Il Battesimo di Gabriele

Last November, when I was in Italy meeting Azzurra's beautiful baby boy Gabriele, she and her partner Alessandro completely surprised me with a question on our last night together in Milan: would I be Gabriele's godmother?

I was shocked.  I was honored.  I cried profusely.

It had been such a special week together - days wandering Milan, evenings bonding with and rocking Gabriele to sleep, a bold trip just Azzurra, me, and Gabriele traveling to Rome by train to meet up with her family and to stuff ourselves with pasta and crumbled architecture and wacky street musicians.  

That last night in Milan, us around the dinner table, was an incredibly emotional moment, and a culmination of 17 years of friendship to date.  We video chatted with Azzurra's mom, who said, "It couldn't have been anyone else."  I cried even more profusely.  My admittance to this dear Calabrian family was complete - I would be an official part of it.

In late April, as Gabriele was approaching nine months, I returned to Italy - this time Calabria - for the special occasion.   

The baptism was held in San Basile, the Albanian-Italian village in the hills where Alessandro grew up, and where we stayed with his grandmother, Teresa.  

One unique tradition there is that all the attendees gather first at the house to watch the godparents dress the baby.  It's a pretty cute photo op - and Gabriele just loved the flash on his uncle Giuseppe's camera.  The majority of the photos in this post are from him - as well as several I pulled in from friends' phones.  

With Sabino, Gabriele's godfather, 

and Monia, his godparent for the Christening

Look at that happy boy

A couple days before the ceremony, Azzurra had decided to change churches.  Originally, they had planned to have it at the old monastery in San Basile (officially called Santuario dell'Abbadia San Basile), but since she had never seen it and worried it wouldn't be as beautiful, she decided to switch to the main church in the center of town.  The night before the ceremony, we met with the priest for a rehearsal and a (not so) brief history about how baptisms are done in the Catholic Albanian-Greek-Italian tradition in their town.  I kept asking questions about what would be expected of us the next day, and he kept telling us all not to worry - so easy, nothing to it.  Which is not the same as telling us what to expect!

As things were wrapping up, Azzurra asked if the priest might show us the monastery, as it's only open on special occasions and she had always wanted to see it.  In the car, I said to Azzurra, it's lovely that we get to see this other church, but you cannot change your mind again.  Alessandro will kill you.

You can see where this is going.  As we entered the monastery's chapel, we all sighed with awe.  It was so bright, and with an ornate gold altar.  Everyone could sit in pews rather than stand around the baptistry in the back corner of the other church.  Azzurra and I looked at each other.  Yes, it had to be this one.

And so after the traditional dressing of the baby at Nonna Teresa's house, we all met at the monastery.  Poor Gabriele had missed his morning nap and snack, and we had to push through some fussiness.  But between his godfather Sabino's candle distractions, some bounces from me, and a general fascination anytime the priest did something interesting, we persevered!  

But this is a fair and hilarious sense of the vibe 

when he was freaking out early on!

It was a beautiful ceremony.  As I mentioned before, we weren't prepped much on what to expect, so we just went along with the priest's guidance in the moment.  Minutes before the ceremony began, the priest informed us we needed to choose someone to do a reading (he couldn't have asked that the night before?).  I claimed foreigner status.  Azzurra stepped up.

Here are Sabino and I holding Gabriele for the moment of his baptism with holy water.  He was so fascinated by his reflection in the bowl!

I held onto Gabriele from that point forward, even during his Christening, which they do as two separate sacraments in one.  In fact, usually they also do the first communion at this point, but Alessandro and Azzurra wanted to wait on that one.

Then, one of my favorite moments took place.  The parents and godparents circled the altar three times behind the priest.  The number three signifies so many important things, such as the holy trinity, as well as the past, present, and future.  This was a beautiful rite that gave us a moment to reflect on and solidify the importance of the moment.

At the end, since we'd had our backs to the crowd 

the whole ceremony, I lifted the baby up for all to see

Gabriele's village

Afterwards, we all headed to Ristorante Barbieri Altomonte, a popular hotel venue for large events that has a sweeping view of the hill town.  We started with appetizers (various traditional fried doughs) and prosecco on the large terrace - that's stunning Altomonte in the background.

Concentric circles of life -

Here we are, by chance in the same pose, 

at Gavina's Sardinian wedding in 2016

Gabriele with his maternal grandparents

With his uncle Giuseppe and aunt Silvia

My happy little snuggle muffin

Grasping for a sip with mom and dad

Best selfie of the day!

We transitioned inside for lunch, which was delicious and of course overly abundant.

The menu 

(the highlight certainly was the fresh pasta with artichokes)

Just look at it.

I enjoyed a pause between courses laying out by the pool, and otherwise was mingling and meeting some folks I had yet to in all my visits to that area.  

With mamma (Azzurra's mom)

With Nonna Teresa

With cousin Zaira, 

who we had recently hung out with in Rome

Then it was time for cake and all the photos that accompany it!  At events in Italy, the cake is the moment when photos are captured with small groups of all attendees.  

Parents and godparents

Azzurra's college friends 

(including Gavina and her daughter Teresa!)

With Alessandro's brother and family

With all his grandparents, and Nonno Oscar letting Gabriele 

grab a handful of cake before anyone could stop him!

With mom and dad

On our way home, we stopped in Lungro to visit Gabriele's great-grandparents, who couldn't attend the baptism since nonno is quite ill.  I'm so glad we could include them in the day, and I'll always be grateful for another forehead kiss from nonno.  

How much joy this little one brings all who know him!

Giuseppe, when editing through the photos he had taken a couple days later, sent a heartfelt voice message to his sister.  He said he was imagining Gabriele looking through those photos when he's older, and how his gift of being their baptism photographer was really more of a gift for himself, to get to be a special part of the history of Gabriele's life and to capture this occasion.  

And I feel similarly about my role.  That day, Giuseppe was baptized into the church, and I was baptized into their family.  It's an honor I will carry my whole life, and I'm so excited to watch my little figlioccio grow into a sweet little boy and beyond.  

Alessandro e Azzurra, vi ringrazio di nuovo per questo onore.  Vi voglio tanto tanto bene.  Vi auguro molte benedizioni!