We're going home :(

We said our goodbyes at the airport. My Mom, Aunt and Uncle are there for another 4 weeks ! We are very sad to see this trip end, but there is always the chance of another trip to make new memories.

Last Day in Pietracatella

Well, can't really count it a day since we got up at 4 a.m. this morning to drive back to Rome. Enzo is driving us and my Mom and Aunt are in the back with Grace. We got to bed a little late last night and it is a 3 hour ride to Rome. A little out of the way actually.

Our flight is at 11 A.m. and we are meeting Zia Maria and Zio Pep at the airport as we are on the same plane back.

Windmills !

The region actually has quite a few Windmills, and on days where the wind is strong enough the region is a net producer of electricity for the power grid.

Arguments there are the same as in Canada. Those renting out there land to host the windmill are for it. Others complain that it takes away from the landscape.

Grandmother's Home in Italy

Front of house (right side is ours).

The Cross

Just outside my Grandmother's House (the hose in which we are staying), there is a cross that was placed by my Nonno Di Iorio's Grandfather, Pasquale Di Iorio in 1902. So that would be my great, great Grandfather.

I remember as a child that it was a communal place where everyone would gather to chit chat. When we were there this time it was a little cold so we were rarely outside.

Nazi Built Parking Lot

As the story goes, the line created by those two black cars once had houses in the same spot. The the left was one of the main roads through the city. The retreating Nazi's decided to blow up the house to block road in order to impede the advancement of the Allied forces.

My Mom tells me that as a child the rubble was still there and they called the area "i Casi Cascatti". Her and her friends would forage through some of the rubble and pick up clay bulbs that they used to use as piggy banks.

In the background there is a walking path to get to the top of the village and you can notice the houses built on the tuff rock.

Today the area is a parking lot.

Grandad's House (on Dad's Side)

My Dad's side of the family spent most of there time in the house in the field's. This was there house in the city.

Grandad's House (on Mom's Side)

The house where my Nonno Di Iorio grew up.

Shopping at Campobasso Market

Women are natural foragers .....




Men ... not so much ....

Pietracatella Day 3

September 17 2009

Grace and I are starting to realize that 4 days was a little short to cover all or our villages. But then again we had a lot of Italy to cover ;) All, just to say that we will probably wbe back sooner than later, there is still the south of Italy to explore and our Paese would make the perfect base :)

Today we went into Campobasso to the market .... yaaayy .... shopping ....
We then went to visit some family at the cemetary. Lastly I went to take one last tour of the village with my camera to snap all that I could

Lago di Occhitto

On the south side of Pietracatella is a lake named "Lago di Occhitto". It is a man made lake that was created to help irrigate the terrain of both Molise and Puglia. It actually borders both regions.

The region of Molise is actually one of the main producers of grain used in pasta exported from Italy. Check out your next bag of imported pasta ;)

With the creation of the lake has come the reintroduction of various flora and fauna and if ai understood correctly, some tours are organized for local schools to explore the area.

Lola and ???

These two black dogs are strays, but pretty well taken care of. My Mom's cousin Maria Lina will feed them when they come around. They are quite docile and move out of your way when you come close.

So the girls name is Lola (on left) and I forget her brother's name (on right) ......

Pietracatella Day 2

September 16th

Our second day in Pietracatella was an opportunity for me to run around the village snapping some more pics. Also I was able to take a video of my Grandmother's house and the top of the village. Not sure if I mentioned it, but in such a small place, people know right away when visitors are in town :) I was stopped by a couple of people asking why I was running so much :)

Below are a couple more shots of the top of the village. I forget where my point of view was from.

Ripabottoni Summary

Grace and I really enjoyed our time in Ripabottoni, especially reconnecting with family. We also got to see the houses where both Grace's grandmother and grandfather lived. We had always heard that Ripabottoni was small, but I found the streets to be larger and you can get to more places by car than in Pietracatella. And I find that Ripabottoni is trying harder than Pietracatella to attract tourism. Outside the village they have a park where you can picnic and are surrounded by nature. There is a bike path to tour the countryside and there are hiking trails. There is even a country style villa with a pool where you can stay overnight and there are horses for horseback riding during the day.

Ripabottoni Village: Fountain

This fountain actually has three sections. The front is for people to drink or collect water. Just behind was used for animals to drink, and further down behind was a basin for people to wash clothing in.

Ripabottoni Village: Church

Ripabottoni seems to have been more severely affected by the earthquake that occurred in 2002. This church is still closed and so we could not see inside. There seems to be a massive reconstruction effort now as many of the buildings have scaffolding and there was a huge crane near the center.

