Live Pronto!: Digging Deeper...Roots, Part 2

After an amazing day of discoveries yesterday, we decided to spend an extra night in Nomaglio, the village where my Grandmother was born.

Well, we aren't actually staying in the village, because there really isn't anywhere to stay. We are staying in the valley below.

We can see the village from our hotel down below, which is very cool...

Tucked into the mountain side, there is Nomaglio.

We spent the morning wandering the small streets of the town we are staying in, which I hope will be another blogpost...then after a bite to eat we drove back up to Nomaglio. We had enjoyed our time with cousin Walter, but we didn't really get a chance to walk around the whole village, like we wanted to. A second visit was needed, for sure.

Sadly, not the clearest day, but you can get an idea of high up we were.

I just wanted to take the time to walk each and every street, which is what we did. We did not see Walter this time.

It's such a lovely place. Very Alpine...

I had a funny feeling about the house I posted about in my last blog as being where my Grandmother was born...it just didn't fit the stories I remembered from when my folks visited. I also remembered seeing a photo of that house, and it was nothing like the one I posted yesterday...

This house just didn't seem like the right one...

I remembered it being a real ruin, almost...very much in bad shape. We got pretty excited when we stumbled onto this place, which seemed closer to the photos I'd seen before...

Could this be the house??

It had an awesome wooden feed trough for the animals that
lived there at one time...

Then we came upon this one, below, and it totally clicked. I know there is a shot of my Mom standing right here, in front of this house. I had misunderstood Walter yesterday...he had said that the family house was "sopra", or 'above' the one from yesterday, which is just where this house is! I heard him, but just didn't get it until today.

It was hidden above and behind the house I had posted yesterday. We just didn't get that far up the street, because Walter was having a tough time walking so far.

So...THIS is the house where my Grandma was born.
It's in bad shape, for sure. I remembered the arches in Mom's photos.

The front door....

Evidently, a young couple bought the property a few years ago, and they've renovated the back side of it, but are leaving the rest alone. I think you can't change some of the really old places much...

Needless to say, I was thrilled to find the true "old homestead". I just knew there was something wrong with that image from yesterday!

Having cleared that up, we just had fun walking around and seeing all the details...

I wanted this so bad. An old metal sign telling you not to pick the wildflowers...

Of course there were a few of my old pals....

My favorite takeaway, besides EVERYTHING, was the amazing stonework here...

I love the slate roof tiles!

The work is so intricate, and the color combination is gorgeous.

I know that one of our relatives...maybe my great Grandfather...was brought over as a stone mason to help build the city hall in the square in Sonoma, California. It makes sense. When Grandma came to the USA as a little girl, she came with her mother and siblings to join her father, who was already working in the states. They were in Napa, I'm pretty sure.

It's a good story, and I need to confirm it.

Back to the amazing stone work in Nomaglio...