Like alll our days so far in Marano Marchesato (Maraschino Cherry as we call it) Today started  with cats and a short run among the hills of the village

Luigi came ’round at 9AM and we headed to the cast. Our destination today was the town of Fiumefreddo Bruzio which is the closest point on the Tyrrhennian Sea to us.  Fieumefreddo is another city divided into two parts. Lower Fiumefreddo is a beach village with lots of restaurants, a nice long beach and lots of hotels.. The upper villiage is an ancient fort city.. kind of a standard pattern around here it seems.

 

First stop was the nbeach. The water was clear and cold.. we didn’t go in.. but stood in the water a bit. What was amazing abotu the place was the variety of colors in the pebbles on the beach.. unlike anything I’ ver seen.. bright greens, yellows reds.. that sparkeldwhen wet.. and looked like rocks when dry.. and evidently when photographed 🙂 

 

Here’.. let me play with the colors a bit.. Here’s what my iphoen camera captured

 

and here’s moe like what we saw

 

Similarly before and after

 

I put this near the wterline and watched it get taken by the sea.. felt good/sad

 

we walked for a bit then headed back to find luigi

 

The road up tthe old city was curvy, narrow and  steep., I tr4ied to get some pics.. Not too successfully.. There was this local take on the  ‘Christ the redeemer’ statue in rio

The old city was a medieval fortress surrounded by a  wall, with narrow streets and alleys and a crumbling castle.. Like every place we’ve. gone in this country.. I think the US should invest more in Crumbling castles. 

This one is from 1200s if I recall correctly

here’s the view up one of the old chimneys

 

Luigi met us up at the castle with  his good friend Fabio. THey met back in college and have stayed close ever since. He’s a super nice guy .. he showed us around the town.. 

 

We came across this great square with a beutiful view of the ocean

We were surprised to see this on one of the church buildings essentialy read ‘The Mafia cannot enter here’

We ate  at a really  nice ‘slow foods’ place that also associated with a wholistic breasty cancer center ‘La Casa di Rosa’

 

Interestingly that poster was just near this one 🙂

 

We all got combo antipasta plates.. vegitarian for us. They were so tasty !

 

These folks were militantly healthy

 

It was time to go.. so we all said good bye to Fabio and headed for the van

 

We got back to our place in Marano Marchesato in time to meet our hosts family. including Juri , His very pregnant wife and their 2 year old son Gianfranco

 

AN our neigbor came by to say hi too (I think thats what she said) 

 

This evening we met Luigi for a light pizza dinner at a place near his B&B.. It was  a really nice place.. with a  different spin on pizza than I’d ever seen: eg pistachio and potatoe pixza.. and they weren’t even  trying to be fancy..  

One surprise  was that I managed to break two differnt chairs while I was eating. Must be all the pasta !

 

then it was time to go home

 

full day !

niote all, nite sam

-me

  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

 

 

1. 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

Went for a quick run this morning.. CHecked out two shrines just a 100 or so meters up from the house. This one says If you stand in the right place you’ll see the apparition of the Virgin Mary. Ilalians really love Mary. 

 

Heres a view from here of a nearby town… 

 

And here’s a protrait of an even more nearby chicken.. our neighbor

 

Luigi  picked us up at 9.. but couldn’t leave  just yet because the wash machine was still working. We got on the road  to Pizzo about 10.. and as always in cars.. I fell fast asleep .instantly . 
I woke near pizzo and looked around.. same wonderful scenery of hill villages

 

Our first stop was the  Chiesseta di Piedgrotta that we found in several places. The fact that it was in Atlas Obscura is always a good sign for us. 

The Chiesetta (little  church) was carved out of a limestone cliff rThe story it was based on an old story of 17th century sailors who prayed to mary during a storm and promised to build a church their if their lives were spared.. There’s no record  of the real wreck.. but the story inspired a  ia  local sculpture beginning to begin carving out a cave church there beginning in the 1880’s.. When he died in 1919, his son took over and kept expanding the church and its sculptures for about 40 years. After that the place became abandoned. The sign said that during this time a bot or boys broke in and broke many of the statues.(. not sure why they assumed it was boys !.. not girls)   . In the 1990’s (I think) an Italian sculptor  living in Canada came hoe for a visit.. fell in love with the story and moved here and began renevating the place.

It was really cool and wierd.. the statues are carved out of the same rock that the cave is made out of.. You have to appreciate the deotion all these folks had to making this place possioble

 

FRom there we drove up into the city center. First order of busienss was food !. Luigi helped us find this really great place ‘La Lampara’   

The cook was Paulo and he used to live in LA. He took really good care of us .. He modified the dishes to our preferences and explained how he adjusted the cooking times to make the pasta perfect (it was !) every time .  I had ravioli  with fish , great salad and veggies. Linda had wonderful pasta  with local tomaties and david had seafood pasta.. really wonderful food. 

