Visits to Grimaldi and Cosenza

Thursday was a wonderful day. Just after 8:30am we walked from the hotel up to the train station to take a bus to the nearby Lamezia airport, where we would pick up our rental car. It was windy and chilly. We didn't have to wait long, and the bus ride took only five minutes. There was no line at the Budget counter, so we were in and out in just a few minutes. I paid for the full insurance package, since we don't have any personal car insurance here (the church maintains it on our car). Usually we get the insurance anyway on foreign trips, as it saved our bacon once when we got into an accident in Cosenza -- not our fault -- with a car rented from the same airport. They gave us a Toyota Yaris hybrid, the exact same model we have in Rome. I specifically asked for an automatic transmission, which is quite uncommon in Italy; we know how to drive a stick, but there are too many other things to pay attention to while driving here.

Budget also gave us a plastic box with snow chains. The weather showed a small chance of snow, particularly since we were headed up to about 2000 feet altitude in Grimaldi. Fortunately, though it was rainy and windy and cold much of the day, there was no snow. The drive to Grimaldi is about 45 minutes and has spectacular views, first of the ocean and then of the mountains. We've been there enough over the years (8 times together) that we mostly know the way, but Google Maps on our phone is still indispensable. Dee is awesome as a co-pilot, which must be a spiritual gift as missionaries because she never did that very well at home!

Everything went so smoothly and quickly that we arrived almost an hour earlier than we expected. So we drove over to the neighboring town, Malito, for a few minutes to see the town and the church where Sergio served for 55+ years as the village priest, then still arrived at Sergio's place by 10:30am. He is in his 80s and has not been well recently, with a major operation last month, so we weren't quite sure what to expect. Fortunately, he seems to be in pretty good shape both physically and mentally, better than we expected. He has now been officially retired as a priest, which is difficult for him: he loved the work and was so loved by his parishioners. However, the formal mandatory retirement age is 75, so his bishop gave him an extra five years.

 

Sergio's home is very large, particularly by Italian standards, so it's very expensive to heat. On his limited pension, he just burns wood in the living room. He has a really neat heat circulating system that kicks in when the temperature in the fireplace gets hot enough, then sending some heat to a couple of other rooms.

 

It was chilly in there the whole time, though the sun did come out now and then. He has a large and lovely nativity scene (presepio in Italian), including running water!

His dining room still has our Udall family legacy plaque with "The Lord Will Provide" hanging on the wall. We gave it to him in 2007.

We had a nice time visiting with him, catching up on family and other things. He is a man of devout faith, as well as being smart and funny.

Franca, his part-time cook/housekeeper, showed up around noon to cook for us all. I am a huge Franca fan -- she always whips up amazing food in short order.

 

 

At one point, she had all four burners on the stove going, each cooking a different thing that required attention. My wife was very impressed. And what a meal: appetizers, pasta, meat and potatoes, then fruit and desserts. No dinner for me after all that!

 

My wife was particularly excited, because several of the desserts are specialties from Calabria that her grandmother Adelina Gagliardi Martorano used to make (scaliddi and turdilli). She hopes that Sergio's sister Sina will share the recipes.

In Grimaldi, the little bar near Sergio's house is now closed down. The owner decided it wasn't worth all the work, since she could work at the hospital instead. Her son didn't want to take it on, either. This really changed Sergio's life, since that had been his spot for visiting with friends. 

If we get some time off in the summer -- the Institute will probably close for part of August along with the rest of Italy -- and if Sergio is fully recovered, we hope to come down and stay with him, when it's warm in "our" suite at his place.

After about four hours of good visiting, it was time to say goodbye.
By then it was cold and raining. We headed northeast to Cosenza, where we met with Anziani Bellucci and Ruiz at the branch chapel. We visited there a little bit, then walked over to a local pastry shop which has been in business for over 55 years. It seems to be a family affair, and one of the men there has worked at the store from the very beginning! Here's a photo of him with the missionaries:

The workers there seemed to know the missionaries in general, and a flyer for the free English classes at the church was posted on the wall. They were very friendly and were quite taken with my wife -- not sure they have seen many sister missionaries. My wife is a fan of Italian pastry, so she picked out an assortment for us to try. We also treated the Anziani to some nice hot chocolate. They are delightful young men, and my wife offered to help Anziano Bellucci with his Italian family history, and the offer was very gladly received. She got right on it after we got back to the hotel and found some original documents already!

Full and happy in the rain, we got back into our car, parked on a main street near the LDS chapel. In the minute or two between getting in, setting up Google Maps, and starting to back out, somebody double parked directly behind us! Double parking is a normal occurrence here in general. All you have to do is honk, and whoever is blocking your way is supposed to be listening and will come right out and move. Sure enough, it only took a few seconds. The other interesting/frustrating thing about Cosenza in particular is that it is known for changing the direction of some one-way streets every so often, maybe once or twice a year. Of course, that wreaks havoc with the GPS, which several times told us to turn the wrong way into a one-way street. So we had to wing it a few times to try to get to our destination. At one point, we drove down a one-way street with traffic arrows still painted on the pavement going the wrong direction!

Our drive home was about an hour through the rain, almost all on the freeway. We found a good parking spot right by the hotel -- a minor miracle. It was a perfect day of wonderful visiting and memory making.