La Familia

We spent our final evening in Italy with some of Tony's family.  This was the one time we really wished we knew better Italian for all of the stories and history we could have learned.  They were all so wonderful and welcoming.  

Tony's grandfather, Vincenzo or Vincent, was the oldest boy of ten kids (we'll have to put together the family tree when we get home).  He immigrated to Pittsburgh before WWII, and after the war helped two of his three brothers and their sons come over while the six sisters stayed behind.  When we went to Italy twenty years ago we visited with one of his sisters, Adelina, who was the only one still living in Ateleta.  She has since passed but we met her daughter, Piña.  We also met two of his youngest sisters this trip, Maria and Katerina, along with some of their children.  And our hostess Lilianna who is Miguela's daughter (he was killed in a mine fire shortly after coming to America).  Her brother is also Tony LeDonne who lives in Pittsburgh and helped arrange the visit.  Thank goodness for her 18 year old grandson, Lorenzo, for he was our translator and spoke English very well.

It would seem Tony's grandfather was quite the character.  When he would come to visit he had a saying about his wine (glass), "you don't want to see it empty and I don't want to see it full".  They talked about how he would make the best sausage and play the accordion.  Tony told them he now has his sausage maker and the family recipe.

They talked about the hard times during the war, when food was rationed, and sometimes they would only have a piece of bread that day.  They had to move south to Puglia for nine months because the town was being occupied.  In the early sixties, those remaining in Ateleta moved away to this small town about 45 minutes outside of Rome where they all live less than a mile from each other.

This is Maria (86) and Severino (95) married 66 years.  He is still extremely active and showed us his accordion and workout equipment!  He also told us about being stationed in Greece during the war and going twenty days without food.  He built their lovely home there, where is daughter, Yolanda, has one of the four apartments.

This is Katerina (97), Liliana and Katerina's son, Octavio.  The LeDonne genes are very good!  She was of very good mind and told us if we could speak Italian she would tell us so many stories.

Of course they shared their homemade liquors and gave us some to bring home.

After much food (cherries from the garden and homemade desserts) we had dinner with Lilianna, her daughter, Nadia, husband Giovanni and their sons.

Lorenzo our wonderful translator!

Food and Flora

In Rome we ate our typical Italian meal from our past travels. My mussels and Tony's spaghetti with olive oil and peppers.  Wonderful as usual.

Here are some shots I collected over our travels of lovely trees and flowers...

The fruit on this tree is called Nespole.  Sweet but nothing like any fruit we have.

These lovely peonies from our hotel in Benevento.  My Dad used to grow these.

They grow the roses along the edges of the vineyards to detect weather changes

These were lovely wild flowers growing throughout the countryside

I don' know what these bushes are called, but the flowers are something I've never seen

This was a shot from the Borghese Gardens (the park in Rome)

The Eternal City

Rome is one of the largest cities in the world.  Like any big city it can be expensive, crowded and sometimes frustrating but you take all of this to experience the history, the beauty and the culture.  

Oh and did I mention the fashion, not just for women, I think the men's stores may out number the women.

Crowds at the big sights, like here on the Spanish Steps

Typical narrow streets of the city

Which is why many people ride these

You turn the corner to see an unassuming church

Then you wander inside to be treated to these beautiful mosaics 

The ceiling

Or these other beautiful examples

Sometimes it's nice to get above it all and view the church domes from a different angle

Saint Peters in the distance

And a shot zoomed in on Vatican City

A Different Lense

Sophia decided to take a nap on us on our way to Rome.  Thank goodness she woke up before we had to exit the autostrada.  I'm sure the animated discussion Mario had with the poor TMobile person had nothing to do with the data deciding to work again.

Anyway, as we speed up the highway at 130 kilometers, I was pondering a discussion we had with our Italian friends.  They had seen a show on TV saying you could buy a building in Detriot for under $100 (which I'm sure is probably true).  And one of them had also visited the states last year, starting in Miami, going through New Orleans and making a stop in Memphis.  This is where he noticed many buildings bordered up like a ghost town.

We live in and visit such nice areas of the US, maybe we tend to forget some areas of the country never recovered from the 2008 recession either.  Our last two visits to Italy have been in the south and rural countryside.  Maybe we'd have a different view of their economy if we had gone to Tuscany, Florence or Milan.  

Time to leave the car behind as we will conquer Rome on foot.

The Food and the People of Benevento

The food here is more hearty.  Lots of dried meats (salami's) from various parts of the pig.  We even found out for a wedding dinner they roast a whole pig.  Lamb is another staple in these hill towns.  

This roast pork with Gorgonzola sauce was delicious and the lamb in a red wine sauce was also very good.  We had this very simple traditional pasta from the region which was absolutely wonderful, probably the best red sauce we have ever had!

We visited the shop, Jimbo's, where we frequented last year and all the wonderful people spent time with us again.  Francesco specializes in craft beers and said he was struggling a bit with the lack of beer culture in this area.  This couple we met last year are getting married this weekend so we learned of many of the Italian wedding traditions.  Here are some shots of the people and the beers we tried.

All the groomsmen. The groom is the one with the tie.

The bride is the blonde.

Campania Hill Towns and the Wines of Irpinia

The countryside here is just beautiful.  Tuscany gets all the publicity, but the Irpinia Hilltowns can certainly hold there own.  I'm glad I didn't have to drive these little two lane curving roads to get us from one small town to the next (thanks Mario).  

We visited three small producers.  Both the whites and the reds indigenous to each area were wonderful.  

We visited Cantine Antonio Caggiano in the town of Taurasi, the town is known for the deep red wine of the same name.  The son has now taken over the production and the estate is built into the hillside in a series of under ground caverns.  

Cantine di Marzo is in the town of Tufo.  The winery was also built into the hillside, which at one time was mined for sulphur.  The family has owned this old fortress turned winery for many generations and it was interesting to learn the history of all the feuding amoung the town folk as well as his various family lines.  He only took over 5 years ago and had previously lived in France working in the wine industry there.

The white wines here were fantastic, my favorite the Greco di Tufo.  This wine was used at the inaugural flight of the Boeing 787 celebration dinner.  We followed this with a nice lunch at a little restaurant at the top of the castle.

The last winery, Cantine Lonardo, was run by a young couple.  One of the vineyards had vines over 80 years old.  They had two single vineyard red wines which were fantastic and we bought them to try and bring home (we'll see if they make it).