Ciao Italia !

Grandapa DeMarinis

There are obviously many upsides of living in Europe.  One huge one is being able to travel to some really cool places that are right around the corner. A family reunion back in July got me thinking about how close I am to relatives that we still have in the south of Italy. My mom's parents both moved to the States from Italy as young children in the 1920's - my maternal grandmother coming from a town near Rome and my grandfather from the south of Italy near the city of Bari. After talking to some relatives at the family reunion, I learned that many of them were still in contact with my grandfather's family in Bari, with at least a handful of them who had ventured over on several occasions.

Grandpa and Grandma DeMarinis's wedding picture

Well, it turns out that there's a direct flight to Bari from a German city right across the border from us with roundtrip tickets costing less than 60 euros a person! Knowing that baby number three was on its way, I thought this would be the perfect  "girls trip" for Audrey and me. So tickets were purchased and and took a crash course in basic Italian.

We arrived late one evening so we spent the night at a place in Bari before heading out the the town of Capurso (about 20 minutes from Bari) to meet with our family the next morning. And then the eating began! We were greeted with fantastic coffee and baked goods in quantities big enough to feed us for days! We toured around the neighborhood for a while taking in the still vibrant fishing culture and relishing the warm early November weather.

We finally end up at the doorstep of our family in Capurso.  Let the Italian challenge commence! There were some challenging moments but using a mix of Spanish, newly learned Italian and lots of hand gestures, we finally started to get to know each other.  Any having a blond, blue eyed 5 year old with a fantastic smile also helped to break the ice.  For the next 3 days, we traveled around the area taking in the beautiful scenery of the Puglia region.  

Audrey found an incredible appreciation for churches, asking to visit each one we passed (which was a lot, trust me!). Oh, and the gelato helped her transition a bit as well. Each night we'd return to our family's house and be treated like kings at the table...although despite our best efforts we just couldn't eat enough apparently.  That cliche about the Italian grandmothers insisting that you aren't eating enough - not so cliche.

But perhaps my favorite day was our last one.  It was a Sunday and we decided to just take a walk around the town of Capurso where my grandfather spent the first 10 years of his life. We attended a morning mass and listened to the church bells ring are regular intervals. We passed by the large town squares and saw the kids playing soccer and families enjoying the sunshine.  Audrey and I meandered down streets and I had to wonder if the ones we took were the same ones that my grandfather walked down a century ago.  It was a trip worth repeating and given its proximity I'd say we'll be back very soon.