IT STARTED IN NAPLES!!

Although we had missed our mark in the search for my grandpa:

Salvatore Veltri's birthplace 

in the region of Calabria the provence of Cosenza and the town of San Giovanni in Fiore, by a few hundred miles, which in the USA would mean only a few hours driving....(not so in Italy)

although the Italians do travel at a good speed through these winding roads, it still makes going from point A to point B a bit more difficult than say a 300mile trip from Spokane to Seattle. 

we chose Naples as the most southern starting point for our search for Salvatore.

Meet Shannon and Natalie: 

From the start of my son's life he has always been a goal setter and will not stop until he meets or beats each goal.
He set a goal of going to Italy with his mom (me) when he finished college. Along the way he met and married the love of his life Natalie, who by chance has an adventurous spirit as well. So when my son began to get close to completing his MBA he asked me if I had been saving for Italy. As God would have it suddenly I had enough money and was able to get the time off of work, and I purchased my ticket.

On August 20, 2017 I was off to Naples....ITALIA!!!. My son and daughter in law had left a couple weeks earlier for a South Africa trip before and were to meet me there.

On August 21,2017 we all converged in Naples. It was a funny airport, where you just walk off the plane onto the runway and walk into the airport. We were greeted there by our driver Fabio ( I had arranged for a transport***)  He spoke very good English and safely drove us in a Mercedes to our first lodging in what appeared to be a ghetto.
It was very close to train station so a very popular spot for tourists like ourselves. He couldn't find the place and had to call the owner of the B&B Rooms Stazione Centrale Dario who came to get us on foot and we all walked through the streets filled with vendors and just as the Rick Steves book said little children who hold their hands out for money and also unzip your backpacks.

Our host confidently guided us into our safe dwelling through what appeared to be a hobbit door inside a much larger cathedral type door and bolted it shut behind us. 

Vendors filled the streets by day, and garbage by night. 

We then asked where the best pizza was within walking distance and we were off, even though none of us had slept in 24 hours. We were met by many other travelers from all over the world, with the same idea, carrying boxes of pizza back to their hotels and waiting on the street corner with us for a table.
As chance would have it the number one pizza spot was closed for 2 weeks which apparently is a thing in Italy that businesses do to take holiday.

Notice the theme in this picture of hand on head x 3. 

We found the number two spot that was jam packed with people from all over the world. DeAngelis Pizzaria. After this delicious meal a glass of vino, and aqua with "gas" we made our way back safely to our little hobbit house and finally slept after 24 plus hours of travel time.

***I highly recommend hiring a driver to pick you up at the airport for your first visit to Italy.