Giuseppa Mangani (Rapisarda) was born on 11 February, 1936 in Ramacca, Catania, Italy. She died in her husband Lucio’s arms on 20 September, 2020 in Sunshine, Victoria, Australia. Due to the lockdown restrictions enforced by the Victorian government at the time...
Holy shit this has been a year and we’re not even done with March yet. We are on Day 10 of self-mandated quarantine. Arkansas still hasn’t issued any stay at home orders but since we don’t have any practical reason to be out and about we decided to...
I had my naturalization interview at Fort Smith, AR on November 14, 2019! 💃🏻 It took all of 15 minutes and I was such a nervous wreck that I could barely show my happiness when the officer said that I was successful. We started with him making me swear an oath to tell...
Over the past year I have been writing a book about the Sulfaro family. A large section is dedicated to Paolo Sulfaro, my great-grandfather, who traveled back-and-forth between Sicily and West Virginia to work in the coal mines before his death in WW1. I have pieced...
Our last full day in China was mostly spent on a train. We finally used a DiDi (Chinese Uber but way better) to take us from our Airbnb to Shanghai Huangpu Train Station. It took us about 30 min to figure out that at this station you need to go through passport and...
Our day started with a quick ride on the subway and a short walk to the Yu Garden. This peaceful, beautiful classical Chinese garden was built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Walking through it was like navigating a maze. Next to the Yu Garden was an equally...
We woke up early in the morning so we could get to Xi’an North station and take another bullet train over to Shanghai. Every station is a little different. In Xi’an things were less organized than Beijing. At the ticket pickup rude people attempted to cut lines. I had...
This morning we had a private tour to see the Terracotta Warriors. Our guide, Jenny, and our driver picked us up at the hotel. The Terracotta Warriors are located about an hour north east from downtown Xi’an. Along the way Jenny told us some of the history of how the...
We woke up very early and sat in the courtyard, sipping tea while we waited for breakfast to open at 7. The breakfast at our hotel was a delicious Chinese buffet, which included dumplings, stir fry, steamed vegetarian and pork buns, sausage, and fruit. We checked out...
We were picked up at our hotel by a private tour guide and driver in an air conditioned van for a full day of Beijing sightseeing. Our day started at the nearby Tiananmen Square, which despite being one of the largest public squares in the world, was packed with...
