Simioni del Mondo! It's a small world after all!

 Mattia meets Veronica in Greece..... OMG!

We are back in the USA for just a few days when Mattia Simioni writes me from Greece where he is working for the summer.  He is from Rick's father's hometown of Castelfranco Veneto.  

He tells me this story:  At his hotel a girl checks in who ends up working with him.  Her last name is Simioni too so they start up a conversation. She live about 2 hours from his town.  She happens to mention that she had recently met some Simionis from the USA who came to visit.  

He replies:  You don't mean Nancy & Rick Simioni do you???  She says "YES!!!" And he tells her how we had just visited HIS family!

In Greece!  It IS a small world after all!
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Leaving Italy

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Returning to the lakes: Maggiore & Como, with Lucas & Elena

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Florence

Michealangelo:

Pinocchio was everywhere.  Rick finally asked, in some basic Italian, why.  Well, it turns out the author of "Pinocchio" lived in Florence.

Speaking of books and Florence, we both read the true story "The Monster of Florence" by American author Douglas Preston.  It was very very interesting.  The book ended up being more about the legal system in Italy, and, relates directly to the Amand Knox case.  Read it all the way through if you can.

With the very narrow roads, some trucks are as small as motorcycles!


The Florence Duomo

http://goitaly.about.com/od/florenceitaly/a/florence-duomo.htm

And, a little side trip to Pisa (we just had to!)

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Bologna with Cippi

Rainy Rainy Rainy.   dang.  enough already!!!

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Lucas, Elena, Sergio... Simionis By The Lakes

 

We have visited so many fabulous places with Elena and Lucas.  Here are a few more.

and then to Lucas' cousin Sergio's.  Cavona is the smallest village I've ever seen.  Very old, and really spooky in a thunder and lightening storm!  ;)

and then, this little village of only 200 people has this museum:

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Bello Asolo

We took an afternoon trip up to this little, beautiful, mountain village.  The "Giro d'italia" would be coming through a few days later.

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Cittadella/Salvatronda/Castelfranco.... Birthday/Anniversary....

May 5 - Cittadella - Carlo/book/simioni strada with Gabriele

Simionis everywhere!

May 6 - priest: found desiderio(s); train to Treviso
Birthday party!

A good old-fashioned, down the basement, loud and fun birthday dinner with 6 homemade pizzas and 3 other Simioni families!
We may be related to the former NHL player Mario Simioni!

May 7 - castelfranco mercato; cemetary; back to emanuele's for dinner

No relatives here that we know of.  They move the bodies after 30 years!


May 8 - Basso?   dinner at Gabriele's?
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Finding Desiderio - Going to Castelfranco, Veneto, Italy

Having a fantastic time, and cannot keep up with the blogging....  see Facebook for now.

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Oscar, Annalisa, Silvia, and Federica Simioni - Cartigliano, Italy

Silvia is one of my most active Facebook Simioni friends.  We have connected with her family too, through her.  Last year her father, mother, sister, and Silvia, drove 7 hours to meet us for the first time -- in Rome.

This time they drove a half hour to pick us up in Thiene (where we were for the wedding) and took us down to Venice for the afternoon.  We went to a small, off the tourist route, seafood restaurant where they brought out platters of food for 2 and a half hours!  It was incredible.  We enjoy this family, but sure wish we could communicate more!  Only Silvia speaks both languages fluently. (Although, young Federica is coming along with her English quite well when no one else is listening!)  What a meal!  What fun!  

Then we went to walk around Venice and the rain started....  it got cold and windy too.  Little did we know we'd have rain off and on for the nest 17 days!

Annalisa is so sweet too -- but now try to imagine me with her for 4 hours and not being able to have a conversation on our own!  Still, we laughed a lot, and even spent the night at their home.  At Silvia's request, I made them an American breakfast:  eggs and toast!

We Skype with them now and then, but only if Silvia or Federica are there to help us.

Silvia Simioni and Nancy

Above, Oscar Simioni and Rick.

Below, at the restaurant in Venice.

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Simioni Wedding In Thiene, Italy

So many Simionis, so little time!

We really enjoyed meeting Simionis from Thiene, Italy!

We were invited to the wedding of Elias Lorenzin and Diego Simioni.

Rick, Roberto, Diego, Elisa, Nancy, Francesco

We stayed two nights at the home of Roberto and his family: Guila, his daughter was my first Thiene Simionis Facebook friend, then Roberto.  Eventually, I became friends with many of the cousins.  Unfortunately, Giulia was not home this weekend, but at work in the USA!  New York City.  

 Elisa and Diego

 Many Simioni Cousins! (but none related to Rick.)

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Italy! In Search of Desiderio.

Our long awaited trip to Rick's father's hometown has begun.

We arrived safely in Milan and spent a day and a half adjusting to the time change and seeing a few of the sites.  The best was the view and architecture at the top of their Duomo!

More Photos on Facebook.

Then, the train to Vicenza, and on to the Simionis of Thiene and the wedding of Elisa and Diego.
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Prayers to the Roman god Vulan!

Geez, and just when we thought our trip to Italy was all set, a Volcano in Iceland causes great havoc across European travel!

We were getting pretty nervous.  Hey, we would not mind be stuck IN Italy but we would sure like to get there.

It was a horrible situation for people stranded all over the world.  In fact, as of today, a full week later, some people have not yet been able to get to where they were going.

