My daughter's and I are going to Europe this summer and are considering visiting family ancestral towns. I was wondering if anyone had been to Campana in Cababria recently. My father was born there in 1905, but it is a remote hill town with no hotel facilities. I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to make the trip all the way there, and safe for three women traveling alone.
Posted by
Chicago, Illinois, USA
586 posts
Ciao, Antonietta...what a wonderful name! My wife's family is Calabrese--Angotti--from a different remote mountain town. Her uncle and aunt visited (called Mongrazano) a few years back. They reported that it was remote but, for them, safe and welcoming. The biggest challenge was finding someone to take them there via taxi. The south is very poor (why most Italian-Americans have roots in Italy's south, to begin with...these people had every reason to want to leave and start anew in America). I woud recommend reading "Stolen Figs and Other Adventures in Calabria" by Mark Rotella, an American who went back to Italy with his dad to visit just such a remote town from his family's past. A quick read, and might provide you with a good sense of "place" there. It is a long way from the Italian biggies, even from Naples and Rome. We intend to go someday, perhaps starting in Naples (visiting Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast), then Calabria, and then perhaps a few days in Sicily before flying home from there. I would envision our plan as a 10-14 day trip, given the travel times involved...and the unpredictable nature of transport down south!
Posted by
OP
Nicholasville, Kentucky, USA
2 posts
Thank you for your insights, Gio. My daughter went to Pannarano,, which is near Naples, a couple of years ago to look for my mother's family. The townspeople were warm and friendly and even offered her free accommodations and took her about town looking for my relatives (she found some, who regaled her with the history of all the relatives who remained in Italy-totally new information to us.) It was a great experience for her (pretty brave for an 18 yr old girl traveling alone) and she wants to go back there, too, and have me meet the people that she met in Pannarano. You are correct that Calabria is a far distance from Naples (about 4 1/2 hrs on regional trains that can be unreliable). My daughter found out about Italian train strikes on her last trip!
Posted by
Chicago, Illinois, USA
586 posts
Wow! Those regional trains are something else. And many of the windows are screwed shut, probably to keep hot, sweaty Americans from sticking their heads out the window...with trains and tunnels coming at them. (:
Hope you and your daughter make the trip. Sounds like no matter what adventures you encountered together, they'd be memorable for a lifetime, for both of you.
I bet she'd really enjoy Mark Rotella's book, too. She's already lived some of it with la familia in Italia.