters and brothers here in Australia and in Italy.

 

 

 

 

 

Angelo’s parents, Augusto and Elisabetta, two brothers, Luigi and Ernesto,  and a sister, Norma, and their families came to live in Adelaide. Just one sister, Maria, remained in Italy with her husband and family.

 

Gianna and Angelo visited Italy twice and enjoyed other opportunities to travel together. Gianna visited Italy three times by herself.

 Angelo died in Adelaide in 2007.

 The love of singing

Gianna was able to return to her love of choir-singing about 3 years after she settled in Adelaide. She has sung in the choir at Mater Christi church at masses on Sundays, at funerals and on special occasions for 67 years. At present, she is the eldest member of the Mater Christi choir. Recently she sang in the choir for the Italian Festival mass at St Francis Xavier cathedral.

For more than 30 years, Gianna was also a member of the Corale Italiana (Italian choir) which presented concerts in Adelaide.

A busy life…

Apart from the choir, which is a weekly commitment, Gianna is involved with a range of activities. She is a volunteer helper for the Trevisani nel Mondo and assists at several annual events including the Feast of Pio X. In 2001 a group of 30 people from Riese Pio X visited Adelaide and Gianna was interpreter when the group went on a bus trip to Canberra.

Recently she was part of a team that prepared salads for the Christmas picnic. Gianna is also a member of the Veneto Club and attends the monthly luncheons with friends. She has a wide group of friends from the Veneto, other regions of Italy and other countries. She says, “I’m friends with everyone. They call me the ‘international woman.’”

Gianna enjoys spending time with her family including her children and their families nd also with relatives who visit from Melbourne.

Gianna loves baking and experimenting with recipes – “I like to use my imagination with cooking.” Her family asks her to make biscuits and treats for Christmas that they share with others.

The tradition of the presepio

Another lifelong passion for Gianna has been making a presepio or nativity crib.  Since she was a young child, Gianna has made a presepio, “I got the habit to make the presepio – I’ve always made one.” In mid-November this year she unpacked the figurines, designed and set up the nativity scene.

Gianna uses a backdrop that she bought many years ago in Italy and places the figurines – collected over a long time – including some from Italy and others given by friends – in the nativity setting.  There are so many aspects to appreciate in the presepio and it needs time to take it all in.

Gianna sets up the presepio in the back veranda  and loves to look at it – even beyond the festivities of Christmas – “I love to go outside at night and sit and watch the lights – it is a peaceful place with the presepio.” The family enjoys their Christmas lunch hosted by Gianna in front of the presepio. She remembers her childhood and the way her family celebrated with simple gifts like an orange or a pear or some chestnuts. Gianna says that Christmas traditions have changed but her focus is on sharing the celebrations and being together with her family.

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Gianna Gallina and Madeleine Regan

7 December 2025

All photos, but the last one, were provided by Gianna.

This blog continues the previous stories about people who have strong connections to the Veneto community in Adelaide. Piero Fioretti records the history of his parents, Rino and Maria, and family in Australia.

In the image above, Maria Fioretti nee Andreoni holds her certificate of naturalisation which she received after the citizenship ceremony
in Alice Springs on 2 May 1959.^[1]

Maria shows the certificate to her husband, Rino and her children Piero, aged five and Dina, three years old. You can sense the pride and joy in the moment for the parents, both of whom were naturalised in the ceremony.

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Migrants, like Maria and Rino, made the decision to become citizens as a commitment to remain in Australia and build a future for themselves and their children. In the post-war years, there were Italian migrants who did not see Australia as a permanent home. The migration was an opportunity to work hard, earn money and return to Italy. Maria and Rino trusted the future and the prospect to create a new life together for their family. At the time of the naturalisation, the Fioretti family was living in Alice Springs where Rino was working as a miner and Maria had employment in a hotel as a domestic. They were members of a strong Italian community, some of whom, like Rino, had been miners in the Northern Territory mica mines.

The story of the Fioretti family in Australia

The story  began ten years earlier in 1949 when Rino migrated from Italy. Rino spoke about his reasons for leaving Italy in an oral history interview recorded in 1993 for the Northern Territory Archives Service. He was 24 years old, living and working as a labourer in Genoa on a construction site building a train tunnel. The work was hard, and it was not possible to save money because he had to pay rent and living costs. He remembered saying to himself, “Oh, there’s no life for me.” He returned home and asked his father to loan him the money for a ticket to Australia. A cousin had left not long before and sponsored by relatives living in Broken Hill.

