tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2019905250939637549.post3836871751035110922..comments2017-01-24T02:06:33.362-05:00Comments on This ain't no marshmallow factory...soft on Italy: Love and ButterStefania Impastahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05114101957279293734noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2019905250939637549.post-1763219347511116942009-08-29T12:27:46.362-04:002009-08-29T12:27:46.362-04:00I was in Ofena, Italy in 1986, staying with my fat...I was in <a rel="nofollow">Ofena, Italy</a> in 1986, staying with my father-in-law, Berardino's, father.<br /><br />Barney, Berardino's American nickname, had gown up there and left in his 20s to find his fortune in America. At age 29, he returned to find a wife, which he did in the neighboring town of Capestrano, and brought her back to America.<br /><br />Barney has always been a man of few words. <b>Very</b> few words.<br /><br />When he was growing up in the 1920s, Ofena was a town of 2500. Now it was a town of under 1000. <br /><br />He took me out one evening for what I later learned was the <i>passeggiata</i>, and as we strolled he pointed out houses and other buildings, introduced me to <i>paisanos</i>, and spoke wistfully of people he once knew and what Ofena was like years ago. <br /><br />It was the most I heard him speak in more than 20 years of marriage to his daughter.Eric Ribackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11870213964744332539noreply@blogger.com