It was very important that my mother be here on this trip for reasons I have explained. I knew that she would be the one to really bond with the people of Italy as well as our people of Italy in Goriano. I am much more of an acquired taste, but people just gravitate to my mother. She is a natural entertainer and storyteller. I knew it would be exhausting for me to be both a tour guide and the family historian, so I thought we’d make a good team.

Our evening flight from Boston to Rome was direct. When we landed at the airport in Rome, we were in the back of the plane. Instead of having to wait to exit the front of the plane, the flight attendants opened up doors in the back and wheeled up steps. We were among the first few people to exit the plane and step onto the tarmac. I felt like a head of state.

My mother had wanted to kiss Italian ground as soon as she stepped onto it, but I suggested to her that the tarmac would not be a worthy place for this type of ceremony. This event would come much later in our trip. We took a shuttle to the airport terminal and waited for my first cousin Michael’s plane to touch down.

Our first few days in Rome were quite full. We did most of the touristic things that you do when you’re in Rome. Our first night we walked around the city. Our apartment was around the corner from the Trevi Fountain, which was mobbed with visitors no matter what time of day it was. We ate, we walked, we saw the Spanish Steps, we went back to the apartment, we went to dinner. We walked some more. The next day was spent at the Colosseum and the day after that we visited the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica.

Matt and I wanted to make sure we walked a lot. It was important that we see the city in this way. We did take a double-decker bus to the Colosseum and then later rode it around to other parts of the city. We also took the metro to the Vatican so we could experience that as well. The metro in Rome is very short. You may as well walk or take a cab unless you are a local commuting to your job.

By the time our time in Rome was ending, we were ready for Goriano Sicoli. I think I’d been expecting Rome to be full of friendly, attentive people, but mostly it just seemed that Romans were tired of tourists. It was mid-September; perhaps they had saved all of their merriment for earlier in the summer. I had spent the summer trying to learn Italian, but there were few people who would converse with me in the language. (Don’t worry. In Goriano, my efforts would eventually pay off.)

We did meet a couple of lovely people in Rome that we connected with. Miria (the dark-haired woman in the picture to the right)  was one such person. We met her and her friend one night at L’Archetto Spaghetteria and Pizzeria. They were having dinner at the table behind us. She and my mother bonded beyond the language barrier (See? I told you that people love my mother). Miria had a tireless spirit for fun and, I could tell, a wicked good sense of humor. Later that evening, I found her on Facebook (she had asked me to find her) and we are now long-distance Facebook friends.

There is so much more to be said of Rome, but this is not the focus of Journey to Goriano. The night before we were to depart Rome, I talked to Sandro and told him my impressions of the Roman people. He told me that we would be falling in love with Abruzzo because the people there would embrace us with so much kindness and love. I knew he would be right.

Check out my gallery. The captions in the photos tell more of the story.

Cinque Terre Breakwater (Photo by Brian Beam)

These days, I’m gaining a lot of respect for travel agents. Matt and I have spent the past month working on lodging for our trip to Italy. We will be in many different locations and while our original plan was to wing it after the first week when our mother has gone back home, I’m glad we have rethought that idea. Our second week will begin in Cinque Terre. I hadn’t realized how touristy the five villages really are. Two months before our trip and almost every place I contacted did not have available rooms. We finally found a beautiful bed and breakfast in Monterosso al Mare. It’s somewhat far from town proper, but I think we’re OK with that considering the alternative (no housing at all!). After our four nights in Cinque Terre, we have no idea what we’re doing yet. A day in Venice? Lake Como? We just don’t know yet.

I must tell you the meaning of this blog post’s title. My cousin Michael has decided to make the first week of the trip with us. He is my mother’s older sister’s son, so we are first cousins. Due to this development, we’ve decided on a big change to my mother’s flight plan so she can leave from Philly with Michael. It will cost us a lot in fees, but we will break even if the new flight is cheaper. Adding him to the trip will be great. The more people who bear witness to this experience, the more perspectives can be brought into the experience, and come out of it.

