If you are a Zanrè, come join us!
As I’ve discussed a few times, I’m deep into our family genealogy, for various sides of the family. While I’m a Zanrè by marriage only, this particular family tree truly intrigues me. I’ve been looking at a way to engage other Zanrè family members, and find some “missing links”.
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Things you find in old church records
I’m back to scouring church records for insights on Zanrè information. In doing so, I’ve stumbled on a rather interesting find.
My husband Joe has been friends with one Vinnie Baruffati for about 4 decades. They had a few things in common in Scotland, one of which was they were both from Italian heritage. They knew that both of their families were from the same general area of Italy, but never thought too much about it.
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Help! My Family Tree Doesn’t Branch
Okay – this isn’t terribly Italian, but I’m still working on the Italy genealogy. There are cool things there too. I promise to get back to that. In the meantime, this is has been occupying my time, and I need to share!!!
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Gocce d’Acqua
Wow! My husband will have a photograph exhibited at the upcoming MIA PHOTO FAIR in Milano, March 22-25, 2019. Many of you know that Joe invented a camera trigger for capturing high speed events normally unseen by the human eye – you can see more about it at SnaperturePro.com. He’s spent the past couple of years concentrating on Water Drop photography, and it’s obviously paid off.
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St. Valentine and the Lupercalia
Valentine’s Day is known in Italy as “La Festa Degli Innamorati.” It is celebrated primarily only between lovers and sweethearts, but like many “commercial holidays” that have been influenced by the United States, this has spread to other parts of the population over the years.
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What a dinner bill!
Dinner for three – 88,874.79 (Lira)
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Festa Testarolo Pride in Pontremoli
Pesto is one of those sauces that brings back vivid memories for me. The first time I had pesto was on my first trip to Italy in 1978. As a foreign exchange student in Switzerland (German part), I ended up almost by accident in Vernazza near the end of my year, and the memories of pesto and focaccia stayed with me all my life. Many of my US friends had pesto for the very first time at my dining table (I do make a mean pesto if I say so myself). When I realized that I was to live in a location that is quite literally at the border of Emilia-Romagna (a foodie haven), Tuscany and Liguria, it was almost heaven.
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Pranzo di Ferragosto
Today is Ferragosto. Ferragosto is a national holiday in Italy and many cities empty out to go to the beach, or the mountains. In days gone by, foreign tourists were faced with many closed stores and ghosts towns/cities for much of the month of August. These days you will still be confronted with much quieter tourist locations, but many locales will cater specifically to those natives who opted to avoid the crowds . . .
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Lost in Translation . . . but the Party Continues
My husband is a Scots-Italian. Did you know that even was a thing? I didn’t until I met him 23 years ago. But interestingly, there is a LARGE community of Scots-Italians. My husband’s family was part of a substantial migration of Italians who left Italy for Britain in the early 1900s. Both sets of his grandparents headed to the “Big Island” of sorts to raise their children. The Italians who left Italy for Britain frequently became businessmen, and in Scotland, they gravitated towards Ice Cream and Fish and Chips. There was a time when it was stereotypically accurate to assume that the “chipper” was an Italian.
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