Welcome to Italy (Part I)

September 19 - 25

arrived in Naples, Italy in the late morning of the 19th. I had not been in Naples in over 30 years so it was surprising to find it as hectic and disorderly as it was before. The airport is like no other I've ever been to. There are cars pulling up inches away from the airport entrance and coming at each other from every direction. It was pure pandemonium when we walked out the door with people standing outside their cars waving their arms and screaming at the other drivers. We moved quickly to my cousin's car and we were on our way to the mountain towns where my family comes from. When we arrived in Mirabella Eclano, my grandmother's home town, we went directly to my Cousin Paula's house where she had the most remarkable and delectable feast ready for us. Paula cooks like a classically trained chef but only better because it’s all comfort food (pasta, potatoes, chicken, cheese, fresh fruit and bread.) The food is so fresh here and much of what she prepared was picked right out of their extensive gardens and cooked in olive oil made from her olives grown in her backyard. Her husband even does a fabulous barbeque.

After lunch we were taken to the house in the middle of the town center where my grandmother, uncles and aunts were all born. It's truly an experience to sleep in house that holds such significance for my family. Not only were there all those births but my grandmother's mother and two sisters died there in 1915 from the Spanish flu and as the locals still mention, having heard it from their grandparents, the sight of three caskets leaving that house all on the same day was something one would never forget.

We took a walk around town and met up with my aunt Zizi's cousin Rosa who invited us in for coffee. She was so sweet and has a lovely home in a newly rebuilt piazza where they had examples of the woven straw panels that are used on the festival tower.

On the 20th we had the tremendous pleasure of being in the town for the almost 200 year old tradition of the Festa Del Carro which is a celebration of the Madonna taking place this time each year. The feast is celebrated by placing the statue of the Madonna on top of a 7 story tower made mostly of intricately woven hey. There is a wooden skeleton on the inside and then hundreds of woven straw panels placed around it. The tower or Carro, as it is called, is then brought to the top of the town's main hill and then pulled down the hill and through the city streets with the help of oxen, a tractor for breaks and hundreds and hundreds of locals maneuvering it by pulling on ropes attached to various parts of the tower. This ritual begins at 3:00pm at the top of the town’s main hill. The teams of locals, dressed in custom-made team t-shirts, pulls and pushes the Carro along its century old designated path until it makes it safely to its temporary resting place in the center of town only feet from my family home. This whole procession lasts until around 8:00pm at which time fireworks go off and the music, food and general fun begins. Throughout the history of the festival the Carro has only fallen two times and you can imagine what a disgrace it was to the event coordinators. This year it thankfully made it safely to town and it was a joyous celebration for two days.

During the whole event that day we continually met new and interesting people and on one walk through Padre Pio Square my mother and I met two ladies from Southern Italy who were very concerned I was still single (keep in mind that the first question they ask me is "are you married" and the second is "how old are you") so they told me to pray to Padre Pio a saint and he would help me find a husband. They were very sweet but they seem to think that looking for a good man is a asking for too much and I should just settle for a man or at least that is what I think they were saying but who knows since my Italian leaves a great deal to be desired. It is also very funny to see all the strange looks I get when I walk through town. It turns out that since I wear black pretty much from head-to-toe and pretty much everyday people are thinking that I am a very young widow and how sad for me. My cousin Paula has been trying to get me to borrow some of their clothes so I can incorporate color. Funny that black is chic in New York City and a cause for pity here in Mirabella.

On the 21st Mom and I went to mass at the Madonna's church which was incredibly crowed since it was the weekend of the feast. The mass was in Italian of course so I only understood a tiny bit but my mother told me the homely mentioned how people around the world with ties to Mirabella called the priest starting at 3:00am with a call from Australia and followed soon after by a call from a New Yorker who had come from Mirabella years ago. Everything, including mass was centered on the love of this town and the significance of the Madonna in the lives of all who live and have lived here.

We continued our celebration of the Madonna and since it was the Sunday of the feast it entitled Paula to thankfully take a much needed day from cooking and her wonderful husband Aurelio took us all, including Frank and Ellen who came on this journey with us to a spectacular restaurant called Di Pietro in the mountain town of Melto. Even when we eat out the food is beyond compare. No matter what craziness happens in this country no one on earth could dispute that the food here is superior in so many ways. It does have a great deal to do with the freshness of the food as well, and the owners of this restaurant have their own garden and prepare food that they grew themselves. They also have perfect the art of food service and even allowed my uncle Joe, a very picky eater, to choose his own size of spaghetti since he really only likes spaghetti size number 3. After the food feast we drove back to Mirabella to continue the other feast only this time an almost life size, gorgeously dressed statue of the Madonna was taken for a procession through town on a small gold alter/chariot carried by several strong men. The procession began at 6:00pm and went on for three hours which is remarkable because the hundreds of people who followed her through town were in some cases barefoot or just in socks. If you had said a prayer to the Madonna over the past year and your prayer was granted it is a sign of respect to make the long journey up and down every street and hill in town barefoot. It was a spectacular sight and extremely emotional. I had been to the festival several times when I was just a child but had not witnessed it in over 30 years. The procession ended back at the church where it began and the marching band that had followed her throughout town played and then there were spectacular fireworks that took my breath away.

