A tremendous response from across the globe

It’s been five months since I began chronicling our historic trip to Sant’Andrea, and while I’ve stopped writing about it — saving some stories for a larger project about my grandparents — I’m amazed at how this blog has grown beyond it’s original purpose as a way to share our experiences with family and friends.
With [...]

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The cheese saga finale: Did the pecorino pass?

I can’t tell you whether we got the cheese into the country. We may have simply shipped it over. We may have left it for Dino and the family. We may have even left it for Nino’s consumption.
I CAN share a could-have-happened, might-have-happened, would-have-been-nice fictional story that the U.S. Customs office would probably object to [...]

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The cheese saga: We got it!

It was the night before our departure for Rome and there were two things on our minds:
1. We’re going to sorely miss our Sant’Andrea family. The took such great care of us, and we shared many laughs. It was heartbreaking to know we wouldn’t be able to see them often. It seemed as if we [...]

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Sant’Andrea’s 5 most common surnames

I think this is interesting. It’s from a site that provides demographic information about Italian towns.

 

 
The most common five family names in Sant’ Andrea Apostolo Dello Ionio:

There are in Sant’ Andrea Apostolo Dello Ionio
Surname

145.18
Codispoti

116.62
Sama`

97.58
Cosentino

80.92
Lijoi

71.40
Frustaci

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The cheese saga continues: Nino fakes us out

I remember meeting Nino once or twice as a kid when he visited by grandparents’ house. They called him “Travolta” because he often boasted about his dancing skills. His hair was also usually combed in “Saturday Night Fever” style.
That was a long time ago, and Uncle Bruno reminded me to nix any thought of calling [...]

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The Cheese Saga

This pecorino has a past.
In the late ’60s, Uncle Al, hoping that he could tame the odor, wrapped and rewrapped several round slabs Poppy had requested and stuffed them in a bag. The cheese went through Customs safely. His clothes that shared the bag, however, had to be thrown out. No matter how many times [...]

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The land by the beach

I think it was last year that Nanny and Poppy sold their share of this tract of land by the Marina — it can’t be more than 500 feet from the beach — to Uncle Angelo and his family.
For many years before the sale, the land went untouched. Now it has two buildings — a [...]

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The Codispoti shoe store — it’s still there, kind of

The Codispoti clan got by pretty well during World War II thanks to this little shoe store, in which the family sold imports from Torino. All the children helped out at the store, located not two minutes from Aunt Nuzza’s house.
This is notably where, in 1937, Poppy and his mother went to bid Nanny’s mother [...]

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The mummies uptown

Nanny’s brother, Angelo, lives in what looks like a mini brownstone in the center of town, where most of the activity, such as it is this time of year, is based.
The tree-lined street has a bed of stone, with a mixture of small shops and homes, including Zio Angelo’s, on either sided. It’s obviously “uptown,” [...]

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Yes, we’re related to him, too

After Graziela gave us all the time she had available, she brought us up to meet the mayor, Maurizio Lijoi.
Maurizio took one look at the family tree and said, “I think we’re related.” Of course we are, I thought.
At first, I thought we might be connected through Nanny’s paternal grandmother, Maria Vittoria Lijoi, who [...]

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