North Beach in the Summer

The Savellis and Ditos began arriving before the noon hour, and they kept coming. Bocce Café was a great location for our first family reunion. We shared a great afternoon getting acquainted or reacquainted with each other, and with our North Beach motherland.

We all had nametags, which seemed weird at first for a family gathering, but they came in handy as the crowd in the room grew. Some cousins hadn’t seen each other in many years.

 The kids met elders whom they had only heard about. Those of a certain age recounted holidays and family gatherings of the past. Regardless of age, the Ditos and Savellis know how to tell a story!

Some of us remembered visiting Ss. Peter and Paul, or climbing the hills, or Fourth of July fireworks at Uncle Robert and Auntie Mary’s house. We heard about the fun times at Lake Tahoe in years past, when many of the cousins met at Louie Celia’s cabin or at McNear’s Beach.

Our photo table was a big hit, and Kendal and Tricia put together a fantastic slide show of family photos. It was funny trying to decipher whose Nana and Tata we were talking about, since many of us called our Italian grandparents Nana and Tata. Janet brought her dad Ben Savelli’s book – his memoir was a gift to all. Marge brought more photos of Uncle Tony and Mickie, as well as more family photos. Christine and George decorated the tables with red and green beads, colorful candies and napkins, and Torrone – festive!

After at least an hour of chatting, we shared a Prosecco toast, and sat down for lunch – green salad and chicken piccata, ravioli or penne with salmon. Tiramisu for dessert was the perfect finish.

 During dessert, Sandy held up a 60- or 70-year-old colander, and George fished out the red winning tickets for the door prize giveaway. Sophie, Tommy and Lesley’s daughter, was the big winner – she went home with a giant salami and a jar of biscotti.

We listened to Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett – Fred brought some great songs on CDs for the restaurant’s sound system.  We were all talking at the same time, so sometimes it was hard to hear the music.

The consensus was that we need to do this again – and often.  So far, we have a list of people who want to hold some kind of gathering each year, maybe on the same weekend each year.  We’re thinking about a picnic next time.  If you have a comment, please do post it below.

Overall, the Savellis and Ditos know how to have a good time – that’s for certain.  And certainly, we’ll do this again!

TWO THINGS:

1) TAKE THE POST-EVENT SURVEY -- Let us know how we did and what we can do to make it even better next time.

2) VIEW PHOTOS AND ADD YOUR OWN -- Go to the Savelli Dito Festa Flickr page and upload your photos!  We want to see them all.  (You must have a Yahoo ID to upload photos -- but anyone can view them.)