Ancestral Towns in Italy

So the night of August 2nd Alex and I took a train from Rome to Cassino, Italy. Cassino only had one hostel listed, and it was actually just a campground and had no building. We almost settled on that, but we asked for directions to other hotels at the train station. Again, I was impressed with how helpful everyone was, as the two guys working at the train station tried to help and pointed out the hotel area on a map, and then a couple police officers came over and helped too, and then the officers got a girl who was waiting for a taxi who they knew spoke English to come over and help, and they were all very nice. We decided to walk and see if we could find a cheap hotel since the hotels were close. We stopped by a cafe that was just closing (it was around midnight) and asked for directions since we hadn't seen any hotels yet and we were where they were supposed to be, and after talking to them for a couple minutes the lady in charge had one of the employees leave work early, right then, and take us to find a good hotel! He drove us around to a couple and we found one for 65 euros, which was pretty cheap. Pretty decent hotel, and at the foot of Monte Cassino which we needed to go up the next day. You can see the Abbey of Montecassino at the top of the mountain in this picture.



And from just about the same spot but looking to the right, you can see the Castle of Monte Cassino that was built on part of the winding road to defend the Abbey because it had been destroyed a few times in its history. The Abbey was first built in 543 AD on a Roman pagan religious site, and this castle was built in 967 AD. They're doing renovations on it right now. And in the left of the picture is a large World War 2 memorial. One thing about Italy is that they have World War 1 memorials, but this was the only World War 2 memorial I saw.



I had two reason for visiting this site. First because my great grandfather, Frank Testi, grew up here before moving to the US, and second because it was a site of a great World War 2 battle. The US, UK and co (New Zealand, Australia, etc.) all attacked it at some point. While there I was amazed at how defensible it is. It is very steep and there is one winding road going up the mountain that would be easily defended. Finally, the troops who won and took the Abbey were the Polish.

As Alex and I walked from our hotel in search of a bus that would take us to the Abbey, we ran into a tour bus from Poland that had stopped briefly before heading up the road to the Abbey. Most of them were in traditional Polish dress. I talked to one guy in Russian for a bit, but since they had their tour bus they didn't know any other way up. Luckily we spotted a tourist information office and they gave us booklets and told us where to wait for the bus. The drive up was long and winding but gave a really good view of Cassino.



Here's the main door to the Abbey, though tourists enter in a door off to the right of this picture.



Admission to the Abbey was free. Inside it has many original statues from before the battles for the Abbey in World War 2. I believe there were 4 battles there. The most devastating was the last, when the Allies bombed the Abbey repeatedly. Still, many of the statues were salvaged. Some were repaired, and when I put up pictures of others you'll see that they were not. This one is from 1613. Part of the Latin inscription below has been chipped away or destroyed, but I can read the first part, which says "Protector of our Faith".



This is the main courtyard. You can see the statue on the left was not repaired after the bombings.



The Polish tour group arrived just after we did. We got there early in the morning which was a very good thing---we beat the rush. By the time we left it was packed with tourists.



This view is from the top of the steps in the main courtyard looking out towards Cassino.



In the next courtyard at the entrance of the church there were a lot of statues. I'm putting this one up because this guy is holding the Holy Hand Grenade.



The next two pictures are the dome in the church and a painting from inside the church.





We made our way back down the mountain in hopes of still having time to get to Pico that day. Now, I don't know everything about my great grandfather. I could be wrong (and will update this if I am) but from what I remember being told, he was an orphan at the Abbey of Monte Cassino, but for part of his life lived with a family in the town of Pico. During World War 2 the Abbey was still an orphanage and many of the orphans were killed in the battles. I didn't get to see the dormitories because they were locked up (since it's an abbey that's still used).

After getting down the mountain we walked to the Roman amphitheater and forum that was nearby. Unfortunately we couldn't get in. There was a regular Roman theater, too, but it was farther away. This was as close as we could get to the amphitheater through the fence. In Roman times this area was a somewhat important town called Casinum.



We got to the train station and realized that the last bus to Pico had already left, even though it was early, so we decided we would head straight to Cosenza in the Calabria region where the rest of the towns of my ancestors are since we knew it would be a lot of traveling (ended up being around 6-7 hours on the train, not to mention waiting at stations for changes). We got a train with some stops to Naples, then bought some tickets to Cosenza there and had some time to kill. Also, I really liked taking this train in the daylight (the train the night before from Rome to Cassino had been in the dark) because there are just so many Roman and medieval ruins everywhere, like this one. You would not believe how many ruins like this we saw every time we took a train or bus in daylight.



