Memories of Italy
Of all the things we saw and did during our two-week stay in Rome, spending time with my family members was my favorite part of the trip. It had been nine years since Peter and I were in Italy last, and this trip was well overdue. Although I'm in constant contact with my cousins and their children thanks to Facebook, getting to spend time with them in person is obviously more meaningful.
This trip was particularly special for me for two reasons. First, my Zia Giovanna, who lives in Washington, DC, traveled to Rome at the same time we did. She arrived a couple of weeks before us and it was fun being able to spend time with her in Italy this time around, since we normally travel up to Washington, DC to see her every year. She extended her stay until the beginning of November and will be celebrating her eightieth birthday in Rome with her sisters, nieces, nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews. I wish I could hop back on a plane to go join the festivities because I know they are going to be fun...and delicious!
The second reason this trip was special for me is because I finally got to meet my Zia Maria. She is the next oldest sister after my late Nonna Liliana. My relatives told me that she met me when I was very little, but since then, I never saw her again. My Zia Maria was raised by an aunt and uncle who were never able to have children of their own, and for a good portion of her life, she grew up in Nice, France. During WWII, she moved back to Italy with her aunt and uncle. Once she married, she settled in the Umbrian town of Tuoro sul Trasimeno, where she still lives. She is fluent in French and still travels back to France to visit her oldest son, Maurizio, who lives in Toulouse and manages an Italian restaurant at a resort. Her younger son, Massimiliano, lives in Tuoro, and I had the opportunity to meet him when he and Zia Maria drove into Rome to spend the day with all of us. I felt so lucky to be able to see all of my late Nonna Liliana's sisters together in one room enjoying each other's company. The photographs I took of them are ones that I will cherish forever.
(L-R: Zia Giovanna, Zia Maria, Zia Ines, Zia Franca)
This visit was also bittersweet since this was the first time I had been back to Italy since my Nonna passed away two years ago. Nonna and her sisters also had a brother, Mario, the only boy and the youngest of the six siblings, who passed away four years ago. One day, Zia Franca, Peter and I took a day trip to Ostia, a beach town thirty minutes outside of Rome, to go visit my Zia Diana, Zio Mario's wife and their two daughters, Elisabetta and Daniela. My Zia Diana is a lot of fun to be around. She is always cheerful, full of energy and very affectionate. I have never seen my Zia Diana without a tan or lipstick. She and her daughters own a cabana at a loal beach club just down the street from their homes and they spend every summer on Ostia's shoreline. Before lunch on the day we visited, we took a walk down Ostia's main drag to window shop and see the newly renovated beach club that Zia Diana belongs to. We then returned back to Zia Diana's apartment to sit down to an incredible lunch that she made for us--Zia Diana is a fantastic home cook. It felt so strange sitting at the dinner table and not seeing my Zio Mario at the other end of the table, but I also felt lucky that I had the opportunity to spend many summers in Italy seeing him and that he had the chance to meet Peter when we traveled to Rome back in 2000 and 2001.
One evening, we had dinner at my cousin Claudio's house, where he and his wife, Cristina prepared a wonderful meal. This get-together was particularly special because Claudio and Cristina's oldest son, Edoardo drove in from Livorno where he is stationed as a Naval officer. He had a few days leave and came into Rome for the night before leaving for a small vacation with his girlfriend. It was so interesting to listen to him talk about his education at the Italian Naval Academy (he graduated at the top of his class) and the places he has traveled to so far. Needless to say, we are all insanely proud of him! It seems like yesterday that Edoardo and his younger brothers, Andrea and Alessandro were little kids, and now they have all grown into three handsome young men.
