Arrived in Vieste

We drove about 4 hours down to the southern Adriatic area, to a town named Vieste.  It sits on a point out into the sea, surrounded by a national park.  Very pretty and low key area, almost has a look of greek island cities.  We arrived in time to have a quick walk around the town and grab a bite for dinner.  We are looking forward to a day of exploring.  A view of our hotel and from our walk.

An update form this morning's walk, doghouses with the best views we have seen, along 

with a different view of the skyline.  Our hotel is on the left side.

Venarotta and Gimigliano

Photos of  Venarotta and Gimigliano will never provide a picture of how very grateful we are for all of the people who helped us learn about our history, which culminated in a visit with a dear sweet couple who have been married for 60 years, and three generations of the Galanti family.

Venarotta is a city in the area of Anne's family (pop. 1,600) and where we first met with the city clerk and priest.  It is where all of the census and tax information is stored, and where we began our search for ancestors.  That search of course led us to Gimigliano, only a few miles away on a hill, and is the village where Anne's grandfather was born, and today is home to 200 people.   Fortunately, Mariana who works in Venarotta city hall and lives in Gimigliano, was able to connect us with family members (more about this incredible visit with family in a separate post).  For right now, we just have to express how very grateful we are for Clorinda Sabatini, she was our guide for about a day and a half, and even invited us into her home with her husband, Florindo, to share a home cooked meal.  Incredible.  Again, too much to share now, so we are just showing pictures of the highlights of Venarotta:

Thank you Mayor Fabio Silva for introducing us to all of the wonderful people in your town, we are grateful!

Anne in front of Venarotta city hall

Venarotta church where we met with Don Umberto Puglia to search records

View of Gimigliano from balcony of the Sabatini home

Part of the amazing hospitality we received.  During the long day, Clorinda invited us to her house for lunch with her family.  Lasagna, meats, cheeses, salad and fruit.  Fabulous!!!.

World War I war memorial in the city, listing an older brother, Luigi Galanti, of Anne's grandfather,

who died during WWI.

Anne with Clorinda, Fabio and Mariana from City Hall.

A chapel built to honor a miracle that happened many years ago, very special with fabulous artwork inside.  The miracle was a healing that occurred following an accident on the "curve of death".

Vino Cotto is a specialty wine in the region.  This is one part of a large and ancient wine making building.  This is actually in the center of town, and was such a treat to tour and taste some of the Vino Cotto shared by Fabio.  We could not take photos of the lace exhibition that we also had the privilege of viewing.  The works were so special, but because the designs can be easily copied and they are working on their website they asked us not to take photos.  These pieces were works of art.  

This is such a special place for several reasons.  Inside it is a church dating back to the first century.  It is incredible that the original columns and frescoes can still be seen - it is also a church for S. Francesco (patron saint of farmers, I think); but it is also a cemetery where one of our relatives, Maria Galanti, was buried and finally a portion is reserved as a hostel - which is better than many hotels i've stayed in, with a kitchen.  Simply fabulous!

Great cooking class

We signed up for a cooking class and were very happy with the outcome.  We are staying at an agriturisimo in the region near Anne's family and thought their cooking class would be fun.  The owners are a couple and she is a well respected chef.  She taught us how to make many types of pasta and we got to sample many of them (too many quite frankly) for dinner.   All were great.

What a day...

It is very hard to describe yesterday other than "what a day".  One of the days you dream of and see on television.  We started in the morning with a guide who spoke english that Anne arranged through a Facebook contact she met who is the mayor of a small town near where her family grew up and ended up at dinner in the home of relatives, with an 88 year old woman repeatedly telling me in Italian "you must eat more".  Everything in between is still a little of a blur, but involved searching through records, meeting with priests at churches and some of the most incredible hospitality and assistance of local people who believe it is important to reconnect with family.  We have more appointments this morning so it will be a day or two until we can expand on what happened, but I will leave you with this photo from yesterday

One of the few items we had to search for Anne family was a handful of photos her uncle gave her from a trip about 40 years ago.  The man on the left below, is the man in the center above, and the boy in the center below is the man on the right of Anne.  What a day....

Great day at the beach

Arrivederci to our new favorite beach town, San Benedetto del Tronto, which reminds of of all of the gems that exist in Italy.  It is not well known, we only picked it because it is the closest beach town to the Venarotta area where Anne's family originates.  If you check travel books like Rick Steves or Lonely Planet you will not find a reference to this town, so it's our hidden treasure!

The main beach area is about a 4 mile stretch of sugar fine sandy beach with hotels and their rows of beach chairs near the water.  There are both pedestrian and biking lanes along the beach, great for exercise and people watching - it's dotted with benches and little parks along the way.  The restaurants are great, reasonably priced, served with local, fresh ingredients.  Most hotels on the beach are under 100 euros per night, which includes breakfast and full use of the beach chairs and umbrellas.  What a steal! Here is a shot of the hotel from the beach and a separate photo depicting a view down the beach.  Tomorrow we are meeting up with a local interpreter who as started doing genealogy research on Anne's family, we are very excited to see what we can find.

Beach Day in San Benedetto del Tronto

We're going to dip our toes in the "acqua" on our last full day in San Benedetto.

Sunrise from the balcony.  Not visible in this photo are the fishing boats on the horizon.  Red sky at night, sailors delight; red sky in morning, sailor's warning.  Stunning.

Update from the next morning - we caught fishing boats trolling during the sunrise, bellisimo!

A day in San Marino

Jeopardy Quiz: Vatican City and San Marino.  Answer: What two countries are within Italy's border?Today we drove north to San Marino for the day, a very small independent country located wholly in Italy.  The country was formed on a large rock outcropping in the third century and has been independent since.  It is very small, roughly 5 miles by 5 miles and built on a steep hill.  There are three large towers that were used for protection, the climb was steep, but the view breathtaking.  Anne's fear of heights was in full swing, one of the climbs to the view where this photo was taken with a lot of hand holding, and that was just for me :):

We hiked from one end of the castle towers to the other, a very steep and traditional trail system.    Given that it was a Sunday, groups of people were better dressed than you expect.  Check out the woman in the back of the row hiking and then look at the zoom in on her feet.   I don't think those are REI standard hiking shoes - who says you can't hike in heels on a trail?