A visit to Greci, the town where my grandfather was born

This sign says "Welcome to our town'' in Arbëreshë, the Albanian-Italian language spoken in Greci

It was a chilly, blustery, rainy Sunday in Greci, the town in Southern Italy's Avelino province where my Grandpa Pucci was born. Most everything (meaning the town's one bar, one pharmacy and two shops) was closed, and, unlike our first visit five years ago, we found few people out and about. Rita Diminno, the town's unofficial ambassador to American visitors, was gracious enough to welcome us into her home for a coffee and a visit. What a lovely town this is. Even lovelier are the people who live here - about 700 in all -including about 20 school-age children. The school stays open due to a special provision the Italian government makes for keeping the Arbëreshë language and culture alive.

"As you're driving in, you're driving on what used to be a shepherd's trail,'' I remembered someone telling me. The road is paved, but it still takes about a half-hour of steep driving, winding through the hills to reach it from Ariano Irpino, the nearest town of any size.
My grandfather, Nicolas Pucci, was born here in 1901. His father, Leonardo, my great-grandfather, came to the United States as a young man in the early 1900s. His mother, my great-grandmother, Angiolina Panella, followed a few months later with my grandfather who was about two at the time. They settled in Canton, Ohio. The town offered good job opportunities in construction and in the brick factories. Many people still living there have family ties to Greci.

Rita and me at her home in Greci

There are dozens of small towns like this scattered on the hillsides of Southern Italy, but Greci stands out because it's one of 51 towns in Italy settled by Albanians between the 15th and 18th centuries. The communities call themselves "Arbereshe,'' and the people in these towns speak Albanian as well as Italian. The Pucci and Panella families and most others here are ancestors of Albanian soldiers who settled in Greci sometime in the mid-1400s. The King of Naples invited them to relocate after the Albanian military leader, Skanderbeg, answered a call to help the Italians defeat French-supported insurrections. Greci was originally settled by Greeks, then abandoned. The Albanian soldiers, seeking to escaping the Ottoman invasion of Albania, favored Greci because it was the highest town in the area and presumed safe.

Greci in the background on a blustery April day

Rita was born in Greci, but grew up in Australia where her father, a shoemaker, moved the family to find work. The people in Greci, mainly farmers and shepherds, had little money. They bartered for most things which meant Rita's father couldn't muster the cash he needed to buy leather. Rita came back to Greci for a visit when she was 19, and met and later married her husband, Pino. They lived in Australia for a while, but eventually returned to Greci. Because they both speak English, they often greet visitors from the United States. Once upon a time Greci was a lively town with a cinema, shops, schools etc. Nearly 4000 people lived here in the early 1950s, around the time I was born. People from Naples now own many of the homes. They use them on weekends or in summer to escape the heat. Streets are well-kept, and many of the houses are painted in bright colors.

Greci street scenes

The sight marks a piazza where there once was a cemetery

Southern Italians are truly special people. If you've ever thought twice about visiting the town of your ancestors, don't hesitate, even if you don't know any direct relatives. Everyone will treat you as family. We met Maria Castielli and her husband, Dante Molinario, five years ago in Ariano Irpino near Greci. Maria's mother was born in Greci, but Maria grew up in England. Dante worked for a while in Toronto, so they both speak excellent English.

Dante and his wild asparagus

Maria in her pantry stocked with tomato sauce

They invited us all to their home for dinner last night. "Nothing special,'' they kept saying. Not true! Everything was very special. The prosciutto came from their own pigs which they kill each year. Dante cures the ham with salt and spices, and hangs it from the ceiling of a shed to age for two or three years. kill their own pigs every years, and He got up at 4 a.m. to pick the wild asparagus that went into a tasty frittata.

At the table with our host's home-cured prociutto and asparagus frittata

Tom cutting "pizza bread''

Maria and her 1,200 tea bags

Maria misses a lot of things about living in England, but most especially tea. She can't find a good brand in Italy, so every once and a while, a friend sends a Costco-sized bag of Yorkshire - 1,200 tea bags! She was generous enough to share a few with us on a blustery day.