Ripabottoni Fountain

Grace's Aunt's House

Grace's Grandma's Sister (Zia Antonietta) is a sweetheart. It was amazing to see the similarities between Zia Antonietta and Grace's Grandma. In her face, her voice, and just her way of speaking. We chatted for the whole morning and then had a wonderful lunch with her, her son Fernando, his wife Angelina and their daughter Antonella (their son Michele had gone off to work).

After lunch, Fernando brought us around Ripabottoni showing us the country side and the village itself.

Ripabottoni Station

September 15th 10:00 am

Today we are visiting relatives in Ripabottoni. Grace called her Grandma's sister in advance to get directions to the house. She said it would be hard to describe and best to meet at the station which was not to far away. We waited for a little while for someone to come pick us up, but given that Enzo had to be at the mechanic in the next half hour he said that he would try to find out how to get us straight to her house. So he asked Grace for her Aunt's first and last name and then walked across the street to an old man sitting on a chair.

Sure enough ... he knew exactly who were talking about and gave us the directions to the house. So we were there in next two minutes.

We are in Ripabottoni !!

Riccia: Festa Dell'Uva

September 14th at ~6:30pm

Grace and I were invited along to go visit Riccia, a nearby village that is actually quite a bit bigger than Pietracatella. On this day they were celebrating "Festa Dell'Uva" or the Grape Festival.

The village was packed, to the point we could not find parking .... in the village. We lucked out at the top and were right next to the piazza where the festival was centered. At first there were some flag jugglers, then some traditional dancers. Then there were 19 carts that were pulled by tractors. These carts were constructed to look like some of the small country-side homes. Others were sporting huge demijohns decorating with actual grapes. I was quite impressed with the effort that must have gone into making these. I mean the grapes still looked plump so they were probably assembled in a short time.

Eating Supper

Eating supper with the family at Maria Lina's house. Her doors are always open, literally .... at any point during the day you will find someone from the village visiting, and if it is during a meal then have to pull up a chair :)
I like the way Enzo puts it when referring to eating "Combattiamo la morte" or "we are combatting death" :)

Town Sign

We rounded up our day with a walk back home via the main road that
circles the town. Stopped to take a pic ;)

Last of the Original Entrances

This is one of 4 of the orignal entrances into the old village. It's actually called the Porta Nuova. (new door) because it was the newest of the old entrances. The medieval town was walled and these doors were closed at night and during attacks. The others were demolished because people complained that it didn't let enought light through to the other side. I think it's a shame.

Old Man and Woman

Steps of Church

Grace and me sitting on the steps of the church leading to the the crypt. These ones are man made but the orignal steps were actually carved into the tuff.

Outside Church

Shot of the top of the church



















Shot of the bottom of the church showing the base built on top of the natural stone.

Inside San Giacomo Church

As mentioned, this church dates back to the 12 century. There are actually two churches, San Margherita which was built first and was covered with frescoes. Later San Giacamo was built and is actually on top of a the crypt of San Margherita.
Inside there are the remaining preserved frescoes and the old crucifix.
The location of this church was actually built atop catacombs which date back to the 3rd and 4th century AD where early Christians buried their dead. Once the cult of Christianity was accepted and promoted by Constantine the first church was built. People still continued to bring their dead into the crypt (in funerary urns) and there were remains of bones and ash found in the walls of the chapel. There was no cemetary at the time.

My Mom tells me the story of when she was 14 that there was a cerem0ny whereby all of the bones that were in the crypt were brought to the village cemetary. She even remembers when they opened the tomb of the last "queen". She still had a watch on and was buried with a book.

Bell Tower

This is Enzo, my cousin, and my guide for the next few days :) I've been hounding him with questions on top of questions.

The bells actually have a little story too. During WWII the German army was seeking out metals to make shells from and had raided almost all of the bell towers in the nearby villages. A man saw 5 Nazi Germans approaching the church and made a run for it up the Bell tower. He started to ring the bells which sent off an alert signal to the rest of the village. Soon the 5 Germans found themselves surrounded by an angry mob throwing whatever they could find at them. So they retreated and the bells were saved.

Pietracatella Day 1

September 14 ~12pm.

Last night we got settled in, and were introduced to the neighbours. I got re-introduced to some relatives I hadn't seen in 28 years and then we had a our faces stuffed at my Mom's cousins house :)

Today we woke up late and then got a walking tour of the village from Enzo. Too funny to be stared at by so many people. Well, we are the "Americani" as they would say.

We made are way up to the old castle remnants and the the church which dates to the 12 century. This is a bird's eye view of the village from the bell tower of the church.

