The Travel Agents
The Travel Agents
Tracing our Roots - Italy with Nick Finelli
Tracing your family roots back to Italian towns and discovering how a $12 Aperol Spritz can signal an expensive restaurant is a rare experience.
In this episode, Brian and Will are joined by special guest Nick Finelli of Finelli Ironworks. They explore what it's like to uncover your family heritage in a foreign country, with a focus on Italy.
Join us as we chat with Nick about what makes Italy so special, why its food is considered the best in the world, and the significance of Italian culture.
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Speaker 2:Hey, I'm Brian and I'm Will, and we're your hosts for the Travel Agents Podcast. William, it's time for Italia.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we got a fun one. Today we're doing something a little bit different. We're talking about our roots, but not just our roots. Yes, we have a special guest.
Speaker 2:I found that like it started in my teenage years, will that? Like I would be talking with my buddies and all of a sudden I remember my buddy, pat him, being like I'm Irish, I'm Irish, I'm like what? No, dude, you're born here in Akron. Like what the heck are you talking about? You know other buddies saying they're Italian, they're Scottish, they're whatever, right. And around that same time I kind of started getting interested in my roots. I'm like dad, what are we, you know? And actually just like, probably 10 years ago, my family, well, us kids we got the 23andMe ancestry test for my folks because we figured, well, if we're their kids, we can just take whatever their results are, right, yeah, and that was fascinating, right?
Speaker 3:So this whole idea of roots, I think, is really prevalent. I think it's a really cool concept to really look back at where you came from, where your ancestors came from, and get in touch with that, because I think that's lost in America heritage.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I have been itching to talk about Italy since we started this podcast and I've been looking for the right angle for it, and I think we found the perfect time to talk about Italy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great intro.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a friend met him at a Bible study. He's Italian. Right away we clicked, right away we clicked. And I was like man, if we ever do Italy, I want to kick it off with getting him on our podcast. Well, his name is Nick Fanelli. He's here with us today and I want to just tell you a little bit about Nick, because he is, yes, maybe he was born in Ohio, but Nick is a true Italian Ohio, but Nick is a true Italian. Nick's wife is nine months pregnant with their new baby. His wife could go into labor at any moment, but Nick is choosing to push back the birth of his daughter tonight even further than he greased back his hair. Nick is a true.
Speaker 2:Italian. Nick is a true Italian. Nick plays soccer, of course he does right. His character on the field is much like the Italian drink he brought Will and I tonight wine. Nick wines and soccer so much his relationship to referees is much like his favorite band growing up Yellow Card. Nick is a true Italian. Unlike the capital of Italy, you'll never find Nick roaming around Olive Garden. Nick is a true Italian. His tax reporting is much like his nana's pasta sauce recipe Secret. And lastly, nick makes fun of me for being Romanian. But, nick, while you're making hard earned cash at your family business, I'll be right behind you stealing it from your pockets. Thank you very much everyone. That completes my set.
Speaker 4:Nick, welcome to the podcast. I'm speechless. That was a fantastic intro. I will say one thing that you missed. To prove how italian I am, please, please. I showed up a half an hour late to this podcast.
Speaker 3:Oh, with the hand gestures too. With the hand gestures, yes.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, Nick, when I started at Kima Travel, our family travel agency, I had no idea about Italy. I've had the absolute pleasure of visiting Italy three times in the past decade and I must say it's truly an unreal country. In the past decade, and I must say it's truly an unreal country. Everything from the food, the drinks, the wine, the people, the culture, the gorgeous scenery, the agriculture, it's out of this world good. I'm just curious. Going back to roots, can you start us off a little bit about you and just what like was being Italian? Always something you knew growing up? Was it ingrained into you or did you get interested in it later? What was that like?
Speaker 4:Yeah, great question. So, like you said, I was born in Ohio, but I'm Italian. I am the second generation of my family to be born in Italy, so my roots to Italy are very, very close. I would say, when I was a child, I was so interested in all the things that we did as Italians, all the traditions we did, the holidays, the get togethers, the special recipes which are all secret, I would say. Once I became an adult, once entered into manhood, is when I really started questioning why do we do the things that we do and where did we come from? I mean, yeah, I know that we're Italian, but what does that mean? Exactly One thing I love about Italians and the Italian culture is that if Italy produced nothing no great people, no great food, no great culture Italians would still think being Italian is the best thing on earth.
Speaker 4:So I started to trace my roots, very elementary, just asking people Started off with my parents what were your parents like? I knew my grandparents, but what were they like growing up? And then that went on to cousins no, not cousins my age, my dad's cousins, my mom's cousins, people in their seventies yeah, that extended family, that extended family, asking them what was your dad like? Do you remember your grandmother? What about your great-grandmother? So once I became an adult is when I really started diving into my roots and around that same time is when I met my now wife, okay, and found out that she was Italian. In fact, we met at the same Bible study Brian and I met at and my little sister came up to me and goes Nick, I met this girl tonight. She's Italian, you got to talk to her. That's all she said. Yeah, so I thought, okay, let's try it had you at Italian.
Speaker 3:What's that? She had you at Italian. She had me at Italian.
Speaker 4:I was like, forget about it Done. So we found out that our grandparents' hometown, her grandparents' hometown and my grandparents' hometown was an hour and a half away from each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, italy's huge, it really is.
Speaker 4:It is, but we stopped asking questions after that because we don't want to know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're like cut it. I'm like, yeah, enough on the roots.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so long story like cut it. I'm like that's enough on the roots. So long story short. I met her when I was starting to dig into where my family really came from. We ended up scheduling a trip with some friends to go to Italy, to go to her grandpa's hometown she still has family over there and then we also took a trip to my grandparents' hometown.
Speaker 3:What year was this Like? About what year that was?
Speaker 4:2017,. I believe Okay.
Speaker 3:So pretty recently? Do you remember, like can you recall, what the name of the town is?
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 2:And how much Italian are you studying leading up to this? Are you trying, are you thinking I better speak some Cause I'm going to these towns where are you not sure how the english english is going to be spoken?
Speaker 4:yeah, I would say I would do some duolingo type, very, very elementary nothing, nothing great um, and it was definitely not sufficient um to answer your question, will? Her grandparents hometown is called forley del sanyo. My grandpa's hometown is called roseto del val, feltore okay, the rose of the valleys, and it's in southern, southeastern Italy, nice, beautiful part of the country, very country, lots of farms yeah, okay, all towns.
Speaker 3:So southern Italy, um, in reference point like, uh, what's maybe the closest major city that maybe someone might know?
Speaker 4:Isernia is a close city, okay, yeah but that's somebody one might know.
Speaker 2:Isernia is a close city, yeah, but that's somebody one might know that's a good point. Probably Campobasso, that's someone might know You're right.
Speaker 3:Rome.
Speaker 4:Is that one of them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's pretty good, okay, no, but it's that area south of Rome and south of Amalfi Coast, south of Naples, right where it's kind of like a lot of residential it's, and south of Amalfi Coast, south of Naples, right when it's kind of like a lot of residential it's, even south of Salerno, is it somewhere?
Speaker 4:in here. Yeah, if you took Naples and went straight across. Oh, is it in Puglia, it's near Puglia. My grandpa's hometown is in near Puglia. Okay, it's in Puglia.
Speaker 2:Sure, which is getting more popular. As people have already done their Venice, florence, rome, they've already done their Milan, they've already done the Dolomites, they've already done Cinque Terre, they're like, hey, let's try something new. We've already tried Sicily, let's go over to Puglia Love it.
