Sorrento/Campochiaro/Boiano/San Salvo 3/26

Today was the most “filling” day we have had yet.  We slept in a little while today for our first time, which is good because we have been doing a lot of traveling and not getting much sleep.  We walked around Sorrento for an hour or so and had a coffee.  The coastline here is beautiful but it is all up on a cliff so we didn’t get a chance to stick our feet in.  We were anxious to get going so we hopped in the car and headed off for Champochiaro, which is a very small town where my family, the Rano’s, are from.  I had contacted a few of the family members, but they ONLY spoke Italian so I wasn’t sure how the day was going to go.  We arrived at Campochiaro, which is a small, small, town of 600 on the side of a large hill.  We drove up into the town hoping to find someone who knew where I could find the cemetery and anyone who was left in the town who was a Rano.  I found the office of public records and it said it was only open from 10am-12pm.  It was around 2pm so it was closed, but the door was cracked open so I went in.  There was a women inside doing some paperwork in this tiny little room.  I explained to her that my family was from Campochiaro and that I was hoping to look up some old records, but she said that they were closed.  I told her that we were from the US and that we were only there from the afternoon.  She asked what the last name was, and then laughed when I told her because there are too many Rano’s there to look up anything.  She said that because they have no software, it would take a long time to try and compile.  If I have a weekend left before I leave, I think I will try and go look at the records.  We then drove down and asked another women who was getting out of her car, to tell us where the cemetery was at, and she ended up driving in front of us to show us where it was.  We walked around and took pictures of all the Rano gravesites.  Mind you, there were a lot, but it is still a tiny town, so there weren’t too many.  After looking around for a while, we headed to Boiano where my contacts were.  My cousin Melisa had gotten me in contact with people in Italy who were related to us by marriage and also were related to us.  Amanda and I had planned to meet Filomena Pittarelli in one of the towns 3 piazzas.  After she found us, she brought us back to her house and asked if we were hungry.  We didn’t want to be rude so we said we would eat something.  Her husband was having a conversation with me because poor Amanda doesn’t speak Italian.  I don’t know a ton, so I was just asking a lot of questions so that he would do most of the talking.  He had to go to work so Amanda and I were invited into the kitchen as Filomena was finishing cooking.  We sat down at the table and she served us pasta with meatballs, bread, and wine.  We were very surprised by this because we said we were only a little bit hungry.  She had already eaten lunch but she sat with us and I tried to explain to her how we were, but weren’t related and how I knew her family members.  After the pasta, she brought out cottoletto (which is thin slices of steak breaded) with cauliflower and tomatoes!  We looked at each other like, how are we going to eat this!  So we ate the cottoletto and she started making more while we were eating so that she could make panini for us to take with us!  We were sooo full at this point but after that she put a bowl of fruit on the table and told us to eat some.  This whole respect issues was starting to make my stomach uncomfortable.  Amanda and I split at orange and thought we would call it good.  Nope, we had to have an apple each because they are really good at this time of year.  After the fruit, she made us each an espresso, and gave us chocolates to have with it.  I thought that I was going to explode!  During this whole time, Filomena was telling us that we had to come back on Sunday because her children were coming for dinner and they could speak English.  We explained that we were traveling and had to be back on Sunday.  She also said that she was sorry that she couldn’t get any of the Rano’s to come that day since it was during the middle of the day and I called on such short notice.  Her daughter called while we were having “lunch” and asked to talk to us. Rossella spoke broken English so I talked to her for a little while.  She lives in San Salvo, which is a beach town on the Adriatic sea.  That night, Amanda and I had booked a B&B in Pescara, which is a beach town just half-hour north of San Salvo.  Rossella had felt bad that she wasn’t at our lunch, so naturally, she invited us to dinner with her.  Amanda and I looked at each other with disgusted faces because we had just STUFFED ourselves, and Rossella wanted us to have dinner in 2 hours!  Her boyfriend, whom we later figured out was her husband, was in Campochiaro visiting his parents.  He was driving back to San Salvo that evening, so he came over and we followed him home.  When we got to their apartment (which was 200 meters from the ocean!) she showed us around, and then we drove into town to walk along the boardwalk.  They spoke little English and I speak little Italian so the conversations were limited.  They brought us to dinner at a very cute restaurant. Amanda and I decided to split a pizza because we were SOOO full, but Rossella ordered 4 different appetizers for us!  I still hadn’t digested from lunch, but we once again, forced the food down.  We had a great and “filling” day with my family/not family.  They both offered for us to come back and stay with them and I told them that they needed to visit me in the States.  We hadn’t planned on staying all-day in this area, but it was definitely worth it.  At 9pm we took off to Pescara, but called it a night early.