Italian-American Heritage
About Us
For many of us, Italy isn't simply a country our family came from. It's a town, a city, a region, a neighborhood, or a small comune whose name we grew up hearing around the dinner table. Castellesi is an Italian-American heritage platform built to help you find those places, learn their stories, and carry them forward, because where your family comes from is part of who you are.
The Castellesi Story
It started with two places.
CASTEL BARONIA · NOCERA INFERIORE
Emma came from Castel Baronia and Armando came from Nocera Inferiore. They carried those places with them to America, and their family carried those connections forward through generations. Their story became the inspiration for Castellesi, created to help other families find and keep that same connection to their own places alive.
Why the Name Castellesi?
Our name comes from our place.
Castellesi is what the people of Castel Baronia are called. Our name honors the small Irpinian comune our family came from and the belief behind everything we do: Italian identity isn't just about a country. It's about the particular place your family called home.
For Emma, that place was Castel Baronia. Her family lived there, and the connection to that small comune became part of the family story carried forward in America.
Castellesi began with our place. Now we help you find and celebrate yours.
More Than "Italian"
Italy isn't one place. Neither are our stories.
For many Italian Americans, the connection isn't simply to Italy. It's Napoli, Avellino, Roma, Calabria, Sicilia, Nocera Inferiore, Castel Baronia, or perhaps a tiny comune most people have never heard of but your family has never forgotten. Italy is made up of regions, provinces, cities, towns, and thousands of comuni, each with its own history, traditions, food, dialect, and identity.
That's why Castellesi goes beyond simply "ITALIA." We celebrate the places themselves, from internationally known cities to the small hometowns that can mean everything to the families who came from them. To someone else, it's a place on a map. To you, it's where your story began.
Find Your Comune
Find Your Roots
Some families have a town. Some have only a sentence.
For our founder, it started with a single sentence from his father. Following it meant years of searching blind, alone, with no clear map to follow.
Ask Orso exists so you don't have to search alone. Tell us what you know, whether it's a surname, a town you've heard mentioned, or an old family document, and Orso helps you trace it back to the place your family came from.
Wear Your Story
One place. Many ways to wear it.
Apparel is how Castellesi began, and it's still one of the most personal ways to carry where you come from. Our collections interpret Italian heritage through different styles, from vintage postage and travel imagery to collegiate graphics, local symbols, and playful designs. T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, and totes become something more when the place on them means something to you.
Some Castellesi designs celebrate famous Italian cities, while others celebrate the small comuni that rarely appear on anything at all. We believe those places deserve to be represented too, because your hometown deserves a place.
Explore Our CollectionsStorie di Famiglia
The stories behind the places.
Castellesi also shares stories of Italian and Italian-American families: stories of immigration, hometowns, neighborhoods, photographs, old records, traditions, and the people who carried pieces of Italy with them across generations.
Some are our family's stories, while others belong to families whose journeys began in completely different parts of Italy. Together, they remind us that behind every town, city, and comune is something much more personal: a family story.
Read Our Stories
Meet the Founder
Built by someone who's been there.
Marc Aitelli is a New York-based entrepreneur and brand marketing leader whose career spans running some of the finest retail locations in the world. With roots throughout southern Italy — Avellino, Salerno, and Napoli — Marc founded Castellesi after years spent searching for his own family's origins, creating the resource he wished he'd had so that other Italian-Americans could find and carry their roots.
Member of the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America (OSDIA), the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) and the Italian Genealogical Group.
Read Marc's StoryYour Place Is Part of Your Story
Wear Your Roots.
Whether your family left Italy generations ago or your connection is much more recent, the places they came from are worth remembering. Find the town, city, or region your family called home and celebrate the connection that has traveled from one generation to the next.
Find Your ComuneLa Famiglia È La Patria Del Cuore.
Family is the homeland of the heart.