Speaker 4:Yep, yeah, that's an underrated. So I always say that there's two kinds of Italy. There's two Italys. There's the Rome, florence, north, the classics, but then there's the Forli del Sagnos, the Rosados, the Isernias that no one knows about in Puglia, that are getting a lot more popular, and for good reason too. They're great spots to go to. The South is interesting, because Southern Italy, including Sicily, really missed out on the Industrial Revolution. There's not big cities down there in the South. Yeah, there's not, really not. There's not. There's not great highways, there's not a ton of industry. So they, it was paused for about a hundred years. The benefit to that is it's unlike anything that exists anywhere else.
Speaker 3:Right, it's like a time capsule. It's like you're stepping back in time. Yeah, exactly, it's. You know, if you compare.
Speaker 4:Yeah, exactly If you compare it to Rome. You go to Rome and you see a boulder in the middle of the street and a tour guide might tell you where this boulder is. There was a beautiful temple. It was all marble and it was gorgeous, and I can appreciate that. When I went to my grandpa's hometown, the house that he was in looked the exact same when I saw it, as probably when he was born. Yeah, wow, love that stuff.
Speaker 3:That's really cool. Love that stuff. That's super cool.
Speaker 2:Wow. Did you feel they were accepting to you as a tourist, or I suppose you're not a typical tourist? You got the last name, the Italian last name. You got the Italian. Look a little bit, you even coming to them with a little bit of Italian. I'm sure that goes a far way, just to be able to speak a little bit of their language. And you know, you even got the hand gestures.
Speaker 4:Got to do the hand gestures. There's a word for that. Do you know what it is? No Gesticulation. Speaking with your hands Interesting, yeah, fun fact for you.
Speaker 3:There you go. Hey, if you learn anything from our podcast, take that.
Speaker 4:I'm glad I can provide some of that. But yeah, I would say that they were very accepting. If you learn any Italian, italians will love that, especially if it's polite Italian your pleases, your thank yous, et cetera, et cetera. So they were very accepting. They knew that we were family and that's really all they needed to know. There you go.
Speaker 3:I'd say with Italy. It's one of those things where there's so much hype around it, but it actually lives up to the hype. That's probably the biggest thing I could say about Italy. It's one of those rare exceptions where it meets the hype.
Speaker 2:Will you're such a food critic? I've had the pleasure and privilege of eating your cooking so many times. Thank you, by the way, in case I haven't thanked you enough. You cook amazing. You went to Italy. You had high standards.
Speaker 1:You had set the bar high for Italy.
Speaker 2:This food better be good, and you were ready to be a critic. You know, you got to just visit Italy for your first time a few weeks ago. What were your thoughts on the food?
Speaker 3:The food was incredible. I mean, it was one of those situations where it was like every meal that you had was. I mean, it just blew my mind. I mean I had a tomato salad and it was the best tomato salad I've ever had. I'm like what. I don't even like raw tomatoes. What is this? What kind of what cocaine did they put on?
Speaker 4:there.
Speaker 1:Secret recipe.
Speaker 2:Secret recipe. I mean, it's so good. Man is recipe secret. Yeah, don't even ask, you're not going to get it.
Speaker 3:So tracing your roots back to Italy. How did you get started on that? Did you have to sort of map out how you're going to get to each location? Did you have to reach out to, I guess, family members and say hey, I'm going to?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So how I started was first gathering the info from my family. Now I knew that I knew where my grandfather came from and I work at we have a family business, finnelli Ironworks. Okay, and-great-grandfather was a blacksmith and he shooed the horses, fixed the farm equipment in his hometown of Rosado. His son, my grandfather, immigrated to America and started Finnelli. So I grew up working at Finnelli, sweeping the floors, taking out the garbage, things that. So I was somewhat familiar with my grandpa's hometown.
Speaker 4:I didn't really pay attention, but but I remember him speaking about it and he had passed away. So the, the mapping out and the planning was, like I said, pretty elementary, but just talking to relatives. Um, you know, when my grandfather when he passed away and he had an incredible story, like I said, pretty elementary, but just talking to relatives. You know when my grandfather when he passed away and he had an incredible story, a very rich, rich story of how he came over to America. But when he passed away, that kind of struck me as one generation is dying off. All of his stories are going with him, all of his memories are going with him and I think that was what lit the fire of let's do a quick pause and say those of you with grandparents, go to them this weekend and say please, please, tell me stories, tell me about your youth.
Speaker 2:Yes, Tell me about your grandparents. Imagine asking your grandparents about their grandparents, right? So good things to just. You think, well, what's the importance of it? It just, it's rich it's so, it's gold.
Speaker 4:It's so rich and no one thinks about asking their grandparents that until it's too late yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:I wish I could ask my grandpa stuff about you know what it was like being in world war ii. What was it like on my grandma's side being in america World War II and post World War II, those kinds of things. And yeah, absolutely, I mean, did you get a chance while you were over in Italy to kind of glean some of those stories from some of your relatives, some of those good stories?
Speaker 4:Yes, I did. However, it was tough with the translation. Sure, yeah, my wife's cousins did some translating, but they had very broken English. I had a very limited understanding of Italian at the time. I did gather some stories One of the relatives there. So when we went to my grandpa's hometown I wasn't anticipating meeting anyone because, according to all my relatives in America, we had no more relatives in Roseto and we could only trace our roots back to my great grandfather, francesco. And the reason why it only goes that far back is because mafia I get it, I mean it's.
Speaker 4:I didn't want to say it, it's the elephant in the room, but thank you for bringing that up.
Speaker 2:Go ahead.
Speaker 4:In Southern Italy there are so many towns that are on strategic locations, like up on a hill or backed up to a mountain, Because the real estate was so valuable there. When tombs would fill up, they get rid of of the bones and the and the tombs. So we could only trace our ancestry back to my great-grandfather, francesco. But when we went over to my grandfather's hometown in rosado I found his house. I had looked up the address beforehand, got it, got the address from some relatives and when I I went there it said A Finelli on the door no way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm like whoa Were you shaking I was.
Speaker 4:I'm like this doesn't make any sense. Everyone said we don't have any relatives here. Yeah, so you know, I did the logical thing knocked on the door. Yeah, so they did not know you were coming they had no idea yeah this is totally just, and I don't have any social media, so I didn't reach out to anyone.
Speaker 3:Even if.
Speaker 4:I did. The relative there was Aunt Lucy, she was probably 90 at the time. Sure, yeah. So knocked on the door and she answered and I just told her sono finelli, I'm finelli, wow, and that kind of was somewhat of the extent of my italian, yeah, yeah. So my cousin, my wife's cousins, did a little bit of translating. We walked down to the piazza, had an aperol spritz, which is the first time I've had an aperol spritz delish, oh, fantastic so tasty dude?
Speaker 4:yes, of course. So quick tip please. The way I gauge the prices of restaurants over in Italy is the Aperol Spritz price. All I look at is the price of the Aperol. So let's say it's 12 euros. Get out of here, I ain't going there Wow. Let's say it's eight euros If there's nothing else. But if we're talking five euros, I'm like, okay, that'll be a quick lunch.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that'll be pretty decent. So what's going on in your mind when you see a 12 euro Aperol Spritz?
Speaker 4:I'm probably not dressed accordingly. Okay Okay, right on. Probably need a reservation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 4:It's not a hard and fast rule.
Speaker 2:You're doing it for lunch and dinner, or is this?
Speaker 4:just a lunch drink in your mind, a Aperol Spritz lunch or dinner. In my opinion, lunch or early dinner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's refreshing. It's so refreshing, maybe even right before dinner.
Speaker 4:Definitely A little appetizer A little aper. Could you Aperol app?
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you have a translation for the word aperitivo, or does it not?
Speaker 4:really translate? It doesn't really translate, to my knowledge, yeah, but aperitivo.
