Europe 2018 – Sestri Levante, Italy

Our Family!

Now we visit family and friends in Sestri Levante. On the west coast of Italy, about a 30 minute train ride from Genova. This picture shows some of the relatives that are direct cousins to my mother. We found our family about 5 years ago.  It was a very emotional time for us then, and continues to be so every time we go back to visit them. We have become very close to them in a short time, and sometimes can only think of how different it would have been if our family had stayed in contact over the many years since my grandfather immigrated to the USA in 1915. In total we have found about 15 of our relatives here and surrounding Sestri. For the most part they only speak Italian, and Genovese dialect.

 

 

 

 

Here we share with you pictures from a lunch (pranzo),  that was at a local restaurant, La Cantina Del Polpo. The owner met recently with the mayor of Santa Cruz when the mayor visited here to promote the continuing exchange between Sestri Levante and Santa Cruz as sister sisters. The owner Andrea, offered this entire lunch, for our family, as a gift. And it was superb!

Sestri Levante is a beautiful area that has given the Santa Cruz area many immigrates since before WWI. Along with Riva Trigosa, the neighboring village, the architecture is strictly Ligurian.

The thing is, if you closely at these pictures, you’ll see that almost all of the ornate moldings, and even the stone bricks, are all painted on flat walls! What a difference it makes in how you see the buildings of these cities. Sometimes they have even painted in whole windows to maintain a symmetrical look,

 

 

Take a look at the far left lower window in this picture. It is totally painted in. The window doesn’t actually exist!

 

 

Many times when we visit Sestri, we stay at one of our family’s apartment. This time we choose to stay with the man who helped us find our family five years ago. There we were treated to some local cooking,

 

 

 

This dish I believe was a “torta di riso”, or rice cake. It has almost no crust, and is only about one inch thick. Eaten cold or hot, it is delicious just the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here, Sandro and I discuss politics of both countries,

 

neither of us are happy with our countries politics.

 

We’d like to put out a special thanks to Sandro & Dora for having us for the days we were in Sestri Levante,

As this is a port town, we had many good fish meals,

In this second picture, the restaurant owner is the father of Luca Ciotoli, a city councilman for Sestri that recently visited Santa Cruz. His family has a nice little restaurant called Ittiturismo Bistromare on the Baia di Silencio (Bay of Silence).

That dish in the front is smoked swordfish. It is something to experience if you ever have the chance.

Here, we’ll throw in other pictures of some of the delicious food in the Sestri area,

It is always hard to say goodbye to this area. We leave with longing hearts to come back soon,

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