LEAH arrives in ITALIA!!!!

Leah wakes up wondering where she is. She turns to the wall. Pale blue plaster. Above her head, a soft color print of the Virgin Mary.

She chuckles. Oh my God I'm here, she whispers out loud.

The trip was exhausting. Sitting up straight all night long on the plane, squeezed between two oversized women in super economy class. As soon as her head fell to the side, and she nodded off, one or the other of the women would poke her knee. Or her arm.

"Per piacere," the woman on the right said. "Devi sederti lassu al tuo posto!" The woman had long curly black hair and bright red lipstick. Leah wasn't sure what she was saying but figured it meant "sit up lady!"

Finally, Leah crossed her arms and laid them on her knees. She set her forehead on her arms and  practiced her meditation breathing. She kept waking up but finally she heard the pilot say they were 500 miles from Fiumicino airport in Rome.

The next thing she knew the flight attendant was handing her a plastic breakfast tray. A croissant with butter and jelly. And a watery cup of coffee. She ate the croissant but decided to hold out for a real cup of coffee.

The woman sitting by the window raised the shade and bright yellow rays of sunshine stabbed Leah in the eyes. She smiled. "I'm here," she said, feeling the excitement rise in her arms and legs. "I'm here!" Then she went to her phone and used Google translator to say it in Italian: "Sono arrivato! Sono arrivato!" She said it three or four times, until the woman to her left said, "Per favore silenzio!"

It took another two hours to exit the plane and get through passport control. But as soon as she was free, she hurried through the airport heading straight for the first coffee stand. Seconds later, she had her first cappuccino of the trip.

The coffee tasted heavenly. And it woke her up.

She wheeled her suitcase outside the terminal and hailed down a cab. How fortunate that her relatives in Italy owned a hotel in Rome, a four-star hotel at that.

"Per piacere, Il Giardino delle Rosse a Palazzo," she told the driver. She had been practicing saying The Rose Garden Palace over and over again back home.

When she thinks about it, she would never have come if it hadn't been for Noni's relentless campaign to push her to travel to her ancestor's village. 

"I am an old lady," she told Leah a few nights before Leah left on her trip.  "I don't have much time."

"Oh sure you do Noni," Leah protested. "You are..."

But Noni cut her off. "No, no, Leah, I am old, old, and who knows when I might die. You must go to Italy for me, right away, please." Noni even gave her $300 to help pay for the trip.

The hotel was right across the street from the elegant American Embassy. As Leah entered the posh lobby, with giant palm trees in every corner, and a sumptuous breakfast laid out on a buffet, she thought to herself, "if only I could stay in Rome at this lavish hotel for the whole trip." Oh well, she thought, I'm here on a mission.

She spent two days in Rome, visiting the Forum, the Colosseum, the Jewish Quarter. She sat on the Spanish steps, and threw coins into the Fountain of Trevi. 

"I never want to leave," she texted her friend Peg on the day she was scheduled to travel to Tuscany to the town where her great grandfather was born. "Wish me luck, Peg. I'm overwhelmed thinking about what I have to do."

Leah found her way to the train station and bought a ticket to Firenze on the express train. It took only two hours to make the trip. She wheeled her suitcase through the Florence station and then asked at an information desk, "C'e un autobus per Volpaia?" Miraculously the woman behind the desk understood her. The woman took out a map and circled the train station and then drew a large black line toward the bus station. She spoke so fast Leah hadn't a clue what she was saying.

"Grazie," Leah said, taking the map. She stepped out of the train station onto the cobblestone streets. A blast of heat descended. Leah so much wanted to stay in Florence, but she had promised Noni that she would get to Volpaia as quickly as possible. Florence would have to wait for another day.

The bus was modern, and the seats were plush. It was amazing that this bus could fit on the small roads winding through the soft green hillsides of Tuscany. Leah gazed out the window at the lush rolling landscape, covered in olive trees, and thin cypress trees lining the hills. The bus driver kept sounding the horn every time he came to a blind corner, which was every other minute. 

