Pisa and Chiavari

This is a cool photo of the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

I like the above photo because the photographer has straightened it out and it now looks the way it was intended. I don't know why but I had once assumed that the tower leaned because of some natural cause that occurred after it was built. When I learned it was that way from the get -go I found it amusing. Isn't that like so many things we have all done? You start something and it isn't quite right but you keep going in hopes that it will not be that noticeable. After the fact you realize, whoops, I should not have been so lazy. I should have just taken it apart and started over. It teaches a great life lesson, really!

Instead of being straight as they had hoped
it looks like this...
This is a flickr photo as I did not have the
camera this day as Jim had taken it to Chiavari.

From our home base, Camp Darby, Gloria and Jim took the train to Chiavari which is just south of Genova. Robert and the boys spent the day on the base just relaxing, playing, watching movies and having fun. Laura and I went into Pisa to have lunch, do some fun shopping and spend a few hours alone together. Everyone had a fun day doing what they wanted to do.

Laura and I were on a quest to find my Christmas present from Jim~an amber ring. We love it when our guys let us pick out something that we like for special occasions~they love it too. A win~win for everyone. She had remembered that Pisa had a great selection so off we went. I found a really neat one in about 10 minutes so that was fantastic.

Of course it is much prettier in person~
How do people photograph rings anyway?
I must have about 12 shots..none very good.

Jim took this one.
You get the idea anyway!

We loved shopping around and looking at the scarves and leather bags and all the fun things Pisa is known for. We did pick up a few things but the ring was the big find of the day. I have been wanting to get an amber ring for years and years because I like to wear colors that go with it and finally I have the perfect one and it will always remind me of this great time in Italy. We had lunch in a cute little cafe, why is everything so tasty in Italy?? I think it has everything to do with garlic. All too soon we were heading back to the base to do the grocery shopping for the days we were there.

Jim and Gloria had a really exceptional time in Chiavari. This is the town when she was born 83 years ago and had never returned to until this trip. We made arrangements for them to travel there by train and then spend the night. A cousin had given them a contact name for a relative in Tasso and with the help of God and a lot of gesturing and sign language they were able to make a phone connection with this lady named Wilma who is married to a Ferrera. As it turned out Tasso was not a town but rather a spot in the country in the mountains near Chiavari. We knew this is where Jim's grandfather was born and raised.

Gloria at the train station in her home town~Chaivari, Italy

Gloria near the harbor where she was born on the
Mediterranean Sea

Before dinner they browsed through the shops
as the restaurant didn't start seating until 8:30 pm.

Gloria's mom was from Chaivari and she knows she was born in a house somewhere in that town but that is all. They decided to follow the lead on Grampa's side and it was very fruitful. They stayed in a little hotel in Chaivari had a great dinner at a restaurant named Monte Rosa recommended by Gloria's cousins. Since we had made plans to meet them in Cinque Terra the next morning, they decided that the following day (Dec 31st) they would rent a car and go back to Chaivari/Tasso and try to find the old farm house of Grampa Ferrera. More on that later!

Since Jim and Gloria were spending the night in Chiavari, I decided to have a sleep over with Spencer and Ross coming to my room. That way we could have dinner together and Laura and Robert could go on a date to Pisa. I made mac and cheese for the boys and we watched kid videos and we had a very fun time together while mom and dad took a break! Ross decided 3 in the bed would be too crowded so he slept in Grandma Gloria's bed. They were as good as gold! Oh, how I do adore our boys!

A Happy New Year in Tasso!

Bright and early on New Year's Eve Day Jim and Gloria headed back to Tasso in a rented car in hopes of finding Velma and Franco Ferrera and getting more information about Grandpa Andrew's family. With the help of a phone book and our Tom Tom GPS we lovingly call, "Susan" they were able to drive up into the hills between Chiavari and Genova and were able to drive right to the home of the Ferreras.

As they progressed along a country road that got narrower and narrower and more winding they were concerned that Susan had lost her way but their faith was restored when they saw this...

The road got smaller and smaller until they hair-pinned around a turn and saw a little tiny town with a few buildings and a cathedral.

We have discovered through our research that Tasso was never really a town. When Italy became the United Kingdom of Italy in 1860 and was organized into the country we know it as today, many of the little villages and hamlets and in some cases, clumps of houses were organized into Communes. Tasso is a little Frazioni or fraction of the commune of Lumarzo. One can see how sometimes it is imperative to actually go to a place where an ancestor is from in order to "get it."

Velma Ferrera and Gloria

Following the increasingly narrowing road they eventually came to the very house where the Ferraras lived. They had only a few common names that helped them communicate with Wilma who spoke no English at all and thought they were selling something. Their limited Ciao and Grazie didn't get them any farther. But through gesturing she recognized they were familia and then she relaxed and tried to understand what they were looking for which was Gloria's father house.

Jim's question to her was could he drive to it? She then gestured for them to get in her car and they all went up to the actual site of Grampa's home a short distance away. The house is crumbling in despair and within a few years will be completely gone...but for now this is what they found.

We are not sure if the dormant vines are being held up by the remains of the house or vice versa! Part of it had completely crumbled away. Part of it still remains but for how long is uncertain. The important thing is they got there in time. Both Jim and Gloria were able to make that connection to this native soil of their past and it was an emotional moment for them. I knew it would be and I really wanted this moment to be just for the two of them. Velma sensing the same, remained in the car while they visited what was to them, this sacred place. They were able to bring a brick back from the house as a keep sake.

Gloria approaching the home where her father was born
114 and a half years ago on October 4, 1895.
I know she never dreamed this day
would or could happen
~what a blessing!

"Grampa Green Doors"

It has been interesting for me to see these photos and to realize that this house with its green doors was the inspiration for the Grampa Green paint.

We purchased their home when they no longer could care for it in their advancing years and every possible thing that was in his part of the domain (the yard and the garage) was painted this "Grampa Green color! I mean it was everywhere, the fence, the picnic table and benches, the shed, the trellises...you name it...Grampa Green was on every conceivable, paintable surface outside. Oddly he would mix this color himself until it was perfecto!

At the time I wasn't overly thrilled about that but now...30 something years later...I can appreciate it with new eyes and a greater love for a wonderful man whom I called Grampa, that came a very long way from home in his life time. And now I understand that he made this green paint to remind him of that first home with the green doors and his family and childhood memories of his early life in the old country.

This life is full of wonderful surprises and lessons to be learned. Wasn't this a totally touching, serendipity experience? It is not hard at all for us to see God's hand in it.