searching for our roots

Today we wrapped up our time in Rome. My genealogist Anne had arranged  taxi service to Fiuggi. it was quite interesting because  Marco spoke very little English. However I managed to communicate with him.

It only took us one and a half hours to get to Fiuggi. .The hotel is amazing it is so beautiful. It is a five star hotel Spa conference center.

After checking in my room I sat down to have a good cry...happy and sad tears. Happy that I'm here. Its been a life long dream of mine as I worked with the family history. I have for years been looking at old postcards from family here. I feel like I already know this town and the people here. Sad tears because for years Dad longed to come. It was his dream too and he never made it.

 Jackie and I decided to walk around the new part of town. The new part consists of an area that was developed in the 40's and 50's. We found some interesting places. A number of them were closed ...this may be off season.

We found the hotel IGEA, a hotel our family was involved in.

While we were walking around we ran into to 2  Polish ladies. they spoke maybe a total of 7 words in English. They were looking for pizza. But we managed to have a full conversation with them. I found out one has been in New York. But they both live near Warsaw. They understood that my grandparents were from Poland. But they were very confused as to why my mother did not teach me polish. With the help of my telephone translator I managed to tell them my mom didn't teach me so she could talk to her sisters privately. They thought that was pretty funny. And they said she was smart. Or at least that's what the  sign language looked like...It was 2 thumbs up. I helped them find pizza and they hugged us when they left as if we were family.

Then we decided  we would go get some dinner. We went into this nice restaurant. The lady seem to think that we were Italian or that we understood Italian. Now between us we have had just a couple classes of the Italian  and we have had many years of Spanish so we were able to decipher the language pretty well. And we were watching their big screen TV and discussing what was going on. It was quite comical to hear her chatter at us and we just nod and smile.

Now it is back to our rooms. We will be going to old town Fiuggi in the morning to visit the streets my grandparents were born on and the church they were married in. I will walk the streets that for years I have walked only in my mind.

There is something going on in the streets..people chanting and whistling. Lots of people are walking down there...wish I knew what was going on.  Too tired to go down there...