Jordan Almonds and Multiple Generations

Quite a few weeks ago (I'm sorry for not posting), my lovely friend Domina invited me to come with her to the southern province of Molise. She has generations of family from one town in the region, called Baranello, close to the city of Campobasso. After growing up hearing about it from her grandmother, who sadly passed away a few years ago, she wanted to take a trip to meet all of her distant relatives and I was lucky enough to come along. We took a 4 hour train along the coast, at times practically on the beach, and arrived in Campobasso to meet her second-uncle Sergio who had offered to host us with his family.

As soon as we got to their lovely house with its attached vineyard and vegetable garden, we set our bags down, had a cup of the delicious gourmet coffee Sergio sells (I'm obsessed, you can find it here), and headed into Baranello. We stopped first at the lovely town church, and on our way out met two distant relatives on the street! After that we walked through the town as Sergio explained the history of the family and the surrounding area.

We then drove to the town's cemetery, where we got to see three generations of her family. Great-great-grandparents who lived in the 1800s, her great grandparents who built the house Sergio lives in now, and then Sergio's grandparents, who started the vineyard and taught him to make wine. I made a game of memorizing the family tree! We went back to Sergio's for a delicious dinner of chicken cacciatore and got to meet his wife Celestina and his daughter Katrine. We watched YouTube Halloween makeup tutorials and painted our nails as we tried to have girl talk in broken Italish.

As luck would have it there was a wedding this weekend, a second or third cousin, and the next day we stopped by the church to see them getting it ready. The church is built on a hill which is said to have been the site of a miracle: one day in August the tree started snowing! So they built a church beside it and called it Santa Maria della Neve (St. Mary of the Snow).

After the church we went to have coffee at various relatives' houses and then waited outside one of them on the main street so that we could throw confetti at the bride and groom when they passed after the ceremony. Sergio's dog Oscar Wilde kept us company. Such a cutie.

We hurled handfuls of confetti and jordan almonds (and sneaking some of the jordan almonds into my pocket) at the sweet but slightly confused newlyweds, who were probably wondering why on earth two strange American girls were standing by the side of the road yelling "Auguri!" and throwing pennies and candy at them. With half the day left before the reception, Sergio offered to take us to the ruins of a Roman town called Saepinum.  Besides Pompeii they are some of the best preserved ruins in Italy, and it was a beautiful little town! We took some "National Geographic" photos too, see if you can spot me. 

After the ruins we went back to the house for a little nap, and then bundled up in some wildly inappropriate outfits (winter boots and sundresses were all we had) to head to the reception. It was absolutely gorgeous and after the first 5 minutes of awkward "oh god what am I doing crashing this poor Italian couple's wedding in timberlands?!" everyone went out of their way to find us seats and make us comfortable. We went late but were right in time for dessert and champagne. After individual plates of waffle cornucopias filled with fresh fruit and mille foglie wedding cake, we were directed to a giant dessert buffet of panna cotta, tiramisu in martini glasses, glazed persimmons filled with gelato, and pretty much every cookie imaginable. One table was entirely filled with glass bowls of different flavored jordan almonds. I was pleased.
 

We got talked into taking a couple shots of grappa and didn't leave the party until around 2am. A great time was had by all. The next morning we woke up for a tour of Baranello and a drive to all the ancestral homes. We had coffee at three different great-aunts' houses and got to see the place Domina's grandmother grew up in. We also got to sign the registry in the town library, which has recorded every visitor and resident of Baranello since the 1800s.

We spent our last afternoon exploring Sergio's vineyard and gardens and coloring with Katrine. After a big family lunch with everyone and Sergio's hilarious and kind mother, we got in the car for the long drive to the next town's train station.

It was a fantastic trip, and it gave me a completely unexpected but lovely view of what real Italian life is like. Florence and Rome are great but this kind of experience with wonderful and caring people is one I won't ever forget.