The Family Gathers

Well, in a little town half a world away from California, twenty people from various walks of life gathered today. Since our soon to be new old house in Veglio was owned by our very large family, buying it required transferring ownership from various aunts, uncles and cousins. So on the eleventh of June in a notary public office in Domodossola they came to sign their papers giving the crazy Americans title to that thing on the mountain.

The Twenty Members of the Senestraro(Our Grandfather) Family

They came by car and train and maybe even a bicycle or two from as far as France. Cousin Andrea had convinced them that we could and would restore the old stone relic so it could once again be filled with the smells of garlic and wine and the sounds of laughing.

Don't Worry, We Didn't Need That Wall

About 5am Pacific, we got the email that it was DONE and they were headed to mountain to take pictures and celebrate. Around one in afternoon another email came with pictures of the day and a few lines as well as the promise to write more and more tomorrow. Oh...and Andrea also let us know that there was good news and bad news. He said it seems like the old house is restoring itself, as a chunk of it fell down yesterday...the bad part for certain he said that would have been demolished anyhow!

I found myself more than a little nervous as soon as our dream became our ownership reality.  We were in Palm Desert yesterday taking a little rest after a very rough week but that relaxation turned to tension.  Where will this project lead?  It feels in many ways like an archaelogical dig more than a home improvement project.  Alex and I were up at the La Brea Tar Pits last week and the crates and digging and cataloging seemed to predict what may be ahead for us.  The discovery is much more than the old "bones" of the house but this new relationship with our family.  My older brother and I are embarking on this joint project that is surely to have its moments of friction between us as well as our cousin several thousand miles away.  My hope is that it will be bring us all closer together but as with all of these kinds of adventures, there is more than a little risk that it may not quite turn out as we picture in our minds.

I am wondering where this will lead.  Not sure it would be a full blown case of buyer's remorse, but a very large symbol of change in our lives...change that has been with us for the past five years and about to quicken its pace. 

Next up is our family trip to Italy in just over a month.  All three of us brothers(Mark, Joe and Ken), together with our families will be spending time in the North and then on to Venice and Rome.  But first, we will see the mountains, the house and celebrate a "re" union with over fifty members of our family.  A huge lunch has been planned with a very nervous goat being fattened just for the occasion.  Wondering tonight who is more anxious about the coming events in Veglio.

Living the Italian-American dream,