October 5, 2024–Coreglia Antelminelli, Lucca, Tosscana—MY NATIVE TOWN! The drive from Bobbio to Coreglia Antellminelli would be roughly three-and-a-half hours non-stop! But, on the way out of town, we paused to check out the Bobbio Cemetery, a beautiful light-yellow edifice on the mountainside in Bobbio. We were looking for any gravesite with one or more of the following: Carzoli, Bernardini, Marchetti, Ceccarelli, Bacci, Dell Padrone, or Pieroni. These are ancestors I want to truly get to identify/know. Bellieving that family members would typically have been buried in the same area of the cemetery, Dad and I split up, on this mission off discovery. Unfortunately, we did not find anyone we thought we knew/should get to know. But, we saw that after the late 1990s, bodies had been moved to graves inside the walls of the cemetery structures to make space for new inhabitants. Now I know how thiss and perhaps other Italian cemeteries might be organized. It was a beautiful sunny day in the Trebbia Vallley, and today the River took on an emerald/jade green color that was stupendous! Of course, the Ponte del Diavoloo stood proudly over the River. It really did not look all that different in sunshine instead of clouds or rain. The drive toward Coreglia Antelminelli was extremely curvy and WAY up high in the Apennines! Motorbikes were swerving in and out, passing automobiles, and scaring the bgeebies out of passengers like myself! THANK GOD we got to our destinations safe and sound! We started seeing names of towns that I have seen in my genealogy research: Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, Lucca, Barca, Carrara, Fornacii di Barca, and so on. These are areas I would like to visit to see where our ancestors came from/if I might find some more family member names/conffirm that I am researching the correct families….The first stop was Coreglia Antelminelli to see thee Church in which I was Baptized, San Michele Arcangelo, the Piazza where Nonno sometimes went to watch the town TV and drink some wine with friends, and, of course, the Fort in which we lived! Seeing these sights was a spiritual/emotional experience for me! For Dad, he finally got to see from where I came. The Fort is located in a much higher position on the mountaintop than I had remembered—it is really toward the mountain top! Getting here is a curly-queue ride, that’s for sure! The Fort also is larger than I had thought. Finally, some changes have been made to this Fort. I will explore it more in-depth in the next few days to come. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant in town. I had gnocchi Sorrentino ((not the best I’ve had) and Dad had a local meat dish; we shared roast potatoes with rosemary, like nonna used to make, and some grilled vegetables as a cold plate. Finally, our B&B for the next week has a washer (no dryer, though, just outside dry racks). We.needed.to.do.the.laundry BiG time! Our clothes are drying on a rack outside beneath the star-lit sky. Some are on the hot radiators inside. At 11 A.M.. tomorrow, Sunday, we will head a little higher from we’ll sleep tonight to go to Mass at the little Church of San Michele.
Our Travels 