A Trip Through Italy, Part 3

A view of the town of Vernazza from the
 top of the castle tower.

We continued our Italy trip by leaving Rome behind and heading for Cinque Terre, (The Five Lands), which I think was my favorite part of the trip. I have a lot of wonderful memories from this vacation, some from each stop, but most come from our three days visiting these five towns.

Each of the towns,  Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore, have their own unique characteristics. They even have there own dialects. But one thing they have in common is beautiful scenery and great food! They are known for their white wines, which I must say were delightful!

We spent some time in each town but we stayed in Monterosso al Mare, which has a beautiful beach area.  The beach was always crowded but you could hardly see the people for all the colorful umbrellas.  They made for pretty pictures.

The beach on Monterosso al Mare.

We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast at the top of the hill on Monterosso. We walked with our bags to the top, and thought we were going to have a stroke.  But it was so worth it.  (We took a cab down the day we left!) Hotel Villa Steno had a big patio that overlooked the town and the water. We loved sitting out there as the sun set, watching the stuff going on down the hill but not hearing the noise.  This B&B had a garden full of fruit trees, flowers and herbs.  Most of the town is one building after another, attached together with very little green space. It was a nice little garden to walk through and we could see it from the patio where we ate breakfast.

Lots of umbrellas!!

We walked through all the little alleys of the town and couldn't believe how they twisted and turned. At each junction, you had another beautiful building and many had flowers or decorations of some sort.

My friend Kathy and I, walked down to the end of the beach and stuck our feet in the water.  It was so nice and warm. There was a private, gated club there, too, but I don't think it could have been any nicer than where we stayed, at Hotel Villa Steno.  And the staff was as nice as they could be. Click the link above to see some of the views from the hotel.  If you go to Cinque Terre, I would highly recommend you check them out.

There are trails between each of the towns that you can walk, if they have not had bad rains that wash them out.  We came in right after one of those rains, so the main trail was closed but the alternate route was open.  Out of Corniglia, it took you up one mountain, through the small town of Volastra and then down to Manarola.  It took us about 4 hours to do it but we did stop in Volastra for a snack (wine, beer, meat and cheese).  They have train service between the towns so we decided to take it back to our town.

View of Vernazza, from the little restaurant on the hill.

The next day we were going to walk from Vernazza over to Corniglia but decided we had enough fun the day before hiking, so we just went up the trail high enough to get some good pictures of Vernazza.  There was a cute little restaurant up there that we sat at and enjoyed the view for awhile. The picture at the top of the blog was taken from the castle out on the point, in this picture of Vernazza.  This town is the only one of the five that had a natural harbor.

Cinque Terre is a unique, beautiful area of Italy to visit.  If you haven't been there, make sure to check it out on your next trip over the pond!

Other views of Cinque Terre!

Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre, Italy

Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre, Italy

Corniglia, Cinque Terre, Italy

Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy

The coastline as seen from Vernazza, Cinque Terre, Italy.

A Trip Through Italy, Part 2

A window box with beautiful flowers in
Piazza Navona, one of my favorite squares in Rome.

If you have never been to Rome, I would recommend you add it to your bucket list. We were blessed to spend three days there, this trip, and it was great! We were there several years ago and wanted to see all the sites, but it rained and made it very difficult. One of my strongest memories is standing in the rain, holding an umbrella, looking at the Forum and trying to figure out what was what.  Without someone there to explain it, it was really difficult to discern exactly what we were seeing.  So we made a promise to ourselves that if we ever got back, we would hire a guide to walk us through the many ancient ruins, so we would know what they were, and we would pray that it didn't rain.

 

 Views of the Forum from on top of Palatine Hill.  From
 the top  of this hill you could see most of Rome. 

Well, we did just that.  We had beautiful weather this time around and our little guide was fantastic.  She had a great knowledge of the history of Rome and all that it entailed.  She took us to the Coliseum and explained the history there, then down to the Forum to walk through the ruins in that area.  What a fascinating tour!  I remember going to Boston one year, and really enjoying the walking tour, hearing about how things were so old...over 200 years old.  In Rome, there are things that date back hundreds of years; in some cases over a thousand years.  It is amazing to see the many structures the Romans built, all those years ago, and how many of them are still standing.  Their craftsmanship and attention to detail were amazing.

