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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The cheese saga: The scenic route

As I mentioned, Nino hinted that he had the cheese but wouldn’t give it to us unless we came for lunch. We would have gone anyway, but getting our hands on the cheese was an added incentive. If he didn’t have it, he would at least bring us to the guy at the Soverato market [...]

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The cheese saga: Round and round we go

One thing about Italian drivers — they’re nuts. And if you abide by the rules, they think you’re nuts.
We quickly learned in our 10-hour trip from Rome to Sant’Andrea to move out of the left lane if anyone was behind us, because no matter how fast we were going, they wanted to go faster.
We were [...]

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Some random videos

Here are some extra videos:
The view from Nino’s house
Something else, huh?
Chiesa di Matrice: Inside the church
This is the remake of an ancient church. Just about everyone in town is ticked off that the Powers That Be decided to time rebuild the church rather than repair it.
Rome from Garibaldi Square
One of the highest points in the [...]

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Bru, my brave uncle

Not to be intimidated, Uncle Bruno did what I considered to be unthinkable just hours earlier and ventured down the alley in our Fiat Panda. I shouldn’t have been surprised. He is a former Marine, after all.
Make sure to watch till the end.

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‘The last guy had a heart attack’

After our dip, Nino expressed surprised that we survived the treacherous November waters. “The last guy had a heart attack,” he said. Or at least I think that’s what he said.

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They thought we were crazy

We didn’t see why everyone made such a fuss, but Uncle Bruno and I thought the 70-degree weather was perfect for a dip in the sea. In Sant’andrea, going into the water in November is pure lunacy.
Nino, who took us to the marina after a 3-hour excursion in hunt for the cheese, called us “sick.” [...]

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She makes it look easy

Like in most towns in the area, Sant’Andrea’s cobblestone streets are tight, to say the least. The vast majority aren’t wide enough to fit two Matchbox-sized cars at a time, making driving for newbies a heart-pumping challenge.
Even hairier, there is a one-way path — a six-foot-wide alley, really — that’s used [...]

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