The whole festival is devoted to paying homage to the saints and to spending time enjoying family, friends and simply enjoying the pleasures of life. We spent a great deal of time walking through the cobble stone streets and meeting up with lots of people excited that we had all come this long distance to celebrate with them.

On the 22nd my sister, Jean Marie was returning to Ireland so we made a quick trip to a neighboring town called Grotta for their weekly outdoor market. There were so many vendors selling everything from fruit to clothing to toys to house wares and we walked every inch of it starting at 7:30am. Well, I must be completely candid and say we stopped first for, what my cousin Paula considers the best Italian pastry in this region at a shop called Ciotola. I would agree with Paula that the pastry is well worth the visit. As for the market my sister loves to bargain shop as does my cousin Paula so there was lots of fun to be had. Ellen and Frank who had joined us here in Italy from Ireland joined us in Grotta and took Jean Marie back to the airport in Naples which I have now been informed by Jean Marie was in a more disorderly state than the day we arrived. Hard to believe, but she said that in just the first half hour she had witnessed several heated arguments between travelers. There is a great deal of passion in this country and as I was told by a lovely older woman we met at the feast, Italian men have fire in them and that I guess accounts for all the craziness. It sounds good anyway.

After we left Jean Marie, Ellen and Frank we headed back to town for another tremendous lunch at Paula's house. She served us a pasta dish of her own creation with peas and fresh parmesan cheese that was sheer perfection not to mention the mozzarella balls that had been made just that morning along with the fresh bread. It's been pretty much eat, eat and eat some more since we arrived but with such great food how could I ever complain.

We then went back into town for another smaller celebration. The Feast of Saint Rocco was not large but still important to the town. They did another procession of his statue but not as long as the Madonna’s.

We ate some fabulous pizza from the nearby pizzeria for dinner and then it was off to bed as we were all so exhausted.

September 23

Our day started with mom taking me and Uncle Joe out for coffee in a cafe down the street from the house. We met the owner of the building, Rocco who remembered my mother from a visit she made to Mirabella when she was in her early 20's. He was kind enough to take us around the corner to the veranda on the back of the house that gave the most spectacular views of the outer town and of my Cousin Paula's home. We also met a couple who lived upstairs 3 months each year who actually lived near my mother in Massachusetts. The wife had been born in this building and remember how her aunt who lived next door and who's balcony was visible from the veranda and who when she was just a little girl was told by her aunt now pregnant that babies came from pumpkins. I loved the story because the aunt was so inventive and actually put out a pumpkin on her balcony a few weeks before she was due and her niece would come and check on the pumpkin each day waiting to see if the baby had come. When the baby arrived the aunt went out and smashed the pumpkin so that when her niece came out the next morning she would think the baby sprang out of the pumpkin which the niece actually did believe. It's been so much fun meeting all these new people because each one has some great story to tell.

We took a walk to where my grandmother and aunt Zizi used to go and do their laundry. It is an outdoor troth down the hill from the house and all the woman used to meet their to do their wash each day.

Down the path from the washing area is my aunt Zizi's aunt's home which has been abandoned for 50 years and is overgrown with greenery.

We did have the pleasure of meeting a postman along the way who does his rounds on aVespa. What a cutie so we just had to take a picture.

We left the city center soon after and went to the town’s graveyard and saw my aunt Zizi’s parent’s monument. We tried to find the rest of the family but in Italy after a certain amount of years, unless you own the plot like my aunt’s family did, they dig up the deceased and, well I won’t go into details as it shocked me the first time I saw the new resting place for loved ones remains. After the graveyard we visited a charming mountain town Taurasi which is a famous town know for their wine. One of my cousins comes from there so it was nice to visit even if just for a short time.

On the way back to Paula’s we stopped to see the shrine built in memory of my uncle Vincenzino’s (little Vincent) wife Anna. Anna taught at a school during World War II and sadly an accidently dropped bomb fell on the school and killed several people.

As I am sure you are now thinking, yes, we went back to Paula's for lunch again and she continues to outdo herself. If she wasn't so incredibly busy raising her three sons Giuseppe, Cristian and Andrea and taking care of her husband, Aurelio, as well as her mother-in-law, a huge house and farm land she could honor the world with a restaurant that would bring so much pleasure to even more than just her blessed family. It is all about the food here as I have mentioned before and certainly deserves mentioning again.