At one point Leah shook her head. She had actually taken two weeks vacation so that she could do what Noni asked her to do. Or at least, she had crossed the ocean. Leah had a room in an inn waiting for her in Volpaia. 

Before long, Leah started to feel queasy, so she sat back and closed her eyes. She knew the ride was going to be at least another hour, maybe more, because the bus traversed the Chianti region. And there was no opening the windows for fresh air.

As her nausea worsened, Leah said a small prayer. "Please Mary, please help me not to throw up."

At that moment, the bus stopped, and an elderly gentleman got on the bus carrying three or four loaves of bread in a large basket.  He relied on a cane to make his way through the bus. He took a seat kitty-cornered from Leah. She stared at his neatly styled grey hair. He actually carried with him a heavenly smell of bread. "Oh I can just taste that warm bread now," she said, her mouth watering. Oh how she wish she had learned enough Italian to talk to the man. 

Instead, she sat back, gazing out the window. Each vista was prettier than the one before. After a few minutes, Leah fell asleep.

When she woke, the bus had pulled up to a courtyard filled with stone buildings. Her heart started beating a little faster. Was this it? Was this the last stop? Was she really finally in Volpaia.

She stood and approached the driver, a portly man with a finely chiseled face.

"Volpaia?" she asked, pointing out the door.

"Si, si," he said, smiling. As she turned back to retrieve her suitcase, she saw that the bread man was also getting off in Volpaia. He smiled at her. "Buon giorno signorina," he said. She returned the greeting. It pleased her to no end.

Soon she was standing in the courtyard with her suitcase. Everyone else seemed to know where they were going. The bread man disappeared into a nondescript wooden door, right beyond an old stone church.

Leah noticed an outdoor cafe with a few tables. An old couple was sitting at one, sipping wine.

She approached them. "Dove San Giovanni Loconda?" she asked.

The woman smiled. She was missing at least two teeth. She pointed down one small road leading out of the courtyard. She spoke quickly. Leah nodded but once again she didn't have a clue what the woman had said. 

"Grazie," she replied, and headed in the direction the woman had pointed. 

"No, no, no!" the woman called. 

Leah turned around and walked back to the bar. Her suitcase was covered in road dust already.

"Signorina, you need a car!" the woman said.

"A car? But I don't have a car. I didn't realize..."

The woman smiled. "Here, here come inside." The portly woman pushed herself up from the table and led Leah inside the bar. A couple of people were sitting on stools with drinks.  

The woman started talking to the bartender. He nodded and raised his shoulders. "Si, si, ma deve essere paziente," he said.  

"Si, si," the woman said, and she turned back to Leah. "We find you a ride, but you must first drink coffee and wait."

She led Leah back to her table and gestured for her to sit down. Leah settled into the wooden chair.

"Sono la signora Molino," the woman said. "E questo e mio fratello Filippo." Leah looked at the man, who was considerably younger than his sister. He nodded and smiled in a disinterested way.

Leah smiled. "Sono Leah Galietti, sono americana," she said. That too she had practiced before coming.

A waitress came to the table. "Per piacere, un cafe," Leah said. And then it occurred to her that she was starving. "E per piacere un'insalata con tonno e mozzarella e del pane." Noni had taught her how to order the food she most loves in the world: salad!

Soon the waitress was back with a large white bowl of lettuce and tuna and cheese and lush tomatoes, all covered in olive oil. A stack of bread slices was on a white plate.

"Grazie, grazie," Leah said, picking up her fork and knife and diving into the salad.

"Prego," said the waitress.

As she ate, the old man and woman watched her carefully and before long there came the question.

"Who are you visiting?" asked signora Molino.

Leah wiped her mouth with the white cloth napkin. She finished chewing and cleared her throat. She reached into her phone and switched into Google translate. She was about to say "I am here to see about my ancestors," when she stopped, realizing how silly that sounded. "My grandmother and her family are from here." ("Mi nonna e la sua famiglia sono di qui.")

