lanz

We are off to Italy for the last two weeks of November. We are hoping to take our three teen age children to the Basilicata region for about two/three days to see their great-grandparents villages-Montemurro and San Chirico Reparo. We could just do a day trip if there is no place to stay...are their agriturismos there? Or B & B's?
Ny husband and I went 21 yrs ago and found no where to stay but we had a tent and camped out in a goat pasture! (It was romantic and in the morning the goat herders just laughed at the silly Americans)
But this was June and we were o so much younger then...and the kids don't want to camp! So should we just do a day trip? What kind of weather might we encounter?
I saw an old site about Basilicata but it was not for these specific towns.
Any help would be appreciated. We will have a car.
Thanks
Yolanda

rex

There are some (two, chiefly? fragmented?) threads that are the "pet project" of someone here named "cmt", and for obscure reasons, they are not easily retrieved by searching:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34401476

and

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...mp;tid=1300139

Best wishes,

Rex

MichelleY

Dear Yolanda:

My sister & I took our mom(age 81) to Basilicata 3 years ago. We went to my grandparents home town of Moliterno. It is in province of Potenza. I believe Montemurro is in the same general area. I got info. over the web by searching under Basilicata. I also checked the white pages for Moliterno for listings of any family members.

Be prepared for cold weather. We were there in mid-October and it was getting a bit chilly. I will try to find my info on Basilicata and post any info that may be helpful.

BYW: we found family members and had lunch with them. My mom spoke their dialect, so communication was easy.

Have a great trip.

MY

lanz

Thanks Michelle! That is so cool that you got to take your Mom there. My Dad wanted to go and never did...but on our honeymoon we took photos and he treasured them.
It is somewhat near Potenza and we have been loooking for long lost relatives online...so far no real luck.
But I fondly remember the rugged beauty and the non-commercilization and want my kids to see it. I'm sure it will all be good. I just have no idea where to begin looking for places to stay!
I have skimmed carol's (cmt) site and will look more closely there for some references. Thanks Rex.
Yolanda

MichelleY

Dear Yolanda:

Here is a site that may help:

http://www.aptbasilicata.it/modules....ewlang=english

You may even be able to e-mail them for more specific info. Where we stayed, Moliterno, had about 5,000 people and about 3 or 4 inns/hotels. As far as family, we hadn't had any contact in over 40 years. But we asked around town, telling people our family name. We got lucky at the cemetary when we asked two little old ladies in black if they knew our family. They did, and led us to them. My mom had a fabulous time meeting her first cousins and seeing her parents' birth place.

I will keep looking for my Basilicata tourist book.


MY

MichelleY

Dear Yolanda:

Here is a link for the Montemurro home page. Looks like there is not a place to stay in town, but it gives the name of a place nearby:

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/3336/

to get this I googled "Montemurro".

I grew up in Central California and a family down the street was named "Montemurro".

Have a nice trip.

MY

lanz

Thanks Michelle!
I also have found the Montemurro site and even located a distant cousin through the research function on it...he has a home in Montemurro although he lives in the Boston area. He may be in town when we visit and I am hoping to ascertain just how we are related...anyhow I am sure we will hook up with a place to stay somehow! I am a little sad at how difficult it is to find info on the area but it is good in a way as it is not touristy!
Y

MichelleY

Dear Yolanda:

One thing we did in Moliterno was go to the comune office(city hall) and get copies of our grandparents' birth and marriage certificates. That way you can trace family names etc. You may be able to do this in Montemurro or a nearby town.

Good luck.

MY

lanz

Thanks Michelle
That is a very good idea. I think there would be one in Montemurro although the tiny village of my paternal grandfather may be too much to hope for. But you never know! I did find them on Ellisisland.com! and that was pretty exciting. We were so inexperienced in 1984 when we were on our honeymoon and it was just cool to see the church my grandmother was baptised in. The church was being worked on and is now done I hear so they should be open for some record searching. We found no relatives living there then although I was told by my Dad that he thought they had all left for the cities of Potenza and Naples.But you never know and we will stay a little longer if the kids are willing this time.
Thanks again. I'm getting excited now esp since I found an agriturismo listed in Montemurro. Hopefully they will be open!
Yolanda

cmt

Lanz, did you use the link that I posted on the Basilicata thread showing an agriturismo in Montemurro? That could be another possiblity, in addition to the one you found elsewhere.

cmt

I posted it here: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34401476

If you're looking for relatives, the easiest approach is to ask the people who work in the birth and death records office in town to help you do a search. Or if you write in advance, if they feel like it,maybe they'll do the search for you and tell you about any cousins living in town. You should write the letter in Italian. (If you can't, you should get someone to help you. In a small town, thre may not be people in the office who are comfortable reading and writing in English.)