                

We had an afternoon tour of the Pantheon, Spanish Steps and a few other locations, but they paled in comparison to our morning sites.  We did have a gelato stop in the afternoon that was the highlight of the tour.  (We tasted gelato in every town we toured.)  The best was in a little place, on a small street, in downtown Rome.  I loved the way they looked when they first opened the stores, before anyone has placed an order.  They were beautiful colors and they always had so many different flavors.  Decisions, decisions! My favorite combination was the peach along with the plain cream. Yum!

Each day we walked almost everywhere we went.  We wore our Fitbits and put lots of steps on them during the trip.  I think you get a much more intimate look at a city when you walk through it.  I always try to remember to look up too, because there is so much beautiful architecture there and a lot of it is up high.

We went to the catacombs on of the days we were there and I found them very interesting, but if pressed for time in Rome, would probably skip them.  We rode the train to a certain stop, then got on a bus that took us to the outskirts of town, where the catacombs are located.  I never realized how many there were.  Just in the one we toured, there were thousands of little cubicles, cut out of the rock, where they laid the dead.  Once again, the way they built them was very interesting. They started high and as they finished a level, they would dig down, lower the walkways and continue on another level.  At one time, there were Popes buried there, too, but they have since been moved to another location.

Rome is beautiful at night, too.  If you ever get there, make sure you take a ride through the town after dark.  All the big monuments and major ruins are lit up and it is so pretty.  

One of my favorite things to do, in Rome, is go to the Trevi Fountain. Unfortunately, right now, it is closed for renovation. They say if you throw a coin into the fountain, it will ensure you a future trip to Rome.  With it closed off, we couldn't do that, but I feel certain we will find a way to get back to this romantic, exciting city, at some point in our future.  Caio, for now! 

A Trip Through Italy

Well, it has been some time since I have posted, but I have a very good reason.  I was on a fabulous vacation to Italy.  We were blessed to be able to spend 15 days, in country, seeing Rome, Cinque Terre, Naples, Isle of Capri, Pompei, Mt. Vesuvius and Sicily.  It was a relaxing experience and the weather was picture perfect.  Here are a few pictures of the trip. We made a lot of great memories and have many fun stories to tell.  More to come in another blog. 

Vernazza, Cinque Terre, Italy

Monument in Rome.

Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre, Italy

A church in the Roman Forum.

One of the many beautiful fountains in Rome.

Isle of Capri

St. Peter's Basillica in Rome.
Do you see something odd about this picture?

Turn Back Time Tuesday - Timeless Pictures

It's Tuesday and I thought it would be fun to post a few "timeless" pictures!  It is so fun to look back on old pictures. I've scanned them to make sure I have these memories for a long time!

At the Alaska State Fair.

My brother Kevin and I, with Mom.

Kevin, Terri and Todd with our Great Grandmother Marley.

Today's Terri's Tidbit:

Some fun websites I have found that you might want to check out:  We went to a great concert in Denver last weekend that was organized by the Christian singer Chris Tomlin.  During the concert he shared that there is a project going on to build a Museum of the Bible in Washington DC.  It sounds like a fascinating project.  Check it out here.

Want to find out your BMI and the number of calories you burn?  Check out this fun site.

Not sure who your Senate and House representatives are?  Here is an easy site to find out who they are.

Keeping Family History Alive

Many people will never know about the family members that came before them.  I didn't want to be one of those people so I started doing research, and before long, became an addict.  Yes, a genealogy addict!  I want to find all my relatives and pass on those names to my children, so they can in turn pass them on to their children.  Research is not always an easy task but it is getting easier and easier, thanks to all the websites that are devoted to genealogy and family history. I heard yesterday that genealogy has surpassed gardening as a favorite hobby.  More and more people are going to become addicts, just like me!

My mom passed away at the young age of 52.  Oh how I wish I had sat down with her and asked her lots of questions about her life growing up, about her family members, about her earliest memories, about lots of things.  But I didn't.  Don't wait to ask those questions of the ones you love.  I have started quizzing my dad and I have found out some of the most amazing things.  You will too!

Me as a baby, with my mom and dad.

