SOUTH ITALIAN EXPERIENCE

It's never late to make such an special posting :)

Almost two months ago, end July, I started one of the most amazing journeys ever ... I traveled to South Italy, looking fwd to meet an italian family that since I was a kid, I've been told I had ... I mean not that I doubted of their existence, but it always seemed so far away to have the option to go there, and find the right moment and right place to meet them - BUT IT HAPPENED!

First of all, some context: The parents of my grandmother were italian - they migrated to South America / Colombia after the 1st world war, as many other european citizen did. They brought his oldest son with them (by that time a child of course), and once they settled in in Colombia, they raised 7 children more :), one of these my grandmother ... I guess the rest of the story you can figure out: children grew up as colombians and even if their parents were the most italian people ever and traveled back to Italy a couple of times to visit their familiy, for some reasons, at some point contact was lost, till the point that all what we counted with were letters with some pictures, adresses and names, evocating a town called LAGONEGRO, that shall be somewhere near Napoli, in the South of Italy.

To make the story shorter, since a couple of years, the oldest brother and sister of my grandma started the search for their rootes ... they went to the town in Taly, and practically knocking from door to door they managed to find the "lost family!", this happened 2 years ago.

This summer 2005 well, one of my aunts and her husband came back to Italy and being me in Europe, in Rotterdam, I just could not miss tha chance to join them for a couple of days there and let them introduce me all this familiy.

So, so geographical context, here is where Lagonegro is located, in the province of POTENZA, in South Italy ... and there is where I headed to.

Region Potenza, in South Italy

I tool a flight from Amsterdam till Napoli, and from Napoli (where my aunt was waiting for me), we took a bus for 4 hours till we reached the town. After we reached the town, we took another sort of internal bus, that finally brought us to the "main square" or center of the town.

On the way to Lagonegro!

Lagonegro - this medieval town of narrow streets and steep stairways, on the western slope of the Sirino massif amid chestnut and alder woods, was built in a strategic position as a key communication center between the Vallo di Diano, Salerno and Naples on the one side, Calabria to the south and the whole Basilicata region.

Even if it is reallt small, it is today a lively cultural and commercial center, as well as a tourist resort for the lovers of mountain climate. As for most of Southern Italy, a large part of the population emigrated first to Argentina, Uruguay, Brasil, then after WW2 to France, Germany and Piedmont. The town can easily be reached from the exit Lagonegro Sud on the Autostrada A3 Salerno-Reggio Calabria.



Streets of Lagonegro, these are my uncle and aunt on the way home ...

Besides discovering the town itself, of course the best experience was to meet the family ... being very honest, sometimes is really confusing and crazy to tryo to figure out the exact familiy lines that there are between the people I met and my self ... it's like: "this is the son, of the cousin of the sister of the mother of your grandmother ..." - however this did not really matter, the conection is there and we know who are the key links in the chain :)


WELL, that's the family pic ... I guess I will reserve the explanation of who is who for my family back in Colombia, otherwise is too complicated :)

One of the most exiting aspects, is when you get to know people of your 'age' - many of the real cousins of my grandma and so on, are of course dead, but what I found, as said, where their children, and the children of the children ... there is a cousin of my grandma that is still alive and cool, and she and her family were the ones we spent more time with. Her name is Minucha and she has 3 children, three children that now are of course old and have kids :) - well this kids were my gang and I guess the ones with I will keep in touch from now on, simply cause we share the same generation ... all this gang, are the ones that in the following pictures I will just simply start to call "cousins" :)


This is my cousin Filomena & his boyfriend Nicola :) - a truly italian couple



This is a view when you drive from Calabria (the state whete the beach we were is) to Potenza (the region where Lagonegro is) ... people say that if you detail the shape of the town in the pic, it looks like a "horse" ...




Two cousins: Katia and Nicolina, in front of their granparents house




Katia (a cousin) and the two Minuchas - one colombian Minucha and the other the italian Minucha

If you thought that maybe the image of italians eating PASTA every day was a stereotype, let me tell that NO, they really do so. AT least, 5 out of 7 days they serve pasta. For my surprise, even if the pasta I eat was quite good, it's not particulary different (in taste and presentation) than the one we eat back home. However an interesting aspect, at least of the house where I was, is that they do their own wine and also they do their own sausages (salami, ham and stuff) home, same with the cheese. So, it all build a very traditional and warm atmosphare while having any meal.

