Catching up Day 3-4-5

Cousin Simone cutting hair in his salon in Montecatini

Whoa, that's a bit of a bend!

I'm standing in the Registry Room on Ellis Island.

Me doing a rubbing of my Dad's name on the Wall of Honor

Me on Ellis Island with Manhattan in the background




Dan and Leta Statue of Liberty





Day 3,4,5
It has been a while since I have either had time or felt like typing. I have been fighting a nasty bug that has left me with just enough energy to get through the day but not much leftover. I think that it’s starting to break up as of this morning, or at least I’m hoping. I do want to tell you about the awesome experience that we had when we went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We went there on Tuesday July 1. Dan had to do some work via the laptop for some month end closing for his job in Montana, so after he was finished we headed for the subway to make our way to Battery Park to catch the boat to Ellis Island. It was a beautiful day in NYC. Not to hot and not to muggy. The ride on the subway took about 20 minutes and we had to find our way to the ticket area to buy our tickets for the boat. It was a short walk of about 10 minutes to an area where there we about 8 lines selling tickets to the droves of people. We were lucky to find a shorter line so we didn’t have to wait to long. From there we made our way to the end of the line to board the boat. The line was pretty long but it could have been worse, we could have been a little later like the other people that ended up out by the street! We slowly made our way up to the security check point similar to what you have to go through at the airports. The really moved the people along as you can tell it means a lot of money to them to keep everyone happy and moving. Once we cleared the security check point we made our way into the line for the boat to take us to Ellis Island. They really know how to move large crowds of people onto and off of the boats. It took about 15 minutes for them to fully load the boat. There is a guy standing there with a counter, counting all the people as they board so the do not over load the boats. I liked seeing that! Once under way I was able to get some good pictures and video of the Statue of Liberty. It took about 15 minutes for us to make our way across to the island where Liberty stands. We hopped off the boat and took some photos of the Statue of Liberty and then headed back to catch the boat over to Ellis Island. We had to wait maybe 10 minutes for the next boat, not to bad of wait. I was very excited to finally get to see Ellis Island and I was not disappointed. As soon as we got off the boat we check out the information board and map so we could locate where the wall of honor was. We entered the main building of the museum and proceeded out the back door to the wall of honor area. I was feeling anxious and excited to find the names of my grandparents and my Dad. We knew which panel to look for because we had looked up the names on the Ellis Island website, Wall of Honor area. Dan was on it for me and he found my Grandparents names first, Guglielmo and Armida Tognarelli. There were towards the bottom of the panel and as I looked for their names I was getting pretty emotional. Dan then called to me that he had found my Dad’s name, he was about 8 or 9 panels away. As I walked over the where his name was I could feel the tears starting to roll down my cheeks. I bent over and ran my fingers across his name…it reads Mario Enrico Guglomo. This really was one of the most moving experiences of my entire life. I am here because my Grandfather had a dream of a better life in America. I took out some paper that I had brought and luckily Dan had a pencil so I could do a rubbing of the names. I did about 8 rubbings for each name. As I was doing this there were some other people looking at a name about 4 panels away from me and they asked what I was doing. Dan told them that I was doing a pencil rubbing. I walked over to show them what it looked like and they were very impressed that I knew how to do it. They asked me to do a rubbing of the name that they we looking at and I said I would be glad to do it. They were very appreciative and thank me. After I was done we took some more photos and then we headed into the main building to get something to eat before we went exploring in the museum. We had a nice lunch. It was very good and not to expensive either. After lunch we headed into the Registry Room. It is this huge room where all the immigrants would first come to when they arrived. The information said that as many as 5000 people a day came through that room. We noticed that there was a side door in the room and the window framed the Statue of Liberty. That was the site that the immigrants had to look at as they were waiting to be processed…the sign of Freedom. The upstairs portion of the building is divided into different room depicting the life of the immigrants on Ellis Island. The had photos and descriptions for each area, it was very well done. I couldn’t help but think as I went from room to room and walked down the hallways, that my family was probably in some of these rooms as the waited to be processed for freedom. The main building is a beautiful building both inside and outside. It was just a totally fantastic experience being there and