5. On The Street Where He Lived

Sunday, Oct 13th.  This morning we walked about one block east of our hotel until we got to Via Sant'Anna.  According to the records I have found, this is the street on which my maternal grandfather Francesco Ziino's family was living at the time of his birth. And yes, the name was originally spelled with two i's.  Sometime around 1920 they simplified the name by dropping the second i.  The street is less than a mile long and goes from the old central part of the town of Lipari out into a fairly rural area.  We found ourselves on the more rural end of the street and started walking towards town.  Once we arrived closer to town things started looking up.  Here is the street sign showing that we were really on the right street.

Here is a look up the street.

Obviously, this is a very old street and was laid out long before cars existed.  It is very narrow and was probably great for small carts, pedestrians and maybe donkeys but there is no way that a car could use it.  We had an old address card that Aunt Vera had given us so we looked for that house and found it.  This was the home of Rose and Angelo Famularo.  Rose was grandpa's younger sister.  Here is a photo of that house.

The name on the mailbox was McDonald so we didn't bother knocking on the door.  We walked further down the street and came across this plate.

As it says, this is the house of Giovanni and Rita Ziino.  Don't know if he is a close relative but there must be some connection if you go back enough years.  As we were talking in the street, Rita came out on her balcony and started to talk with us.  She spoke little English and we only a little Italian, but we managed to communicate.  According to her, long ago many Ziinos lived on the other side of the street across from her house.  The original Ziino residence was probably in the area where this large house is at present. Here is a photo of that house.

It is now being used as a vacation residence so if you ever want to visit Lipari you have the chance of staying in Grandpa's house.  The other thing we found on this street was an old church and here is a photo.

There was no name on it and the only notice was a list of the masses being said in St. Giuseppe, the main church on the Piazza Bartholomeo.  However, given its location, it was probably the church that the Ziinos attended.

We then walked from Via Sant'Anna into town an down Via Victorio Emmanuele II which one of the main streets through the center of the town.  We stopped in to see the church of St. Peter the Apostle which dates from 1545.  Here is a photo of the main altar and the back wall of the church.

We then headed up to the Cathedral of St. Batolomeo which is on top of the Castello.  It's a long flight of steps to get up there but it is well worth it.  Here is a photo looking up the stairs at the Cathedral shot with a long telephoto from the bottom and a second looking down from the top.

The official name of this church is the Basilica Cattedrale di SA. Bartolomeo and it dates from the 11th century.  The first thing we noticed is that the threshold marble sill had been donated by Salvatore Iacono.  Here is a photo.

For those that may not remember, Grandpa's mother was an Iacono.  Next is a photo of the main altar in the church.

This next photo is hard to read but you can make out the family name of Amendola.  The Amendola family was long time friends of my Grandfather's family and  Alessandro Amendola was his partner in business and was my Mother's Godfather.  His son, Harry, lived just down the street from us when we lived in West Hempstead and I played with their sons as a kid.

After touring the church we visited the archaeological museum that is also on top of the Castello.  Because of Lipari's long history of civilization and unique conditions, this turns out to be one of the best museums for early civilizations.  Never seen so many pottery shards.  They also must have had a lot of student assistants who were good at jigsaw puzzles as it must have been a bear to reassemble so many pieces of pottery.

We then went to lunch at Fillipino's which is one of Lipari's very best restaurants and has been in business since 1910 and run by the same family all of that time.  After lunch, we hired a local guide to drive us around the island and show us the sites.  This was very informative and the scenery was spectacular.  Here is a photo of the island of Salina which is just to the north of Lipari.

  

We stopped at an overlook near the town of Quadrapanni where you can see five of the islands all at once.  We then headed south and our guide took this group shot with the south end of Lipari, some of the offshore rock formations and the island of Vulcano in the background.  If you looked carefully, you could see smoke rising from the volcano on Vulcano.

Finally, as we headed into town I took this shot of the town with the Castello overlooking it.

Tomorrow will be our last day on Lipari and the plan is to spend time researching the history of the Ziino family at the Municipo.