Goal Met: Visit my family’s hometown [Day 1]

My father is an immigrant from a town near Naples called ‘Torre Del Greco’ or Tower of the Greek in English. I’ve seen old black and white photos of the place and have heard a few stories but I’ve always wanted to go to there. Especially since I have family there I’ve met only once, or extended family I’ve never met at all. It’s not really a tourist hot spot so the couple of times I’ve been to Italy it didn’t make sense to find my way there but I knew this bucket list item needed to be done this year. It’s one of the ones I truly wanted to check off my list.

So I reached out to my dad and convinced him to go back (it has been close to 15 years for him), be the de facto tour guide and help me to meet all my extended family that still live in this beautiful region. We booked the flight (step-mom decided to tag along which was great) arranged all the visits and were lucky enough that my dad’s cousin insisted we stay with her at her town home in downtown Torre Del Greco (right by the port).

We landed in Naples International after our red eye flight. It was a relatively small airport all things considered and we met my dad’s cousin’s son Fabio who then drove us to her townhouse where we decompressed from the long flight with some espresso and Italian cookies (which will be a theme the whole week) which was needed because we immediately left the place to go visit some more family.

But first – we had to stop for a pastry and a coffee! We went to one of Samina’s favorite pastry shops where I got a cornetto filled with nutella and some more coffee (even ordered in Italian which I was inordinately proud of). I also determined during my stay here that I really need to lean into Italian pastry making – something I’ve struggled with in the past but after a week of eating there I’m determined to master

We then stopped by the house of more relatives – Mary Ann and her son Rafaele (who will come into this story later) and we had more coffee and cookies as my dad caught up with everyone. I struggled to understand a lot of it because although I was learning Italian, they were speaking a thick dialect commonly used in Naples. Still, I managed to get the gist of the conversation and it was a lovely time. I explained that I wanted to see where my dad grew up and explore the town and Rafaele quickly volunteered to drive us around and show me all the places from their childhood.

We started with the apartment my dad grew up in – it was along a winding road and up the mountain a bit then down a very small lane.

Oh, I should note that Mt. Vesuvius is everywhere you look in this town it’s a prominent part of the history of the town and I spent a lot of time on it but that’s for a different part of this story.

We then visited the church they went to which seemed abandoned which is a shame because there’s an organ in there that my grandfather helped pay for and there’s a plaque thanking him and I really wanted to see it – however I didn’t want to break into a church so I settled for just looking in.

We then visited a bigger church where the priest that serviced my dad’s church was based and where they had some of the bigger celebrations. It has a statue of padre pio – the patron saint of the area and kind of a big deal (I remember my great aunt had a picture of him on her nightstand) this church was also a bit run down but seemed active and the grounds were well maintained.

Having run around the town all day we decided to all go out to dinner so they brought me to a pizza place that I swear was called ‘New York Pizza’ – I thought they were messing with me but they insisted the pizza was good. I was very excited to have my first real neapolitan pizza in southern Italy and they made an amazing margherita pizza and I was exposed to the wonders of the pizza fritte (which I’m still going to try to make this year as one of my 50 pizzas)

Now very tired from a long flight and a long day we walked out of the pizza place and I was stopped short by a large gold sign that took me a few seconds to process – did I somehow own a pizza place in Italy? Was I destined to be a pizzaolo?

General Notes and observations from day 1:

In Torre Del Greco is there’s lots of ‘death sign’s everywhere – when someone dies, they make a big poster of them with a photo and some details and then stick on a random wall in town. Some are just paper, others are legit plaques. It’s a bit – strange, but who am I to judge local customs?

Barely slept during the flight in – because I was seated next to a literal giant who took up all the available space and made it extremely difficult to get any sleep.  I did manage a quick nap in the middle of the day due to some downtime waiting for the crew at Ann Marie’s to assemble. That nap helped quite a bit as we ended up getting dinner at 9:00 pm at night. 

The roads are a mix of cobbles and concrete blocks with the rare paved road. The cars are all small compact versions (Fiat 500 is the most popular) and there’s nary a stoplight to be found – the cars all just kind of go and figure it out on the fly. Although, I did witness a few accidents – small bumper scrapes (probably from the very very narrow roads that we had to traverse). Mt. Vesuvius is ever present but the rainy weather obscured  the top of the mountain. The islands of Capri and Ischerra are clearly visible from the port area and the sea looks beautiful (if a bit choppy)

The Scooters.. oh man. They are a menace – weaving in and out of traffic with absolute disregard for the very idea of traffic laws. Kids hanging off the sides of scooters. Three people riding on a vespa. weaving in and out of traffic in very tight margins. I’m guessing it’s just the way it is in this part of the world but it sure is nerve wracking to watch!