The Federal Way of the Alps (???)

So, before we got to Aosta, we couldn't find much info on the town. We wondered if it was some bland, lifeless community that wouldn't have much to offer us except some family history. We were right, and wrong.

Aosta is a weird combo of newer cement apartment buildings, mining industries, and some ancient and crumbling Roman ruins. It's incredibly ugly, yet the central square and surrounding streets are fun to explore and seem to be geared toward the jet set. We've heard almost no English...seems like half the place is Italian, French, Swiss and German tourists. People always address us first in German.

We did get some family history filled in for Ray's father's side of the family, but a lot more questions were raised. Did the officials at Ellis Island really really screw things up 100 years ago? Why was a mother travelling alone with her 5 children? Where is the current family name? We've found another family name lots of places, but why did it change when this branch of the family emmigrated? Such a mystery.

Can't wait to get to Nicaragua and explore the other side of his family. And then maybe back to Hoxne, Suffolk to look up my kinfolk. So many trips to take, so little time.