IL GIORNO DI FIUME VENETO

IL GIORNO DI FIUME VENETO

      That is what we did yesterday.  Currently we are finishing
breakfast at the hotel and will taking the train to Venice in a short while.   I need to take you back to the gelatto with the Del Col's 2 nights ago.  We simple strolled down the main street with about 15 people to a nice gelatto shop.  The most interesting thing - besides the conversation - was the fact that there was a political rally going on in the town square.  I can.t tell you what it really felt like except that it was home town politics in action - Beatles music and all.  The subject was the raising of taxes to 23% (?).   We then said our good byes to that side of the family.

Great Uncle Angelo

   Yera Sera (?) Luciano arrived at 9:30 for our 10 am pick up

Original Basset Home

 Another interesting day with the exception that family left there is quite small.  We stopped at Great Uncle Angelo's house.  He is 94 and was born almost 2 years after my mother.  He was sitting quietly in a chair having just returned from the doctor's.   We did have a chance to tour the property.  The town is much smaller than Pordenone.  There is a nice piece of property associated with the house.  We did learn later that the family owned large tracks of land.   There were a few out buildings with an old tractor, chickens and roosters, rabbits and a small garden.  The animals were not pets!  We met Sylvia - Angelo's daughter and went to here home a few blocks away.

With Luciano

      This was a house about 25 years old and that is where Sylvia and
Luciano live.  Luciano speaks a bit of English, Sylvia none at all.  They are dances and he talked about that.  He is also in a dance troupe that tours around locally putting on shows.  He did show us a portion of a video of the show the highlight of which was their "full Monte" act.
      Time to eat.  Sylvia had prepared pasta for lunch along with the cheeses, salad, bread, parma ham, etc.  Judy and I  made good work of the local bottle of wine. Afterwards, we needed a walk (and Luciano a nap) so we just walked around the town.  That gave us an opportunity to photograph the old Basset house which is now empty (read almost falling down).  We had already visited the local cemetery earlier in the day.
   In the late afternoon Luciano took us around to 2 old walled towns where we saw some really old churches.  The first was built around 950 and was unlike anything we had seen before.  No photos allowed but frescoes all through the structure.  Venice will have painting but this is different.  The second church is about as old as Assumption  in Windsor and so by Italian church standards was "modern".  However the bell tower is leaning - like Pisa - but much much higher.  It will eventually fall over as there are no current plans to do anything about it.   We did stop to visit Sylvia's grandson who is the computer person in the family.

Who Speaks Italian

   Back to Sylvia's for dinner.  Again more food than you

Main Square Fiumo Veneto

could ever want to eat starting with soupa, then salada, carne, cheese, wine (Judy and I only) and talk.  Very little English but with the few words that I know in Italian (2 years of university helped a bit) Latin and hand gestures we made out fine.  Of course the Italians speak rapido so I only got bits of information.  As the wine wore down my Italian got better!  It as a really great experience. We arrived back at the hotel tired but happy.
      The last 3 days here have been a great revelation.  After visiting Italian cities and towns fully of visitors it was a great experience to see how the "local" folks live.  A quiet layed back (except when driving) life where days are spent talking and nights are spent enjoying the nice spring weather.
     On to Venice. Ciao!