Miracles in Pagliaro

The events described in this blog occurred earlier this year during the months of April, May and June.   

Jodie’s 4^th great grandmother, Maria Margarita Martinelli, is from a small town named Pagliaro.  Maria Margarita Martinelli married Zacharia Ceroni from Oltre il Colle. We didn’t have any additional information about Maria Margarita Martinelli, so on a whim one day, we decided that we would drive to Pagliaro (a small village about 13 km down the hill from Oltre il Colle) only with the intent to document the cemetery there for Billion Graves.  We had no contacts in this community so we thought that we would just go there and look around and see what we could find.  We were looking for the last name of Martinelli in the cemetery.  

On the drive to Pagliaro, I asked Jodie if she wanted to find someone to let us into the archive.  She said, yes, but we doubted that we would have much luck with that.  We arrived in Pagliaro in mid-afternoon.  The small village was absolutely quiet; there wasn’t anyone out and about on the streets.   

                    The Church in Pagliaro, Italy 

The small cemetery in Pagliaro sits directly behind the church.  We found a parking spot across the street from the church, parked the car, and then walked over towards the cemetery.  From the outside the church is actually pretty plain.  The entire village of Pagliaro sits on the side of a hill that looks over they valley below.  Before going to the cemetery, we decided to walk up to the front doors of the church to admire the view. 

        Ancient olive tree in front of the church in Pagliaro 

Just as we arrived back at the street, returning from the front of the church, a man came walking past with a small backback and two walking sticks.  As we said buongiorno to him, he took a couple of more steps past us, then suddenly turned around, smiled and asked if we would like to see inside the church.  We responded that we would like that.  He introduced himself, and we introduced ourselves.  He then proceeds up the walkway towards the church, sets down his backback, opens it up and pulls out a set of keys to the church.  He unlocks the doors and invites us inside the church. 

Although the outside of the church is nondescript, the inside is filled with 15^th-century frescos depicting the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.  Wow, what a treasure.  We looked around for a bit and then decided to leave as we were delaying our new friend away from his walk.    

                    Inside the church in Pagliaro 

 

                     Frescos in the church

                      Frescos in the church

As we exited the church, we told him that Jodie had a relative from Pagliaro that we wanted to find more information about, specifically a grandmother Maria Margarita Martinelli.  He recognized the Martinelli surname, in fact, a former parish priest had been a Martinelli.  We explained that we wanted to find the birth record for Maria and asked if he knew who we could contact about the archive.  He simply said, Me.  Me??  He then walked over to the bulletin board across from the front door of the church and pointed to a sign with his name on it, indicating that he was the Don, the local priest, his phone number, and indicated that he could be contacted on WhatsApp.  What?  You have got to be kidding.  The town is completely empty, and the only man who happens to walk by just as we arrive at the church was the local Priest and the keeper of the archive! 

The Don said that he was done for the day and was going on a hike.  He invited us to contact him another day.  Absolutely.  We thanked him again, and he went on his way.  We then proceeded onto the cemetery and took photos of the headstones in the local cemetery.  What an absolute miracle.  We wander into this town just to look around and the only man we see is exactly the contact that we need to get us into the archive.  Not only that, he was warm and friendly and went out of his way to make us feel welcome in his church and community.  What a miracle.  

As we were driving home, we realized that we had had a second miracle that day.  This one more subtle, but a miracle nonetheless.  Our entire greeting and conversation with the Don was done without the use of Google Translate or any other kind of interpretation.  The Don only spoke Italian and didn't speak any English.  We were able to speak just enough Italian and understand his Italian well enough for our entire interaction to be in Italian.  Of course we also recognize that the Don was patient and understanding with us, but what a confidence boost for us.  We usually feel somewhat handicapped by our lack of understanding and speaking Italian, but on this day, it was enough!   

The timing of this miracle, the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues, was critical for us.  Our friends and fellow Family Search Records Preservation Specialists, Ken and Pam King, were completing their mission in May.  We have visited several of Jodie's ancestral cities with the King's who have an impressive command of the Italian language.  Until our meeting with the Don in Pagliaro, we have been relying upon them to help us communicate in the archives.  This experience was a witness to us that we could indeed carry on without their assistance.  A little scary for us, but we can do it!

Our next stop was at the Cemetery in Pagliaro to photograph headstones for Billion Graves. We then went on to photograph two other nearby cemeteries in Frerola and Dossena.  