I just have to say this about Naples. The first time I was there, I didn't feel safe, and I even wrote to my parents about it. So Alex and I were pretty cautious. It was dirty and rundown. The route coming in and going out looked nice, though, and the harbor area was beautiful. But the city wasn't so great. The sidewalks were full of streets vendors, too.



We didn't stick around long but got some dinner and headed back to the train station and then it was off to Cosenza. The whole area of southern Italy is just beautiful. We got in to Cosenza around midnight and tried to get a taxi to the hostel we had planned on. Well, the taxi driver took us to the right street, which was one of the main ones in town, and dropped us off. He wanted more money to take us to the right place!! So we had to figure out where the hostel was on our own, because I refused to give him any more money and finally I just walked away from him. We didn't find it because it turns out that the hostel's address was wrong, but we did find another that was just as cheap--40 euros for two people. It had a big, nice room, with a bathroom and two beds. And the girl at the desk warned us not to take taxis in Cosenza--too late I guess. The next morning we headed off to the bus station, which ended up being close, and got a bus to the farthest town on the list, San Pietro in Guarano. My ancestors from Italy are from three towns, San Pietro in Guarano, Castiglione-Cosentino, and Zumpano. First, this was the view from our hotel in Cosenza.



We got to San Pietro in Guarano pretty early. San Pietro, like all the other towns my ancestors are from in Italy, is in the mountains above Cosenza. This is the view of the town where we got off the bus. And if you look on the front and side of that blue bus in the picture, you'll see the name "Preite", which is the last name of some of my ancestors from the area.



We walked in to a shop and asked for directions around town. I explained that I was there because my ancestors were from there, and and older guy offered to show us where to go and then he looked at my list. I told him the names on the list were the names of my ancestors. He looked at the list and his eyes lit up and he said, "Turano? I'm a Turano!" And he wrote his name down on my list, Giuseppe Turano. We talked a little (there was a bit of a language barrier but we managed) and then I got a picture before he left.



I thought that was great. I knew that because these towns were so small I was probably related to some of the people I passed, but I didn't know if I'd ever meet any. Here are some other pictures of the town I took while walking around.



Below and behind this next picture is Cosenza.



We went to the cemetery to see if we could find any of my ancestors' graves. We found many with the same last name, and while they are probably related to me they are not my ancestors. We noticed that the graves all seemed to be more recent. As we found out later in the town of Zumpano, in Italy (and, I'm told, in other European countries as well) the graves are dug up and the remains removed after 100 years! Still, it was interesting to see the graves of relatives who had stayed in these towns and also to see how they were buried. I say "buried" and "dug up" but really, neither of those terms apply here as you'll see in this next picture which is typical of all the cemeteries.



The graves are just stacked one on top of the other. We saw some that had clearly gone past their 100 years because the grave stone at the front had been chipped away and nothing remained inside. And the next picture is the church at the same cemetery.



And this next one is one of the oldest family names from the town, Francesco Turano, born in 1883.



We walked back up to the older of the two churches. One was built in the last hundred years or so but this one is a few hundred years old. Here are a couple pictures of it, from the side, front, and the inside, which is currently under renovation.







And this is the municipal building.



San Pietro made kind of a U shape on the mountain, so in this picture you can see more of San Pietro, the part where we got on and off the bus, on the left.



I have so many more pictures of all the towns but I'll try to limit it. Alex and I headed back to Cosenza on the bus so we could get a new bus to another one of the towns. A few minutes away from San Pietro I noticed a sign that said we were entering Castiglione-Cosentino, so I double-checked with the driver and we got off there. It had a great view, of course. This is Castiglione-Cosentino's theater with Cosenza in the background.



The town center and the municipal building.



We walked to the cemetery and came across this between the convent and the cemetery.



All the cemeteries were pretty similar to each other. This is Castiglione-Cosentino's cemetery.



Also, the cemeteries had a number of mausoleums, some of which had my family names, like this one.



And in this picture, on the bar's sign it says "Aiello", another family name. Cafe Aiello was everywhere in the area.



Then we headed back to Cosenza. Zumpano was not on the way, and the buses did not run there at that point so we decided to walk around "Old Cosenza", which was really nice, and to look for the hostel now that we had gotten the correct address for it. This next picture is of Old Cosenza, and you can sort of see the 11th century castle in the top middle. We wanted to go, but it was closed for renovation.



Here's a better look at the castle.



We found the hostel first, then walked over to Old Cosenza.



Old Cosenza used to be a Greek colony, then a Roman town. This is the remains of part of the Roman town.