Pietracatella

Well there it is, "la Morgia" as the locals call it. This is the tuff rock hill that pretty much defined Pietracatella. The name "Pietracatella" actually comes from the word "pietra" or rock and "Catella" which I am told is the name of the dog of the ruling feudal family at the time (I have to confirm). The emblem that I've always seen as a kid at our association parties is a dog standing on a sharp rock.

You can't see the village from this shot, it is all on the other side.

We are in Pietracatella !!!

Arrival at Ripabottoni Station

Saturday September 13th around 5:30 pm

We called from Termoli Station that we would be arriving at Ripabottoni in about an hour. My Mom's cousin Enzo and my Uncle were waiting for us when we arrived. We took the small windy roads back to Pietracatella, and reserved our visit to Ripabottoni for Monday.

Larino

This one's for you Sonia D ;)

Your Paesan's say "Hi" :)

Train ticket

We arrived in Termoli from Rimini at around 4pm. The ride down was
very nice as we were riding along the coast and most of it was filled
with beaches.
In Termoli we procurred our ticket for Ripabottoni.
This part of Italy doesn't give you many options from a scheduling
point of view. Had we missed this train we would have been stuck in
Termoli and needed to have someone come pick us up there.
2.80€ each ..... cheap !! ;)

Oh, and Grace and I had quite a laugh when the train showed up. We
were used to taking 10 and 12 car trains. But this one was one car
only occupying the track, it was a funny sight. We were 4 people total on board ;)

Packet Sized Nutella !

These handy little guys are great for swiping from breakfast at your
hotel for snacking on later ;)

We are in Rimini !!

We arrived quite late in Rimini but luckily the hotel was not far from
the train station. Grace got settled in and I went in search of food.
Absolutely nothing open except sitdown Cafes. I walked a good portion
of Rimini that night and its actually quite a cute town. So all I
found was a Cafe with some day old paninis.

Next morning we had intended to go to San Marino but that totally
didn't happen :) We instead took or time with breakfast and checked
out at 11am and then headed to the station to see if we could find an
earlier train to the "Paese" ;)

Venice Summary

If you're touring Italy, add Venice as one of your "not to miss places".
I have to admit though I miscalculated on this one, we really should
have stayed for two days. The trip to Murano took time and it didn't
give us a chance to visit anything else in Venice. In fact, I would
consult you to question why you would visit Murano. Knowing what I
know now, the only reason I would go would be to buy a really
expensive piece or if I never watched "How it's Made" and wanted to
see someone worked glass. Most of the more common jewellary can be
found in Venice.

When we were leaving we overheard someone saying that the only room
they could find was 375€. I'm sure somoeone could find much cheaper
if they planned ahead but Venice has "Rome" level of expensiveness
feel to it :) We saw some other tourists get off at nearby Padua
which would most definitaley be cheaper.

Return from Murano

On our return vaporetta ride from Murano we sat at the front, facing forward. Soon people began taking photos of the sky behind us. The clouds were creeping up on us faster and faster so that by the time we reached the piazza it had started raining. From the looks of it though we thought we had a major storm coming.

Horse 3

And the finale .....

Horse 2

Horse

In these next videos and final snapshot, the artisan is creating a
horse figurine.

Boat Ride to Murano

The boat ride to Murano takes between 30min to 45 min not including
the time you are waiting for the Vaporetto. So travel time to and from
plus some time there .... You can estimate a whole morning or most of
the afternoon gone.
On the island you will find various shops selling high end to
trinckets and classical or modern pieces. Some shops have a "fornace"
attached where you can actually see a artisan work some glass.
Sounds nice when reading it, but in reality the demo only lasted about
5-10 min. In this video he is forming a vase. And the only reason they
do it is to then lead you into their showroom for you to buy.
And if you look at these guys work, you can easily tell they so do not
want to be there.

.... and she's out !

.... and turnstile

with Videosurveillance !

Toilets

Grace can spot the "WC" or "Woo-Chee" as we've heard them call it from
anywhere. Locating it is like a major event whenever we went to a new
place. The one's in Venice take the cake though. This one was quite
organized as you will see from the photos. You could also buy a day
pass instead if paying 1€ a shot :)

Pigeons

Although you can still see quite a gathering of pigeons. I don't think
what we saw matches the description of what we read about. And I
think that has to do with the fact the street vendors are prohibited
from selling bird feed.

Oh, and Venice is undergoing quite a bit of renovations as you can see
in the photo. Its a bit of an eyesoar but I'm sure its a necessity to
keep this place in shape.