This was a particularly important day for me as we got to visit the home where my grandfather was born in a town called Calore. I had spent many a weekend in that house when I was just a child as we only lived an hour or so from here while my father was in the Navy and stationed in Gaeta, Italy. The home which is now abandoned was the not only a birth place for my loved ones but also a working home of my Zia Angelina and my Zio Michela, my grandfather's brother. When we were her 30 years ago there was no indoor plumbing in the house and we would do our busy out in the potatoes fields back then. Despite not having any creature comforts back then I grew quickly to adore my aunt and uncle and when I left Italy at age 11 I sadly never had the pleasure of seeing them again as they have both passed on and the earthquake which ravaged this area of Italy in 1980 did much damage to their home and it is not exactly how I had hoped to find it for my own selfish needs but it was intact enough for many emotions to well up inside both me and my mother. We tried to visit my grandfather's church which is still operational all these years later but it was not open so we hope to get back there before we live at the end of the week. We stopped off at the famous Gelato shop Aloha in Pianopantano and place where Giuseppe once worked.

September 24

The morning started off with a visit to the Saint Bernardino's Church which is hidden off the main streets in town center and was built around 1669. It is truly one of the most beautiful churches I have ever been in. The walls inside are completely covered with painting including the ceiling and there is a small but impressive organ when you enter on a balcony. It was destiny that we were parking on that street at that very time as the church is not normally open anymore unless there is a wedding which is exactly why the caretaker was there putting out the linens on the altar. The care taker was so kind and generous with his time and a verbal history of the church as well as giving us a book on the history of the church. He also brought us to a room hidden behind the alter that is a small chapel with more beautiful artwork all over the walls and ceiling. The chapel is absolutely one of the highlights of my visit here. Clearly very few people enter that room anymore and everything had a layer of dust but I was transported to another time and loved it. I felt like I could feel generations and generations of my family around us. As my mother put it after her first night in my Grandmother's house "They (our family) are happy we are back." We then visited the museum of the Carro located in the City Hall of Mirabella which was once the grade school of my aunt, Zizi who is Paula's mother. We tried again to get into my grandfather's church but we were too late they had closed it for the day. We will keep trying until we succeed.

We are now back at Paula’s house and have been well feed as expected. We are now being serenaded by Giuseppe, playing guitar and his friend Salvatore, singing.

The fire place is on and the whole family is together and it is exactly how one would imagine rural life in Southern Italy to be. And if you can believe this it is about 9:00pm and we are about to have cena which is the equivalent of dinner in America. There are farm fresh eggs (just plucked from under a chicken an hour or so ago) fried perfectly, eggplant, fresh ricotta, bruchetta, garlic bread, fried peppers and fish. They tell me this is more of a small meal or snack as lunch is the real thing.

September 25, 2008

The morning was spent so pleasurably with a visit to Zizi’s cousin’s store named after their family, Capone. The shop is filled with beautiful Italian clothing and we especially enjoyed the conversation with Josephina Capone the mother of Roberto Capone who has visited us in the States many times and even stayed at The Manhattan Club when I worked there. The Capone family is truly a loving, gracious and generous family and made us feel so much at home in their store.

After lunch, a group went to Giuseppe’s Godfather’s gelato factory which makes the gelato that we had at Gelato Aloha, their shop. Nino and Antoinetta invited us into their offices and served us incredible gelato creations. They came up with the idea to make gelato from every kind of fruit and vegetable you can think of including onions and artichokes and then put that flavor gelato back into the shell of which ever fruit or vegetable it was originally taken from. We even had peanut gelato which was housed in the peanut shell itself and plum gelato stuffed inside the plum skin. It was so fabulous especially for a sugar obsessed person like me and what better form of sugar than in a fabulous gelato creation.

Our next stop with Paula and Ronnie, was an educational visit to an ancient Roman ruin that was found in Mirabella over 30 years ago when a farmer, digging in his land, found the first remnants of the ancient town. They spent the last 30 years excavating it and it is still in progress. We saw an ancient Roman version of a hot tub. Amazing how creative and inventive these ancient Romans were and certainly personal pleasure was a top priority. This hot tub took up a lot of space in the home.

We also took a road trip with Paula and Ronnie to Apice and Castel del Lago town mountain towns with very distinct flavor. Ronnie did a great job driving considering the tremendous amount of street signs that sometimes contradict each other. Unlike Mirabella these towns have little commercial/retail shops and much more residential buildings including a myriad of multi-floor apartment buildings. Apice in particular has a tremendous amount of private development going on and each new home is unique and it appears they owners are each trying to outdo each other with unusually shaped balconies; various shaped marble pillars and every shape of window imaginable. It was great to see what the new suburban Italy is going to be in the future. They fortunately still take great pride in creating a home with an eye on artistic details and the use of grand, exquisite materials. I do love Italian marble, but who doesn’t. And we have also noticed that each town in this Campania region of Italy has a Padro Pio shrine. The saint aparently was from this region and is a great source of pride for all the towns.

The whole family, minus Giuseppe who was out with friends, once again met at Paula’s for cena around 8:00pm and story telling. There are so many stories to tell and to hear. Even the ones I’ve heard before are still so entertaining.