All Piolas in the world

Agitated by the curiosity about my name, I started to collect informations about all Piolas on the Net and in the Real World.

General informations

The word ``Piola" has at least four meanings: in Piedmuntish idiom it means ``wine pub" or also ``axe"; in lunfardo (argentinian slang) it means ``cool" and in Spanish seafaring jargon is a rope; the Portuguese dictionary translates "Piola" into "string, cord"; while near Urbino (central Italy), Piola is a particular kind of step, made in masonry, for avoiding falls with the snow.

The provenience of our family is north-western Italy (Piedmont and Ligury); correct me if I'm wrong. From there, some Piolas emigrated to South America, to Switzerland and, from there, to France.

A map with the distribution of the name is available at http://www.gens.labo.net/it/cognomi/genera.html?cognome=PIOLA&t=cognomi.
In Brazil, the name was erroneously transcribed as ``Piolla".

In Piedmont there is also the ``Piol" variant, and ``Piora" in France

Claudio Tartari wrote me: the noble family Piola from Inzago - documented there since XIV century - has original name "De Prioris", then muteted into Piola.

Famous Piolas

Pellegro Piola, painter: 1617-1640, whose work is described in the monography Pellegro Piola "ars longa vita brevis" (Genova, Nuova Editrice Genovese, 1993) by Virgilio Zanolla
Domenico Piola, painter: 1627-1703, son of Pellegro, working in Ligury;
Paolo Gerolamo Piola, painter: 1666-1724, working in Ligury
Anton Maria, Giovanni Battista, Margherita and others: all painters working in Ligury
Gabrio Piola, scientist: in XIX century; an entire page is dedicated to him
José Piola: Well-known person and respected in its time,was reminded with a just homage in the city of Presidente Prudente, state of São Paulo, Brazil. There, his name was given to a street;
Silvio Piola, soccer player, more famous than his grand-grandson Alonso, who plays football as well in the minor italian league: famous in the 1938 Italian Team;
(?Andrea?) Piola Caselli, jurist: XX century
Chuck Piola: salesman, named The King of Cold Calls
Giorgio Piola, sports reporter: coming from Santa Margherita Ligure (GE), specialized on F1 races

There is also a city named Piola, in Florida (USA), and a Piola is one of the founders of the Bank of Italy in Uruguay.

Piolas on the net (will they be famous?)

follow this link

Family tree

This page contains a small part of our family tree.

You can look at it for locating common ancestors; please contact me if you know how to extend it!

More info?

If you have some informations to be added to this site, or if you want to be added to this list, please mail me (roberto@ilpiola.it).

Useful links

http://www.conex.com.br/imigrantes and http://www.procergs.com.br/imigrantes provide informations about immigrants in Brazil. 51 Piola are listed as immigrants form Italy in 1889-1894 (thanks to Décio Antonio Piola).