Speaker 2:I'm really translate it. It doesn't really translate, to my knowledge yeah, but uh, aperitif, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4:Aperitif aperitivo, no, aperitivo is okay. Aperitivo, just like a digestivo. Have you heard of that? Yes, like it's after the little okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, like a little bit of like that, uh like a sherbet or something yeah, a little pudding or something.
Speaker 4:Mousse bouge is what I uh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's ital, but the French I think aperitivo might be like almost like hors d'oeuvres or something. Say that again Like hors d'oeuvres.
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah, it's definitely a pre-meal.
Speaker 3:It's almost like appetizing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's something to Play. What it is, but it doesn't translate to that Does it really?
Speaker 3:I just assumed that it did.
Speaker 4:That's how I understood it. That's how I understood it. Yeah, something that's about hey, we're getting ready to eat.
Speaker 3:We're about to eat, yeah that's a really good uh tip.
Speaker 4:I mean how to gauge, like, what a restaurant is going to be like just by one item on the, on the menu because you know, when you walk in and you sit down you're starving and you see the prices, you're like oh, no, um. But I mean, if it's a $12 Aperol Spritz, you're going to eat some good food. Yeah, oh for sure.
Speaker 2:Here's something interesting A lot of our clients are going to Venice, florence, rome or Moffat Coast. There's nothing wrong with that trip. I think we can all agree it's an amazing trip.
Speaker 3:I got to do it.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, everyone has to do it. But in these cities, when you sit down and eat a meal, they actually expect you to tip 10% because they know you're a tourist in their city and this is a city. And even the tour guides they'll say, yeah, no offense, you're not Italian, you are a tourist. You're in Rome, you're in Venice. They expect you to tip 10%, no more, but 10% they do. The moment you get outside of that, you start getting these hometowns. I'll bet your family in Rosado Valfatori Is that it? Yes, I'll bet they're not tipping. They might round up a couple euros, maybe A couple bucks, not even not tipping.
Speaker 4:We had one guy. He showed up to a restaurant half an hour after close, got it. The guy let us in and made a pizza for us. Oh man, we tipped then. But otherwise, yeah, that's not much, not much tipping but how big was your hometown?
Speaker 3:I'm sorry, it's small very small.
Speaker 4:Um, if I had to guess population, uh, maybe a couple thousand people. Okay, yeah, I mean, it's geographically small and the population is also with their hotels with their b&b's, with their air.
Speaker 2:But you have any idea, remember, you know that's a good question.
Speaker 4:I did not look one up. I'd be hard pressed if there wasn't one. Yeah, um, but when we went there? Anytime we go to italy, we stay with my wife's family because it's free and, of course, it's a fantastic time. Yeah, I love it. And why not? Yeah, so we didn't stay. Wine and not Wine and not Clever. So we didn't stay in Rosado. We probably could have if we wanted to, but we stayed in Forley.
Speaker 3:Sure Paint a picture for me. What does it look like? Is it a seaside town? Is it farmlands? Is it it?
Speaker 4:is it's farmlands. But if you look at the town, your first thought would be how in the world did someone put a town right there? I mean, it is on the side of a I want to say mountain. It's not, it's not technically a mountain, but it is a large, large Hill, beautiful views everywhere.
Speaker 3:So Brian's pulling up some pictures and uh, so right there, and that's the piazza right there.
Speaker 2:Piazza means oh, it's a good word. This means like square, it means square. Every city's got them piazza di republica in florence or piazza san marco, exactly.
Speaker 4:So right here is a sheer drop all the way around the city. Wow, I mean, it is built on a cliff and that is not an exaggeration.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a similar site location as to like maybe a Siena or a San Gimignano.
Speaker 2:Yeah a cool little medieval town from the.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so if you look up pictures of Siena I think that'll be easier to find kind of paint, a good picture of what Nick's hometown looks like.
Speaker 4:The Italians were obsessed with the fence. If you think of even little Italy and Cleveland I don't know if you guys have been, but it butts up to lakeview cemetery yeah, which is also gorgeous, yeah, incredible cemetery just highly recommended which is so weird to say no, like if you come to cleveland a great tourist thing to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's going to lakeview, drive through it even us locals.
Speaker 4:Lots of famous people buried. The rockefellers are buried there, garfield garfield's buried he was a president. He was president. Um, they have the hazard angel. Very, very cool things to see there. They also have daffodil hill. Have you heard of this? In the springtime, okay, in lakeview cemetery in cleveland it's a. It's a whole hill, hillside just peppered with daffodils, and when that is like a sea of yellow, I mean there are there's lines of cars that's.
Speaker 2:That's so cool to hear, because Will and I went once in October, yeah, and it could not have been a better day for the tree color changing. Yeah, every tree was orange, bright orange, and it was gorgeous, beautiful.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but when you enter the cemetery, there are these, would you call them fences? I picture them like walls. Am I thinking of something different?
Speaker 4:It's both, is it both? There are some concrete walls and there are some-.
Speaker 2:Did Finnelli do the?
Speaker 4:ironworks. Hey, yes, no, we didn't I wish we did. It's a good account. That was there long before Finnelli.
Speaker 3:So the Italians you're saying are obsessed with the fence.
Speaker 4:So, Little Italy is butted up to what is now Lakeview Cemetery, because it's one side that they don't have to worry about, always butted up to a hill. I mean, if you look at the coastal towns in Italy, and even in the valleys and in the mountainous regions, all the towns are set up for defense. I don't know why.
Speaker 3:That makes sense, sure yeah.
Speaker 2:I saw those towns in every little town I visited in. Where was I? What's that? Orvieto is in Umbria. Just got to go to Umbria a couple months ago. Oh my goodness, really cool medieval towns. It looks just like this that you're showing me.
Speaker 4:It looks identical. I love it. And what's sad is those are the towns that all the young people are leaving. Those are the towns that are dropping in population, like Akron, ohio. I'm going to.
Speaker 1:Columbus, I've seen.
Speaker 3:Detroit I hate it. I mean, I've seen Granted, this is like I think the last time I saw this was probably height of COVID but Italy and Sicily having offers where you could come in buy a house for like, I mean so cheap I think like hundreds of dollars to buy a house because they want to repopulate these towns Are these the kind of the towns that we're talking about?
Speaker 4:And so what they do with those too, Will, is you know you've probably seen it advertised even as low as a euro. Yeah, there's many stipulations, like you have to use local materials, you have to use local trades, you have to use local trades, you have to use whatever the building codes are. Yeah, it's got to boost that economy, Boost the economy exactly. So that is why they are running that promotion, which I mean, if you can swing it.
Speaker 3:Swing that euro.
Speaker 4:I thought about it. If you could fit it into the budget.
Speaker 2:I want to go back to the language. You're going to some areas where I just don't think there's a lot of opportunity for the locals to learn English, and you're saying all the young people which Will and I have discussed in previous podcasts. If you travel to a foreign country and you're struggling with the language and you need someone to help you, I hate to say it, but I don't hate to say it, it's just truth. Look for that person who looks like they might be under 30 years old and there's a good chance they have a better grasp of English just because they probably learned it in school. So if we're talking about these really cool kind of ancient towns and parts of Italy that aren't so touristy, you really need to have a little bit of Spanish. Now, I'm sorry, Italian.
Speaker 3:Or Spanish. They would probably understand. Spanish can get you halfway.
Speaker 2:That's actually the connection I wanted to make, because Italian is one of the five romance languages.
Speaker 2:So, just a quick recap. The five romance languages are Italian, romanian, spanish, french and Portuguese, and Russian. No, so if you can go back to your high school Spanish, your high school. I don't know French, or if you took Portuguese, I'm sure no one took Romanian, but hey, you can go back to it you will be shocked that some of those words work out. I want to do a little, just a quick little language thing. We'll keep this quick. I'll say a word in Romanian. You say it in Italian, okay, I'm going to start with bread, and I'm going to say paine, pane, great. And I'm going to say milk, which is lapte, latte, amazing. Now I'm going to say fish, which is peste, peste. So this is going to be very helpful if you do, because if you start saying words like fish and they don't speak a word of English, but they might get peste right, sure.
