Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Friday we arrived into Trento, Italy around noon. Our mission for these 2 days was to dig deeper into Mike's family history. We had our second case of bad weather for the trip-it was rainy and cloudy all day Friday in Trento. We went from scorching hot weather in Salzburg (unusual for this time of year) to cool and rainy weather in northern Italy. After walking around Trento a bit (in the rain), unsuccessfully attempting to find the family history research center and grabbing a quick lunch, we drove our rental car about 30 minutes west to Cavedine, where part of Mike's family came from. We located the church where Mike thought his great grandfather was possibly baptized, hoping to find more information on the family history. While we were browsing the church, the priest happened to drop by, and although he spoke almost no English (and we, zero Italian!) we (although with some communication troubles) were actually able to get our hands on the baptismal books from the 1800's and found Mike's great grandfather's baptism records written in this old book
. Long story short, this will help Mike to dig deeper into his family history since we now also have an email address for someone associated with the church who spoke English who can help him with his family history research. We slept in a castle just east of Trento (Castel Pergine) that night, which was also a really cool experience!!
Saturday, we drove back west to Cavedine (beautiful weather this day), to locate some family of Mike's whom his dad's cousin & uncle both have visited in the past. We were successful in finding them (small town) and ended up having lunch with them at their house and staying for a few hours. They too did not speak much English, but with the help of some pictures & a translated letter Mike brought, Mauro, who is learning English in school, and an English speaking family friend of theirs who dropped by, we were able to communicate just well enough. It was a fun afternoon! We hope to stay in touch with them.
As I write this, we are on the train to Venice. The last two days was the start of our first experience with Italy for both of us, and we are loving it so far!! Ciao!
