Italian-made chandeliers, shoes and garden statues are just a few of the things Antonio Allegranzi managed to share with people in America.
And it wasn’t by chance that Allegranzi moved from his boyhood home in Vicenza, Italy, to Roswell in 1994, family members said. It was always part of the plan.
Alessandro Allegranzi, said his father’s journey to America was the fulfillment of a generational dream.
“When he was a child, he always wanted to go to America,” his son said. “Apparently his grandfather, with whom he was very close, had bought a ticket on a ship headed to America, but he never made it over.”
The story goes, after the elder Allegranzi purchased his ticket, he fell in love, married and never reached American soil. He relayed the story to his grandson before he died, and a young Alessandro turned the dream into his own.
Antonio Allegranzi spent several years cultivating relationships with Americans. He studied briefly at Penn State and in the ‘60s he exported shoes from Italy to American stores, said his son, who lives in Roswell. Those relationships proved helpful after he moved, some 30 years later, as he imported Italian goods to America.
Antonio Allegranzi frequently traveled back and forth to Italy, family members said. He was supposed to spend several weeks there over the holiday season, with all four of his children, said his former wife, Rebecca McLain.
Antonio Allegranzi died at his Roswell home Nov. 18 of complications from a brain hemorrhage. He was 70. A memorial gathering was held Saturday. A service in Vicenza will be held at a later date. Cremation Society of Georgia was in charge of arrangements.
While still living in northwestern Italy, Allegranzi enjoyed many connections with American culture. He was a collector of American military motor vehicles, and helped establish the Italian chapter of the International Military Vehicle Collectors Club, said McLain, of Sandy Springs.
Once he moved to Roswell, he began to import items from Italy that he thought would sell well in the states, like chandeliers.
“He tried a number of things, but what caught on was the garden statuaries,” said Alessandro Allegranzi, his youngest son. “The ones he imported used a combination of marble and concrete and they looked much different than what you would generally find in America,” added his middle son, Mario Allegranzi, of Barcelona, Spain.
In addition to Italian goods, Allegranzi was passionate about authentic Italian cooking. He was a member of the Atlanta chapter of the Accademia della Cucina Italiana – the Italian Culinary Academy – and he authored a cookbook while he lived in Italy, McLain said. His oldest son, Luigi Allegranzi is a chef in Vicenza, and carries on his father’s love of good food, she said.
While Allegranzi undoubtedly loved America, he never cut his Italian roots, two of his sons said.
“He was able to merge his way of living here in the U.S. with the culture he brought with him from Italy,” said Mario Allegranzi. “His friends here admired that he never lost the footprint of Italy within himself.”
“He always kept the perspective of an admirer of America,” added Alessandro Allegranzi. “To give up being Italian to be American, or the other way around, he wouldn’t have done either.”
In addition to his three sons, Allegranzi is survived by his daughter, Dr. Benedetta Allegranzi of Geneva, Switzerland; and sister, Maria Allegranzi of Monteviale, Italy.
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