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to Orlandi FamilyOn Thursday May 3, 2007…we (Carlo and Cathy, Sylvia and Joe) began our Italian Glory venture to Italy. We flew from Philadelphia to Frankfurt, and then onto Milan. We rented a car in Milan and started our drive to San Lorenzo. We took the “scenic” route, and saw many vineyards and beautiful mountains along this countryside route. We arrived in San Lorenzo around 8:30 pm… 6 1/2 hours later…the trip should have only taken 3 hours…but it was an adventure!! We must have stopped at least a dozen times to ask directions…but no one spoke English and we did not speak Italian. We had reservations at the Castel Mani Hotel… Luckily, the innkeepers were expecting us, and we were delighted to find our dinner was already prepared…as you can imagine we were really hungry!! Since we were pretty much exhausted (especially Carlo…who did all the driving) we retied early that evening. Saturday May 5th…. To our surprise we were greeted after breakfast by some relatives…Our mother’s first cousins and their daughters arrived at the hotel to welcome us to San Lorenzo. Silvia Rigotti Gionghi and her sister Lina…were first cousins with our mother Erina Orlandi. Our grandmother Annunziata Rigotti Orlandi was their aunt. It was very difficult to communicate because neither Silvia nor Lina could speak any English…and as I said, we did not speak any Italian. Luckily, Silvia’s daughter MariLena spoke some English and she helped with the translations. We were also fortunate to have Valentina (daughter of the owners) at Castel Mani, to help with the interpretations. To our surprise Lina had an 8”x10” portrait of our parent’s wedding. (just like the one we have in our homes). Apparently, our grandmother Annunziata (Rigotti) Orlandi had kept in touch with her family. We know that Annunziata and our other grandmother Virginia Regotti, traveled to San Lorenzo in 1956,,.perhaps that’s how Lina received the picture. Later that morning, Guilia Gionghi and her adorable daughter Alyssa came to Castle Mani. She was a great interpreter for us. We spent the rest of the day walking around the quaint town of San Lorenzo. We visited the house where we believe our Dad was born and our Grandfather had his workshop. As we were enjoying our dinner at Castle Mani – we had another unexpected visitor. This young man named Jimmy Zanella from Pittsburgh, was attending the University of Trento and he learned from Valentina, that we were visiting so he wanted to meet us. Carlo had a picture of our great-grandparents on the Regotti side of our family. When Jimmy saw this picture, he said that he recognized the picture because his Nona had the same picture on a Holy Card. Jimmy also said, that he knows where their graves are in the San Lorenzo Cemetery. So after Mass on Sunday morning, we visited the San Lorenzo Cemetery (only a few short steps from the church). As predicted, Jimmy showed us the grave of our great-grandparents…with the same pictures on it. This was truly a surreal experience for both Carlo and me. Sunday afternoon we met Silvia and Lina and their husbands Donato and Graziano at Castle Mani. They wanted to take us to a restaurant called “Erica” for Pizza. This restaurant was atop a high mountain and the view of San Lorenzo was breathtaking. After a wonderful lunch, our Italian cousins, took us to our mother’s house where she was born and lived the first two and a half years of her life. The family lived on the first floor and it was only one large room. There Annunziata and Placido Orlandi raised four children prior to coming to America in 1921. We wish all our relatives from the United States could visit San Lorenzo and experience the same feelings that we had when remembering our parent’s early beginnings. Our family has come a long way! We said farewell to San Lorenzo early Monday morning, as we had to meet up with our tour in Milan. Our tour took us to Milan, Lake Magiorre, Lugano (Switzerland) Verona, Venice, Burano, Pompeii, San Gimignano, Maiori, Capri, and Rome (where we had the awesome experience of hearing the Pope speak for 15 minutes after Mass on Sunday morning. We also visited the small town of Tivoli. The final chapter of our visit was to the Adriatic Sea on the East Coast. Joe and I visited his aunt and uncle in Civitaquana, a small town 20 minutes from Pescara. We stayed three days and then returned to Rome for our flight back home. We took many pictures – too many to share in this article – However, we are including the pictures of our visit to San Lorenzo. Hopefully someday you can all visit this peaceful village where our ancestors were born.
Here are some of the family pictures from their trip: carlo-sylvia-pics
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