Today (July 7) we start the third leg of our trip. At 8am we left Minori via van and picked up our rental car in the city of Salerno. The trip for Minori to Salerno, along the Amalfi coast, made Miss M and Grandma feel sick. Miss M also didn’t like the van ride from the airport or the bus ride to Cetera, so we’re in for a long next week of car sickness! The Fiat minivan has three rows, seats eight and we brought a car seat for D (thanks Craig’s List) which we’ll leave behind in Italy.

We hopped on the autostrada heading for the region of Umbria with two planned side trips along the way.

First we drove 90 minutes to Marzano Appio in the region of Caserta, where Papa’s mother’s mother was from. We did not have an address in the town or any paperwork showing residency, but since we were so close we figured a quick visit was worth while. We mailed our post cards from the local post office, went into a store selling appliances to use their facilities, took some pictures of the local church and signs for the city before moving on. The town was small, and had one main road running through it, and it was surrounded by farmland, but it was definitely more urban than our next stop.

At 11am we hopped back in the car heading for our second pit stop. As we wound through the small country roads we passed a lot of large bales of hay. Thinking it would be cute to get some pics of the kids with hay, we pulled over. D went running for the field, didn’t realize the thickness of the brush, and when he stepped off the street and onto the fields (which looked level) he fell flat on his face and sunk about 2 feet deep. He quickly got up laughing and Paul lifted Miss M and D over the brush and into the field. The kids were having fun working together to slowly roll the bale of hay. D was happy to be out of the car and went running full steam ahead – in typical D style – charging at a bale of hay. He thought he’d be able to roll the bale faster with his momentum, but instead he ricocheted off the bale and landed on the ground with a splat. Completely clotheslined. Grandma and I were standing on the side of the road watching the whole thing unfold. It was hysterical. We then realized that the brush had a lot of “leaves of three” so we quickly wiped him down with antibacterial wipes….thank goodness no poison ivy.

Back in the car, D played games on the iPad we drove to pit stop #2. The motion of the car resulted in D getting sick in the car so we pulled off the road to change his clothes, sprayed Binaca in the car, washed him down with a hose we found, sprayed him with antibacterial ointment which resulted in all the scratches he received from the hay experience to sting badly. The poor kid had a ROUGH morning.

By 12:30p we arrived at pit stop #2, the town of Pico in the region of Lazio. Pico is a medieval fortress town with city walls and lots of farm land surrounding it and the beautiful Aurunci Mountains. Pico is also the town where Grandma’s grandparents were from: Grandma Carnevale and Grandpa Marchitti. Paul brought a copy of his great great Grandfather’s birth certificate so we could track down the birthplace. We got quite a few looks as we pulled into town and parked our exceptionally large (for Italy) vehicle.

The views of the countryside from the hill town were beautiful…it was a medieval hamlet. We quickly located the street of his birthplace – Vico Carvour. Now when I say street, it’s not something you can drive on: it’s about 7 feet wide, and one building on either side of the street with a few old doors. We didn’t see a #3 which was on the birth certificate, but at #2 there was a small sign next to the buzzer that read “Marchitti/Conti.” We rang the bell and struck up a conversation with a wife whose husband’s last name was Marchitti. She called her husband and invited us into her home which her husband has been refurbishing. The juxtaposition of the old home, stone arches, and modern amenities were so interesting. Turns out Marchitti and Carnevale are very common names in Pico. The family, including 3 year old son Luigi, was visibly excited by our impromptu visit from America. Her husband arrived and unfortunately did not know any of the names that Grandma knew, but either way it was so nice to meet another Marchitti, living directly across the street from a now vacant building.

As we walked down the road, we met Carlo, the owner of the Nena Borgo Al Castello, a bed and breakfast. He spoke excellent English and turns out he has helped people from around the world connect with distant cousins still living in Pico. He was waiting for guests to arrive and was very proud to show us all the rooms in the hotel. He was telling us about Marchitti guests that he has coming in September from Paris, and he’s found some relatives for them in the area. He goes to the town hall, does the research, and reintroduces people. He has done a tremendous job preserving items from Pico as it has evolved over the years. He has old trunks, furniture, books, art work, food items made in the traditional Pico way, a staircase going two flights into the basement where the wine and food was stored. He was a wealth of knowledge about Pico, and offered to help Paul do further research after we returned to the states.

We never expected to have such luck in Pico, and never thought to contact a local hotel owner about retracing roots! At 3:30p, it was finally time for lunch. Everything was closed since it is a Saturday in a small town and siesta time, so for lunch we had gelato, espresso and potato chips at the only local store that was open. The kids were troopers through the 3 hour Pico visit.

Back in the car again, this time heading to our final destination for the day: Monte Mellino in the region of Umbria. Monte Mellino is a small village in the Umbrian hills (population: 20), and we’re staying at a villa here for the week. There is a main house where the owner’s family lives (Meghan from Australia, her Italian husband Lino, their three year old daughter Isabella, and dog Ugo) and a separate smaller house also on the property called La Casetta which is what we have all to ourselves. It’s three bedrooms, two baths, eat-in kitchen, living area, outdoor dining room, and right next to the salt water pool.

Food report:
Papa, Paul and Grandma went to the nearest market for groceries (nutella, fruit, wine, paper towels….what else would we need?) while the kids took a dip in the pool.
For dinner we went up to the town square, since Lino opened the town’s only restaurant just three weeks ago. Everything on the menu sounded delicious. Paul and I both ordered the pasta with truffles which were delivered to Lino just that morning. Paul also enjoyed the curry chicken, Grandma has some spinach and salad, Papa had the antipasti platter, and the kids each had two orders of pasta with butter. Lino also gave Paul a glass of grappa to end the night. Perfecto!