Another linguistic and travel memory! My first trip to Italy in 1979 to connect with roots. After Venice, Florence, and Rome I made my way to Pietragalla, the town of my paternal ancestors. To get to Pietragalla one takes a train from Rome to Naples, From Naples to Potenza, from Potenza to Pietragalla. With each change the trains got smaller. The last was the locomotive and a single car.
Pietragalla is a village on a mountaintop. It is separated fro the train station by a valley.
There was a man on the rain that offered me a ride to the town. In searching for "mia cugini" I found the center of the village where there was a war monument. The monument had the name "Laurita" inscribed on three sides. I finally found the relatives my grandmother had been writing to. They lived in rural farm house. While they welcomed me it was difficult to understand their rural dialect. They contacted another nephew who was a police officer in Potenza. When he arrived our conversation was multi lingual. I formed my words in English spoke theme in rudimentary Italian. He translated my rudimentary italian to the dialect.. The process was reversed with the exchange.
When super was prepared I was served a heaping plate of pasta with a sauce flavored by chicken feet. The chicken feet was also served and since i was the honored cousin from America I was served two feet to their one.
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