Finite!

Back to Rome,

One night in a "No Tell" hotel,

and Home Sweet Home

In this post we visit an old friend in Sulmona, and drive to the outskirts of Rome for our last evening in Italy. We get our Fiat safely back to the airport, fly home, and reflect on our wonderful adventure and great genealogical finds, summarized below.

Today we woke up with mixed feelings of nostalgia and anticipation. We have been away for a while and it will be good to return home, yet we have been on an incredible adventure and it will be sad to see it end. Brunetta and Bepe prepared another wonderful breakfast for us, and we sat for a while enjoying the beautiful view of the Adriatic. We bid farewell to our hosts and set off towards Rome, to visit with old friends.

Our Hosts at Rifugiomare, Brunetta and Bepe

We first met our old friends, Italian natives, Peter and Anna Ventresca in our small hometown of Littleton, Massachusetts, many years ago. Peter and I were co-workers in the same company. Peter retired to Italy, and settled into his home town.  We were delighted to have the opportunity to see him and Anna again. We made arrangements, by email, to visit them in their newly constructed home close to the village of Sulmona. Sulmona is about half way between Chieti and Rome so this was a convenient stop for us.

Castello di Ventresca

Peter had told us to set our GPS to Vallelarga, another small village. So we did. The ride across Italy was wonderful. There were many snow capped mountains in view and once we left the autostrada, the road seemed to blend into the countryside. We were approaching the village and I began to wonder how I would actually find Peter's home from wherever the GPS landed us. I didn't need to worry.  When the GPS said, “arriving at destination”, I stopped the car. I looked around at all the old homes searching for someone to ask for help, and then, on a corner not 100 yards away, there was Peter, standing in the sunshine waiting for us to arrive.

Peter led us to his home which is, to say the least, quite a magnificent palace. Peter showed us the grounds, including his handmade rock maps of Italy and Massachusetts. He showed us all the rooms inside. He showed us the outdoor kitchen that was being finished by several workers.

the outdoor kitchen

Then, Peter and Anna took us on a tour of the village of Sulmona. There we came to a very extensive open market. We saw an example of an original Roman aqueduct, and many other very old structures. Then we were treated to lunch at a very nice restaurant.

Open Market in Sulmona - aqueduct in background

We returned to their home and had a wonderful time catching up on news. Finally, we bid farewell to our friends who got in their car to lead us to the highway to Rome.

friends reunited in Sulmona

The ride to Rome became more and more hectic as we got nearer and nearer. Sophia (our GPS) let us down a few times, but we recovered and eventually found our way to the village of Frascati, to find our final B&B(?). This turned out to not be the best choice for our last evening. We picked Il Paradiso from a google map because it was outside the madhouse of Rome yet an easy shot to the airport in the morning.

Il Paradiso, Frascati Italy

What we didn't know was that at Il Paradiso the rooms were located directly over a pizzeria and pool hall. To put it nicely, this wasn't the best room we had on our trip, but the shower was spacious, and we managed to get a little sleep.

In the morning, we had our free continental breakfast and then completed the most harrowing drive of our trip; the ride to the airport. We successfully delivered the car to the Hertz lot, and then had about a three hour wait for our Alitalia jet back to Boston.

We collapsed into the chairs at the gate and nearly fell asleep as we reflected on where we had been and what we had accomplished.

I love it when a plan comes together

Avellino

• We met and received great help from an accomplished genealogist, Joe DeSimone.
• We met our facebook cousin Pelligrino Mascolo and had a wonderful dinner with his parents
• We saw two old family churches
• We collected several family records at the Avellino Archivio di Stato.

Morte in Avella

Sassano

• We found the Sassano cemetery
• We made friends while touring the old town built on a mountain
• We met with Don Otello and found a remarkable marriage certificate, in Latin
• We visited the Museum Del Cognome in Padula and met with Mormon genealogist Michele Carasciello
• We retrieved several records from the Ufficio di Anagrafe
• We met with Facebook cousin Oreste Barbella and his family

1734 Matrimony

Palo Del Colle

• We attended a festival and toured the city with, now lifelong friend, facebook cousin Vito Tricarico
• We saw the Palo del Colle cemetery
• We got a personal tour of Bitonto and Bari with Domenico Tricarico
• We met a real cousin, Angela Lattanzio
• We retrieved some useful records from the Trani Archivio di Stato

Meeting cousin Angela

Vasto

• We saw ancestral churches
• We saw ancestral streets
• We were shown Foglios di Famiglia by a wonderful clerk in the Vasto Ufficio di Anagrafe
• We found more records in the Chieti Archivio di Stato
• We learned how to make “Wine Cookies”

Foglio di Famiglia

Put all this together with making dozens of new friends, visiting old friends, and seeing so many wonderful sights and you might gain a sense of how satisfied we are.

We landed in Boston and went quickly through customs. There at the luggage carousel was our daughter, waiting to bring us “Home Sweet Home”. We were certainly glad to get home, however, I must admit that now, as I write these final words some two months after our trip, a piece of my heart is still in Italy and I'm not at all certain that it will ever return.

