2018 Italy Vacation, Day 13: Vernazza to Levanto to San Marco D'urri and back to Levanto

Today is the day, the whole trip was designed around.  Years before, Kathi had travelled to Italy with her mother and Grandmother, and it was my hope that they would visit the small town where Kathi's great-grandmother was born - the home of her ancestors - San Marco D'Urri.  Unfortunately, that never happened, so we were back to make that connection with Kathi's ancestral past.

Arriving back in Levanto, we walked through the market on our way to Hotel Oasi.

We window shopped a little, had a pizza snack, and took one last brief tour of Levanto. 

We picked up the car from Hotel Oasi, booked another night at the hotel for our return, and then steered the car northwest along the coast towards Genoa.   It would take us approximately an hour and a half to get to San Marco D'Urri.  

At Suea, we veered inland travelling in the valley between two mountainous regions.  Near Cicagna, the road bordered, crossed, and danced with a local stream.  I could feel the Tenkara rod in my hand, but its time would have to wait.  

We stopped for some cash at the ATM and said hello to Christopher Columbus. 

He was born in the Republic of Genoa and I guess Cicagna was claiming him as their own.

At a nondescript intersection we turned off SP225 and onto Localita Acqua Ognio and started winding our way up into the mountains.  

 Just seeing the sign that we were near brought tears to Kathi's eyes.   More signs leading the way...

 We hoped to also visit Crovara, where, according to the Ellis Island transcripts, Kathi's great-grandfather was born - in the village adjoining San Marco D'Urri.

As we climbed, the character of the sparsely populated mountainside villages was revealed.  We didn't know it at the time, but the church in the center of the photo below is the church of San Marco D'Urri.

 We had arrived...

 The first building we came to was the church.  We were told, if we wanted to find out about Kathi's family, this is where the records would be found.  It was Sunday and we were hopeful that someone would be around to help us, but we found the church deserted. 

 We checked all the entrances, but the church was locked up tight. That was disappointing, but Kathi felt, just being here, she had accomplished what she wanted in visiting the birthplace of her Italian ancestors.  

The marker below identifies that the bell tower was inaugurated (at 31 meters high?) on the 30th of August 1873....Angelo Ferretto (one of Kathi's ancestors).... and restored in 1990 thanks to the contributions of the population.

 This fountain was in the courtyard of the church commemorating two American brothers, Victor and Joseph Saturno, who became significant benefactors of the town.  (Read more about this story below).  

The view from the church courtyard...

Happy Kathi

We had made a book of photos of Kathi's great aunts and uncles, wedding pictures of her grandmother and grandfather, photos of soldiers preparing to go to war, all in the hopes that we could share a connection with anyone we met.  Since no one was around the church and she wanted to leave, Kathi inscribed a note in Italian on the inside cover of the photo book and we left it on the door latch to the back entrance to the church.  

She wanted to go now.

But I persisted.  We were here, we had come all this way, we had the whole day, why not poke around a bit?

Just 100 meters down the road, we came to the village mausoleum.  

We entered the iron gate and found many of Kathi's Ferretto ancestors within, like Argentina...

 

In fact, the majority of the tombs were for Ferrettos.

Kathi began documenting the information about the relatives she had never known, but rather quickly became overwhelmed, and I took up the task. 

Out of respect, I am not publishing the photos of her other ancestors' final resting place.


After I had finished and we had payed our last respects, Kathi again felt satisfied that her pilgrimage was complete.  Honoring her wishes I turned the car around and headed back down the mountain.

Since we had to pass the church on the way down, I suggested we stop to see if anyone had retrieved the photo book.  As we approached the church, we found two men working in the courtyard, cleaning a grill.  Kathi approached, spoke to them briefly, and then motioned to have me join her.

Kathi was explaining about her great grandmother ("bisnonna") as the two men perused the book and peppered each other with Italian.  They quizzed Kathi about her great grandmother's name, Amelia, her name, her grandmother's name, great grandfather's name and such to figure out the connections.

Enrico asked me my name and when I said Kevin, he repeated it and said Kevin 'is no Italian'.  I told him it was Irish, and he laughed and said Irish is OK because they built Italy.  (apparently Irish stone masons helped build a lot of the Italian churches).  

Enrico got on his cell phone and started calling around to see if anyone in San Marco D'Urri could remember Ameila.

Unsuccessful, Enrico jumped into the car and he guided us into the village where he knocked on doors and called out to neighbors...

"Hey Joe!   Joe!"

We were reminded that for anyone still alive to have known Kathi's "bisnonna", they would have to be near 100 years old - not impossible, but perhaps improbable.  Still we wandered around San Marco D'Urri looking for clues.
Enrico with our photo book in hand.