Agriturismo Regio Tratturo

There are no hotels in Greci, so we stayed Agriturismo Regio Tratturo, about six miles from Greci. It's a very nice family-owned farm with a restaurant popular with locals. The four rooms are comfortable and spacious with modern en-suite bathrooms. Breakfast was a frittata, prosciutto, fresh bread, pancetta, three different freshly-baked pastries and coffee and tea served next to this cozy fireplace. Even though the restaurant is closed on Sunday evenings, they served us a wonderful dinner, starting with antipasti, followed by two types of pasta, beef with tomatoes, and for dessert, tiramisu in little shot glasses. The price for two was 140 euro for two nights lodging, two breakfasts and one dinner, averaging out to 70 euro per night, less than we paid for a room only everywhere else we stayed on our trip.

Alberobello: A Trulli good idea

Our landlord, Mimmo, explaining trulli construction

We're spending three nights in Alberobello in Puglia's Valle d'Itria, an inland area of white-washed hill towns and rolling farmland in the spur of Italy's boot. It’s main draw is its trulli: thousands of little beehive-shaped, mostly windowless limestone houses with domed roofs made of stacked stones.
 

Trulli, old and new

Stories vary as to how and why they came to be. Some mention a resemblance to the ancient round tombs found in the Roman countryside. Built without mortar, using prehistoric building techniques, they were easy to take apart by plucking out stones when the king’s tax collectors showed up, according to one explanation, because as “unfinished structures,” they couldn’t be taxed.

Our home in Alberobello

Abandoned and forgotten for years, the trulli have become a major tourist draw. There are trulli barns and doctor’s offices, homes, pizza parlors, gas stations, souvenir shops and B&Bs. Some are two or three centuries old or more; others are new. The largest concentration of original dwellings — more than 1,000 — are in the historic center of Alberobello, a UNESCO site. Many of them have been rennovated and are rented out as lodgings.

Kitchen table

Ours' is large, one-bedroom suite with a bathroom, kitchen and dining area with curved stone ceilings and archways and tile floors. Trulli e Puglia, the company that did the renovations, owns 13 others and is working on seven more. It's a Palmisano family operation, with Mimmo running the renovation business and his brother, Lorenzo, running the bar where they serve a buffet breakfast.

Many of the trulli have been turned into souvenir shops selling trulli-shaped bottles of limoncello and toy banks. By day, the historical center of Alberobello has become a tourist theme park, catering to busloads of foreign visitors and student groups. In the evening, when the shops close and the tour groups leave, we trulli residents have the town to ourselves.

Evening on Via Monte Nero

Pollignano a Mare

Alberobello is within a short drive of the sea and other interesting towns in Puglia. One of the prettiest is Polignano a Mare, perched atop a 20 metre-high limestone cliff above the Adriatic, We had lunch in the old town, then walked out to this panoramic terrace for gelato and great view.

Giuseppe Tedeschi

Back in Alberbello on our last evening, we found Giuseppe Tedeschi behind the counter in the Delizie chocolate and gelato shop, where Tom and I stopped 10 years ago when we first visited this part of Italy. He’s a candymaker who specializes in hand-made chocolates. His shop is busy during the day, especially when students are in town for field trips, but at night he has time to talk. He was downstairs when we dropped by, but took the time to come upstairs into the shop when I told the clerk we'd like to say "hi." I was happy to see his business survived the economic ups and downs of the last decade. Like nighttime in Alberobello, his confections are truly a treat.

Mysterious Matera: Europe's future Capital of Culture

The Sassi of Matera

Perched on the edge of a deep ravine, modern Matera, a bustling 17th century town with Baroque buildings, shops and cafes, reveals its major tourist attraction only to those who step to the edge, and look out over Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano, two "cave'' neighborhoods spread out below on the slopes of a deep, rocky ravine.

