Meet Paolo Santini

Meet Paolo Santini

This is my cousin, Paolo Santini. He is the son of my Zia Adriana (Zia Adry). He is the oldest of 3 children.

His sister is Gabrielle and she is married to Renzo. He works for Ferrari. They have a son named Luca. I am still unsure how anyone can be as slender as Gabby. She has a model's build.

His little brother, Maurizio, I affectionately call Little Monster (now it is Dr. Little Monster since he got his PhD). Maurizio married the lovely Genny this summer in Venice. She is soooo much fun! They live in Bologna.

Paolo lives with his wife Rita, in Modena, close to both Gabby and Maurizio. Unfortunately, they have no children together. They do have a large menagarie of animals, especially birds. Rita collects dolls and Paolo is an electrician.

Paolo and I have been doing email and Instant Messaging for several years. I was very surprised to see him this day. He met me at the airport (he had to drive several hours to be there too). The photo was taken at Zio Claudio's house. The sign read WELCOME ARLENE. Note the food spread being put out. That table and another table was covered with goodies.

There were so many people there that day: Zio Claudio, Signora Lucia, Zio Corrado, Fabio, Analia, Gioelle, Lucia, Ilaria and Nickolas. Stefano and Gas were at work. I was overwhelmed with all the people, the sounds, the imagery, and I was sleepy to boot. I had been awake over 24 hours by this time.

Paolo left later that day to return to Modena. He came back about 2 weeks later. He took me to the Elba Island to see his mother, Zia Adry. We stayed overnight there. We went and saw some other cousins that also live on the island. Then we packed up and went back to Zio Corrado's the next day for lunch. After that we took off for Modena and Bologna for a couple of days. I toured the Ferrari museum; spent the afternoon with Gabby and Renzo; and on Sunday went to Bolonga to see the sights with dearest Genny, Dr. Monster and my Paolo.

I remember taking a very winding road up the mountains and when we reached the top, I made Paolo pull over so I could relax some. I sort of had clawed my nails thru the seat of the car.... lol there were no siderails on my side of that mountain. When we stopped in this parking area I looked at the signs around the town square.... oops when I saw the sign for Skiing Lessons I realized that I was no longer in Tuscany!

The cousins who speak English are Lucia, Stefano, Paolo, Ilaria, Genny, Dr. Monster, and Fabio. The rest of the adults do not speak English.