Where my great-grandfather started from, that is :) I am spending this week on the beautiful island of Sicily, in the town of Castellammare del Golfo, where my great-grandfather Luca Fontana grew up and where many of my relatives from that side of the family still live. The picture in the background of my blog is a photo of Castellammare. I arrived at the Palermo airport on the night of Friday, July 1, after spending the day with Maria, Alvaro and Tony in the Tuscan towns of San Gimignano and Pisa. We got to see some great scenery in San Gimignano and of course, the famous leaning tower in Pisa! My flight to Palermo left from Pisa so I said good-bye to everybody there and waited ever so impatiently to board my flight to Sicily at last :)
There was a bus at the airport that took us from the gate in the actual building to our plane a couple hundred feet away, instead of the plane just being right up against the gate like in America (nor were there assigned seats on the plane, either). It wasn't long after we boarded the plane that we started moving, and when the plane finally gunned it down the runway and took off, all I could think about was my great-grandpa Luca and the fact that out of his almost 40 descendants, I am the third one of us to pay a visit to his hometown. A visit to Castellammare del Golfo has always been towards the tippy-top of my bucket list, and the fact that it was so close was almost unbelievable! When we were in the sky I saw the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen in my life just behind the clouds, which I'm sure great-grandpa Luca had something to do with :)
It only took us about an hour to land, which felt like the quickest flight in the world especially compared to the 9-hour one I took to get to Europe a month ago. As we were approaching Sicily I looked out the window to discover that I could see the beautiful blue water underneath us perfectly, and just sat there staring at it until we descended. Almost as soon as I saw land we had touched down onto it, and right when the wheels hit the ground, it hit me like a ton of bricks - I was actually in Sicily!
The anticipation I was feeling about seeing my cousins Guido and Lara at the airport was unlike any other kind of excitement I had ever felt before! I was especially anxious because I had never met them before, and because I had to turn off the English switch in my head and ensure that my high level of excitement wouldn't result in me forgetting how to speak Italian completely :) I waited for my cousins at the baggage claim, and before I knew it, they were just a few feet away from me, calling my name! And as it turns out, once we started talking with each other, instead of being so excited that I forgot the words, I was so excited that I was talking a mile a minute and finding words a lot easier than I ever had before!
On the ride home from the Palermo airport to Castellammare del Golfo, the topics of conversation included our family tree [they are my third cousins; our mothers are second cousins; my grandmother and their grandfather are first cousins; and our great-grandfathers were brothers], and the differences between American and Italian music, cities, schools etc. After I told them that I needed to speak Italian and only Italian during my stay in Sicily, Guido and I decided that I would speak Italian to him and whenever possible he would respond in English to me and we would correct each other accordingly :) It is mandatory to take English as a foreign language in the schools in Castellammare so Guido and Lara have both studied it in school and they knew what to say to hold a conversation in English. Guido and Lara's parents (Rosalia and Gaspare) were surprised when I told them I had only been studying Italian for the past two years and told me that my pronunciation and tone when I speak their language was perfect, which I was really happy to hear! And Guido always jokes that I speak Italian better than he does :) I know I still have a ways to go before I can say that I'm fluent, but if native Italian speakers tell me I speak it very well, I must be doing something right!
At dinner that night Lara and I were explaining to her parents about how we were all connected, and I thought it was so cool that the younger generation was giving the breakdown of the family tree to the older generation. If you didn't already know, I got in touch with these two cousins and four others through Facebook a year and a half ago, after typing in the name of the one Sicilian cousin whose name my mom could remember (my cousin Carla) and messaging the only girl on Facebook with the same name, we discovered that we were in fact related! We also talked about languages and Guido mentioned that all the English teachers he has had have been from England, not America, and I told him that I already knew that because I could hear a slight British accent in his voice when he spoke English :)
On Saturday morning we took the family's boat out to Scopello, which was BEAUTIFUL. Gaspare told me that he had just recently bought this boat and that our boat ride Saturday morning was the first one he had undertaken with his new boat. The water was a light blue color and felt amazing. My cousins had a bunch of those underwater masks that you can put on and look at all the fish under the water, which is exactly what we did :) On the shore of where we were in Scopello, Guido pointed out a building to me and told me that's where the last scene of Ocean's Twelve was filmed. After coming home and freshening up, my cousins decided to take me to this place called Segesta, which is a 2000+ year-old archaeological site and former Greek theater. We picked up two of Guido's friends on the way there (Nino and Alessandra), who apparently had never been to Segesta before, and after we had seen the old temple and stage and Nino and Alessandra were craning their necks and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over every detail, Guido remarked that they were acting even more touristy than me when we there! Haha :)
Also on Saturday, Guido and Lara took me to their grandfather's store called Fontana Mobili (a furniture store) and I got to meet their grandfather Giacomo Fontana, who is my grandmother Jane Fontana Finch's first cousin. We talked even more about the family tree, about my nonna Jane and her siblings, and about when my uncles Tommy and Greg both visited Castellammare del Golfo. He was very happy to see me (and vice versa), and as we were leaving he stood at the door looking after us until we had disappeared down the street :)
That night I went out with Guido and his friends to a hangout spot that in my opinion was the Sicilian version of a New Jersey boardwalk. Guido pointed out a hotel at the end of the boardwalk and told me that's where George Clooney and the Ocean's Twelve actors stayed while they were here filming the movie. Guido's friends were all very nice and welcoming to me, and when we would go for walks along the boardwalk in a big group they would always make sure that they and I both knew where my cousin was so that I wouldn't get lost in the shuffle. At one point Guido thought he had lost me when in reality we had just been standing back to back talking to different people, and he was very relieved when he realized I wasn't actually lost. Haha it was sweet :)
At the second place we went to that night, Guido's friend Renata was talking to a guy from London named Leon who was on vacation in Castellammare, and I didn't realize how much I had missed hearing native-spoken English until I heard him talk! Don't get me wrong, I love every minute of being in Italy and hearing nothing but Italian, it was just rather refreshing to hear my native language again and give my brain a little bit of a break :) I think he was relieved to meet me as well, because he didn't speak any Italian and Renata didn't speak any English, so Guido and I acted as translators. Leon joined all of us at the beach the following day (Sunday) and we once again acted as translators, while this time trying to teach Leon and Renata a bit of the other's language :)
We traveled from the beach to Giacomo and Angela's house by motorino (motor scooter), which was my first time riding one! Ever since I got to Italy I have been wanting to ride one, so I was so excited! When we arrived at Giacomo and Angela's house I was thrilled to finally meet my cousins Carla and Bruno, along with their mother Gabriella, uncle Vincenzo, and Giacomo and Angela, of course. We had a lunch that consisted of six plates altogether - salad, antipasti, pasta, fish, fruit and gelato. Normally I don't care for fish, but I mentioned the other day that I had tried swordfish once and liked it, so that's what they made for lunch :)
I got a lot of great pictures and video of all the family as well! This one in particular is one of my favorite ones of the day; probably because it consists mostly of me speaking Italian and my cousins speaking English - and Lara and I both getting corrected :) Be sure to check out the spectacular view from Giacomo and Angela's house, and Lara whispering "Come si dice pomeriggio?" (How do you say 'afternoon'?) at 1:56 :)
Off to the beach with my cousins now! Ciao :)
Chloe
How cool is it that you were able to find your family AND spend quality time getting to know them! My family is still in Rome and I met them back when I was 16 - such an honor :)
ReplyDelete