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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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 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 cheese saga begins

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 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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We made it to Rome!

We’re in a hotel about 2 blocks away from Rome — we got in at around 11 last night after about 10 hours on the road [again]. Sant’Andrea was simply amazing. I put virtually all of the pictures from the town on the lap top I borrowed from Jackie, so here are a few I [...]

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