While doing my research, I seem to run into brick walls more than not, but every once in awhile, I come across something that blows one of those walls wide open.  I recently went on a search of a great, great grandmother and knew lots about her from the time she married on until she died.  However, I couldn't find anything about her before that.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, I went onto the Facebook page for the North Carolina Genealogy group and posted a query seeking information on Margaret E. Gordy Green.  In no time, someone came back with several pieces of information that were very helpful and I was able to break down that wall.

It is so important to make sure any information you find is well sourced and that you constantly back up what you have found.  Sourcing is important so you know where to go back, to find that information, if you need it again.  And you would certainly hate to lose all the info you have found because you didn't have it backed up.  I use Backblaze as my cloud backup but I also have a zip drive with the same information on it.  I try to backup my info a couple times a week but at least once, for sure.

I have been scanning pictures and saving them in several places too.  All those pictures that were taken back in the early 60's are becoming more and more faded.  I don't want to lose those precious memories.  Some of them I have been able to enhance in my photo program, that came with the computer.  But they will never be as good as they were back then.  Below is an example of what I am talking about -

This is the photo that has been
enhanced.  The original is below.

I have lots of scanning and enhancing to do but it will be worth it to be able to preserve them for later.  

Do you have a bunch of old family VHS tapes laying around?  There are lots of companies now that will take them and put them on a DVD.  I have one from the 60's of my family that really brings back precious memories.  I want to get it on a zip drive or saved in another format so I don't lose it.  There are some programs out there that will do that too.  I am still trying to decide which one is better but I will do it, so it will be preserved for the future.  

    

See how faded this on
not be able to see it.  

I have made a book, through Shutterfly, about my mom's life, which I gave to my family for Christmas one year. They loved having that book of pictures and stories.  And Shutterfly made it so easy to do and was very reasonable.  

All these things will help you preserve your family history and although they might not appreciate it now, I have no doubt, that in the future, your children, and theirs, will love that you took the extra time to keep their memories alive.  

Today's Terri's Tidbit:  If you have old family VHS tapes, audio tapes, etc and you would like them put onto a DVD or other medium, contact TMC Place.com. They have been preserving people's memories for over 30 years.  

Preserving the Ha(y)worth Family History for Future Generations, Part 9

George Haworth was the fifth Great Grandfather of my
Grandmother, Mittie Ethel Hayworth Garrison.  

I would not be here today if it were not for George Haworth and his many descendants.  The Haworth line has continued for many generations in our family and will live on for many more. My Grandmother, Mittie Hayworth Garrison, was the 5th Great Granddaughter of George.  She was almost 92 years old when she passed away.  I felt very blessed to have her around that long.  The picture to the right was taken just a couple years before she died.  Four generations. My mom is on the left, holding my daughter Stephanie.  

So, we are all thankful to George for coming to America, risking his life on the ship Brittania, and starting a family.  He died in January of 1725 (Quaker calendar) and was buried in Buck's County, Pennsylvania.  At the time of his death, he and Sarah had had eight children.  The children were, in birth order:
1.  A son who died in infancy
2.  Stephanus Haworth, born in 1713 and married Rachel Beeson
3.  Rachel V. Haworth, born in 1715 but died young
4.  Absalom Haworth, born in 1716 and married Elizabeth E. Payne
5.  John Haworth, born in 1717, married Mary Garner
6.  James Haworth born in 1719, married Sarah Wood
7.  Mary Haworth born in 1721 married John Michener
8.  George Haworth Jr. born in 1724 and married Mary Brown

Buckingham Friends Meeting House still stands today.  

George had been a weaver and a farmer. He and Sarah were Quakers and belonged to the Falls Member Meeting and they were charter members of the Buckingham Friends meeting.  

Three of George and Sarah's sons, Stephanus, Absalom and James, left Pennsylvania and headed south.  They landed in Virginia, where they set up their new homes and started their own families. Stephanus later moved to North Carolina.  

Today's Terri's Tidbit:  Were you a Little House on the Prairie fan?  Did you read the books, watch the show, or both?  There is a new book out by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and edited by Pamela Smith Hill.  It is called Pioneer Girl:  The Annotated Autobiography.  It is a beautiful book that would be worthy of your coffee table.  Check it out here!

Preserving the Ha(y)worth Family History for Future Generations, Part 8

Before we get into the last of the letters, I wanted to share with you something I found on Ancestry.com. It is the marriage intention, of George Haworth and Sarah Scarborough. It that was found in the Quaker records dated September 9, 1710 (1).

