Campania & Abruzzo

A typical hill in the Campania countryside. Looks just like a paining, doesn't it?

The plan for our time in the Italian countryside was to check out a few of the towns where my great grandparents were born. Instead, we spent most of the time resting from COVID, but we did manage to see two of the four towns. Pictured below is Ariano Irpino where Virginia Iuspa, my Mom's Mom's Mom was born. 

Ariano Irpino sits on three hills in the Apennines, giving it strategic and defensive importance historically. It’s one of the prominent towns in the province of Avellino.

We walked around this lovely park that overlooked the countryside.

Avellino and Benevento are the two provinces that my four great grandparents from Campania were born. In the stories I heard of them growing up, these were the places our family would name when saying where they were from, I'm guessing because the actual towns themselves were so small. This sign was at the end of the street of our country ranch so we'd see it every time we left the house. It made me smile every time I saw it. 

Our ranch came with two kitties who we named Gianni Grande (the striper) and Mindola Two (aka Mandorla aka Almond). They were both very sweet and wanted constant attention. 

I had to set up a special chair next to me for Mindola to nap so I could use my computer without her climbing on top of it. Pictured on my computer desktop on the left is my parent's cat TT. I think it's safe to say Mindola is TT's Italian cousin. The family resemblance is obvious. 

The view from the front yard.

The temperature would still reach the low 90s in the country most days, but it was much less humid now that we were no longer on the Adriatic. We had a thunderstorm most afternoons which was a welcome reminder that we should be spending our time resting. The rain would cool things off and kept the countryside a lush green.

When you aren't feeling well, is there anything better than to nap to the sounds of the rain with a kitty at your feet?  

After the rain and dinner one evening we thought we might be feeling well enough for a little walk around Benevento. We only made it about 10 minutes down the road before we discovered there was a tree down in the street where workers were clearing it. We got out of our car and got to practice our Italian with a nice grandfather who explained the situation and that there was a soccer game in Benevento in half an hour. He was afraid they wouldn't make it in time. The workers soon cleared the tree, but we never did make it to Benevento because the traffic from the soccer match was just too much. At least we tried. I hope it was a good game.

The photo above was taken somewhere on the journey between Campania and Abruzzo where you can see the farmed hills of Campania start to become the rugged mountains of Abruzzo. The next three photos below are of Sulmona, a very cute town in Abruzzo, about a five minute drive from where we were staying.

The next morning in Abruzzo we convinced ourselves we were feeling well enough to go for a walk in a nature preserve. The Apennine Mountains run through Abruzzo and they are absolutely gorgeous. Everywhere you drive you are surrounded by beautiful mountains. Some of the peaks are over nine thousand feet. We were staying in a valley surrounded by three national parks. 

Nature enthusiasts abound.

Thankfully the path was cool and shady.

This is what a typical road looks like in Abruzzo (seen from our hike). Slow and windy, lots of hairpin turns, lots of tunnels. We must have gone through at least a dozen on the drive up from Campania. The internet tells me the Gran Sasso Tunnel at 6.3 miles is one of the longest in Italy. While we didn't go through that one, we did go through some pretty big ones. I asked AI if Italians helped build the Big Dig and the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier. It said Italian immigrants played a significant role in the construction of both. Both of those projects seem small to me now after driving around Italy for a week.

If you are ever in Abruzzo, we highly recommend a hike at the Gole del Sagittario. It is about a 6 mile loop where if you look up photos there is a supposedly a gorgeous river and lake. We never made it to those as we were taking it easy, but we still very much enjoyed our walk. Next time.

Pomegranates growing at our place above and berries below with a view of the mountains behind them. 

On our last evening in Abruzzo we had enough energy to check out one more ancestral town before we left, Corfinio.

Corfinio is a small town with significant historical importance. According to this video and wikipedia, it was the first capital of Italy and the first place Italia was written down on a coin. And, perhaps most importantly, where the right for Roman citizenship was fought for all of Italy, creating the foundation for human rights. 

It was also the birthplace of Ester Clementi and Antonio Venti, my Dad's Dad's parents.

Look at those gorgeous tiles. I've never seen streets like this before. It must have been so much work to build.

And those mountains again. Sigh.

The details on this building show that it was built during a time of prosperity.

What a cute, sleepy little town.

Goodnight beautiful mountains of Abruzzo.

In case you are curious about the two ancestral towns we missed, they are: San Bartolomeo in Galdo where Salvatore Pasquale Cifelli, my Mom's Mom's Dad was born and Gesualdo where Carolina Palermo Ciullo and Giovanni Ciullo were born, my Dad's Mom's parents. Both appear to be cute little hilltop towns. For those of you counting, six of my eight great grandparents were born in Italy. Even though we are all very American now, because I am the last generation that has a memories of a couple of them (Virginia Iuspa and Ester Clementi) I wanted to see the places they came from. For no particular reason really other than maybe as a way of paying my respects to them for the hardships they went through so I could have the life I have now. Grazie, sono riconoscente ai miei bisnonni.

Our second day in the countryside of Campania was a bit of an adventure. Tristan's sore throat began the night before and he tested for COVID but was negative at that point so we thought it was either allergies or just a cold. Either way, we knew we needed to get some supplies to feel comfortable. 

First was a trip to a pharmacy where I explained to the pharmacist in Italian that my husband had a sore throat (Ha mal di gola) and asked about getting a nasal rinse. The pharmacist did not speak any English so it was a good little language lesson for me. She explained that as long as he didn't have a fever or white plaque spots it was likely just a cold. If he did have those symptoms, he would need to see a doctor to be prescribed antibiotics. She gave us a spray pain reliever and explained that he should not eat or drink for half an hour after taking it otherwise it would be less effective. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what she said...

Next we headed to the hardware store, as one does when in Italy. We wanted to be able to sleep with the windows open and our windows didn't have any screens. So we purchased 5 meters of screen (way too much) and rigged up a solution with some duct tape or American tape as it's called in Italy. The kind young store clerk was worried. We reassured him it was only temporary which seemed to ease his concerns. It worked great. We only later discovered our country ranch came with AC. Meno male. Our screen solution was better anyway. We needed to breathe in the fresh country air. Careful not to expose ourselves as the odd Americans, we took the screens and duct tape with us planning to dispose of them at a dumpster when we got to a city. However our next place had a nice little work shed will all sorts of tools and supplies, but sadly no spare screen material. So we donated ours, tucking it away in a corner. We hope the owner will be delightfully surprised when he finds it some day.

While it hasn't been so fun to be sick, it has been fun to figure out how to do these basic life things in Italian. In the end, we took another COVID test a few days later and were both very positive. Tristan had a bad sore throat for about five days which has finally eased. I have been mostly just low energy and a little achy at points. I'm writing this from Assisi, where we are now, and I fear the worst has happened; we have lost our sense of taste and smell. In Italy of all places. It's not completely gone, just low. Wish us luck in getting it back soon!