ANNA (PINO'S MOTHER) AND OUR TRIP TO MY GRANDFATHER'S HOMELAND (MAYBE)

 This is Anna, otherwise known as Nonna. She is the one on the right.  LOL.  I have to apologize because in my last blog I called her Nonno.  That would be grandfather, Nonna is grandmother.  Hey, I am still learning.(Thanks Cookie).  Anna is 81 years old and lives on her own not far from IL Molino.  She was born in Naples and her husband, who is now deceased, was born in Sicily.  They immigrated to England looking for work many years ago and lived there for 52 years.  Pino was born there and that's where he met Caroline.  All have since moved back to Italy.  Pino and Caroline created IL Molino, his brother Raphael, Pino's brother  has a similar place about 10 km from here and Antonino another brother  has a similar place in Luca.  All in Tuscany.  Anna is a great women.  You would all love her.  We have coffee with her almost every day at her house.  She loves the company

 This is the meal Anna prepared for us tonight.  Yep, you are right, that is lasagna. Not the kind we have at home but real Italian lasagna.  It was layered with very light pasta with meat and hard boiled eggs in between and a very creamy ricotta.  The sauce was also very light and smooth.  OMG, we ate half of that dish along with the usual fresh salad.  I don't know what kind of lettuce that is, but is is sweet and tender.  We also had Anna's home made egg plant made with olive oil. She made it last year and kept it in a jar in her cabinet.  No vinegar just olive oil and herbs.  I hope we can fit in the plane seats in October when we come home.

 This is the main street of Arce.  We traveled there when Pino and Caroline got home on Wednesday.  It is just south of Rome in the province of Lazio.  We were there for 2 days exploring.  It is possible that my grandfather, Eleuterio Cocozzola, came from this town.  Don't ask how Cocozzola turned into Andro because we don't know.  That is what we are trying to find out.  Everyone else in the family has the name Andro except him.  He was born in 1892 and came to the USA through Boston sometime in the early 1900's.  He became a citizen in 1937 and worked for the water department in Waterbury, Connecticut most of his life.  We are still searching.  Maybe he was in the witness protection program if they had one then.  Just joking.   A few pictures below you will see a monument with a name very close to his.  I couldn't check because records have been lost.  Italy has been invaded for centuries so many records have been lost.  I also found out today that after a 100 years or so, they destroy the cemeteries and use the land for something else.  I am not sure if that is true but, that's what someone told me today.  Come to think of it, I have not seen many cemeteries here.

This is the church in Arce.  It is a beautiful church but in need of restoration.  I think Arce is a town of poor farmers.  It is like time has passed them by.  A few miles North is the provincial capital, Frosinione.  The capital has transformed from an agricultural economy to an more industrial one.  The problem is that the factories produce a lot of smog.  On some days it is impossible to see the beautiful mountains because of all the smog.  By looking at the outside of the church, it appears that the only thing Arce got out of this situation is the smog.  The day we were there they were having a funeral for one of the residents.  His name was Eleuterio Siminelli.  He was 56 years old at the time of his death.  The entire town walked behind the hearse carrying the casket up the main street to the church.  I found out later that's what they do even if they don't know the deceased. Everybody morns. 

 Here is a view of the outside of the church.  You can see what the pollution has done the the exterior.  The vehicle you see on the right picked up all the flowers from the front of the church and led the procession to the church.  Apparently everyone puts flowers at the entrance of the church and just before the procession begins, this vehicle picks up all the flowers and joins the procession on their walk to the church.  At first we thought that the deceased was a real important person in town, but we found out later that is what they do for everyone.  I am guessing there were over 300 people behind the hearse.  Most of the women went inside the church and the men stayed outside.  I wanted to take a picture because I went into the church, but I thought that would be kind of tacky.

Yep, here she is.  The professional mourner.   Those of you that are Italian can relate to this picture.  Growing up, this lady or someone like her, was always at the funeral.  There were a few others but I couldn't get a good picture without being obvious.   Come on Rich and Patty and Grace, I know you know this lady.

Bringing the casket into the church.  You can see all the people following along.  That line went all the way down the street.

Here is the best I could find.  Notice the 5th and 6th name down the list.  It is very close to my grandfathers name.  Change the u to an o and the i at the end to an a and you have Cocozzola.  Maybe, just maybe.

This is at the bottom of the monument in the center of town.  It is dedicated to Italian Americans who
 fought in World War Two who had ties to Arce.








Here is a better shot of the wreath at the bottom of the monument,                                                                       

This is the monument..  The weather was beautiful that day as you can see by the picture.  We did not stay in Arce as there are no hotels there anymore.  We stayed just a few miles away in a town called Castrocielo.  We stayed at Villa Euchelia Resort. It is a 7 room hotel that is meticulously kept and exceptionally clean.  Our room faced the farm in back of the building.  Unfortunately the dog next door barked all night until 4am. Then the rooster started.  We had to keep the window open because the air conditioner was shut off from the desk and we could not turn it on. Electricity is very expensive in Italy so they do things to save power.  In fact if the A/C is on and you open the window, it goes off.  There is also no such thing as an incandescent light bulb in Italy.  All we have is those squiggly bulbs that are all of 15 watts, if that much.  Anyway the hotel was great and the hostess was even greater.  We had the best meal we have had in Italy so far at their restaurant.  In my next blog I will have pictures of that area.  The main problem was that Castrocielo is not a tourist area so no one spoke English.  That was interesting.  But we managed to get along.  It was funny at the farm market in town on the day we left.  I have some pictures of that.  All the people there were waiting to see what would happen.  We had a lot of laughs and so did they.  They were real nice people and tried to help us as much as they could.  I'll have more about that along with some pictures in the next blog.  Ciao for now.