A few weeks ago, I had a lively phone conversation with Sandro, Angelo mio. We talked about the Italian way of life (Work to live, don’t live to work). We discussed Sandro’s mission of helping Italian Americans connect with their homeland roots. Sandro also offered to help us book our stay in Goriano. Because of a language barrier, that made the most sense. A few days after our call, Sandro phoned up Mayor Marganelli of Goriano Sicoli, who personally booked our rooms in the one and only bed & breakfast there. Not only am I honored that the mayor has had a hand in our trip, I’m also thrilled that he told Sandro to call him upon our arrival in Goriano so he can greet us. How lucky to have Sandro AND Mayor Marganelli as our gracious hosts.

Sandro told me that our plans in Goriano will be to visit the home where my great grandfather was born. We can bring a token of the Bucciarellis with us and leave it somewhere meaningful, so there is always a connection to the place where we came from. He will take video of the event so we can share the experience with the rest of our family.

Here is an excerpt from a letter from my great grandmother to her son, Johnny, sent on October 15, 1944. I am leaving in spelling errors as they were originally transcribed. A note here: my great uncles’ names were Ralph, Johnny, and Willie.

Well, I guess by this time you already heard from Willie about him been in Goriano, boy! That really was something to surprise those people like he did. It’s a funny world that after 30 years that your Pop hasn’t seen his relatives, and the youngest of you boys had to go over and meet them. That was really something. He really looks good, happy with a big smile in the picture that he took with your Uncle Domenick and family. Poor kid. I guess he makes himself at home wherever he goes. He says he has seen [unreadable] but he doesn’t have the beer belly he use to have.I can imagine poor people how they have to suffer….

…Well, Pop wants to know if it’s possible that sometime if you have a pretty long leave if you ain’t so far away from Italy if you could go over sometimes and see the relatives and maybe you can also see Willie there. Too bad, I guess. It’s impossible. Did Willie send you those pictures that they took together there? If he din’t send it, soon as Ralph sense the one he sent us back, we will send it to you. We send Ralph the pictures so he could (get) a big kick out of it the way we did, although we had to cry. But it was worth it; he also wrote us 8 page letter telling us adventures there. We certainly made everyone read that letter.  it was really good. I guess he told you that he also met Mike Pronio’s mother. They in another town near Goriano. Willie was looking for a hotel and asked a boy and happened to Pronio’s nephew so therefore than he took to his mother. We can be proud. Such popular member of our family.

Boy, I would give anything if I could take a trip to see you boys. here we go again talking out of my head. it’s impossible. Well, now I have to be satisfied with a piece paper. Maybe I din’t appreciate you kids when you was here. Well, what can we do about it? I am not the only one. Pop said how about you writing to Uncle Domenick and Aunt Marinecia a few lines. if you can’t get anyone to write in Italian, write it to him in American. They can always find someone that knows how to read.

And here is a letter from Uncle Willie to Uncle Johnny on October 27, 1944:

Dear Johnny (Pitchie):

Was surprised by your quick response. Oh Well, miracles do happen, don’t they brother “dear!”

Well to start this masterpiece off, I’ll tell you about the town of Bucciarelli’s Goriano Sicoli! I never knew a whole town could fit into one room. Well it did that night I arrived there! Everybody wanted to see this specimen of their own kind from America! I never seen nobody as happy as Uncle Domenick! He looks just like Pop, except he’s a little thinner. All the time I was there, I thought he was Pop! He put on his Sunday clothes and strutted around with me like a proud peacock just like Pop does when he takes all four of us out visiting, remember?

I can hear Uncle Dominick still saying “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it!” He told me out of us four, there had to be one in Italy – there just had to be!

Every time I’d step out of the house, the people would be lined up in the streets waiting to talk to me! You can imagine how happy they were after not seeing Pop for 30 years!

I only stayed there 2 days but I lived like a “king!” Even despite the fact that they are as bad off as the rest of Italy! I ate every half hour and naturally drank “vino!” They didn’t know the word “stop.” If I would have stayed there one more day, I would have been “mayor”!

Half of the town is our relations or named Bucciarelli so you can imagine the “feasta” we had!

They also got a kick out of me talking Italian, figuring since I was born in America, I couldn’t speak their “lingo!” I could go on talking for pages like this but it will have to wait till we get together!

Naturally, I told them everything about us including you!

By the way, in case you ever get some kind of furlough come and find me – look me up and we’ll go to Goriano – it may be impossible but try if you will you?

….

As for the pictures, I only took one in Goriano with one of the antique cameras they had there ’cause I didn’t have any – sorry I didn’t.

