I have visited Italy twice in the past three years, but never posted a trip report. I've read many trip reports, but they never seemed to convey my experiences. Yes, I loved the cities, museums, scenery, duomos,etc., but what I remember is:

Visiting my ancestral village, Castelfranco in Miscano and being hosted by a distant relative for tour of the town (800 pop.) and lunch in their ancient home, whch took three hours and was delicious. Our translator was a bit worn out with repeating every word of English we spoke and Italian our hosts spoke. I was the first family member to travel back to Castelfranco in 100 years. Walking down those narrow streets where both my grandparents, and their parents were born was almost a spiritual experience. They even have a street named after our family.

On the Isle of Capri: We met two wonderful couples while dining and closed up the restaurant at midnight. The maitre'd is now a very good friend.

Sorrento: After spending two days with our limousine driver, he took us home to meet his entire family at their villa. Mama gave me cloves of garlic, fresh-baked bread, fresh tomatoes from her garden, and a glass decanter with her cold-pressed olive oil in it. Mama did not speak English, but her tenderness and affection spoke volumes. Her son (our driver) is now a very good friend, and I am honored that he brought us home to meet his family.

Santa Margherita: A quiet night at our hotel, and we had the entire hotel staff in the reception area (concierge, bartender, valet, waiter, etc.) hanging around laughing, telling stories of Italy/America, joking - a wonderful last night at that hotel.

S. Margherita: Dining at a restaurant and hearing the waitress calling into the kitchen "Mama", "Papa." Before we left, Mama came over to our table and clutched her chest as Andrea Bocelli's CD was playing. (You don't need to know a lot of Italian.)

Milan: Getting caught in the elevator at the Diana Majestic Hotel with an effervescent bride and handsome groom on their way to their fabulous wedding reception in the garden. They asked us to join them! (We declined nicely.)

Milan/Bonifica Caproni Vizzola (tiny village behind the Villa Malpensa). It was 5:00 p.m., we made our dinner reservations at Il Maniero Ristorante, so we sat outside the restaurant for a drink. Lo and behold, we met Giorgio and Carmela (not related). They didn't speak English and I speak very little Italian. Didn't matter...they liked us, and my Italian was enough to get the conversation going. All I had to ask was Bevo? They said Si, and the party started. As we were sitting next to this (almost) deserted il viaggio antico (ancient village?), with 15 inhabitants, along comes a professional male model and a photography crew. I guess the scenery was authentic because we all watched a commercial being photographed.

I suppose everyone has had moments like these when they travel. I treasure them. They are what makes me want to go back to the land of my grandparents, and get a better understanding and appreciation of my heritage.

We are planning (long term)a family vacation with our sons, daughters-in-law and four grandchildren. Everyone says, aren't you generous? No, the pleasure is mine to give them the opportunity to experience Italia!

Thanks for posting your trip. Sounds Wonderful!! i'm going for my First trip to itay in a few weeks and i can't wait

Sigh. I just returned and your post made me want to go right back.

Grazie for sharing your wonderful experiences. It reinforces my theory that some people know how to optimize their travel opportunities. You seem to have that gift.

Bob, Coming from you, that means a lot.

molte grazie

What wonderful memories you have of your trip!!!.
You must comsider yourself lucky to have found so many new friends in your voyage to the land of love, arts and friendly people.

oopps spelling error... ( consider)

Oh, i_am_kane, I can relate so intensely to your experience! I took my mother to Italy in '97, her parents' homeland. My maternal grandmother was the most fascinating person to me growing up (my grandfather died before I was born, so I never knew him personally, though I feel I know him somewhat from all the stories), and I felt very special knowing someone who had actually lived not only in another land during the first 15 years of her life, but a very special land. After 4 trips to Italy (as well as travels to several other countries), I am thoroughly convinced that there is something exceptional and intangible, almost indescribable about the Italian peoples. They ARE unique in the world, for many of the reasons you stated in your description of the warmth and hospitality you were shown on your journey.

We too had a distant relative who showed us my ancestral home on my grandfather's side (San Giovanni di Gerace in Calabria), though all relatives had long since disappeared, most of them having emmigrated to the US as my grandfather's family had at the turn of the century.

Nonetheless, the mere thought that I was standing on the same streets that my grandfather had played on as a child was an amazing experience. And it meant more than I can tell you to my mother and her sister (there were a few of us who made this journey). Her parents had spent the better part of their youth in Italy, but met in the states and married. She heard about Italy her entire life growing up, so to finally get to see what her parents and grandparents told them all about was overwhelming for her. To this day we speak of it with the greatest fondness.

