Page 9 - Italian American Herald - March 2022

ITALIAN-AMERICAN HERALD
MARCH2022 | ITALIANAMERICANHERALD.COM 9
Barbara Ann Zippi-Och, Executive Producer Text/Cell/WhatsApp 610 566 4883 CiaoBellaLivingItalianStyle@gmail.com
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2022 Life in Loreto Aprutino Italy ~ My family from Acciavatti to Zippi, with Nobilio in the middle
I’ve had the privilege of visiting Loreto Aprutino, a medeival village in Abruzzo, numerous times since 1975, surrounded by Italian relatives, staying in their homes, sitting at their tables & sharing celebrations.
With only 7500+/- villagers,I felll in love with this mountain-top oasis, my Italian roots & cousins. When they visited to practice English, our agreement: When you’re in America, I’ll take care of you, when I’m in Italy, you take care of me.
Simona Nobilio assured me,Ihadaroom,an entire floor actually,
a house key & home- made meals at her parents Remo & Antonietta Nobilio’s home in this historic village dating back to the 1st century, where Lucia often stayed during her life.These people knew her intimately, when she was her happiest, in Italy.
want Padre Pio, I give you Padre Pio & we journeyed with his son Andrea for a blessed day. He shared son Paolo’s passion as we toured their new amazing organic green- house project & showed me the state of his ‘farmland’ with hundreds of olive trees, animals, buildings & the proud women of his life, his son’s companions & his wife Ilda. With the Acciavatti’s, I experienced the sadness of my mother’s last living uncle, Zio Orlando, now 93, who walks the cobblestone streets of the village he loves, remember- ing the past but not the present. Wanting his Zest for life hug, when I saw him, no recognition made me feel empty. A chance encounter, days later, while having a late morning espresso alone on the street, as he passed, our eyes locked in a stare, I swear there was a twinkle in his eye as I shouted embarrassing Italian American slang words & names he might remember: “Johneeey, Lucia from L’America”, He sat down & we shared my cornetto as he conversed, words I didn’t understand. It didn’t matter, I felt he remembered. Time passed & we walked arm in arm down the street to his beloved
Rounding out the Acciavatti’s, a quick visit to Zia Ines & a farewell Arrosticini barbecue joined by my
Aosta based cousin Ovidio Acciavatti.
The Nobilio’s are many, Lucia was one of 13. Cousin Rita Nobilio, came to America
almost 30 years ago for her honeymoon with Roberto Di Camilla. Now
daughter’s Carola & Sarah are exploring their careers. A meal prepared by Rita is a special treat, joining us, their family friend, Sabrina De Luca captured my heart sharing her career passion as Editor in Chief of LACERBA, an on-line daily & in print monthly newspaper featuring the towns & region of Abruzzo. Cousin Carla Nobilio’s cooking secrets are many & along with husband Mauro Scarsella, they share a love of music, cooking in the fireplace & take pride in the history of their home located among pathways dating back to the early centuries. Along with daughter Camilla, we visited Mauro’s hometown, the 13th century city of L’Aquila, know for the 2009, 6.3 tremor earthquake that damaged almost 11,000 buildings, lost 294 lives & displaced Mauro’s parent’s house- hold, for almost 3 years. They lived in a train until their home was safe to occupy again.
You can still witness destruction but also pride & dedication to rebuilding necessities, homes & businesses.