This is maybe one of the most italian scenes I could capture: Minucha serving home made pasta for lunch ...



Having italian pasta for lunch

ANother great thing of the familiy there, well not of the "modern part of the family" (young cousins, etc), but of the grandparents, is that they have their own garden where they cultivate a decent number of vegetables and fruits, that they totally use for their own consume. That was amazing, how I saw them really caring each of morning of picking up the vegetable for the day and stuff.

This is the husband of the cousin of my grandma :) he has his own orchard/garden and here he is getting some fresh figs for us to eat



This sweetie is Andrea, a cousin as well ... wondering how he will look like when he grows up :) Something I will never forget from him (and in general from everybody!) is the fact that well, maybe I shall start learning italian! Almost everybody speaks english down there (not even the younger people!), so you can imagine how I was trying to express myself - partly in spanish, partly with the help of a dictionary. So coming back to Andrea, that is an inocent kid, he always asked me (in italian) : "what do you speak? why don't you speak italian?" or asking his mom why I do dnot speak italian- was too funny, in his little mind he could not figure out that there were so many other people out there in the world!


Andrea, cousin




This is Filomena and me eating pizza (check out the size of the pizza! it was a personal portion ...)



This is Mariangela - another cousin, bit crazy one, party freak, but yet very sweet :)




This is Nicolina - a small italian cousin ... no clue how many generations exactly are between us, but here we are!



Me eating figs! home cultivates figs :) they taste definitively much better than the ones you find back home ...

Together with my "gang" as I told you before, that was basically leaded by Filomena, the oldest niece of the cousin of my grandmother, we traveled also by car to CALABRIA, which is the province right to the south of Potenza (that is the one where Lagonegro is). We went to the beach - which come on! was not a simple beach trip: was my first visit to the Mediterranean Sea! No shit, it was awsome, it's simply a very different type of experience than the one you have in caribbean beaches ... first of all the shape of the coast and therefore beaches is different, is boarded by rocks and sort of build mini beaches, that make it all look as a sample of small swimming-pools. Water is totally transparent ... all people have their own beach umbrellas that they carry with them (not latin american style that you pay for this kind of stuff on the beach!) and people really go to the beach in a "pic-nic" mood, bringing stuff to eat, stuff to play with, etc ... well, maybe at first sight it seems that all beaches in the world look like that, but at least being there, I felt different than any other time :)


This beach afternoon was for sure one of the peak experiences in South Italy, on the pic me, enjoying my first time in the Mediterranean Sea ...



Me in the Mediterranean ... :)



Incredible tiny streets of Lagonegro



Wine yards ... just two steps away from the house ...



This is me :) right in front of the house of Minucha in Lagonegro

Italians? yes ... they are (at least in the south!) very load, very chaotic, very fans of gossips! They are very interested in knowing you, in asking about your life without any restriction and well ... I guess you have fun answering :) I preffer such people much more, than the ones that do no give a shit for getting to know you or welcoming you in their country. Italians also drive like CRAZY - I was in panic a couple of times when we were on the road, but then a realized that everybody was driving like that, and that they understand each other among drivers ...

Italians love to dance, to hug, to ba always in this collective mood :) This snap was taken in a wedding, that I randomly joined! Well, actually not that random, since the bride was a friend of my italian family :) The coolest was this part, when everybody was dancing together Tarantella - too italian!




From left to right: my uncle Juan, Chicho (cousin of my grandma and my aunt Minucha) and my aunt Minucha

I'm planning to go back to Lagonegro most probably in February if I manage - if not I am at least happy that 1. I know how to get there by myself , 2. I know who to look for and 3. I have a lovely group of people that felt very happy to finally get to know someone from the new generation of these 'american' familiy that they also always knew thay had far away in Colombia. So anytime I will be able to come back! Now the challenge is to bring some of the gang to Colombia, although the challenge is not even a challenge, then a couple of my cousins are already arranging a trip for next summer ... will be so much fun and I hope to be around in Baranquilla to see when this happening, wow! the real family is back there! Now I feel very satisfied, I feel the conection was made and well ... we have the rest of our lives to keep meeting and keep building the family that we are :) For sure an important "TO DO" of my personal life expected satisfactions list has been checked!