October 6, 2024–Today started out with a bit of uncertainly because it is Sunday, and we did not know what time Mass would be. People in town told us yesterday that they believed it would be at 11 o’clock; however, they did not seem 100% certain, and we could not readily verify the Mass time/s on the internet. We decided to go to the Church in Coreglia before 10:30, just in case. Thus, we got to the Piazza with the Church, and the parking spots were already all filled. As Dad tried to park the car somewhere should a space be found, I walked downhill a little bit toward the Fort. That’s when I met a kind and friendly man in one of he house courtyards, and he referred me to an older gentleman walking uphill toward the Church. “This man will know everything and everyone, maybe,” he said, and called him over to us. This older gentleman immediately said, “Yes, I know Angelo Carzoli! He was my friend! We worked together! He was married to a tiny, pretty, elegant woman from Tiglio who was a very good seamstress”! I said, “yes, those were my father and my mother! We lived in the Fort.” “Yes”, he replied, “your mother was a very talented seamstress! She had lots of people going to her for sewing. She had lots of work! There is also a woman who is still living in town here who said she used to go to the Fort to learn how to sew from your mother. Maybe she will be at Mass. If she is, I will introduce her to you.” “You are correct! My mother taught three younger women how to sew. I remember Luana, Violetta, and I could not remember the name of the third. But they might remember me because we used to have processions around the Fort with the tall wooden bed posts from the furnishings therein,…”. “Her name is Mirella, we were just talking about the Forte recently! Your father and I worked together in the Gesso Figurines factory in town! Your father did not stay there long, though, because I don’t think that working with Figurines was his forte. Then, your father and someone he knew from Fornaci (my father’s birthplace) started a baking/breadmaking shop here in town. That shop is not there any longer. It did not last long. But it was right there in the smaller piazza where there is now a butcher shop and Bar Roma right next door. But, I don’t know what happened with that enterprise. Then, your father went looking for work, always looking for work, always traveling from one place to the other, didn’t stay long at any one place, maybe a day or so, and then he would move on.” “Yes, he would often tell me even in the States when I asked where he was going. ‘A zonzo,’ he would reply”. “A zonzo, yes, that’s exactly what he would do,” the gentleman laughed. “But one day, he went somewhere, maybe La Spezia (not far from Carrara, where his mother, my grandmother was born), and he did not return at night. It appears that he travelled without the necessary identification documents, and he was detained by the local police overnight. It took some calls to and from the Coreglia Comune to verify the authorities that he should be released and permitted to return home.” Then, this kind gentleman walked with us up and down steep hills to tell me about the names of who lived in what house, where the old school where both he and I went (it is now the Museum of Gesso and Immigration), about Signora Bice, my teacher and his, as well, at some point (she is now deceased, but her daughter is still alive, he explained), about the grocery store I used to walk to for my mother when she needed something small (the store, Tubo, is still there, and the family still owns/runs it), about the fabric store where my mother and other town seamstresses shopped for sewing materials (it is now sealed behind steel doors), where the Moscardini (my godmother, Tosca’s, and my Aunt Anna’s husband’s family) lived, about “Angelo’s brother and his family” (my Uncle Livio, Aunt Clara, Rosella, Marisa, and Amilcare) who lived a couple of houses from the Forte, “but then they went somewhere, I don’t know where”, where my mother’s good friend Vanda, also a seamstress, lived, and so on. WHAT A FIND! Now, because he used to be vice-mayor of Coreglia for several years, he has contacts in the Comune of Coreglia. He is going to ask for the keys to the Fort so that perhaps we can tour it, and so on! This wonderful gentleman and we are scheduled to have breakfast in the piazza by San Michele Church this Friday morning! I cannot wait! WHHAT A FIND! WHAT A FIND! WHAT A GIFT!
We went to Mass at the Church in which I was baptized, perhaps received my Sacraments of First Communion, and Confirmation, and where my mother would bring me whenever she felt to go to the Vespro, a mid-day prayer service. This Church of San Michele and Mass at San Michele were FANTASTIC! The whole experience of meeting this new friend and Mass at this special Church were so emotional for me! What’s more, there are wild white doves, like the peace doves one sees in pictures, that just fly around the rooftops of these houses and right by the Church. The Church itself has one white peace dove at the center of the dome over the altar, unlike so many other Churches with ornate this or ornate that. Just.so.very.touching! Mirella was not in Church this day, but my new friend said he is going to try to get her to meet with us on Friday morning for our breakfast together.
The rest of the morning, Dad and I retraced many of my steps through town. I even found my beloved chestnut trees and wild cyclamens and moss that Nonno (my father and I) gathered at Christmastime for our nativity scene!
We headed to the Coreglia cemetery, not knowing who we might find there, if anyone. I did find Marchettis, Bernardinis (one of my favorite people’s—at the time, I thought she was beautiful and so nice—, my mother’s first cousin, Ada’s, grave was there), Moscardinis (my godmother, Tosca’s, grave was there), and even one or two Baccis! So exciting! Now, I know there are many other cemeteries I’d like to haunt nearby, and we hope to be able to get to all of them! Because—
—A major reason for returning to my native land was to meet with some surviving members of our family! Yesterday, we had the supreme privilege of having late afternoon coffee and snacks in Fornaci with Massimo Carzoli and Pier Anna, his wife, and with Liana Corti, Massimo’s first cousin on my fatther’s father’s side, my Nonno Carzoli. We also had the pleasure of meeting with her husband, Franco! WHAT A THRILL! The hugs we share are FAMILY hugs, we could feel our familial blood thump together for that short but meaningful while! We are so grateful that they were willing and able to bend their Sunday schedule to meet with us who haven’t been in physical contact for many, many years!
Finally, we found a pizza place, Traposo, in Fornaci that had the BEST pizza and calzone we’ve had in Italy to date!
What a day, what a day, what a day this has been!
Our Travels 