Our last full day in Italy was a really unique one. On the last trip to see my dad before he died, he told me of the tiny town in Italy where the Civetta’s had immigrated from in the late 1880s. We immediately pulled it up on my phone (complete with 360 degree camera view), and he told me stories of visiting it only once when he graduated from high school. Since the town was sort of between Puglia and Rome, Nancy and I really wanted to see it for ourselves. So we got up and drove back through the gorgeous Italian countryside – Eli, at one point, remarked that it looked like Catan, for those of you who know the game.
Bellizi Irpino is just outside of Avelino (close to Napoli). We wandered along this amazingly beautiful street with a mix of buildings from across the decades (some from when my ancestors would have been there).
We found a cemetery, but it didn’t go back to the time.when Civettas were still around. As you can see it was really beautiful, and it was very powerful to walk streets of my family.
We took some pictures that include all surviving Civettas (or at least people with Civetta as a last name!).
We also discovered the likely link to the Civetta sense of humor. We saw this sign posted, which Nancy roughly translated as:We hope that dogs will not leave little pictures of their owners on the street. Little pictures of their owners, of course, referred to their poop – Dad would be proud!
It was a great visit, and then we continued on to Rome. We spent our last night in Fiomicino, a beach town right by the airport. We watched an amazing sunset together.
We shared one final meal together and laughed at all of our adventures. We even joined in singing Happy Borthday to the table next to us!
We all agreed that Humpty had the best trip of any of us, but he got a bit drunk after we talked of his now long lost love, Alice!
We got one last gelato, and Sophie even ordered herself in Italian (although she would forget her purse there creating some last minute worry – luckily, Nik saved the day).
Here is our final picture of the trip!
It was an amazing one! My goal for this trip was to make my kids love Italy – mission accomplished!