 

                     The cemetery in Pagliro

Fast forward a couple of weeks.  Jodie had been communicating with the Don on WhatsApp.  (The beauty of using WhatsApp is that we can translate from English to Italian and Italian to English to enhance our communications).  The Don recognized both the Martinelli and Gritti surnames and agreed to take a look at the records for her.  After a few days, he sent a message back with the dates of and a small photo of the portion of the pages containing the birth record for Maria Margarita Martinelli (born in 1802) and the marriage record for her parents Bartholomeus Martinelli and Maria Chatarina Gritti (married in 1797).  Wonderful.  Now we knew we were looking in the right place.  We wanted to go back to get a better photo (the whole page and not just a part of the page) and to see if we could find additional family connections now that we knew we had the right church in the right village.     

Via WhatsApp, Jodie arranged to meet the Don once again at the church in Pagliaro.  At the agreed upon time, we met the Don he showed us into the archive.  Once again, he was very welcoming and cordial towards us.  He allowed us to look through birth, marriage and death records for 200 years, the 1700’s and 1800’s.  Just what we were looking for! 

     

                     Cover of one of the books in the archive

We found the records that he had sent to us and took our own photos.  Then we started looking for a few family members.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have much luck finding any Gritti’s in the records as we quickly turned a few pages.  

 It is difficult to read and understand Italian records from the archive records, especially when you are turning pages quickly.  Each priest has his own writing style and documents the events in a slightly different way.  The handwriting is usually in cursive writing and in the early 1800’s the records are transitioning from Latin to Italian.  In some cases, the records contain a mix of both languages so it can be a bit confusing.  

The Don allowed us to take a few photos, only of things connected directly to the family that we were searching for.  After a about a half an hour, we could tell that the Don started acting a bit anxious, and it seemed like we had been there long enough.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t really find any records with the name Gritti that we had been looking for. 

The Don holding a plaque listing the parish priests from 1542 to present  

At this point, the Don said that perhaps that the Gritti’s that we were looking for were from another small town nearby named Bracca.  The Don mentions that he lives in Bracca and was going back there as he is the priest for that church as well.  He invited us to follow him back to Bracca so we could look at those records.  We were happy to do so and off we went. 

Bracca is about 2.2 km from Pagliaro, both of which sit high up on the west side of a steep mountain valley.  There are a lot of ups and downs and twists and turns to get from one town to the other, but we did our best to keep up with the Don as he quickly navigated the turns from Pagliaro to Bracca. 

                        The road from Pagliaro to Bracca

Once in Bracca, he invited us into his home next to the church where he keeps the archive.  We looked over the records there, but unfortunately, we didn’t really find anything we were looking for in Bracca.  After a few minutes searching we were convinced that we really need to be looking in Pagliaro and not Bracca.  We thanked the Don for his time and his assistance and then went on our way.   

We are simply amazed at the kindness and trust that we have been shown in Pagliaro and Bracca.  The Don opened the archives to us, allowed us to look through the records on our own, and even left the room several time leaving us alone in the archive with the records.  What a miracle to go so quickly from hello on the street to trusting us with these precious archive records.  Not wanting to violate his trust, we limited our photos to just those that we thought had a connection to the family.   

While in Bracca, we stopped at the cemetery which sits down the hill from the church and photographed the headstones for Billion Graves. 

As we drove home from Bracca, we realized that meeting the Don on our first visit to Pagliaro was even a bigger miracle than we thought.  He lives in Bracca and is headquartered at the church there.  He just happened to be on a hike, at the end of his day, several kilometers from his home,  just at the time that we stopped by to visit the church and the cemetery.  Miraculous.  Divine timing.  Simply amazing.  This is a witness to us that God is in the details and is directing his work.   

 

                The church in Bracca, Italy

                The view of the valley from Bracca 

Upon returning home, Jodie started to study the photos of a few pages that we had taken.  As she learned the writing styles and penmanship patterns of the various priests, she decided that we may have missed what we were looking for on our previous visit.  So, after contacting the Don again on WhatsApp, we made another trip back to Pagliaro.  This time we had much better luck reading the records.  When it was all said and done, we found Maria Chatarina’s parents,  Alexander Gritti and his wife Dominica, as well as 2 of Maria’s siblings (Joanna Maria and Antonius).  Unfortunately, we didn’t find much more on the Gritti line.  However, we did find 8 siblings for Maria Magarita Martinelli:  Petrus Alexander, Marcus Christinus Maria, Maria Pasqua, Anna Maria, Marcus Christinus, Fransciscus Maria Felix, Angelus Maria, and Angelus Maria.    