Speaker 3:I'm going to interject real quick because I have a funny story about pache. Uh, so brian and I we were in sicily and I don't know italian. I know a little bit of spanish and I was trying to order fish and, uh, on the menu it's spelled the same way as how you would say it in spanish. So I said, uh, pesce, which I think is the spanish, some variation of that. Well, whatever I said meant bitch in italian.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and it needs to be pesce so there is a very clear distinction yeah, yeah, you gotta be careful, so don't order the fish.
Speaker 3:yeah, don't order the fish. Yeah, so I called this woman a bitch to her face, yeah, and she's just like okay, she's a fish, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's okay, will, just to complement what you're saying.
Speaker 2:I'm noticing. You know, we're going to these restaurants, will, and we're not speaking Italian. Yeah, and we're trying to order this delicious food some of the best food we've ever had in our life. Right, we want to get it. Right, we want to get the order right. Now, they're kind enough that they have a menu that's in Italian and English for us, so we appreciate that. But what I found you and I were doing and I remember one specific situation was we were a little too conversational with the server, you know, hey, we think we're maybe going to get something like that, right, and our English was going over her head. Yeah, and we thought we ordered a steak. She had no recollection of it, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is a pretty big deal when you think you ordered steak and there's no steak for you. So I think we learned the hard way, will? I know it might sound like we're being rude, but just because of that barrier with the language, it would actually be better if we said I would like one steak and one pasta and two tiramisu. It sounds almost a little rude to the English ear, like wait, no, you should add some more words to make it softer. It's like no, actually a little more directness would actually probably be better.
Speaker 4:The important words Right, one steak Better, yeah. The important words yeah, right, right.
Speaker 3:One, two three, Exactly.
Speaker 2:All right, Nick. What else I'm curious. Anything else More about this tracing your roots? Any more thoughts or more stories or anything you?
Speaker 4:got. Yeah, so some interesting things. I found out a lot just talking to my relatives. Yeah, one thing that's so interesting about Italy from top to toe, there are so many different regions and, specifically, dialects. So everyone in the country speaks Italian, but everyone also speaks the dialect of the specific region that they're from. For example, sicilian is a dialect, right. So my grandfather, papi, and my grandmother, his wife, nana, who was from Sicily if they spoke dialect dialetto to each other, you can't understand it. They cannot understand each other. That's how different the dialects are specifically for sicily, because so many nations have conquered it, uh-huh, and it's been controlled by so many different countries, yeah, that their dialect is very, very different, yeah.
Speaker 4:So, um, one thing fun that I did too was my nana, who was from Sicily. So after that first trip to trace my poppy's roots, I realized I didn't know any Italian, and if I did, it would have been super helpful, sure. Or if I would have paid attention to Spanish in high school, that would have been helpful too, at least. So we lived in the same town in Twinsburg, ohio, and I would go over to her house, her apartment, every single Wednesday for about an hour, not much. She would serve me an espresso. She always had lemon cookies, and I would just ask her about her roots, about her parents. She was one of 12 siblings. Wow, her mother received a medal from Mussolini because she had so many children and it was building the Republic.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so she got, I got received a medal for that, but um, and then I asked her to teach me Italian. So she taught me a lot of Italian. I love this she. We ended up cooking together, so she showed me how to make her pesto. Cooking together, so she showed me how to make her pesto. She showed me how to make her pasta con sarde, which is pasta with sardines, which is a very traditional Sicilian dish, arancini, which I'm sure you guys had when you went to.
Speaker 3:Sicily.
Speaker 2:And I had no idea what arancini was. It looks like you're holding in between a baseball and a golf ball in the palm of your hand and you're like how do I eat this thing?
Speaker 4:What do I do with it? They're like just go for it.
Speaker 3:In short, it's a very fancy mozzarella ball, but what it really is is risotto, which is a delicious dish by itself. But they take the risotto, they take mozzarella and they stuff the risotto.
Speaker 4:I guess they kind of take the ball of mozzarella and wrap the risotto around it and I guess they kind of take the ball of mozzarella and wrap the risotto around it and then they fry that sucker and you can get creative with what you put in there. You can put mozzarella cheese, you can get salmon inside it Anything you want, yeah, anything you want.
Speaker 2:Nick, when you go to a restaurant in Italy, what are you looking for with your order? What's going through your mind? What are you asking the server?
Speaker 4:What's going on? First thing I always get when I go to italy is a margarita pizza.
Speaker 2:Okay, this is because this is like you know what it should taste like.
Speaker 4:I know what it should taste like. It's a staple, it's so simple and I know it's going to be delicious. Specifically, too, they have dop. Have you guys heard of this dop in italy? They have DOP. Have you guys heard of this DOP in Italy? They have. It's a certification. So, for example, san Marzano tomatoes tomatoes. There's a region where they come from and you can get a San Marzano from almost anywhere in Italy, but if it's a DOP, it is certified by the country that it came from. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes. So there's a lot of times there's margarita pizza and margarita pizza DOP. I always get the DOP and that's my first dish in Italy every time I go.
Speaker 2:Because it's so simple. It's so simple, it's delicious, well all the cooking in Italy.
Speaker 4:The beauty of the cuisine in Italy is it is so simple.
Speaker 3:It's so simple.
Speaker 4:It's so simple. It's the best ingredients possible, but simple, few ingredients, that's it. I mean we had I had a dessert one time that was ricotta cheese sprinkled with like a tiny bit of shaved chocolate.
Speaker 3:Who would?
Speaker 4:have thought cheese and chocolate as a dessert, absolute banger. And it was an absolute banger. It was delicious, it's like simplified perfection, simplified perfection Exactly, I mean incredible, simplified perfection. Simplified perfection Exactly, I mean incredible. What they do over there too, and I learned this cooking with my Nana. If French cuisine is a science, I mean they have strict rules, everything is down pat.
Speaker 4:And also really complicated, like you roast a duck and then stick a snail shell on top of it and then order like a some weird truffle that you can only get. Yeah, italian is. It's more like jazz and it's just simple ingredients, just simple, good ingredients. So when I was learning how to make pesto with my nana, I asked her how much basil do you put in? She goes what do you mean? This much? I go yeah, how much is that? She goes look at it, it's this much, yeah so they just kind of eyeball it.
Speaker 1:You just got to feel it. It's all by taste.
Speaker 4:So if you're not with, if I wasn't with her tasting it and doing it with her at the time, no way would I be able to replicate any of her recipes today. Wow, yeah.
Speaker 2:Will. You're going to be jealous. A couple, I'd say. About four or five years ago, nick sent me home with just this jar of red sauce. He's like just, you're welcome. And I was like what, what earth am I holding? You know, I think I should say thank you, but I don't know. Yeah, exactly, he's like me and my Nana, nana, nana, nana, thank you. We made this with you in mind, so just add it to whatever you want. It's going to blow your mind. So I picked up some I don't know, probably some cheap pasta at the grocery store, hooked it up, I added it to it. It blew my mind. It was so good I'm almost embarrassed to tell you this, nick but there was about half left. I just heated up and ate it by the spoonful.
