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16 SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | SEPTEMBER 2024 By Karen Range, Resident My maternal grandparents were born in the town of Pomarico in Southern Italy. Pomarico today is still a small town with a population of about 4,500 (2022 census). My grandparents, who we called Nanni and Papa, emigrated to the United States; Papa when he was 17 and Nanni as an adult. Although they were both from the same town in Italy, they did not meet until they settled in Chicago. Aer living in Illinois for many years, they moved to La Puente, California, in 1958. e highlight of their house in La Puente was the garden which composed the entire backyard. ey grew peaches, figs, green beans, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, and grapes for their homemade wine. Papa would give my brother and me a tour of the garden whenever we visited. We had to be very careful to walk only on the narrow paths lest we step onto a plant. e reward for the garden tour was getting to eat a ripe fig or peach that Papa would pull from the tree. He would polish the fruit on his shirt and then hand it to us. He would then exclaim "Eata this for Grampa." Nanni canned the peaches that grew in the garden. e canned peaches, along with the wine, were stored in a shed that Papa built in the backyard. Nanni also made loaves of bread and special Italian cookies. But the best thing that Nanni made was Easter pie. It wasn't a sweet pie; it was a meat pie with Italian sausage and ricotta. It was delicious. I looked forward to eating it each year. When you come from an Italian family you will inevitably end up going to an Italian market. When we were kids we would accompany my mother and Nanni to Claro's Italian Market (by the way, Claro's still exists in Southern California). We would come home with Italian sausage, Italian cold cuts (mortadella, salami, capocollo), olive oil, romano cheese, tomato paste and pasta. As a kid, I was fascinated by the different sizes and shapes of the pasta on display. e best items in the store were the Italian nougat candies that came in small boxes that had pictures of Italian landmarks or landscapes on the outside. Recently, I ordered these same nougat candies from Amazon. Eating them brought back special memories. My family's traditional Christmas dinner was not ham or turkey. My mother was a good cook and we all looked forward to a Christmas dinner of lasagna or stuffed shells accompanied by Italian sausage, homemade meatballs, and home-made sauce. Although my cousins in Chicago call tomato sauce gravy, neither Nanni nor my mother ever did. Mom, Nanni and I all made our meatballs slightly differently but all three versions were very tasty. My husband and I have visited Italy (Florence, Venice, Milan, and Rome). Although we did not travel to Southern Italy, our trip honored my Italian heritage, the legacy of my grandparents, and my memories of growing up Italian. Growing Up Italian

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