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We arrived on Monday after a long rainy, foggy drive. Lance wins the husband of the year award (again!) for navigating a rather big car by Italian standards through the hills and switchbacks of southern Calabria. The trip ended in the village where my great grandparents emigrated from – called San Fili. The closest city is called Cosenza. We arrived and found a place for dinner where we were definitely the only English speakers. We had a wonderful dinner and headed back to the B&B to get some rest for Tuesday.
We’ve been calling today (Tuesday, May 2nd) “documents day” when referring to our plans. Today was the day that I hired a local Calabrian woman to come along with us for the day as a translator and guide. We had a zoom meeting a few months ago when I was still in the states. Her name is Alessandra and she went over and above with the task at hand. She met us at our B&B and we went directly to the office of the Comune. This office is the one that houses all the birth, marriage and death records. As I have noted in the ancestry part of this website, I already have all the documents required for my request for acknowledgment of citizenship, so today’s visit was just to see the books in person and look through whatever we would have access to. Our first stop was with Barbara at the Comune. We were able to quickly find the documents for Angela Maria and Guiseppe Maria from 1878 and 1880, respectively. Then we quickly found the wedding certificate from 1900. We also looked for the birth records of the two siblings of my grandfather who were born in Italy. The time looking at these records was interesting and we believed we learned some new information about my family. We have a bit of research to do now to see if we can follow the details.
Next we were invited upstairs where the Deputy Mayor named Antonio Romeo complete with his Italian flag Mayoral sash waited us to meet us and hear about our family. Also there was a councilman who speaks English named Mario Lio who helped translate. They both knew a few of the people we knew and definitely recognized the surnames of our family. Mr. Romeo presented me with a certificate welcoming me and my family to San Fili, along with a small San Fili banner and a lovely bouquet of flowers. I was stunned and so emotional — even Alessandra had tears in her eyes.
Here is the translation of the certificate:
MUNICIPALITY OF SAN FILI with ROOTS TOURISM
THE MAYOR AND THE MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION WELCOMES
Elisabeth Robertson
and her family who, on a journey in search of their “roots”, have arrived in the village of San Fili, an enchanted land with the mysterious charm of the sorceresses.
SAN FILI, 02 MAY 2023
THE MAYOR AVV. LINDA CRIBARI
The part about the sorceresses is interesting. I just read a bit about it online and wrote this separate post that explains the legend. I plan to continue reading about this in a book they gave me about San Fili but the book is written in Italian so now I have some homework to do 🙂
After our visit to the Comune, Alessandra took us to the church where my grandparents were likely married. It’s up a very steep hill, not accessible by car. It is beautiful and ancient and I felt very happy to stand in the church and look at some of the same things they might have seen while they were being married. We headed back down to the piazza where we had a typical Calabrian lunch at a little top in town. It was very good but also had some foods I had never seen before including some type of jellied pork that was cured in vinegar, salt and water which I did not enjoy at all. The next place we stopped was a local marker honoring the San Filese emigrants who had left for the Americas. The rock marks a huge old Chestnut tree that says “Life… you gave me and my first love. I will never forget you, my San Fili” This rock was from 1982 but still speaks to the importance to San Fili of their people who left. We finished our day with a drive down to the village of Bucita — this is the village where my great grandparents were born and we were able to go into the church where they were likely baptised. I hope to get the church records at some point, but I suspect that will happen on another visit and when I am a bit more fluent in my Italian.
We had all day Wednesday in San Fili too, so we enjoyed a quieter day, went down to Rende for lunch, and drove back down to Bucita to see if we could find the path my dad took in 1989 (complete with comparing photos).
On Thursday, we started back to Naples to be able to meet up with some friends of my parents who have a house in a village east of Naples. We had a nice lunch together and then said goodbye to my folks. We will see them again at the end of the summer but it was emotional because we were all so happy with the overall success of our time together. Just before the trip, we all learned that my mom would have to wear a medical boot on one foot and there was a short discussion of them cancelling their trip. Luckily though, she is a strong lady and was able to do most of the adventuring we did. Plus they were so happy to be back in Positano again, it was definitely worth it.
Lance and I left Naples to head due east to the Adriatic coast and a small town called Polignano a Mare. Famous for being the birthplace of the beloved Italian singer (and politician) Domenico Modugno and a place with some really breathtaking views of the sea, we were happy to arrive just a quick three hour drive later. We found our lovely little VRBO and enjoyed dinner in the adorable centro storico. The time here has been lovely — quiet, not crazy with tourists and perfect weather. On Saturday, we decided to take advantage of having the car for a few more days and drove to the famed city of Matera. It’s about a one hour, easy drive. Matera is amazing — a city within a city; one ancient and one modern. The Sassi Caves are found here where ancient peoples lived up until the 1950s. Matera is also known for being the location of many popular films including Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” and one of the recent James Bond movies “No Time to Die”. If we had the time (and a little smaller suitcases) we would happily have spent the night here, as we thought there was a bit more to explore plus it’s so lovely, it would be easy to relax away an afternoon on one of the terrazzos in town. We were lucky enough to come upon the main church while a wedding was taking place. Again, not too many tourists but I can’t imagine it in the summer.
