ROOTS!

In traveling to Villa Latina, we were able to see the long-awaited house that belonged my Nonna and Papa. When we first heard about it still being vacant two years ago, we were like “hell yeah we’re going to go to Italy and stay in this house!” After perpetual warnings that it was “unlivable” we finally started to listen up and when we visited we found that it is indeed in shambles. I am still, however, enchanted with the idea of fixing it up one day. After talking a bit to Gabriele, he seemed to think that fixing it up little by little just enough to be lived in while visiting would be a great idea. So, here is the house!

The house is kind of like a condo as part of a larger building in this small courtyard. When you enter in the front door to the left you find a little sitting room with a fireplace and a stairway that takes you up stairs.  Directly in front of you when entering the doorway is a narrow hallway that leads to the backyard. The backyard is small and over grown with weeds and grass and right in the middle of the backyard is another small house without a roof. And next to the roof-less house is an outhouse (now, I'm an outdoor-sy girl, but you could not have paid me to go in there). Standing in the backyard you also find a large room that is separated by a wall from the rest of the house.

  

Upstairs there are 3 bedrooms one small one and two bigger ones with balconies. The room to the back of the house has a very nice view of the mountains and of the roofless house in the back. There is also what I imagine is a very spacious attic, but I couldn’t get up there as the ladder was rotten and it looked like there could be rodents up there.

 

There are cobwebs everywhere you turn and since many of the balcony doors are broken and rotten, there are a couple bird nests in the house with little bird families living within. Truly, they were flying in and out as we toured the place. Even from the photos you can see the house is in great need of a good cleaning and some minor renovations (i.e. new doors and windows) before anything else would be conceived. 

I'm sure these photos look like a raggedy old shack at first glance, but in it, I can see nothing but evidence of my family, and its potential. Gabriele was, as usual, very helpful in telling us all we needed to know. He does a bit of real estate in the area, and assured us that the structure and foundation are very stable. He also told us the government came and put new roofs on all of the houses after a pretty significant earthquake about 20 years ago. Suffice it to say, although I know that any renovations will be distant and time/money consuming and although this may just be a pipe dream; I want to keep the roots that this house holds in the ground.


As we were leaving the house, Gabriele began talking to an elderly woman just a few doors down. He told her that I was the granddaughter of Mesquite and Palma and she instantly remembered them. She had been wondering why she hadn't seen them, and was hoping they were doing well. Gabriele explained that they have since passed away, and she said that her husband had recently died as well, and that she was very sorry to hear they were no longer with us. As I heard her speak with Gabriele, my eyes instantly welled up with tears and I got a bit of a chill. I can't even express how much I wish they were here with me on this trip, showing me around, introducing me to people, and telling me stories about growing up in the village. I would give anything to have come here with them before. But, since we can only go forward and we can't go back, I feel very lucky to have Gabriele and my family in Italy to fill in the gaps as well as my amazing Aunt Cec who seems to be the glue that holds our family together. My Dad's no slouch either, when you can get him to talk life in the old country :).