Domenico Bellizzi
Domenico Bellizzi was a modest priest from Frascineto in Calabria who taught modern literature in Firmo.Bellizzi's verse, a refined lyric expression of Arbëresh being, has appeared in many periodicals and anthologies and in seven collections, four of which were published in Italy, two in Albania and one in Kosovo.He is the worthy heir of the great nineteenth-century Arbëresh poets Girolamo De Rada (1814–1903) and Giuseppe Serembe (1844–1901), whom he admired very much.His verse is intimately linked with the Arbëresh experience, imbued with the gjaku i shprishur (the scattered blood).Though devoid of the lingering sentiments of romantic nationalism so common in Albanian verse, and the standard motifs of exile lyrics, Bellizzi's poetry does not fail to evince the strength of his attachment to the culture of his Balkan ancestors despite five hundred years in the dheu i huaj (foreign land).