Pictures from Italy-- Silvano d'Orba the second visit

When we were leaving Silvano on March 15th, we swung by the City Hall to leave a thank you gift for Edilio, the man who had been helping Glen with the cemeteries...and somehow that turned into us meeting with the mayor, Giuseppe "Pino" Coco. He wanted to know if we could come back on Sunday. We said we could. So, after 2 days in Turin, we headed back to Silvano.

The mayor gifted us an original drawing of the barge in the Orba river. The Perasso family were the only ones allowed to operate the barge, so supposedly the people on the barge were Perassos. He also had some things to show us involving the Perasso family in Silvano. He had the Vice Mayor, Chiara Boarini, come along. She spoke some English and was so nice.

this is the drawing of the barge the Mayor gave us-it's currently at Dad Perazzo's house

We all toured the local grappe distillery - we surprised them when we declined tasting the product

Mayor Pino Coco, Beth, Glen, Hannah, Vice Mayor Chiara Boarini

After the distillery, we were taken to a restaurant and hotel, Albergo Ristorante Italia di Perasso Alberto. We got to meet Alberto (the owner), his daughter, Valentina (who ran the business it seems), and Valentina's son, Eduardo (who works there and spoke excellent English). Glen had his family history charts, but Alberto only knew a bit about his ancestors, so we couldn't make a connection. 

Glen, Alberto Perasso, Hannah, and Beth

Hannah, Glen, Valentina, Mayor Coco, and Alberto

After checking in, we had dinner in their restaurant. It was quite a popular place and was full of diners. I really enjoyed their food. 

their version of a vegetarian pizza included fresh greens on top of the eggplant, zucchini, and roasted bell peppers

Hannah's dessert that night

Puppetry is something Silvano d'Orba is known for. 

this cute puppet is in the mayor's office

Hannah in front of a sign on the street

Hannah putting on a little puppet show for us the next night

the castle and la Chiesa di San Pietro (St. Peter's Church)

downtown Silvano d'Orba 

spring was evident with flowering trees and bushes everywhere

the back of the bell tower of la Chiesa di San Sebastiano

La Chiesa di San Sebastiano Martire

we were surprised to find a street market in Silvano on Monday morning 18 March

We spent some time on Monday in Ovada and found this fun bench (💓vada)

wandering down random streets in Ovada

another random street in Ovada

and stopping for gelato kind of goes without saying

we liked the message painted on this shop window

this grocery and pet store in Ovada had an awesome mural

just too cute for words!

We drove through the countryside for a while - I think we were north of Silvano:

We had to make a padded box for it to get the Perasso barge drawing safely home on the airplane

The Mayor had us go back to see him on Monday when he had not only the vice Mayor Chiara Boarini with him, but a man, Pierre, who spoke more English than they did. They took us to the Galleria in the City Hall building which has pictures of the history of Silvano d'Orba. Then we walked to the area down Via Nave where the Perasso family first owned property when they came to Silvano.

San Pancrazio is the Patron Saint of Silvano--he died at the age of 13 on May 12th 303 AD. This photo is of the San Pancrazio procession in 1953.

a photo of a street in 1900

this is the house that was the first property owned by Perassos

this was another building on the same property and was owned by Perassos

We bumped into Signora Perasso and the mayor had her join us. We couldn't figure out how she was related to us, but she gave her father-in-law's info to Glen so he could work on making a connection

It was a most wonderful trip. Everything seemed to be a visual feast and I wanted to take pictures of all of it--it may seem like I did, but there are still plenty of photos I didn't post--plus Glen and Hannah have tons. Glen took a photo a every meal he had. That and the fact that he bought magnets every place he could was his way of documenting the trip.

Venice and Pompeii were fabulous, but being in Silvano was better than the cherry on top. I'm so glad we went and that we went twice to Silvano. 

Pictures from Italy-- Silvano d'Orba the first visit

We were in Silvano d'Orba, the town Glen's grandpa was born in, from March 12th-15th. We then went to Turin, but the Mayor had asked if we could come back to Silvano, so after Turin, we had our second visit to Silvano on March 17th and 18th. The second trip will be a separate post.

March 13th was the day we went to several cemeteries: in Silvano d'Orba, in Tagliolo Monferrato, and Ovada.

Silvano to Ovada is about 4 miles

The cemetery in Silvano d'Orba:

graves in the courtyard surrounded by mausoleums

Glen sending a Marco Polo video

The Perasso mausoleum, though no one we knew was listed there 

in front of the cemetery are the remains of an old castle

part of the ruins of the Torrazzi castle

view from the parking lot to the Castle and St. Peter's Church

a zoomed in view--btw, the construction on the Silvano castle was finished in 1492

The cemetery in Ovada, the next town over:

We noticed that this family died the same day, so we looked it up. Turns out there was a dam in the area that burst on 13 August 1935, and hundreds died.  We later found out that the ferry that the Perasso family used to run was destroyed in the flood and never rebuilt.

We ate in Ovada at a Turkish and Italian place both days we were in Silvano. Here is a picture of the vegetarian pizza they served-- eggplant, zucchini, and roasted bell peppers -- and of the falafel wrap I had the next day. Turns out there were several Italian/Turkish restaurants in the area.

Silvano d'Orba city hall

With the help of google translate, Glen had been emailing someone in the city hall about the cemeteries. When we showed up at the city hall on our 2nd day there, the man Glen had been corresponding with was so nice that he offered to drive us up to the old cemetery, which is now abandoned and closed. So we couldn't see anything other than a wall and closed door, but it was the cemetery from the 1800s, so supposedly it would have had some of Glen's relatives in it. It is next to the castle and St. Peters Church, which are also closed, so we couldn't go in any of them.

La Chiesa di San Pietro Apostolo 

a painting on the outside of the church

the top of the church, which didn't really show up in the other photo

the stairs leading up to the church (I just found everything beautiful and interesting)

the cemetery is behind the wall and gate on the left with the castle in the background and the church on the right

We took a walk up past the church and the castle and it gave us a nice view. With all of the hills in Italy, there were always nice views of everything.

looking down at the church

heading up the road 

Glen in the middle of another Marco Polo recording

I loved the old walls 

the cemetery door is to the left

the wall to the cemetery

Glen in front of 78 Via Roma where his grandpa lived as a little boy

these signs cracked us up--in America they would say Slow Children instead of looking like the children are running for their lives on their way to school

And one last amusing (at least to me) item--saw this in a store in Ovada. With Easter coming, they had many items like they do in the US, but I have never seen a chocolate chicken with chocolate eggs. I absolutely love the idea.