Speaker 4:Nice. So freaking good. I would be disgusted if I didn't do the same. I spoon that stuff. Freaking good. I would be disgusted if I didn't do the same thing. I spoon that stuff, wow. Now, another thing that's interesting is that so Will. You talked about the tomatoes being fantastic. I don't even like tomatoes, and I mean, in America we have a tomato right and you can put that tomato on whatever you want. In Italy they have a tomato for sauce. They have a different tomato that you eat raw. They have a different tomato that you eat with cheese. They have a different tomato that you eat with salad. So again, it's simple, but just the best ingredients possible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you say tomato. I say four different ones, exactly.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's awesome, bro. Another thing I found that was interesting um, there's kind of a cliche, or um, what's the word? I'm looking for a stereotype which is so true for italians, so true, every single one quick, quick side note.
Speaker 2:I was like you know what, when I get to italy, they're not actually going to say mama mia. That's just a stereotype, it's untrue and oh my gosh, I was so pleasantly wrong. I mean, in the same sense we're like, oh my gosh, right, they're saying oh, mama mia. I mean, it was like every other sentence that I just ate it up. I was like you guys, are you just saying this because I'm a tourist and I want to know, if you weren't here we'd be saying it that's fine, yeah, that.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's good I like that.
Speaker 4:So Italians are that. There's a stereotype that they all garden, which is so true. Everyone, every Italian gardens, especially the ones in Italy. Right, and my uncle Joe, who's now gosh he's in his late 70s now but back in the day, Italians were taxed on all of the food that they produced in their backyard garden. Wow, yeah, so they got really, really good at growing as much as possible so that they didn't have to pay the tax on their own food that they grew in their own garden.
Speaker 3:Wow, wow, yeah, is this like going back to like Mussolini days, or even later than that, even earlier than that, wow.
Speaker 4:Earlier than that Wow. Because Italy was not a united country until maybe like the early 1900s. Yeah, don't quote me on that, but it was a lot of different. There were a lot of different. A lot of kingdoms, lots A. But it was a lot of different. There were a lot of different, a lot of kingdoms, a lot of kingdoms, many, many, so many kingdoms, so many, it's really hard to like.
Speaker 3:I mean, after the fall of Rome it's like all right, just pick a different civilization and then kind of save 50 years and that's Italy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, exactly, which reflects in the architecture to an extent which is beautiful, architecture to an extent which is beautiful.
Speaker 3:Beautiful architecture.
Speaker 4:I mean there are some. I've heard it said that Sicily has better Greek ruins than Greece.
Speaker 3:Okay, wow, that's, that's incredible.
Speaker 4:Yeah, which is so interesting and you wouldn't think that, but when you go there, there are so many Greek ruins there that are still really intact.
Speaker 3:There's Nordic castles down there and you know kind of a a a sad story that they were conquered so much, but a beautiful result, yeah, some way I feel like brian, correct me if I wrong, if if you can remember this, but I feel like when we were in sicily, someone said someone, maybe one of our guides, or maybe, when we went to mount etna, our guide there had said something that Sicily was one of, if not the most conquered piece of land in history.
Speaker 3:It's crazy, yeah, so many different cultures from I mean the Greeks, I mean the Bourbons, the Ottomans, I mean Nordics, yeah.
Speaker 4:And even Africa.
Speaker 3:Yeah, insane, and you see all that.
Speaker 4:You see all that's uh, when you see all that, you see all that and when you go there, you realize how rich the island is in resources and it makes sense. I mean, it's the biggest island of the mediterranean, the soccer ball of the boot, if you will yeah, yeah there's a lot there.
Speaker 2:Never heard that I like it because italy.
Speaker 2:I love it. Quick little break just to talk about tourism in Italy. Okay, so right off the bat, population in Italy as of 2022, about 59 million people living there. But, guys, check this out 2023 year end estimates 68 million visitors. Wow, and I heard the Department of Tourism in Italy is talking about this, like, okay, hang on. I heard the Department of Tourism in Italy is talking about this, like, okay, hang on. Do we have almost an ethical stopping point where we need to say, okay, guys, don't get us wrong.
Speaker 3:We can't take anymore.
Speaker 2:We love the visitors, but at some point right. At some point you hit full capacity when the flights are full, the hotels are full, the trains are full, the tour guides are full.
Speaker 3:Yeah, streets are full.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's great for the economy, I'm sure, but at what point do you kind of need to stop? But Italy holds so many of the ancient wonders of our world. Yeah, and I don't blame anyone for wanting to go see it. Remember what I told you? This trip to Italy, Will I said, remember what I told you? Or this trip to Italy? Well, I said I think I have to come here every year. Yeah, Just somewhere in Italy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think I have to. I mean, uh, from our business perspective, it's our number one seller by like, like a lot.
Speaker 2:It's like number one two, three, four. We do a lot of Cancun and Caribbean.
Speaker 3:That's for sure yeah, yeah but okay, put that aside.
Speaker 2:Italy, To the point where Will? You once came in my office and you were like Brian do we only get Italy?
Speaker 3:requests. Yeah, it's like we got to study up on this country, that's such a funny thing.
Speaker 2:When I started as a travel agent I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know anything about Italy. I'm like Italy, what Rome? I don't know what's there. I started getting Italy requests after Italy requests. I was like it's the homeschooling.
Speaker 3:I had to go. What's that I said it's because you're homeschooled. Well, there's a lot of issues I have because of that.
Speaker 2:This is just one of them. So change your topics about Brian's issues. Childhood wounds no issues. Childhood wounds um no, I. I love my childhood. Shout out to my mom and dad mother's day coming up, thanks, mom. I, uh, I got to go to italy the first time. I was like I get it. I kind of get it. This city's incredible. This country is incredible. I'd like to come back. I went to italy a second time. I went to italy now a third time and now I I can't wait to go back it really has something for everyone.
Speaker 4:It's yeah, it's got mountains and skiing in the north. Yes, it's got modern, please, history, history. It has modern cities. It's got coast, oceans, artists artists art.
Speaker 3:It has leather I mean their valleys cooking classes probably one of the most important cuisines, like what French, mediterranean and Italian I mean.
Speaker 4:Chinese Italian first, obviously, but then I mean there's like in the top five, the Mount Rushmore is a food Italian is George Washington.
Speaker 2:And I have cool news for those who are foodies, and particularly about eating clean Organic farming is there's a huge push in organic farming recently. They, you, you may have some european friends who are talking about, oh no, europe is falling to the way of america with more pesticides and chemicals, but I'm like, proud to say, my most recent trip to umbria there has been a push from ministry of tourism and I think it stems from just keeping the business in the family and those fan those stories and keeping the cultural heritage, the traditions, the cultural heritage.
Speaker 2:Well, I could not agree more yeah of like nick, in the same sense that you and your brothers are faithfully taking over your family business, there's those core values that your father and grandfather put into place. Look at me talking with my hands like I'm an Italian.
Speaker 4:That line is getting to you. Is your hair curling?
Speaker 2:Can we turn on soccer? Hey, there we go. Will you're going to have to give us a quick little Italian soccer, just a quick little quip about Italian soccer in just a second.
Speaker 1:So I'm prepping.
Speaker 2:Because we can't talk about Italy without at least mentioning soccer.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you're on deck, okay, but that family tradition, which I love, coming from a family business, and I love talking to you, nick, about your family business and you mentioned to me recently about family pillars or company pillars and foundational stones for your family business, and I thought, man, I want to do that with my family business.
Speaker 2:What are our values, what are our heritage stones that we can kind of build on and make sure that whoever this gets passed down to, whether family or not, they're going to keep it running. And I think it's so encouraging when you go to Italy and you find out this vineyard, this organic farm, has been the family for four, five, six, seven generations and they are doing their due diligence to keep it pure, keep it clean. So I have story after story of people who they drink wine here in Ohio and the sulfates get to them or they're eating bread and their face breaks out with acne, like me in 2017. And then I go to italy in 2017 no, 2013, I'm sorry I start eating organic bread and my face is fine and I'm like what the heck is happening.
