Today I had the privilege to visit the little town on the side of a mountain where my Nonna was born and lived until her teens. It is about an hour and a half east of Rome, right in the middle of Italy. It was super hot when we arrived and the the kids were not even wanting to get out of the car let alone walk up the hilly road to find a house that I didn't even have an address for. All I knew is that the house number is 2 and I had a picture.
We started walking up the hill and I was getting some groaning from the kids because they were hot and tired and didn't know why we were there. So I decided I better ask someone for help. We found an older woman named Clarice, washing out a bowl. She reminded me of Nonna, she had a wonderful smile and she seemed as tough as nails (plus I was about a foot taller than her). Her English was not great but she was determined to help us. When she seemed frustrated, I said "don't worry, it's ok", but she responded with a smile and "no no, follow me", then I heard her muttering some swear words I had forgotten about - Clarice IS feisty like Nonna! She walked us up the hill yelling through the streets to find some man that might speak better English. He appeared from a window about 3 stories up, but he didn't really speak English either. Then 2 other women stuck their heads out the window asking what was going on, but they didn't speak English either. As we were standing there trying to communicate, Christian realized we were standing right in front of my Nonna's old home. I had to be sure, so I ran back down to the car and grabbed the laptop to look at the picture again. I brought it back up to show Clarice - we all were so proud of ourselves for finding it.
We asked her if she would be in a picture with us and she did not want to be, she pointed at her outfit and decided it was not fit for a picture. But Chrisitan was sneaky and got her in the corner of a picture anyways - I thought she looked perfect.
Then she wanted to introduce us to a man in the town that lives in Toronto for part of the year. So we followed her through the windy hilly narrow roads and met this man. He showed us the way to walk to the castle and we did the short steep hike to the top of the village to see the old castle. Blake needed to be carried because he was melting but I was so happy to be there I didn't mind at all.
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| starting the walk up the street of Nonna's village Roccacasale |
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| the front door of Nonna's house |
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| Clarice on the side |
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| walking up to the castle that you can see at the top of the hill |
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| picking a fresh fig to eat - it was very good |
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| so hot and tired |
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| the view from the top of the hill, Nonna's village just below |
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| Yeh! we made it! |
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| the entrance to the castle |
walking back down
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| amazing trailing succulents |
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