Is consanguinity such a bad thing ?

 

Hi !

My name is Alice Brovelli. You might have a feeling of déjà vu while reading an article by someone called Alice in this blog, but today I decided to be creative and talk about my surname. So Brovelli is an Italian surname that comes more specifically from a little town in the North of Italy called Ranco, or maybe the town right next to it called Angera (the brightest minds of the century still argue on this detail). They are located here :

What is striking is that almost EVERYONE’s surname in these two towns is Brovelli. I’m going to give you a real life situation to illustrate my point.

My father, Andrea Brovelli, had a problem with the house he inherited from his grandmother which is situated in Ranco, and reached out to the mayor of the town called Monica Brovelli. They figured everything out but my father wanted to repair some things in the house so he called a man to evaluate the work to be done. This is roughly what happened :

And this is just a small part of all the Brovelli you can find in Ranco and Angera : there are many more of them ! There is the Brovelli shipyard based on a lake, the Brovelli wine production, the Brovelli restaurant, the famous police officer of the town whose surname is Brovelli, and the list goes on.

I went to take a picture of the wonderful shipyard for this article :

But now comes the best part. Last year, the town of Ranco organized the first edition of the BROVELLI DAY !!! Sadly, I couldn't participate… I know it's heartbreaking. I’ve only been told what they did on this special day 😞 

The party was open to anyone whose surname is Brovelli (so almost the whole village) and went on for the whole day. They had pastries from the Brovelli bakery, wine from the Brovelli vineyard :

They even elected the youngest and oldest Brovelli, and the Brovelli who lives the furthest from Ranco ! 

It looks a bit like a cult but I swear everything was under the local authorities’ control (now, let's not look at their surname please).

So this was the fun fact about my surname, I hope you enjoyed it ! (I personally love it but I’m not objective). If I get to participate in next year’s edition I will update this article and document it with authentic pictures…

Bye !

Alice (do I have to specify my surname at this point?)