From Italy…

Rino’s story
Rino was born in Ciano del Montello, comune di Crocetta del Montello, about 50 kilometres north-west of Venice in the province of Treviso. He was one of five children, two of whom had died at a young age.

Rino’s father was a stone mason and his mother looked after the family. As Piero says, there was “little or no work in Italy and after the second World War and a lot of northern Italians migrated to Australia and other countries.”  In his interview, Rino compared the conditions of the ship voyage with his experience of post-war poverty: “plenty of food but we were on top of another.”

Rino had work in the Broken Hill mines and was able to repay his father. He then travelled to Adelaide where he lived in a boarding house in the city and worked in a flour mill. He heard from a friend that other Italians were working in the Northern Territory, and he decided to go to Alice Springs. The friend, Oriano Rossi, from Lucca in the province of Lucca in the Toscana region, became a very important person in his life in Australia because he introduced Rino to his wife, Maria Andreoni.

Maria Andreoni – and the importance of photos

Maria Andreoni was born on 9^th October 1927 in Picciorana in the province of Lucca, Tuscany. Both her parents were contadini, living off the land. Maria had five sisters and three brothers. Her family lived in the same large household building with the Rossi family. When Oriano had migrated in 1950, one of the photos that he carried with him to remind him of his home in Picciorana in the province of Lucca, was of Maria Andreoni which he showed to Rino. Picciorana is 76 kms west of Florence.

When he saw Maria’s photo, Rino began writing to her and before long, the couple made the decision to get married in Australia. Maria and her mother travelled to Venice in the period prior to her migration, and they had a photo taken together in St Mark’s Square. Maria sent the photo that had been made into a postcard to send to Rino’s parents in Ciano del Montello.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photo of the extended Andreoni family was taken at the wedding of one of Maria’s sisters. Maria’s parents stand in the front on either side of the bride and groom.

Maria arrived in Melbourne on 17 December 1953, and she was met by Rino. They travelled to Alice Springs via Adelaide where they married on 7^th January 1954. An article in the “Centralian Advocate”, 15 January 1954, recorded details of the wedding.

The couple married at the Catholic Church in Alice Springs. In the newspaper article, Rino was identified as having lived in Australia for 4 years. He was “well known in Alice Springs and at Harts Range where for the last two years he had had his own mica mine.”  On the other hand, the newspaper reported that Maria had been in Australia just three weeks and although Rino had his friend, Oriano Rossi as best man, she did not have an attendant.

 

However, an Italian couple from Mantova, Primo and Dorina Panazza, hosted the reception in their home at Alice Springs which was described as a very happy event with dancing and games after the meal had finished. The article ended with a note about the future: “The happy couple will leave for their home at Harts Range this week and the good wishes of the people of Alice Springs go with them.”

Rino’s working life

Mica mining – Harts Range
In 1951, when Rino arrived in Alice Springs he was advised to go and work in the Mica mines at Harts Ranges, about 150 kilometres north east. Italians had mined there since before World War II. Rino recalled in his interview that there were about seven or eight Italians working there. The work on the mine was difficult and with long hours. “We had to cook ourself, buy rations, for four months … we had a tent, and we made a bough shade to cool off because it was hot… We was working six days a week, and Sunday we was going to get water and wash ourself.”

In partnership with two other Italian men, Oriano Rossi and Francesco Strappazon and an Anglo Australian man, Hector Jenkins, Rino bought a mineral lease of 20 acres in the Harts Range area. They held the lease, which they called ‘Roma’ for two years, 1952 – 1954 and mined mica which was used for insulation in electrical equipment such as toasters and irons.

While Maria and Rino were living and working in Harts Range on the mica mine, Piero was born in September 1954. Dina was born in April 1956.

Coober Pedy
The family moved to Coober Pedy in 1957 and lived in a dug-out for two years. After Rino got buried in an accident and had to have surgery, the family moved to Adelaide in 1959.  Piero remembered the Italian community there had great parties – singing, drinking and speaking Italian.

