Monday, June 7, 2010

ROOTS! parte due

Just a couple more tidbits from my trip to Villa Latina.

This is Gabriele:
He is, among many other things, a multi-instrumentalist and each Sunday goes out with two other guys to play music at various places. He plays the Italian bagpipe (which we were informed is very different from Scottish bagpipes), the accordion, and this little pipe-like instrument the name of which I can't remember. The lady kissing his cheek is his girlfriend, Rosetta.

Erich gave it a try and they dressed him up in the traditional zampognaro garb. Everyone got a kick out of it.






















This is where my Dad was baptized, right next to it was the municipal building where I picked up his birth records:























This is the Cantina where my Papa's family lived and worked. It's been vacant much longer than Nonna and Papa's house:























































More family! Me with Gabriele's brother Vittorio, Gabriele, and their cousin (my 3rd cousin) Antonino. Below that is cousin Maria and her daughter and grandson (they own a bar called Artu in Atina):







































We plan on heading back to Villa Latina in the next couple of weeks to start cleaning up the house and visit more people. Currently, life in Rome is treating us well. It is starting to get really hot and more tourists are coming into the city, but ultimately for us this just means sticking closer to our apartment steering clear of the metro, and eating more gelato to keep cool (rough life, I know). We know how lucky we are to be here.

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