Senatro Albano, Annette’s grandfather, left Missanello in the mid-1890s and left behind three sisters. He never returned to his home in Italy though his wife, Maria Teresa, returned for a two week visit in 1965 and is remembered by the people we visited with. Senatro’s sisters visited America, but all three returned to Missanello, and many of the people who live in Missanello today are children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren of one of the three Albano sisters, Felicia.
We spent Monday afternoon, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning this past week in Missanello. We were wined and dined and treated exactly as if we were family ... because Annette has been accepted as part of the Missanellan family, a member who happens to live at a distance. Annette is a cousin to all of the descendants of Felicia Albano and the kinship is palpable. (By the way, the custom in Italy is that women keep their maiden name when they marry and that their children take their father’s name.)
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| The Apennines |
The area around Missanello is in the Apennines but the area seems Alpine. The mountains are rugged and the slopes are steep. This is a sparsely populated corner of Italy. Missanello is located in the region of Basilicata and Basilicata has the third smallest population (591,000) of Italy’s 20 regions.
Our host was Maria Micucci who welcomed us into her home. In fact, before we left she poured off some of her family’s own olive oil for us to take home with us. We’ll share some of the olive oil with you when you visit us in Syracuse or on Lake Ontario. Of course, the oil is delicious.
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| Maria Micucci |
Maria is an official in the town government. She serves as ragionara, the town’s accountant. Her desk at the town office is covered with papers, reports, requests, proposals, all kinds of business. She has a fine mind for numbers; Maria had Annette’s Italian cell phone memorized after the first time she used it.
Maria’s husband, Giovanni, and her daughter, Antonella, had gone off to Pisa where Antonella is studying early childhood education. Their son Andrea was home and gave us a tour of Missanello and Aliano, the town where the Annette’s great grandfather came from. Aliano is about 10 miles from Missanello but the drive takes 40 minutes because of the rough terrain. Andrea also helped with some of the cooking. We especially appreciated his help with making bruschettas over their wood fire in the fireplace in their kitchen. Maria served the toasted bread with cut up tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and her olive oil.
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| Andrea Micucci |
We noticed lots of honking as people drove around Missanello. Not aggressive honking because there is little traffic. Friendly honking. Andrea explained that in their town of 500 everyone knows everyone else and it is customary to honk a greeting when you see someone you know. Since you know everyone, you honk a lot. (The honking that we’ve heard in big cities has a very different quality; it’s been must less friendly and the gestures have been different.)
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| Annette with Margherita Micucci |
It was important that we spend time with the oldest member of the family, Margherita Micucci, who lives in a tiny apartment in the center of town. Margherita served us some homemade limoncello which she made from 95% pure alcohol which is easily available in Italy. We have to use vodka when we make limoncello at home.
The town is proud of the renovations to the former convent that is at the center of the town. Antonio Izzo and Teresa Izzo, children of Margherita, gave us a tour of place. The space is used for meetings and is shown off to visitors like us.
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| Antonio and Teresa Izzo |
Teresa invited us for lunch at her home in the center of the town, in the midst of the narrow, twisting “streets”. Teresa invited her mother, Margherita, with her husband, Nicola, and Nicolas, Teresa’s grandson. Teresa pulled out all the stops with appetizers, homemade pasta, two meat courses, fruit, Easter cakes, and more. When we left, Teresa gave us a package of breads and cold cuts to take in case we got hungry on the way back to Maria’s home.
When we sat down for dinner at Teresa’s, we noticed two 1.5 liter bottles of Coke on the table. (“Hmmm. How do I ask for Coke Zero?”, I thought.) Nicola opened one of the bottles and poured out a purple liquid, some of his own wine. People here put wine in all kinds of containers. The other bottle really did have Coke in it. We focussed our attention on the other “Coke” bottle.
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| Nicolas, Teresa. and Margherita |
The larger map of the town below shows some roads in yellow and some not in color. The yellow roads are drivable, but drivable only if you’re careful. Sometimes cars meet on these narrow roads and have pass each other carefully because they are so narrow. The uncolored roads are not drivable at all. These “roads” are sidewalks, really, and sometimes these sidewalks involve flights of stairs. The smaller map shows the center of the town and the roads are often 5 feet in width or less. It’s deceiving to look at the map and assume that you’d have the same kind of mobility in Missanello that you’d have at home.
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| A "street" in the center of Missanello |
The number of young people in town is declining. The elementary school has 20 or so students and may close at the end of this year. Of course, the problem is lack of employment opportunities in Missanello. The adults hope for a better future but seem resigned to forces that are out of their control. The force that they can control, the strong bonds that hold families together, are strong and work in the opposite direction. We’ve been affected by that counterforce and we’ve enjoyed its attraction.
This only scratches the surface. There will be more, much more, to say in the future when we see you.
Next adventure: We’re on the way to San Martino in Pensilis to check on Michael’s roots.
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| Greater Missanello |
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| Central area |
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