June 13 2013- last post of the trip

I thought I'd write one last summary post from our trip. We're on the plane headed for NYC then onto Salt Lake City. This was truly a memorable trip for several reasons. Going to the small towns where my relatives lived and walked and got married was very special. To stand in front of the house that my great grandmother was born in - a person I knew well - wow. I've always felt very close to my roots and being this close physically was an amazing experience. We found and documented information on 141 of our ancestors! I carried a picture of Luigi DeZanet, my great grandfather who immigrated with his small family. He was my inspiration.

To help my Mom and Aunt Rene get to go back to Italy again after 35 years was great. I think they both really enjoyed themselves. While Mom was a bit slower, but she did great. As we wrapped up the trip, she wanted to buy me a watch to say thanks for taking her on the trip. We all had so much fun with Rene and couldn't have done the trip without her.

To be there with Kenzi, our last single child, was wonderful, given how fast life has changed with our other four children after they got married and began to have children. She is so fun. I'm very grateful that we were able to afford to have her study in Europe this summer.

And vacationing with Robyn is my absolute favorite thing to do! I love spending time and sharing experiences with her! She is fun and wants to learn about everything. Even with our mistakes of wrong turns, wrong trains, and little mishaps, she just smiles and rides right through the bumps, just enjoying the experience. Thanks for being so good to me.

I took several hundred pictures. I'll get some of the good ones posted soon. Now it's back to reality, but very, very grateful for the opportunity to make the trip. I love you family.

P.S. We walked through the door at home about 1 a.m. All safe :-)

June 11 2013

All good things have to come to an end, right? I think we all wish we still had 2-3 more days.

This morning Kenzi and I climbed up and down all 462 steps of the duomo in Florence. The morning was clear so we had great views and got some awesome pictures. We then shopped in the market. Mom (Sylvia) didn't think she bought much, but when we made her a list, she said, "I bought all that?"

We then had lunch and took taxis to the train station for our ride to Venice. We almost ended up in Torino. We boarded the wrong train, got our luggage put away and were looking for our seats when we asked and found out we had boarded the wrong train. We got off and quickly got to the right place. Two hours later we arrived in Venice. After a long walk, a lot of stairs, and an argument with the taxi driver, we were on our way to our hotel. We are staying near the airport since we fly out tomorrow. This hotel is nice - like a U.S. hotel. That said, I really like the old boutique hotels.

So we head home tomorrow, hoping the French air traffice controller strike doesn't affect us. I love you family!

June 10 2013

We had a good day. We started with a bus tour of Florence. They picked us up so mom didn't have to walk. They went to parts of the city we had never seen. The downside is it rained, so pics weren't that great.

Mom is pretty worn out, so we let her rest for several hours. Robyn, Kenzi, and Rene went to the Medici museum and chapel. We went in the duomo, had lunch, did our laundry, and went to the food open market. We went to a great restaurant near ponte veccio. Mom and Rene came back by taxi and the three of us had a great walk back. We finished off the night with gelato at Grom. Yum!

Kenzi and I are climbing the duomo in the morning, then we take the train back to Venice to get ready to fly home on Wednesday. The trip has gone by waaaaaaay too fast. I love you family.

June 9 2013

Well we made it to church today! It was great. There were enough Americans there that they had a missionary translate each talk over the pulpit. We then did a lot of walking with Grandma trying to buy everything she could find. Tomorrow we have a driving tour in the morning, then we'll drop off Grandma and do a walking tour in the afternoon. Florence is beautiful.

Yesterday we were at the cool places of Cinque Terra. We visited two of the five cities - Rio Maggiori and Manarollo. They are so unique looking. We hiked up quite high and got a great view of the town. Kenzi and I kayaked between two of the towns (just like Lyss and I had done). After our day there we took our train ride to Florence. Our hotel is 600 years old (yes really). The hotel owner is so nice.

At the train station we met an 18 year old girl who is backpacking around Europe for eight months. Very adventurous, but don't every let any of our grand daughters do that! :-)

I think that should catch you up. I love you family.