Speaker 2:My buddy steve, who's been on this podcast and I'm like steve, I'm not breaking out he, like this is called organic eating. I mean, this stuff is so exciting. I get actually excited about this subject that I'm not normally excited about?
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. Can I share a quick story, one of my? Well, first of all, about the family business and your ancestors. It's so important to do that because the business is made in the image of its founder and to continue that business you need to carry on that vision. So I completely agree and support what you're saying now about the food and your experience with eating organic and the push for organic and no pesticides, no herbicides, et cetera, et cetera. One of my colleagues that I work with, she is an ex-executive chef from America specialized in Italian food. She went to Italy for the first time last year. Now she is celiac, gluten-free, dairy-free. She can't have any of that stuff. And she came back and when I got the chance to talk to her I asked her you know how was it over there? She goes, nick, I ate as much cheese as I wanted to. I love it as much dairy as I wanted to, amen, and as much gluten. I had bread yeah, pastas, and I was fine.
Speaker 4:I had no issues whatsoever. Do you know why? That is Partly so. When you're making pasta and quick, quick, uh, a little bit of history here. Yeah, way, way back in the day we're talking.
Speaker 4:Centuries ago, flour organic flour would go rancid very, very quickly and it would invite a lot of vermin. So you had rats, mice moles, moles, et cetera. So the Italians figured out that the best way to preserve the raw flour was to bake noodles and then dry the noodles. And it's the slow fabrication of the noodle that lets the gluten build properly. See, when you mass produce things, when you mass produce pasta and you dry it quickly, you're basically rushing nature. It doesn't come out correctly. If you talk to small pasta makers in Italy, a small pasta maker might make in a year as much as a big pasta maker makes in a week. So the process is slow. I mean starting with great ingredients, obviously, but the process of letting the pasta dry out, letting the gluten form and letting it build is is huge. And if you're in it for mass production, you're not, you don't have the time, it's inefficient to let it, let it dry out long. So you just you know, flash let it dry out long.
Speaker 4:So you just, you know, flash flash, dry it and then box it and ship it, sure. So that's part from my limited understanding.
Speaker 3:That's partly. I get that because I make pasta myself too, and when you take, when you let it take its time and you let the science do its thing, the pasta is incredible and it is. I'm not saying that I make as good pasta as they do in italy, I'm not saying that. But you can see the resemblance. You can see like, okay, there is a clear difference. Uh, and it all starts in this care, and this is you. You can go to an Italian restaurant here and I don't think you get the same kind of pasta unless you're going to a very top shelf Italian restaurant. Yeah, um, it's like sourdough bread.
Speaker 3:Yeah, restaurant, yeah, um, it's like sourdough bread.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's like so many people who have bread or who are celiac can't have bread or um, but you have sourdough bread. You can have it, probably because it's fermented and probably because it takes to make sourdough bread takes a long time. Yeah, yeah, we make it at home, just because it's delicious. We don't have any any issues or anything, but it takes days. Yeah, a lot of care, any many hours, like having a pet, exactly exactly.
Speaker 2:It's like having a pet. We need to talk about soccer and coffee, sure also, do you want to do soccer now? Sure, yeah, we can talk about I have no idea what on earth is italian soccer.
Speaker 4:You know the italians. They don't say soccer, they say football, football, hey. Or they say From here on out, socher, oh, that's new.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, well, italy, the football soccer in Italy is one of the biggest I mean cultural aspects of the country.
Speaker 3:Right, it's also one of the biggest leagues in Europe, one of the most historic and one of the most respected leagues in Europe. So when you go to Italy, they have what's called a football pyramid and essentially what this translates to, and this is the same for Spain, england and things like that. It's really big in Europe, but it'll really help you understand soccer as a cultural phenomenon in the country. The football pyramid essentially allows you, uh, as a town so let's say you're in um Palermo and Sicily, you can have a club, a football club that's in just Palermo, filled with Palermo kids going up in Palermo football club Academy uh, competing all the way from the lowest ring of the the pyramid to all the way to the top of the pyramid, um, so that's like um, your farmers league and minor leagues, baseball, all of a sudden growing in popularity and growing in talent to a, to a degree that they can compete in the mlb.
Speaker 3:So what this means in in in the sport and what it means on like a cultural level, is that there's a more of an appreciation for who is wearing the kit, the jersey the shirt.
Speaker 2:Kit means jersey yeah.
Speaker 3:For that club and it also just means more on like a community level, it's like a communal thing, almost. Your town is going against the other town and it's just this incredible aspect and you have a cool thing.
Speaker 2:I know you're a big fan of fc barcelona, uh-huh, but would you enjoy an italian soccer game?
Speaker 3:absolutely absolutely, yeah, yeah, and I think I would, almost I would enjoy any game, but I would almost want to go to like those lower. I mean, when we were in Palermo, we were like I was like, dude, we should go to a Palermo match and had they not been away, we probably would have and it would have been an incredible experience. Yeah, Like totally different. It's like okay, it's the closest similarity and this is going to might sound cringy to anyone that doesn't understand this. You're not going to get this because you're homeschooled. Nick might get this because he went to an actual school.
Speaker 2:This is all fair, I'm not tracking with you.
Speaker 3:Go ahead. It's almost like going to a high school football match on Friday night. That's the closest thing I can compare it to. Friday night lights, I get it, but your high school team can compete with the Browns and the Steelers and all that stuff. So that's the disparity. Very nice. So that's why it's really cool.
Speaker 2:That's really neat. That's football. I want to talk about coffee then, when I get back to your Italian roots, because I have some more questions for you, please. Okay, coffee, nick. Here's my story. I go to Italy, I order a coffee. They pour me this tiny little cup like I'm at my niece's tea party, right, I go to sip it. It tastes like dark sludge. I can barely get it down my throat. I feel like gagging. But I sit there and we don't even sit down, by the way, we just stand at the bar and we just sit there and what?
Speaker 2:I'm used to coffee. I'm used to sipping on it, for Don't even sit down, by the way. We just stand at the bar and we just sit there Very quick, yeah, and what I'm used to coffee, I'm used to sipping on it for two hours, from 9 to 11 am each morning at my desk. They do it in two sips and then they leave. Yes, and I learned. What I really want is a cafe Americano or, thanks to Will will, a cappuccino. Now I got embarrassed when I order because the cappuccino, when I order it it's absolutely delicious.
Speaker 2:11 am, I heard I ordered a cappuccino after 11 am and I got scolded and they said the the guy family-owned business. Cool guy, really cool guy. But he said I had a translator with me. He said listen, when I come to your country you serve me whatever you want, but at this moment you're in my hometown and I can't in good conscience serve you a cappuccino after 11 am. Yeah, you're going to drink an espresso and you're going to like it. Whether you like it or not, I don't care.
Speaker 3:You're going gonna drink it. I can't make you a cappuccino is it anything that's not an espresso that you can't have after 11. Like could you have a cafe macchiato or an americano or an americano? An americano is just more water added to right. Yeah, it dilutes the basically syrup.
Speaker 4:It's almost, yeah, like the closest thing I could compare it to is like a syrup, right and it's funny because they think that italian I'm sorry, they think that american coffee is complete trash oh I'm sure eat trash I think it's delicious, but yeah yeah, it's. I don't know if it's anything except for cappuccino, or yeah, how did you rephrase?
Speaker 3:that, uh, like I know, macchiato is like a nice alternative too for folks sorry, sorry to butt in.
Speaker 2:I heard that milk after 11 am is not good for your digestion Before 11 am it's kind of that. It's like McDonald's breakfast. Hey, we're not going to serve it after 10.30,.
Speaker 3:Right, it's like the same thing, so kind of going back they do have McDonald's in Italy, sadly, I mean, it's everywhere.