Simona was my constant companion for excursions to the fruit stand, farmer’s market, hard- ware store & new Supermarket, built in the last 10 years. Another 1st for me, Thursday’s outdoor weekly market of vendors where
I meet 2 new Nobilio cousins on our family tree: Nobilio’s Porchetta, GianLuca & Officer Pasquale Vallozza on Loreto Aprutino’s police force. We experienced espresso & pastry tasting at each of the villages 9 cafe’s & wine stores, up from 2. Shared her hand-written family heirloom recipe pages with cooking demonstrations preparing nurturing mid-day meals that her mother, Antonietta & I shared along with the time-honored tradition of resting everyday from lunch at 1pm til 4pm. With her background of working all over Europe, reading, writing & speaking multiple languages, we talked about our careers, dreams & the loves of our lives, especially her husband, Nicola Ioppolo, father to their teenagers Nino & Aida. I am enthralled with his talents & creations of an interactive Exhibition on the History of Cinema, his work as Maestro guiding grade school student’s productions in animated cartooning & his family’s Sicilian roots with ties to Frank Sinatra’s Sicilian family roots. They meet & lived as newlyweds in Milan where he is still a Professor of Cinema at the University of Milan.
Always a stop for my mother, not much for me until now, Simona
& Carla brought me to visit the family cemetery where their grand- mother Aida & father Remo now were since my last visit. Always kind to me, on a bright note, how exciting to meet Aida’s great- granddaughter, Aida, talented through her fingers with a paint brush like her great grandmother was with linens & stitchery. Shopping with Rita & Simona
is an adventure exploring new fashion outlets & winter clearance 70% off Italian Shopping Sales
& a visit to Wildwood’s Ernie Troiano’s uncle’s Troiano’s Jewelers in Montesilvano.
The Bridge, it’s open welcoming more relatives & new friends. Through Simona & Carla, I meet Italy’s best selling author, Penne dentist, a doctor by profession, Donatella Di Pierantonio, who published her first of 3 best seller books after she was 50. L’Arminuta, her 3rd novel & 1st published in English, won the Campiello Prize & has been made into a movie. Born in Teramo Province of Abruzzo, she lives with her son’s father, Giacomo Vallozza, who
Simona dropped me off for my adventure in Castel Castagna, Province of Teramo as guests of The Ceritano Sisters, Gelsina
& Sonia, my Drexel Hill friend & their father Nino, who meet me the bottom of the mountain by Castagna’s Cemetary & drove me up to the mountaintop crest amid the Gran Sasso, home to 50+/- winter residents, many of which congregate at the Falcone Family’s homestead, containing vegetable fields, their home & side building housing a bar, coffee & card playing shop & a big dining room. There, retired businessmen who returned to their home village, gather for a mid-day meal, sometimes joined by their daughters, Jlenia Armellini & Francesca Dezii. The menu at Falcone’s, whatever master chef Annalina is cooking that day, hosted by Marcello along with Giorgia & Francesco. A casual tour with Sonia lead to Abruzzo’s patron St. Gabriel’s Shrine in Isola del Gran Sasso where the Church Bells of this Basilica were donated by Jacqueline Kennedy & the walls are lined with past & present miracles.
Not to forget the Zippi side of my family. Uncle Al Alberts, still remembered since his passing, finds 2022 celebrating his 100 Centennial. Famous in the 50’s for the The Four Aces Gold Record of “Three Coins in a Fountain”,
I had to see the new underground archaeological city of water beneath The Trevi Fountain. This new completely sold out tour, opened to me after the Pope’s blessing in St. Peter’s Square. My successful ‘3 Coin Toss’ assures me ending my trip in Rome with Raffaele Cimina & meeting his daughters Francesca & Valentina over dinner, is actually, the beginning of my new life between Italy & America.
Grazie Grandmom
My grandmother’s legacy, Keeping The Bridge Open between Loreto Aprutnio & America, started over 100 years ago, when her father Zopito Nobilio in 1921 brought Lucia to America to marry my grandfather, Guido Acciavatti, who wanted a wife from the same village he left behind in Italy. Never
Cousin Zopito Nobilio, now a book author, meet me at Rome’s airport, escorted me to my solo bus ride in comfort to Pescara, bought my ticket, loaded my pocket with Euro’s, and off I went with the hopes of reuniting later. COVID interrupted a few family member interactions in Italy, but overall, Italy is safe for traveling. I love
meeting, they married days after she arrived by ship & days later, her father left her in a land with a man she didn’t know & a language she didn’t speak.
the journey across & through the mountainous terrains from Rome (East Coast) to Pescara (West Coast), a seaside summer haven for Italian residents along the Adriatic Sea.
