Chieti

Chieti is the land of my family. My relatives came from Chieti to America in the early 1900s. Both of my maternal grandfather's parents came from Chieti which is a small town in Abruzzo (a region on the east coast of Italy and in the center of the country). Chieti is considered to be the oldest town in Italy and has a very nice museum filled with archeological findings. My great grandfather was a mason and saved up enough money to come to America for two reasons. The first was to make more money and the second reason was to avoid the draft going on Italy. In America, he was able to save enough money for two people to come to Italy. He saved enough for his brother Guistino,  and for a wife. He told his brother to bring him a wife from Chieti and Guistino did just that and she became my great grandmother. I still have family here from all those years ago and I have visited them twice now and they are so kind and much better at English than I will ever be at Italian.

So we were on our way to see our relatives in Chieti and it was a long and not great ride. We had a ton of luggage on top of us and I was not to excited about it. I was excited to see my cousins in Italy again although that was about the only thing I was excited for. The hotel that we were staying at was really hard to find and the only thing harder to find was parking for it. Luckily we were able to find everything after only a few minutes of searching. Afterwards we put all of our stuff away and I took a nice hot shower. The hotel was amazing. I loved it. They even had chocolates on the pillows for us. So after we had gotten all cleaned up we went out to see some family.

We have two different groups of relatives here and we like to visit them both. The first group is a great family led by head named Franco. Franco is so generous and last time I was here, he took all of us to eat at a nice restaurant in Pescara (the nearby city with an airport). We went to see Franco first and he was pretty close to where we were staying so it was only a short walk to the apartment that his family and he lived in. They had a beautiful apartment and most of the family was there so it was nice to see them and spend some time with them. This was the view of the mountain of Abruzzo from their apartment:

Afterwards we were headed to do a little sight seeing around the town. This is the cathedral of the city. This is the church where my great grandparents had both been baptized. It was a beautiful church. It was easily the largest building in the town and I knew that we would come back to it tomorrow so we didn't get a chance to see the inside. We saw the Roman ruins of what was once a small Roman arena and it is now a concert venue. I say small because it is not as big as the coliseum, or as big as the arenas in Pompeii or Verona, but it is still very large. We saw some pretty great views and Chieti really is a beautiful town. We walked around a little bit and then we stopped and got a little apertivo at a bar and it was some tasty stuff. Afterwards, we stopped and we got dinner at a small pizzeria near the middle of the town. I really like Chieti. This is the view of the Cathedral:

It was pretty big:

The next day we woke up to a fabulous breakfast at the hotel. I mean it was wonderful. There were very few things I could've asked for better than that breakfast. Then we were intent on doing a little more sightseeing around Chieti. As we walked around we found out that today was Liberation day or the day that America had helped free the Italians from Nazi control in World War II. The people there probably would've been really excited if they had known that I was an America but I guess I just blended in so well they had no idea:

Afterwards, I finally got to go into the cathedral. It really was gorgeous and I took advantage of taking as many photos as I wanted. My family had been going to this church since it was built most likely. It was a good feeling to be inside of it:

This was the crypt and its below the cathedral and it has its own special chapel. This is where my cousin Marta was married:

The second group of family members is led by the head of the family, Luca. Next, we went to their beautiful apartment to spend a little time with them. unfortunately we had to get to Rome that night so we didn't get to spend a lot of time with them. We didn't even get to share a meal with them :( Tina (Luca's wife) is a very good cook, so I was very upset about that. Not only that but Luca is a great cook as well. Unfortunately he was working so I didn't even get a chance to see him. Tina and Luca have here children: Gianluca, Marta and Sandro. Marta is married to a very funny, very pleasant man named Valentine. Valentine is awesome, and he really is hilarious. He is one of my favorite people to see. He seems to not say very much and everything he says is hilarious. We got to hang out with Marta, Valentine and Tina:

Valentine looks like he's in the Mafia (he could be but I don't know because he is from Romania).

 

 

After we hung out with them for a little bit we went to the shopping mall in Pescara where my family and I all looked around and did a little shopping. My grandfather bought my grandmother a beautiful necklace that is a style common in Abruzzo for their anniversary. We then went to Rome and stopped at the hotel. We got a little rest and relaxation and then we headed out for a little dinner. After dinner we went back and rested a little bit before the next day. I woke up early, showered and then went to the breakfast. The breakfast was amazing. I got so much food and I ate until I couldn't eat anymore. It was great. This was a picture of my last great, beautiful latte:

I then got on the shuttle and traveled to the airport. Once there I got through security and found my gate with plenty of time. So I purchased a nice bottle of wine and a some good chocolate for some friends back home from the duty free shop. My plane was a little late getting into Frankfurt so I had to run to my gate. My book bag came unzipped and my entire duty free bag fell out and landed on the ground where the wine broke and the chocolate was ruined. So I did what any good American would do that was late for a flight in a different country. I left it. I made it to the plane with plenty of time and was back home to see my girlfriend in no time.