San Marco in Lamis - walking in the footsteps of my family

OK… So this is a very personal blog for me as its definitely one I’ll want to look back on and remember. Before we started on this holiday, I asked mum if she knew any of her relatives in Italy and whether we could meet up with them. As mum left Italy at such a young age, I don’t think she ever had much to do with her extended family, but Nonna has been in constant telephone contact with the family and they mostly still reside in the San Marco in Lamis area. So Nonna made some calls and let the family know when I would be in the area and the rest was left up to me. So all through Italy I practiced my minimal Italian and learnt as many new phrases as I could so I didn’t feel ashamed at never learning Italian at home.


Finally the day came when I couldn’t put off calling any longer - I had to either call and introduce myself in Italian or be a big chicken and tell everyone I ran out of time to visit and then regret it for the rest of my days. It took me about an hour to prepare for the phone call by writing out several possible conversations in Italian and then practicing them in the mirror before taking the plunge. The first phone call was a bit rocky and I had no idea who I was speaking to but a time was organised and a date was set.


I found out later that I was speaking to Giovanni (my third cousin) and he actually thought I was playing a practical joke on him because his dad Luigi (my second cousin and Nonna’s nephew) hadn’t told him I would be visiting! But all was well and 2 days later Bretto and I drove into San Marco in Lamis with an address typed into the tomtom and no idea what to expect.


As soon as we arrived we were made to feel so welcome and I immediately felt silly for being apprehensive. Caterina (Luigi’s wife) put on a big lunch for us and Giovanni tried to translate for us as he was the only family member who spoke a bit of English. Francesca (third cousin and Giovanni’s sister) didn’t speak much English but understood very well. After lunch we all sat around the table with dictionaries trying to communicate and translate each other’s sentences! Funny stuff!


I thought we were only going to visit for the day but Caterina insisted we stay for the night with them and as we had no other plans, we were more than happy to oblige. I was really keen to see the house mum was born in and the farm Nonna worked on but Giovanni and Francesca wanted to show us the tourist sights as well and took us for an afternoon tour of the area. We visited the church of Padre Pio who Nonna has a personal letter from and some other churches and monasteries in the region.


We ate gelato in the park, Giovanni took me to a souvenir place where I picked up some “gadgets” (as he calls them) for Nonna, we visited someone’s garage to buy some local wine (apparently you can’t buy it in vineyards, as it’s only sold to friends and family at about 4 euro per 5 litres - we bought ten), we visited Gigino (another cousin although I’m not sure if its second, third or fourth!), and then finally we started the 8km drive up to the house mum was born in.


I was so excited and nervous and amazed that here I was, on the other side of the world, being escorted by a relative I’d never met and who’d never met me but still took a day off work to show me around the area, about to see something that is a part of my heritage and plays a big role in how I identify as an individual.


There was a little bit of trepidation as there is a house built illegally on the property by some of the other cousins and there is bad blood between them and the rest of the family but when we got there, all my anxieties disappeared and I was taken in by the feeling of being there and knowing this place was my Nonna’s LIFE before she moved to Australia. I’ve seen pictures of my mum playing with her brothers and sisters here and to be there and walk in those footsteps was priceless. I don’t know if Giovanni planned it but we arrived with just enough light to look around for a bit before we watched the sun set over the valley. Bellisimo!


Afterwards, Giovanni drove us home (via a tour of his office in town and a quick beer at the local bar) for dinner with Luigi and Caterina, Francesca, their older sister Antonia (who is also an archaeologist) and their uncle Antonio. Dinner was lovely but because everyone was together they were all speaking such rapid Italian that I could barely pick up a thing. Every now and then I’d hear “Australian” and “Jacquelina” or “Lina Palumbo” and know that everyone was speaking about us but not have a clue what about!


After dinner Francesca and Giovanni took us out for some drinks in town and we met some of their friends as well as some of the local ‘personalities’. Compared to all the tourist places we had been recently, San Marco was so cheap for drinks which made the night lots of fun and very interesting!


We got home rather late but were still up for breakfast with everyone the next morning at 9am. Caterina was so generous and before she left for work she gave us 3 litres of hand made olive oil, homemade limoncello, homemade dark cherry jam, and some sweet onion and anchovy bread for lunch.


After breakfast, Giovanni took us on a little tour of the town including some of the best produce places and we ended up with 1 kilo of chocolate biscotti and ½ a kilo of delicious local cheese. Giovanni was so generous and wouldn’t hear of us paying for anything or even thanking him. As he said “You don’t need to thank me because I am family and I am so happy to do anything for you”. All this from someone we had only known for less than 24 hours!


It was so kind and generous of him and even more so considering we had never met! And in the 20 hours we were in San Marco, Giovanni’s English improved out of sight. I think being able to practice with us made him very happy as he doesn’t use it in San Marco otherwise.


At 11am we said our goodbyes and left for Ancona to catch the ferry to Split where we would continue the next part of our journey. Without a doubt, it was the best part of the trip so far and something I will definitely remember forever.


BRETTO'S TWO BOB:
Would just like to extend my most sincere thanks to giovanni, francesca, luigi, and catarina for there over whelming sence of family that they demnstrated to us. To take two complete strangers into there home and treat us like family was an experience onto its own, let alone to give us the most wholesome experience of italy that jacq and i could have both hoped for. Especially after having dealt with italy in peak holiday season!!!(mayhem). the wine was and is delightful and the memories of peepeecaca sculling the only beer i think a tourist has bought him in 20 years will not escape my memory banks for years to come. i would also like to commend Nonna for her many years of trekking those miles out to the farm (a massive effort I can assure you!)
so i will definately back you up babe in saying that this has been the best part of the trip so far!
and that´s my TWO BOB!

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