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.