Dear fellow Nolas,
Hi, I live in Melbourne Australia, but I was born in Croatia. All the Nolas in Croatia originate from a coastal village of Podgora (between cities of Split Dubrovnik , Adriatic coast). My father was born there too. I always wanted to learn more about the origins of my family surname. As much as I know my ancestors came to Croatia in 17th century from Italy. Some say they came from Albania(?) In relation to tallthin, my paternal grandfather, who was Nola, looked more Italian than Croatian... if you like stereotypes : he was shortish and quite dark, unlike most of Croats who are usually quite tall (including me). There is quite a few websites for the township of Nola in Italy (near Naples). It is interesting to know that many Italian Nola families are or were Jewish. Well, in 16th Century one of the leading rabbis in Rome was Elijah Ben Menahem da Nola, who was born in Nola. He was a hebraist and an apostate, a renowned physician philosopher. When working for Pope Clement VIII as a Hebrew tutor, he was induced to convert to Chatolicism, and became a Scrittore at the Vatican. He changed name tp Giovanni Paolo Eustachio. On the other hand, we have 2 christian martyrs/saints : Felix of Nola from the 3rd century Paulinus of Nola, a bishop and a poet, who was actually born in Bordeaux (France), but died in Nola in 4th century.