Finding Steve's Grandfather's Home

The Cantina
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We were up bright and early today because our plans were to locate the house that my grandfather lived in.

I want to share that we had a wonderful pizza for dinner with ½ liter of red wine and we went to the opera concert this evening featuring music from Puccini – he was born and lived in Lucca. Though we enjoyed both of these events … they don’t come close to the emotional day that Sally & I felt.

We started out a little anxious … not knowing how far we needed to trek.  My sister had provided a map quest and it looked like our walk might be 1.78 miles – the address we were looking for was 3620 Via S. Alessio. To make a long story short the walk was around 5 miles – BUT IT WAS WORTH IT!

Porta S. Maria
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The country side is calm and very beautiful with small villages and little country shops along the way. We even stopped a postman to be sure we were on the right road. We found the house that my grandfather was raised.  No one was there so we walked to the little cantina 30 yards away to get something to drink. We ordered a glass of red wine …. Then asked the waitress if she knew the folks that lived in the house … then I introduced myself and found out that the owner had the same last name as us …. CHIOCCA … I’m sure we’re related some how!

The hike begins
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Then our day began to change … we all sat down and spoke a little Italian … a little English and enjoyed wine together. They asked us to have lunch and it was the best meal we had in LUCCA.  The name of the restaurant was call Alla Cantina di Carignano.

Suddenly …another gentlemen came in to greet Sally & I … his last name was Sodini … and I’m sure he was related to my godfather Sam Sodini. We drew a lot of pictures showing linage and ancestry. It turned out that this man knew my father and remembered us traveling to Lucca … he commented abut my Dad being in the Military in France and knew all of our names …

Chiocca & Chiocca
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Through this entire experience we realized that there was more that brought us together than kept us apart. We struggled with the language barrier and surprisingly overcame it. We both felt a true sense of respect and love. It was terrific to watch Sodini explain how great a person my Dad was…he even told us that he had spent the night at his home. He was so very proud and seemed to indicate that he was a better person for having known him!

In typical Italian fashion …. They would not let us pay for our bottle of wine and lunch …. They also gave us a bottle of wine with the name of the restaurant on it …. as we left ….

Mr. Sodini & Steve
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We hugged … shed some tears and just barely made the local bus back to Lucca ….

This was a very special day ….