An Amazing Weekend in San Benedetto & Ascoli Piceno

One of my biggest goals while studying abroad was to visit the town where my grandfather is from and find his childhood home. My pop was born outside of Ascoli Piceno in a tiny little town called Santa Maria a Corte. He came to America when he was around 20 years old, back in the 1950's. He hasn't been back to see his hometown since he left, so this was a big deal for him! I can't wait to explain this whole story to him in person when I get home in December.

This whole weekend never would have happened without help from my Uncle Darryl's relatives who live in San Benedetto, a beach town on the Adriatic Sea in the Marche region of Italy. Valentina and her entire family, especially her dad, Leone were absolute life savers!

Grace and I left Rome last Friday morning and took a three hour bus ride to San Benedetto where we met up with Valentina and her father. We had a delicious lunch at her home, then they dropped us off at our bed and breakfast, where we stayed for the weekend. The place we stayed s owned by another one of my uncle's relatives, so the whole weekend definitely had an awesome family feel to it.

The view from our bed and breakfast! 

We walked around San Benedetto at night, then got up nice and early the following morning to hit the beach. It was one of the best (if not, the best!) beaches I've ever been to in my life. I came to Italy pretty pale, working all summer didn't allow me to get too tan. I left San Benedetto tanner than I've been in probably two years! Back to the main point..we enjoyed the beach in the morning, had a fabulous lunch at Valentina's relative's hotel, and then headed out to explore Ascoli Picerno and attempt to locate my grandfather's house.

Near Santa Maria a Corte, looking down into Ascoli Piceno

Ascoli Piceno is a larger town of about 100,000 people and sits in the middle of a valley that divided the Marche and Abruzzo regions of Italy. The little town of Santa Maria a Corte, where my grandfather is from sits up in one of the mountains that surrounds the city. I came to Italy with a picture of my pop's old house in the hopes of getting to the town and stumbling upon it. Never did I think that I would be so lucky to have Val and her dad there to help me communicate with the people in the town.

Standing in front of my pop's old house with the
 current owners, Domenico and Gina.

We drove up the windy road that led us to Santa Maria a Corte and parked the car. We saw two men sitting on a bench, so we approached them and Val's dad asked (in Italian), "Do you happen to know a  Mario Cagnetti? " I watched them as they got the most puzzled look on their faces. They said that they knew him but seemed confused as to why we were asking the question. Leone proceeded to say, "This is his granddaughter from America and she is trying to find his house. She brought a picture with her." I handed the man the photo, he looked at me in shock and said, "That is my house, and I am the one in the picture!" SPEECHLESS. I was in total shock. The first person we came in contact with was Domenico, the man who now lives in my grandfather's house and who was also friends with my pop when they were young. It was totally unreal! And to add to that, the man sitting with him turned out to be the brother of my pop's good friend named Elvizo, who came to America with my pop. They walked us around the little town and we eventually made it to the house. Domenico's wife, Gina came out and got filled in on what was happening and she was so happy! We all sat around and drank some juice, Leono took a video of Domenico and Gina saying hello to my pop, and it was completely unbelievable.

We left Santa Maria and headed down into Ascoli for the evening. I was so pleasantly surprised with Ascoli, it was busy, lively, and had so much going on. There was a huge festival/market happening throughout the whole city and there were so many pretty views of  the surrounding mountains. My favorite part of the city was the huge cathedral, which I was not expecting at all!

Cathedral of Ascoli Piceno
We ended our weekend with one more day on the beach and then headed to Valentina's Nonna and Nonno's home for lunch. This really felt like home to me, since my Nonna cooks for the whole family every Sunday. Although we could hardly understand any of the conversation going on around us, it still felt very warm and almost felt a little like home. Grace and I left Sunday at 5 and got back to our apartment in Rome by 9:30. Besides us both catching a nasty cold in the process, the weekend was perfect. That was my number one goal in coming to Italy, and it feels amazing to have gotten back to where my grandfather was born. The only thing that I wish was different about the weekend, is that I would have given anything for my entire family to have been there with me. I know one day we'll all get back there together!