Well, growing up my father's wonderful family (insert sarcasm here) they fed us many not-so-true stories of his family's arrival to the U.S. The stories ranged from how my great grandfather hopped a boat illegally and somehow ended up in Philadelphia, to the fact that our last name was not really our last name. Well, after discovering we had a whole 'nother side of the family living in the Philadelphia area, I decided I had to meet at least one of the family. I mean, some extended family member was bound to be kind. We finally arranged to meet with the eldest cousin, Assumpta (she was a true wonder at the beautiful age of 96). My mother and I found out that what we were told, was not quite true. She explained that the family is from a very small hilltop village in the Southern region of Calabria, at the boot of Italy. After a little more research and digging, I was able to pull up ship records from my great grandfather's arrival to Philadelphia (by the way, we are the Matregrano's and he came over fully legal). Many years have passed since those discoveries and as the planning of our Italian vacation was taking place, my father asked if we could go to Luzzi, to see once and for all, what is up with our family. My mother made all of the arrangements for our stay in Luzzi. We ended up at a quaint B&B in the next town over. It was a beautiful farm house in between two industrial factories....interesting. They could not be more accommodating or give us enough food (we were pretty much stuffed the entire time we were in Luzzi).
After we arrived in the area and checked-in, we ventured out to find Luzzi. Luckily, my Mom's GPS decided to work during this leg of the trip (g*damn GPS), which was a huge benefit because it led us straight to Luzzi. The following day we set out to solve the mystery of the Matregrano's. My mother suggested the cemetery, and after convincing my Dad and I (we wanted to start at the churches) we ended up at the cemetery. Man, was it a great idea...not only was it going to close in an hour, but we hit the jackpot! We tried out our best Italian with the grounds keepers who were sitting around hanging out. My father explained that his grandfather was from Luzzi. I don't know if they quite got it, but when he said 'Matregrano' and showed them his license, they said "Oh, down there!" Well apparently the whole damn family was buried there (good call , Mom).
Needless to say, it was whirlwind day, that only just started at the cemetery. My Mom wrote a few paragraphs about the day, when we got back to the B&B. Here is her recount of the Matregrano adventures...
We arrived on August 4, 2012 with the intention of hunting
down any Matregrano’s we could find. So,
after a wonderful Italian breakfast, we took off for Luzzi. When driving up the hill going into Luzzi, I
noticed a cemetery with people going in…..stop, turn around, this is the best
place to find your ancestors. Up the
street, turn around, into the graveyard
to find 6 Italian men that could not speak English. I immediately got out my phone that has a
translator—thank God! Nick said
Matregrano and all the men started with the hands, and talking…..there, right
there, were grave stones with the Matregrano name spelled exactly like
ours. Out came the cameras and phone to
take pictures. The men did their best to
tell us who was related to whom, who came back from Philadelphia to be buried
in Luzzi. The stone had pictures of each
relative attached to the stones.
Awesome! After we were finished,
one of the men said there were still more graves. Off we went up a small incline made of cement—no surprise as are in
Italy. There were an additional 4 or 5
grave stones with Matregrano’s. We took
more pictures and movies. The custodian
related to us that we were to follow him as he was the neighbor of Silvia
Matregrano. Astounded and excited, we
went into the car and followed him in his little cart with 4 wheels. Up the hill, around the curve, up another
hill, around the back of town and there we were. We parked and followed this kind gentleman to
Silvia Matregrano’s humble abode. She
opened the door and he explained why we were there. Silvia immediately welcomed us into her home
made of marble, pictures of family and a lovely dining room table where we sat
and talked via translator.
You could see Silva get more excited as the minutes
passed. Every time we handed her the
phone translator and she read each statement and questions, she got more
excited. She offered us coffee and juice
two times—Nicole said we must take her up on her offer so as not to offend
her. Nick was still in disbelief……you
mean we really have relatives in Luzzi?????
She went downstairs to the kitchen area and got coffee and juice. We could hear her on the phone very excited
and saying Americano and Philadelphia.
Five or ten minutes later, in walks George Matregrano. He was a very nice man—reserved and certainly
checking us out. Silvia was talking to
him in Italian and he is shaking his head.
We asked him questions via translator, and he did his best to reply. Our
visit ended with pictures, kisses and hugs.
We promised to send them pictures.
George wrote down the address for us.
Silvia was trying to tell us
something which we just didn’t get.
Silvia walked us up a new pathway which we figured was a
different way to get to the car….no it wasn’t.
She took us to Pop Pop Nick Matregrano’s house. We did not know this until we were there for
several minutes. We asked her via
translator if she knew where Pop lived.
She quickly pointed to the floor and walls. In Italian she was saying “Here”. We were all blown away with this new
information. I thought Nick was going to
blow up with excitement. She showed us
new pictures of relatives from Philadelphia and the wine cellar that was carved
into the earth. She had probably 100
jars of homemade spaghetti sauce and
fruit.
After many pictures and movies, Silvia walked us to our car
where we said goodbye again….A good day, indeed.
After Luzzi, we took the long drive up to Anzio, which is about and hour outside of Rome. Anzio was famous as an allied landing strip during WWII. My father was excited to see the site, and my Mom and I were happy with a very long drive up from the south. The area was a typical city suburb, The hotel was absolutely horrendous. So much so, we actually had to speak to the manager about the Arabic guys saying we were crazy (I just happened to know a few Arabic words, one of which is 'crazy') and giving us some of the worst service I think I've ever had. There were bugs in the bed, the AC cooling unit shot into the room, from next door, the food was horrible, the service just as bad....it was just a crappy place. But, the historic sites were very interesting and the small town of Anzio (town center) was adorable. A day or two later, we headed up to Rome. We stayed at the airport hotel, which was a fantastic idea. My father headed home the next day (to get ready for the Folk Fest) and my Mom and I hopped over to Beaune, France for our next leg in the summer vacation. Enjoy the pics...
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| Found at last! |
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| Cactus pear fruit at B&B |
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| Just one of several columns of Matregrano's in the cemetery |
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| Silvia's House |
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| Family |
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| Luzzi B&B |
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| Luzzi |
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| Pomegranate |
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| Pop Pop Nick's childhood home |
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| Road to Luzzi |
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| Silvia's Door |
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| Thank goodness for family |
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| Silvia's Doorway |
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| Silvia's Family |
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| They do exist!! |
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| Figs |
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| Cemetery |
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| Lavender everywhere |
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| Old pictures |
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| Pop Pop Nick's door |
Anzio
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| US Cemetery in Anzio |
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| Anzio WWII Museum |
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| Italian Uniform |
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| machine gun found under water |
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| Museum poster |
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| Grave stones |