seeing everything. I really wish that my Mom could have been there with me. I took a lot of great photos and video so she can see what we saw. We headed back to the line for the boat and we had to wait about 20 minutes for a boat. It was not to bad as the line formed under some big trees so we had a lot of shade to keep us cool while we waited. After we got back to the mainland, we headed for the subway for a stop at BH Photo Video store on 34th Street. This is a huge photo store that I know of because I have purchased my own cameras and video camera and some school purchases from them. We need to buy an extra battery and a charger (we forgot it at home) for a point and shoot that we brought. This store was amazing. We were totally impressed by not only their prices but by their business practices. Wow. We got what we needed and also decided to purchase another camera just like the one we have so that Dan can have one to take to Montana. We had a short walk to the subway to head back to the hotel. We were meeting Carol our guide from the day before at the bar at 5 pm so we could get some photos with her. We arrived back at the hotel at 5 to 5…nothing like cutting it close. She was already there waiting for us when we arrived. She was thrilled that we had called and ask to meet up with her again. She is such an interesting person and she said that we were her favorite people that she has taken on tours of NYC. We visited with her about 1 hour then we had to say goodbye because we needed to go get ready to go the see Jersery Boys just around the corner from our hotel. We had great seats for the play, upper level in the center. Really just perfect for that type of play. It was a fantastic play. It was the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The actors were really fantastic. The guy that played Frankie Valli did an awesome job and his voice sounded just like the real Frankie. I really enjoyed the play. We were both hungry but didn’t want to eat a big meal so late so we headed to TGI Fridays to have a bit to eat. By the time it was all said and done and we were back to our room it was about 11 PM and I was beat. Now you see what I meant about being busy, and not feeling great…nothing left in the tank folks! Anyway, we had to pack up the next morning to catch our flight to Italy. We got our bags packed and had the porter come up to the room and get them for us and he was also going to keep an eye on them until our Town Car came to pick us up. We headed over to Applebee’s which was just down the street for some lunch and then I wanted to stop and pick up a couple of souvenir T-shirts from NYC. Dan asked me if I wanted to go have that carriage ride in Central Park that I was talking about but you know I just felt like sitting the hotel until the car came. I was not feeling to good. We hung out people watching and playing on the computer until it came. The ride to the airport was about 45 minutes as we made our way out to JKF. We checked in and got our boarding passes and then headed over to the Crown Room from Delta. We were able to use the Crown room because we are traveling Business Elite or their version of First Class. It was a really nice room and there was an open bar and they also had some good munchies. We hung out there for about two hours before heading to the gate and we timed it just perfect as they were calling for all first class passengers to board. I could not believe the seats and leg room. Oh my God, it was awesome! The seats had foot rests that came up and the backs reclined to 160 degrees. The gave you awesome pillows and quilts for blankets. We were served Champagne before take off and we made a toast to a great vacation. Each seat had individual screens for watching movies or TV shows also. The dinner that we were served was a definite 5 star dinner. We got to pick from a menu what we wanted to eat. It started with fresh cucumbers and tomatoes with a hunk of cheese on a bed of romaine lettuce. The dressing was oil and balsamic. We were also served a choice of roll with butter. Our main course, we both picked the same thing, was a surf and turf. Two nice shrimp scampi and about a 4 ounce piece of beef tenderloin. It was so tender you didn’t need a knife. Amazing. It was served with sautéed zucchini and cuscus. Next came a cheese and cracker tray with three nice portions of cheese. For dessert there was an ice cream Sunday with whip cream and nuts. Needless to say I was stuffed. I ate way to much and I could not sleep on the flight. I tried to sleep but was to full….I just tossed and turned. I was very comfortable though with all the room. The flight to Milan only took 7 hours so it really went pretty fast. I was still full from dinner so I declined the offer of breakfast from the flight attendant…my other half had eggs and sausage for breakfast. The service was fantastic and everything about the flight was great. Once we landed in Milan we had to board a bus to take us to the terminal. It was a short ride about 3 minutes. We entered the terminal and went to the baggage claim area to wait for our bags. Our bags were some of the first off because when we checked in they tag them a priority because we are Business Elite. We grabbed everything and headed to get our rental car from Avis. The reservation went smoothly and it took only about 