Silent film star, Rudolph Valentino, spent the first nine years of his life in Castellaneta, a small city in southeastern Italy. This is the story of his Castellaneta years, a detailed, authoritative account of his essential familial, cultural, historical and even geographical influences. Author and native of Castellaneta, Aurelio Miccoli reveals "Rodolfo", as a curious yet difficult boy and daydreamer. This stunning, accurate narrative is rich with the presence of the actual characters and places of Valentino's childhood days. With Miccoli's first hand familiarity with Castellaneta and his lifetime researching all available archives and locales, he has created a highly detailed, factual depiction of flora, fauna, streets and local history, all illustrated with full color photographs. The Infancy of the Myth is a scholarly study, an entertaining tale and a pictorial journey portraying the earliest events and influences of a little boy who became one of the world's most idolized screen icons.