Fantastico!

Yesterday we probably had the signature experience of our Italian visit. In anticipation of our visit, Georgia and Mary had been in contact with some distant relatives that still lived in the ancestral village near Lucca.

With some confusion (it seems to be national condition) we succeeded in buying train tickets from our Tuscan staging point, Montecatini for Sunday morning, and met the first of our shirt tail relatives at the train station, where they recognized G & M from the IPad photos I sent the day before.

Before taking us back to their home village, only a few kilometers from Lucca, for some more sights of Lucca, and a splash of cappuccino.

After another tour of Lucca, we loaded up in their small SUV, and headed to Paganico, home village of many of the Italian immigrants to, Eureka, Calif.

Three generations of Italian women, from right to left, Sarah, Gabriella, and Apinini, and father, husband, and son, Angelo.

After meeting more family, we were taken to see the parish church. Italians seem inordinately fond of their churches, at least to my jaded ex-Protestant side. The church shares a priest with two other villages, so they had to find the local care taker to let us in.

Afterwards we headed back to the home to the reigning patriarch, and home vintner,Luigi, and his wife, Liliana, where we all gathered for a lunch that was truly unbelievable. Course after course, pasta, antipasti, homemade bread (Liliana still bakes bread for the whole family each week in a wood fired oven despite having a modern kitchen), Luigi's white wine, and store bought chianti, cappuccino, a rich chocolate dessert, and finally, the liqueurs, including bourbon, scotch, grappa, and something I had that was flavored with Italian herbs, perhaps sage and rosemary (my best guess).

Finally, it was time to say arive derce, and we gathered in the back yard for a series of group photos.

Just a shot of the old well and water basin for wasting clothes, no longer need, but still operational in the back yard.

Angelo and Gabriella drove us all back in time to clean up in time for our wine dinner with the tour group.

I highly recommend everyone get a surrogate Italian family in Itally, and visit them often.