Signora Molino smiled. But she seemed disinterested in Leah's family. "Galietti? Non conosco quel nome." 

Oh gee, Leah thought, of course she doesn't know that name. She cleared her throat again.

"Actually," she said, "my grandmother's last name was Orzo."

The woman looked confused. Had she understood?

Leah whipped out her cell phone again. Oh thank god for Google, she thought.

"Il cognome di mia nonna era Orzo," Leah said. And before she could raise her head from the screen of her iphone, both the signora and her brother were laughing.

Oh God, Leah thought, blushing, this is going to be even more difficult than I thought. Leah bolstered her courage and asked:

"Conosci la famiglia di mia nonna?"

"Oh, si parlava del clan degli Orzo, ma sono passati cosi tanti anni che non risesco a ricordare."

Leah was puzzled. What had the woman said. She quickly typed another line into the translator.

Then she spoke, aware that sweat was gathering in the front of her T shirt.

"Mi dispiace ma non ho capito," she said. (I'm sorry but I don't understand.)

Signora Molino nodded and raised her right hand off the table. "Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, there was a family with the name Orzo. But they all died," she said, waving her hand across the table. "We always laugh at the name, we call it the macaroni family, la famiglia dei maccheroni."

Signora Molino is smiling now, but Leah is not. For the first time, she feels pricked by the shame that her dear Noni talked about. How dare someone make fun of my family, she thought. She decided to leave the conversation as is.

As she finished the last bites of her salad, a young man appeared. Maybe 18 years old, tousled blonde hair. Signora Molino explained to Leah that  Junior would drive her to the inn.  Leah left 10 euros on the table and followed Junior to an old blue mercedes, and she settled in the front seat. He placed her suitcase in the backseat.

Soon they were driving through more dusty roads, winding this way and that through a thick forest.

Leah was sitting there thinking about what Signora Molino had said. She was still riled up about it. 

She wanted to say something to the driver, but nothing came to her so they rode in silence. It seemed like forever, but finally Junior took a sharp left turn that led down a winding driveway and pulled up in front of an old stone building that had small windows on one high wall.

"Ecco," he said. He got out of the car and retrieved her suitcase. 

Leah reached into her purse and took out a few euros. She handed them to him but he refused.

"No, no," he said, smiling shyly. 

She walked up a cobblestone pathway that ran beside between two buildings. When she looked up there was a small wooden sign that read "San Giovanni Loconda." The sign was shifting back and forth in the breeze.

Inside, the innkeeper spoke English. "Buon giorno, I am Giacomo," he said, "and I am happy to help you in any way I can to make your stay a good one."

Leah's eyes widened. Hmmm, she thought, she might decide to take Giacomo up on his offer.

He gave her a key and she wound her way through the old stone inn looking for room 5.  There were two rooms side by side. Giacomo said he had given her the room "with the vista."

And what a vista it was. She could see for miles and miles into the Tuscan landscape. On the hillside opposite to her was Volpaia.

Well, she thought, I ought to unpack and take a walk. Giacomo had explained that a trail from the inn would take her through olive groves and vineyards right into Volpaia.

But first she pulled out her cell phone. She had promised Noni that she would phone as soon as she had arrived. 

"Noni, noni, I'm here," she said. "And it's so very very beautiful!"

"Oh how wonderful -- oh I am crying my darling granddaughter," Noni replied. The connection was crystal clear.

"I will take a photo of the view from my window. I know you don't have a cell phone but can I send it to your computer?"

"Yes, yes, I will have your cousin Jessica find it for me!"

"Well, so, I know what you want me to do, search for great grandfather's story. It will be very very hard I think, but I will do my best Noni."

"I know you will do it honey, and I will pray for you every day."

Leah smiled, ending the call. Then she heaved a sigh. "Yes, Noni, I will need all the prayers I can get," she said out loud standing at the window in the pleasant spring breeze.