If you want to know anything else, I forgot to mention, let me know.

So long for now and take care of yourself!

Your Kid Brother,

“Willie”

P.S. Ask Mom to let you see that picture.

Sandro, my angel from Abruzzo, took another trip to Goriano Sicoli, with the mission of finding out more about my great grandfather.

Dear Kristen,

Yesterday, I went to Goriano to find your family roots.

I met Goriano’s Mayor. His name is Mr. Rodolfo Marganelli. He is a very nice person and if you come here, he will be pleased to meet you . . . we went to the city hall and found the old books with old registrations and certificates. So now we know all the names of your ancestors, and the house where they use to live in, and were born in.

I am relieved because I can’t imagine making this trip and trying to describe everything to her later. It would just seem so heartbreaking. Also, I imagine some of the family names and stories would be lost on me. She is a storyteller and knows much more about our family history than I do. I know she’ll also do some research and talk with family before we go. It will be helpful to have a partner in this quest for family history.

Plus, she’s a great person to travel with. She loves to walk, sightsee, and eat. Of course, this ups the ante a little bit as far as my role as tour guide.

For the past month, I have been using Pimsleur to great results. It starts out really slow and prompts you for what to say. There is a lot of repetition to keep you feeling confident that you are grasping the lesson. Let me know if you’re interested in borrowing my CD. I’m currently on lesson 8. The only problem I’m having is that I listen in the car so I don’t get much of the reading part of it down. But I’m not so worried about that for now.

This view was also depicted in a 1929 M.C. Escher painting. A bit of internet research suggests that this was Escher’s first lithograph subject and marked the beginning of his Italian period.

The picture above is of an old public fountain in Goriano. Sandro wrote: “This is the fountain where in the past Goriano’s women use to go to wash the laundry by hand.”

The above image is Saint Gemma Church, which was badly damaged on April 7, 2009, by an earthquake that struck the region. Goriano was spared most of the destruction, but other cities and towns were devastated. Boston.com’s Big Picture photo blog has a stunning gallery depicting the aftermath.

Sandro took a picture of the poster for the Feast of Saint Gemma. I hope we get to go to a Feast while we’re there!

Here’s one of the streets of the town, getting dressed up with lights for the Feast.

Thank you, Sandro, for sharing your day trip to Goriano with me. I’m so happy to be able to share it with others.

One source of support and information I received was from my father, and his partner Maggie, who went to Italy five years ago.

Maggie has friends in Italy, one of whom was able to connect me to a gentleman named Sandro who helps Italian Americans find their roots in Abruzzo. I emailed him right away with everything I knew about my family. I was pleased that he wrote back promptly to tell me about his mission.

Every time I can be helpful to someone with Italian blood, it makes me happy and I do my best to help them find family roots here in Italy. I know how important this is for everyone, specially the ones that have roots in our beautiful “Abruzzo.” We abruzzesi are known as “popolo forte e gentile” (strong and gentle people).

Then he told me a few things he already knew about the family name.

I know that most of the Bucciarellis are originally from the province of Chieti (in Abruzzo there are four provinces: L’Aquila, Teramo, Chieti and Pescara). Then they split all over the region.

This started out very promising!

I promptly provided all of the information he asked for to help him in what turned into his new quest. Five days later, on a Sunday, I received an email and several photos from Sandro! He had traveled to Goriano Sicoli on his motorcycle, an hour from where he lives.

Sandro in Goriano Sicoli

In the letters from World War II that I mentioned in my previous post, one of my great uncles got to visit Goriano Sicoli. It was an amazing story. (I hope to be able to publicly post excerpts from the letters once I receive a blessing from my family to do so.)

Sandro was able to meet and talk with people who live in Goriano over a cup of espresso at Bar Centrale. This is a picture of his motorcycle parked out front.

In my next post, I’ll tell you more about Sandro’s day trip. The photo at the top of this blog’s homepage is of Goriano Sicoli and is courtesy of Sandro.

On our upcoming trip, I want to see the historical sites of Italy, for sure, but I also want to find other parts of the country that aren’t as heavily traveled. It makes sense to focus on seeing Goriano so we can see explore a less touristic area outside of a major city. And the fact that there are stories attached to the area makes it extra special.