Before leaving Pagliaro, we showed the Don how a Digital Reading Room works and offered our services to photograph his archives and create a digital record for him, similar to our efforts in Oltre il Colle.  We left a letter (in Italian) with him explaining our offer to photograph and create a Digital Reading Room.  He indicated that he would think it over and get back with us.  Well, so far we haven’t heard anything back from the Don. 

The miracle of meeting the Don and associated miracles have allowed us to tie 12 more of our Heavenly Father's precious children to our family records.  Our miracle meeting with the Don in Pagliaro is a testimony to us that Heavenly Father is really guiding this work and is going before us to open the way. 

"Wandering around" and "living in a postcard"

July 2025 

It has been a while since we last posted a blog about our mission activities.  We continue to stay busy with our family history record preservation efforts, mission support and apartment ministering work.  We often wake up on Sunday morning and think, it’s Sunday again.  Where did this week go? 

After reading one of our blog posts, my oldest brother Phil commented, “Make sure to take some time to just wander around!”  Well, I’m happy to report that we’ve done a little of that. 

Our daughter Katie made a quick trip to visit us in May this year for her birthday and for Mother’s Day.  As we traveled around a bit with her, she commented that she felt like she was “living in a post card”.  I think that is a really good way to describe the beauty that we enjoy here in Northern Italy as we serve in the Italy Milan Mission. 

Towards the end of 2023 before we left for our mission, we made an 18-month calendar with bird photos that we had taken.  As that calendar ran out at the end of June 2025, we decided to make another calendar for the next 18 months.  This time we decided that we would make a calendar of landscape photos. 

So, in the spirit of “wandering around”, “living in a postcard”, and updating our 18-month calendar, I thought I’d create a blog post sharing a sampling of photos that we’ve captured in 2024 and so far in 2025 and that we've used for our updated calendar. 

We hope that you enjoy!

 Cover photo - Alzano Lombardo, Italy

 

 July 2025 - Anicapri, Italy

 August 2025 - Carpeneto, Italy

 

 

September 2025 - Kandersteg, Switzerland

 

 

October 2025 - Sirmione, Lake Garda, Italy 

  

 

November 2025 - Citta Alta, Bergamo, Italy

 

 

December 2025 - Venice, Italy

 

 

January 2026 - Naples, Italy

 

 

February 2026 - Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy

 

 

March 2026 - Comuneglia, Italy

 

 

April 2026 - Capri, Italy

 

 

May 2026 - Iseltwald, Switzerland

 

 

June 2026 - Punta Carena, Capri, Italy

 

 

July 2026 - Savona, Italy

 

 

August 2026 - Genova, Italy

 

 

September 2026 - Nervi, Italy

 

 

October 2026 - Savona, Italy

 

 

November 2026 - Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre, Italy

 

 

December 2026 - Zambla Bassa, Italy

  

Bonus:

 

Oltre il Colle and Zorzone

Family Search, gathering Israel one small step at a time

Greetings.  It has been a while since our last blog post, so I thought I’d drop another one in to update everyone on some of the activities of our mission.

The church in the Cantoni d'Oneta

President Russell M. Nelson declared, “Anytime you do anything that helps anyone—on either side of the veil—take a step toward making covenants with God and receiving their essential baptismal and temple ordinances, you are helping to gather Israel. It is as simple as that” (Russell M. Nelson, “Hope of Israel,” worldwide devotional for youth, June 3, 2018, churchofjesuschrist.org/broadcasts).

We continue to enjoy our service in the Italy Milan Mission as Family Search Record Preservation Specialists.  As such I thought that I’d share a few ways that we have found to contribute to the ongoing gathering of Israel through our current Family Search efforts here in Italy. 

The Italy Family Search Team

To start off we’d like to introduce you to our Italy Family Search Team.  Full-time Family Search Employees:  Walter Zafarana is our team leader;  Simona Gessate provides administrative support for Family Search in Italy and Spain; and (missing in the photo below) Andrew Trexler, who oversees camera operations and the contract photographers.  Missionaries:  Ken and Pam King serve along with us in the Italy Milan Mission.  Michael and Beth Castellano serve in the Italy Rome Mission;  Paolo and Eloisa D’Apuzzo serve as service missionaries in the Napoli area, and Mattia Da Ponte who was recently released from his service mission here in Milan.   Sorry about the poor quality of several of the people in the photo.  This is a result of poor bandwidth on our Zoom call. 

