Curtain up: This is DI SCIASCIO
- Jan 1
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 24
One family, one conviction, five decades of Italian excellence, and a story that is only just beginning to be told. A name from the heartland of the Roman Empire. A family that crossed the Mediterranean. A brand that is now operating in the Rhine-Main region.
by Mario Di Sciascio · DI SCIASCIO · Darmstadt, 2026
Guardiagrele. Province of Chieti. Abruzzo. Even if you don't know the name, you still know the country, because it's that Italy no postcard shows and no guidebook describes, because it's too old to be explained and too proud to advertise itself. The poet Gabriele d'Annunzio called Guardiagrele the terrace of Abruzzo.¹ The mountains drop steeply to the sea, the villages have stood on the same rocks for centuries, and the church records of Guardiagrele document the Di Sciascio family in entries dating back to the early nineteenth century.² The family line goes back further than paper can capture.
I. The name and origin
Di Sciascio [diˈʃaʃo] — Italian proper name, origin Guardiagrele, province of Chieti, Abruzzo; derived from the Latin sciascia or scissus*, meaning the split one or the formed one.*
Eighty-nine percent of all people worldwide with the surname Di Sciascio live in Italy. Eighty-eight percent of them live in Abruzzo. Another six percent live in Lazio, the region whose capital is Rome.³ This is not a statistical footnote. This is a geographical indication. An origin. Proof. For what is today called Abruzzo and Lazio was once the heartland of the Roman Empire. Guardiagrele itself has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Archaeological finds near Comino attest to human presence since prehistoric times.⁴
The geographical concentration of the name Di Sciascio in these two regions is no coincidence. Many of the surnames still concentrated in Lazio and Abruzzo today demonstrably trace back to ancient Roman gentes.⁵ The Samnites, the indigenous people of these mountains, were considered by the Roman legions to be the toughest enemies they had ever encountered on Italian soil. Rome waged three wars against them between 343 and 290 BC⁶. Three wars, until enemies became fellow citizens and fellow citizens became Romans. When this process was complete, the Abruzzo region was no longer a peripheral area of the empire. It was its backbone. In this heritage, in this land, in this blend of divided life, mountaineering, and commercial acumen, the Di Sciascio family is rooted.
II. The Sea, The Merchant, and The Four Principles
Anyone from the Abruzzo region who wanted to see the world had to know the coast. The Adriatic was the gateway to the East, for from there trade routes led on to Venice, Dalmatia, the Levant, and finally to the southern heart of the medieval Mediterranean: the island of Sicily and the city of Palermo, the Arab-Norman metropolis of the twelfth century, was the crossroads of all routes between Europe, Africa, and the Orient.⁷ On the most important sea route between Seville and Alexandria, Palermo became the inevitable meeting point of peoples. A place where cultures didn't clash, but negotiated.⁸ The Arab-Norman culture of Sicily has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2015.⁹ In this space, between Roman heritage, Mediterranean and cosmopolitan trade, the role of trade through Di Sciascio becomes clear. Not merely as etymology, but as a cultural-historical profile. The Latin word scissus describes the person who separates and connects, who coaxes the extraordinary from the raw.¹⁰
Tradition tells of a merchant of distinction. A man who didn't just stand in one market, but traveled between them. He moved rare fabrics and antiques, exotic fruits, handcrafted goods, spices that had no name in Northern Europe. A man who mediated so successfully between cultures that his name soon carried the rank of a title of nobility.
Four principles accompanied this man on every voyage: Courage, because in a time without nautical charts, every journey was a decision against all odds. Charm, because the ability to speak Latin and the Norman dialect simultaneously was not a social advantage, but the only asset that no waves could threaten. Taste, because most merchants transported the essentials, not the extraordinary. Love, because he was convinced that wealth only endures when it enriches others. That a table at which one sits alone is not a feast, but a defeat.
III. The studio and the kitchen
The wars of the twentieth century erased many traces. What remained was the name. In postwar Rome, the Di Sciascio family worked with special fabrics, such as Filo di Scozia and Italian silk, in their own tailoring workshop in Rome, whose precision was considered a benchmark in certain circles.¹¹ The subject matter had changed, but the underlying worldview remained the same. With the resurgence of social life, the focus of the household shifted: the preparation of food, the selection of fine wines, and cultivated conversation became the new expression of an art of living that had borne the same name for centuries. A symposium of life in the direct tradition of the Roman convivium, that meal where food, discourse, and beauty did not exist side by side, but rather merged into one another.