10 minutes to get our car. We loaded up our Alfa Romeo and headed for the freeway. As we were driving we discovered that there either is no air conditioning or it does not work. This was a major bummer because it was hotter that all get out and we had to drive with the windows down. Well when you have sinus problems and a sore throat that doesn’t work out to well. The pollution in Italy is bad with all the diesel cars on the roads and it was not to fun of a drive for the 3 hours it took to get to my cousin Marcos house. I did survive but I can tell you that today we are going to exchange our car for one with air conditioning!! I was really excited to see Marco. I had told him the last time I talked to him from home that we would arrive between 2 pm and 3 PM. Well we were there exactly at 2 PM. I drove like a mad Italian on the way too, I just love driving in Italy, I feel the need, the need for speed if you get my drift. He was very happy to see us and there were hugs and kisses for everyone. His daughter Martina was also there. His wife Michela had to work so we did not see her until she came home from work. Marco had to head back to work so we said our goodbyes until later. We unpacked our gifts and clothes and then laid down for a couple of hours to rest and nap. We got up about 6 PM when Marco came home from work. We visited a while and then we drove into Pistoia which is about 10 minutes away to the store to pick up a few things that I wanted. When we got back to the house, Michela was home from work and was making dinner. She was so glad to see us and we exchanged hugs and kisses with her. We had a really nice dinner that she made us, she is just the best cook ever. We talked until about 11 Pm and then we all headed for bed. The next morning Dan got up way before me. I had a rough night with my sinus and coughing so I did not get a lot of sleep. I slept in until about 10 am then I got up and made myself a shake for breakfast. It tasted really great, I missed my shakes! We needed to get to a bank to exchange some dollars for Euro so we decided to head to Monticatini. It is about a 15 minute drive from Marcos house. We found a place to park and walked over to the bank. Unfortunately the server was down and the teller was not able to complete the transaction so we would have to come back. Dang computers…Anyway just across the street is the hairsalon of my cousin Sergio. We did not get to see him and his family 4 years ago when we were here so I wanted to make sure that they knew early in our trip that we were in town. We walked up to the third floor where the shop is and his son Simone and his daughter Michela were there. Simone looked at me and I looked at him and smiled and then you could see that he finally recognized me. He came over and gave us a hug and then I saw Michela and she did the same. After somewhat communicating with Simone, (he doesn’t know a lot of English) he invited us to dinner at his house with his whole family on July 16th. We exchanged phone numbers and said our goodbyes till later. The next stop was to go to Ponte Buggianese where my Dad was born to look up some more relatives. We made a stop downtown to visit my cousin Augusto at his jewelry shop but there was a sign that they were gone all this week. We will go back next week before we leave for Elba to say hi to him and his wife, Diana. Next stop was to go to the house where my Dad was born to visit my cousin Eda, however she was not home. The window was open and I was calling to her but she did not answer. We decided that we would try and remember how to find her son’s house, Christiano. We drove around Monsumano Terme for a bit trying to recall where his house was and between Dan’s memory and my memory we were able to find it. He has a locked gate but there is a speaker there and I rang to see if anyone was home. The gate opened and we walked in and a woman that I did not know came out. She started to talk Italian pretty fast and I said that I didn’t speak Italian and that I was Christiano cousin from America. I asked her in Italian when he would be home and she said around 6 PM. I told her that I would leave my number and to have him call me when he got home. From Christianos we had to head back to the bank to get some Euros. I found a parking spot right in front of the bank, that never happens in Italy! Dan ran in and was able to exchange our money for Euros no problem this time. I was starting to not feel well so we decided to head back to Marcos for the afternoon so I could so lay down for a while. I snoozed about 2 hours and felt a bit better when I woke up. We had a nice evening with Marco and Michela. A couple of their friend came by and we enjoyed listening and watching them talk back and forth in Italian. I know why I talk with my hands too! I feel right at home in this country that’s for sure. I didn’t sleep well last night waking up at 2 am and pretty much was awake all night. I decided this morning at about 6 am that it would be a prefect time for me to catch up on my blogging so that is what I have done. Today we are going to take care of the car situation with no air conditioning and I’m cooking a Mexican feast for dinner tonight. Michela has to work today it will be nice for her to not have to cook for us when she gets home. Phew…that’s about it for now, so Ciao!