Christmas gift from Sonnino

This is a picture of my grandfather, Angelo Bernardini, holding some soppressata that his cousin Tonino from Sonnino sent to him. It was his favorite Chistmas gift. I'm glad customs didn't check my bags on the way back!

 

Want to look at posts from past months?

It's easy. Just click on black arrows next to the months on right side of the page. This will show you all the posts for that month. Check them out!

Refurbished church in old Sonnino

This is the church right across from the Castle in old Sonnino. It was recently refurbished and looks great. I was told it was built in the 12th century. Anybody know the name? As we were leaving the church my cousin Graziano pointed to the man in the picture who takes care of the church and said "that's another one of your relatives. I seem to meet new relatives each time I visit!

Look up where your last name is found in Italy (or the USA)

This is such a great site. You can type in you last name and the the website will show you where people with you last name live and the concentration. You can run the same search for the US as well. Apparently there are on Bernardinis in and around Sonnino. Enjoy!

- L'Italia dei Cognomi

Photo of the castle taken from the piazza in Sonnino. The photo was taken by Bob Frateschi of Syracuse, NY

Pitcure of the "torre di Antonelli"

Sonninese Word of the Week

So I've started to keep a little Sonninese dictionary (the dialect of Sonnino) and add new words each time I visit. My relatives in Sonnino will often say "It's great that you're learning Italian, now when are you going to learn Sonninese!" Maybe they don't realize there are only 6,000 or so Sonninese speakers in the world. So here's the first word...please write me with any Sonninese words or sayings that you know:

Ihoni = Oh God!

"Ihoni" is very similar to the Jewish "Oye Vey!"