Footnote

We hope that this blog has inspired some of you.  We also want to make ourselves freely available to offer advice and encouragement to any of you that may have questions.  Our email is nonobar@gmail.com.  Thank you for reading.

Research in Vasto and Chieti

This is a continuing saga of our research trip to Southern Italy in search of ancestral data.  In this post, we get outstanding assistance from a town official in Vasto, and once again are received as "royalty" in an Archivio di Stato;  this time in Chieti

This morning we woke up to face a day with a very ambitious schedule.  We had plans to drive 20 miles south to the village of Vasto and look for records in the Ufficio di Anagrafe.  Then we were going to drive 40 miles north to the Archivio di Stato in the city of Chieti.  We would return to our B&B that evening.  We finalized our plans over a very good breakfast.

Ummm!  Italian Blood Orange Juice

The drive south was uneventful.  The village was very busy with traffic but we found our way to the city hall and we found a parking garage to rest the car.  We entered the Anagrafe office and found a very long line.  We waited for about forty minutes and eventually we got to speak with the official.  We told him we would like to see records of the Decristofaro family.  We showed him our family tree.  

With one eye on the long line behind us, the clerk asked if we would mind coming back at noon.  He said he could help us then.  

Old Vasto

Somewhat skeptical about the clerk, we said we would be back.  Then we set out for our next goal, locating our ancestral church, San Giuseppe.  With the help of a passerby, we discovered that the church was within a few yards.  We were in the old part of town, and all the old buildings around us made a stark contrast with the modern city hall.

We approached the church and found the door open.  There was a cleaning crew there, and they allowed us in to look around.

Chiesa di San Giuseppe

After viewing the church, we decided to try to find strada San Francesco Di Assisi.  This was an address on some of the documents I had previously found.   I took a seat on a bench with some fine young gentlemen and managed to get directions to the street.

Can you pick out the "Americani"?

We took in the sights, visited the street, and found another church, the chiesa di San Francesco Di Assisi.  This church was also open and quite a sight to behold.  While I was there I found a family name, Trivelli, imprinted on one of the pews.  Oh how I wished I had time to look this particular family up.  Perhaps this will give me a reason to come back.

Chiesa di San Francesco Di Assisi

After this, it was time to return to the Anagrafe Office.  I must admit, I was not expecting to find any useful information from the clerk there.  Although we had shown him a picture of our family tree, we thought his mind was more on the long line behind us.  To make matters worse, my grandmother's name, Decristofaro, was akin to the name Smith in the US.  

Well, were we in for a big surprise.

A segment of the Foglio di Famiglia

When we went back to the office, the clerk took us into a back room and he produced two "family foglios" of the Decristofaro family.  Somehow, out of all the Decristofaros in Vasto, he had managed to find the exact families of my direct descendants.

The family foglio is like a census with names of the parents, the children, their birth dates, their death dates, their occupations, and more.  It simply reeks of valuable data.  I couldn't have misjudged this clerk more.  He had the family foglio for my grandfather and my great grandfather.  

What a find.  I couldn't believe my luck.  We took photos of all the information and thanked the clerk, but he was not interested in remuneration.  Sitting here now, I'm wondering if this clerk knew a lot more about this particular family.  I regret not quizzing him more thoroughly, but he was, indeed, a very busy clerk, yet, somehow, I believe he knows a lot more about "my" Decristofaros than I had thought.

On our way out of town, a miracle occurred.  All of this time in Italy, we have been pleased with every aspect of our trip, except the awful coffee they drink.  That problem was alleviated in a small way when Gay spotted a McDonald's on the road.  We each enjoyed a cup of real coffee, and then it was on to Chieti.

Real Coffee

 In Chieti, we made our way through the busy streets to the Archivio di Stato.  There, once again we were treated as royalty.  Here we found several new records and we got a tour of their impressive facility.  They have over 16 kilometers of bookshelves stored in a temperature controlled environment. 

Research at the Chieti Archivio Di Stato

 When we had concluded our business, the staff encouraged us to visit the Constantine Barbella Museum of Art in the center of the town, but once again, we were stymied by busy narrow streets and no available parking.  (Mental note to self: we must learn more about public transportation in Italian cities.)

This book will be on my Christmas wish list

 We drove back to our B&B and enjoyed a wonderful dinner there.  Later we relaxed with our hosts and got to know each other a little better.  Bepe took us to the back yard to show us a spectacular night time show being put on by an army of Italian fireflies.  There were thousands of the creatures and the light show was marvelous.

With that, we retired for the evening.  Night time thoughts focused on our final adventure; getting back to Rome for the flight home.

Next, and final, post.  A visit with old friends in Sulmona, and a hectic ride to Frascati, for our last B&B (?), Il Paradiso, on the outskirts of Rome.  We reflect on our trip and summarize some of our findings.