Friday, 9 October After another good night’s sleep, I awoke to more rain in the forecast. After starting coffee, I put a load of wash on. That should last me until I return to VIrginia. I will spend the morning trying to plan the rest of my stay and possibly updating some of my family…

Thursday, 8 October On this day in 1906, Luciano Martoccia boarded the S.S. Virginia in Naples. He arrived at Ellis Island on 24 October. Luciano had married Filomena Lavanga on 11 February 1904 in Anzi. Filomena would not join him in New York until 25 November 1910. Luciano and Filomena would have four children; Frank,…

Wednesday, 7 Ocober Finally I adjusted my schedule and slept until after seven. Another bright sunny day here, even a little warmer than yesterday. After coffee in the apartment, I headed up to the bakery for an expresso and cornetto. Today’s pizza choices included a pizza with french fries for topping. I think I will…

Tuesday, 6 October After a good nine hours of sleep, I was still up before seven. I think today’s challenge will be to go get that pizza at eight and head to bed a little later than I have been. I left the apartment at 8:30 in search of Via Vittorio Emanuele. Many of my…

Monday, 5 October It was nice to sleep in this morning. The bed is warm and comfortable. I enjoyed some coffee and read the online newspaper, yesterday’s edition because of the time difference. I was in no hurry since I was planning to make my first stop this morning at the nearby grocery which opened…

Sunday, 4 October Note: If you are reading this only in email and not going to the website, you are missing all the fantastic photos! It was dark when I woke, showered and did my final packing. Nicole picked me up at 6:00 for the one and a half hour drive in a light fog…

Saturday, 3 October After a good night’s sleep, I woke up and had a hot shower. Yesterday’s shower was at room temperature since I could not figure out the controls. As you know, every hotel bathroom has different shower controls, add that to European unfamiliarity. Yesterday Frank gave me an idea about the controls that…

Friday, 2 October Nicole and Frank picked me up before nine and we headed to Kempten, a nearby town with a car free historical district. Kempten is the oldest written reference of any German city, 50-15 BC. Nicole attended college at  Kempten University of Applied Sciences but busy as a job holding student had little…

Thursday, 1 October My flight arrived in Munich at 1:30 pm, about an hour behind schedule but not without a little drama. As we started to get ready for arrival, the stewardess had trouble waking up a woman in the row behind me. As soon as the captain told the crew “prepare for arrival” and…

Wednesday, 30 September For more than thirty years, I have been researching my family history, with my Italian ancestry proving to be particularly challenging. Naturally, the records are written by hand in Italian, and even dates pose a difficulty—appearing as long written numbers like milleottocentottantadue instead of simply 1882. However, recent advancements in AI have…