Speaker 4:But to go back to the aperitivo and digestivo. Italians are obsessed with the gut, good, obsessed with it. So having milk sitting in your stomach with potentially a steak or pasta, it's just not a, it's a big no-no over there.
Speaker 3:What about? I mean, obviously Parmesan is a key ingredient in a lot of meals and cheese really as a whole Ricotta. I mean a lot of folks are going to have tiramisu cannolis. I mean cannolis are incredible, but I mean that's a staple just as much as coffee would be. So is that a hard or fast rule, or is it maybe more directed towards that raw like milk?
Speaker 4:kind of component You're saying is it a hard and fast rule for the the 11 o'clock? And like oh yeah, I, I found that pretty much everyone, yeah, even my italians, my italian teacher, even people who were people in my italian club yeah, they like no cappuccinos after afternoon.
Speaker 2:Nick is so italian, he belongs to the local Italian club, actually three clubs.
Speaker 4:Wow, it's a fun. That would be fun Going back to the very beginning. The Italians think that the Italians are the best because we are. It's just a fun. I mean, we have bocce ball leagues together, whiskey nights, clan bakes For the meetings. All old italian women come in. They cook phenomenal food for our meetings. Wow, it's just, it's fantastic. It's perpetuating the italian culture. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:All, all italians there's something about italians and I mean this in the most loving way possible I I've never heard someone come into a group and be like I'm croatian and be proud of it. It's no offense on croatia here, it's a lovely country, but but anywhere, right, like I'm scottish or I'm danish or I'm from kazakhstan, like sure, maybe they say it, but wow, the pride of italians.
Speaker 3:Yeah I don't think there's a culture that has not seen it.
Speaker 4:When I was dating one girl who was not Italian, I introduced her to my Nana and I said Nana, this is I won't use her name but Nana, this is so-and-so and not like a hello, nothing like that. She goes you Italian, yeah, and she goes no, but I'm polish and irish and you know whatever else. Whatever else, she was my nana, yeah, my nana. She goes, uh, says no words, just waves her hands and goes, yeah, it wasn't even worth the spit for her to say anything, just uh, that is uh exactly what I would expect.
Speaker 1:Italian mothers and grandmothers, if you know any.
Speaker 2:they don't like anybody. Shout out to your in-laws, though at your wedding I should have introduced myself as Brian Chimiani or something, but I said Kimo and I said it's. Romanian, but then I but I said which is, you know, good evening in both.
Speaker 4:Romanian and Italian, by the way. Wow, look at that, I speak.
Speaker 2:Romanian now. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, they were extremely pleasant to me.
Speaker 4:And your Nana was super, super pleasant to me. My in-laws are fantastic. I love them. They're really great people, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Wow, there was something about Rome that I feel like we'll probably talk about this in every podcast related to Italy, just as a warning to anyone that's listening to it. But 2025 is the year of the Jubilee for the Catholics, correct? And Rome is going to be packed for lack of a better word Disney.
Speaker 2:World.
Speaker 3:Yeah, disney World. To such a degree it's almost like, hey, unless you're Catholic, maybe reconsider Rome for any other year. 2025 is going to be that packed with Rome In that expensive I heard of the Pope and this is.
Speaker 2:Some Catholics might cringe, so I apologize but the Pope is going to open a door and if you're Catholic you get to walk through the door.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that door is this is only on the year of Jubilee and so this is very special. So the pilgrimage you know you may have on a Monday, you may have 14 flights coming from Greece with those people making their pilgrimage. The next day, you might have 15 flights coming from Hungary making their pilgrimage, and so it's the amount of traffic going to Rome for this. It's going to be insane. So, like you said, if you're not Catholic, it's 2025. Just to save Rome for the next year.
Speaker 3:But Italy is one of these countries where you're not going to see all of it in one trip and it is very much a country that you need to do in pieces, or do the classics and then do it in pieces, right of wanting to really explore Italy and go multiple times. This would be a great chance for you to do either Northern Italy, or do Southern Italy, or do just Sicily, or do various parts. We're not saying don't go to Italy in 2025. Just know that in 2025, rome is going to be very, very, very busy to a point where it's just going to be really packed and hotels are going to be sold out and things like that. That's a great tip.
Speaker 4:I had no idea and I'm Italian, so that's a great tip.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I want to go back to roots, because I love it when clients come in. They sit at my desk, they say we want to go to Italy. I say, great, where? And they go. We want to go to Milan, venice, florence, rome and Rochella. And I'm like, okay, one of these is not like the other. What on earth was that last one? And it's always well, we did the 23andMe or this person's great-grandfather and whatever. And then we traced it back and then there's heritage there. We just want to see it Like, okay, awesome, you know. Hey, we want to go to Rome, the Amalfi coast and Frozen, or you know something like that. I said, oh, that's awesome, great, why? Well, we just want to go track down our roots. So, how cool to have someone here. You had the same passion, the same desire and I get it. I have full encouragement yes, go.
Speaker 2:Because in 2012, I went to some obscure town in Romania to track down my family roots town of Cinca Nova, which, if I ask Romanians today who are from Romania, they're like I've never heard of it Exactly. It's that small of a town. Right, you went to a town to track it down. I just want to know, like when you think back to that, what makes you proud? Was there anything maybe you had wished you had asked or done or said? And lastly, and I don't mean to throw too many questions at you, we can go over them each by piece, but if you met someone who also wants to go track down their family whether it be Italy, whether it be Slovenia, whether it be Morocco, it doesn't matter what would you encourage them to do beforehand and how would you encourage them A few things I wish I would have done differently.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I wish I would have done differently. Yeah, I wish I would have done more preparation. Okay, I wish I knew more Italian. The first time I went there to meet my ancestors I guess I didn't know I was going to meet them, but I think being able to have a basic understanding of the language, basic communication Sure, I really wish I would have done that of the language, basic communication Sure, I really wish I would have done that. Yeah, or at least taken some lessons Now. I take lessons now, but in hindsight, if I would have had more ability to communicate, that would have been a lot different of a trip. And then, what were some other things that I would advise to someone who's doing it?
Speaker 2:So let's say someone wants to go track down their family.
Speaker 4:I would say that that's a good point, or a good question. I would say that do as much research here as you can, because there's probably so many resources here that you can exhaust before you go there and kind of figure it out, even if you do the 23andMe or MyHeritagecom, whatever those are and let's just say you get an address before you shoot over there, definitely talk to all of your relatives beforehand and, key tip, write this stuff down, because no one writes it down. I haven't written it down. So guess what, when I'm a grandparent, I'll be, you know, maybe the only one with the knowledge of my great, great grandparents, so documenting that information to preserve it for your posterity. They will thank you for it. Yeah, they will thank you for it. Did you bring any gifts, uh, to your relatives, to your relatives? No, I didn't bring any to my relatives because you didn't know. You're gonna see him.
Speaker 4:I heard that there was none there and it turns out that there was a strained relationship and the person who's there my relatives over here don't consider that person part of the family anymore. Oh wow. So yeah, there was a. It was very interesting, so I didn't bring a gift to rosado when we went to my wife's hometown. I mean, my wife is fantastic. She brought a gift for every single. Wow, that's another tip Get married before you go, cause your wife will think of all the things that you don't think of that's so good.
Speaker 4:I don't know how you've done it for so many years. Yeah, when it's time for my Romanian roots podcast episode.
Speaker 2:When it's time for my Romanian Roots podcast episode, you will learn how I screwed up royally. Yeah, subscribe, no, no.
Speaker 3:I did. It was pretty bad. It's going to be fun though, but that's why I'm so excited to talk.