Dug into the stone cliffs below are hundreds of sand-colored caverns (Sassi in Italian) carved out of soft volcanic tufa stone, some with built-up brick fronts and elaborate facades and doorways that make them hard to distinguish from ordinary houses. Layered one on top of the other so that the terraces of some are roofs for others, they're connected not by real streets but by a maze of winding stone passageways starting a few steps away from the edges of the upper town.

Life in the caves, originally dug out by torrents of water, dates back 9,000 years to prehistoric times, making Matera one of the oldest cities in the world. From the eighth to the 13th century, monks used them as refuges, digging out tiny chapels and elaborate churches, leaving behind delicate frescos. Later, whole neighborhoods evolved as cave dwellings were built out to become shops and homes with intricate hydraulic systems to keep the water fresh and cool year-round. Healthy and prosperous for a time, the Sassi began to decay as the new town above developed, Much of the Sassi became homes for poor peasants who used the churches and other dwellings for homes, barns and stables. Finally, about 17,00 residents, mostly poor peasant farmers, were forced by the government to evacuate in the early 1950s after Italian artist and writer Carlo Levi published an account of the squalid living conditions in his book "Christ stopped at Eboli."

Main square of Matera's new town

Antonio Manicone and Matera bread

Today, Matera in the southern Italian region of Basilicata, between Calabria and Puglia, is a Unesco world heritage site and a tourist attraction designated the European Capital of Culture for 2019. The city's population is 60,000, with about 3,000 people living in the sassi. Hotels, restaurants, wine bars, and several companies occupy the ancient cave dwellings. Locals don't always agree about the various new uses, but Matera's revival has been an economic boost to one of Italy's poorest regions. Estimates are about half the dwelling have been renovated, either through private ownership or through a lease arrangement with the government which owns most of the Sassi dwellings. Antonio Manicone, 33, above, our guide on a two-hour walking tour, was born in Matera and went to school in Tuscany. There was a a time when almost no young person would return here to work, he said, but tourism has changed that. Both of his grandmothers once lived in the Sassi, but have no desire to return, even to look at the changes. At the time, almost everyone brought bread dough to be backed in a communal oven. Matera is still famous for the bread - large, knobby loaves shaped to fit as many in the ovens as possible and last for more than a week. As a teenager, Antonio said he and his friends used to come here to hang out in the Sassi, and stake out abandoned dwellings as private "party houses."

It's easy to meet locals who remember what life was like in the Sassi. This man approached us while we were standing on the street corner. It helps that I speak a little Italian. He volunteered that he was born in the Sassi, then walked me down the street to show me some hidden carvings on the front of a stone church.

The Matera cathedral was built in Apulian Romanesque style in the 13th century on the ridge that forms the highest point of the city of Matera and divides the two Sassi. It was closed for the past 12 years for restoration, and just reopened a few weeks ago. The frescoes above are original, but most of the interior of the church was redone in the Baroque style.

Our "street'' in Matera

Nighttime view from our room

Breakfast at Casa Di Ele

We're staying at Casa Di Ele, a small B&B with rooms that overlook the Sassi Caveoso. The owners are a musical family. Tina teaches music. Giuseppe teaches bassoon and their son, Raffale is a student at the Conservatory of Matera. The four rooms and two suites are named after musicians such as Mozart,Verdi, Bach and Pucinni. We're paying 98 euros per night which includes breakfast served in the family home next door, a 17th century building that belonged to Giuseppe's parents. Giuseppe serves the breakfast, and Tina bakes before she goes to work. On the table today were blueberry pastries and slices of lemon cake along with prosciutto, yogurt, juice, a special crusty bread for which Matera is known and little dishes of sweet ricotta cheese and fig compote.

