Antonio Sabetta, council president of Felitto, Italy, is fascinated by the community those who left Felitto for the U.S. have built in Old Forge.
“Today we’re here to honor ancestors and to formalize the tie that our communities have,” he said in Italian in the council chambers of Old Forge’s borough building. His niece, Francesca Sabetta, translated.
“It’s a pleasure,” he said.
That tie between Old Forge and the Italian village of Felitto will become more tangible this weekend when they officially become sister cities during the Felittese Italian Festival in Old Forge.
Jeff Casella, head of the Felittese Association, says that as of a ceremony planned for Saturday, they will be recognized as Sister Cities by the governments of both Italy and the United States.
Casella, whose cousin is the mayor of Felitto, proposed the idea of becoming sister cities to borough council in 2018. After the pandemic stalled his efforts, he says he’ll be relieved to make things official this weekend.
“I believe it’ll be a very good relationship on both sides,” he said.
The Sabettas arrived on Wednesday evening with a delegation from Felitto. They’ll spend the weekend at the festival, but they spent part of the week touring Old Forge and learning about the community.
On Thursday, they toured Old Forge High School and the municipal building, and Casella planned to take the delegation on the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour Friday.
Old Forge Mayor Robert Legg led the tour of the municipal building. He said now that the delegation from Felitto has come here, he hopes to send a delegation from Old Forge to Italy.
The Felittese Festival is a decades-old tradition that coincides with a festival held in Felitto on the second Sunday of September. This year, it will be held Today, Saturday and Sunday at 146 Third St., Old Forge. The festival is 5 to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 12 to 6 p.m. Sunday.
The sister city ceremony is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Saturday at the festival grounds.
Many Italian-Americans in Old Forge trace their ancestry back to Felitto, Casella included. He’s visited the village numerous times — including within the last year when he attended a town meeting to formalize the sister city agreement there.
While touring the municipal building, Sabetta said Old Forge is larger in scale and population than Felitto, but he sees plenty of similarities between the people.
“The warmth that people from Old Forge have is actually similar to our way of behaving and of welcoming people,” he said. “Yesterday, for example, they welcomed us with a music band. It’s amazing. We can see the ties, the blood ties.”