Speaker 2:But I guess one thing I would say, and I think you'd agree with me so shoot me down if you don't. But trying to communicate with these people in these small towns maybe they don't even have WhatsApp or email or cell phone, maybe they don't speak a word of English Like there's a chance, you can do as much research as you can, but you might hit a ceiling where, like you just can't. You actually just have to physically go, yeah, and just kind of show up, absolutely, but that might seem rude, no, but just do it, yeah, because we only have one life to live. Just go. You are 100% right. You're going to be so grateful and you're only going to regret not going, absolutely.
Speaker 4:When I met the relative that I wasn't anticipating, she took a couple of hours out of her day just to hang out with us, absolutely. We walked down to the pia, like I said, we got some Aperol's and some gelato and she didn't have to do that, you know, but she did and it was so funny. When I saw her I thought to myself that looks like my cousin Frankino. Oh, my goodness, the resemblance was. It was weird, it was very. It was like I'm halfway across the world, but this person looks like my cousin. Yeah, cause they're. They are in a roundabout way, yeah, yeah looks like my cousin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because they're. They are in a roundabout way, yeah, yeah, if I could throw in a quick another, another tip you know, don't let your trip be purposeful. Go, try to track down family absolutely, but also don't don't plan on staying with them for a week. Sure you know? I tracked down family in romania and I stayed with them for two nights, which was three days, and I was so eager to leave after the three days you have no idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if it had been one more night I think I would have asked. Just tried to like escape, yeah, yeah. So, as cool as it is, just remember you're a guest, be polite, bring gifts. You're going to eat with them, you're going to go over stories. Hopefully that's great. Maybe they even have pictures to show you. That's incredible. But also don't expect that they're going to host you for seven days.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, you make me feel guilty because we do that exact same exact thing in my wife's family. But yeah, no, I think that's. I think that advice is spot on. I really do. I think that is. I think you're speaking a lot of truth. Right advice is spot on.
Speaker 2:I really do. I think that is. I think you're speaking a lot of truth, right, a lot of truth there, nick, do you have any more things to share about it whatsoever?
Speaker 4:So much, so much. But you know, I'll just say that, italy, if I could, if I could do one sales pitch for Italy, please, yeah, italy, I don't care who you are or what your tie is to it, but it captures you. I mean, you fall in love with the country. Yeah, I think that if you're from Italy, you you already love the country, but once you go there, it's almost a divine experience. It's something about the country, the rich history, the incredible culture, um, and if your roots are there, my goodness, you will be captivated by the place.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, like you guys said it's, it's one of your top sellers for, absolutely for a very good reason, for a very good reason. So yeah yeah, it's. It's interesting that I would say too, for any of your listeners who who are Italian, my wife just got her Italian citizenship, which is a very, very cool, yes, very cool. It's a very, very arduous and expensive process. It's ironic because the population of Italy is decreasing, right, the replacement rate is below what it should, be Sure, but they make being a citizen very difficult. What?
Speaker 3:kind of benefits does having an Italian citizenship grant?
Speaker 4:I would say the biggest benefit, the biggest realistic benefit, is probably just preserving your heritage. Okay, but small things like you, you know easier access to travel over there. I mean, we, we could have gone there during covet if we wanted to. Yeah, when everyone, everyone was on lockdown and everyone was shut down, we could have traveled to italy, no problem, stayed somewhere very remote. That would have been a viable option.
Speaker 3:It's so cool, it would have been so cool, we may not have came back.
Speaker 4:If we did Easier travel, you could live there, you could work there, you could buy property there, and the citizenship is interesting. So, if you're Italian, how it works is you already have citizenship? Okay, because once you're an Italian, you're always an italian, but what you have to do is prove your citizenship to the country. So, delena, even myself, they would say I'm an italian citizen. But unless I can prove my citizenship to the nation, right, I won't, I won't be recognized as a citizen. Oh, interesting, okay.
Speaker 2:Gosh. Now I want to go back, I know.
Speaker 3:We just got back. What a great part of Italy.
Speaker 2:It's actually a year-round destination. Yeah, that's a good point I do want to stress. I mean there are some touristy areas like Cinque Terre and the Amalfi Coast, where, if you would go there in January, all right, maybe the restaurant, maybe the hotel is closed for the season, for good reason, that's okay. Like Bellagio, like Como area, these fancy hotels close from November to March. They're seasonal locations, exactly. Yet cities like Rome, florence, venice, you can actually go there. The sheer fact that we went to Sicily in february, I mean it tells you something yeah, it's.
Speaker 3:It was so comfortable in february, 65 high yeah I love that which was insane because all like the italians, were wearing like winter coats and parkas yeah, we were like wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts and we're like, how are you guys like not like dying of heat exhaustion?
Speaker 4:yeah, yeah, it's tough traveling to italy in the peak months, uh-huh, without being near the water. Oh yeah, I bet it's. Yeah, I mean, if you go in august, august is an is an interesting time to go because they have their holiday for august, so august is feast of assumptions, august 15th, yep, and so they took the month off, so getting a rental car tough.
Speaker 2:I've had Italian tour guides. Tell me, brian, don't send your clients to Italy in August. Yeah, particularly that third week. Second and third week. If it's August 31st, all right. Yeah, sure.
Speaker 4:Sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:We went to Italy in August, my wife and I, for our first trip, and we were going to go on a hike. Yeah, it was like 11 am and there was like an entrance to the path and the lady who I guess was manning the path she's like you can't go. We're like well, is it closed? She goes no, it's too hot. We're like thank you, but we'll be fine. She goes no, it's too hot. We're like oh, thank you, but you know we'll be fine. She goes no, you're not going. And good thing we didn't, because it was. It's just, it's sweltering, swelter.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 4:July and August hottest months in Italy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah Makes sense Well.
Speaker 2:Will. We have broken the cap, the seal on Italy. I've been talking to you for years do Italy, but I'm almost intimidated, where do you start? And it was like, well, we have to start somewhere. So, nick, I'm thrilled you got to join us for our first Italian episode. We've broken the seal. I'm ready to do Rome, florence, venice, amalfi Coast, lake Como, sicily. It's going to be exciting. We're going to talk about how we the food we ate, the wine we drank, the driving we did, tours we've done. I mean I can't wait to continue Italy with you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have a lot in store, especially with Italy. We're going to be breaking it down into parts, because you can't do this country in one episode. We didn't want to, yeah, we didn't want to. So we're going to be talking about Sicily, probably next up, and our experience on the island and what that was like. So stay tuned for that Subscribe, if you haven't already. But, yeah, I think that's really it. I mean, do you have anything else, nick?
Speaker 4:No, I just am honored and really grateful that you guys had me on the show. I'm a huge fan of the show. If this is anyone's first time listening, the shows are worth a, are worth a re-listen. I actually listened to your guys's how travel agents plan their travel multiple times and I'm not just saying that Wow, we actually incorporated a few things that you guys suggested.
Speaker 4:One of them being getting a white hard case suitcase Wow, One of the best decisions ever. And my wife travels a lot. When we were dating she traveled 25 weeks out of the year and she loved the tips that you guys had there Thrilled to hear it.
Speaker 3:Thank you, that means a lot. It means a lot, yeah, but thank you guys for listening. I think that's really it. If you are interested in Italy and you need any help with it, we are travel agents. Shameless plug you can reach out to us at chematravel. That's our website. It's going to be linked in the description. So if you need some help with Italy, feel free to reach out to us. If anything, we can bend your ear about some things and see if we might be a good fit for you. But until next episode, brian, do you have anything else for our listeners?
Speaker 2:Ciao buongiorno, grazie mille.
Speaker 1:We're the Travel Agents. That's the end of our show. Make sure to comment and subscribe before you go. We're the Travel Agents. Thanks for listening. I'll book your trip and pack your bag and do some traveling.