Meanwhile, we said our prayers to the Roman god Vulcan!  And as of today, the mountain is "resting".  Hopefully we'll be able to fly out Tuesday!

click: Volcano stories

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Happy 24th Birthday Julian! and an Earthquake in San Diego!

Happy 24th Birthday Julian!

Rick and I are up in San Francisco and celebrating Julian's birthday with him!

If you are on Facebook, and especially if you play FarmVille, you'll understand this gift to Julian!  He's a programmer for FarmVille, in San Francisco.  Last week his first original idea was implemented on the game!  He came up with the option to "TP" other friend's barns! 

We are sooooo proud!  haha.  It was fun, and funny.  Hence, the end of the roll of toilet paper for a gift from mom! 

Later in the week I found this photo (1987) and posted it on Facebook with the note "who would have thought this would be his future?!?"  Hey, the brat could be making "6 figures" before he's out of college two years.  Bring on the TP!!!   

Love that 1972 flooring.....

Meanwhile, I missed mentioning that I was looking around San Francisco thinking about the possibilities of "The Big One" hitting while we were there.  And what happens?  Easter Sunday a good size earthquake shook San Diego!

Facebook accounts alerted me to what had been happening and while the 7.2 quake was actually just south of the border in Mexico, it splashed water out of local swimming pools (maybe ours too, but we were not there to see) shook homes and cars for 45 seconds.  That's a long time when you are in one!

Click:

San Diego Earthquake story

Neighbors are worried now about our month-long Italy trip!  Since the great fires a few years ago happened while we were in our RV "up north", strong storms hit while we were on our Florida RV trip, and now an earthquake shakes it up while we are in San Francisco.....  !!

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Finding Desiderio - Going to Castelfranco, Veneto, Italy

Rick and I have been spending hours and hours online the last few weeks planning our "Finding Desiderio" trip to Castelfranco, Veneto, Italy, in May.  

Rick's father, Desiderio Simioni, was born (1895) and raised in Castelfranco until he was 20 and came to Canada and the USA.  We have been searching online for info on him and we are beginning to have some success. The city of Castelfranco has found records of his family and we are pursuing it further. 

Meanwhile, the Facebook group "Simionis of the World" has become a daily habit.  Everyday we are chatting with Simionis in Italy who are helping us with our trip plans, and in most cases, are part of our growing agenda.  None of the over 100 Simionis we have "met" on Facebook are relatives!

We fly into Milan and the adventure begins. 

We'll be going to a Simioni wedding!  And staying with a Simioni family whom we have never met!  Then visiting another Simioni family a half hour away, before heading to Castelfranco for a week where we have rented an apartment.

In Castelfranco families there are already at work helping us by searching records in churches.  We'll be going to cemeteries and city offices, or wherever we can to try and find not only information on Desiderio, but also his sister who did not move to the USA.  There should be some descendants somewhere.

From there we head back towards Milan where Lucas Simioni will meet us and take us to Lago Maggiore where he and Elena will be taking us on a grand tour of the lakes and mountains area.  We are looking forward to meeting all of his family, including his brothers and cousin Sergio whom we chat and laugh with.  We already know great food and molto vino are going to be involved!

From there we head down to Bologna where we are meeting, no, not a Simioni, but Cippi!  The boyfriend of our Cali friend Stephanie!  We are staying with him for a few days while he shows us the best of Bologna.

We are not through yet!  From there we are going to Florence for a few days!  And NO ONE Is meeting us! We'll actually be on our own to enjoy the beauty of the art and architecture of this ancient city.

Lastly, we head back to Lago Maggiore for a few days of natural beauty, and probably more good food and wine before departing from Milan for our return to California.

Somehow we have been able to accommodate most everyone's schedules.  whew.   That took more than a few emails! And, it looks like we have worked this out now so that we can manage it all without renting a car... that hasn't been easy either.  Trains and friends! We should be able to pick one a vehicle somewhere should we find we want one.

We have just about narrowed down all our lodging, be it homes, hotels, apartments, or B&B's.  Yet even THAT has been an adventure.  The owner of the B&B at Lago Maggiore just happens to be visiting San Diego this week and we are planning a dinner together here!  

We love the internet!  It's been such an amazing tool!

We'll see how this trip all comes out in the end......

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Karpo Komes To Kalifornia

Alex Karpowitsch, Julian's long-time neighborhood and school buddy, came to San Diego for a few days this week.   He's on break from University of Michigan and flew into San Francisco to hang out with Julian.  They immediately drove to Lake Tahoe and went skiing.  The next day he flew down here.

I gave him SD101: Introduction to San Diego.  

• Lunch at "The Wave House", "Villa Simioni", Wild Animal Park, ostrich farm (ostrich jerky!), Carlsbad Village. Then,

• a full day tour of the San Diego coast line:  Oceanside Pier & harbor, down through Encinitas, Solana Beach, Del Mar.
• and then La Jolla where we stopped at the Torrey Pines Golf Course, the glide port, The Children's Beach (or Seal Beach), stopped for a quick snack (while an old woman backed into my car trying to get out of the parking lot for 10 minutes). 

• Finally, Ocean Beach & Pacific Beach, found a great sports bar before sending him back up to San Fran!
 

He had fun, and so did I!  I think he'll be back!  Hopefully with Julian, and Chelsea, and.....

He'll be checking out the night life in San Francisco tonight, and flying back to Michigan tomorrow.  whew.  He's young.  I'm old.  I'm tired just thinking about all that!

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