By the late 1950s there was a strong sense of a multicultural community in Coober Pedy with the arrival of many European migrants, and this created opportunities for people to enjoy some leisure time. In a demonstration of his sense of community, Rino loaned money to the Progress Association to purchase a projector for showing films which were screened twice a week in the community hall which was erected in 1959.^[2]

 A move to Adelaide – and changes for Piero

Another move took the family to Adelaide in 1960 when Piero was six years old and Dina was four years.  Rino and Maria bought the Launceston hotel in Waymouth Street in the west end of the city – it was owned by the SA Brewery Company. Both Rino and Maria worked behind the bar. Maria also cooked meals for lunch, cleaned the hotel and looked after five or six men who were boarders.  Rino supplied beer to the Fogolar Furlan Club on weekends. Many Italians were customers at the hotel and Piero remembers that men arrived after work for a drink or two before the hotel closed at six o’clock, South Australian legislation which did not change until 1966.

The hotel was closed on Sundays, allowing time for Rino and Maria to have time to spend time with Rino’s sister and brother-in-law, Nori and Oreste D’Altio and family at Magill. They mixed also with other Italians including the Urbani family, and members of the Fogolar Furlan Club such as the Di Bez, Fantus and Stocco families.

At the age of eight years, Piero became a boarder at Rostrevor College – “Dad and Mum did not want me to hear all of the unholy words that the Italians were saying after they had a few beers [at the hotel].” He remembers that at first, he missed his family, but he made good friends with other boarders from rural areas and some from overseas.

When his parents visited on Sundays, they brought oysters, ravioli and other special food that made a welcome feast for Piero.

At Rostrevor College, Piero met other students from Italian families and has maintained friendships with them over the years. After he matriculated in 1972, he studied at the South Australian Institute of Technology and completed a Diploma in Business Management. He worked in the public service 40 years before retiring in June 2014.

After Piero retired in 2014, he joined the Trevisani nel Mondo because he felt a connection to the Veneto region since his father was born in the province of Treviso. He became a member of the Veneto Club in 2021 and has been President since 2024.

Dina was a Manager in the South Australian Housing Trust for 40 years. She had two children and has two grandchildren.

Rino’s father and step-mother, Assunta, visited Rino and Maria in Adelaide in about 1964/65 and the extended family enjoyed time together.  Rino and Maria sold the hotel in 1969 and bought a house in Rose Park in a street (Alexandra Avenue) that reminded Maria of the walls of Lucca. Always a man with a vision, Rino worked in Bougainville for two years with a concreting company before he returned to Adelaide and retired. Rino maintained his connections with the Italian friends that he had known for 30 years, and Maria spent most of the time at home catering for events with the family and friends.

The path to marriage

Piero attended dances at the Fogolar Furlan Club and it was there that he met Mary van der Vleut. They married in January 1980 and had three children, Lana, Dean and Leigh. They have six grandchildren (Meisha, Mason, Cole, Beau, Ethan and Sebastian) and really enjoy sharing family occasions.

Family values

Piero reflected on the values that were important to his parents. He said that he learned about love of family, respect for others and the importance of being involved with the community, especially with Italian clubs. Rino and Maria maintained Italian customs especially at Easter and Christmas and passed these onto Piero and Dina.

His father returned to Italy when his father died in 1986. Maria went about seven times, and in this way, maintained very strong links to her family in Lucca.

Rino died in April 1996, and Maria died in October 2008.

 Connections to Italy

Piero feels strongly about his Italian heritage and refers to his parents and their connection to their families and places of birth in Italy.

In 1974, aged 20 years, Piero went to Italy for the first time. He spent time with both sides of his family.

“It was wonderful meeting my nonno and nonna from Lucca in Tuscany as well as seeing my nonno and step-nonna again from Ciano del Montebello in the province of Treviso.” My grandparents in Lucca were so wonderful to me. They opened their arms and took me around to meet my zii and cugini (aunts and uncles and cousins).”

 

Piero and Mary have visited Italy several times and keep in contact with his cousins from Ciano del Montello and Lucca.

Piero says that “Italy is the land of my father and mother and is in my blood one hundred percent.”

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Piero Fioretti and Madeleine Regan
23 November 2025

All family photos provided by Piero.

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^[1] National Archives of Australia (NAA) record – NAA: A1200, L30950.

^[2] The Coober Pedy Regional Times (3 December 2015)

Sources for the story

• Transcript of interview with Rino Fioretti recorded by David Hugo in Adelaide on 14 December 1993, about Mica mining in Central Australia. (Northern Territory Archives Service – Oral History Unit: NTRS 1730; Item: TS 9208)
• Notes – Piero Fioretti
• “Centralian Advocate,” (Alice Springs) 15 January 1954, page 8.
• “Coober Pedy Regional Times,” 3 December 2015, page 9.
• National Archives of Australia – NAA: A1200, L30950.