Italy Family Search Team meeting, February 2025

Each team member contributes to our record preservation efforts, even though our individual roles vary.  I thought I'd share a short summary of our current operation (subject to change when new opportunities come along, or we get guidance from Family Search on the corporate level). 

·       Walter provides the overall direction for the Italy team and is the primary lead for Family Search contract negotiations 

·       Simona provides administrative support for Italy and Spain and contacts archivists all over the county to create opportunities to digitize archives and then sets up meetings that begin contract negotiations 

·       Andrew is responsible for the camera operations which means that he coordinates the schedule and logistics with archivists and then hires contract camera operators to capture images in archives across Italy and several other Eastern European countries 

·       Ken and I mainly focus on creating Digital Reading Rooms (DRR’s) which is a way that we return images to the archives in a digital computer desktop database once the images have been captured 

·       Ken has been working with DRR’s the longest so he is our defacto computer and DRR technical lead 

·       Jodie, Pam and Beth work on personal research and special projects such as dividing microfilms into individual books so that they can be published online and make research on the Family Search website easier, along with other miscellaneous tasks 

·       Eloisa makes arrangements with the archivists for DRR delivery and other opportunities

·       Paolo, Michael and Beth deliver DRR’s, install them on computers and then train archivists and their staff how to use them    

Digital Reading Room delivery and installation

The Castellano’s and King’s also went to Palermo to deliver and install several DRR’s in January.  We were invited but opted not to go along on that trip so we could focus on other work.  As it turned out they got rained on the whole trip and spent a week driving on steep, narrow, slippery roads up to tiny villages to make their deliveries.  Even so, they had a wonderful experience delivering and installing DRR’s in a number of small villages in the Palermo region.  As they made their deliveries to the archivists, they share the stories and details in our Family Search Team WhatsApp chat.  The typical pattern of their visits often starts with a cold reception veiled in suspicion which is then usually followed by a complete change of heart and welcome as they install and explain how to use a DRR.  My favorite comment came from an archive assistant in Palermo who simply said, “You changed my life!”  Our hope is to not only change the life of the archivists but to make these precious records easily available to those seeking out their ancestors.    

Digital Reading Room creation

To support the DRR delivery and installation efforts, I have been busy creating DRR’s and them shipping them south to the Castellano’s who live in the Napoli area.  Some DRR's are small and easily fit onto a small flash drive.  The largest that I've worked on so far was for Catania and we had to install it onto a 4 TB hard drive.  Since the first of the year 2025, I’ve created DRR’s for Rome Miltary, Gorizia, Sant’Angello di Napoli, Castellemare di Stabia, Catania, Piazza Armerina, Acrireale, Marano, Geraci Siculo, Nola, Pomigliano and Pompei (in total these DRR’s contain 5.9 million images with date ranges from 1415 to 1999).  Some DRR’s are large and some small, but the thing that they all have in common is that they contain images of precious records that enable research of for those seeking to find and connect to their Italian family members.  In this digital format people can search without the computer being connected to the internet.  

A few small DRR's ready for delivery and installation

Oltre il Colle service project update and follow up

In our last blog we talked about a service project in Oltre il Colle where we organized and labeled the local parish archive.  We are confident that this effort will help others find their family members because the archive is now organized chronologically by events.  While we were in Oltre il Colle, and a quick visit to Zambla Bassa, we were able to take personal photos of several other volumes of records which Jodie has been pouring over these past few weeks.  Of particular interest in Oltre il Colle are 3 volumes of birth records that span from 1575 to 1867, 2 volumes of marriage records from 1756 to 1867, and death records from 1816-1867.  From these records she has been able to document hundreds of individuals and connect them in families in the Family Search Tree.  Because the first names and last names are so common and similar, she often has to rely upon multiple sources to make sure that she has the right parents and spouses.  We are planning to visit the Oltre il Colle and Zambla Bassa archives again in two weeks and hope to take additional personal photos in the archives, particularly death and marriage records, that will enhance her research ability. 

