It was a family reunion of sorts when we connected with cousin Silvia Romanini at Bryant Park in New York City last Sunday.
She was with her boyfriend Samuel and his parents. It had been been 13 years since Mary Ann and I last visited the entire Romanini family in Parma, Italy. And, it was 9 years since we became Silvia’s unofficial tour guides of New Jersey on her last visit. With Sylvia and company on a tight touring schedule, my daughter Alison Dempsey with her family (husband John and my grandkids Jack, Nora and Maeve) put together a quick, but perfect, rendezvous picnic breakfast in mid-town which included real NYC bagels and coffee. However, we were quickly reminded that Italians prefer an espresso to a real cup of American coffee.
To provide a bit of background, Mary Ann’s dad, Adolph Passerini, lived in Parma as a child. His cousin, Aldina, remained there and married Luigi Romanini. Their family flourished on their farm in the heart of the Po Valley agricultural area of Italy. Aldina and Luigi’s three children Govanni, Elena and Silvia are now single adults with different personalities, ambitions and interests. It’s truly a wonder to observe how life is the same and yet different in our two countries over the years.
Currently, Silvia is accompanying Samuel and his mom Roberta and dad Paolo who are celebrating their 50th anniversary with a trip to the New York City. As they told us, they seemed to have every possible tourist destination covered in their trip including the Statue of Liberty, the 911 Memorial, Greenwich Village and Arthur Avenue in the Bronx to name a few places! I enjoyed hearing that his parents are still cyclists and seem to have bikes included in their tours.
Silvia and Samuel both speak English and acted as our translators with Samuel’s parents. Samuel is a software engineer and met through her company’s system project, It seemed fitting that, while not working on the farm, Silvia works for a large Italian agricultural company which probably depends as much these days on computers as on the actual food it actually grows.
Samuel described the city where they live now, Reggio Emilia which is near Parma. One unique fact is there is a monument to Kobe Bryant who lived there when he was a child so that his father, former NBA player Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, could continue his professional basketball career in the Italian leagues. Who knew Kobe was once, and maybe forever will be, remembered as Italian?
During our breakfast Silvia connected with Aldina and Luigi in Parma via FaceTime and we had a great time seeing them. Silvia had to act as translator again but we didn’t need to speak Italian to see the joy in their faces. Luigi, in his mid 80s, has passed the work and responsibility of the family farm to his son, Giovanni. Somehow, Gio manages to farm 300 acres on his own!
Sylvia also tried contacting her adventurous older sister Elena that morning but could not reach her. Elena is on an extended vacation deep in Africa. She may have been in Zimbabwe, Botswana or South Africa at the time on Safari. Who knows? Sylvia claims this may have been the best of her sister’s many vacations as a free-spirit traveler.
As I remembered in my trip to Poland a couple years ago, it’s truly a special gift to have family to meet and relate to in far away places. It’s the simple things in life we discuss like the moments we’ve been together. More often than not, we share that time over a special meal.
We left Sylvia that morning promising that our next meeting should be in Parma with the entire family! As my generation gets older, our families spread out and grandkids grow up, it seemed obvious that we need to plan now to meet again soon and create new memories. The opportunity to bring the world together is priceless and worth the effort.
Click here to see details and photos of our 2013 visit to Parma.
My Plan C 