the flight to philadelphia was uneventful...met friend heather anderson when she arrived from rdu for weekend in philly...another friend i hadnt seen in quite a while, neil sherron was on board as well.
caught only a few shut eyes to frankfurt...sat with gabrielle, aka chatty cathy...who was either talking or getting up to go to the loo...nice lady...just non-stop chatter. forgot to empty water bottle in frankfurt and almost had to give it up, but convinced security guard to allow me to pour it into a bottle which had been discarded so that i could keep mine...sports bottle which i intend to use and save from buying bottled water on this journey
luftansa served a great cheese sandwich for bfast...something like pimento cheese but not as good as jimmy harris's
followed friend ross's directions to the train stations to get to stradella, near her family home with no problems...did mis-read track in volgosa
the stradella train station is about the size of the one in warren plains. the cell phone i borrowed from tim horne had gone dead...couldn't reach ross in italy or tim at home to get word to her that i had arrived. after about 2 hours of trying to figure this out, decided to take a taxi to what i thought was ross home. asked angelo, nice 65ish man about taxi, he offered to take me. so i jump in this tiny mercedes with angelo who speaks virtually no english and off we go to santa maria della versa...a village about the size of warrenton with stradella being like henderson for comparative purposes. then we follow signs to soriasco...kinda like macon or inez. i dont have a specific address or ross's grandmothers last name only that her name is mariarosa. we ask policeman and others...no luck. angelo leaves me in the car and walks up the hill as the streets are closed for a race. he comes back about 15 min later and tells me to get my back pack and to come with him. we walk about a block and a half where we see elizabeta, beta, who speaks good english. she says she knows several mariarosas...when i told her that her family had a wedding the day before, she said, she's five minutes from here walking...she asked me her granddaughters name, i said ross...she said we know ross...so off we go, giving angelo 20 euro for his trouble.
turns out we were just below the castle which i thought looked familiar from the picture i'd seen..we enter the courtyard and there is ross, her grandmother-maria rosa, aka nonna, cousins keiko and monica and monicas mother whose name i cannot recall. she couldn't believe that i had found her. obviously the big guy upstairs was looking out for me....hopefully He will continue to do so throughout this journey.
note to margaret britt...hesitated to write above after what you said about worrying about me...but i was safe and got to where i needed to go even though we didn't speak the same language and didn't know each other from adams house cat.
franchesco, aka jay, brother of ross, wanted to work on his english, so we walked about a mile or so up hill through the vineyards to watch the car race going on in the area...little cars...going fast...not like nascar...all at one time...but rather released and then timed at intervals...very interesting. we stopped at a neighborhood bar, guzzling water and having a glass of wine and a plate of salami and capo....something like proscutto.
jay lso took me next door to the castle to the little church...only 12 pews each side seating about 4 each...small people not fat ones...very beautiful church...their cousin, phillipo, son of keiko and monica was married there the day before to romena.
the castle was built in the 1100s...nonnas family, the faravellis, bout if from the marquis in the 14th century....it has been passed down, divied, sold off etc...as needed to present day. nonna and monica hold one corner and philippo has bought and redone an apartment...otherwise no family. thee. nonnas space was the original court chamber of the castle. the central room is about 20by 30 with 20 ft ceiling...huge fireplace and wall of stone. the kitchen and nonnas bedroom was the space the judge used for deliberation. my room is part of the original chapel...it was cut in half or less...monica and keiko have the other portion in their space. nonnas basement has vats for wine philippo makes...some holding up to 700 liters. we enjoyed a bottle last night with dinner and another today at lunch ...lunch wine you water down with sparkling water...cant get toasted at lunch you know.
while nonna usually prepares a big meal for the family on sunday, she was pooped after the big wedding saturday so we ordered pizzas and some dough bites which we stuffed with more salami, capo and lardo...lardo is kind of like fatback sliced real thin.
keiko makes salami and hangs in his cellar to age for a year...buys the pork from a friend who raises pigs.
nonna is 89...friend across the court yard ...amelia is 88. amelia's daughter ennis and her husband live in the castle complex, just outside of the main gate-entrance. we had coffee with ennis and amelia ...expresso really...in the afternoon. ennis, who looks like...no actually better than...sophia loren...brought us a torte...peach and pistachio for our dessert. amelia is also a beautiful lady...snow white hair...but everytime someone said her name i thought of the book amelia bedelia and how she pinned up the lady's hair with stick pins...so i was always smiling when i saw her.
finally bed at 1030...slept till 930 this am...no real jet lag.
today, monday, july 26...nonna let me wash clothes in washing machine...hung out to dry on her terrace. she made us lunch of a sauce with butter, fresh grape tomatoes, canned tomatoes...like diced...water, onion, then milk to keep the acid down...served over el dente linguii then next course of steak and salad...delicious...more of ennis's torte for dessert
the castle has a tower which appears to be 80 ft tall...occupied by the germans during the second world war...they put mines in the tower and nonna at the top...trying to destroy it so the americas couldn't use it to see far distances as they had...destroyed the roof...nonna survived and the tower with its walls 2 meters thick, stands today....she sold it to a duke...who didn't have his own tower, after the war.
also during this time, there was some horsing around in the courtyard and a man who had found a mine detonated it accidently...killing the girl in front of nonna and injuring her...she showed me a piece of shrapnel about 3 inches long with vicious edges which entered her chest just above and to the right of her heart...she also showed me the scar...this is one tough lady...then and now.
her husband, and monica's father also, were pows of the germans....surviving the war but dying a few years later, her husband in 1948.
ross and i went with monica to the cemetary to take flowers for her parents left over from the wedding...while we stick a red rose up on the altar to remember dead folks...they take the flowers to the dead folks...very appropriate i think. the cemetary was quite interesting...the favellis have a large space with room for drawers...like a masoleum...it is obviously well-tended. poor people are buried in the ground in the center courtyard. trees are planted in memory of those who died in the first world war in front of the complex with their names on them on brass plaques.
alexandra...pronounced alice-sandra, mother of ross, drove us to milan to her sister's house, keika...stopping in pavia to pick up jay...we met keika for dinner with friends and are now at her apartment for the night.
ross returns to nc tomorrow...i will spend the day in milan then onto rome.
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