About an hour’s drive into Campania (Caserta province), we arrived in the small town of Piana di Monte Verna in the afternoon. Before 1996, the town was called Piana di Caiazzo, which was the city listed in the immigration documents of our grandfather’s family.
We arrived and found a hotel above a restaurant--being able to negotiate a price for the night that included an excellent dinner of fried zucchini flowers, greens, and squash gnocchi in a red sauce (all local and seasonal ingredients).
We had a little time to walk around the town, and enjoy an amazing sun set over the surrounding hills. There is a very nice church, which surely would have been familiar to our family who left this town for opportunities in far-flung Pennsylvania. The town is situated in picturesque valley, but not in an of itself noteworthy. My understanding is that this town suffered heavy damage in WWII and was re-built in the ‘50s.
Interestingly, we mentioned to several people that we we in town because it was the town of our grandfather’s family. However, when we mentioned the family name, they replied--”there are many from the that family here, but that family really is from Villa Santa Croce in the mountains”. We found the town on the map and decided to visit in the morning.
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