SEPINO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, first of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY NINI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My little girl is alll gwown upppp! I'm sorry I couldn't wish you a happy birthday ON your actual birthday! I love you!!

So....yeah!! I went to SEPINO!!!!!!!! I was planning on asking Amalia to go next weekend because Don Antonio said that would be good. But then Debora told me that we were leaving for Fregene on Friday, for two weeks!! So I got back from shopping with Debora at around 2 on Thursday and called Amalia. And she was like, "You could go this weekend! Leave today!" I was like OK!!!!! So I called Don Antonio and he said it was ok!! So, having no idea what to do, I just packed in about two minutes and took the metro to the Termini station, which I assumed was where the trains also leave from. I went to a little kiosk and booked my tickets right there for a 5:30 train!! I got off in Boiano and, thanks to texting with Don Antonio on the train, I knew that Massimo was going to pick me up and that Don Antonio would meet up with us later. Massimo is the funniest person..he's the closest they have in Sepino to anyone speaking English, and he really doesn't, HAHA. When he texted me before I arrived, it is was really good English, but I didn't know he'd used a translator on his laptop. So I get in the car and I'm like "Thank you so much for picking me up!" And he was like, "UH!" HAHAH. And he'd tell everyone that story, too, except he'd make it sound like I'd said this like, entire monologue in English. HAHA. So Massimo took me for a little tour of Sepino, showed me the broken piazza, though it was very dark, and then back to his house. His wife, Cristina had dinner ready! After dinner, Don Antonio stopped by and then Massimo and Cristina took me down to see Campobasso, aka Cambuash. Cristina works at one of the two hospitals there! It was really nice, with a little piazza and a fountain and the main street all lit up. We got ice cream and then they drove me to the top of this mountain with a castle at the top and we got out and looked out over the countryside with all the little paesi lit up. It was gorgeous!!

The next morning, Don Antonio came over at 8:30 and took us to the church! It is THE MOST gorgeous church EVER!!! He took us into all these secret rooms that only he has the keys to (huge keys, by the way). In one room, he showed me all these ancient documents from the 1200s!! In another room he showed me Nonno Frank's and Uncle Bill's baptism certificates! In another room, he showed us this adorable little chapel. Then he took us in the basement where they had built this beautiful tunnel with a gate at the end and a shrine to S Cristina. There were also these gorgeous statues of reenactments of different events in the life of S Cristina. Amazing! And there were plaques of all the names of people who had donated money to the church, and there were a ton I recognized!! Peter Fazio and Luigi Gaetani to name a couple! THEN he gave Massimo these keys and he opened this door that led to an old, cementy room with a rickety staircase. We're climbing up and up and I'm thinking, "What is this?" And we get to the top and it's the FREAKING BELL TOWER!!!!! Holy shit. It was so amazing. Four bells and the most AMAZING view of my life. Wow. After, Don Antonio took us to these old ruins of Sepino. It was REALLY cool, cooler than the Roman ruins! And he knew so much about them, he was just rattling off information! After that, Don Antonio had to go, so Massimo, Cristina and I went back to their house and had lunch. I took a nap, of course, and then we went to Concetta and Luigi's! Even though I was meeting them for the first time, I felt like I'd known them forever! They remind me so much of Nonna Donatella and Nonno Frank!! We had an amazing dinner there and I got some pretty fantastic shots of Sepino from the hill on their farm, with the sun setting in the background. WOW. Luigi took me to see Nonna Carmela's old house, which isn't far from theirs!