As we completed our archive organization in Oltre il Colle, we provided Leonardo, the parish secretary, a flash drive with a copy of the personal photos that we had taken.  Our plan was to update that flash drive with additional photos after each visit.  As we visited with Walter one day, he suggested that we actually turn these images into a Digital Reading Room.  That was a great suggestion but did require some effort to figure out just how to do that.  When we download digital images from Family Search we also get a ‘search results’ file which we can then manipulate to form a metadata file which organizes images within a DRR.  Because our personal archive photos don’t come with a downloaded search results file, I had to figure out how to create the basic metadata needed so that our images could be formulated to create a DRR.  After some study and trial and error, I finally got it to work!  Our plan now is to deliver a DRR with personal photos taken so far in the archives in Oltre il Colle and Zambla Bassa.  Our next planned visit is in a couple of weeks so we can deliver and install DRR’s on their computers.  These DRR’s not only provide a digital backup record archive but will allow them to access and view individual records of their archive without even going into the archive and pulling the books from the shelves.  We are confident that they will love this, and we’ll update their DRR’s each time we take more photos.    

Zambla Bassa is the home of Jodie’s Balzi family; her grandmother was a Balsi (spelled Balsi in the US but typically spelled Balzi here in Italy).  The parish secretary in Zambla Bassa is Mario; Mario’s grandmother was also a Balzi.  We are confident that Jodie and Mario are related but we haven’t figured out how just yet.  To answer this question, Jodie has also been working on a family tree for Mario.  Unfortunately, we don’t have as many photos of the Zambla Bassa records for her to figure that out just yet.  We are excited to show Mario his family tree and the supporting records found in his archive.  We hope to take more photos on our next visit so she can continue filling out his tree and her own to find the connecting point. 

Jodie working on records from Zambla Bassa

Our contacts and relationships that we have developed with Leonardo and Mario have been amazing and miraculous.  Even though we have a significant language barrier, Jodie communicates with them via WhatsApp messages using Google Translate.  They are both very welcoming and are appreciative of our interest in the records and the connection to family that we are able to make using their records.  What a blessing to us to have access to these precious records and to have an open door and a relationship with these two men. 

Billion Graves headstone information capture

As time allows we like to visit small cemeteries to photograph headstones for Billion Graves.  (Please refer to an earlier blog post for more information about this).  We recently started working on a very large cemetery near our apartment in Alzano Lombardo this past week. 

Cemetery in Alzano Lombardo

This cemetery is huge, and it feels like it will take us forever to complete. However, our plan is to just chip away at it a little at a time and eventually we’ll get it all done.

We really enjoy visiting the small out of the way cemeteries, in particular cemeteries that have a connection to the personal research that Jodie is completing for her family.  We recently visited two such small cemeteries in Cantoni d’Oneta and Oneta, north of us in the Bergamasco Alps, which are over the hill from Oltre il Colle (Oltre il Colle means over the hill so that is ...over the hill from Over the Hill).  

The drive from our apartment to Oneta only takes about 45 minutes if we travel during the week and off peak traffic hours.  Views of our trip to Cantoni d'Oneta and Oneta:  

On the way to capture headstone images for Billion Graves

The Bergamasco Alps

Looking down on the road that goes to Oneta

View of the road leading to the Cantoni d'Oneta from inside the cemetery

Like I mentioned, these are both very small cemeteries located in mountain towns along windy roads. Between us we took 110 photos in Cantoni d’Oneta and 251photos in Oneta for a total of 361 photos. We are confident that documenting information from these cemeteries in very small off the beaten path places will enhance research now and in the future for those seeking to find their Italian ancestors.

Entrance to the cemetery in Cantoni d' Oneta

Entrance to the cemetery in Oneta

View of the Oneta Cemetery

There you have it.  Now you know a little more about our focus and daily mission activities as they relate to our records preservation specialist assignment.  We are witnessing the Lord guide his work not only in our individual work, but that of our whole Italian Family Search team.  It is truly miraculous to see doors opening, understanding increase, new partnerships being created, opportunities opening up and hearts being softened as we move forward with faith and thrust our cycle into family search efforts big and small. 

We are truly blessed with relationships and connections to archivists and new found family members in several of Jodie’s Italian ancestral communities. 

Oltre il Colle Record Preservation Service Project

After a visit to Oltre il Colle in early December to look for some information about Jodie’s family, she noticed that the local parish archive was not well organized due to a recent move.  The keeper of the archive didn’t really know what he had and where to find information.  Jodie and James, our son-in-law, looked through the records and were able to find a birth, marriage and death records from 1816-1867 that have been very helpful to her research. 

