THE FAM!

The fam in hanging out in Rome

 I'm finally getting around to reporting on summer stuff. It's only OCTOBER, why not?

Just as I was getting hit with a bout of homesickness, home came to visit me. My Aunt Cec brought her whole crew (Brandon, Ashley, Ryan, Teresa, Kyle, Michelle, and Tom) to visit Italy at the end of August. I was unbelievably happy to see them. I met them in Cassino, right near the village. Turning around to see everyone, my closest family, was such an amazing rush of home.

Catching the train, Cassino to Napoli

Seeing everyone initially was nothing compared to the feeling of catharsis I felt, and I think we all felt, when we arrived in Villa Latina; the place we'd heard so many stories about growing up, the place from where we all began in some form or another (I know it's sappy). From there, we traveled to Napoli, Sorrento, and then back up to Roma before saying ciao.

The cemetery/mausoleum in Villa Latina

There were so many great highlights from their visit, but here's my Top Ten for their visit:

1.) Being in the Old Country. Obviously, just traveling with them to Villa Latina was the biggest highlight. It made the whole experience of our shared heritage that much deeper. We even went to the cemetery to do a little reconnaissance on our family tree. There we found basically the same 5 names over and over again. Two of them were ours: Valente and Rossi. Our roots in the village go pretty deep, and I'm not sure if we can even begin to understand how far it spans.

The whole gang outside of Nonna and Papa's house

Erich, Ashley, Brandon, Teresa, and Kyle in the back yard of the house

2.) Quality Van Time (QVT). While in Villa Latina, 10 of us packed in a mini-van made for 7. This made for a nice reminder of our childhoods for me. Brandon, Ashley, and Ryan were all born around the same time as me and my brothers inevitably tying us together for life. When we were growing up our Mom's both had these big conversion vans that we'd all pile into for family gatherings and road trips. This always included an inappropriate amount of goofing off and fighting over seats. I am proud to say that 20 some years later, it is the same. Piling into that mini-van, for me, was like going back to that time when we were all kids.

One of our less cramped rides in the van

3.) Scooter rides. A major high point was Ryan renting a scooter in one of the most dangerous cities for driving in Italy: Napoli. People joke on a daily basis here about the horrible driving in Napoli, but Ryan was determined to find and rent a moto wherever he could. His girlfriend, Michelle, quickly jumped on board with the idea and with him as they toured around Napoli and later Rome on moto. They even gave rides to select family and friends. The only snag: they did technically get pulled over in Napoli by the police, and maybe even some members of the military, but that's neither here nor there! (Oh yeah, Brandon almost crashed the moto during his 30 second test drive).

Ryan and Michelle in their element, me hopping on for a short ride

4.) Family among family. Meeting more family with the fam. Aunt Cec made everything easier in terms of meeting people. She had been to the village before and after my grandparents, she's had the most contact with people in Villa Latina. Also, she speaks the dialect; Villa Latinese, which helped immensely! 

Cousins! Gabriele and Cecilia

The whole fam-damily: Gabriele and his crew

5.) An unexpected meeting for coffee. We met people that I didn't even know existed! We went to visit Papa's family's old cantina and just happened to strike up a conversation with the people across the street, that it turned out we were related to. Of course we were! Liliana and Umberto invited the whole family to coffee later that day and chatted with us about the family and even showed us a few old pictures. One of which with my Dad as a baby and my Papa looking just like my older brother. Spitting image!

Our cousin Maria's bar in Atina

6.) Villa Fortuna. This is the hotel we stay at every time we go to Villa Latina. It's run by two of the kindest people out there; Marcello and Christine (who is also from the Great Lake State originally). They also have a restaurant inside of the hotel which serves delicious food at a really fair price. We also found that Christine's Fettuccine al Sugo tasted just like Nonna's...pure heaven.

One of many meals at Villa Fortuna

Villa Fortuna balcony

7,) Ryan breaking his chair at the pizzeria. While at dinner one night Ryan totally fell through his chair. This is strange because Ryan is the most fit (fittest?) person I know. Really, fitness is his life, and that's why it was so hilarious to see the chair give out underneath him. Quick note: the entire extended family LOVED Ryan. They remember him as the "wild child" from when he was a kid, running all over the place, and getting into everything. They were cracking up at his jokes and swooning over his effort in speaking Italian. I don't think he's ever gotten so many laughs, not even when he was a stand-up comedian, but this crowd was loving him. What's not to love.

8,)  Visita di Roma. Getting to show the family around Roma awesome. We saw all the major stuff and made sure to walk the 5 minutes from our apartment to St. Peter's. There, I also got to spend some quality time with Ashley, just the two of us like when we were kids. We used to live together too, so wherever we are we always have to find some "alone time" to chat about what's going on with us.

9.) Brandon-isms. In Sorrento Brandon witnessed a large bird taking a sandwich right out of some one's hand. The story itself is not nearly as funny as the enthusiasm Brandon put forth to tell it. When not getting the desired response he just kept repeating "right out of his hand!" This quickly became a running joke. This is also when I learned that Brandon continues to repeat things until he gets the desired response. Brandon was cracking me up in general while he was here. In the photo below we see Brandon unexpectedly poking his head through a gladiator costume unexpectedly thus freaking out his mother, while I am reacting to her reaction. I really love the triangle of strange looks we have here. Then we have a photo of the following ten minutes when we were talking about what happened 15 minutes before.

10.) Quality Pizza Time (QPT): Pizzeria in Napoli and quality bonding time with Brandon, Ryan, Michelle, Erich and me. In general I was all about the bonding time.

Pizza at the famous Da Michele in Napoli

Out in Napoli

Mini dance party in Erich and my apartment

I can't wait to see everyone again for the holidays. Family is without a doubt what I miss most about home.  Once the rest of the family left, Aunt Cec and Tom stayed on for an extra week to travel around the village, more on that soon!