We were greeted this morning by the zillion cats when we opened the door.. they are sweet and pretty much leave us alone.. though they have tried (unsuccessfully) sneaking into the house a few times. Diane and I started the day with a nice run through the countryside .
Today was our main family history day for Linda. Luigi picked us about about 9 and We made the hour and 15 minute drive to the town of Tiriolo , Calabria where Linda’s Maternal grandmother and great grandparents were born .
Tiriolo is a very cute mountain town that seems to be divided into two layers.. the lower town., which has all the commercial stuff, and the upper town which is an ancient walled city with very narrow streets and alleys, very few cars and beautiful old houses crammed together on top of each other.
First stop was the lower city to get our bearings and find the municipal office. We didn’t have as much info on Linda’s family and figured we could do a little research on the spot. The lower town was beautiful in its own way. The mountain air was cool and fresh and the views were amazing in all directions .
We found the municipal offices and went in to show them the genealogy that I’d helped Linda pull together for her maternal grandmother over the last couple of days.
Luigi acted as interpreter as we explained to the records clerk about the people we were looking for. (He’s been so much more than a driver for us ! With him it’s been a much richer trip !)
The clerk was really helpful and quickly found the records for Lindas grandparents and Great-grandparents.
We found so much info so quickly ! Dates, names, addresses, Linda was so excited and happily overwhelmed
We went outside to a cafe and planned out how we’d go find some of the places that linda and luigi had identified, as well as a few more questions to ask the clerk. I We created a subset of Lindas a family tree to guide our search. We also had soem wonderful pasteries and this awesome coffee ice cream thing.. life here is not bad !
also started the process of searching contemporary phone records maybe finding a few living relatives still in town. There’s were a zillion folks still here with Linda’s family names of Badalato/Badolato , Morgentini, Cuturo, etc.
From here, the four of us started the long hike up to the old town.. Luigi stayed behind to wait… and (as uyou will see) kept busy himself !
We kept seeign these faces of a man with his tongue out.. I think they we’re used to scare evil spirits away.. maybe baby even spirits ? THye were kinda cute actually
At the very top we found the location of the house.. more like THE house where lLnda’s grandpparents had lived in the early part of the 20th century
Across the square (whihc was the size of 2 cars 🙂 was the church that Linda’s family must have attended
(Yes .. it snows here !)
The church looked locked up.. but one of the doors was unlocked, so we let ourselves in. It was so cool being in the place that was important to Linda’s family back who-knows how many generations
Linda was lighting a candle for her family when David found soemthign very cool: a pew donated by Linda’s family.. THat was soooo cool . !
there were some pretty cool and funky paintings on the walls. check out the devil in the details here
We found a staircase that went up to a bacony.. kinda cobwebby but very cool
Interesting stained glass too.. .. shades of the little mermaid !
It was interesting letting ourselves into this church with no one else around. It reminded me of when I was in high school and first taught myself to pick locks. I’d sometime go and let myself in to the Episcopal Church down our street (where i’d been in nursery school) .. I’d just go in and sit quietly.. never did anything. This adventure gave me the same sense of “peaceful mischief”
We then set out to find the street where Linda’s great grandpaernts lived.. didnt have to go far.. it too was just across the street.. We didn’t have a house number, but there were only about 12 houses.. so we must have walked by the one.
We followed the narrow alleys up to the ruins of a middle ages castle.. that dated from early in the 11th century (!)
The view from up there was really spectacular ! and the whole place was full of scraggly mint plants and flowers..
We started getting hungry so we headed back to the 21st century and found a great restaurant .. (the ONLY one in the old city.. if Google is to be believed !)
The restaurant is called Ristorante due Mari because your can see across the ‘instep’ of the boot of italy two the two seas: to the Northwest the Tyrrhenian sea (yes.. isnt that ‘yrrh’ in there cool ?!?!) and to the southeast the Mediterranean sea.
The restaurant was so great. incredible view and incredible food. pickeld onion compote (not sure thats the right word). and anchovy garlic pasta for me
- Midway through lunch we got a whatsapp from Luigi.. Turns out hwe’d been using his time to further research Linda’s family with the help of the guy at the municipal office. By way of that he found a distant cousin of Lindas named Franco who runs a bar in the lower town with his son Giuseppe !.
Franco still owns the house in the old city where Lindas Great-great grandfather Giuseppe Badalato once lived !
We made our way down the step set of stairs and alleys down to the lower tan to meet Lindas Kin !
On the way we met a woman and her kid cleanign out a wine barrel from their basement wine making
Even the modern lower town was charming.. we foudn soem wall murals done by someone with Lindas family name
We found the Time Out bar easily and met Linda’s brand new (to her) cousins Franco and Giuseppe
Even though they weren’t related to us.. they felt like family to us as well !
Eventually Franco had to run.. we all said goodbye and headed back to the van
What a day !
nite all, nite sam
-me
