She returned to Italy in 1912 (passport application says February 1913) with her two daughters because her husband was going to a job in Ohio and she did not want to stay in New York without him. Her husband joined them for the winter and then returned to Ohio to work. They were still there in 1915 when her husband again visited and then left for the US in March. Italy declared war on Austria in May. By 1917 and 1918 the fighting was in the vicinity of Tramonti. Food was scarce and her daughter Maria died at age two. Her mother also died and her sister Felicita. Her father had been imprisoned by the Austrians and released at the end of the war and walked home, but was not healthy. Then she received word that her husband had died in January 1918 in the US.

A few years later she married Sante Rugo, the widower of her cousin, also Giovanna Miniutti, and had two more children.

Living in the family home “La Clevata” in 1948 when her sister Lucia came to visit.