 

Then we took around the very cute (and touristy) seaside town of Pizzo

 

 

THere qwas a very famos family named ‘Murat’ here.. so I took a bunmch of pics for my very good freind Murat in Wien . 

 

Then we stopped for the towns famous gelato.. there are more than 20 gelato places around the town square. Their specialty is a kind of gelato truffle. 

 

By then it was time to go find luigi and head home. We enjoyed walkign down the narrow streets

 

we kept seeign this figure of a kings head (>) wiht his toungue out.. not sure what it meant.. but there must have been 4-5 of them

 

We found Luigi.. and headed back to Maino Marchesata with a stop in a huge grocery store. It was so fun tring to make ourselves understood.. The staff at the store were so fun and helpful even though we didnt share a common language. We were looking for soemthing weird to drink.. and I came across this bottle of Fernet-Branci (or “frikky Bernachi” as Gabe and I call it.. brings back memories of our accidental trip to paraquay  several years ago where we baught a bottle of this stuff.. YUCK !)

 

We also bought a great cheese, Tellegio,  that. brought back great memories of  good friends and  good travel in e when I was an exchange student in Europe in 1979-80.

We got home and were still too full to consider dinner. We made a nice salad and sat outside and watched night fall wiht the neighbors many (many, many) cats. 

We tool a late evening walk back up to see the church.. it’s a nice place to alk around..

 

we went by the Mary shrine again

 

Later that night I decided I wanted to go for a swim. It turns out the owners want you to where bathing caps.. whcih is funny.. for two reasons.. 1). my head is where I have the least hair on my body.. and 2).. they didn’t say you needed to where anything else :

Well.. at least my head had something on 🙂 

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Todays the day we shift from Abruzzo in Eastern central itly to Calabria in the south. Hiring Luigi  turns out to have been a very good decision for all kinds of reasons.  .. but this cross  country trek was one of the main deciding factors we had in deciding to hire a driver. The alternatives were 10 hours of either bus rides or train rides with  multiple changes.. or expensive flights from Pescara to Rome to Lamazia.. 

I have to admit, it was hard to say goodbye to the wonderful Villa Panarama. Vitorio and Samone have been great hosts and the place is simply amazing. I took a few more pics to remember the place includign this view from our bed. 

 

here are a few more pics of the place.. we cant recommend it enough !

 

One of the great features is an outdoor shower.. here’s the view from there

 

Inside there’s a cool little ‘hut’ where they’ve built a full bath.. on top is this chhicken who’s now sitting on a samstone 🙂

A few more shots from the balcony then time to go !

 

We walked the road to the main street to meet Luigi at 9AM for the long drive south

 

the drive down was fun but uneventful.. about 7 hours i think. some  good sleep, fun conversations and  some  great truck stops

 

We got to our destinationa round 5.. We’re staying in Marano Marchesato (note.. almost dianes last name Mariano – minus the ‘i’)

We’re staying here because Lindas family is from Cosenza (which is nearby) and Tiriolo which is about an hour away. We could tel when driving through Cosenza that it wasn’t[t going to be that fun to visit . It was big and noisy and city-ish

 

No worries.. there are many things to do down here

The place we rented is a converted farmhouse…. its attached to an older farmhouse where an older couple lives with their dogs, cats, goats and chickens.. They are super nice .. and it makes for lively and colorful stay. The place is quite simple and nice.. .. not the luxury of abruzo.. but it has. great views, a pool, and a small soccer field (wow ) The folks we’re renting  from : Juri and his dad are super friendly and helpful.  The town is quaint, rural,  and has a mix of really old  and new construction . Its not as clean and polished as Abruzzo.. but it’s very warm and welcoming. 

Looks like I havent taken any pictures of the place yet.. but I will later.. THere’s a great littl place to sit and take in the view out front

We took a quick explore of the town.. There’s a very cool old church under repair just up the road

 

Here’s the view from the house.. nice !

 

We didn’t stop at a store.. so our hoist Jurij  Helped find a pizza place that delivered on late sunday night. The Puzza guy Simon was super great.. as was the pizza !. Check out   Ristorante Macrito  If you find yourself hungry in Marano Marchesata Calabria 🙂 

OK.. tomorrow we head to the beach at Pizzo. about an hour down the  Tyrrhenian (check out that spelling !) coast 

More from then !

Nite all, nite sam

-me