Stef Simioni and Rick Simioni meet! Finalmente!

Stef & Rick Simioni
in "St Mark's Square" at the Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas

It's been 5 years since Stef Simioni of Montreal Canada was playing around with the then-new Facebook and he decided to see if there were other Simionis to show his sons.
The result was our Facebook group
"Simionis of the World...and descendants".


Stef and I have stayed in regular contact and have become close in spite of never actually meeting. Together we have expanded "Simionis of the World" to, well, the world!

It's truly been a life changing experience for Rick Simioni and I.
What adventures we have since shared!
Oh the Simionis we have met!
The travels we have taken!

We have since been to Italy several times on "Giro dei Simioni" trips and developed many close friendships. We've found proof of just a couple of Simioni relatives, but everyone treats us like family and we feel we are.

Stef and I have chatted through the years about trying to meet somewhere.
Well, when he texted me last month to say he and his wife were going to fly to Las Vegas to celebrate her birthday and would we want to go and meet, we did not hesitate! Rick and I had our hotel reservations made within a couple of hours!

So now, finally this weekend we met Stef and his wonderful wife Cynthia. It's always been fun meeting Simionis from around the world and once again we were not disappointed! The four of us had a very fun weekend!

Stef had this put on t-shirts for us!

We shared many laughs, glasses of wine, and meals, and  spoke a lot about how much "Simionis of the World" has meant to us all.
Rick and Stef chatted about how neither of them ever knew other Simioni families before Facebook.
Both of their fathers were born in Italy and immigrated to Canada.
They both have extended the Simioni line with sons.
All of us enjoy meeting Simionis.

We are already exploring ways to get together again. Maybe California, maybe Montreal, maybe Italy...
Festa dei Simioni in Cittadella Italia in June 2014 anyone?


(Here's my other blog where I shared how all the Simioni adventures started for Rick & I: How "Finding Desiderio" Began.)

~Nancy Simioni


PS: meanwhile, this weekend one of our Italian Simioni families enjoyed special moments of their own: Congrats to Linda Simioni (Varese, Italy) and Alessio Iorillo on their wedding day!

Simioni of Montreal & Salvatronda

Last year we were Salvatronda (Castelfranco Veneto) to search for Rick's father's family. We had already become Facebook friends with Mattia, Alice, and Elisa Simioni from Castelfranco.

Alice's father volunteered to do some investigating before we arrived and found birth records of Desiderio!

He also found Sergio Simioni, who is from Salvatronda, had a father named Desiderio, and an uncle Fortunato, just as Rick did. We wonder if their fathers were cousins and named after important family members.

Sergio, Priest, Alice (maggio 2010)

Sergio mentioned he has family in Montreal Canada, and mentioned Lisa and Mario. Well, I already knew of Lisa and Mario because of our Facebook group "The Simionis of the World".  We were aware Lisa is in Montreal, and, took special note that Mario played professional hockey, NHL farm club I think, since Rick is a big hockey fan. (Mario is now in Denmark coaching a successful hockey team.)

And it became even more interesting as in Alice's home they have a hockey stick signed by Mario on their basement wall! When I asked Alice if she was related to him she replied no, he was just playing hockey in town one time and when she told him her name was also Simioni he gave her the stick!

Lisa and I exchanged a few emails and she spoke to her parents. Now she writes me that her parents will be in Castelfranco! Her mother Annamaria and I are now corresponding. We arrive late on the 8th of September, they return to Canada on the 10th.  We have planned to meet, with Sergio, on the 9th!

It's a small world after all!

Last year's post: Salvatronda 

30Sept2011: rather than make a new post, I'm going to chat about our Salvatronda 2011 meeting below...

9Sept2011

We met with the Ottawa Simionis! I'll collect my family details/notes and add them here later, but for now, we had a nice time and although we don't think we are related, we still sense there could be a connection because of the "Desiderio/Fortunato/Salvatronda" similarities. I'll be working with Linda when we return. Here's our new photo: