L'avventura di Maria DeGrazia (Noi siamo Lucani!): Day 17: We're off to see Calvello, the wonderful city of Basilcata

Note: There is no internet in Calvello so we will be offline for a couple of days.

Dominica, 17 gennaio, 2010.

We started the day early so that we could get out of Dodge (aka Roma) before the traffic got crazy, but first we had to walk to the car rental place which was located somewhere in the big park (Borghese) near our b&b. But where in the park was it? We had walked through parts of the park twice but had never seen anything remotely resembling a car rental agency. I was pretty sure it was located in an underground parking garage… but where was the entrance? John was sure it was one way, so we followed him, until we asked directions which sent us back the way we'd come, then asked directions again which leaded us to nowhere. Finally, we walked out of the park and, at one of the entrances, we found the garage. Then, we had to hunt through the huge garage (at least 2 levels), which also strangely had a supermarket and other stores underground… but we found it. We got a little lost getting back to the apartment to pick up bags, but, then found our way out of town.

Mary with Vincenzo DiGrazia, and some other paisanos in Calvello

It was a long way but brother Gianni (he's decided that he prefers Johnny to Giovanni)… he did a superb job of driving on the autostrade (if you didn't care that he got it up to 160 KM/Hr… Glad I dozed off and missed that part.) We quickly got to Potenza but had to decide between two routes… a simple boring highway or an older, twisting road. He chose the twisty one, and, well, there are NO road signs… the GPS would say turn at such and such street… but who knew what street that was.? We went round and round the mountain a couple of times, ( I began to think of the old song "she'll be coming round the mountain when she comes"…) then we realized that some buildings and even some dogs and flocks of sheep looked suspiciously familiar. We asked directions twice, and, though I nodded and said "si si", I had little clue what information they had told me. I swear that neither of these people said a word of Italian. I heard a few similar words that seemed like they might be directions… sinitra instead of sinistra, and drisco instead of dirito. John and Margaret began to get visibly (AND VOCALLY) concerned when they realized I really can't be relied on to converse here in the hinterlands. (What the hell did Mary get us into? was what she were thinking), I guess it was dialect? Maybe just an unfamiliar accent? Finally, we found the right turn … and in another hour we were in Calvello. YEAH!

We got here in time for a brief festa in the square. We had missed the religious activities and the festivities earlier and had been told nothing was happening tonight. But John and I walked into the town anyway. There were a lot of people taking their evening passeggiatta… old people chatting and walking with friends, or sitting in bars playing cards… but also young men, walking up and down the street, over and over again. I guess its Calvello's equivalent to cruising. Also some kids playing calcio (soccer) outside the police station square. An old woman walked up to me and asked me to accompany her on a passaggiata to the bank. She put her arm in mine and we walked down the street together, and she was chatting all the way… Gianni just kind of following us. . She didn't ask who I was or give me a chance to say anything.. just talked about the other feast days they have here in May and September where everyone comes back to Calvello and described how the Madonna is exchanged from mountain to city and vice versa. (I knew this story from Tak's book, otherwise I probably wouldn't have understood what she was telling me). She also told me about her daughter with brown hair named Carmelita. And then we were at the bank and she told me she was pleased we had come and that was that. Then we noticed a band was in the square near the newer church of San Giovanni Battista so we hung out for a while, waiting to hear them. Finally, I approached them and asked if they were playing this evening and he said yes, now… but "now" didn't mean 'Now" so we went into a café for coffee and hot chocolate. The bartender spoke English a bit and we were able to converse. He wants to come to California, of course. Then the band played a song, which I filmed… and when it was over, several people filed into church where they said the rosary before mass.

We cut out before mass and started walking back towards the car… when a man walked up and asked if we were from California. He tried to talk to Gianni, but I replied and introduced us, and he said his name was Vincenzo DiGrazia and he had gotten my letter. He spoke no English but we had a decent conversation. He insisted that the De's were different families than the Di's… and I said I was happy to know him anyway. Then a couple of other guys sauntered over and we repeated our family story a few times, all of them recognizing the old names. One guy told us we should go have dinner at his son's restaurant "San Francesco" (because I am from San Francisco) and also that we should go to his brother's bar "The American Bar". We laughed and asked if they spoke any English in the American bar, but they didn't. My brother Gianni said, no problem, we'll speak the language of drinking beer and then he acted out "tipping a few". They got the joke. Then we said goodbye and came back to the hotel where we're FREEZING. The heat is working but, not very well. Margaret and I are both wearing long underwear and PJ's and John is roughing it. We're here another night, hopefully we'll be warm by then. The following night we stay in a CAVE hotel in Matera…. Hmm, I wonder if we're up for that adventure? I think camping in the snow would be warmer.

Yes, there is snow in the mountains, but the roads are clear. There is none down in the town, but it is near freezing outside. It is so exciting to be here, even though the natives think we're pazzo (crazy)… who would want to come to Calvello in the winter? I admit, it's an odd choice, but I'm glad we're here.

Enough for tonight… my hands are frozen stiff.

Maria

This little old lady stopped me and asked me to accompany her as far as the bank... we took a passaggiata with her talking a mile a minute. Afterwards, we realized that part of the evening passeggiatta is about being seen, and also about being talked about... so she was about the first person to meet and talk "at" us... I didn't get a word in edgewise but she was very sweet really.