This picture is of the 1st Italian "cousin" I met here, Juliana. My mom's father, Giovani Linarello, had like 10 siblings and so Juliana's the granddaughter of one of Giovani's sisters.

It took me a while to understand what the significance was to this statue, but I'm holding an example of the traditional dress of Gioissa Ionica women. This female dress is a symbol that I see over and over again, associated with their town and with the greater region of Calabria. On the souvineers and tourist stuff there's always a woman in traditional dress. You can't see it but the statue has a black "pleated" layer in the back, like a train but not to the ground"

---Today's Saturday. Not as much time to blog as I would hope for but hey. Plenty of time for that when I get home.

I've played in the surf of the Mediteranian Sea, drank home made wine from Mountain top viniards and pure spring water from a minerette (they don't really call it that but it so reminds me of the other countries in that region), wandered around casbah-like streets and hung out with cousins. Everyone in this town seems to be my cousin and everyone is Italian. They had a brass band do a concert of mostly Italian music, with a few Souza marches thrown in. I was trying to translate "Stars and Stripes Forever" for some of my new Italian friends.