Castell'Alfero Day 1

Breakfast then a walk up to the the “Osteria” (a type cafe/restaurant) for Anne’s early morning coffee (no hot chocolate so I had to have a tea). These are great little places where the locals turn up for a quick coffee pick me up. They often shut for a couple of hours, from late morning, before reopening in the afternoon - this place also does dinners so I booked for Friday night.

After coffee we set off Cereseto, a little very old village where mum was born (for years we thought it was Ottiglio, but this is where the family moved soon after). We got to the village and found the Municipal Office - there really isn’t any much else there.

We told the guy behind the counter why we were there. He disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a large very old birth register. He flipped through a few pages and quickly found mum’s birth registration - it was a lot quicker and easier than I thought it would be. We took photos of the record (and I almost immediately sent a copy to my sister Mary). There’s the usual information including about parents etc. - it really was terrific and I’m pretty sure mum would/is be happy 😃 too. We had a good walk around Cereseto with its tiny streets. It’s small but beautiful.

After Cereseto we headed off to Sala to see if we could get birth records for my dad. We found the Municipal Office but the woman behind the counter was about to close up and the office doesn’t reopen until Friday (I told you it was small). We had a walk around Sala to have a good look around and had a quick chat to a local (an elderly lady) and the conversation went a bit liked this:
Her - “where are you from?”
Me - “Australia”
Her - “I went to Austria once”
Me - “nice but we’re from Australia”
Her - “If I wasn’t so old I’d go back to Austria for another visit”
Me - “no I’m from Australia not Austria”
Her - “I know but I like Austria”
Me - “nice talking to you bye”

She also mentioned that there are more dead people in the cemetery than live people in the houses!!!!!! I wonder how many of them (dead or alive have been to Austria- probably not many to Australia).

Anne and I found the cemetery (it is pretty big and I wouldn’t be surprised if the old lady was right) and had a look to see if we could find any of my family. Anne found a grave with a picture of a woman that she thought had a Francia family resemblance and we took a photo. We found out later she was right, it was my grandmother!!!

We went for a drive to Ottiglio where mum grew up and I think we found the building where mum and her family lived (residence above a small shop they owned).

After Ottiglio we set off to Asti for a look around and Anne found a street market. Being the wonderful person I am, I followed her through the about 75 stores where she bought one coin purse🤷‍♂️.

A gelato later we headed back to Castell’Alfero. Before dinner we had an evening walk around the village.Read more