One of my brothers made this trip with us, his first to Italy, and he wrote a chronicle of it. It was posted online for awhile. I will ask him if it's still available and give you the link. He posted it for family, but I've referred many folks to it and it is a wonderful expression of just what you describe. More than a day-to-day journal, he really captures the heart of Italy. His goal is to retire and move there. Oh, so tempting!

We took our kids to Italy last year, and now my daughter (then 14) is hooked. It "spoke" to her also. She cannot wait to return.

JanT: After waiting so long to post this message, it is so gratifying to hear stories like yours. Before I went to sleep last night, I remembered being on a Sita bus from Portofino to S. Margherita and it was packed like sardines. A elegant, elderly Italian lady who spoke some English, insisted that I share her single seat with her for the ride. She was a small lady, and I'm thin, so I gladly accepted. She couldn't get over my blue-green eyes! For 15 minutes she marveled at them, and, of course, other locals chimed in. I think they are curious about other people, and I understand that mind set.

When I walk around towns in Italy, I see businesses with the names of people who are my relatives, or are friends of mine. The connection is so strong.

I hope other people join in this conversation.

Hi

Lovely report.

I'm sure this trip report made many people smile. My husband and I just returned from a month in Italy. I also, went to my father's home town. My husband and I have had many discussions about how "the people" made the trip more than anything. People complain about the heat (and it was never under 95 our entire trip), the huge crowds, dirty cities, traffic etc, but if, like you, you break it down to the long conversations with locals (we had one man jump in his car and go 10 miles out of his way to get us on the correct road) and the warmth of the people, the heat, traffic and sometimes plain insanity of Italy doesn't matter.

Way back in '84, my husband and I went to Italy, our first overseas trip. We stayed in Rome, had a car, and one day decided to take a day trip to the Tivoli gardens. Upon deciding to pack a picnic lunch, we also felt we wanted a way to keep it cold, so we set about searching for a cooler, a futile search as you can imagine. While in the supermercato (which back then it wasn't much of a supermarket!), we were struggling to ask for what we looking for when a very nice gentleman said we would not find it there, but he could find us one. He actually left the store and returned about 15 minutes later with a cooler! Now, if that isn't going out of your way to help a stranger, then I don't know what is! It left an indelible impression on me. Italians, innately, just tend to be nice, helpful people. There are many other examples I can give, but this one tops them all. We've been 4 times now over the years and we always come back with a story of someone who went out of their way to help us. This is NOT something I've experienced with such consistency in other countries.

In Italy the Italians can really enhance your trip. It is reports like these that show you the personal human side. I cant wait for my trip coming up. With pictures of my twin grandbabies with me I know I will open many conversations with some locals.

Kane, what a wonderful report. We leave exactly two months from today and if I don't stop reading reports like these I'm not going to make it that long. I've been to Italy before and had wonderful experiences and now I can't wait to share them with my husband! Jan T, if your daughter is hooked at 15 she's in big trouble! I went to Europe for the first time at 18 and have been "obsessed" (my mother's word, no mine!)ever since.

This could also fit into the "Funniest Driving Experience" thread that was started here today.

We (5 people) were in Italy for 2 1/2 weeks in late April-early May of this year. Through a series of events too convoluted to go into here, we ended up with a huge, 9-passenger, Fiat Ducato minibus to drive around in Umbria, and later Varenna. I did all the driving, and got nervous as we approached a new hill town each day, wondering how I would negotiate the ancient, narrow, twisting, turning roads that awaited us. One day in Perugia, as we were making our way to the center of town, I became hopelessly wedged-in on a tiny old street..the only option was to turn right, but we were on a downgrade, about 6 inches from a building, and there was no way in hell that I could move the vehicle another centimeter without slamming into a wall. Cars were starting to pile up and honk behind us, and I had no idea what to do next.

Out of one of the cars behind us came a young man, about 20 years old. He asked, in excellent English, if we would like some help. I gladly turned over the driver's seat, and he calmly and expertly moved this monstrosity back and forth, a few inches at a time, until he could negotiate the very sharp right-hand turn, and pull the bus through the very narrow archway ahead. He then lead us through the side streets of Perugia to a parking lot.

We laugh about it now, but I was really sweating it out at the time. This young stranger did all this with a smile, we could not have thanked him enough. These are the kinds of things that make Italy so wonderful and memorable for me.