IV. The present as the universe
What has emerged since then bears all the hallmarks of history. Dr. Attilio Di Sciascio, Food Technologist, teaches at the Università degli Studi del Molise.¹² and advises industrial partners in Hong Kong, Dubai, and São Paulo. As a senior technologist at Molino Candelori¹³ he developed recipes for large-scale operations on four continents. Gianni Di Sciascio shaped institutions for over four decades and was recognized as the region's best trainer in 2024.¹⁴ Deutsche Bahn entrusted the family with the historic princely train station in Darmstadt.¹⁵ Campari and illy chose DI SCIASCIO as their licensing partner.¹⁶ Regular customers of Merck, Telekom, COTY, and ESA/ESOC book a year in advance. Their own wine lines are produced on estates in Tuscany. One perfume sold out before its official release. Their own textile lines are manufactured in Italy. Mario Di Sciascio II and Fernando Di Sciascio already carry the coordinates of the future within them: to make the world a more beautiful, better, and healthier place. Directors and creators, two brothers whose signature is evident in every detail of DI SCIASCIO.
The man from the sea never truly left. He simply changed his merchandise.
IL GIORNALE is the magazine of this story. Not nostalgia, but a living chronicle. For everyone who wants to understand where a story originates.
Welcome to the Casa delle Storie!
SOURCE CREDITS
¹ Italia.it / Regione Abruzzo Turismo: Guardiagrele — The Terrace of Abruzzo. Official Tourism Authority of the Abruzzo Region. abruzzoturismo.it
² ItalyHeritage.com: Di Sciascio Families from Guardiagrele, Province of Chieti. Documented church records dating back to the early 19th century. italyheritage.com/genealogy/records/abruzzo/province-chieti/guardiagrele/families/di-sciascio.htm
³ Forebears.io: Di Sciascio Surname Distribution. Worldwide surname statistics; real-time database containing over 4 billion entries. forebears.io/surnames/di_sciascio
⁴ FamilySearch / The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Guardiagrele, Chieti, Abruzzo, Italy Genealogy. Documented settlement history dating back to prehistoric times; Roman-era presence confirmed. familysearch.org
⁵ Eupedia Forum: Italian surnames inherited from ancient Romans. Scholarly discussion regarding the geographical continuity of family names in Lazio and Abruzzo. eupedia.com — Heraldry Institute, Rome: Etymological documentation of the name Sciascia. heraldrysinstitute.com
⁶ Samnite Wars (343–290 BC): Three wars fought between Rome and the Samnites. Primary source: Livy (Titus Livius), *Ab Urbe Condita* (From the Founding of the City). Scholarly analysis: Klaus Bringmann, *Geschichte der Römischen Republik* (History of the Roman Republic), C.H. Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 978-3-406-49292-1. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samnitenkriege
⁷ MerchantMachine.co.uk / BrilliantMaps.com: Medieval Trade Routes — Palermo as a key meeting point between Christian and Muslim traders on the Seville–Alexandria route. merchantmachine.co.uk/medieval-trade-routes
⁸ TheCollector.com: Why Was Sicily Known as the Crossroads of the Mediterranean? thecollector.com
⁹ UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale. Inscribed 2015, World Heritage List No. 1487. whc.unesco.org/en/list/1487
¹⁰ Heraldry Institute, Rome: Etymology of the name Sciascia — Latin origin, *scissus* (the Shaped One). heraldrysinstitute.com/lang/en/origine/idc/Sciascia — Eupedia Forum: Italian surnames from Roman *Gentes*, Abruzzo and Lazio concentration. eupedia.com
¹¹ Di Sciascio Family Chronicle: Handwritten records, c. 1946 onwards; Atelier Di Sciascio, Rome area, documented in industry reports on post-war Italian sartorial craftsmanship.
¹² Università degli Studi del Molise, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences. unimol.it
¹³ Molino Candelori: International flour technology group; active cooperation partners in Italy, Hong Kong, Russia, UAE, USA, and Brazil. molinocandelori.it
¹⁴ IHK Darmstadt (Chamber of Industry and Commerce): Recognized as an Outstanding Training Company in 2024 — DI SCIASCIO Gastronomy Group. ihk.de/darmstadt
¹⁵ Deutsche Bahn AG / DB Station&Service: KARLSON am Fürstenbahnhof, Am Fürstenbahnhof 3–4, 64293 Darmstadt. bahnhof.de
¹⁶ illy caffè: *Espressamente illy* Franchise Program — Partnership Documentation. illy.com — Campari Group: Licensing and Cooperation Partner — Official Corporate Website. camparigroup.com
*The name Di Sciascio is concentrated 88% in Abruzzo and 6% in Lazio, as documented by Forebears, a worldwide name statistics database. Church records from Guardiagrele, province of Chieti, document Di Sciascio family entries dating back to the early 19th century, archived by ItalyHeritage. The connection between central Italian family names and ancient Roman gentes is documented by Eupedia and the Heraldry Institute, Rome. The etymology of the name Sciascia, of Hebrew-Arabic origin, is documented by the Heraldry Institute, Rome. Palermo's commercial importance as a Mediterranean crossroads is historically well-documented, including the UNESCO recognition of Sicily's Arab-Norman culture as a World Heritage Site.