June 7, 2013 our fiat

Our rental (manual transmission) that got us all over northern Italy! See those dents in the back? We didn't do them, but can see why they are so common!

June 7 2013 - travel day

We were out the door this morning at 7 pm, driving from Belluno to the train station in Venice to return the car and catch our train. Once in Venice we got a bit lost from our printed directions, had to back down a street with Italians staring at us, and dodging the crazy Italian drivers. We returned the car and walked to the train station. We quickly learned that our train left from the main station, so 6 euros later we had tickets to the right station. We ate breakfast and waited for our train. We boarded and then made a stop at the first station to pick up more passengers. If we had only known!

The train ride including our quick change of trains in Florence took about 4 1/2 hours. We are now in La Spezia, checked into our hotel - a nice old boutique hotel. Tomorrow we go to Cinque Terra for the day. Gypsies and foreigners who want to help with luggage drive me crazy!

Mom and Aunt Rene are both doing great and having a good time. I love you family!

June 6 2013 - a few pics

Us in the home of Gianna DeZanet



Us in Valle Di cardora







Kenzi and her study abroad friends










The beginning of Monday's transportation adventure.

















Us in the Santa Giustina church where my great grand parents were married

June 6, 2013 - Cortina

Today we drove high up into the mountains to a city called Cortina - host of the 1956 Winter Olympics. It was beautiful. I've taken a ton of pictures, but don't have a way of getting them from my camera to my iPad. Sorry. I'll be sure to post them when I can. Hopefully Kenzi can up load some to her Mac.

Tonight we went to bribano for dinner (about 20 min from our hotel). We went to a small restaurant where the woman spoke zero words of English. I spoke about four Italian words to her, so whenever she would say something, she would look at me to have me translate for everyone. It was very funny. I've had polenta three times. Yum!

A little bit more on yesterday... We spent the morning back in Santa Giustina going through records. We found several names. A few of the books were damaged so they wouldn't let us use them. That created some gaps in the records we could find. We then went up to Campel where Noni is from. We walked up the mountain and found a woman outside her house. Aunt Rene had a picture of Noni's house so we showed it to the woman and asked if she knew where the was. She looked at the picture and said, "I know right where it is and the woman in the picture is my mother in law!" Crazy! So we hiked the rest of the way up to the house and took pics. It was great.  We then ate lunch and went to San Gregorio to do more research. When we arrived, we were walking to the priest's house and Kenzi got confused and went into a strangers house. She came out quick saying sorry, sorry. The priest then said that woman is named Gianna DeZanet and she wanted to have us over for refreshments. So we went and she was so sweet. We then did more research and found a bunch more names. mom and Aunt Rene gave Gianna a little present from Venice. We then said goodbye to Joel, our family history consultant and headed back to the hotel. We all slept well.

Tomorrow we leave before 7 am to return the car and catch the train from Venice to La Spezia. I love you family.

June 5 2013 update

Yesterday we visited two churches to search the Archives. Joel, our family history expert, is awesome. We have found over 100 names and he estimates we might get to 200 by the end of the day. In the church in Santa Guistina we walked the aisle where Luigi DeZanet and Guilia Pangussat (my great grandfather) walked and were married. In Sospirollo, we went inside the church where my grandfather (Poppa) was baptized. We also walked through the cemetary in Sospirollo and found several DeZanet sites, including a Gilda DeZanet, who Aunt Rene had written down 35 years ago as someone they were supposed to visit back then. Not sure it is the same person, but maybe!

It is amazing to see these places and to see the original birth and marriage records. So far we are back to the mid 1700's.

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It's now night time. We drove to Belluno and we're staying at the park hotel. Google it. It is an old villa. It is so cool. The best part of the day is when we found the house my great grandmother was born in. It is an amazing story that I will share later. Headed to Cortina tomorrow. Off to bed. Goodnight. I love you family!

