Memories From Half My Life Ago And Saying Goodbye

So this has been 12 years in the making.  It has been almost exactly 12 years since I was last in Atina.  Ever since we came last time, I have been begging my grandma to bring me back.  I didn’t appreciate it last time I was there.  Though I had had fun with my cousins, I was too young to really appreciate where we were and the history of the place and what it meant to my family.  Now I am older and I really care about out family history and where we come from.  A huge reason of why I wanted to learn Italian was to be able to communicate with my family and to be able to come back here.

Our first day here we kind of explored the city center a bit and I was trying to remember some of the places we came to when I was younger.  The restaurant we went to for breakfast I remember being constantly filled with the older men (this has not changed for the most part), I remember the shape of the center and the ramp leading up to the arch, and I thought I remembered where the good pizza place was (I did not).  I also could not remember which road down led to Uncle Ollie’s house.  We went to Sora for a little jaunt and it happened to be the day of the mercato!  We briefly walked around as we tried to find WiFi.  I had assumed that Atina would not have any anywhere, though later we discovered that was not true.  Instead, we got to have some coffee and pastries at this rad and modern cafe that used a french press to infuse tea with different flavors.  It was on our list of places to hopefully revisit before we leave.

The next morning at breakfast we met Uncle Ollie’s brother, who I have always heard referred to as Gelarduce (sp?) but who introduced himself as Gerardo and now Laura doesn’t believe that we call him by his nickname.  He told us that whenever we were ready he would take us to see the house and anywhere else we wanted to go.  After lunch it was.  He took us to the house and showed us around.  It is amazing how your mind remembers things.  The house is so much bigger than I remember, but the patio was so much smaller.  I remember sitting on the ledge above the driveway talking to Ollie.  I remember all of us kids sitting in a circle in the driveway talking to Tommy as he told us stories.  I remember a huge party on the patio and in this extra garage where we had a huge dinner every night it seemed.  I remember when some/all of my cousins decided to climb up this huge hill to check out this ruin castle thing.  It all started coming back to me.  However, now, I have no idea how all those people fit there.  Someday, I hope we can all try again. (I’m looking at you, DeLucas, next time come with me!)  Then we went back to his house and looked at more pictures and heard more stories.  Antonella, his daughter, had told us that he could talk all day and that when we wanted him to stop to turn off the switch, but I loved hearing everything he had to say and Laura can talk to anyone.  Along with Atina, Gerardo also took us to Picinisco on Friday so that I could see where my grandma had grown up.  We didn’t go to the house because it is up a steep hill, but he did take us to what is left of the castle up on top of the hill.

Overall our time in Atina was very peaceful.  We got to rest and explore at our own rate because we had a car.  That was one thing I loved about Greve, we weren’t tied to the timetables of public transportation.  We went for a couple drives, just to see what was around, we went to the beach for a couple hours and didn’t have to leave like 3 hours early for a 1 hour trip in order to account for bus stops, and we were going to go to the Abruzzo National Park, but we waited too late so instead we just drove around to Cassino and then back up to Sora.  Driving in the mountains was less terrifying than I remembered, but still scary at times.  Siri liked to give us directions that included like a tiny gravel road at what seemed like a 50 degree incline only wide enough for one car and no guardrails. I was actually pretty impressed that google maps knew about these roads, but I also wish there was an “Avoid death trap roads” option.  It was like my phone knew that I was leaving Italy soon and was trying to take matters into it’s own hands to keep me there.

Our last day there was like the day that everything went wrong.  The place for Laura to print her ticket didn’t have internet so we had to go find another place, the place we went for gelato in Sora was awful, Antonella had to go to Naples for a few hours for something and so the restaurant was closed that night and we couldn’t have dinner there (such good food! Did I mention how good the food was?), Gerardo was late saying goodbye to us so we went to another place for dinner but it was closed, then we were going to get pizza but we thought that was closed too, and then as we ate at the cafe next door we saw other people with pizza.  Oh, I almost forgot, we also got stopped by the police!  I think it was just random stops, because they were set up on the road and stopping people going both directions.  I was worried because I didn’t have my passport (Fun Fact: I actually did, I just didn’t realize it) and I didn’t know what they were doing.  Basically though, the man loved us because we talked in Italian and because Laura shares a last name with a famous Italian singer and everyone gets excited about it.  He just looked over our documents, asked why we were in Italy and where we got the car from, and then sent us on our way.

Today Laura and I parted ways.  After waking up at 3:30 to get the car back before getting to the airport in time for her morning flight, we said our goodbyes.  Here is a brief breakdown of my day: wake up at 3:30, hit the road by 4, return car around 5:30, get to the airport by 6, part ways at 7:30, shuttle from one airport to the train station at 8, shuttle from train station to other airport at 9:30, shuttle from airport to hotel at 10:30, internet things and Facebook time until lunch, awful lunch at the hotel, nap for 4 hours, dinner, and not a single moment spent sight seeing.  Now I am laying in my hotel room alone for the first time in a month and Laura is with her family in Sicily.  Tomorrow will be another day of traveling as I go back to the hotel and then the long long LONG flight home.  As sad as I am to go home, I am also really excited.  I have more thoughts, but this post has gone on long enough.