According to the Haworth Association website (2), these are the vows exchanged between George and Sarah. "Whereas George Haworth of ye Township of Makefield in ye County of Bucks & Province of Pennsylvania, Weaver, and Sarah Scarborough, daughter of John Scarborough of ye township Solebury in ye county and province aforesaid, spinster, having intentions of taking each other in marriage did publish ye same before several monthly meetings of ye people called Quakers in ye county aforesaid according to ye good order used amongst ye, whose proceedings therein after a deliberate consideration thereof & having consent of relations and parties concerned nothing appearing to obstruct were approved of by ye at meetings."
"Now these are to certify all whome it may concern yt for ye full accomplishment of their said intentions this 28th day of 9 mo/anno 1710 they ye sd George Haworth and Sarah Scarborough appeared in a publick meeting of ye said people and other matt together at their usual meeting house in ye township of Buckingham and County aforesaid and ye ad George Haworth taking ye ad Sarah Scarborough by ye hand did in a solemn manner openly declare yt he took her to be his wife and did likewise promise to be to her a true and loving and faithfull husband untill death should seperate ym & yn and there in the said assembly she ye ad Sarah Scarborough did likewise declare yt she took ye ad George Haworth to be her husband promising to be unto him a loving and faithfull and true wife untill death should seperate them and moreover ye ad George-Haworth & Sarah Scarborough, (she according to ye custom of marriage assuming ye name of her husband) as a further confirmation thereof did then and there to those present sett their hands & we whose names are hereunder subscribed being amongst others psent at ye solemnization of their ad marriage and subscription in manner aforesaid as witnesses thereunto have also to these psents set our hands ye day & year above written."

George and Sarah were married on September 28, 1710.

The last letter George sent to his brother was in October 1722, Quaker calendar.  It's shorter than the rest but he starts off letting him know that all are well.  "These are to let thee know that we thy kindred are all in good health, blessed be the Lord for it..."  He goes on to let them know a little about Mary and her family.  "My Sister Mary and children desire dearly to be remembered to thee and the rest of our kindred in England; all her children is married and doth well three of them married according to the good order of Friends, her husband died a year and eight months ago." (All italics are excerpts from George’s letters, as written.(3) )

George wants to know more about his brother's health. "So dear Brother I heartily desire thy wellfare both Soul and body. Give my dear Love to my Sisters and to all my Relations and Friends."

At this point in time, George has more children.  "I have 4 children 3 boys and one daughter. Our country is pretty healthy at present blessed be the Lord for it."  

He brings up something in this letter that kind of surprised me.  "We have been affraid of War by the Indians, thro' some ill indian traders but now we have had a treaty of peace."  Indians?? Yikes!  I knew there were Indians around but didn't think about the fact that they might go to war.  

George gives information about the state of the country in 1722.  "Our Country encreaseth and the inhabitants groweth large and fast, Corn is cheap and money scarce."   

The last writing we have from George is, "so having not much more at present but our dear love to you all I rest and remain thy Loving Brother.

George Haworth

P.S. I have received no letters since one from John Laycock; Dear Brother I often think of you forget not to write to me by what oppertunity thou can."  He is still trying to get the family to write to him.  I have loved having these letters to read.  It shows just how important it is to save old papers, letters, newspapers, etc., so future generations can learn things about us.  Take some time to write down information about your family or record a conversation with an older relative! Your future generations with thank you!

Today's Terri's Tidbit:  I just found another podcast that is fun for those working on their family history.  The phone app is called Extreme Genes Family History Radio.  They have a Facebook page.  Click here to visit it.  Their website is here and they have the podcast available there too. Check it out!

_____________________________________________________________________________
(1) Ancestry.com. U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: Swarthmore, Quaker Meeting Records. Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.North Carolina Yearly Meeting Minutes. Hege Friends Historical Library, Guilford College, Greensboro, North Carolina.Indiana Yearly Meeting Minutes. Earlham College Friends Collection & College Archives, Richmond, Indiana.Haverford, Quaker Meeting Records. Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania.
(2)Haworth Association Website: http://haworthassociation.org/
(3)George's letters can be found in many publications but most notably in:
Early Letters from Pennsylvania, 1699-1722
George Haworth The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
Vol. 37, No. 3 (1913), pp. 330-340