(L-R: Edoardo, Alessandro, Alessia {Andrea's girlfriend}, Andrea--Claudio & Cristina's three sons)
Peter and I also had the opportunity to travel to the region of Umbria, to the small town of Carnaiola, where my cousin Marco and his wife, Flavia, own a small vacation home. My Zia Franca and Zia Giovanna joined us on the day trip, as did my cousin Paola (Marco's sister) and her husband, Massimo and their son, Luca. We left mid-morning and caravanned out in two cars. It was a welcome change of pace to leave the frenetic energy of Rome and spend a day in Italy's peaceful countryside. I especially loved that in a matter of an hour and a half, we were in another region altogether and all around us were views like this:
And this:
And this:
We parked the cars in Carnaiola's main piazza and walked to Marco and Flavia's house, a beautiful stone structure located on the corner of the town's smaller church piazza. Marco and Flavia's two sons, Ludovico and Leonardo, and their cousin Luca began an impromptu game of soccer, while the rest of us sipped a quick shot of espresso and took turns touring the house. There is a running joke among my relatives about Marco and Flavia's charming home--it is referred to as un roulot in su, which means "a vertical RV". It's very small, but what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for in charm. We all fell in love with it and had a riotous time climbing the steep and narrow stiarcase to the living room/master bedroom, and then up another staircase (this time a spiral one) up to the attic loft that serves as a bedroom for Ludovico and Leonardo. We could see the love and dedication that Marco and Flavia poured into the renovations they have made so far, and Marco told us of the additional renovations they are planning on making in the future (it helps that Flavia is a talented architect!).
After the house tour, Marco and Flavia took us on a walking tour of Carnaiola and then we made our way to Carnaiola's olive grove, where he and Flavia own a plot of land with about forty olive trees. We walked through knee-high grass deep into the olive grove to get a close-up look at the olive trees and the steep terrain of the grove. Marco explained how he and his friends collect the olives when they are ready to harvest in November. It's no easy task. Because the terrain is cut like steps and the olive trees don't grow straight, harvesting the olives can be a tricky affair. Ladders are perched precariously and much of the harvesting is done by hand, although a special machine is used to speed the process. The olive harvest is often a family affair, with Marco's brother, Claudio and brother-in-law, Massimo pitching in. Despite the difficult nature of olive harvesting, it's one that brings Marco and Flavia great satisfaction because they are able to bring bottles of their very own olive oil back to Rome to enjoy until the next harvest season.
On the way back from the olive grove tour, we also made sure to stop to take some pictures together:
The olive grove tour gave us quite a workout and by the time we finished, we were all ready for lunch. We returned back to the house to meet Zia Giovanna and Zia Franca and then we all walked to Carnaiola's local restaurant, La Locanda di Desideria, situated right below an old castle in the main piazza.
The interior of the restaurant was sparse, simple and rustic. The vaulted, brick-lined ceilings were the most beautiful feature of the restaurant:
To say we ate well would be the Understatement of the Century. To start, our waiter brought us platters of prosciutto and finocchiona {a fennel-scented salami} with several baskets of fresh bread. We toasted each other with glasses of the local red wine and silence fell on the table as we ate the antipasto. We then had a choice of three different pasta dishes to choose from: ravioli with a gorgonzola and mushroom sauce, picci {a spaghetti-shaped pasta made without eggs} with a fresh tomato sauce, or tagliatelle al ragu {tagliatelle with meat sauce}. All three pasta dishes were brought to the table since all three dishes appealed to everyone. Peter and I ordered the tagliatelle al ragu, which were incredible. The secondo was equally fantastic: roasted rabbit, pork roast and roasted potatoes with rosemary. I realize that the idea of eating rabbit may be horrifying to some, but in Italy, eating rabbit is like eating chicken here in the States--it's very common. I grew up eating rabbit all the time {don't hate me!}. Since it had been a long time since I had eaten rabbit, I made sure to take advantage of the delicious opportunity. It was perfectly roasted and seasoned simpy with salt, pepper, olive oil and rosemary. We ended the meal with espresso and a choice of desserts, none of which I remember because once I heard the words panna cotta, I knew what I was having.
After lunch, we took a family photo:
Our trip to Umbria ended with an afternoon in the nearby town of Citta del Pieve, a quiet and beautiful Medieval town farther up in the Umbrian hillside. Citta del Pieve has an incredibly unique feature: the narrowest street in Italy, known as Vicolo Baciadonne {Kiss a Woman Street}. It is so narrow, that you have to walk through it single file and you can't even spread your arms out straight between the two houses that flank the street. Take a look:
The remainder of our stay in Rome was filled with more family dinners and get-togethers as well as more incredible sight-seeing. When it finally came time to pack our bags and fly home, we were sad about having to leave my relatives after having has such a great time with them, but we knew that we wouldn't let much time pass by before our next visit. Until then, we have beautiful pictures to look at and some great recipes to try out so that we can always have a piece of Rome with us no matter how far away we live from Italy.
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