I'm looking for any sort of history, photos, stories, etc, for the town of Rende. I have a good friend that was born there and I would like to surprise him with some Rende "stuff." I've searched Google and the like and have come up with nothing except the usual travel information. Even Wikipedia has little to say regarding Rende. So, other than a Google Earth Satellite shot of the place, I have nothing.

Thanks,
Joe B.

Rende was was once Rende/San Fili is and where my great grandparents were from. My mom was born in a little town not far from there. So look at at history for San Fili and it should be similar.
For records and documents from there you can go to the Cosenza Archive. They are slowly putting all the images online as is located here:

88.59.143.158/ascs_web...D9B0.node1

And some pictures of Rende from Robert Tenuta's (he's a member here) webpage. He may be able to help since some of his family is from there.

freepages.genealogy.ro..._rende.htm

Hope this helps a bit. BTW...what is your friends surname?

You are the best Nuccia. Thanks for all the information. My friend's name is Frank (Francesco I'm assuming) RUSSO.
There seems to be a bunch of Russo's in the Rende phone book. Frank is a barber and my interviews with him are
generally limited to the amount of time it takes him to cut my hair. Again, Thanks...Joe