Casteluzzo

To Facebook or Not to Facebook

November 1, 2010May 26, 2011Sarah Bringhurst Familia

We skipped Halloween this year. There are people who celebrate it in Italy, but it’s more of an American fad, not a culturally entrenched tradition. Not one person has asked my children what they’re going to “be,” nor have I seen a sudden overabundance of pumpkins appear at the supermarket. The good (bad) news is, in Italy nobody seems to need an excuse for giving my children candy. Everyone, from little old ladies to policemen to shopkeepers, has a stash of caramelli in a pocket or purse, ready to be relinquished to children. And there’s no need to beg or threaten tricks.… Read more

And now you know . . . the rest of the story.

October 30, 2010Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I hope you enjoyed our little jaunt to the Philippines yesterday. Now back to Italy. We had decided to move to Italy by October 2007, which at the time was one year away. Now all we needed to do was to collect birth, death, and marriage certificates for Tony and all his ancestors in a direct line back to Domenico. It came to a grand total of 32 certificates, plus the Naturalization papers for Domenico. The documents had to be requested from the vital records offices of five different states and two different towns in Italy, and then most of them had to be sent to the Governor’s office of the various states for an Apostille.… Read more

Philippines, Part 4: Strawberries and Cotton Candy (Baguio)

October 28, 2010January 14, 2017Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Fridays we spend in the Philippines, reliving our incredible summer there backpacking through the wilds with a baby. The story of our journey to citizenship and Italy will resume tomorrow. Of course, if you are a regular reader of this blog you are, by definition, of above average intelligence and able to follow multiple simultaneous streams of history with ease.

If you’ve missed any of our Philippines adventures, you can find them here:
Philippines, Part 1: Have Baby, Will Travel
Philippines, Part 2: Do You Know How to XOOM?
Philippines, Part 3: Confessions of a Carseatless Baby (Vigan)
Philippines, Part 4: Strawberries and Cotton Candy (Baguio)
Philippines, Part 5: Hanging Coffins!… Read more

Another Angle

October 28, 2010Sarah Bringhurst Familia

If you’ve missed the beginning of this story, I’m telling about how we moved to Italy. The rest of the story can be found here:

Rome Temple Groundbreaking

The Story Begins . . .

Welcome to the Famiglia

Since Grandma Familia had been a good source of information about her side of the family, Tony decided to call his mother and see if she knew anything about whether and when Domenico was naturalized. As fate would have it, she had recently paid a visit to her uncle Blaine (Domenico’s grandson and the genealogy guru of the family). With her sisters, she had been able to see his store of genealogical documents.… Read more

Welcome to the Famiglia

October 27, 2010Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Lately we’ve been talking about the new Rome L.D.S. Temple and why it is important to my family. If you missed the first two posts in this series, here they are:

Rome Temple Groundbreaking
The Story Begins . . .

When Tony and I got married, one of his aunts gave me a set of pasta dishes, along with Tony’s grandmother’s recipe for Chicken Parmagiana. “Welcome to the Famiglia,” began the recipe. I didn’t really understand back then everything it meant to become part of this family.

After our wedding, Tony and I went back to Utah and B.Y.U., where he busied himself finishing a business degree and I went to work at an immigration law office.… Read more

The Story Begins . . .

October 26, 2010Sarah Bringhurst Familia

First of all, I want to thank you all for the overwhelming response to yesterday’s post about the Rome Temple Groundbreaking. I appreciated so much the kind comments and the many emails about how our experience touched you. I’ve also given mormonwoman.org permission to repost it today, so you can hop on over there for a visit if you’d like. I want to give a warm welcome to all the new readers who’ve just found Casteluzzo. And I thought today I would give you a little background on our family, our journey to Italy, and how this blog came to be.

Rome Temple Groundbreaking

October 25, 2010Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Last night, along with thousands of members of the L.D.S. Church throughout Italy, we saw the official Groundbreaking of the Rome, Italy Temple. Yes, the Prophet, President Monson, was in Italy this week. He broke ground for the Temple in company with Church leaders from all over Italy (including our own beloved Branch President), Giuseppe Ciardi, the vice-mayor of Rome, and Lucio Malan, a senator from Piemonte, who also happens to be Valdese. Why is that important to us? The Valdese (Waldensians in English) are the small Protestant group in the Alps of Northern Italy to whom Lorenzo Snow and a few other missionaries brought the Restored Gospel in the mid-19th century.

Friends don’t let friends invade Russia with winter approaching

October 23, 2010May 30, 2011Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Last night, I dreamed that I saved Vittorio Emmanuele from assassination. That’s right, the first King of Italy. And then I was so happy that he was safe, I kissed his hand. I realized when I woke up that in my dream I’d had that feeling. The feeling Tolstoy gave Andre when he was sent as a messenger to the Tsar. The feeling Ann had in Hardy’s The Trumpet-Major when she met King George in the street by happenstance. It’s a sort of intense overall sensation of patriotism wrapped up into the adoration of a certain royal person. It resembles a combination of religious fervor, filial piety, and romantic ardor, all rolled into one.… Read more

Philippines, Part 3: Confessions of a Carseatless Baby (Vigan)

October 22, 2010January 14, 2017Sarah Bringhurst Familia

For other adventures in the Philippines Friday series, see here:

Jane Austen and the Mock Turtle

October 21, 2010Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I like to read treatises and how-to books on education. But I also enjoy distilling educational theory out of books that have nothing to do with education. It fascinates me, for instance, to hear the Mock Turtle’s summation of the subjects offered at his school: Reeling and Writhing, Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision, Mystery (ancient and modern) with Seaography, Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils, Laughing and Grief, as well as Dancing the Lobster Quadrille. That’s Lewis Carroll’s whimsical but accurate summation of the typical education of his day (for boys. You’ll notice that in the same chapter Alice carefully mentions her French, but earlier as she tries to think how to address a mouse in The Pool of Tears, she can remember the vocative only from her brother’s Latin Grammar).… Read more

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