I had a very poor nights sleep and after pretty well hearing every hour announced during the night by the local church bell I gave up on sleep and got up at 6:44. The local Chiesa"s are stunning and dominate the town life and the vista. I even found a Chiesa S Paolo which has been renamed Changas House and my favorite church the Chiesa il Sambucca in the next village - wonder if we could have a church named Bundy, it would get my worship.
I figured the poor night was due to the fact we are going to my family village today and I am feeling quite anxious as it has been a long time coming for myself and I am sure the spirit of my dear departed Zio Omero and Zia Elva (who enabled us to take this journey) are with me today.
We got to Coreglia at lunchtime so no better place to start than the local cafe/tabbachi so we could recharge our fuel tanks with panini and cappuccino and I could recharge my Italian sim for my mobile. I put €70 on it as it seems to absorb the credit fast but today was downright scandalous.
At 12:45 I received an SMS telling me I had €70 which pleased me and I thought €70 may have been overkill. Well at 4:21 I got another SMS advising me my credit was exhausted and to recharge. I did not make a call, send an SMS, and just logged on to my email and only downloaded the message headers - if that's €70 worth I would have got more value using the notes as gabinetta paper. What a farce. So it's back to the Aussie sim as even global roaming could not be that expensive. The Italian sim had €135 in total put on it and covered two 2 min conversations and 3 SMS's - not what you call outstanding value.
The rest of the day was magic though just walking the footsteps of my ancestors in our magical village. It is like a maze of tiny, steep cobbled lanes with sweeping views of the Serchio valley and the alps beyond. I am glad the family chose to move though as you need to be super fit to get around.
We wandered around and came upon the municipal offices where we found 3 Pelligrini's and 1 Mattei. I was keen to see the immigration and plaster museum as our ancestors were all statue makers. I asked a man where it was but he told me it was closed today. In passing I mentioned we were descendants of the Pelligrini's (and cousins of Rob Barbera) and then the man said wait here. I was summoned into the office and was advised we were to be given a private guided tour - were still big in town after all these years (or maybe it's just you Roberto).
Our guide whose name we did not get but call him Gesso as he was trying to get me to understand the moulds were also plaster (gesso). Nobody we encountered spoke English and to be honest I am glad in a way as it made the whole experience all the more real.
Gesso showed us all the immigration documents from the first locals to take the plunge into the new world. It seemed so detached from today's world as visas were required for France, Germany, Austria & England. One passport was full and had not left continental Europe.
On the first floor we were taken to the statue museum which I am sure had pieces of my family's work. It was stunning. The detail is just amazing and my favorite was the bust of Cicero (the shifty Roman senator who stitched up Caesar) which was life like, and having studied Ancient Rome it was rather chilling in it's resemblance.
We then got a tour of the basement which is essentially the floor above cut into the mountain. Here is the plaster making room where the students hone their skills. Gesso gave me a plaster of the town and gave the girls a plaster cat each.
We went back to the little shop there where I got a book on the statue makers of Coreglia and made a donation to reciprocate the efforts of the municipal staff. Gesso was talking to another man as we rested beneath the church bell tower and came back with a CD of Coreglia and guide to Tuscany as a gift and told us that the other man Louie was a statue maker and would give us a tour of his little workshop.
Well what a character. Louie's tiny workshop was filled with lots of little statues and Tarn & I had agreed on getting a nativity scene in Coreglia as it would be a very special momento. Well as we felt there may be customs issues with the full scene as it had wood and moss we decided on the individual statues. Louie got a hodge podge of pieces together and we have our personalized nativity scene with a giant sheep and giant baby Jesus. For the life of me I could not remember sheep or lamb in Italian so I made a baaaa sound and Louie got the idea, the girls got a good laugh and I was glad there were no Kiwi tourists in Coreglia 
Louie did like to faff about but this may have been due to his lunchtime snack of 2 beers and a bottle of red. I really enjoyed our time with Louie and wherever we went in the village he was there - a real social butterfly.
I managed to pick up a local cookbook which will get a whirl whilst we are here (and back at home) as well as posting ourselves a Coreglia postcard so we have the post mark of the day we were here.
As we drove out of Coreglia there was Louie again at the cafe and we tooted, shouted ciao and Louie waved back and made his way back into the cafe to spend some of his recent earnings on some of the local Vino Rosso - bravo Louie.
On the way out of town we had a photo taken in front of the town sign with 3 generations of the Pelligrini clan.
What a magic day and more than I ever expected from our wondrous village made even more wonderful by the kindness of Gesso and Louie.
I hope Zio and Zia enjoyed it as much as we did.