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Original poster

Are Lewis and Peter Capaldi related? And also, what's with all the Italian surnames in Scotland?

145 replies

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 26/04/2019 19:25

Two completely trivial questions. I just saw the video for Lewis Capaldi's song and Peter Capaldi is in it, so I wondered if they were family and that's why.

Also there are a lot of famous Scots with Italian surnames but completely Scottish backgrounds (as far as I can tell). Was there a huge influx a few generations back or just a few Italian families that were very artsy and so Italian surnames are disproportionally represented among famous Scots. I can think of a load off the top of my head, Nardini, Conti (x2), Iannucci, Nutini, and I'm not even that good with names or knowing about famous people.

OP posts:
midsomermurderess · 27/04/2019 00:48

Barga, sometimes known as the most Scottish village in Italy. Can anyone remember the pace where many Italians came from and settled on the east coast? I think it's in Lazio.

Madieracake · 27/04/2019 01:14

My hubby is a Scots Italian. His family are originally from a small village outside Barga but moved over to west of Scotland mid 60s. His Grandparents returned to Italy in the 80s but parents stayed. Barga is a crazy wee town. There is a signs as you drive in saying welcome to the most Scottish town in Italy. Place is full of St Andrews flags and it host an annual pipe band festival as well as a 2 week fish and chips festival ever summer. During the Scottish school holidays place is full of Scottish Italian families. It's also a very arty with lots of Jazz concerts and small art workshops and Gallery's. The Scottish artist John Bellamy had a small gallery in the centre of the town. He lived locally until he died a few years ago. Worth a visit.

giggly · 27/04/2019 01:30

Nothing useful to add apart from CUMBERNAULD made it to Mumsnet GrinGrinShock

Beeziekn33ze · 27/04/2019 01:46

‘Recent studies by a Swiss university found that the local (Barga) dialect contains around 800 Gaelic words.’
From’Welcome to Barga: the most Scottish town in Italy’
The Scotsman 23/9/16 - found via Wikipedia

EastMidsGPs · 27/04/2019 07:37

Mark Steele's In Town on Bedford mentions the Italians who settled there and why.

Motheroffourdragons · 27/04/2019 07:45

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ on behalf of the poster.

NicoAndTheNiners · 27/04/2019 07:47

I used to live in Tenby and there's a well known Italian sounding chip shop and ice cream parlour.

LaganOnABubble · 27/04/2019 07:48

I went to school with a Capaldi (hi Anthea if you are reading this!) in the west of Scotland, it’s a relatively common name.

MorrisZapp · 27/04/2019 07:49

My first job was washing dishes in an Italian cafe near my home in Edinburgh. It was proper old school, booths and a big blustering coffee machine. My boss used to drink his espresso so strong and with so much sugar in it, he could stand a teaspoon in it.

The bosses daughter used to work with me occasionally, she went on to present Blue Peter, Romana D'annunzio.

My boss was known as Mr D. He used to flap about the place saying 'ah canny be bothered' in an Italian accent.

Piggywaspushed · 27/04/2019 07:49

When I first moved from Glasgow to England, I couldn't get my head round the fact that chippies weren't Italian owned. In Bedford and there is one Italian chippie (which is v good!) but still not the same tradition of chippies here. You cna generally tell which part of Italy people migrated from in pockets of the country by the football team supported! In Bedford , quite a few came from Turin and support Torino and Juventus but there are also many from the south supporting Napoli. In York, the Italians I worked with came from Bari.

Barga sounds fun!

drspouse · 27/04/2019 07:50

North West too as PP mentioned. The cafe that the mum and daughter go to in The Bay for a chat is Brucciani's.

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 27/04/2019 07:54

Peterborough also has a very large Italian community, mostly from the South. The banks in Fletton had Italian speaking staff, as a lot of the older people had never learned English well enough. It was the brickworks that brought them, as with Bedford.

Zippideedodaaa · 27/04/2019 07:56

Angela Hartnet the chef has Welsh- Italian background.

Bluntness100 · 27/04/2019 07:57

So many Italian chip shop owners in Scotland

Yes. Basically they found a gap in thr market about two generations ago. These shops are incredibly profitable, as in a grand a night revenue, and more at weekends. You'd be surprised. The ones in the most affluent or poorest areas being the most profitable.

But it was something locals didn't wish to do. It's not a glamorous job, it's smelly, hot and long hours. As they became more part of thr community, more affluent, being Italian became cool, rather than something to be sneered at, the dirty iti I referred to in my earlier post. It's odd to think that being of Italian descent was something you got abused about in thr street 70 years ago.

It's a bit like we have immigrants now who come over, and do the jobs we don't want to do. And in a couple of generations, they will also be accepted, and likely affluent, owning their own small companies specialising in whatever trade.

History will quietly repeat itself.

InTheHeatofLisbon · 27/04/2019 08:03

I'm related to D'Agostinos, DiRollos and Zamboninis. Sadly I don't have their awesome surnames Sad

There are loads of Italian surnames and businesses where I live (west central belt in Scotland).

GottaGetUp · 27/04/2019 08:04

I love this thread, didn’t know any of it, thanks OP 😀

Piggywaspushed · 27/04/2019 08:08

Whe remembers Lena Zavaroni??

borntobequiet · 27/04/2019 08:13

No Italian connections whatsoever but really like this thread. The fish and chip restaurant in Tenby is Fecci’s and I’m reminded I need to visit West Wales again soon.

EastMidsGPs · 27/04/2019 08:19

Threads like this are why I live MN.
Poster asks a question and suddenly a whole new world of information and experiences opens up.

bruffin · 27/04/2019 08:25

catherine zeta jones
I dont think she has any Italian heritage.Her father was Welsh and mother irish descent.
Zeta Jones was her grandmother.
Her colouring is probably from Iberian settlers in Wales thousands of years sho

AwkwardSquad · 27/04/2019 08:33

I grew up taking Scottish-Italian food for granted. Best fish and chips ever, I was taken aback when I moved away and found that fish and chips elsewhere were not the same (and were greasy and pallid in comparison)! Wee cafés, ice cream from Luca, Valvona & Crolla back when the shop was tiny with salt cod hanging from the ceiling and the staff used to give us nougat as a treat... happy sigh.

PrasadsNonDyingDeclaration · 27/04/2019 08:36

Gianni Capaldi is also a second cousin I think.

BabyLedInsomnia · 27/04/2019 08:38

He used to flap about the place saying 'ah canny be bothered' in an Italian accent.

Dh's granny swears in the most hilarious Glasgow-Italian accent. It's the funniest thing ever- she's tiny and so pious but her favourite word, with perfectly rolled rrrrrrrr, is 'arse'.

Decorhate · 27/04/2019 08:39

Big Italian community where I live too. I think a lot of the grandparents came over in the 50s from Sicily to work in market gardens.

There was a huge demand for workers in the post-war reconstruction phase.

Macaroonmayhem · 27/04/2019 08:41

All the good ice cream shops and chippies from my youth (East coast Scotland) are Italians..

S Luca
Di Rollo
Janetta
Divito
Alari
Corrieri

I’m hungry now...

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