Trattoria Lucana

Mel Gibson scouted the world for a place that looked like ancient Jerusalem when he filmed "The Passion of the Christ," and settled on the sassi. He recruited locals as extras and ate nightly at Antica Trattoria Lucana, where fettuccine alla Mel Gibson is still on the menu. Movies continue to be made in Matera. Everyone is

Filming of Wonder Woman

Looking forward to a new release of Ben Hur which was filmed here last year. Above is a scene from a new Wonder Woman movie that was being filmed while we were visiting.

The highlight of our visit to Matera was dinner with the the Marano family, Bruno, 11; Francesco, 58, a professor of anthropology at the local university; and his wife, Angela Pistoia, 45, an excellent cook and caring mother. We arranged the dinner through an online website called Meal Sharing that pairs travelers with locals willing to host a meal in their home. The hosts set the cost - usually $20-$25 a person including drinks - and they send a proposed menu in advance. Francesco met us in the square next to our B&B. We walked from there to their home on the second floor of a building in town. We chatted in a living room lined with bookshelves while Angela put finishing touches on the meal. The dining room table was set with linens and silver. Soon a platter of antipasti appeared - local sausages, cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Angela followed this with bowls of pasta with mushrooms and sausage and servings of zucchini parmigiana. Next came a salad with fennel and oranges, then fresh strawberries and a beautiful homemade cassata, a Southern Italian layered sponge cake made with ricotta and candied peels. Francesco served his homemade mandarin orange liqueur, made with oranges grown on property the family owns near Sorrento.

Angela and her cassata

The meal was incredible, but what we enjoyed even more was the chance to spend the evening with this family. I think they enjoyed it too, since we were their first guests. It would have been nice if I could speak better Italian, but we managed, As an anthropologist, Francesco is interested in the way food intersects with local culture. He is writing a book on the subject which will be translated into English. I can't wait to read it.

Under the Umbrian sun

Lunchtime in Cortona

I love Italy's train system, but for getting around to small towns, there's nothing like having car. We picked ours' up this morning in Florence, and stopped in the medieval Tuscan hill town of Cortona on the way to Assisi. Cortona is a pretty hill town made famous by Frances Mayes’ bestseller, Under the Tuscan Sun, which was later made into a film. Artisans, well-kept parks and squares, historical sites and beautifully-preserved medieval architecture keep the town alive. Yes, there are bus loads of tourists and student groups, but we managed to arrive for lunch just about the time most of the groups were leaving. Tiny restaurants such as the

La Grotta

Trattoria La Grotta, tucked into a courtyard off the Plaza de la Republica, can't accommodate big crowds. Anticipating a special dinner later at the agriturismo in Assisi where we'll be staying for two nights, we shared portions of a ricotta and spinach gnocchi with tomato sauce and a platter of grilled eggplant, peppers and zucchini. Splitting dishes seems to be acceptable these days, as does ordering "out of order,'' meaning you can have just a salad (normally served at the end of the meal), or only a pasta dish, traditionally a first-course. One of the most valuable words I learned in an Italian class last year was "condividere," to share.

Under the Umbrian sun in Assisi

Letizia and Nancy at Alla Madonna del PIato

Tuscany gets a lot of attention, but I like Umbria, the province next door. It's just as beautiful and bountiful, but less known than Tuscany, especially among Americans. We're staying at Alla Madonna del Piatto, a farmhouse B&B near Assisi. Many in Seattle, Portland and Palm Springs are now familiar with Letizia Mattiacci, author of the cookbook, "A Kitchen with a View," and owner of the Alla Madonna Del Piato. Letizia was in Seattle earlier this year, doing cooking classes, giving talks and promoting her book which will be available at the Cafe Umbria in Pioneer Square as well as on Amazon.com etc. Letizia and her Dutch husband, Ruurd de Jong, gave up careers as entomologists to buy and renovate the abandoned farmhouse built centuries ago as a refuge for shepherds. Tom and I first met them 12 years ago when the inn was just a year old, and I was doing a story for The Seattle Times travel section. Tonight we, along with Al and Nancy (my sister-in-law pictured here), had a family dinner with Letizia, Ruurd and their daughter, Tea. Letizia called it a "simple'' meal, but it was fantastic, starting with Pane carasau, a Sardinian crisply flat bread baked twice, accompanied by an artichoke and lemon salad with toasted almonds. The main course was a creamy polenta, stone ground on an antique mill, and served with tomato sauce and asparagus. Dessert was home-made ice cream with caramelized figs and her house-made elderflower liquor. Letizia gives cooking classes here in Assisi. Need I say more?