Old Cosenza was all uphill. It was nice to just keep going up and up and walking randomly. At one point we found a random, shut down escalator.



And here's another typical street from Old Cosenza.



Oh, and I'm including this one because of the interesting construction.



This is the view of Old Cosenza and the castle from our hostel.



And people selling fruit and such on the side of the road.



The next day we made our way to the bus station again and headed for the last family town, Zumpano. Zumpano was a great little town. Well, they all were. We were dropped off in the town center, which was surrounded by: this World War 1 memorial, which included a number of family names;



The church;



The municipal building;



And, of course, a water fountain.



We first went in to the municipal building to ask for directions around town and we were taken to the office of a Paese. Some of my Paese ancestors are from that town. I tried to explain it to him but he just got a guy who spoke English to help. The guy who spoke English was awesome and printed off the family history lists that I have and took me into their archive to look at records. He knew it would take a long, long time to go through everything and find traces further back of ancestors, so he said they would do it and e-mail me when they get more results! Then he brought in the Paese guy and pointed out that we might be related, and then the Paese guy got excited and left for a few minutes and came back later with his wife, who was also a Paese even before they got married. They explained that they knew one of the siblings of one of my ancestors, Luigi Paese, and I think that they were descended from him but I'm not sure. Anyways, Luigi ended up going to America later in life, though they lost contact and don't know when or where he died. Still, they were all a great help and it was great to see and talk to more relatives of mine, even if they are a little distantly related. They pointed us in the right direction and we headed through town to the cemetery. In all of these towns there really wasn't more to see than a few homes, the church, the municipal building, and the cemetery.



Unlike the other cemeteries, the Zumpano also had a small area of less than 50 graves in the ground.



After Zumpano, we headed to Cosenza and then took a train back to Naples. The first part of the train ride was great because it was almost entirely along the Mediterranean, but it had been too dark to see on the way. And by along the Mediterranean I mean right up against it, sometimes within feet of the beaches people were swimming on.



In Naples, Alex and I split up. He was going on to Venice, and I was returning to Rome to catch my flight to London. A minute or so after we split up, I went to check the times for the next train to Cassino since I would be going to Pico on my way back to Rome. The train station was packed. I know I mentioned how I hadn't felt safe there already. Well, in broad daylight, in front of hundreds of people, a thief tore a bag off of a guy and took off. He didn't take it off an easy target, either, but off of a 20-something guy who was in good shape. I didn't see the theft itself, but heard a yell and saw two guys run by me, the thief and the victim, who had had his t-shirt torn from the collar to the middle of his chest. The victim gave up almost immediately after passing me, and three cops came racing by on their golf cart. By racing by, I mean the people around them were walking faster. The guy who had been robbed yelled at the cops but the cops just sort of stopped following and none of them got off their cart or really cared and finally the victim just walked away fuming. I looked back up and saw that my train was leaving in five minutes and got on.

So while I was thinking about that, my train started moving and I realized I was in a train car with a few seemingly crazy guys who were very loud, and a couple other people who were at the opposite end of the car. Then one of the guys, who was standing the whole time, stood up and got out his knife and started chucking it at a seat near me and staring at me and saying stuff. He kept throwing it at the seat, then finally took the knife and started stabbing a headrest a little farther away. I decided that was a good time to leave and got into another train car. Moral of the story: Beware of Naples. I'd been warned by people at church, the missionaries, and my friend Skye while in Rome, and now I completely agree with them.

When I got to Cassino I went back to the same hotel I'd stayed at before, and this time the air conditioning was working which was great. First time that trip, aside from some trains. I went to the bus station early only to find that there was no bus station, just a bus stop. I asked a guy where the bus station was and he said I was there. So that meant no information, I just had to ask every bus driver if he was going to Pico. After a couple hours I found one. Well, I got to Pico and took some pictures of the town center.





And this one was down one of the streets.



Unfortunately, I didn't see any more of Pico. I went to a bar that sold the bus tickets for town and tried to get a ticket to Cassino. Sorry, they said, but the last bus to Cassino already came! It was only 12:10. I explained that I needed to get to Rome today because I had a flight to catch, and they said I could take another bus to a different town and catch a train from there. But, that other bus was the LAST bus out of town that day, and it came randomly every day between 12 and 1! So it could have already come, they didn't know. And no taxis came up there, they said. Well, fortunately, I waited at the bus stop and at 12:45, that last bus came. It took me to a random little town and from there I caught a train to Rome with plenty of time to spare. From there it was on to the airport and off to London, then Reading. I am still very sad that I had to leave Italy. I hope to go back some day, it was amazing.