All of these personal stories makes me believe that moral character still counts for a whole lot in this world. Is there a lesson here?

A few more...Sorrento: We were in the back alley (a warren of small shops) off the main street in Sorrento. Looking for a cold soft drink, we wandered into a tiny grocery store. "Buon giorno!" we said - but no answer. (Cash register was unattended.) After waiting a long 2-3 minutes, in saunters the proprietor "Buon giorno. Come sta?" It seemed as though it never occured to him that someone could or would steal from him (or am I being naive)?

Well, that pure unadulterated trust by this Italian man carried over to my recent stay at a hotel in Italy. By mistake, the concierge and my husband both forgot to return our room key to the front desk. It was lovely, brass, 4" high, and could be used as a paperweight. When we returned home, I told people about the key we mistakenly brought back with us. 100% of the people here said "Keep it as a souvenir. You paid enough for the room didn't you"?

My inner moral compass knew this was wrong. That wasn't part of the deal to get an expensive room key as a souvenir, was it? I didn't want the staff at the hotel to think Americans are petty theives (bad PR), and I needed to feel good about myself. So, I found a study little box, sent it off to them, and received a thank-you note from the hotel. What's better than that?

Sorry, didn't mean to be preachy.

I am enjoying these stories very much.

Hello i_am_kane,

I am JanT's brother, just 'passing by' and saw what was going on here. Your experiences and ability to relate them effectively have been a breath of fresh Calabrian air! And I fully agree with your assessment of the impact of the people of Italy - everything else may seem a bit crazy there, but the people are as warm as any you'll meet - even while participating in that craziness! Listen to them while they're watching soccer...crazy! get out of their way when driving...crazy! but person-to-person they are more helpful and industrious and thoughtful than anyone could imagine.

Example: on my second trip to Calabria, we went to tiny Civita and hiked hundreds of meters up and down the mountainside. By the time we got back to the town, we were dying of thirst - only to find out that it was siesta time and everything was closed, with barely a soul in sight. When we finally saw a person we could approach to ask for help finding something to drink, he instantly led us to the only alimentari in town, then opened it up for us! It was his shop and he wouldn't have dreamed of NOT helping us! When we finished, he closed it back up again and we all parted good company.

This one example was repeated again and again, in every little town and every city, too, in differing degrees. Sure, there are soreheads, just like anywhere else, but their impact is far outweighed by the good, good people in the balance of the population.

If this thread keeps going, I'll add some more moments that stick like glue in memory. La volta prossima - più tempo!

You are so lucky to be so well connected to Italy. I am a self professed italophile, maybe cuz of my similar wonderful experiences there. Here's just one example of the generosity and humor of the Italians... My friend and I were on the train heading to Pompeii, leaving Naples -it was a chilly December. Somewhere in between, a priest gestured nicely, offering my friend his seat-the train was quite crowded and we were standing. Surprised, she gracefully declined. He insisted, and pointed politely to her belly. What he didn't realize was that under her thick winter coat, she was hiding her rather large fanny pack. He thought she was very pregnant! We started laughing and she showed him her "baby". He was so tickled, that he insisted we disembark the train with him at the next stop, and he would drive us to Pompeii in his car. He did just that, and gave us a personal tour of his beautiful church there, and escorted us to the gates of the archeological site. We truly enjoyed meeting him.

I, too found Italians to be so very helpful and friendly..first time boarding the train in Rome I had no idea how to use the ticket machine before boarding..a beautiful (handsome just doesn't work here) young man approached me and showed me how, explained he was studying for the priesthood in Rome (I thought what a waste!!! even though I was a good 30 years older than him-- please - this is not meant to offend anyone reading) - he was Brazilian. We talked about Ostia Antica which I was enroute to visit. When we left the train, he remarked you must now find another friend to help you. He and I were facing across the tracks and he waved as our trains slid into place and blocked our view.

Buona sera everyone, These are wonderful stories, and I smile when I read each one of them. Italy is a land of Art, and one of her arts is hospitality. When I am in Italy, I feel as though I live more intensely. To paraphrase Elizabeth Barrett Browning - "How Do I Love Thee (Italy)? Let Me Count The Ways." I love their art, their creativity, their music/opera, their fundamental faith in mankind, the way they revere their children, the love of familia, their wine, their pride, their gardens, their sense of tolerance.

What would the world be like if Italy never existed? The country and its people have soul.

TravelJack, your sister mentioned a link to your chronicle of your trip to Italy. May I have it?