Alla Madonna sits on a hill overlooking Assisi and its major site, the Basilica of Saint Francis. St. Francis was born in Assisi in 1182, and construction on the basilica began two years after his death in 1228. Between the end of the 13th century and beginning of the 14th, the basilica's walls were frescoed by some of the best-known artists of the time. The first time we visited Assisi, we spent several days exploring the town, iits museums and backstreets. We only had about a half-day this time, enough to walk the length of the town and visit the basilica

Assisi

Assisi is Umbria's most well-known hill town, but there are many others. We spent the morning visiting Gubbio, an hour's drive into the mountains. Like Asssi, it's a well-preserved medieval town, with many 14th and 15th century houses scattered up the hillside on either side of steep alleyways. An elevator connects the lower levels of the town to the upper. A funicular takes people two at a time in small cages to the top of a mountain where there's a church, and it's possible to hike to a castle.

Gubbio is the location where Saint Francis of Assisi met the wolf, probably the metaphor of an outlaw that was converted to Christianity and reconciled with the citizens of the town by the saint. We visited here on

Tug-of-war in Gubbio.

a Sunday, always a good day to soak up the local culture in Italy. Two teams competing in a tug-of-war drew crowds of cheerleaders on the main piazza. Reservations for Sunday lunch at good restaurants are a good idea, since many close in the evening. The one recommended to us was booked, so we decided to take our chances, and see what we might find on our drive back to Assisi. We settled for the Italian equivalent of a truck stop called the "Pit Stop," similar to the famous Auto Grills scattered along the exits of most Italian freeways. Places like the Pit Stop and the Auto Grill chain serve the gourmet equivalent of fast food, aimed at discerning Italian motorists and truckers. We ordered tuna salads - big bowls of greens sprinkled with big chunks of tuna, anchovies, whole green olives, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes. With wine, bread and a cappuccino, the meal was a bargain at about $17 for two.

A vegan inn, 19th century palazzo and limoncello on the house : That'sItalian

You never know who (or what) you're going to run into in Italy

A poster in the kitchen reminds guests that being vegan "saves animals one bite at a time." The frig is stocked with vanilla and chocolate soy milk. A painting of a smiling Buddha hangs above the the table. Words like “vegan’’ don’t usually apply when it comes to airport hotels. Neither do $75 per night rooms with free Wi-Fi, breakfast, a bottle of wine and en- suite baths. That's what we found at the Vegan Inn Airport B&B, next to Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport on the Via delle Vongole (Street of Clams) in the seaside town of Fiumicino.

The Vegan In 

Anyone who has tried to figure out how to make an early morning flight out of Rome without either spending $50 on a taxi, or overnighting at the expensive Hilton inside the airport, will appreciate this find. The four-room inn is a five-minute drive from the airport, and 40 minutes by bus to the center of Rome. We stayed here on our first night of a two-week trip to Italy so we could be at the airport early the next morning to meet Tom's brother, Al, and his wife Nancy, who were flying in from Ohio. The owners, Daniele and Rosa, supply a breakfast that includes no animal products. They welcome guests with pets, and provide bowls of water and a free vegan snack. A bit quirky, for sure, but convenient and very comfortable, with large bedrooms and modern bathrooms. We arrived late in the afternoon, tired but not too tired to go into Rome for the evening. After a dinner of zucchini and tomato pasta and eggplant Parmasean at Est, an organic restaurant near the Campo Di Fiori, we had time to swing around to the Piazza Navona and stop for gelato before catching the 8:50 p.m. bus back to the inn and falling into bed

Piazza Navona

The next morning it was off to Florence on a train directly from the airport. Transportation seems to improve every time we visit. The trip now takes just 2.5 hours on the high-speed Frecciargento ($25). When we first started coming to Italy many years ago, the trip took 4 hours. Our hotel, the Residenzia Johanna 1, is in an elegant, 19the century palazzo, just outside the main tourist zone, a 15-minute walk to the Duomo and most of the major sites. Rooms are around $100,with breakfast.

