We visit the factory of Centerba, Italian for “one hundred herbs”, made locally with herbs from the next hilltop to the West. When Grandpa Joe immigrated to the US via Ellis Island, it is said he was helping those with seasickness with a teaspoon of Centerba.
Our Connection to Tocco
This town is where my Grandfather, Cesidio (Joe) Salce, and my Grandmother, Elenor Stromei, were born. They independently immigrated to the US via Ellis Island and met each other in Brooklyn.
Her Father was Dominic Stromei, the town’s most famous person - The Port. His life-size portrait is on display at the school and his gravesite was adorned with a special lantern.
The last time we visited Tocco, my Grandfather Joe had made all the arrangements in Italian for us to stay and eat. There are no hotels in this town, he found a friend of the family to put us up for the night. While we send Christmas cards and rare letters to our distant family, my Italian was not very good and their English was pretty good but not perfect either. I relied upon Google Translate.
We started the day in Rome where we arrived by Train the night before. After renting a car, we drove to Tocco among all the crazy drivers and needed a GPS to find our way out of Rome.
The History of Tocco
Translation:
The first news of Tocco, whose meaning more corresponding to its position is “village on the rock” as it appears to the traveler looking from the wia Tiburtina Valeria, they date back to the year 872. Towards the end of the thousand, Norman penetration also began in the territory of Toccola. In 1140 the territory of Tocco passed under the county of Manoppello. In 1200 the urban agglomeration developed around the two most important buildings: the church of S. Eustachio, and the castle built between 1220 and 1250 by Emperor Frederick II. At the end of the thirteenth century, under the dominion of the Angevins, various lords took turns in our Tocco, among which we remember the De Tortis, allies of the Camponeschi, Dell’Aquila lords and supporters of the Aragonese. Under the lordship of Giovanni De Tortis a violent earthquake reduced the entire town to a pile of rubble. The reconstruction of the houses, the churches and the castle was immediately undertaken, which was transformed into the ducal palace, whose structures still exist today. In the sixteenth century Tocco reached the happiest moment of its history, the period in which the Statutes were drafted. The extremely violent earthquake of 1706 destroyed the entire town again, which however rose to new life in a few years thanks to its willing inhabitants. As soon as the unification of Italy, precisely in 1862, the name “Casauria” was added to Tocco with the official motivation of “historical traditions of the famous and nearby temple of Casauria”. Thus Tocco began his new historical course: city life, free activities and commerce flourished again. Agricultural products were increased. Tocco da Casauria at the end of the 19th century was a town full of social, commercial and artistic initiatives. Suffice it to recall the thriving Workers’ Mutual Aid Society, which was founded in 1873 to assist its members in the event of illness or incapacity for work. Today the town of Tocco da Casauria has three thousand inhabitants.
Edited
A Visit With Family
Ida will be 94 in October of 2013. Mom’s Grandpa Joe used to call her “sister” even if she wasn’t really. We also met Lorenzo who lives with her, Aldo, Gabriella and their daughters Fabiana and Daniella. We had a nice visit were we ate pizza and ice cream.
Louisa Scarsella (maiden: Madona, sister to Eda) walks us through family photos in Tocco De Casauria
Centerbe Factory Tour
Visit to the Tocco Cemetary
We visited the Cimiteria to see the Poet’s grave and to find other family grave sites including Antonio, Cesidio’s (Joe) father. Antonio is the man with the large mustache.
Touring the Abruzzo Region
Looking out at the countryside, you see lots of pale-green-grey trees, Olives!
Our stay at the Caramanico Spa
Our beautiful suite overlooked the valley in the shadow of the Gran Sasso National Park. The kids’ room had a balcony and a nifty sofa that unfolded into bunk beds! It was quite sturdy. We did laundry and hung our wet cloths to dry in the sun of the balcony. This is a spa town with natural springs. We walked to the entrance but did not go inside this time.
The proprietress of the hotel spoke beautiful English and directed us to the hotel restaurant. I saw the Centerba bottle on display and I asked for it with my coffee after a pris fix meal. It was such a delight to get that at a restaurant meal since we only think of that as a family treat.
Can we find the Surname “Salce” Anywhere?
Francesco Salce, Paolo Salce, Concezio Salce, Eustachio Salce, Adamo Salce, Antiono Salce, Maria Salce, and we were just getting started! We a bit more digging I am sure we could double that number.
That was the day, 10 years ago today. After dinner and the overnight in Caramanico, we poked around Tocco a bit in the morning and finally headed back to Rome.