 

 One of the many backyard gardens...

Below is a monument to Leopold and Theresa Saturno who emigrated to Reno Nevada in 1879.  Leopold worked as a farm hand, and built a fortune in ranching and real estate.  Leopold was an orphan and had been adopted by the Avanzino family in San Marco D'Urri.  He never forgot the kindness he received from his adoptive family and the townspeople and frequently made mention of it to his two sons, Victor and Joseph.  The two sons became wealthy in their own right and after their father's death, as a tribute, provided each person in San Marco D'Urri with 25 shares of Bank of America stock valued at 800,000 lire or about $1,215 - a small fortune at the time. See: 
(http://sfliguri.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/voxe2.pdf

 The plaque reads something like '...with unanimous impulse he dedicates perennial attestation of praise and gratitude...'

A simple shed for storage...

 Homes perched on the side of the mountain.

Unfortunately, after a fair amount of legwork, we struck out in our hunt for living ancestors in San Marco D'Urri so Enrico then took us to Crovara to see if there was anyone there who might remember Kathi's great grandfather ("bisnonno").

Like San Marco D'Urri, Crovara was a simple village of about 15 homes, where residents all knew one another, lived a simple life, raised produce in their gardens, and perhaps had a small vineyard to make some wine.  

We passed this old overgrown building, which I would have loved to poke around, but felt the time wasn't right and that it wouldn't be respectful, so I just snapped a few pictures.

I'm sure this building comes with a story!

Looking southwest, out across the mountains,  you wouldn't know that the Ligurian coast is a scant 15 miles away - we were a 90 minute drive from Portofino!

We couldn't find anyone around in Crovara that remembered either Kathi's besnonna or besnonno, so we returned Enrico back to the church.  Once we got there, Gabriella was waiting for us - she had the keys to the church and was going to open it up so we could see inside.

 Again, the questions were asked.  When was your great grandmother born; when did she leave San Marco D'Urri; was she married?  After some discussion, we had narrowed down a date range as to when besnoona was likely born and, of course then, when she was most likely baptized. 

The church was opened, and Gabriella headed straight for a metal cabinet, unlocked it, and revealed all the churches baptism records going back as far as they had been recorded.

 Gabriella located and pulled the ledger from the 1800s and laid it out on the large wooden rectory counter.

Page by page, she carefully, searched for the record of Kathi's besnonna.  Gabriella and Enrico read the entries, and their banter suggested they were remembering souls that lived and died in San Marco D'Urri.

We were on pins and needles with each pause of a page turn.

 And then she found it. Aimilia Ferretto - born in 1893.  Being that it was in a church ledger, the language was not Italian, but Latin.

As best I can translate the text, it reads:  'In the year of our age one thousand eight hundred and ninety three years... I baptized the baby... on the 19th of February in the eleventh hour of the afternoon for Andrew Ferretto whose name is derived from Tacchini Chatharini Coringi by Aimelia Levanty... Avangino George Felix and Maria Vivtoria Coregli parent of this treaty ... Dominick Giniffra'

 If anyone can correct my Latin transcription, please do!

In the left hand of the ledger, under Aimilia's name, the ledger indicates she was married to Amedeo Gelso in New York in the church Madonna di Pompei (http://www.ourladyofpompeiinyc.com/), October 18, 1913 - so she was 20 years old.  So even across the sea, the records were maintained.

Amazing!

Next, Gabriella unlocked the doors to the church interior so we could see inside - a beautiful church for such a small community!

Notwithstanding the bell tower, I believe we were told the church was originally built in the 1500s.  No detail was spared - even the ceilings were lavishly decorated!

 

The devotionals were simple and elegant - paying tribute to the Virgin Mary.

 

 

 Some of the other relics in the church...  Was this a stand used to support a small statue?

 Kathi was allowed to light a candle and say a prayer before taking our leave of the church.  Kathi and Gabriella (also a Ferretto and with a strong family resemblance) exchanged email to stay in touch.

One of the most touching moments was when Gabriella was still holding our photo book and asked Kathi what she was going to do with it.  We had made it to give to someone and Kathi offered it to Gabriella. Gabriella thanked her for it and put it in the metal file cabinet with all the other historic church records - and so that is where it will be.

What an amazing experience; we could not have dreamed of anything better!  Everyone was so nice to us and stopped what they were doing to help us out and show us around.  Gabriella and Enrico explained that the village used to support as many as 2000 people, but now it only had 30 permanent residents.  They said so many people leave San Marco D'Urri that they really appreciated anyone who made such an effort to come back and honor their roots.   

With hugs and handshakes all around, we wiped a few tears, and descended down the twisty mountain road for our drive back to Levanto.