Growing up in Northeastern Pennsylvania, an area with a vibrant Italian American community, Stephanie Longo first became intrigued by her heritage when she was five years old when her mother took her to Dino and Francesco’s restaurant in Clarks Summit, PA, which had a large map of Italy on their placemat. 

While they were there, her mother, Ann Marie, took Stephanie’s hand and traced her fingers across her ancestral homeland, showing her where her grandfather, Joseph Anthony Longo, was born — the town of Guardia Lombardi, in the Province of Avellino. Joe passed away in 1973, eight years before Stephanie was born.