The Long And Winding Road

To recap, and with much hindsight, I was hopelessly ill-prepared on my first endeavor to find my grandmother’s hometown in Comune di Orero (above) in 2010. On the second effort in 2013, Jory and I made progress in terms of logistics, but unfortunately, we visited the wrong town with the same name in a different part of Liguria.

This time, there would be no missteps, thanks to assistance from brothers Robert and Richard, as well as cousin Michelle. Success would be where preparation meets opportunity: we had Google maps, street views, aerial photos and carefully plotted directions, not to mention Andrea, our cab driver, who knew where he was going.

Yes, it’s been a long and winding road, figuratively speaking -- and, as it turns out, literally speaking as well.

As Gina will surely attest, the meandering route from downtown Genoa to the Comune di Orero was circuitous enough to induce car sickness. Plus, the higher we went into the foothills of Liguria, the narrower the road became.

So we switched places on the way back: her in the front seat and me in the back.

Once we arrived in Cicagna, I knew we were close. My Gramma talked about this small hub of about 2,500 inhabitants all the time when I was a youngster. 

It's where they would shop for groceries and is the largest town near her home in Comune di Orero in the wooded headlands of the Appenines. They would simply take a trail down to Cicagna.

After a half dozen kilometers, we arrived at the city hall in Isolona (above, left).

Inquiring within, we met Massi Ratto, the town administrator. His wife is a Sanguinetti, so that would make us shirttail relatives. He informed us that we were in luck: his mother-in-law, Anna Sanguineti, was home that day. We proceeded to her house where, once Andrea explained who we were, she greeted us warmly.

Anna emotionally implored us to return when her sister, Iva, and brother, Andreino, would be available two days hence. We had planned to take the boat to Cinque Terre that day, but she made us an offer we simply couldn’t refuse -- a chance to connect with our cousins. We agreed to come back to Isolona on Wednesday, July 15.