June 5 2013 - recap of Monday's adventure

Okay, so let me share Monday's adventure. As we started the day, Mom (Sylvia) the shopper let go of my arm and headed for a shop window to see something that had caught her eye. She missed a step and down she went. Cut up her arm a bit. We carried on. After a day filled with activities, it was time to get to the dock to catch the boat for the airport to pick up the rental car. It is quite a walk through hoards of people with seven pieces of luggage up and down the bridge steps to cross the canals. That said, all went well. So far....


We got to the airport and left Mom, Aunt Rene, and Kenzi and the dock while we went to get the car ... And the adventure gets better.

The had our reservation, we got the paperwork and headed for the lot. We had to go back because we couldn't find the lot. We ended up in a parking garage, found an English speaking man who offered us a ride to the lot. We took him up on it and all was good again. We got to the van and found it severely damaged on one side. We tried to drive, but it is manual transmission and i couldn't figure out how to put it in reverse. So we went to the rental booth, but no one was there. So we hiked back to the airport and waited in line to speak to the agent. She made a couple calls and said, go back to the lot and by the time you get there, a different van will be there for you. When we got back to the lot, the worker was there, but no van. So we waited. It arrived and off we went. But now we needed to find the boat dock by car. We failed with one attempt. Stopped and asked for further directions from someone who didn't speak much English. We tried again, but still couldn't find the road. So we got close and I ran the rest of the way, then we walked back to the van with the luggage. We loaded up and headed for Belluno. It was a beautiful drive. Upon arrival, we go on the lookout for a hotel. Not so easy to find. It's now dark. About 10 pm. We finally see a hotel. I go in. No vacancy. They recommend an alternate. We drive and finally find the second hotel. No vacancy. The desk clerk calls around. No vacancy anywhere in Belluno. So we need to drive to Feltre, about 35 km away. We get a bit lost. So I stop in a bar to ask directions. On course no one speaks English. I keep saying the name of the town and they draw me a map. We find Feltre. Find a hotel and go inside. They have rooms!  We check in, it now everyone is hungry. They reopen the restaurant and make us this huge spread to eat. We eat and up to our rooms. So our trip of roughly 115 miles takes seven hours total! Quite the adventure!

June 4 2013 - found

We found about 30 ancestors. Mostly through the line of my great grandmother (Noni) guilia Pagnussat. Very exciting. Back to do more research tomorrow.

June 4 2013 family history research

I still need to write about the adventure from yesterday, but this morning we met Joel, our family research specialist, at 8:45 a.m. At the church in Santa Guistina. The priest wasn't there and no one knew about our visit, but Joel kept talking and they agreed to give us access to the archive. The books are very cool looking and nearly 200 years old. We are allowed to look at one at a time.

So far we've found a number of people on my great grandmother's side (Noni's side, who was my great grandmother and poppa's mother). So far we've gotten back six generations to approximately 1820's.

Later today we go to San Gregorio to look for more. Still on the Pagnussat side. Then plan to drive to Sospirolo to see what we can find on the DeZanet side.

June 2, 2013 Sunday best

Today was Sunday. We got up early to go to church, but ran into a few transportation snags that caused up to miss it. Darn! So Mom (Sylvia) did some shopping. We took three of Kenzi's friends out to lunch. We tried to get into San Marco, but couldn't. I took a lot of pics and we walked a ton. It was avoid day!

June 1 2013 Venice and Kenzi

We made it! Flight was fine. Delta was great with a wheelchair at each location to get Mom around and us tailgating along. Upon arrival, we got a shuttle ride to the water taxi stand then took a 15 minute ride to San Marco square. A short walk to the hotel worked out fine. We got checked in and slept for a couple hours then went to dinner. It was fun. We then met Kenzi at 8 pm along with her professor and two friends. Then went out for gelato - it was really good. Venice is a cool place! So vintage looking. We are all tired. So off to bed soon. I'll try and get some pics posted tomorrow. We are going to Padova for church tomorrow. We love you all!