The Chapel of Santa Lucia in the middle of the village.
(Click on the slideshow above to see larger version).
Kelly and I experienced a wonderful 14-day journey across Italy in mid-July 2025. We were joined by Kelly’s sisters Brenda and Mary, her brother Terry and their respective spouses Frank, David and Michelle.
Our journey was supposed to begin with a couple of days in Venice, but a canceled flight left us stuck in Newark for a day. After our abbreviated visit in Venice, we journeyed across the boot to Florence, followed by a few days in Rome, then to spectacular Sorrento on the coast, and finally concluding with a weekend in Naples.
The Naples segment was not part of the original itinerary. Brenda and Frank lived in Naples for five years back in the late 1990s while Franks was stationed there with the Navy. They came up with the idea of tacking on the extra days to visit there. Mary and David also decided to stay on.
I had another reason. After my cousin Carole contacted all of us cousins about our family’s chapel, built for my grandfather in 1955, I thought this might be an opportunity to finally see it after hearing about it for many years. After some searching on Google Maps with the help of Carole’s photos from her visit, I was able to not only find the village of my grandmother’s youth, Varano-Oppidi, but I was actually able to find the exact location of the church using the Street View feature of Google Maps.
Carole provided the email address for a distant relative who we would hopefully be able to meet there to actually visit the inside of the chapel. I sent a detailed email to her directly, and Kelly followed her on Facebook, but we didn’t get a response before we left. We chose to go find it anyway and hopefully find someone locally who might be able to help. (Kelly later saw a post on Facebook stating our relative was in Prague that weekend).
Kelly and I rented a car in Naples and began the drive southwest on Saturday, July 19. (Driving in Italy is…an adventure, but that’s for another post). The weather was lovely that day, but rather hot (most of Italy is in July – that will teach us!). Most of the drive was along freeways until we reached the Campagna region, where we exited the big road and wound our way through very rural areas until we reached Varano-Oppidi. We entered the village slowly, looking for any familiar landmarks. At one point, Kelly told me she thought we passed the church – and as she said this, I looked out the driver’s window – and there it was.
The village is small, much like many rural one-stoplight towns you see across America – except there was no stoplight. There was literally no one around, to speak of. I saw a man emerge from the house next door, but he drove off without a word. (I later learned this was actually a guest house where one could stay, like an AirBnB). The chapel was locked, so we were not able to visit the inside at all. There are no exterior windows looking directly into the chapel interior. One window in front opens to what looks like a small storage room.
We were a bit saddened to not be able to explore the interior of the chapel. At one point, I strolled down the road to Bar Tabacchi Luna to see if anyone knew who might help, but the few folks there weren’t much help (and neither was my bad Italian, probably) .
In spite of the disappointment of not seeing the inside, I’m very happy we stayed the extra days and made the trip to see it. Being there and seeing it invokes the loving memories I have of my grandparents. They’ve both been gone for many years, but I still think of them today, profoundly proud of how they came to America and eventually lead a large, warm and loving family.
I believe we tend to look at the world as small today, because we are able to communicate instantly – with words or live images – with literally anyone at any time. Making the journey to Varano reminded me that people like my grandparents came great distances for a better life, while still having attachments to anchor them to their original home.
I want to go back some day. The one hour Kelly and I spent there made the entire trip worthwhile and knowing where it is gives us a pretty good reason for another journey.