Verona is a beautiful city, with every corner and piazza offering another photo-worthy view. It is also reputed to be Juliette's hometown, and one can visit "her" balcony as well as a Romeo & Juliette museum.
But those aren't why today was special. Memories today were built on getting to know distant family members, exhausting ourselves by speaking a foreign language all day, and watching the miracle of small children being able to play so well together despite not having more than a handful of words in common.
Monica is the daughter of my first cousin, Vilma, and she is about five years older than me. She is married to Pietro and together they have a three-year-old daughter Giulia. They were our hosts today: they borrowed a van to fit all of us into one vehicle, they drove us to and from Verona, they paid for a pizza lunch, lollypops for the girls and gelato for all, and they bought our girls some little toys, "to remember them by."
And tomorrow it all happens again: we've had trouble finding a car rental place that is open on the weekend, so they offered to take us to my father's hometown - you know, if we didn't mind spending the day with them again. Derek and I just looked at one another, shrugged and smiled, and said, "okay!"
So tomorrow is the big day, the one I've been trying not to think about and not to put too many expectations on. Monica is not even sure where the family house is, exactly. So I may not even see it, let alone step into it. We shall see how it goes and whether or not any ghosts visit.
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