The next day we woke up at 6 to leave by 7 so we could get to Caserta by 8! WOO! It's a town about an hour away where Massimo's dad lives and there's this huge palace right down the road. So we went, and there weren't too many rooms open to look at, but the ones that were open were amazing! I was just finishing reading The Other Bolyen Girl, so it was really cool!! But the real reason people go is to see the garden in the back. It's ENORMOUS. 3 km long, I think Massimo said. It's just pool after pool of water with fountains and waterfalls and fish, all the way to the palace. We took a shuttle to the top, where there's this GIGANTIC waterfall and to the right there's another garden. (This wasn't even the half of it..there was a lot more, but it was impossible to see it all!) So we explored this garden..it was amazing! One part of it looked like a rainforest..I honestly felt like I was in The Rainforest Cafe. Another part looked like something straight out of a Jane Austen novel, with weeping willows bent over a lake..wow. There was another part that was all caves and waterfalls. MAN, it was really amazing. After exploring, we walked back to Massimo's dad's house and he had lunch ready for us!! I took a nap after lunch, exhausted from the walking and the heat (and the getting up early haha!). Then, we took a walk around Caserta. It was really nice! We stopped on this park bench to rest and this guy comes up to us trying to sell some stupid gadgets and Massimo buys this thing that looks like a car door opener but when you press the button it shocks you. And everyone's laughing, and I look at it, and on the side, in capital red letters it says "SHOCK" backwards. HAHAHAHAHAH!!! But they had no idea!!!!!! HAHA! Oh man.

The next day they took me to the cemetery to see some of my relatives. It was really a gorgeous cemetery, overlooking the countryside. I saw about 4 Maria Sanzos. (Love ya Mom!) After, we went to Concetta's, and everyone was there..Don Antonio, his dad, Cristina's brothers..and before lunch, I went around to see these two guys shoeing a horse. It was crazy..one guy was nailing it in and the other guy was holding the horse's leg with a rope. And at one point, the guy shoeing got frustrated and beat the horse with a stick! I was freaking out. Anyway, after, we ate lunch (mmmmmm!!). That's when they asked me if my parents knew I was there. I said no, because I'd packed in such a rush that I didn't tell anybody. So Concetta's like, "I'll call your nonna and tell her to call me right back, and then you pick up!!" HAHAH! So she did, and we're all waiting by the phone for her to call, haha! And I picked it up and said, "Pronto!" And Nonna was like, "Concetta?" And I was like, "Nope! Do you know who this is?" HAHAHAH! It was amazing, everyone got a kick out of it! After lunch Don Antonio and Luigi took me to see Nonno Frank's old house in the country, also not too far from Concetta's and Nonna Carmela's. Then, Concetta and Cristina took me to see Nonno Joe's old house and Poppa's aunt still lives there!!! She was FREAKING out, she was so happy to see me! And she called her daughter, Francesca, to come, and she brought her daughter, Cristina!! It was really nice, we were all chatting..or I should say, they were chatting and I was trying to catch every other word. HAHA. They asked a lot about you guys..Nini, I should warn you, I really built you up as quite fluent in Italian. HAHA. And Poppa, Francesca was like, "Did your Dad forget about me?" HAHA, I was like, "No, actually I just talked to him and he asked me if I met you!" After, we went back to Concetta's and Luigi showed me how he milks the cows! I thought he still did it by hand, but oh no! He has this crazy machine that does it for him! Pretty cool! Then, he pours some out and feeds it to the little calf. Awwww! After, we went back to Cristina's where Massimo had made pizza!! Mmmmm! Then, later that night, he took my camera and made a DVD of a slideshow of my pictures of Sepino with Italian music in the background!! It's the cutest thing!!!!!! Oh, and as I was getting ready for bed, Cristina and Massimo came in and were like, "Do you have to take the 2pm train tomorrow?" And I was like, "Well, I could take an earlier one." And they were like, "No, we wanted to know if you could take one on Tuesday and stay longer." AWWW! =(

This morning, Concetta and Cristina took me to meet some more relatives..another of Nonna Maria's brothers and his family. His great grandson is the one that Nini emails to help with his English!! He wasn't there, though. Then, we went to find some cousins of Nonno Frank, but we only met one, the others weren't home. Then, I said goodbye to Concetta and Luigi and Cristina and I went back, had some lunch, and then went to the bus station. It was so sad!!

WOW!! Most amazing thing I've ever done! Seeing where everyone grew up (except Nonna Donatella, because Don Antonio couldn't remember!!), meeting all my long lost relatives! I felt like I'd known everyone forever!! I can't wait to go back. Oh, and Momma, when you go, can you take a picture of the gray sign that says SEPINO when you enter? I didn't get one.