The view from our balcony in Florence

Our balcony overlooks a kindergarten schoolyard with a lively afternoon recess. We won't be doing much afternoon napping, but we will be eating well. After a short stroll around the Dumo before dinner, I was happy to discover that a restaurant we found here 12 years ago - Antica Trattoria da Tito - is still here, on the same corner it's been since 1913. For about $20 each, we had a huge antipasti - all sorts of cured meats, cheeses, artichokes, roasted garlic, sun dried tomatoes - plus wine, four portions of gnocchi with broccoli and limoncello on the house served by some very friendly waiters.

Al and our waiter at da Tito

13th century mosaics in the Duomo Bapistery

Florence now restricts cars and tour buses inside the historical center. Many of the streets are pedestrianized, making it easy to walk around and enjoy the city without traffic noise or congestion. We're finding mid-April is a great time to travel in Italy, just after Easter and before the summer tourist season. The Piazza del Duomo, the center of religious life in Florence for centuries, feels relatively uncrowded. We have been able to visit most of the major sites without long waits in line. Tom and his brother waited about an hour to walk the 463 steps to the top of the cathedral dome, but could have avoided even that by making a reservation for a timed entry. We did buy tickets online in advance to see Michaelango's David in the Academia Gallery, and with a timed reservation for late in the day, bypassed a short line outside.

Built by Filippo Brunelleschi who won the competition for its commission in 1418, the dome in the Florence was made without scaffolding.

Michaelangelo's David

Happy hours have caught on in Italy. The bars compete by throwing In a spread of free appetizers with the price of a drink. Popular is the bright orange Aperol Spritz - Aperol, procecco and soda water. We got more than our money's worth of entertainment when a fire truck came blaring down the street as we were sitting at a sidewalk table. The street was too narrow for the truck to make it through, forcing us to move our table back from the sidewalk, and forcing Tom against the wall for a close-up encounter with the driver.

All of this took place around the Mercato Di San Lorenzo, a hub of activity during the day when leather, scarf and souvineer vendors set up their stalls, and late into the evening when a gourmet food court stays open until 10 p.m. on the top floor of an indoor farmer's market arcade. Most of the craft stalls these days are operated by immigrants selling goods made outside of Italy.

Norman at his stall in the San Lorenzo market

This vendor told me business has been slow since the Paris bombings.. Asian tourists are among his best customers, especially Koreans, but many have cancelled trips. Norman comes from Bangladesh. He's lived in Florence for three years and speaks fluent English. He gave me a good price on a scarf. It was probably made in China, but I liked it and liked him, and was happy to give him his first sale of the day.

Young Italians are changing the traditional ways Italians eat. For travelers, that means it's often possible to eat well (meaning something other than pizza by the slice) outside the usual 1-3p.m. lunch hours and before the start of dinner at 7:30 or 8 p.m. A good example is the gourmet food court on the top floor of the San Lorenzo market. It's open until 10 p.m. or later, with stalls selling made-on-the-spot salads, cured meats and cheeses, pasta dishes etc. Waiters come around taking orders for beer and wine. After a long day on the train visiting Pisa and the incredibly over-touristed Cinque Terre, the four of arrived back in Florence, and ended up here instead of a restaurant. We had fun going off in all directions, picking out what we each wanted, then meeting up at a table to enjoy an elegant evening snack.

A very special price on a prized truffle

That's a wrap for the first three days of our latest Italian adventure. Onto Assisi, and then south to Matera, Apulia, Greci and Naples.