Lucia Nobilio Acciavatti was an educated woman in Italy, her life here is another story. What she left me, a precious gift few
have, the privilege of knowing my Italian relatives in Italy. Fast forward 2022, our connections to news from Italian relatives is in jeapordy when the last of Lucia’s 8 children, my Mom, Rita Acciavatti Zippi & my Uncle John Acciavatti pass away. They felt loss in Italy too, Lucia’s nieces & nephews: Tomasso, Remo, Leonardo, Ermano & Dora Nobilio.
Will the bridge stay open?
I personally didn’t want to loose sharing Loreto Aprutino with family & friends & I needed to rest my weary mind & body after the losses in my life. So, with less than 2 week’s notice to anyone, even myself, I sent an e mail to my Italian cousins, with COVID pre-cautions:
I wanted, but secretly needed, to come, arriving in January 2022
& staying into February. Within minutes, a welcoming response.
I booked an ‘off-season’ ticket, & told them I wanted to rest, walk among the cobbled stones paths & visit Padre Pio in S.Giovanni Rotondo, a pilgrim-age site 2 hours away. I had 25 wonderful years sharing Bob’s retired life from Boeing, our last 4, thanks to Padre Pio’s Modern Medicine Miracles happening at Fox Chase.
I needed to feel the energy of
the Grand Sasso Mountains touching the Adriatic Sea, while witnessing the crisp skies over- looking the lush green pastures of the best olive trees for oil in Italy & home of shepherds providing the secret ingredient for Abruzzo’s specialty, Arrosticini. Away almost 10 years, far too long, Cousin
Arriving at Pescara’s bus & train depot is a wonderfully intimate experience compared to our transit systems. At the bus door, Simona was waiting with open arms to take me up the mountain where the glory of The Sleeping Giant’s silhouette is etched along the Gran Sasso. Tears! Laughs! Hugs! Kisses! Masks! it was wonderful to see them both!
Always sharing Italy with family
or friends, this was a solo 3 week long visit, living in the home of town legend, Antonietta, my grand- mother’s 89 year old widowed niece, without my mother, my ever faith- ful interpreter. With my rusty Italian & Google Translate, she told me wonderful stories of village days as a young girl. Her daughters, the nurturing Nobilio Sisters, Simona, Rita & Carla welcomed me along with Fiorella, their mother’s com- panion & family friend, with home- made meals & treats.
but twice, after enduring fall injuries of breaking a wrist & hip, mending now with the aid of crutches, tackled up & down various marble home stairs, walked cobblestone pathways thru the village & climbed multiple stoned outside stairways, to attend dinners, held for me, at the homes of her daughters Carla & Simona. Cars don’t take you very far in these medieval villages. I am humbled by her love.
A sampling of highlights include Cousin Roaldo Acciavatti: you
is another Nobilio cousin on my family tree.
I am honored Antonietta, not once,
Milord, his life long home & that of my grandfather Guido Acciavatti. Now beautifully maintained by Zio’s daughter, Cousin Irene Acciavatti, a true fashionista. She turned her grand- father’s & my great grandfather, Sante Acciavatti’s store front, Milord, from her mother’s village shoe store to a fashion empire
of 11 stores with her husband Renato, while raising daughter’s Rachele & Greta.
With stores happily reduced by COVID, Renato introduced me
to the Town Ox of the St. Zopito Festival, who is well cared for at the Circolo Ippicoini farm on the village hillside & Irene gifted me with a family journey for Sunday mass to Our Lady of Loreto, The Black Madonna’s Basilica, in the Province of Ancona. This unexpected Pilgrimage site, known for The Holy House within Basilica’s walls, is believed to be the dwell- ing of Jesus’ family home in Nazareth, with stories of angels transporting it to the other Loreto.
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