Contemplating on the visit to Oltre il Colle, Jodie felt impressed to offer our services to organize their archive.  With some hesitancy (so as not to overstep our welcome) she reached out to the keeper of the archive and offered our services to inventory and label the records in the archive.  We were thrilled when he responded that they would welcome our assistance. 

We arranged to return to Oltre il Colle on January 9, 2025 to begin our service project.  We were fortunate to be joined by Ken and Pam King and Mattia Da Ponte (some of our fellow Family Search Missionaries) for the project.  

The Rindlisbacher’s, Anziano Da Ponte & the King’s in Oltre il Colle

We had an absolutely wonderful experience organizing the archive for them.  The whole project took about 6 hours (allowing for about an hour break for lunch) in which we were able to inventory, organize and label their entire archive.  

Lunch at the Carrara Bar in Oltre il Colle

We printed labels for 61 volumes of birth, marriage, death, confirmation and state of the parish records.  We also organized miscellaneous other records chronologically and then put all of the books/records back on the shelves.  We also labeled those shelves.   

Birth Records, Oltre il Colle, 1575-1678 

Birth Records, Oltre il Colle, 1575-1678 

The bibiloteca for the Oltre il Colle parish archive 

Books/records labeled and back on the shelf, the finished product

As you can see, we ended up stacking the books as they were of all shapes and sizes and didn't stand on end very well.  They didn't really stack well either, but this looked like the best way to leave them.  

What a privilege it was for us to be welcomed into the parish archive and allowed to organize these precious records.  Now that they are grouped and organized chronologically it will be much easier for others to access information contained in the archive.  As a backup to the physical records contained in the archive, Jodie also gifted them a flash drive containing photos that we had taken of their parish records for Marriage, Birth and Death records spanning from 1816 to 1867 along with an index of each volume outlining the years contained on each page. 

I think that I’ve mentioned this before, but the Catholic Church was responsible for civil records (birth, marriage and death) between 1816 and 1867.  As part of the unification of Italy, the state assumed the role of official record keeper in 1866.  From a researcher perspective, the records from 1816 to 1867 are a critical link in the generations for Italian family history efforts. 

Leonardo, the keeper of the Oltre il Colle archive, was very thankful for our work and for the photos that Jodie gifted him.  Of his own volition, he provided us with the name and contact information for the man that oversees the archives for the Bergamo Diocese and encouraged us to contact him and discuss the possibility of Family Search photographing all of the records in the Diocese.  Oh, how wonderful that would be.  This contact information is now in the hands of our friend Walter, who is Italy’s Family Search Leader.  We pray that new opportunities will be forthcoming as a result of our service. 

A side benefit of our trip to Oltre il Colle was that Jodie was also able to photograph additional birth and marriage records from the archive, which we have labeled.  We will again gift a flash drive with a copy of those photos on our next visit. 

Upon completing our work in the Oltre il Colle archive, we also went to the church in Zambla Bassa to introduce the Kings and Anziano Da Ponte to our new friend Mario (Jodie’s distant cousin) responsible for the parish archive in Zambla Bassa.  During our visit, we were also able to photograph a few pages of the Zambla Bassa death records.  We found a family death record from 1860 that Jodie has been in need of.  

Zambla Bassa death registry from 1860 

We are so grateful for the opportunity to be of service here in Italy.  It has been a privilege and blessing for us to be engaged in a variety of efforts to preserve and protect precious records, but this project was particularly meaningful and personal for us. 

No visit to Oltre il Colle would be complete without a photo of this beautiful area.  We love visiting the area and marvel at the beauty of the surrounding mountains (the Bergamasque Alps).  Interestingly, this area was actually a part of Austria prior to 1859, and it shows in the architecture of many of the homes and buildings in the area.  It was a cloudy rainy day.  By the time we departed the rain had stopped; however, a few clouds still lingered low in the valleys.   

View of Oltre il Colle (left) & Zambla Bassa (right) from Zambla Alta as we were leaving

Now for just a few more photos from the day … 

Anziano Da Ponte removing records to be organized

      Blake removing records to be organized       

Anziani King and Da Ponte & Jodie inventorying and organizing records

 

Blake and Anziano Da Ponte inventorying and organizing records

Sorella King and Jodie inventorying and organizing records