foreword: i thought i'd just set forth my plan for blogging this trip... i think i'll do it day by day... unless not much happened (yeah, right) in which case, i will combine a day or two. i promise tons of pictures... and at the end (or if you want em now, i can email them to you) i'll post a link to all of them (if you want to see them that is!).
the players: i need to give a brief overview of the travelers so you won't be confused. and if you are no worries, it took me forever to understand the relationship between my mom and carl. here goes. my family: jeff, the dad. mary, the mom. andrew, the brother (younger). me (clearly). carl, the cousin (sort of). and tonnee, carl's wife.
carl and tonnee live in muncie, in (my parents' hometown). carl is slightly older than my parent's but only by a year or two. he's not really technically a cousin. ok, here goes: carl's dad was my grandpa's uncle. hunh? ok, another way: my grandpa's dad's name (MY great grandpa) was antonio pieroni. carl's dad was joe pieroni. antonio was joe's older brother by 20 years!
side note: they had 7ish kids... and two named faust. faust the first died when he was a toddler (i think) and they must've really liked that name b/c several years later came along faust the second. and since joe got married later in life and had carl later in life, carl is more my parents' age than his own generation (my grandpa's cousin! my grandpa was born in 1912! carl was born in the late 40s!). the kids in my grandpa's generation all spoke italian. therefore, carl spoke italian (which came in VERY) handy!! tonnee is carl's second wife and they've been married about 5 years. they were both great! i should probably mention that i'd probably met them before at my gpa's funeral and maybe another occasion, but basically i met them for the first this trip.
family history: more family history you say?! well yes. i'd never been to italy before and neither had tonnee (pronounced like tahnee from scripps). my parents had, but it'd been since i was a 3 year old and my brother was less than a year. get this: when they went, my dad went there for a week conference in milan. then they spent 2 more wks traveling italy and europe. they handed (or ditched) us kids off to my dad's parents in maine and said, thanks! we'll be back! eventually they came back and as the story goes, my brother had no idea who mom was!
my brother has been to italy before and he was there the summer of 01 when he went for 6 wks all over europe. carl had been back to italy (he was born in the US but both his parents had immigrated not long before he was born) but he hadn't been since 1973!
the pieroni side of the family is originally from a very small town in northern italy (tuscany region) called san pietro in campo. when i say small, it's like 4 streets maybe and that's now! it's closest larger town is barga and most italians will say they have never heard of that. so expanding it's north of lucca which many italians will have heard of. and barring that... it's about 90 min drive from pisa. more family history to come when i get to our days in barga.
the players: i need to give a brief overview of the travelers so you won't be confused. and if you are no worries, it took me forever to understand the relationship between my mom and carl. here goes. my family: jeff, the dad. mary, the mom. andrew, the brother (younger). me (clearly). carl, the cousin (sort of). and tonnee, carl's wife.
carl and tonnee live in muncie, in (my parents' hometown). carl is slightly older than my parent's but only by a year or two. he's not really technically a cousin. ok, here goes: carl's dad was my grandpa's uncle. hunh? ok, another way: my grandpa's dad's name (MY great grandpa) was antonio pieroni. carl's dad was joe pieroni. antonio was joe's older brother by 20 years!
side note: they had 7ish kids... and two named faust. faust the first died when he was a toddler (i think) and they must've really liked that name b/c several years later came along faust the second. and since joe got married later in life and had carl later in life, carl is more my parents' age than his own generation (my grandpa's cousin! my grandpa was born in 1912! carl was born in the late 40s!). the kids in my grandpa's generation all spoke italian. therefore, carl spoke italian (which came in VERY) handy!! tonnee is carl's second wife and they've been married about 5 years. they were both great! i should probably mention that i'd probably met them before at my gpa's funeral and maybe another occasion, but basically i met them for the first this trip.
family history: more family history you say?! well yes. i'd never been to italy before and neither had tonnee (pronounced like tahnee from scripps). my parents had, but it'd been since i was a 3 year old and my brother was less than a year. get this: when they went, my dad went there for a week conference in milan. then they spent 2 more wks traveling italy and europe. they handed (or ditched) us kids off to my dad's parents in maine and said, thanks! we'll be back! eventually they came back and as the story goes, my brother had no idea who mom was!
my brother has been to italy before and he was there the summer of 01 when he went for 6 wks all over europe. carl had been back to italy (he was born in the US but both his parents had immigrated not long before he was born) but he hadn't been since 1973!
the pieroni side of the family is originally from a very small town in northern italy (tuscany region) called san pietro in campo. when i say small, it's like 4 streets maybe and that's now! it's closest larger town is barga and most italians will say they have never heard of that. so expanding it's north of lucca which many italians will have heard of. and barring that... it's about 90 min drive from pisa. more family history to come when i get to our days in barga.
*sorry this was going to be chock full of pictures and all about rome, but alas, my introduction got kind of long and thus i'll start a new post to begin the trip. i'm sort of using this as my way to remember the trip too so sorry if these posts get unbearably long!*
2 comments:
I had no idea your family has Italian roots! That explains your affinity for purses and shoes =)
love the family history! LOVE!!
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