I must mention that Alessio from API had helped me so much and I really cannot thank him enough for all his help. He booked the bus reservation and the B&B reservation for me. He also went out of his way to find a list of names in the city cemetery (and surrounding countryside cemeteries), which one of them could have been my great-grandfather, or "bisnonno".
And so, I went to Ascoli Piceno thinking that I may or may not see the correct relative's grave and see a small medieval town... but this trip turned out much more than that.
The 3-hour bus drive to Ascoli Piceno was and still is one of the most beautiful views I've seen. It's more mountainous and picturesque than the train to Pisa or the bus to Florence. There were even little towns situated or built in the mountains or between valleys. Every 5 minutes, I felt like pinching myself. It's really beautiful out there.
The Adriatic Sea. :)
I realized then that I've been on both coasts of Italy (west up to Pisa, east up to Ascoli).
I realized then that I've been on both coasts of Italy (west up to Pisa, east up to Ascoli).
Exiting the station. When we arrived, the town was very empty and quiet. I felt like Taylor and I were the loudest one there no matter how much we lower our voices! I think everyone was at work or with their families and all the stores were closed.
Our B&B - Language And Arts' door. It's in the same building with other apartments. After ringing the intercom and no one answered, we had to call the "owner" to let us in since she was out when we arrived.
Piazza del Popolo.
Wasn't kidding when I said the town was a bit empty when we arrived/toured around a bit.
Everything was closed. Even restaurants. Italian shops close after 2 PM and reopen in the evening which is the norm, but it's more prominent here than in Rome. Restaurants here only serve until lunch or "pranzo" - no dinner! We only found this out until much later that evening. It was interesting.
One of the oldest cafés in Italy! The author, Hemingway visited here before. Really nice and the baristas were sooooo friendly and patient with us figuring out the correct way to say something in Italian.
I honestly didn't expect to see a photo. But I got a response from Dad almost immediately and sure enough, after all this searching and speculating, it's HIM. After going to a cemetery on a whim and not being 100% sure if he was even the right person! I got to FaceTime with my parents so they can see it.
(Thanks for Taylor for letting me use his phone's hotspot wifi!)
After that, Taylor and I went back to town to find the municipial, or town hall. I asked probably 10 people on the way to the center, "dov'è il municipio?" or "è il municipio vincino alla piazza del popolo in il centro?" so on and so forth. It worked and when we got to the piazza, we asked a couple to direct us to the town hall, and they were nice enough to walk us there! it was more of an information center than a town hall. There were two women at the front desk who helped us out.
Did I mention virtually nobody in Ascoli Piceno spoke English? Well, no one did! There was a huge language barrier and Taylor and I's poor Italian hit a roadblock here the entire duration of our stay. Even our B&B host didn't speak English.
Despite that, at the information desk in the town hall - we still managed to get across that I was looking for relatives of Vincenzo Orazi. The
women called three families in Ascoli with the "Orazi" last name that
could possibly be related to Vincenzo, and by extension: me. Two of them
didn't know Vincenzo and that last one was not home. Finally, the women
showed me a building that held cemetery
and family records, so I could go there to see if they had more
information about my family. I went the next morning on Saturday but
sadly it was closed, and they were only open on weekdays. I don't know how likely it is for me to come back during my stay here since I have classes on weekdays. But we'll see!
Ascoli Piceno is known for it's olives. There's a specialty food they have: fried (usually green) olives with meat in the center. It's interesting....... I don't like olives too much and prefer the black ones. But it was cool to try them. I bought olive cream that's handmade from Ascoli as a souvenir!
Since that next morning's trip to the family record place failed, Taylor and I spent the rest of the day walking around and eating, basically. We found that the entire town converted into one open air market! It was fascinating. At the end of the afternoon, we walked to this area near the station and saw a statue. There was a group of college-aged guys there eating and we wounded up talking to each other for a bit. We then bumped into a family (they laughed when I was struggling to jump down from a wall - hey, you try doing that with a big backpack on your back!). The family was pleasant, but imagine my surprise when the eldest son (16) was DEAF! We tried to sign to each other, but found that there was differences between English and Italian sign language. But it was clear that we were both blown away by this meeting.
We then walked further into a residential neighborhood, way past the train station on the other side of Ascoli Piceno. We walked up a hill and back down and stopped at this café. We relaxed outside since it was nice out. The barista lady was super talkative and friendly and often stepped out of the bar to talk with us. (OK, seriously though - the ENTIRE town is so overwhelmingly friendly) This café was also full of really old men and they all were playing card games and such. And the outside seating area was also full of old men because there was a football game going on. It was pretty cool. One man stepped up to us and us four (me, Taylor, the old man and that lady barista) just talked and talked. At one point, the conversation steered to the fact he was in both the Italian and American army (I think for UN and NATO) and he wrote a book about the wars for peace in the late 90s and early 00s. He gave one for me and Taylor for free. The barista lady insisted the guy to give it to us, haha. I was again overwhelmed by this.
My stay was really nice and I was sad to go. It was tourist-free (I saw maybe one tourist couple) and while the language barrier was difficult and my Italian capabilities hit a road block, it was still amazing. I'll never forget this weekend. It was definitely an experience to remember. :)
This upcoming weekend's trip will take me to Tuscany where I will see the towns of Siena and Arezzo and get a chance to taste "typical Tuscan products" and visit thermal baths that's been around since the Etruscan Age, although I'm not sure how that's going to go since I don't have a bathing suit. Nevertheless, I'm looking forwards to the trip!