Trips, Pics, and Tales

So, we left the courthouse in Fallo, with an escort from the Sheriff so that he could show us the house, the house that was owned by my ancestors! – the American family escorted down the street…what a sight we were!  We followed behind our new friend, the Sherriff of Fallo, and our guide for the day, Vincenzo. The Italians started looking out their windows – who were these people in our town? He’d call up to them – in Italian – you could make out some words – “America” “DiVito” “familia” And then an “ahhhhh”! He’d ask them if they knew Patrizio – well of course not – he left in 1910! They did know the DiVito who recently passed away though! They’d wave to us and smile!  So we walked up to the house – it was charming! Lovely! It’s currently vacant if anyone is looking! We walked through town... We saw the town church – it’s beautiful inside! Then the sheriff left us to just wander around the town a bit. It didn’t t...

After some lively conversation between the man we found in the court house and Vincenzo, of which we could understand not really one single word, the gentleman went to find the County Clerk. She came back all smiles! My mom and her got along as if they were separated at birth. However, neither could understand a word the other said! Not one word! As I stood there it was as if I was watching a movie – we walked into the room with these big books and boxes of records…. As I look back at this picture, I have to wonder just what was going on here!  G-pop took the picture and that's Vincenzo there in the hallway behind us.  Remember, he's our translator!   Now, you see Mimi is obviously talking to our County Clerk friend, and Megan and I are deep in thought trying to figure out just what is being said, because I know the only words my mom knows in Italian are words for food!  Think pepperoni, prosciutto, ricotta!  It's such a serious picture! So at some point,...